Chapter 109: Planting
After their trip, everyone was exhausted.
Once dinner was done and they had washed up, Xia Lu Nong returned to his room, collapsed onto the soft bed, and fell into a deep sleep.
Kong Zhi came by to check on him, tucked the mosquito net around him, and left.
The night passed dreamlessly, and Xia Lu Nong woke up early the next morning.
He hadn’t slept in a bed for a while, so his body felt fully rested, and he radiated a sense of energy that was hard to describe.
He slipped on his slippers, stood by the bed, and stretched with a big yawn. Dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, he stepped outside.
The morning air was a bit chilly, and standing by the door, the breeze made him feel even more awake.
Kong Zhi finished brushing his teeth and came inside. Seeing Xia Lu Nong standing at the door, he walked over, pinched his slender waist, and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
His movements were practiced and natural.
Xia Lu Nong wasn’t used to this kind of intimacy, his face flushed, and a small smile crept onto his face—one he didn’t even notice. He leaned back slightly and pushed at Kong Zhi’s chest, “Hey, I haven’t brushed my teeth yet.”
Without waiting for a response, he quickly ran into the bathroom to grab his toothbrush and toothpaste.
Kong Zhi followed him inside, his tall frame looming behind Xia Lu Nong, watching him with amusement.
When Xia Lu Nong turned around and saw Kong Zhi’s expression, he was almost embarrassed. “What are you looking at?!”
“Nothing,” Kong Zhi replied, “just thinking how cute you are.”
Xia Lu Nong nearly got goosebumps and rubbed his arms. “I’m a grown man! Stop using words like that!”
Kong Zhi chuckled softly, running a hand through Xia Lu Nong’s tousled hair. “Your hair’s getting long, covering your ears.”
“I’ll find someone at the market to cut it in the next few days,” Xia Lu Nong said, nudging Kong Zhi lightly with his leg. “Move aside.”
Kong Zhi stepped back as requested. “What do you want for breakfast?”
“Let’s have noodles,” Xia Lu Nong thought for a moment. “Go check the cafeteria for fresh meat. If there’s any, bring some back, and I’ll fry up a sauce. Maybe we can have zhajiangmian (fried sauce noodle) or something. We’ve got too much to do today to spend much time on cooking.”
Kong Zhi nodded. “I’ll head over now.”
Xia Lu Nong grabbed his cup and stood on the veranda, brushing his teeth.
By the time he finished brushing, his brother Xia Huo Qu and Yan Xi Nian had come out of their room, both sporting messy hair as they stood side by side under the eaves, brushing their teeth.
Xia Lu Nong spat out the water and waved, “Morning!”
“Morning,” Xia Huo Qu replied.
“Morning,” Yan Xi Nian grinned. “You two are up early today.”
“We’ve been getting a lot of sleep lately,” Xia Lu Nong said, shaking his cup. “I’m all done; you guys take your time.”
He put his cup away, washed his face, and stepped outside to check on the Sichuan pepper trees in the corner of the yard.
Xia Hua Jiao still seemed to be asleep, standing under the morning light with their unevenly chewed leaves, looking just like ordinary pepper trees.
Xia Lu Nong didn’t disturb it and, after checking on the trees, walked along the fence to the backyard.
They fenced the house from front to back. The front yard had trees and fruit, while the backyard, except for some chives growing in the corner, was bare with nothing but a wooden fence, not even many weeds.
Xia Lu Nong wandered around the backyard, finally deciding to plant the offspring of the honeysuckle vine under the fence behind his brother’s house. He planned to use his special ability to encourage the vine to climb both sides of the fence, eventually covering both houses.
When the little honeysuckle bloomed in the front, it might even become a nice accent between the pepper trees.
Xia Lu Nong glanced around; first, he would need Xia Hua Jiao’s permission.
Since the honeysuckle wouldn’t grow quickly, he could take his time convincing little Hua Jiao.
Having made up his mind, Xia Lu Nong went to the front and called out, “I’m planting the little honeysuckle in the backyard.”
Xia Huo Qu: “Go ahead. Do you need any fertilizer?”
“Not for now. I’ll pull out the nearby weeds, loosen the soil, plant it directly, and then water it thoroughly.”
The sun hadn’t risen yet, but Xia Lu Nong grabbed a hoe and got to work.
