Chapter 40: Uncle Dates
Huai Yu once again experienced the taste of sudden wealth.
The four-plus kilograms of bean sprouts from Boss Tang earned her 260 points, and the ferns, although they didn’t seem like a lot after pickling, were quite heavy, adding up to 550 points.
She gently touched her old bracelet and was deep in thought at this moment —
Indeed, once a person has the initial capital, making money becomes much easier.
However, right now her resources were truly exhausted. The wild vegetables were a one-time thing, so Huai Yu curiously asked:
“Boss Tang, do you know where I can buy beans? My brother says the beans outside are really bad, just how bad are they?”
Boss Tang, who was staring at the bean sprouts while constantly checking messages, was stunned when he heard this. After a long pause, he couldn’t help but mutter inwardly:
Why not just eat meat porridge? Why not just eat meat porridge!
He took Huai Yu to the door and pointed in the direction:
“See that? Behind the Jiufu Jewelry shop, if you go around it, there’s a seed store.”
“But Xiao Yu, you can get some seeds to take home and check out, but if the mutation value is over 20, don’t even touch them! They’re disgusting, too disgusting — one bite and you won’t have an appetite for days.”
Huai Yu remembered the dates that man had sold her that day: “The first time I came here, I saw someone selling dates, with a mutation value of 23…”
Boss Tang’s face darkened: “A mutation value of 23 and he’s selling them? Who’s the poor fool buying them? Even dogs won’t eat that. You didn’t try it, did you?”
“No,” Huai Yu wrinkled her nose. “I was afraid they’d taste really bad, so I asked him to eat them first. If they were good, I’d buy some.”
Boss Tang was silent for a moment before replying, “Well, it’s fine then.”
If someone really had the guts to eat those dates, then they deserved to earn that money. But looking at this girl in front of him, he was sure she hadn’t bought any — probably her curiosity had built up quite a bit.
Looking at his own bean sprouts with a mutation value of 9, Boss Tang couldn’t help but wonder what kind of family could raise such an innocent young lady.
Normally, his own family was just fine!
But if he raised his kids like this, his old man would probably break his legs.
Boss Tang shook his head and watched Huai Yu leave, quickly taking out his phone to start calling people one by one.
Meanwhile, Huai Yu followed the path around the corner and, as expected, found the seed shop Boss Tang mentioned.
The shop wasn’t big and looked rather simple. A few large plastic storage bags were open outside, filled with various types of soybeans.
There were yellow soybeans with a slight greenish tint, larger and rounder high-yield soybeans, and varieties mainly used for harvesting green beans…
In the front, there were fast-growing vegetables like small bok choy, chickweed, and high-yield cowpeas.
The seeds were sealed in transparent ziplock bags, hanging on racks with simple black numbers written on them.
Huai Yu looked at them for a while and couldn’t help but ask, “What do these two numbers mean?”
Someone who had just walked into the store overheard and casually answered:
“The top number is the mutation value, and the bottom one is the score—oh, it’s you!”
She turned to see a familiar face:
“Uncle Dates.”
The man opposite her darkened and waved his hands repeatedly:
“Just call me ‘Uncle,’ forget the ‘Dates.’ I don’t ever want to eat dates again in my life.”
He hesitated for a moment, feeling a bit guilty because it was this very girl who had packed up the dates. Although the points weren’t high…
“Ahem.” He cleared his throat and said, “So, you’re here to buy seeds?”
“Yeah,” Huai Yu nodded, “I want to buy some more soybeans, but I’m not sure which kind is best.”
The middle-aged man sighed:
“Buying soybeans? Just in time, I need some too. Don’t bother with those fancy ones, just pick the ones with high yields.”
As he spoke, he grabbed a handful of soybeans, listening to them rustle as they fell, all while cursing the heavens.
“Right in the middle of the planting season, and suddenly a rainstorm… I’ve struggled to carry ten or so bags of soil up ten flights of stairs, and now the rain’s ruined it all!”
He grumbled, taking out a plastic bag from his pocket with familiarity, shaking it open, then picking up a scoop to fill it with soybeans:
“Got a bag? Let me pack it for you. This seed store doesn’t bargain, the prices for beans are all set by the government.”
“Also, you should buy more, don’t be stingy with the seed money.”
“Plant one batch, and when the seedlings reach about 10 cm, pull them out and plant a second batch. Rotate a few times, and the pollution in the soil should get absorbed.”
He couldn’t help but complain again:
“What bad luck. I got this apartment so I could plant vegetables with good ventilation and sunlight on the balcony, and ended up breaking the glass. Who would’ve thought just two days after breaking it, a rainstorm would hit…”
He was just incredibly unlucky.
Huai Yu silently handed over the plastic bag, and then nonchalantly asked, “But if you pull them out so quickly, won’t they not produce any soybeans? Do they handle it the same way in polluted areas?”
The man didn’t pay much attention, testing the weight of the bag before grabbing the scoop again:
“The government doesn’t manage private land. Once you’ve cleared it, just register, and you can slowly plant and wait for the beans to grow. If the government buys it, even mosquito legs are worth something.”
He looked at Huai Yu curiously and added:
“Public planting areas need to be handled by wood-type abilities. But in our city, there’s probably not many people with the real skill, they’ve all gone to the guard army. Or they’re explorers.”
“And even if someone had the skill, it wouldn’t help. With this much land, even wood-type users would need months of non-stop work to manage it.”
“After all, it’s not just this rainstorm, the mutation index in the air is already pretty high.”
Huai Yu thought for a moment, feeling like she had learned something new.
After a while, she suddenly said, “My brother’s white uniform fabric looks really nice. I can only wear my old clothes…”
The tiny icy words were still at her bedside, chilling her to the bone, showing no sign of thawing.
“Of course!” The middle-aged man chuckled, grabbing her plastic bag again to scoop more soybeans:
“Can’t tell, little girl, I said you dressed so plain, but you spend money so freely on dates — cough, cough, cough! What I meant is, you’re generous with spending.”
“Turns out someone in your family is in the guard army… or an explorer? What kind of abilities do they have? The guard army uniforms are for front-line combat, and the fabric is special.”
“First, it’s made to be smooth, with some special coating to prevent blood stains from sticking to the fabric and causing seeds to take root.”
“Second, on the front line, you’re either in the wasteland or the forest, surrounded by tall trees. The vines, branches, and leaves are a mess, so the fabric has added fluorescent sand or something, making it visible from far away, which helps with coordination and rescue…”
He paused for a moment, then turned to Huai Yu and asked, “How do you not know any of this?”
