Chapter 139, exclusively published on Jinjiang Literature City: Besides mushrooms, isn't there another kind...?
"They even installed air conditioning here??" Li Tie noticed that Lu Xuan's mushroom house had air conditioning installed, and his expression was incredulous.
Does growing mushrooms have to be this extravagant?
Lu Xuan explained, "Humidity and temperature are both very important for growing mushrooms. The current temperature is too low, and it's difficult to guarantee the yield without raising the temperature."
The optimal temperature for mushroom growth is around 25 degrees Celsius; once it drops below 10 degrees Celsius, they basically stop growing.
During the rainy season, temperatures generally remain between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius. They briefly dropped below 10 degrees Celsius, but have recently risen again, still far from 25 degrees Celsius.
If you want mushrooms to grow well, you need to make the necessary investments, and besides, air conditioners aren't that expensive.
Because the temperature requirements are relatively high, Lu Xuan did not use tarpaulin to decorate the mushroom house, but instead used an outdated awning that was no longer suitable due to its high cost to build a greenhouse.
Once the mushroom house is officially put into use, the air conditioning will need to be turned on continuously for twelve hours a day to maintain the necessary temperature.
The mushroom house covers an area of one acre, with iron frames that are half a meter wide and two meters long arranged in ten rows, totaling one hundred mushrooms.
The iron frame has five layers and can hold seven to eight half-meter-long tree trunks vertically. The entire mushroom house can hold seven to eight hundred tree trunks.
However, considering that Lu Xuan has two different types of fungi, wood-based and grass-based, in addition to suitable tree trunks, half of the grass-based fungi planting beds made of materials such as rice straw, wheat straw, rice husks, rice bran, and corn stalks should also be prepared.
The iron frame for placing the tree trunks is only half full, but the grass-based fungal growing bed is ready.
The missing tree trunks will be almost ready in the next few days. Lu Xuan first sprinkled the mushroom spawn he had on hand onto the prepared mushroom bed in batches according to type.
Among them, wood-borne fungi include shiitake mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, matsutake mushrooms, false honey fungus, hazel mushrooms, and giant oyster mushrooms;
There were fewer grass-borne fungi, only four kinds: chicken leg mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, seafood mushrooms, and white jade mushrooms. The latter three were freshly picked in the last few days.
In addition, the delicious cave mushrooms are also a must.
Lu Xuan has cultivated a mutated cave mushroom and given it a more suitable name.
—Meat mushroom.
A large plate of mushrooms with meat, when stir-fried with just a little meat, will taste almost exactly like meat, making it virtually indistinguishable from the real thing.
What is this if not a meat mushroom?
Perhaps it could also be called mushroom meat?
After spreading the inoculum, Lu Xuan said to Li Tie, "Next, all we need to do is have the villagers spray the plant nutrient solution on time every day, and spray water on these mushroom beds every morning, noon and evening to maintain sufficient humidity, and then we can just wait for the harvest."
Mutant mushrooms have a much faster growth cycle than ordinary mushrooms, and can be harvested every seven days.
Furthermore, as long as some supernatural energy is supplied each month for nourishment, the harvest can be continuous, and the mushrooms will not stop growing after three or five harvests.
According to his rough estimate, this acre of mushroom house should yield 2,500 catties of various mutated mushrooms every seven days, which would amount to 10,000 catties per month.
Lu Xuan has already provided the mushroom house building materials and mutated mycelium spores, which can be considered as a technology investment.
He doesn't need to worry about the subsequent water spraying and harvesting; he can directly take 30%, which is more than 3,000 jin.
Viewers in the live stream: !!!
[Wow! Just over 60,000 points and you get over 3,000 catties of mushrooms every month? That's amazing!!!]
[This harvest is more than grain! The streamer should just stop growing grain and grow hundreds of acres of mushrooms instead!]
[Let me do the math, if they really planted a hundred acres, wouldn't the streamer get... 300,000 jin! A sea of mushrooms!]
Don't be silly. Even if you planted hundreds of acres of land, it would cost over six million yuan to build greenhouses. That's too much investment; it's simply unrealistic.
Besides, mushrooms can't be eaten as a meal, and planting so many just takes up space.
One more thing to remember: this is the weight of fresh mushrooms. They will definitely shrink after drying.
