Chapter 73: Meat!
If Huai Yu knew about Wu Yue’s current predicament, she’d probably throw her hands on her hips and laugh out loud three times.
But in reality, she’s busy farming right now!
The early April weather was acting a little strange—these past few days were filled with blazing sunshine, and the daytime warmth was almost unbearable. She didn’t even have the patience to wait for the soybeans to sprout a few more rounds to purify the soil.
No choice. At the end of the day, farmers still depend on the heavens for food.
And while her ability could handle a few plants, dealing with such a huge plot of land…
She’d probably be wiped out and bedridden for half a month.
Oh well! Let’s just plant it!
Worst case, she could purify it slowly during the growth process.
Otherwise, by the time the soybeans sprout again, it might get too hot and the seeds won’t grow well anymore.
Especially for cowpeas, the main force of summer crops—if they flower in the heat, then dreaming of endless beans is just that: a dream.
These thoughts came naturally to her. It was like farming was etched into her DNA. Huai Yu stared at her hands, a little puzzled:
Great—another point for the “strong farmwife” label.
The weak little chicks chirped loudly, sunbathing at the door. Huai Yu didn’t hold back in using her powers to raise them.
Meanwhile, in the first cultivated patch of land, the soybeans had quietly sprouted.
The sprouts were tiny and not very noticeable. Huai Yu squatted down and observed them for a while. The more she looked, the happier she got. She quickly pulled open the grass mats to let the warm sunlight shine directly on the soil.
This way, the soil retained moisture and didn’t experience drastic temperature shifts, which helped the seedlings grow faster.
As for the potatoes she bought, they were still bundled in bags for sprouting. Today’s mission was to plant the sweet potato vines she’d bought yesterday.
Damn Wu Yue!
If not for him, she could’ve planted them yesterday afternoon when she got home!
It wasn’t even hard to propagate these vines.
But instead, her house got wrecked, she was heartbroken, overwhelmed with tasks, and silently cried until… well, until the wee hours of the morning when she finally remembered!
By the time she checked the basket, the vines were already wilting!!!
She had to use even more energy to activate her powers…
Luckily, the soil in the field hadn’t been completely broken up, but the ash and organic mix she’d added before still worked well. Just a couple of simple ridges, and the small bundle of sweet potato vines was planted.
Then came cucumber seeds, chili pepper seeds, and cowpeas…
These were expensive.
In this day and age, anything related to food was in short supply—seeds were counted one by one.
What was even crazier was the tool they used to count the seeds when she bought them: a white tray with little dips in rows. Pour the seeds in, and it was instantly clear how many there were.
“What’s this…?”
The seller smiled, “Oh this? That’s a bead tray. My family used to be in the jade business. Back then, we sold beads by the piece—if you bought 50 and I bought 200, we’d use this to count.”
Kinda ironic.
Used to sell jade—now selling vegetable seeds. Let’s not even talk price, the whole career path felt like it dropped a level.
Anyway, Huai Yu stared at her 50 cowpea seeds, 22 chili seeds, and 20 cucumber seeds like they were treasures. She didn’t want to waste a single one.
She soaked the cucumber and chili seeds to promote sprouting, planted 2–3 cowpea seeds per hole—50 seeds were gone in minutes.
Then came the peanuts from Xiao Tian.
Just two big handfuls of sun-dried peanuts. Huai Yu sat at the edge of the field, cracking them open one by one while cheerfully humming:
“Little red house, red canopy bed, and inside lies a chubby white baby…”
“White chubby baby~!”
Heh!
Xiao Tian really had a good eye. The peanuts she shelled were all plump with red skin, still heavy despite being dried—excellent seeds.
She saved the shells to burn into charcoal later for filtering water. Maybe then she’d let Xiao Tian have a cup.
Finally, the thing she had most of was yam beans.
These little things grew easily, just like potatoes—any soil would do. The only requirement was enough space. Otherwise, when they matured into long yams, there’d be no room to stretch out!
Huai Yu thought she was already being super meticulous and patient. But with so few seeds, even though she worked slowly, she still ran out of things to do by noon.
She tossed a handful of dry grass into the stove and started planning lunch: scallion pancakes fried in lard—
Crushed dried chili with a splash of hot oil, tossed with blanched bean sprouts and a sprinkle of salt, then rolled into a pancake…
Perfect meal again!
But then… she looked around the unfamiliar new house.
And suddenly felt a little lost.
Since waking up, her daily goal was to live a better life. Have a proper home, enough food and clothing.
April’s Chinese toon, May’s locust flowers—she had plans for everything in the mountains. The future was under her feet.
But now, overnight, she had a brand-new home. Even after planting a huge field, she still had 1,000+ contribution points left in her wristband.
Her pickled veggies, salted goods, dried wild greens were still in storage. Rice, flour, oil—not lacking.
Staring at the dancing flames, she sat on the bench, not quite sure what to do next.
But soon, Huai Yu took a big bite of her pancake, and a new goal emerged.
Meat! Meat, ah!
Bean sprouts were great, pancakes were tasty, lard bits were fragrant! But she only had two pounds of pork fat. And last time she checked, meat was over 100 points per pound.
Even with her 1,000 points, she could only afford about ten pounds of meat. And it’d be the highly polluted kind.
She perked up, wolfed down the rest of her pancake, stood up and got her gear ready—decided to head back to the mountains.
She’d only ever stuck to the outskirts before, never venturing too deep. Naturally, she only saw the occasional bird—not much in the way of edible creatures.
One, because of time constraints—going deeper wasted time on the return trip.
Two, because she feared running into mutated animals or plants she couldn’t handle.
But then again, even that fierce giant black fish became docile under her purification…
So…
Grassy meadows, chirping birds—she wasn’t picky. Wild rabbits or pheasants, she’d take anything.
After thinking it through, she rolled up her maroon sleeping bag and stuffed it into her basket, added a stack of paper, slung on her satchel.
She brought a cleaver and a multi-functional shovel—one long, one short—for defense, then confidently pushed her bike out—
Let’s go—
But after propping the bike up, Huai Yu trudged back with a grumpy face to lock her front door carefully.
Walked two steps, came back again to tug on the lock.
Seriously! When she used to live in a treehouse, she never worried about anyone stealing stuff!
“You keep an eye on the house, okay?”
She leaned close to the rose trellis and said seriously, “This time really look after things, or I’ll catch a mutated goat. They eat everything. Even your leaves.”
