Chapter 083 Chapter 83 Planting Base
Xu Xing didn't have that much time to accompany An Qing to visit the planting base. After all, she had a lot of work to do, so she asked her assistant Peng Jing to accompany An Qing in.
It was An Qing’s first time at the plantation, and she had no idea what the situation was like inside. After all, the original owner had never set foot here before, so she did not refuse.
After changing into protective clothing, I followed Peng Jing into the gate of the planting area.
The gate has three doors. The second door can only be opened after the first door is closed. Similarly, the third door can only be opened after the second door is completely closed. The protection is really tight.
After passing through three gates, An Qing arrived at the planting area.
The planting area is fully enclosed with metal materials, but it has climate and sunlight weather simulation like the base. According to the leader, there is also a separate internal circulation system.
There are flower pots of various sizes placed here. Some of the plants in the pots have not yet emerged from the soil, some have already sprouted, and some have grown to half a foot tall.
An Qing's eyes fell on the plants next to her that were being grown in large pots. Long strips of things were hanging on the green plants, some were green and some were red.
Although she didn't recognize the plant, that long, strip-shaped thing looked like a chili pepper.
"This is the area where ghost peppers are grown." Peng Jing was very quiet and spoke very little. She gave a brief introduction on the side.
An Qing blinked, oh, ghost pepper.
The original owner had also seen this thing in her memory, but she just didn't remember it at the moment.
But speaking of ghost pepper, she remembered the food book she read in this world. She had no interest in the ghost pepper and blood vine, after all, she had no idea what it would taste like when fried.
But, she suddenly missed beef with spicy peppers, twice-cooked pork with green peppers, and stir-fried chili peppers...
Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.
An Qing looked at Peng Jing and said, "I want to pick some ghost peppers, is that okay?"
Probably because she had been told hello before, Peng Jing didn't show any surprise. She nodded and said, "Okay, wait a moment."
As he spoke, Peng Jing walked towards Ghost Pepper.
Ghost pepper is indeed a mutant plant that likes to hide among many plants and sneakily attack humans and mutant animals.
Now it was being kept alone in this area, with no other mutant plants to provide cover for it, so it was very timid and afraid. The moment Peng Jing raised her foot and approached, several ghost pepper plants around it instantly spewed out thick gas. Even though everyone was wearing protective clothing and would not be irritated by the gas, the gas was strong enough that people could still see it at a glance.
The gas gradually dissipated into the air, and An Qing finally understood why the planting area was designed to be so airtight.
If this gas were to leak out, I wonder how many people in the base would be harmed.
After all, even though the gas has dissipated, it doesn't mean that the smell has completely dissipated.
The ghost pepper is very big, about the length from the wrist to the elbow, and looks a bit like a long and thin erhu bark.
Peng Jing picked five ghost peppers in a row. The ghost peppers kept emitting gas as if stimulated, and their leaves also slapped Peng Jing frantically. The leaves were not simple either. When they hit Peng Jing, they made a sound of metal collision.
At this time, the place where Peng Jing was standing was surrounded by the gas emitted by the ghost pepper, and she could hardly be seen clearly.
An Qing said hurriedly: "That's enough, no need to pick any more."
Peng Jing stopped and walked back with five ghost peppers in her hand. She explained, "There are still a lot of ghost peppers here. You can pick more."
An Qing smiled and said, "Thank you, but this is enough for now. I may need more later."
Peng Jing nodded and handed the ghost pepper in her hand to An Qing.
Tang Ming next to him reached out and took it.
The picked ghost pepper no longer had the ability to continue emitting gas and was held in Tang Ming's palm.
An Qing looked at the ghost pepper plant that had been picked and looked a little wilted, and asked with some concern: "It looks a little wilted, is it okay?"
Peng Jing shook her head: "It's okay, I'll be fine after a while."
An Qing nodded and looked at the newly unearthed sprouts over there: "How long will it take for this one to grow?"
Peng Jing: "The mutant plants grow very quickly. Ghost pepper is considered average among mutant plants. It usually takes about ten days from germination to fruiting."
An Qing nodded. "Then, how long will it take for the fruits that have been picked here to grow again?"
Peng Jing: "Two or three days will be enough."
That’s pretty good. I feel like I won’t be short of chili peppers to eat later. This ghost pepper can emit such pungent gas. I wonder if it tastes the same as chili peppers?
Go back and try it and you’ll know.
An Qing continued to visit the mutant plants in several areas. There were actually not many plants that the base could try to cultivate and domesticate. After all, the base did not dare to raise plants that were too destructive, so many times it still required a team to go outside to get them.
An Qing looked at it and asked, "Do you know what rice was like before the apocalypse? Do you know what kind of mutant plant evolved from rice?"
She could immediately associate ghost pepper with chili pepper.
But after searching the original owner's memory for a long time, he couldn't find anything that could be connected to rice.
With her system, it takes two days to buy 100 kilograms of rice and 100 kilograms of flour. It is obvious that she cannot rely solely on the system to support the entire base.
What's more, even if the happiness value provided is enough, she would not do this. On the one hand, she really cannot let the people in this world become useless, and on the other hand, she wants to collect enough happiness value as quickly as possible to save her parents.
Therefore, it is still necessary to find mutated rice and wheat.
