Chapter 102: Blooming

Chapter 102: Chapter 102: Blooming

"It’s fine, but Princess is very vindictive. You won’t be able to adopt the kitten anymore."

Like owner, like pet. Zhang San was petty, and the cat he raised was just as narrow-minded. Xiaqing looked helplessly at the filthy Sheep Leader, not knowing how to respond.

Zhang San hadn’t expected this situation either. "How about this? I’ll trade you Green Light Chickens for the twenty thousand points for the kitten. This batch hatched seventeen Green Light chickens in total—seven roosters and ten hens. I’ll send them all to you when they’re a month old. As for the difference in points, how about I hatch another batch for you?"

Hearing the words "Green Light Chicken," Xiaqing’s spirits lifted. "Thank you, Brother San. Seventeen chickens are more than enough for me to eat, so there’s no need to hatch more. Do you have any other Evolutionary Animals available for trade?"

’She had already paid for the ten little hens with two hundred spinach seeds. The seven little roosters were worth seven thousand points, and the Evolution Cat was worth twenty thousand, which meant Zhang San still owed her thirteen thousand.’

’Zhang San was well-off. If he couldn’t trade her the cat, giving her something even better would be fine too.’

Zhang San was silent for a few seconds. "Besides the Evolution Cat, all I have left is an Evolved Green Light Cow."

’An Evolved... Green Light... Cow?!!!’

Just as the light sparked in Xiaqing’s bright eyes, she heard Zhang San continue, "The calf has already been traded away. Right now, I only have two left, a bull and a cow. I can’t trade the milking cow to you. How about you take the bull and raise it? It can’t produce milk, but it can produce manure."

Xiaqing???

’Idol, do I look like a fool to you?’

"I’m afraid I wouldn’t raise the bull well, and I wouldn’t want to affect your milk supply. Could I use the rest of my points to trade for milk instead?"

Zhang San refused without hesitation. "I have to keep the milk for myself. Whatever I can’t finish, I’ll make into milk powder to drink for when the cow isn’t lactating."

...

’What kind of idol was this? Doesn’t he consider his fan’s feelings at all?’

Xiaqing gave up on the idea of trading for animals and turned her attention to plants. "Brother San, can I use the rest of my points to trade for Green Light Rice Seeds and some common medicine?"

Zhang San happily agreed to this deal. "I just so happen to have cultivated a batch of high-quality Green Light Rice Seedlings. They’re ready to be transplanted in a few days. I’ll give you one hundred and fifty of them, so you should prepare your paddy field first. They’re 100 points each, so one hundred and fifty seedlings come to fifteen thousand points. The extra two thousand points’ worth will be my compensation for failing to deliver the kitten as promised."

After speaking, Zhang San briefly explained to Xiaqing how to prepare the paddy field.

"Thank you so much, Brother San." Xiaqing’s eyes brimmed with tears.

’If Blue Star had a ranking for the best idols, and her Brother San wasn’t on it, Xiaqing would be the first to protest.’

She couldn’t get the cat, but life had to go on. More importantly, she had to catch the wolf that was sneaking into her territory to drink water and mess with her sheep, and make it pay for her losses.

Over the next few days, Xiaqing prepared the rice paddy and harvested mung beans, all while keeping a close watch on Sheep Leader’s activities.

In three days, Xiaqing prepared a two-mu paddy field and harvested over fifty pounds of mung beans, but she hadn’t caught so much as a single wolf hair. She tried interrogating Sheep Leader, but the creature just narrowed its eyes and didn’t react.

So, Xiaqing changed her strategy. She feigned generosity, taking out two small bags of dried Green Light Bamboo Shoots and a small bag of bamboo rat jerky. She placed them in a little basket, handed it to Sheep Leader, and instructed in a soft, sweet voice, "Leader, your friend must like meat, right? Next time it comes over, give it this jerky. It can use the dried Green Light Bamboo Shoots as toothpicks after eating."

Upon seeing the tasty treats, Sheep Leader’s half-closed eyes finally opened wide. Satisfied, Xiaqing departed.

Another day passed. Sheep Leader took the small basket in its mouth and headed for the hillside. Xiaqing grabbed a weapon and stealthily followed it to the base of the Big Chuntun Tree, only to discover the idiot tearing open the sealed bags with its teeth and devouring the dried Green Light Bamboo Shoots and bamboo rat jerky itself!

By the time it had finished everything and wiped its mouth clean, the wolf had still not appeared.

’Damn it! A sheep eating bamboo shoots is one thing, but it even ate the fucking jerky!’