Lu Xuan nodded, "Depending on the moisture content of the mushrooms, the weight of dried mushrooms can be reduced to only 30% or even 10%."
[Wow! It's shrunk so much! It doesn't seem like much anymore after all.]
After more than three thousand catties, it was reduced to a few hundred catties. Given the Lu family's appetite, there wouldn't be much left.
Furthermore, mushrooms only produce the highest yields during sufficiently humid rainy seasons. They can be planted during extremely cold seasons and the following spring, but the yield will definitely be reduced.
Not to mention the extremely hot season, the cost and effort required are too great, so planting there would be a losing proposition.
Lu Xuan can grow mushrooms whenever he wants, so the mushroom house's output is just icing on the cake for him. The villagers are the ones who really need this stable output.
Based on his estimated yield, each household in the village could receive about 30 jin (15 catties) per harvest, roughly three large baskets.
Even for families with large members like the Li or Zhang families, this many mushrooms would be enough for daily consumption, and there might even be half left over.
After learning the exact output of the mushroom houses and calculating the amount each household could receive, Li Tie suddenly no longer felt that installing air conditioning in the mushroom houses was a luxury.
It's just a little bit of air conditioning energy consumption, what's that compared to the profits of producing tens of thousands of kilograms a month!
Use it, use it, use it! Not just one air conditioner, we could easily add several more!
·
Lujia Yacht, second-floor restaurant.
The Zhang family, the Li family, the Xiong Mao family, Wu Yang, Chen Rong, and other young people who were close to Lu Xuan gathered together with their wives and children, and busily prepared a hot pot meal.
Because there were many people, two tables were set up: one for the men and one for the women and children. Each table had three different soup bases: spicy soup, mushroom soup, and tomato soup.
The ingredients prepared include fatty beef, fatty lamb, fish balls, tripe, pig brains, various mutated vegetables, bean sprouts, enoki mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, etc.
There are several kinds of dipping sauces, including sesame sauce with chopped green onions, cilantro, and crushed peanuts, chive blossom sauce, garlic sauce, and dry dipping sauce.
The men's table had alcoholic beverages, while the women's and children's table had various fruit juices and milk teas.
As soon as the vegetables and meat were cooked, everyone eagerly started eating.
"Ouch, it's so hot!" Zhang Chengming grimaced as the meat in his mouth burned, but he couldn't bear to spit it out, so he kept gasping for air until the temperature cooled down a bit before he eagerly swallowed it. "So delicious!"
It's not just the meat that's fragrant; the mutated vegetables are sweet, the bean sprouts and enoki mushrooms are crisp and refreshing, and the shiitake mushrooms, after soaking up the broth and being dipped in the right sauce, are so delicious they'll make your tongue tingle.
"It's delicious!"
Not only were the adults satisfied with their meal, but the little ones also ate until their mouths were glistening with oil, eagerly scooping their favorite dishes into their bowls without the adults watching.
Except for Li Tuo, who hadn't yet taken the evolution fluid and whose awakening was uncertain, everyone else at the table was a superhuman with enormous appetites. The table full of food was almost completely devoured in the blink of an eye.
They ate several more times afterward, consuming over 30 pounds of meat and over 50 pounds of vegetables and mushrooms before finally slowing down, chatting while drinking a little wine/juice.
The viewers in the live stream enjoyed themselves immensely, and one by one they entered a state of sage-like tranquility, comfortably becoming bystanders.
Zhang Chengming exclaimed, "Before I came here, I went to check on the mushroom house. The first batch of mushrooms planted have already grown quite a bit. I estimate we can harvest them in a couple of days. We can get a lot of mushrooms without having to pick them in the rain. This is such an easy way to get supplies."
Not only are the mushrooms readily available, but the seedlings in the field are also growing very well. After using herbicides, they no longer need to be busy weeding every few days, making life much easier than during the hottest season.
Chen Rong patted his round belly and grinned, "Isn't it good to be relaxed? Just because you're not afraid of getting wet in the rain doesn't mean that gathering and hunting isn't hard work. Why bother getting up early and working late when you can get the harvest while lying down?"
Xiong Mao deeply agreed.
He felt that those so-called aristocratic families might not live as carefree a life as they did.
Not only are their living conditions inferior, but if noble families knew that these commoners possessed the extraordinary ability to move mountains and overturn seas, they would probably be green with envy.
