After a long silence, Ning Ruoruo asked, "Who are they?"

Li Xiangdong replied, "I don't know, but I guess it must be someone in a very high position."

"Yeah?"

Ning Ruoruo gave a self-deprecating smile. If he was such a high-ranking person, why didn't he come sooner? Perhaps her parents wouldn't have died so young.

"Don't overthink it. Uncle Liu said your grandpa will come back to pick you up in a few days."

Today, Liu Donglai asked Li Xiangdong to speak to Ning Ruoruo in advance, just in case Ning Ruoruo's grandfather came and Ning Ruoruo might have an overreaction.

This gives her a few days to react and allows her to prepare mentally.

Ning Ruoruo nodded and prepared to take her leave.

Li Xiangdong sighed inwardly. After all, she was still a teenage girl. No matter how calm she appeared on the outside, she was probably quite traumatized inside.

"Ruoruo, nothing is more important than death..."

Looking at her lonely figure, Li Xiangdong couldn't help but say something.

Ning Ruoruo nodded almost imperceptibly.

...

That night, Li Xiangdong lay in bed unable to sleep, tossing and turning with his eyes closed until three in the morning.

I finally managed to drift off to sleep, but woke up again in less than two hours.

Zhao Sufang noticed his dark circles and asked, puzzled, "What's wrong? Can't sleep?"

"Yeah, I'm not sleepy at all."

Li Xiangdong washed his face and planned to go to the herb base after breakfast.

After thinking for a moment, he turned back to the west room and took a stack of ten-yuan notes. He would pass by Ning Ruoruo's cowshed on his way to the herb base.

Following Director Yan's planning a few days ago, and with the consultation of Dr. Gu, the first phase of the Chinese herbal medicine planting base has now been planned.

The first varieties planted were Scutellaria baicalensis, Astragalus membranaceus, Sophora flavescens, Rehmannia glutinosa, Lycium barbarum, and Lonicera japonica. However, these varieties are planted in spring and autumn, and it is summer now, so they will not sprout.

Therefore, it's better to plant one season's crops first, and then plant medicinal herbs after the harvest.

In Lijiapo, of the more than 1,000 mu of land, apart from 300 mu of cabbage and 100 mu of garlic, the rest is planted with corn.

More cabbages were planted than in previous years, but nothing else changed. When this plan was announced, many commune members who had high hopes for Li Xiangdong couldn't help but feel a little discouraged.

Xiang Dong has many good ideas, so what's wrong? Have all the auspicious smoke from the Li family's ancestral graves been exhausted?

This is the headquarters of the Lijiapo Brigade.

Liu Changhai asked Li Xiangdong nervously, "Xiangdong, have the seeds arrived?"

They said it's been mailed, but the post office hasn't given us the shipping label yet!

Li Xiangdong was counting the days; it had been thirteen days since he asked Liu Donglai to coordinate the purchase of seeds.

The reply was sent out ten days ago.

Logistics are so slow these days!

Li Xiangdong misses the next-day delivery speed of the past.

In fact, this time planting corn was not following the old path, but rather Li Xiangdong had planned it for a long time: to try planting high-yield corn – “Pohong No. 1”!

In the past, Lijiapo Village only started planting high-yield corn in the 1980s. Before that, the corn harvested in the previous year was used as seed for the following year, and there was no consideration for improving the varieties.

Wheat, among other crops, has seen increasingly lower yields with each generation of cultivation.

"Pohong No. 1" was bred in 1974 by the Pohong Commune Seed Production Station in Yangtian County, Shaanxi Province, through crossbreeding of Xi 103 and Beijin 14.

Trial planting was conducted in 1975, and high yields were achieved that year, with an average yield of 1,761 jin of white husks and 1,495 jin of dry grains per mu!

This variety was very popular in the entire Shaanxi province back then, but for various reasons, it was not promoted to the whole country in time.

Later, in the 1980s, the national focus shifted to economic development, and people paid more and more attention to cultivating superior crop seeds. With the emergence of new high-yield and superior varieties, "Pohong No. 1" was short-lived and quickly disappeared into the dust of history.

To understand how Li Xiangdong knew about the superior corn varieties in Qin Province, which was thousands of miles away, we have to go back to a drinking party.

In his past life, Li Xiangdong had drunk with a large-scale farmer in Yangtian County. That farmer contracted 10,000 mu of land and could sell his spring and autumn harvests for 10 to 20 million yuan a year.

At the drinking party, everyone was drunk and hugged each other, reminiscing about the past and appreciating the present.

Li Xiangdong recounted how, in the late 1970s, people in his hometown went hungry and had to go out begging for food, crying out in distress. Even large-scale farmers couldn't believe it, as they had been producing over 1,000 jin of corn per mu since 1975.

Despite being as drunk as a dead dog, Li Xiangdong had the words "Pohong No. 1" deeply etched in his mind.

At that time, he thought, if Lijiapo had also planted "Pohong No. 1" back then, how many fewer people would have starved to death!

Unexpectedly, God actually gave him this opportunity!

Lijiapo is more than 3,000 miles away from Yangtian County, so it was unrealistic for him to go there directly. He could only ask Liu Donglai for help, asking him to purchase high-yield corn seeds in the name of the county committee.

Liu Donglai was naturally very supportive and decided that if Lijiapo could really produce more than 1,000 jin of fruit this year, he would promote it throughout the county!

As for the concept of intercropping watermelons with corn, I learned about it from large-scale grain growers.

In his previous life, whenever Li Xiangdong missed rural life, he would stay at the farm of a large grain grower for ten days or half a month.

One time I went in the autumn, after the White Dew Festival, and the weather was so cold that I had to wear a thick coat.

The large-scale farmer was delighted to see him arrive and personally picked two large, green-black watermelons for him. When he cut one open, juice splattered everywhere, the flesh was bright red, and one bite revealed a sweet, crisp, and refreshing taste!

At that time, watermelons were available year-round, but most of them were grown in greenhouses. How could there still be fresh watermelons grown on land?

The large-scale farmer proudly said that this melon is their local variety called Qiongsu.

In 1972, it was a variety created by artificially hybridizing Asahi Yamato and gourd skin.

Qiongsu is cold-resistant, with thin skin and thick flesh. It is usually planted in autumn and matures after the White Dew solar term. However, because its growth cycle is too long, it was later phased out.

But large-scale grain growers love to eat it, so they keep growing it and have even invented intercropping of corn and watermelon. This not only makes full use of the land, but also makes the watermelons bigger, rounder and sweeter!