Chapter 213: Selenium-rich Peanuts

Chapter 213: Chapter 213: Selenium-rich Peanuts

By the end of August, the peanut leaves had turned yellow, and the lower ones began to fall off, signaling that the peanuts were mature and ready for harvest.

Although the micro-tiller in Xiaqing’s garage was equipped with a harvester, she still carried a basket, a basin, and a large bucket, and shouldered a shovel to go harvest the peanuts.

The peanut terraces were on the High Slope, the field contained only a little over two hundred plants, and the Green Light Peanuts were aggressive. Under these circumstances, a harvester was less useful than a shovel.

First, Xiaqing used her shovel to loosen the soil at the base of a plant. Then, she grabbed the vine, pulled upward, and gave it a shake. The peanuts came free from the soil they had grown in for five months, revealing the brownish-yellow pods hanging from their pegs.

"One, two, three, hmm..." While counting the peanut pods, Xiaqing noticed that two peanuts had fallen off. She dug them out of the soil and continued her count, "Six, seven, eight... twenty-five!"

A single peanut plant had actually produced sixteen mature, brownish-yellow pods, six lighter-colored young pods, and three small, undeveloped ones—even more than what her collected farming manuals described.

A bumper harvest! An absolute bumper harvest!

Xiaqing stripped off the pods, placing the mature ones in one basket and the young and small ones in another. She set the vine aside, then started digging up the second plant.

After harvesting all one hundred and seventy Yellow Light Peanut plants, Xiaqing took her shovel and turned toward the sparsely growing, insect-eating Green Light Peanuts.

These thirty-five plants were all tough nuts to crack. Xiaqing wasn’t afraid of their vein-needles; she was afraid that if she provoked the vines, they would launch an indiscriminate attack and riddle the precious, hard-won peanuts with holes.

Xiaqing had specifically asked Luo Pei how to harvest Green Light Peanuts.

If you weren’t saving them for seed, you could simply burn the vines to death before harvesting. If you needed to save seeds, however, you had to chop off the above-ground part of the vine, quickly dig the roots out of the soil, shake off the dirt, and plunge them into a high-concentration saltwater solution.

Once the saltwater killed the roots, you could pick off the pods and rinse them with fresh water.

The time had come for a test of Strength and Speed.

Xiaqing poured purified water into a laundry basin until it was over half full, adding a large handful of coarse salt. She placed fresh water in a washbasin nearby, then tossed a bug to the peanut plant.

As the plant was eating the bug, Xiaqing swung the knife in her right hand. With a CRACK, she severed the vine, which was harder than ordinary wood.

The severed upper stem and leaves of the vine gradually lost their vitality, going limp and releasing the bug. Just as the root unleashed its power, sprouting vein-needles as thick as tree roots from the cut, Xiaqing swiftly dug the entire root system out of the ground with her large shovel. Then, using a pair of custom-made, long-handled iron tongs, she gripped the root, shook off the soil, and threw it into the saltwater.

When it was first dropped in, the aggressive vein-needles sprouting from the root still struck the iron basin with a loud CLANG CLANG. A dozen or so seconds later, the root went still.

Xiaqing immediately picked the peanut pods off, tossed them into the nearby bucket of fresh water to rinse off the salt, and then placed them in a basket.

Only then did Xiaqing dig for any pods that had fallen in the soil. With the aggressive root system and vine already removed, there was no danger in searching for them.

After harvesting the first Green Light Peanut plant, Xiaqing counted twenty-six pods. Every single one was plump—truly a testament to its insectivorous diet.

Xiaqing shared her joy with her companions. "Look, they’ve grown so big."

Sheep Leader and Sick Wolf weren’t interested in the peanuts in Xiaqing’s hand; both were staring at the root in the water basin.

Xiaqing fished the dead root out of the saltwater and placed it in a sealed bag to prevent it from touching the soil and reviving. Then, she began to harvest the second plant.