Thinking of the awe-inspiring sight Lu Xuan displayed each time he turned the ground, Xiong Mao couldn't help but ask Lu Xuan, "Is there any way to quickly improve your Superpower X level?"
If he could turn over a large area of land with a wave of his hand like Lu Xuan, or build high walls from the ground like he did in the Yunlu Mountains, wouldn't his wife be completely smitten with him?
Lu Xuan glanced at him and said, "There is no other way but to continuously deplete your supernatural power and then slowly recover."
Bullet comments:
Before cross-dimensional live streaming emerged, there really was no other way besides what the streamer said, but the situation is different now.
[The difference in experience isn't something every streamer can enjoy in a short time. Besides, the streamer is already level seven; reaching level eight isn't easy anyway.]
Indeed, many level seven ability users in the Star Alliance never reach level eight in their entire lives. Even if they obtain resources through %￥#, whether they can level up still depends on luck.
Lu Xuan noticed the garbled text on the screen, his eyes flickered slightly, and he guessed that it probably involved some new features that he had not yet unlocked being blocked.
He could roughly guess what the other upgrade method the audience mentioned was based on what they had said before, and he could even guess what new features might be involved later.
only……
Lu Xuan observed the comments for a while and found that no viewers were urging him like before. He roughly understood that even if that function existed, it wouldn't be unlocked in the next stage.
As for the next stage... it will take too long, so let's not think about it for now.
Noticing the disappointment on everyone's faces, Lu Xuan pondered for a moment and said, "I can't give you the method to level up, but I can teach you some techniques for using superpowers and how to exert the greatest power with the least amount of energy. Do you want to hear it?"
"Of course!" Everyone's spirits were lifted again, and they looked at Lu Xuan with burning curiosity and ambition.
Lu Xuan nodded. "Then tell me."
Soon, the dining table was moved aside, and a group of men stood in the spacious open space, taking turns to demonstrate their supernatural abilities under Lu Xuan's guidance.
The women and children sat on the sidelines watching, and when it was their husbands'/fathers' turn to perform, they would cheer them on. If they performed well, they would applaud and cheer to provide emotional support.
The viewers in the live stream laughed as they pointed out the abilities of these level-one superhumans: it felt like they were watching a circus performance.
After everyone had demonstrated their abilities, their already limited reserves of superpowers were depleted, and most of the food they had eaten not long ago had been digested.
Xiong Mao, who had worked the hardest, was also the most exhausted. He leaned back in his chair with an expression of utter depletion, rubbing his flat stomach with a sense of frustration.
"Superpowers are great in every way, except they consume too much energy. No matter how much I eat, it's never enough. My family's meat consumption has been too fast since the rainy season started."
Su Ying at the next table wholeheartedly agreed.
She was in charge of all the household supplies, and she knew better than anyone how quickly meat had been going through lately.
They could eat as much as they wanted today because Lu Xuan provided all the ingredients; they wouldn't dare to do this normally.
To save on meat consumption, she even went to Lu Qing to exchange a lot of meat mushrooms, but Xiong Mao was a meat lover, and even if the taste was similar, his pursuit of meat remained undiminished.
The villagers had already replaced all the meat in the village chief's public supplies, and if she couldn't find a way to get some meat, she would have to consider lowering the standard of Xiong Mao's meals.
Not only the Xiong family, but also the Zhang and Li families, which have larger populations, are experiencing significant consumption.
During the hottest season, the harvest is plentiful, and everyone has become accustomed to having meat and vegetables at every meal. Reducing the amount of meat and vegetables is not a matter of being unable to survive, but it just feels like people can't let their lives get worse and worse, right?
Exchanging meat with Lu Xuan is one way, but it's not a long-term solution.
As the old saying goes, nothing beats having it yourself.
Zhang Chengming asked Lu Xuan, "Xuan, do you have any way to get us more meat? Maybe we can drive the hovercar to other places?"
The others also showed a hint of anticipation on their faces.
Lu Xuan sat cross-legged on a single sofa, lightly tapping his thigh with his finger. "Going out hunting in a hovercar isn't out of the question, but the risks are quite high."
The area around them was almost entirely flooded, and to find a suitable hunting ground, they would have to go much further. Unless he followed them every time, their safety could not be guaranteed.
But he had no shortage of supplies, and in the rainy weather, he preferred to stay in his warm and comfortable room, eating, drinking, and relaxing, rather than going out and causing trouble.
