Mountain God’s Forest Farm – CH67

Chapter 67: Rice Flower Fish

Wave after wave of tiger-head wasps flew out and launched attacks at Wen Zhongshan, yet not a single one could get close to him. Usually, while they were still some distance away, they were already cut down by the short knife.

Ying Kongtu had been extremely worried at first, but after watching for a while, all that remained was admiration for Wen Zhongshan’s skills.

As expected of someone who had crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. His movements were too practiced.

There were several moves Ying Kongtu could not even see clearly.

Wen Zhongshan spent quite a while clearing them out before finally eliminating all the tiger-head wasps.

No more tiger-head wasps flew out, and there was no more buzzing.

He patiently cleared through the area again, confirmed that none had slipped through the net, then turned his head to call Ying Kongtu over.

Unexpectedly, the moment he looked back, he met Ying Kongtu’s bright, sparkling eyes.

Wen Zhongshan smiled, got up, and walked over to Ying Kongtu.

Xian Niao’s eyes showed a trace of confusion, and in the next second, Wen Zhongshan covered its eyes.

Ying Kongtu also tacitly covered Tiaozhu’s eyes, and the two kissed.

“Meow-ao!” Tiaozhu was the first to grow impatient. It kicked Ying Kongtu’s arm with the pad of its hind paw and jumped down to the ground.

Ying Kongtu and Wen Zhongshan separated. Ying Kongtu looked at him and smiled. “That was amazing. You can do this too?!”

“One of my professional skills,” Wen Zhongshan said. “It happened to come in handy now.”

Ying Kongtu said, “So cool.”

Wen Zhongshan had already cleared away all the tiger-head wasps outside. They gave the area a simple sweep and swept the dead wasps into the net bag.

Ying Kongtu deliberately checked them and discovered that part of each tiger-head wasp’s head had been sliced off.

No wonder they had died so quickly.

After briefly sweeping up the dead wasps on the ground, the two dug open the nest.

The number of tiger-head wasps in this nest was even greater than they had imagined. There were a full nine combs inside. Aside from pupae that had not yet hatched, there were also many already formed young wasps.

Ying Kongtu looked and said, “Let’s leave them three combs and take six with us?”

Tiger-head wasps had ecological value as well. On top of that, they had already mutated, making them a rare kind of tiger-head wasp.

They would leave a little so this nest of tiger-head wasps could continue breeding. Next time they wanted to harvest some, they would still be able to.

But there was no need to leave too many. They posed too great a threat to nearby people and animals. If too many were left, the mountain would not be safe.

Wen Zhongshan had always had no objections to Ying Kongtu’s way of managing the mountain forest.

So the two carried a large bag of wasps and combs down the mountain.

This nest of tiger-head wasps was far too dangerous, so Ying Kongtu did not let Tiaozhu and Xian Niao put their paws to work.

When they returned home and cleaned the pupae, they also specially kept the furry ones away.

Tiaozhu, however, remained very interested and kept trying to get its paws on them.

Ying Kongtu pushed it away with his elbow. “Tiaozhu, stop being curious.”

Tiaozhu said, “Meow-ao.”

Ying Kongtu said, “I’ll fry them later and let you taste them. Don’t touch them now. These are really dangerous.”

Wen Zhongshan glanced at the eager Tiaozhu. “You can pick one or two newly hatched ones for it to play with.”

Seeing how curious Tiaozhu was, Ying Kongtu thought for a moment. “That works too. Tiaozhu, don’t give them to the other little ones to play with.”

Tiaozhu said, “Meow-ao.”

Tiaozhu received two newly hatched tiger-head wasps and quickly went off to the side to play.

Dart also came over curiously, only to be beaten away by it.

Tiaozhu knew its limits and did not get stung.

Once it grew tired of playing, it even used its paw to crush the two tiger-head wasps to death, leaving Ying Kongtu and the others no trouble.

After Ying Kongtu and Wen Zhongshan finished removing the pupae and young wasps, they carefully packed them. Together with the wasps they had killed earlier, they sent a portion to the Ba snakes.

They also kept a little for their own family to taste.

The flavor of these pupae was indeed excellent. They were large and carried a rich milky aroma. First they were deep-fried, then stir-fried with minced garlic. Once cooked, the fragrance was extremely intense.

When they bit into one, the pupa was crisp and crunchy, filling the mouth with the rich aroma unique to protein.