From the thirty-five Green Light Peanut plants, she harvested a total of 875 pods. Most pods contained two peanuts, while a few had three or one. The total yield was 1,650 Green Light peanuts.

Xiaqing planned to eat a few of the Green Light Peanuts to try them, then dry the rest to save as seeds. For the Yellow Light Peanuts, she would also save most for seed and eat the smaller portion.

This "smaller portion," of course, referred to the half-basket of slightly less mature peanuts.

Xiaqing removed her gloves and Protective Mask, wiped the sweat from her face, and took a few gulps of water. Even though there weren’t many peanuts, the harvest had been physically demanding.

Xiaqing shelled a young peanut, popped the two plump kernels into her mouth, and fed the pod to Sheep Leader. Then, feeling quite pleased, she sent a message to Zhang San:

Brother San, I’ve harvested my peanuts. The skins are black, but the taste is decent. Should I send some Yellow Light Peanuts over for you to boil and eat?

She was messaging Zhang San because last month, when he had gotten up in the middle of the night to perform surgery on Broken Waist Wolf, Xiaqing had told him she would give him half of her Yellow Light Peanuts to fry once they were harvested.

Now that the peanuts were harvested, Xiaqing naturally intended to keep her promise.

While waiting for Zhang San’s reply, Xiaqing habitually opened her tracking software and was surprised to find the Red Squirrel stationary just fifteen meters away.

’Did the little guy come to watch me harvest peanuts?’

Observing from the corner of her eye, Xiaqing soon spotted the little creature hiding in a tree, its shiny, round black eyes fixed on the basket of peanuts.

Clearly, the Red Squirrel recognized this type of nut.

A thought flashed through Xiaqing’s mind: ’Could it be that this little creature brought the evolved peanuts and Soybeans to the Third Territory?’

The possibility was quite high, actually.

First, the Red Squirrel’s nest was in the Big Pine Tree in Zone 3, an area that hadn’t been cleared last winter, so it hadn’t moved. Second, although Xiaqing didn’t know how large a squirrel’s territory was, the terraces within the Third Territory weren’t far from its nest and were likely within its domain. Third, squirrels have a habit of storing nuts for the winter, and they hide them in different locations to avoid losing their entire stash at once.

So, the peanuts and Soybeans could very well be from a stash it had hidden on the slope and never finished.

Xiaqing took two peanuts, walked out of her shelter, and placed them on a rock. She called out to the Red Squirrel, which had already scampered far away, "Go on, have a taste. They’re not bad. If you like them, I can give you more."

After putting down the peanuts, Xiaqing received a call from Zhang San. "You said the peanut skins are black. Are you referring to the outer shell, or the thin skin wrapped around the kernel?"

Xiaqing answered, "The thin skin on the kernel."

Zhang San was silent for a few seconds. "Before the Natural Disaster, you’d never eaten black-skinned peanuts?"

???

Xiaqing was dumbfounded. "There were black-skinned peanuts before the Natural Disaster?"

When the Natural Disaster struck, Xiaqing was only fifteen. Her daily life consisted of going to and from school and extracurricular classes with her backpack; she didn’t have a care in the world otherwise and truly had no idea that some peanuts were black.

Zhang San replied, "Black-skinned peanuts are also known as selenium-rich peanuts. This territory of ours has selenium-rich soil, so it’s not surprising that someone was growing them before the Natural Disaster. What was your yield?"

Selenium-rich peanuts? Xiaqing’s eyes lit up. "Thirty-five Green Light plants and one hundred and seventy Yellow Light. I plan on saving the Green Light Peanuts for seed. Shall I send half of the Yellow Light ones to you?"

Although Zhang San could be calculating, he never took anything from others for free. He wanted the selenium-rich peanuts, so he made a direct offer. "Two hundred Green Light kernels and four hundred Yellow Light kernels. I’ll trade you for five pounds of Green Light wheat seed."