Lu Xuan said, "If you just want some meat, you don't necessarily have to go hunting. Isn't there another option?"
Everyone was puzzled. What choice?
Lu Xuan turned to look out the window. "During the rainy season, water is the least of our worries. Besides mushrooms, isn't there another easily obtainable resource?"
The others followed his gaze, and Lei Yan was the first to react, "You mean...fish?"
Lu Xuan nodded. "There must be rivers and lakes around here that have been breached by the flood. If we take a kayak and explore the area, we should be able to find plenty of fish."
Compared to the increasingly difficult prey to find in the mountains, fish are readily available and much easier to obtain, making them a very good option for villagers who lack meat.
The others understood this and their eyes lit up instantly.
The rain lessened a bit on the second day, and apart from the elderly and women who stayed behind to look after the children and the mushroom houses, almost all the able-bodied people went out.
The forty-odd people were divided into groups of two or three, each in a kayak carrying the fishing nets provided by Lu Xuan, and dispersed outwards from the location where the large ship was moored.
Since it was the first day, Lu Xuan also participated.
He and Lei Yan formed a group, and they also brought Lu Chen along to join in the fun.
They weren't riding in a kayak; they were riding a small fishing boat worth 100,000 points that Lu Xuan had drawn from the Golden Blind Box last night.
Fishing boats offer greater comfort than kayaks, and they are equipped with radar devices that can detect the presence, location, and quantity of fish in the water.
In addition to navigating the boat, Lu Xuan was also tasked with informing Lei Yan and the others of the location of the fish schools.
"Li Jing, there's a school of fish 300 meters south."
"Xiong Mao, there are several big fish 500 meters to the northwest."
“Wu Yang, go 600 meters east... Wei Dayong, go north... Liu Chun, go past Li Jing’s group and continue for another 200 meters or so, there is another group of fish.”
Through radar monitoring, Lu Xuan discovered that they had indeed made the right choice in selecting this area.
The flood brought an unexpectedly large number of fish; we didn't have to go far to spot many of them.
The only problem was that the floodwaters were too fast and the fish were moving quickly. Every time Lu Xuan told them the location of the fish, he had to rush over and chase after them for a while before he could intercept them.
If the speed slows down, the only option is to reposition.
Lu Xuan chased the fastest, but Lei Yan's nets still yielded little, usually only thirty to fifty catties.
Having grown accustomed to the hundreds of kilograms of fish that could be caught at the Great Waterfall, Lu Chen exclaimed in disappointment, "How come there's only this much?"
The viewers in the live stream were also a bit disappointed.
[The streamer's brother-in-law is no good; his earnings have shrunk drastically.]
[If you divide several dozen kilograms of fish among the villagers, will what's left be enough to fill a tooth gap?]
Lu Xuan knew that this was not Lei Yan's fault.
The pool at the Yunlu Mountain waterfall is inhabited by large fish that have no survival pressures and are often as long as an arm and weigh ten kilograms.
The fish brought by the flood do not live as well as the fish in the mountains. The largest fish caught in the fishing nets are only the size of two palms, and there are very few of them. Most of the fish are the size of a palm or even smaller.
Catching fish this small, weighing over a hundred pounds, in such a swift current is something that even manually dumping fish into the river in bulk and then scooping them up is not always possible.
Ask the other groups about their catch; on average, each net only yielded 10 to 20 jin (5-1 catties), with a little more than 20 jin (10-10 kg).
It's already quite good if Lei Yan can catch several dozen kilograms.
Seeing that Lu Chen still seemed somewhat dissatisfied, Lu Xuan patted his head and said, "The conventional method of catching fish is indeed a bit inefficient. How about we try a more special method?"
Lu Chen asked with sparkling eyes, "What special method?"
Lei Yan and the viewers in the live stream were also intrigued.
Lu Xuan didn't rush to tell them the answer. He simply avoided the crowd and steered the fishing boat a little further away. After finding an area where fish were active, he temporarily handed the boat over to Lei Yan and went to the deck.
Lu Xuan said to Lu Chen, who had followed him, "Watch carefully."
He raised one arm and gently waved it towards the water. A blue bolt of lightning crashed into the water, sparking countless sparks and producing a crackling, ear-piercing sound.
Before long, countless fish and shrimp of all sizes, electrocuted, floated to the surface of the murky water.