Most wonderful of all was that it had a strange savory fragrance where milky aroma and protein aroma blended together. The more one ate, the more fragrant it became. By the end, both mouth and nose were filled with that scent.

Tiaozhu and the others also liked these pupae very much.

The protein content of the pupae was too high, and they were also a type of uncommon protein, so Ying Kongtu did not dare give them too much. He only divided a few among each furry one and let them taste.

Tiaozhu looked at the now-empty bowl. Its gaze flickered.

Ying Kongtu knew it far too well. The moment he saw its eyes, he knew what it was thinking, and he immediately said, “Tiaozhu, don’t go digging them out by yourself. It’s very easy to get stung.”

Tiaozhu heard him but did not answer.

Ying Kongtu’s head hurt. “Come here. I’ll give you extra food.”

The other furry ones heard this and swarmed over as well. Even Xian Niao was no exception.

Ying Kongtu had no choice but to give each furry one another three pupae and let them take them aside to slowly savor.

After lunch, Ying Kongtu said to Wen Zhongshan with emotion, “Good thing we kept some. They’re too fragrant. If we couldn’t eat them again in the future, that would be such a pity.”

“It won’t come to that. There are definitely still tiger-head wasps outside. Even if we dug them all out today, they would keep reproducing.”

“That’s true.” Ying Kongtu thought for a moment. “It’ll be good once my divine power rises a bit more. When the time comes, I can specially set aside an area to raise them. Then it’ll be convenient whenever we want to eat pupae.”

“There will be such a day.”

“Then I’ll write it down first. When the time is right, we’ll try it again.”

Ying Kongtu really took out his phone and seriously recorded this idea.

Not only did they think the pupae and wasps were delicious, the Ba snake clan also gave extremely high praise after receiving them.

Ba snake: [We received a total of 6,272 wasps and 458 pupae. We’ll give you 2,245 jin of Ba snake fertilizer, okay?]

Ying Kongtu immediately replied: [The pupae were a gift for you to taste. They don’t need to be exchanged for Ba snake fertilizer.]

The Ba snake sent over a smiling emoji. [Then consider the extra Ba snake fertilizer our gift too. The quality of these wasps is truly excellent. We’re happy to send a little more.]

Ying Kongtu thanked them and also sent an honest, silly-smiling emoji. [When we harvest wasps next time, we’ll send you more.]

Ba snake: [That would be wonderful. The more, the better! We really like these very much.]

The two chatted for a bit.

The next day, Ying Kongtu received the new batch of Ba snake fertilizer.

The Ba snakes sent over two large pieces of Ba snake fertilizer.

These two large pieces were just as heavy and hard as before, like stone.

Ying Kongtu and Wen Zhongshan used an angle grinder together to cut them into small pieces, then hired workers to bury this batch of Ba snake fertilizer in the kiwi orchard.

The Ba snake fertilizer was of excellent quality. This time, they did not use it all up and still had a little left.

The remaining fertilizer was not needed for the time being, so Ying Kongtu stored it at home, planning to use it next time.

That day, Wen Zhongshan said, “The seedlings in the terraced fields have grown quite tall. Is it time to transplant them?”

Ying Kongtu slapped his forehead. “I was thinking about this a few days ago, then forgot again these past couple of days. It is time to transplant them. Tomorrow I’ll ask the plowing master to come harrow the fields, and then we can transplant the seedlings.”

Rice planting had many steps. Just in the step of preparing the land, there was plowing and harrowing.

Before planting rice, the field needed to be harrowed once more, breaking the mud finely before the seedlings could be transplanted.

Wen Zhongshan asked, “Do we need to hire workers for transplanting?”

“Yes.” Ying Kongtu said without the slightest hesitation, “More than seven mu of land. If it’s just the two of us, that would be too exhausting. We should hire workers. They have experience too.”

Ying Kongtu said, “You reminded me. I’ll ask later. This is the busy farming season right now. If I don’t ask early, we really might not be able to hire people.”

Ying Kongtu contacted the workers who had previously worked for his family.

Most of them were very straightforward. As soon as they heard that his family had more work, they readily agreed.

They prepared for several days, then officially began transplanting the seedlings.

The seedlings were grown right in the terraced fields. Before transplanting, the concentrated seedlings first had to be pulled out, then carried elsewhere to be planted.

Changchuan County was a major agricultural county, and many people here planted rice.

Although most areas had now adopted mechanized planting, and there were rice transplanters for transplanting seedlings, irregular plots and plots with special conditions still mainly relied on manual labor.

