Chapter 111
Grandma Jiang asked, "Who is it?"
Jiang Shu's hair was still half-dry, so Wu Xiu went to find a towel to dry it for him.
"Auntie, be gentle!" Jiang Shu hissed a few times before replying, "It's the uncle from Dafa's family who lost his arm."
Grandma Jiang knew who it was as soon as she heard it. "You mean your Uncle Awang? I do think I've heard him tinker with fish ponds and such before."
While drying Jiang Shu's hair, Wu Xiu said, "I heard he was quite good at this before, and he seemed to have made a lot of money for the family. How are they doing now?"
Jiang Zhi recounted everything she had just seen, and upon hearing this, Old Madam Jiang sighed.
"It's all fate. When they came to the base, they encountered a mutated beast. The two brothers' son and daughter-in-law were both killed, leaving only a few children. They are pitiful."
No one spoke for a moment.
Before the cold wave, Jiang Dafa had hoped to earn some supplies by fluffing cotton for others, but the arrival of the cold wave ultimately left him with nothing.
Wu Xiu broke the silence: "If he really knows what he's doing, I'll ask him tomorrow what I should prepare and how to do it properly."
Upon hearing this, Han Lei and the others all showed a hint of joy on their faces.
If you happen to run into someone knowledgeable, they can help improve efficiency when catching fish and shrimp.
"Then we'll come to see you a day in advance to see what we need to prepare."
Jiang Shu chuckled, "I think it's a good idea."
After discussing the departure time and other related matters, Han Lei and his group prepared to return.
Before leaving, he took out a slice of the mutated winter melon from outside the yard, which he had brought with him when he arrived.
The winter melon was cut into round, plate-like pieces. They weren't thick, about 5 centimeters, about the size of a millstone.
"Uncle, Aunt, Azhi, thank you for taking us to gather things before. This big winter melon was obtained by trading hazelnuts in Area B. We don't have anything else to offer, so please don't refuse it."
After saying that, he led a few young men and ran off in a flash.
Seeing this, the Jiang family members exchanged glances and couldn't help but laugh.
Ye Qingyun laughed and said, "Alright, now we can add some fresh dishes to our menu today."
Liu Xu laughed and joked, "Since that's the case, I just happened to exchange some wood ear mushrooms at the base store. You can't accept Han Lei's and the others' mushrooms but not mine, can you?"
He then asked Niu Xiaolu to bring in the wood ear mushrooms that were placed outside.
Liu Xu held the wood ear mushrooms in a small white porcelain bowl, which was covered with a small bamboo basket. Lifting the basket, the wood ear mushrooms in the bowl were dark and translucent, with a thin layer of white frost around the edges, looking fresh and dry.
These days, supplies are scarce in the base stores, and purchases are limited everywhere. To get a small bowl of wood ear mushrooms like this, you'd probably have to stand in line outside the store all night in the cold to get them.
Looking at the bowl of wood ear mushrooms, the Jiang family knew perfectly well that it was Liu Xu's heartfelt gift.
Ye Qingyun said, "These wood ear mushrooms must have cost a lot, right? You should save them for Xiaolu."
"Auntie, please accept these." She placed the wood ear mushrooms on the table, her eyes crinkling at the corners. "We'll be relying on you for help from time to time, so we can't always come empty-handed, can we?"
Seeing her insistence, Ye Qingyun smiled and agreed: "You're much better at talking than Han Lei and the others. Alright, I'll accept it on behalf of my family. I'll ask Azhi to save you a bowl of winter melon soup later."
Liu Xu's eyes lit up: "That's great! I've never tasted what a mutated winter melon tastes like."
Jiang Zhi, who was standing nearby, couldn't help but laugh: "I guarantee you'll have your fill. I'll slice it up and stew it in a pot later, and add the wood ear mushrooms you brought. It'll definitely be delicious."
After Niu Dali's family returned, Jiang Shu slumped unceremoniously onto the newly made fur-padded sofa by Jiang He.
"Oh dear, we're exhausted today."
Ye Qingyun was still drying Jiang Zhi's hair when he saw this and couldn't help but ask, "What did you all do today? Did you bring back all the soil?"
Jiang Shu lazily moved his fingers and retrieved the item from the spatial device.
"Here's all the spoils for today."
As soon as he finished speaking, a pile of supplies half a person's height appeared out of thin air beside him—
There were more than ten konjac plants, each the size of a washbasin, with the largest one even being as big as their water tank.
Bundles of konjac leaves were piled on top of four or five bulging bags of konjac fungus.
There were also five or six bags of Ficus macrocarpa fruit, piled together in a jumbled mess. The rotten smell of the fungus mixed with the fresh fragrance of the fruit, creating an indescribably strange taste.
"This...this is konjac? It can actually grow this big?" Grandma Jiang squatted down and poked at it, amazed!