Peng Jing looked at An Qing in surprise, but quickly put away the surprise on her face and nodded, saying, "I know. The base found mutant rice, wheat, sweet potatoes, and corn a long time ago."
As she spoke, she led An Qing around a corner and walked towards the other side of the area. As she opened the door, she said, "After the rice mutated, when the special team first explored it, they named it Black Pearl."
Soon, An Qing arrived at the black pearl breeding area.
The black pearl breeding area is also filled with densely packed flower pots. In addition to soil, each flower pot contains a lot of water. It seems that even if the rice has mutated, it still cannot do without so much water.
There was only one rice plant in each flowerpot, and its roots? Stems? Very thick and tall, about three or four meters high. There were still many people working here.
An Qing watched as those people, each holding a basket in their hands, climbed up a ladder and picked the snow-white, round rice grains, each as big as An Qing's two fists, from the rice paddies.
An Qing was a little stunned. She had seen rice before, but she had never looked at it carefully. She didn't know if what she saw had any other differences from rice except for the size.
But, such round and large rice grains, picked directly from the plant, feel a bit too strange.
I watched these people picking fruits for a while. When they filled a basket, they would come down and put the fruits into the box next to them, and then continue picking.
The rice that mutated into black pearls was very quiet and honest. It did not do anything to harm the people around it. It looked much safer than many mutated plants.
An Qing was curious: "The fruit of the Black Pearl is white, so why is it named Black Pearl?"
She guessed that Black Pearl should live deep in the jungle, which was not an area that the outbound team could reach, otherwise the original owner would not have no information about Black Pearl in her memory, nor had she ever seen her.
Peng Jing: "It's still white now because it's not ripe yet."
An Qing blinked and looked over in confusion.
Peng Jing: "When the black pearl fruit grows, the shell will split open to reveal the snow-white fruit inside. This is when you need to pick it. If you don't pick it in time, it will slowly turn black after ten minutes. Once it turns completely black, the fruit is fully ripe."
She looked at An Qing, "Black pearls are extremely dangerous when they mature. The plant can completely control when the fruit falls off, and once the black fruit falls off, it will cause a powerful explosion."
An Qing's eyes widened. "So, after it turns dark, they become bombs?"
Peng Jing nodded. "And the explosion is very powerful, so the black pearl farming area must have someone picking the black pearls at all times, otherwise the area will be completely destroyed."
Because of this, the area of black pearls is the smallest among all planting areas, and the number of black pearls cultivated is also very small.
I don't dare to raise too many, for fear that someone might be careless at any time and blow up the entire planting base.
An Qing: "..."
It's already a bomb. Is this rice still safe to eat? Can it still be eaten after being cooked?
Fortunately, she had already gotten used to the strange and bizarre mutations of plants and animals in this world, so after a slight shock, she calmed down again.
"Give me three fruits, I'll take them back and take a look."
Peng Jing went over and brought three of them over, and Muchen took them.
Afterwards, An Qing went to see the mutated wheat. The mutated wheat was called Mist. It also grew very large. Except for the different shape of the fruit, the size was similar to that of the black pearl.
However, the shells of wheat fruits will not open by themselves, but some people here pick the fruits, and the picked fruits are still in the shells.
Peng Jing, standing nearby, explained, "When the mist fruit is fully ripe, it will emit a white, dusty mist, much like a ghost pepper. This dust can obscure vision and disorient people, hindering both sight and hearing. Therefore, after being attacked by the mist, many people will unknowingly walk into its hunting range. This is called mist nourishment."
An Qing has now become accustomed to plants eating people, and did not find it horrifying. Instead, after listening to it, her eyes gradually brightened.
Peng Jing also noticed that An Qing seemed very happy. She became excited and looked at her with some confusion.
An Qing licked her dry lips and asked with a smile, "Have you ever collected the dust sprayed by the mist?"
Peng Jing nodded. "We have collected it, but collecting the dust from the mist is difficult and dangerous. Even with our protective suits, the dust can obstruct our vision and block our hearing. It happened before. A worker here was attacked by the mist and bumped into a mist plant. It was the middle of the night, and no one noticed his abnormality, so he was trapped next to the plant. When the oxygen in his protective suit ran out, he opened it in frustration and ended up becoming food for the mist."
At the beginning, relying on the protective clothing, both Black Pearl and Mist had one person working alone, and one person would take over each shift.
After this incident, the planting base made emergency adjustments and added more staff. Each rotation required a group of four to work, and they had to check on their teammates from time to time.
An Qing had originally thought that if she could spray the fruit into dust, wouldn't that mean she would turn into flour herself? But after hearing what Peng Jing said, her excitement faded.
After a while, she finally got over the discomfort in her heart and thought for a while before asking, "Can we make a container that can wrap the fruit, wait for it to mature slowly, and then remove it after the plant has sprayed out the dust?"
Peng Jing was stunned and thought for a while: "But it is possible. We don't have such a container."
The dust sprayed by the fog does not have a permanent effect. Each spray of dust can only last for three hours, so the person who died in the fog planting area before was really unlucky.
When the man was attacked by the fog, the oxygen in his protective suit only had two hours left. At the same time, the man forgot to bring the emergency bell when he put on the protective suit.
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