Mountain God’s Forest Farm – CH46

Chapter 46: Sending Seeds

At dusk, Ying Kongtu and the others sat in the courtyard for dinner.

Today, they had stewed chicken soup with reishi, and the entire courtyard was filled with the fungal fragrance of reishi.

“It’s not bitter anymore, right?” Ying Kongtu sat beside Wen Zhongshan and smiled at him.

“This one isn’t bitter,” Wen Zhongshan said softly. “The reishi and red dates both smell very fragrant.”

“Pine reishi is one of the least bitter types of reishi. Xian Niao knows you don’t like bitter flavors much, so it definitely picked carefully.”

The two of them sat at the dining table and spoke quietly.

A whole family of furry creatures was there. Aside from occasionally turning their ears when they heard key words, they paid little attention to the young couple talking.

“Knock, knock—” Someone knocked outside.

Someone was visiting at this hour?

Ying Kongtu asked in confusion, “Who is it?”

“Delivery. Large parcels,” the courier shouted outside. “I saw smoke from your chimney, so I brought them over.”

“Oh, thank you.”

Ying Kongtu hurried to open the gate. When he passed Xian Niao, he lightly rubbed it.

Xian Niao lay at the side and did not move.

As soon as the courtyard gate opened, the courier carried three large parcels down from the small truck one by one, panting as he set them in front of the gate.

“These parcels are really big. Who sent them?”

“They’re from the capital. Take a look at the sender’s name and address?”

Wen Zhongshan walked over and said from behind Ying Kongtu, “Fu Yuan sent them.”

The courier looked curiously at Wen Zhongshan, then through the gap between the two of them at the courtyard full of furry creatures.

Very quickly, the courier politely withdrew his gaze. “Please take a look. If there’s no problem, sign here for me.”

Ying Kongtu briskly signed his name, then looked up and smiled at the courier. “Thank you.”

“This parcel is so heavy.” After the courier left, Ying Kongtu picked up one of the parcels and carried it into the courtyard. He was instantly startled by its weight.

With his strength, it was not that he could not lift it, but it was truly heavy.

Wen Zhongshan looked at the shipping label. “It should be rice grain inside.”

Ying Kongtu said, “I remember now. I asked him for rice seeds before.”

Ying Kongtu was extremely curious about the rice grains inside and immediately wanted to go in and get scissors to open the parcel.

Tiaozhu rose gracefully, circled the parcel twice, then lightly swiped with one paw. The tightly sealed tape on top was sliced open.

Ying Kongtu had already reached the kitchen doorway. Hearing the movement, he turned back and slapped his forehead.

Tiaozhu turned its head and glanced at him, then stretched out a paw and effortlessly sliced open all the parcels.

Good. Now there was no need to get scissors.

Ying Kongtu did not have a dedicated pair of scissors for opening parcels. If he used kitchen scissors to open them, the blades would easily get sticky with glue.

This saved trouble.

Ying Kongtu returned to the parcels and opened the cardboard box. Inside were indeed heavy rice grains.

He reached in and grabbed a handful.

The slightly green grains of rice were all plump and firm, full of vitality, and gave off the unique fragrance of rice.

“These rice seeds are too good, aren’t they?” Ying Kongtu looked and looked again. “Where did your friend get these seeds? They look like they’ve been carefully selected.”

“Maybe he asked someone to get them? His current position is fairly high, so people who are willing to help him usually put in a lot of effort.”

Ying Kongtu held the rice grains up before his eyes, still unable to put them down. “These rice grains are really good. Even if I selected them myself, I could only pick them to this level.”

“Then when spring begins, we’ll find a place and plant these rice grains. Is there somewhere on the mountain to plant them, or should we rent some fields?”

“There is. Wuchuan Mountain, Baogu Mountain, and Bibai Mountain all have terraced fields left behind by former residents. They’ve been abandoned, but reclaiming them won’t be too difficult.”

As he spoke, Ying Kongtu tilted his head and leaned slightly closer to Wen Zhongshan. “These mountains have been steeped in divine power, so the things grown there will be better. And if we plant them on the mountain, when the rice matures, we can refuse visits from wild animals.”