The workers often went out to do jobs and could be considered experienced and knowledgeable, but when they saw Ying Kongtu’s seedlings, they were still very surprised.

“What variety are your rice seedlings? I’ve never seen them before.”

“They’re so tall and strong. I’ve transplanted seedlings for so many years, but I’ve never seen seedlings this sturdy.”

“What fertilizer did your family use? My family should buy some too.”

Ying Kongtu said, “The rice seeds and fertilizer are special varieties given by a friend. They aren’t available outside for now. We’re only planting a little experimentally.”

“No wonder they’re growing so well. You must have put in a lot of effort, right?”

“With these seedlings, won’t the yield per mu reach over a thousand jin?”

Ying Kongtu smiled. “That’s not something we can control. We’ll just plant them properly. When the time comes, however much we harvest is however much we harvest.”

“I want to sign up in advance. When your family harvests the rice, call me. I really want to know what the yield of these seedlings will be like.”

“I’ll come too! I cut rice very fast.”

Ying Kongtu said, “This kind of rice grows slowly. Harvesting will probably be in October.”

“That slow? Your family seemed to have sown the seeds in mid-March, right? March, April, May… This batch of rice will need to be planted for more than half a year?”

“Yes.” Ying Kongtu nodded. “If it grows longer, the rice tastes better.”

When everyone heard that this batch of rice required such a long planting period, they were no longer quite so interested.

This rice was good, yes, but it required far too much time and effort. Among many rice varieties, it did not have much advantage.

Ying Kongtu did not mind.

This batch of rice from their family was mainly grown for their own consumption. They had not planned to sell it.

If they wanted to sell it, it really would not be very worthwhile.

Their time, energy, and all the fertilizers they had invested were all highly valuable. No matter how much this rice sold for, it would not be worth it.

But for their own family to eat, it did not matter as much.

Laboring, harvesting, and enjoying the results were all part of life.

Everyone pulled the seedlings out from the seedling field, then carried them to the harrowed fields for transplanting.

To ensure quality, Ying Kongtu made the spacing between rows much wider than that of ordinary rice fields. It was almost one and a half times the spacing of other rice fields.

The transplanted seedlings therefore looked somewhat sparse.

Someone said, “Isn’t this planted too sparsely? Are you going to raise fish in there? Otherwise, won’t you lose money?”

The speaker had no particular intention, but Ying Kongtu’s heart stirred.

Their rice fields were so good, and they did not use pesticides or chemical fertilizers. It seemed they really could raise some fish in them.

The weather here was cool, the water temperature low, and food plentiful. If they slowly raised a batch of fish, the flavor of the fish should be good when the time came.

He used divine power to reject various birds, but he had no way to completely reject all kinds of insects. The flowing water itself would bring insects.

If they raised some fish, the fish could also eat the insects in the rice fields and prevent excessive insects from harming the rice plants.

Ying Kongtu thought about it seriously, and the more he thought, the more feasible the plan seemed.

Local people already raised fish in rice fields, and raising fish did not really reduce the rice yield.

Now the rice was growing so well, and the seedlings were already sturdy enough. Releasing fish would not hinder the seedlings’ growth either.

Ying Kongtu told Wen Zhongshan about this.

Wen Zhongshan asked, “Raise carp in there?”

“People usually raise carp and crucian carp. We can also put in some grass carp and other fish.” Ying Kongtu smiled and said, “Which kind of fish do you like better? We’ll raise some.”

“Any kind is fine. I don’t have a special preference. When the time comes, we can see what good fry the fish fry sellers have?”

“No,” Ying Kongtu said. “This time, I don’t plan to buy outside fry either.”

“Then—”

“We’ll go into the mountains and scoop some.” Ying Kongtu smiled. “Last time when we hunted bees, I realized that the seedlings and stock we get ourselves are still the best quality. This time, we’ll also go into the mountains and scoop up some fish fry.”

Author’s Note:

Dart and Jingwei secretly went to dig out honey and were scolded by Wen Zhongshan.

Jingwei drooped its ears, showed the whites of its eyes, sat crouched there, and nearly cried from being scolded.

Dart curled up, whining in its throat, and even shed tears.

Wen Zhongshan left, leaving the two of them in the room to reflect.

Jingwei had not even had time to change its posture before Dart sprang up at once and went to eat like a perfectly fine cat.

“Meow.”

Being scolded is also part of life. Once it’s over, it’s over.

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