They had cleaned up the backyard many times, afraid of snakes hiding inside, so there weren’t many weeds. However, the soil had hardened badly, and he had to dig it up bit by bit.
Xia Lu Nong struggled to dig, one hoe swing after another.
Beneath the ordinary-looking soil lay all sorts of debris—oxalis bulbs, glass shards, plastic fragments, grubs, tree roots, bricks…
All sorts of junk.
As he loosened the soil, he picked out the trash and tossed it into a dustpan.
Soon, Xia Huo Qu and Yan Xi Nian came over to help.
With their strong manpower, the cleanup went much faster.
Originally, Xia Lu Nong hadn’t planned to use base fertilizer, but now that he saw the yellowish-brown soil, some even sandy, it didn’t seem fertile enough. Without adding fertilizer, it would be hard for the little honeysuckle to draw enough nutrients from the ground.
Besides, since the soil was already dug up, it made sense to add fertilizer now, rather than digging again later.
Xia Lu Nong straightened his back, wiped the sweat off his forehead, and said, “I’d better go to the canteen and get some manure. This soil is too poor.”
They had pigs at home now, but they hadn’t been raising them for long.
The pig manure had piled up, but it hadn’t decomposed yet, so it couldn’t be used directly. Otherwise, the manure would continue to ferment in the soil, raising the temperature and burning the plant roots.
Unfermented manure also contained parasites, posing a danger to plants.
The manure stored at the canteen had already been burned, making it clean and fluffy, much better than regular manure.
In the base, people usually went to the canteen to exchange for fertilizer before planting. Fertilizer was a valuable commodity, and most people couldn’t easily get any.
Xia Huo Qu said, “I’ll go exchange for it. You plant the honeysuckle first, and we can add the fertilizer later, keeping it a bit farther from the roots.”
“Alright.” Xia Lu Nong put down his hoe and went inside to get the honeysuckle vine.
Over the past few days, he had used his ability on both this vine and the original honeysuckle plant, and both were full of life.
The tender leaves at the top of the vine were still fresh and thick, showing no signs of wilting.
Xia Lu Nong gently touched the leaves, dug a hole by the fence, buried the lower half of the vine, and brought over a bucket of water to soak the surrounding soil.
The honeysuckle vine was now planted.
It wouldn’t be long before it took root and sprouted new leaves, making its home in their backyard.
Xia Lu Nong stretched his back and said to Yan Xi Nian, “Brother Xi Nian, I’ll leave this to you guys. I’m going to make breakfast.”
“Go ahead,” Yan Xi Nian said, his muscles bulging as he dug into the soil. “We’ll be done soon.”
Xia Lu Nong picked some flat beans and cucumbers from the side of the house and went inside to prepare breakfast.
He peeled the tough fibers from the beans and removed the bug-eaten parts, tossing the scraps into a small bucket under the cutting board.
Since they didn’t use pesticides on their crops, bugs were common. Sometimes, after sorting through a pound of beans or eggplants, only half would be left.
Fortunately, the bug-bitten parts could be saved and fed to the chickens, ducks, and geese along with kitchen scraps, so nothing went to waste.
After breakfast, Xia Huo Qu and Yan Xi Nian needed to go to the property management committee. Yan Xi Nian planned to introduce a credit-based currency to the base, ending the current bartering system.
Xia Lu Nong and Kong Zhi, on the other hand, were heading to the fields.
They had entrusted their land to Liao Cheng for care during their absence.
Liao Cheng could help with watering and fertilizing, but he was too busy to handle weeding and loosening the soil, so those tasks were left undone.
Whenever Xia Lu Nong returned from a trip, he was greeted by overgrown weeds, and this time was no exception.
Looking at the dense weeds in his family’s plot, Xia Lu Nong felt a headache coming on. He turned to Kong Zhi and sighed, “If only our crops had this kind of vitality, then I wouldn’t have to worry.”
Kong Zhi said, “With that kind of vitality, they probably wouldn’t bear any fruit.”
Xia Lu Nong agreed. “True.”
Overgrown crops usually didn’t bear fruit. Before the disaster, farmers even sprayed a pesticide called “short and stout agent” to curb the growth of crops and improve fruiting rates.
Lush crops were useless unless they bore fruit.
Xia Lu Nong yawned as he scanned the rows of carrots, radishes, peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, garlic sprouts, and mustard greens.