Xiaqing furiously stormed over and had a huge fight with Sheep Leader. Afterward, she gave up on her plan to use the sheep to catch the wolf.

The main reason she stopped worrying about the wolf was that she had been extremely busy for the past few days.

After soaking the one hundred and fifty rice seedlings from Ji Li in Pollution-free Spring Water overnight, Xiaqing planted them in the paddy field. She also soaked the Yellow Light Mung Beans and Green Light Mung Beans in the spring water before planting a mu of the former and two terraced plots of the latter.

After planting the two pounds of Yellow Light Corn from Luo Pei, Xiaqing immediately began to top-dress her crops with fertilizer.

As the end of June approached, it wasn’t just the cotton that was blooming beautifully; the wheat, peanuts, alfalfa, and potatoes had all begun to flower as well. The flowering stage is a critical period in a plant’s growth, and it was essential to apply more fertilizer.

Xiaqing hauled all her remaining crab shell fertilizer and earthworm castings to the edge of the fields. She started with the small wheat plot, digging trenches to bury the fertilizer before irrigating the crop.

Sheep Leader had now adopted pedaling the water wheel as a recreational sport for showing off, which made irrigation incredibly convenient for Xiaqing. All she had to do was block the channel leading to the fishpond and open the one to the wheat field.

After watering the wheat field, Xiaqing praised Sheep Leader for a few minutes, then moved on to top-dress and water the potatoes, and then went to fertilize the alfalfa.

She only had eighteen Green Light Alfalfa plants, so fertilizing and watering them took just a few minutes. Next, Xiaqing hurried to the three peanut terraces. Though there were three terraces, they only contained two hundred and ten peanut plants in total: thirty-five Green Light, one hundred seventy Yellow Light, and fifteen Red Light. Fertilizing them would be quick as well.

But when Xiaqing stood at the edge of the first peanut terrace, she realized this task wouldn’t be so simple. Although she couldn’t say why, she just felt that something was off about the Green Light Peanuts plant marked with the red string.

The screen of the air toxin detector on her arm hadn’t lit up, which meant the peanut flowers weren’t emitting any toxic gas.

The plant’s roots, stem, and leaves hadn’t suddenly shot up in height, nor had any sharp thorns or barbs appeared, so it didn’t seem to have undergone a Qiang Evolution. Still, Xiaqing didn’t dare let her guard down. Any Green Light plant that could survive in the wild until the tenth year of the Natural Disaster was bound to have some means of self-preservation.

’Could the Green Light Peanuts shoot leaf darts, like the Green Light Bamboo in the Evolution Forest?’

The weather was getting hotter, and her territory had been thoroughly cleared multiple times, so Xiaqing normally didn’t wear her Protective Suit while working. But just to be safe, she went back home to put it on before returning to the peanut terrace.

First, she carefully poked the plant’s branches and leaves with her shovel. Everything seemed normal. Then, she used the shovel to dig up the soil beside the plant and bury the fertilizer. Again, nothing happened.

’Was she just being paranoid?’ Xiaqing stared at the Green Light Peanuts plant swaying gently in the breeze for a moment, then ran to her private training ground. She caught a palm-sized evolved mantis, brought it back, and tossed it toward the Green Light Peanuts plant. The mantis immediately latched onto the stem.

Then, a horrifying scene unfolded. A second after the evolved mantis grabbed the stem, all the peanut leaves its body was touching suddenly split apart, and the leaf veins pierced into the mantis’s body.

The palm-sized mantis convulsed twice and then went still. Five minutes later, the Green Light Peanuts’ leaf veins had completely drained the mantis’s bodily fluids. The vein-needles retracted from the mantis’s body and unfurled. Then, at a speed visible to the naked eye, new leaf tissue and an outer layer grew back, reforming them into what appeared to be perfectly normal leaves.

If not for the desiccated mantis corpse lying beneath the plant, Xiaqing would have truly suspected she had been hallucinating and that the entire scene had just been a figment of her imagination...

...

...

...

!!!

’The Evolved Green Light Peanuts were even more dangerous than the Evolved Green Light Bamboo! It could precisely hunt any living creature that came near!’

’No wonder Green Light Peanuts were still around in the tenth year of the Natural Disaster. With a special skill like that, it would be impossible for them to go extinct.’

’Were the peanuts from such a vicious plant even edible? Or to put it another way, would she live to eat them?’

’Should she fertilize the Green Light Peanuts with crab shell fertilizer and earthworm castings, or should she be feeding it insects?’