Chapter 75 The Mutant Wheat Harvest
Seeing that Cheng Mo was behaving obediently, Cheng Zhiyu thought he had gotten away with it and breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, he felt even more guilty, as if he had deceived his innocent boyfriend.
It's alright, he can just make it up to the other person.
He had no idea that Cheng Mo was already thinking about it.
"Let's go see the rabbits," Cheng Zhiyu changed the subject, taking Cheng Mo's hand.
Cheng Mo glanced at it and snorted inwardly. This Cheng Zhiyu was indeed lying to him. When had he ever taken the initiative to hold his hand in public before?
Compensation for him? He doesn't care.
Thinking this to herself, she tightened her grip on Cheng Zhiyu's hand, only to have him complain, "Aren't you hot?"
Cheng Mo: "It's not hot."
Cheng Zhiyu: Never mind, let him be.
Looking at Cheng Mo now, I always feel a sense of guilt. Actually, if anyone is to blame, it's the other person. He's so old, yet he still doesn't understand this. He's too embarrassed to teach him.
"What's so interesting about rabbits?" Cheng Mo wasn't interested, but he still followed Cheng Zhiyu.
Cheng Zhiyu laughed: "Do you remember that pregnant rabbit from a few days ago? I heard it gave birth, so I went to see the babies."
Cheng Mo was still not interested, but taking a look wouldn't hurt.
The rabbits that had given birth became even fiercer, barking at them from a great distance, as if they would bite them if they dared to come any closer.
Cheng Zhiyu and the others didn't get any closer, but just watched from a distance. They saw a small, flesh-colored rabbit that hadn't grown any fur yet.
"This rabbit is so fierce after it had babies. I used to feed it often and could even get close to it. Sometimes when it was in a good mood, I could even pet it. But after it had babies, I can't even get close to it anymore. Last time, it almost bit me and drew blood." The breeder said sadly, even though they should have been quite familiar with each other!
“It’s normal for her to be fierce after giving birth; she’s probably protecting her baby,” Cheng Zhiyu comforted him.
The farmer nodded: "Sigh, now I only dare to toss the grass to it from a distance."
Cheng Zhiyu glanced at the kitten, which hadn't even grown any fur yet, and said worriedly, "It's alright during the day, but what about at night? Won't it freeze to death?"
They work so hard raising rabbits and such, just so they can breed and the farm will have meat to eat.
If the cubs freeze to death, that would be a real problem.
"No, the mother rabbit will cuddle with the other rabbits to sleep at night, and I'll also put a stove there. The baby rabbits were born yesterday, and this morning I counted all ten and they're all healthy." The breeder smiled as he said this; this rabbit had indeed given birth to ten babies!
Before the apocalypse, the rabbits we kept at home always had several babies die. This rabbit's babies seem to be fine so far, but we still need to keep a close eye on them to prevent them from dying accidentally.
Cheng Zhiyu watched for a while, and seeing that Mother Rabbit was getting a little impatient with them not leaving, he didn't dare to watch any longer and quickly pulled Cheng Mo away.
"It's so ugly," Cheng Mo said after he had walked away.
Newborn rabbits are indeed ugly, with no fur at all, just like little mice.
"Weren't you like this when you were born?" Cheng Zhiyu said this deliberately when he saw the look of disgust on his face.
"Nonsense, I was born with hair." Cheng Mo refused to admit that he was that ugly.
"Oh? How did you know?" Cheng Zhiyu: "You remember everything about your birth?"
Cheng Mo certainly didn't remember, but said, "I have a photo."
As the crown prince, his life trajectory from childhood to adulthood was recorded, and he naturally saw what a newborn looked like.
He was held in his father's palm, only the size of his palm, curled up, and did have fur, but the fur was wet and clung tightly to his body.
Thinking about it that way, it really doesn't look very good.
To protect her image, Cheng Mo silently resolved that when she took Cheng Zhiyu to her galaxy in the future, she would hide those unflattering photos and never let him see them.
Cheng Zhiyu seemed quite interested: "Then let me see what you looked like when you were first born, and what you looked like when you were little. By the way, what did you look like when you first took human form? You weren't this big as you are now, were you?"
Cheng Mo: "Of course not, they were just kids at first."