Now that the ecology was slowly improving, there were more insects, more birds, and more wild boars. If they planted at the foot of the mountain, it really would not be as easy to manage as planting on the mountain.

Ying Kongtu carried the rice seeds from the first parcel out.

With a slight lift, he knew this was a fifty-jin bag of rice seeds.

The second parcel also contained rice seeds.

Also fifty jin.

A hundred jin in total. Calculated at five jin of rice seeds per mu, it could plant twenty mu of land.

Ying Kongtu could not help smiling.

With this many rice seeds, if they only planted enough for their own household, it would be enough no matter what.

If he could not plant them all at once, he could plant them over two or three years. The rice seeds would still retain good vitality.

Wen Zhongshan’s friend was truly considerate. Even the amount of seeds he sent was just right.

Ying Kongtu sighed. “Help me thank your friend. He’s too thoughtful.”

Wen Zhongshan nodded. “I’ll tell him in a bit. What’s in the third parcel?”

They both smelled it. The seeds in the third parcel had a different scent. They were definitely not rice grains.

Ying Kongtu opened the parcel and took a look.

Inside was a bag of glossy black round seeds that looked a little like some kind of vegetable seed.

Especially since each seed was only half a centimeter in diameter, it probably was not the seed of some large plant.

But as for what vegetable it was, Ying Kongtu could not identify it at once.

Many vegetable seeds looked very similar. If there were only bare seeds, it was far too difficult to recognize them.

He grabbed a handful and held them in his palm, only able to feel that the seeds were full of life.

“This smell is very familiar.” Ying Kongtu brought them under his nose and sniffed, smelling a pleasant grassy scent.

Actually, the rice grains just now also had a little grassy scent, only mixed with the aroma of grain.

Smelling it like this, he really could not distinguish them for the moment.

Wen Zhongshan looked at him.

Ying Kongtu exchanged a glance with Wen Zhongshan and immediately knew what he was thinking. So he lifted the seeds to Wen Zhongshan’s nose as well and let him smell them.

Wen Zhongshan shook his head, indicating he could not guess.

Since Wen Zhongshan had smelled them, Tiaozhu stood on its hind legs, patted Ying Kongtu’s calf with its front paws, and signaled that it also wanted to smell. “Meow-ao!”

Ying Kongtu crouched down and brought the seeds to Tiaozhu’s nose.

Tiaozhu was good at hunting but had no interest in plants. At most, when it went up the mountain, it would eat some cat grass or chew on some cat medicine. As for these unfamiliar plant seeds, it could not smell anything useful at all.

“Meow-ao—” Tiaozhu turned its head and called Xian Niao.

Xian Niao had no choice but to stand up, pad over, and sniff as well.

“Awooo.” Xian Niao raised its head and called, indicating it did not know either.

Since those two had both smelled them, Dart immediately squeezed over, grabbing Ying Kongtu’s hand and sniffing hard. Jingwei followed close behind.

The entire family of furry creatures had carefully sniffed them, yet still had no clue.

Ying Kongtu put the seeds back into the cloth bag and was just about to ask Wen Zhongshan to ask his friend.

Suddenly, Ying Kongtu remembered something. “I know. These are dwarf lilyturf seeds.”

“Dwarf lilyturf?”

“It’s the dwarf lilyturf used in Shengmai Yin.” Ying Kongtu glanced at Wen Zhongshan. “Our local area has a specialty dwarf lilyturf, and it grows quite well here. That day when I went outside the market, I saw someone selling it. It’s just that the seeds your friend sent are much bigger than the ones sold outside.”

Wen Zhongshan froze for a moment. “Maybe when I was chatting with him recently, I mentioned I was drinking tonic soup?”

“Then that’s it. Shengmai Yin is also gently nourishing, and it can also include ginseng slices. He definitely looked it up before sending over dwarf lilyturf seeds. It just so happens that we have wild dwarf lilyturf here, so planting it on the mountain won’t cause biological invasion.”