Each one weighs fifty or sixty pounds!
Ye Qingyun exclaimed with delight, "So much konjac! We can make so many things, like konjac noodles and konjac tofu... It's just a bit troublesome to peel and detoxify it."
But at times like these, it's not easy to find some fresh dishes, so even if it's a bit of a hassle, Ye Qingyun is willing to accept it.
When Grandma Jiang saw the bags of fruit, she exclaimed, "Oh my, isn't this mantou fruit?"
Upon hearing that there was news, everyone rushed over to see.
Xu Na said, "Why does it look like a fig?"
Some of the fruits had split open, revealing orange-yellow flesh inside, with tiny seeds faintly visible. A sweet, fruity aroma mixed with a slightly sour scent wafted into one's nose. Jiang Wen picked one up and examined it, saying, "The taste is quite similar, and the inside looks similar too."
Hearing them talking about food, Jiang Shu no longer felt tired and went over to them. "A-Zhi said this is the fruit of the banyan tree, not a fig. I think it tastes better than a fig!"
Jiang Wen broke open the cracked fruit, let Xu Na taste it first, then pinched a small piece and put it in his mouth, finally exclaiming in surprise, "So sweet!"
Everyone stared in amazement at the sheer amount of food.
No wonder people say that as long as a mutant comes into the family, life will never be too difficult.
Looking at the food the brother and sister brought back, everyone wondered if they were really in winter.
Ye Qingyun: "Azhi, where did you find so many things in the dead of winter?"
Jiang Zhi touched her nose. "It's a place I found a while ago, but there's nothing to eat there now."
Upon hearing this, the others stopped asking questions.
Wu Xiu looked at the snakeskin bags containing the flesh-bomb fungus. One of them had a small tear at some point, and dark red juice was slowly seeping out from the corner of the bag, spreading a small sticky stain on the ground, looking exactly like congealed blood.
The whole house smelled terrible as a result.
Wu Xiu exclaimed in surprise, "Azhi, what kind of meat did you catch? It all smells bad!"
After drying her hair, Jiang Zhi casually tied it into a bun and said with a smile, "Auntie, this is a fleshy mushroom. It looks like meat, but we can't eat it. However, this stuff can be used to make fertilizer, which is perfect for our land."
Just then, Wu Xiu opened the bag and was startled by the pattern on the surface of the fleshy fungus inside.
"This thing looks so eerie, and it smells like a dead rat. It's so smelly, we have to deal with it right away!"
Ye Qingyun interjected, "Let's put it in the field. With this stench, those people won't come to check on our land."
Jiang Zhi raised an eyebrow: "Who came to see?"
Their plot of land was sandwiched between their own yard wall and the boundary wall of the district, and it was at the end of the self-built housing area. There weren't many people passing by, so it shouldn't have attracted so much attention.
Grandma Jiang got angry when she mentioned this, "Who else could it be but Ma Yanhong next door! Ever since her husband died, I've seen her become more and more outrageous! She's been watching our house every day, I've caught her several times already. This time she even came over with her nephew to check on our land. She's really spoiled!"
Jiang Zhi was somewhat surprised when she heard this.
"Her husband is dead?"
Although Jiang Zhi didn't have a good impression of Ma Yanhong and her husband, at least Ma Yanhong's husband could keep the other man in check. If he really died, they, as neighbors, would be in big trouble.
Grandma Jiang sighed, "She got sick from the cold wave and couldn't hold on after leaving the air-raid shelter. These past two days, Ma Yanhong has brought her family to stay with her."
Jiang Shu curled his lip upon hearing this, "Grandma, if they do this again, call me and I'll teach them a lesson!"
Ye Qingyun said, "I guess it's because of the commotion you made with that seed today that I came to check it out."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Zhi's heart tightened. "Mom, what's that noise?"
She completely forgot about that!
How could there be no change here if those seeds absorbed the air sac hydra?
The thought had barely formed in her mind when Jiang Zhi hurriedly walked out without waiting for Ye Qingyun's response.
Just as I rounded the corner of the wall, I saw that a temporary fence had been erected around my plot of land.
It was pieced together from the metal frames of a dismantled camping tent. The rusty iron pipes were crookedly propped up, barely forming an irregular outline, with a few broken bricks underneath, creaking in the wind.
Jiang Zhi reached out and lifted the tent cloth covering the iron frame, immediately smelling a damp, dusty odor.
She bent down and crawled inside, and when she saw the situation under the low-toxicity soil in the very center, she couldn't help but catch her breath.
Where the seeds were planted, vines nearly two meters tall and as thick as buckets have sprung up.
Several dark green vines are tightly intertwined, twisting and climbing upwards, standing firmly even without support.
The leaves were dark purple, which looked a bit strange. There were also several translucent filaments wrapped around the top.
For some reason, Jiang Zhi felt that the tendrils of the vines resembled the magic vines that grew from the magic bean in the fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk".