"Then I want to see too." Cheng Zhiyu became even more curious, wanting to see if Cheng Mo had always had such a cool face since he was a child.
“Go ahead and look, but then I remembered, there don’t seem to be any photos of him right after he was born, I must have been mistaken,” Cheng Mo said.
Cheng Zhiyu didn't believe him: "You're just lying to me, there must be something there."
Cheng Mo: "...It's not good, you'd better not watch it."
Cheng Zhiyu held his hand: "How could it not look good? Even if it doesn't look good..."
Cheng Mo got anxious: "Cheng Zhiyu, do you think I'm not good-looking?"
"Oh, why are you in such a hurry?" Cheng Zhiyu said calmly, "I'm saying, even if it's not pretty, it's still pretty in my eyes."
Cheng Mo's lips immediately curled up: "Since you're so good with words, I'll take you back and let my mother look for you."
"By the way, where are your childhood photos?" Cheng Mo said, "I'll ask my aunt for them when I get back."
Cheng Zhiyu didn't care. He could have the photos. He had seen them all. They were very well taken and were just as good as noodles!
After returning home, Cheng Mo indeed asked his mother for the photos. Cheng's mother smiled and went back to her room, and soon came out with a photo album: "They're all in here, photos of Zhiyu from childhood to adulthood."
Both of Cheng's children are good-looking, so Cheng's mother often takes them to have their pictures taken. Later, when they got a camera, they took quite a few pictures.
Cheng Mo was incredibly curious and started flipping through the pages from the very beginning.
Cheng's mother said with a smile, "When Zhiyu was born, he was our first child. We had no experience. When he was brought to us, I was shocked. I thought we had the wrong baby. He looked like a monkey, so ugly. I almost fainted. But the more I thought about it, the cuter he looked. I heard that all newborns look like that."
Cheng Zhiyu, who had been quite calm, finally remembered that he did indeed have an unflattering photo when he heard this. He now understood why Cheng Mo didn't want him to see it earlier, and immediately rushed over to cover the photo: "Don't look!"
Cheng Mo had already seen it, and his expression was very smug. He didn't think it was ugly at all: "It doesn't look like a monkey at all. It's very cute. It has big eyes. You can tell it's Zhiyu at a glance."
Cheng Zhiyu was so embarrassed by the compliments that his scalp tingled. It's true what they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. He looked at his own photo and thought he was just as ugly as the hairless rabbits he'd seen today, but Cheng Mo thought he was adorable.
Cheng Zhiyu: "..." Fine.
Fortunately, we soon saw the next one. It was a photo taken when he was a month old. In just one month, he had changed a lot. His rosy skin had become fair and tender, and his features had become much better. Everyone thought he was adorable.
Cheng Mo thought it was just as cute as the previous one, and seriously stated that it was exactly the same as the previous one, clearly the same person.
Looking at his serious expression, Cheng Zhiyu said, "Hmm... okay."
There are also photos of Cheng Zhiyu smiling with his mouth wide open even though he has missing teeth.
Cheng Zhiyu was questioning his life. He didn't even remember having such an ugly photo of himself. Fortunately, Cheng Mo's filter was still incredibly thick, and he thought it was quite cute. He wished he could cut out these photos, but unfortunately, Cheng's mother wouldn't allow it.
“When the power comes back on, charge your phone and take a picture with it. It’ll be the same.” Cheng’s mother was determined to protect every single photo.
Cheng Mo: "...Okay." I really want it.
But this is Zhiyu's mother, so I can't just take it from her. Sigh.
Cheng Mo looked disappointed and sighed, "When will we have electricity?"
The base doesn't have electricity yet, so the superhumans patrolling at night carry torches. At first, everyone wasn't used to it, but after a while, they got used to living without electricity at night.
Cheng Zhiyu does have a generator he collected before, but unfortunately it requires diesel fuel, and he has already used up his diesel.
"Who knows?" Mrs. Cheng sighed. She did want electricity, after all, she had lived for decades and was used to life with electricity. But this was the apocalypse, and she was already lucky to have the life she had now. She didn't ask for anything more.
Cheng Mo hoped that he could take pictures of these photos with his phone so that he could carry them with him at all times.
He reached out and grasped Cheng Zhiyu's hand: "Zhiyu, shall we go out and find another generator?"