As he spoke, Ying Kongtu picked up the seeds again to inspect them. “These seeds are really good. He put thought into this.”

Wen Zhongshan sent Fu Yuan a message to ask about the seeds and soon received a definite reply.

“They are dwarf lilyturf.” After Wen Zhongshan sincerely thanked Fu Yuan, he put down his phone and said, “He saw that this batch of seeds was quite good and thought you’d probably be interested, so he sent them over along with the others.”

“Thank him for me.” Ying Kongtu said cheerfully, “I really am interested. Once I plant some on the mountain, in a couple of years, we’ll be able to prepare Shengmai Yin ourselves.”

“Is it bitter?” Wen Zhongshan asked.

“Sour and sweet.” Ying Kongtu smiled again. “When the time comes, I’ll add more wild honey for you.”

After receiving three large bags of seeds, Ying Kongtu went up the mountain to patrol the next day.

The snow had already melted, and the temperature had warmed. Although it was still cold on the mountain, it was much better than the past few days.

Once the temperature turned warm, the peach, plum, apricot, and pear trees on the mountain all bloomed, tree after tree.

The originally somewhat withered and dim mountain forest quickly became bright and lovely because of these flowers.

As they walked through the mountain, they could smell the faint fragrance of flowers from far away.

“The flowers are blooming too well this year.” Wen Zhongshan looked at the clusters of blossoms from a distance. His eyes were filled with wonder as he asked softly, “Is it because the mountain god has awakened, and his divine power is growing stronger?”

The flowers this year really were blooming well, tree after tree, full and round, looking like bouquets standing upon the earth.

“No, this doesn’t have much to do with the mountain god,” Ying Kongtu said with a smile. “Mainly, the temperature was just right some time ago. The plants experienced a perfect vernalization period.”

“Vernalization?”

“The phenomenon where plants shift from vegetative growth to reproductive growth after experiencing low temperatures. Roughly speaking, when the temperature drops, the plants know the time has come and that they can bloom and bear fruit. So they put the nutrients they’ve accumulated into flowering, and the flowers bloom especially brilliantly.”

“The freezing rain and frost before actually had this kind of benefit?”

“Yes. There is no such thing as something that only has a bad side.”

Ying Kongtu used his phone’s memo app to record the condition of these fruit trees.

Most of these fruit trees had been planted in the mountains by former mountain residents, while a small number had been brought here by wild birds and beasts.

However, these fruit trees had already been abandoned for many years, and now they all belonged under the mountain god’s name, becoming the mountain god’s property.

“This wave of cold weather came at just the right time. The fruit on the trees should be good. We’ll prune the branches a little and bury some fertilizer. The fruit that grows next year will be bigger and sweeter.”

“All right. Should we order fertilizer now?”

“No need for now. Pig manure will do. There aren’t that many fruit trees anyway, and the pig manure is enough.”

After Ying Kongtu made his plan, the two of them took action.

Unlike previous pruning, this round of pruning was all flower branch pruning.

Whether plum and pear or peach and apricot, as soon as the branches were pruned, petals rustled down, dyeing both of them with the fragrance of flowers.

Even the furry creatures crouching beneath the trees with them became furry creatures steeped in hidden fragrance.

Especially Dart, an orange cat who liked sleeping under flowering trees. Every day when it woke up, it became soft, fluffy, and fragrant.

They also brought the pruned branches home and placed them in various pottery jars.

The mountains outside were still dim, carrying winter’s austerity, but spring had already arrived inside their home first.

Ying Kongtu also steeped fresh flower petals in wild honey.

After steeping them, he brewed them with warm water. Once the petals opened, they rose and fell in the cup, as though a grand spring had also arrived inside it.

This fragrant and sweet flower tea was liked not only by Wen Zhongshan, but also by Tiaozhu and Xian Niao.

As for Dart and Jingwei, there was nothing they did not like. They ate everything with great enthusiasm.

And so, amid one busy day after another, the first winter since Ying Kongtu and Wen Zhongshan met ended among all kinds of flowers.

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