Lei Yan: "!"
Live stream viewers: !!
Lu Xuan cast the fishing net down, catching all the fish and shrimp on the surface of the water in one go. He weighed it with his hand; it must have weighed at least eighty pounds.
The reason it still hasn't reached 100 is simply because this school of fish is only this small in total.
Looking at the fishing net brimming with fish, Lu Chen exclaimed excitedly, "Wow!!! So many fish! And shrimp too!"
Viewers in the live stream remarked: "Thank goodness the Covenant ships use a special non-conductive coating. If this happened in ancient times when technology was just emerging, wouldn't the streamer have electrocuted his own people first?"
...
The able-bodied men returned to shore one after another to unload the cargo.
The others only reaped thirty to fifty catties, but when it was Lu Xuan and Lei Yan's turn, their harvest skyrocketed to more than three hundred catties.
Grandpa Zhang clicked his tongue in amazement and said, "How come your harvest is so much greater than that of the others?"
Lu Chen couldn't wait to show off his older brother's special fish-catching skills.
The women who stayed behind listened with amazement as they heard how Lu Xuan used his supernatural abilities to easily electrocute fish and shrimp and then scoop them up.
You can do that?!
Lu Qing turned to look at Lei Yan, her eyes shining brightly as she asked, "You also have lightning-type abilities, can you catch fish like Ah Xuan?"
Lei Yan touched his nose and said helplessly, "My ability reserves are not as good as Ah Xuan's. I can only shock once, and the effect is not as good as his."
Lu Qing nodded, with an expression that said, "I expected this."
Ah Xuan was the strongest to begin with, so it's normal that Lei Yan couldn't compare.
Lei Yan: "..." I understand the logic, but as my wife, you don't have to make it so obvious.
Wave after wave of fresh fish were poured into plastic crates, and the people who stayed behind quickly began to sort the fish.
Besides the common river fish and a small number of river shrimp, this batch of fish also included a lot of eels and loaches, and occasionally one or two small animal carcasses would be mixed in with a pile of fish.
If any meat is found to be rotten, throw it away immediately. For the relatively fresh meat, have Lu Xuan test it to see if it's safe to eat.
Not only animal carcasses, but also fish need to be tested to confirm their safety before eating, as there may be pathogens in the floodwaters.
With Lu Xuan's blessing, the harvest from today's busy work was even better than everyone expected, with the total catch of various fish and shrimp exceeding one thousand catties.
Isn't this much better than young and strong men working themselves to the bone in the mountains only to bring back a few hundred pounds of prey?
Besides the portion allocated to Lu Xuan and the public supplies, each household, including the able-bodied members, received about ten jin (5 catties), which averaged more than ten fish.
Everyone immediately exchanged grain for the public supplies, so each family could get an extra four or five kilograms.
That evening, all sorts of fish and meat dishes appeared on the tables of each family.
Common dishes include steamed fish, braised fish, sweet and sour fish, and boiled fish. Other options include sour soup fish fillets, pan-fried fish fillets, and salt and pepper fish. These latter dishes are basically from the Lu family's menu.
The viewers in the live stream enjoyed another delicious meal with the Lu family.
·
late at night.
Lu Xuan lay on the two-meter-wide bed and, as usual, opened his daily blind box.
Today's regular blind boxes and silver ones were no different from usual, but the gold blind box gave him a big surprise.
[Golden Blind Box 10-Pull: Points 2233, 1782, 1001, 4129, Large Inflatable Water Platform, Energy Converter, Lung Cancer Treatment Drug, Basic Bio-Clothing, Gene Evolution Fluid *2]
Lu Xuan: "!"
Live stream viewers: "!!!"
The inflatable platform and bio-clothing can be disregarded.
The energy converter supports the conversion of multiple energy sources, including hydropower, wind power, thermal power, and electricity; it's a great product.
The lung cancer drug is a miracle cure that can cure lung cancer at any stage, whether it's early, middle, or late. Although there are no lung cancer patients in the village, that doesn't change the fact that this miracle drug is a treasure.
But even these two good things can't compare to the last one.
Gene Evolution Fluid...2!?
-----------------------
Author's Note: Special thanks to the following:
Reader "Changyushan" threw a grenade.
Reader "I'm Not Sleepy" watered the plant with 106 nutrient solutions.
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