Cheng Zhiyu was a little embarrassed. Wasn't Cheng Mo being a little too obsessed with taking pictures of him when he was a child?
He didn't know what was so interesting about taking pictures; he thought several of the photos were ugly.
He coughed lightly and said, "If we go out, it would be a waste to just find a generator. We should find solar panels and use solar power to generate electricity for the base."
The easiest options to implement right now are solar power and wind power. Solar power is more suitable because the sun is very strong every day, so wind power is not very effective here as there is not much wind.
"Also, since we're already out, is it really necessary to go through all this trouble? See if we can find a photo printer to make copies of these photos." Wouldn't that be better than taking pictures with a phone?
Cheng Mo thought about it and realized it made sense, so he couldn't wait to ask when they would set off.
Cheng Zhiyu sighed helplessly, "Why are you in such a hurry? Let's wait until the wheat is harvested."
The mutant wheat and barley will be ready in the next couple of days, while the mutant multi-crop wheat will mature later, probably in about a week.
We don't need to wait for the latter to mature; we can leave after the mutated wheat is harvested.
Cheng Mo nodded and said okay.
After saying that, he continued looking at the photos, pointing to each one and asking Cheng's mother what this photo was taken for and what this photo was about.
"This is Zhiyu's first time going to kindergarten." Cheng's mother said, smiling. She seemed to recall many things from the past and laughed, "When we sent him to kindergarten, we were worried that he would cry because it was his first time away from home. But he didn't cry at all. His father and I were thinking, how come it's so easy? But when we got home, we received a call from the teacher saying that our child was crying a lot and that we couldn't soothe him. He even made the whole class cry. In the end, we had no choice but to bring him back home."
Cheng Zhiyu blushed as he listened, thinking to himself, "How come I didn't know about these things?"
Cheng's mother said, "There are many things you don't know."
How old were they back then? In the countryside, kids are sent to kindergarten at a very young age, probably only four years old. What do they remember?
"And this one too, it was taken when he was in elementary school," Cheng's mother said, smiling.
Cheng Mo asked what was so funny. Cheng's mother glanced at Cheng Zhiyu, who had a bad feeling about it.
I overheard Cheng's mother say, "Back then, Zhiyu was so popular. He came home saying he'd had eight girlfriends, haha..."
Cheng Mo looked at Cheng Zhiyu with a wistful expression: "Oh, eight girlfriends, that's impressive."
It's a bit sarcastic.
Cheng Zhiyu coughed lightly and tried his best to explain, "Those are just elementary school students, what do they know?"
The "eight girlfriends" thing is just that people thought he was good-looking and said, "Cheng Zhiyu, let me be your girlfriend."
The kid had no idea what a girlfriend meant, but he agreed and ended up dating eight girlfriends in one day. However, he wasn't familiar with any of them and barely spoke to any of them.
Cheng's mother was so excited that she forgot this was her son's boyfriend. She immediately coughed lightly and said, "Haha, what does a little kid know? He's just playing around."
Cheng Zhiyu nodded: "Yeah, yeah, it was just a joke, don't be so petty."
That night, the petty Cheng Mo whispered in his ear, "Eight girlfriends? Can I satisfy you all by myself?"
Cheng Zhiyu: "..."
"Everyone said it was just a joke." Cheng Zhiyu was speechless, thinking to himself, "Aren't you childish? You're making a big deal out of this."
"Oh, how can I possibly compete with eight people by myself?" Cheng Mo said, looking distressed.
"Trying to pull this on me, huh?" Cheng Zhiyu snorted and said, "Fine, you can't compete, can you? I'll go and hand in seven more tomorrow!"
Cheng Mo's expression changed, realizing he had gone too far with his teasing, and he immediately said fiercely, "No, I was just joking with you."
Cheng Zhiyu: Hmph! Trying to mess with me.
Cheng Mo finally calmed down completely, though he looked rather aggrieved.
Cheng Zhiyu gave him a slap on the wrist and then offered a sweet treat: "I was just kidding, how could that be? You're the only one."
Cheng Mo was successfully coaxed and hugged him, humming, "That's more like it."
——
The base has been bustling with activity these past few days because the first batch of mutated wheat is about to be harvested.
The Xiahe base used to be a village, and everyone in the village knew how to farm. When they passed by the mutated wheat and barley, they realized it was almost time to harvest.
