Chapter 72 – Peanuts
The next morning, Lu Nong was up early and bumped into Kong Zhi on his way out. Kong Zhi looked pale and a bit tired.
“Your face looks a little pale. Did you stay up late again?” Lu Nong asked, scrutinizing him.
“It’s nothing,” Kong Zhi dismissed the concern, handing him his cup. “Are you going to the fields today?”
“Yeah, I want to get some weeding done while it’s still cool,” Lu Nong said, filling their cups with water. “On the way back, I’ll stop by Old Liu’s place to get some herbs. The mosquitoes are getting bad, so I’ll make some more insect repellent.”
“I’ll come with you,” Kong Zhi offered.
Lu Nong looked surprised. “Isn’t your rice field work done? I thought you were going to flood the paddies.”
“It’s almost done,” Kong Zhi said, turning Lu Nong toward the sink. “Let’s take care of the weeds first.”
Grateful for the help, Lu Nong grinned and agreed. The two of them quickly prepared to leave.
The morning dew was still fresh on the grass along the road, and small insects buzzed about. Lu Nong, distracted by the itch, scratched his arms until they turned red.
“Why aren’t you wearing long sleeves?” Kong Zhi asked.
“It’s cooler this way in the morning,” Lu Nong replied, scratching again before nudging Kong Zhi forward. “Come on, let’s move faster and get away from these mosquitoes.”
After the great disaster, mosquitoes flew incredibly fast and bit more viciously, but they hadn’t grown larger.
Maybe larger mosquitoes would be too noticeable, making it harder for them to bite people and animals.
The two of them arrived at the field.
The morning dew was still fresh, and the soil was quite moist. With one step, the soft ground swallowed nearly half of their shoes.
Xia Lu Nong mumbled to himself, thinking about how he would have to clean his shoes later, as he slowly entered the field to check on the crops.
Eggplants and peppers still hung heavily on their plants, but the tomatoes had aged, with some leaves falling off. Though there weren’t as many fruits as before, the plants could still hold on for a while.
The biggest issue was the beans, whose leaves had turned yellow over large areas, and the number of pods was low. He figured he’d have to pull them out soon and plant something else in their place.
Since it was already the second half of the year, it was time to think about what vegetables to plant next.
After walking around the field, Xia Lu Nong and Kong Zhi each took a row and began pulling weeds.
Weeding required patience. They had to pull out both the large weeds and the small ones, especially those just sprouting, which had to be pinched and gently pulled out by hand.
Once the weeds were removed, the soil beneath was exposed, looking loose and moist. It didn’t seem like they’d need to water or till the soil anytime soon.
They worked crouched down until the sun was high in the sky, then finally stood up, stretching their sore backs.
Xia Lu Nong rubbed his lower back and declared the weeding session over. “That’s it for now. Let’s come back in the afternoon. Time for breakfast.”
Kong Zhi agreed, carefully sorting through the pulled weeds. The tender weeds were put into the basket to feed the fish later.
Before leaving, Kong Zhi also picked some ripe tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and beans.
Lu Nong went over to the garlic chives, pulling out a few of the thinner ones. He planned to stir-fry them with eel later.
The garlic chives were growing next to the peanut plants, which seemed close to maturity, as many of the leaves had started to yellow.
Feeling a craving, Xia Lu Nong called over to Kong Zhi, “I’m going to pull up some young peanuts. Let’s make an eel casserole!”
“Alright,” Kong Zhi replied.
Excited, Xia Lu Nong ran over to the peanut field.
Even though the peanuts had been growing for a long time, this was his first time pulling them up, and he was curious to see how they’d turned out.
He set his basket down and observed the peanut plants for a moment, choosing one with yellowing leaves. He grabbed it with one hand and pulled.
To his surprise, it didn’t budge!
“What the…?” Lu Nong was baffled.
Since gaining his beast transformation abilities, his strength had increased dramatically. He was no longer the weakling fresh out of the medical clinic. He could easily carry a hundred-pound load, yet here he was, struggling to pull up a peanut plant.
Unwilling to believe he needed both hands to pull up a peanut, Lu Nong stubbornly kept at it, but after a long struggle, he still hadn’t succeeded. Sweat began to bead on his forehead.
Kong Zhi walked over and asked, “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Lu Nong replied, “Just pulling up a peanut.”
He looked down at the plant.
Peanut plants grow in clusters, with the stems and leaves forming bunches. He wondered if he had accidentally grabbed two plants at once, which might explain why it was so difficult to pull.
After inspecting it carefully, he confirmed that it was indeed just one plant.
That was strange.
Without changing his expression, Xia Lu Nong used all his strength and gave it another hard tug. Still, it wouldn’t budge.