The tomatoes had produced the most fruit but were aging the fastest. Even though they still had adequate water and nutrients, most of their leaves had turned yellow, and many had fallen off, exposing the stems.
These tomatoes were old and needed to be pulled up and replanted. If left as they were, they would bear fewer and fewer fruits, and things would only get worse.
The eggplants and peppers, however, were still doing fine. They seemed like evergreens, continuing to produce plenty of fruit without showing signs of aging.
They would probably continue producing for another two months until the frost arrived.
The carrots, radishes, garlic sprouts, and mustard greens were all growing well, except for a few withered leaf edges. Otherwise, everything was in good shape.
They spent the past two days pulling out the weeds and applying some fertilizer, which should help things improve a lot.
Xia Lu Nong walked around with Kong Zhi, harvesting the ripe tomatoes, eggplants, and chili peppers. After gathering them, they decided to leave the rest for now.
Xia Lu Nong hid the basket filled with vegetables and fruits in the grass. “Let’s go, we should check out the wheat and rice fields.”
“Alright,” Kong Zhi said, lifting the hat off his back and handing it to him. “Wear your hat.”
“It’s too hot and stuffy. I want to feel the breeze.” Xia Lu Nong avoided his hand with a shake of his head. “Besides, the sun isn’t too strong today, so forget it.”
Kong Zhi glanced at him but didn’t insist.
The two shouldered their hoes and started hiking up the hill, heading toward the wheat fields.
The wheat that had been knocked down by the wind last time had all stood back up. The heads of the wheat were as big as kidney beans, heavy and bending the stalks down.
The wheat heads were drooping, almost touching the ground.
Both the heads and stalks were turning yellow, showing that the wheat was nearly ripe.
Xia Lu Nong plucked a wheat grain and placed it in his mouth, biting down gently.
The grain was still juicy and not yet fully hardened, so it would probably take another eight or ten days to ripen completely.
Xia Lu Nong was a bit surprised. He had thought the wheat would be ready by the time they returned.
It seemed that because the wheat grains were so large, the ripening process was slower than expected, which threw off his prediction.
He bent down for a closer look.
The wheat leaves had become thinner and didn’t look much different from normal wheat now.
When this batch of mutant wheat first sprouted, the leaves were thick and tender, not resembling grass-family plants at all.
Now, aside from being sturdier than regular wheat, the stalks and leaves didn’t show any other abnormalities.
This looked like a highly successful mutant wheat variety, definitely worth promoting.
Kong Zhi held a wheat head in his hand. “Each head must weigh half a pound to a pound.”
“Probably,” Xia Lu Nong said, feeling excited. “I just wonder how they’ll taste. Once we harvest them, we’ll make noodles.”
Kong Zhi said, “Ground into flour, they’ll likely taste similar.”
“That’s what I think too,” Xia Lu Nong agreed. “But the base doesn’t have a flour mill, so we might have to grind it by hand.”
“We can search for one next time we go out. But we’ll likely save this batch as seeds, so we won’t need the mill for now.”
Xia Lu Nong stretched, “Let’s go check the rice fields, then?”
“Yeah, and let’s see how the fish are doing. If they’re big enough, we can catch a couple to eat.”
Xia Lu Nong, likely influenced by his animal instincts, had developed a strong craving for fish. The smell alone made his eyes light up.
His eyes sparkled. “Perfect! We have plenty of peanut oil at home. We can fry the fish, coat them in flour, and fry them until even the bones are crispy. Or we could pan-fry them, making them crunchy, and sprinkle some pepper salt so we can eat them whole, bones and all.”
Kong Zhi nudged him. “Let’s go.”
They followed the path up the hill toward the terraced fields.
The terraces on either side of the path had mostly been harvested, leaving behind only the stubs of rice plants submerged in water.
As they walked, they saw several loaches and eels wriggling around.
Without pesticides or chemical fertilizers, most households now had loaches and eels in their fields, and these counted as private property, so they couldn’t be caught if spotted.
Xia Lu Nong’s mouth watered at the sight. “I wonder if we have any loaches in our field. I might catch half a pound and stir-fry them with chili peppers later.”
Kong Zhi, amused by Xia Lu Nong’s use of the word “our,” cheerfully replied, “If you want to eat them, I’ll catch them for you.”