However, every time they see wheat that is more than half a person tall and has grains as big as themselves, they are amazed and exclaim that it is incredible. Their wheat used to be so small, and this is so big.
But I'm also happy. With such high yields, how could I not be happy?
"I wonder when this wheat will be harvested." These past few days, even if people don't pass by here, they'll still make a special detour to take a look.
"I think it'll be in the next day or two." An experienced person can tell a lot just by touching the wheat ears.
"Great! Now the base won't run out of food!" The speaker was extremely excited.
"Yes, that's great! I was worried every day before, afraid that if we ran out of rice, we wouldn't have anything to eat. I didn't enjoy my meals at all. Now that I see this wheat, I can finally relax."
"You can't eat? You're exaggerating. I see you're eating with great relish."
"Oh dear, why did I have to expose his past? Look at him, isn't that Xiang Qizheng? He's so thin I almost didn't recognize him. At first glance, he actually looks rather pitiful."
"If you pity him, eat less and give him your share! Pity him? He doesn't deserve pity. He dug up so many seeds just to eat himself. So many seeds, who knows how much wheat they would have grown from! Bah! I think he deserves it!"
"That's right, what's there to pity? I heard that mutant seeds are very precious. If those seeds he stole were in another base, he would have been kicked out long ago. Our base has been more than kind, all because of our past kinship."
"No, I just feel sorry for his wife, suffering with him. I heard that Xiang Qizheng wasn't getting enough to eat, so he made trouble for her. She had no choice but to share some of her portion with Xiang Qizheng, and as a result, she lost a lot of weight. She cried as soon as she saw me, and it broke my heart."
But crying won't help. Who can afford to eat their fill these days? If you can't even feed yourself, how can you possibly share with others? That would be a sign of madness. At most, you can only offer empty words of pity.
Not far away, Xiang Qi listened to the cacophony of voices and watched the mutated wheat and barley that were about to ripen, his expression flickering.
These people are ruthless. He can't stay here any longer, or he'll be tortured to death sooner or later!
No, I need to think of something...
Finally, amidst everyone's anticipation, it's time to harvest the mutated wheat and barley.
The mutated wheat is completely different from the previous wheat, so of course the old harvester cannot be used. Fortunately, the agricultural department had recruited people who were skilled in machinery beforehand, and after so long of research, they finally made a new harvester.
I tested it out and it works, although the speed is a bit slow, but it's acceptable. After all, it's an old machine that's been modified, so it's still faster than manual power.
Truckloads of mutated wheat were hauled to the village's large drying ground, filling the air with the fresh aroma of wheat.
Everyone's faces were filled with joy. A good harvest meant they had the ability to grow food. As long as they had land and seeds, they wouldn't starve. How could they not be happy?
Then, the base announced good news: once the mutated wheat was dried, each person would receive 50 jin (25 kg) as a first-time recipient.
"Fifty pounds! That's a lot!" someone exclaimed.
"This wheat has an exceptionally high yield. In the past, the yield of ordinary wheat was at most about 1,000 jin per mu, but this wheat yields more than 5,000 jin per mu!"
Good heavens!
"If you calculate it this way, our base has enough food to last us a year."
"Don't forget there are also mutated multi-crop wheat, and potatoes and sweet potatoes too."
After discussing it, everyone couldn't stop smiling. Great! Now they didn't have to worry about starving to death. They had grain, and the base had even started raising livestock. Maybe before long, they could eat meat whenever they wanted.
Didn't you see that the hens we caught before are all laying eggs now? There aren't many, and only those who contribute can get eggs.
However, no one felt unhappy; on the contrary, they were full of hope and enthusiasm.
"Is that mutated cotton growing over there?" someone pointed to a spot not far away.
"Yes, I heard that the cotton grows red. Isn't that strange?"
"People say that red cotton can generate heat, and it's very warm."
"Haha, it's so hot today, do you really need a fever? It's quite cold at night, just get under the covers and use a hot water bottle or something, isn't that enough?"
"That's true. Logically speaking, it should be almost winter, but it's still very hot."
Compared to food, people weren't very interested in cotton, feeling that although it was usable, it wasn't a necessity.
However, it won't be long before they're thankful that the base planted mutated cotton!