Something unusual was going on underground!
Perhaps the peanuts had mutated!
Realizing the potential problem, Lu Nong quickly called Kong Zhi over. “Come and check out these peanuts.”
“What’s wrong with them?”
When Kong Zhi arrived, Lu Nong stopped struggling and grabbed the plant with both hands, pulling with all his might.
This time, he finally succeeded. The peanut plant, along with a chunk of soil, came up, but the force caused Xia Lu Nong to lose his balance and fall on his backside.
The ground where the peanut was pulled out revealed a large hole, and on the edge lay the peanut plant he had uprooted.
Sitting on the ground, Xia Lu Nong shook off the dirt from the plant and quickly noticed something odd. “Why does this peanut have so many pods?”
Lu Nong had seen peanuts in their shells before. Typically, a shell contains two peanut seeds, and occasionally you might find three. Four is rare, and five seeds in one shell is considered extremely lucky.
But as he examined the plant he’d just pulled up, most of the pods contained five seeds, with very few having three or four.
“This is incredible,” Xia Lu Nong said, showing the plant to Kong Zhi in disbelief. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think this was a pea plant. Peanuts don’t grow like this!”
Only pea pods tend to have that many seeds inside.
Kong Zhi studied it closely. “You’ve been using your powers on these peanuts pretty often, haven’t you?”
“Just during fertilization, and even then, only on a large scale. Other than making them grow a bit stronger, I didn’t see any other effects. Could all the mutation have gone underground?”
Kong Zhi took the plant and counted the pods. “This one has 104 peanuts in total.”
“No way!” Lu Nong’s eyes widened in shock, and he jumped up to count for himself.
“One, two, three… one hundred and two, one hundred and three, one hundred and four. Oh my god, you’re right!”
Even without much agricultural knowledge, Lu Nong knew that one peanut plant producing over a hundred peanuts was an extraordinary harvest.
Especially after months of hard work, he understood how difficult it was to grow peanuts.
Xia Lu Nong paused and said, “Maybe this one is just a coincidence. Let’s pull a few more.”
Kong Zhi bent down, his slender fingers gripping a peanut plant. With one pull, he lifted out a large clump of soil along with the second peanut plant.
Then came the third.
Xia Lu Nong took the second plant and counted, “This one has 98 peanuts, 75 of which contain five seeds each.”
Kong Zhi replied, “This one has 112 peanuts, with 94 of them containing five seeds.”
“Well, that confirms it—this is definitely a rare, bountiful harvest,” Xia Lu Nong said as he rubbed his lower back. “I’d better tell my brother first and then inform Professor Yan this afternoon.”
“Alright.”
Looking at the small plot of peanuts in front of him, Xia Lu Nong said, “We probably won’t be able to press oil this year. We’ll need to save these for seeds next year.”
“There are plenty of families growing peanuts in the base. You could trade for some with others,” Kong Zhi said, slinging the basket over his shoulder. “Let’s go find Old Liu and trade for herbs.”
Still in a bit of a daze, Xia Lu Nong followed Kong Zhi to see Old Liu.
Old Liu’s place looked almost like a general store, with all sorts of things piled up in the living room. After searching for a while, he finally found the herbs.
Xia Lu Nong took them absentmindedly and said, “Brother Liu, I’ll bring you some rice this afternoon.”
“No rush. Just bring it when you remember,” Old Liu replied, puffing on a cigarette. “Your brother caught some ants yesterday, right? How did they taste?”
“Pretty good, with a slight sourness, but tender—kind of like shrimp,” Xia Lu Nong recalled. “We stir-fried them with chili, and they went really well with rice.”
“Hearing you talk about it, I can already tell it must’ve tasted great.”
Xia Lu Nong glanced at him. “Brother Liu, are you thinking of going out to catch ants?”
“Who would dare specifically go out for that? If we run into ants, we’re more likely to be caught by them!” Old Liu chuckled. “But if we do come across any, we might grab a few along the way.”
Knowing that Old Liu was probably eager to catch ants, Xia Lu Nong didn’t say more. Waving goodbye after taking the herbs, he said, “We’re heading back now.”
“Alright.”
Old Liu waved back, glancing at the peanut plants in their basket. He felt nostalgic, remembering how Xia Lu Nong had traded for those peanut seeds with him.
Before planting the peanuts, Xia Lu Nong had seemed frail, still recovering from his illness. Now, after less than six months, not only had he fully recovered, but his personality had become much brighter.
It seemed that, just like the peanuts, Xia Lu Nong had grown a lot during this time.
The people in the base were like the peanut plants in the fields, growing up in large numbers, and the whole place looked completely different from before.
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