After arriving at the base, Chi Hongyi and her team, who had been engrossed in their research, finally discovered that the base seemed quite lively.
"What are they busy with?" Chi Hongyi looked from afar and saw that everyone in the base, whether they were superhumans or ordinary people, was very happy.
"The mutated wheat and barley have been harvested, and everyone is busy getting their food rations," Xiao Wu, who was doing odd jobs beside them, explained, his smile barely concealed. "Professor Chi, your rations will be delivered to the cafeteria. Just go and eat there. The cafeteria has oil-splashed noodles today."
The canteen refers to the canteen for the farming department. It was agreed before that the farming department would provide one meal a day. Now that the crops have been harvested, the promises made can finally be seen.
Upon hearing this, Chi Hongyi immediately laughed: "Then I'll have Lao Chu and Lao Feng try it later."
When it was time to eat, Chi Hongyi went to call Feng Wentao and Chu Mingda. The two of them were busy with their work, but when they heard that it was time to eat, they instinctively said, "No, let's talk about it after we finish this."
These guys are all research fanatics, often so busy they forget to eat. Today, Chi Hongyi was unusually enthusiastic: "I heard from Xiao Wu that the cafeteria is open today and they're having oil-splashed noodles. Aren't you guys going? They'll be gone if you go too late."
The last sentence was a lie to the two of them. Xiao Wu said that it was fine to go anytime, but if he didn't say that, would the two of them look up?
Sure enough, upon hearing this, the two stopped what they were doing and prepared to go to the cafeteria for lunch.
Chi Hongyi: "I heard that the noodles are made from mutated wheat. I have to try them. I wonder how they differ from regular wheat."
They never had the chance to eat mutated plants before. At the Chaoyang base, they had to save the seeds. They never expected to be able to eat them so quickly at the Xiaohe base.
Today was the first day the canteen opened, and it was very lively. Some people who weren't from the farming or animal husbandry departments wanted to come and eat, but when they found out they couldn't finish, they weren't disappointed. Anyway, they had received wheat, so they could just go back and cook for themselves!
It smells so good! The whole cafeteria smells of oil-splashed noodles. They haven't had such a delicious meal in a long time.
Chi Hongyi and the others went over, handed over their ID cards, and each of them sat down with a bowl of oil-splashed noodles.
The oil-splashed noodles are wide, pulled noodles, served with bright green lettuce, finely chopped garlic, and topped with chili powder. The hot oil infuses the noodles with a rich aroma of spiciness and garlic.
Although Chi Hongyi and the others usually stay at home doing research, it still takes a toll on their brains. As soon as they saw the noodles, they felt hungry and forgot to talk. They quickly grabbed their chopsticks and stirred the noodles.
Then, without even bothering to mix it properly, they eagerly took a bite.
They were all amazed, saying the noodles were really fragrant and chewy. Chi Hongyi was from the south and didn't know how these noodles differed from those made from ordinary wheat, but she just thought they were delicious.
Feng Wentao, being from the north, felt the difference quite clearly. These noodles were chewier than regular noodles and had a stronger wheat flavor. Most importantly, they were made from mutated plants, and eating them made him feel refreshed and relieved.
Feng Wentao exclaimed in surprise, unable to help but sigh that his choice to come to the Xiahe base was the right one!
As Chu Mingda ate, he looked around and saw people who weren't angry at all about not being able to eat in the canteen anymore, and were discussing what to do with the wheat when they got back. He suddenly sighed, "Xiaohe Base is different."
It's very different from other bases.
Compared to the apathetic people at other bases, the people here seem full of hope, which makes you feel better just by looking at them.
Cheng Zhiyu glanced at the current production output, and after everyone did the math, they all smiled.
Great, at least we don't have to worry about running out of food anymore.
Cheng Zhiyu told Lin Kang that he planned to go out for a while: "To find some usable solar panels. Also, Professor Chi and the others said before that they wanted to see if they could find some research equipment."
Lin Kang told him to be careful and to bring more people with him, and added, "When you come back, let's hand over what we talked about before."
Lin Kang wanted Cheng Zhiyu to manage the base. He had only been back in the area for a short time, but the base had already undergone tremendous changes.
As they were talking, someone suddenly rushed over: "Something's wrong! It seems Xiang Qi has managed to sneak out!"
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