Given the unique nature of that seed, it won't actually shoot up into the sky like that giant cloud-nest tree, will it?
Jiang Shu, who had followed behind, exclaimed in surprise, "Wow, these are the seeds we planted this morning?! They've grown so big in such a short time?"
Jiang Zhi pouted, thinking to herself, "This seed has swallowed a level 9 mutated creature, how could it not grow tall?"
"Wow, this is even longer than it looked this morning," Grandma Jiang exclaimed in amazement. "When we first saw it, we were all startled. We asked Han Lei and the others, and they didn't recognize it either. In my opinion, it doesn't look like it can bear fruit."
Jiang Zhi was about to go in and take a look when she discovered that the soil, which had previously looked fairly fertile and contained low levels of toxins, had now become dry, hard, and compacted, as if all its vitality had been drained away—the surface was an unsightly grayish-white, and it crumbled into powder with a pinch, clearly because the vines had absorbed all the nutrients from the soil.
Jiang Zhi frowned, walked over, squatted down, and rubbed the layer of grayish-white soil. It was cold and dry, completely different from the sticky and moist feeling in her memory.
A test with ginger twigs.
"drop--"
No familiar follow-up sound was heard.
Jiang Zhi was completely bewildered.
Is the detector broken?
Jiang Shu: "A-Zhi, is your detector broken? Why is it silent?"
He then got tested as well.
"drop--"
There is still no notification.
The brother and sister were somewhat dumbfounded.
What's going on?
Did their testing equipment break after being submerged in water?
Seeing this, Jiang He, who was following behind, said, "It shouldn't be a problem with the testing equipment. We've also tested these vines, and we couldn't detect any high, medium, or low levels of toxins."
Jiang Zhi was stunned for a moment, her curiosity growing. What exactly was this seed?
Jiang Shu stepped forward and touched the vine, but didn't notice anything special. While his family was busy moving and cleaning up the fleshy fungus, he leaned close to Jiang Zhi's ear and whispered, "Zhi, why don't we ask Professor Shen about it sometime?"
Jiang Zhi nodded, remembering the matter. These seeds were too strange.
It grows incredibly fast, and inside it lies a completely separate world...
Now that we've completely dried out this low-toxicity soil, who knows when they might switch to something else to absorb it? Wouldn't that turn it into a ticking time bomb?
Moreover, even the testing equipment can't detect any reaction now, so we really need to ask someone knowledgeable.
"Okay, I'll go see Professor Shen tomorrow."
While the two were talking, Jiang He and Wu Xiu had already moved several burlap sacks of shiitake mushrooms out, intending to transplant them little by little into the tilled land.
Jiang Zhi was surprised by how efficient her family was: "Second Uncle, do you know how to grow this?"
Jiang He smiled and said, "There's only one method for transplanting fungi; it's not difficult."
Jiang He and Yuan Ying first used hoes to carve out several shallow trenches.
Then I took a wide-bladed shovel and carefully inserted it into the soil along the edge of the lichen, slowly probing deeper, afraid of damaging the mycorrhizae.
"Pry it slowly, don't break the soil around the roots," Jiang He reminded Jiang Wen from the side, then reached out to hold the soft "edge" of the fleshy fungus.
Using the shovel, Jiang Wen gently pried, loosening the entire clump of fungus along with the soil underneath. The two men, one on each side, supported the bottom of the clump with their hands, as if carrying something delicate, and steadily moved it into the newly dug shallow ditch.
Then, they used the loose soil around them to fill in the surrounding area little by little, and finally gently pressed the soil surface with their palms to complete the transplanting of each plant. The group moved the plants one by one, and in no time, a patch of succulent mushrooms had been planted in the open space.
Jiang Shu, finding it intriguing, ran over to imitate him, asking, "Second Uncle, don't you think it smells bad?"
Jiang He laughed and said, "We're used to farming, and we've encountered things that smell even worse than this before. We're used to it."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Shu couldn't complain anymore and joined the others in transplanting the seedlings.
In a 50-square-meter area, apart from the vines in the very center, three whole burlap sacks of trichomes were planted.
There's nowhere to plant the remaining bag, but I can take the ginger twigs to the research institute tomorrow.
After planting, Jiang Wen asked, "A-Zhi, I haven't asked you yet, does this stuff automatically compost after being planted?"
Jiang Zhi then realized she had forgotten to explain how to use it. "You have to feed it. It will eat anything that isn't alive, and it will automatically produce something like fertilizer after eating it. It's very convenient."
Grandma Jiang was overjoyed when she heard this, "Then we'll have a place to put the manure from our toilet! We won't have to carry manure to the public toilet every day anymore!"
The base has set up public toilets of a certain size in each area, and the feces of each household are carried to the base for unified treatment.
These fleshy fungi are a perfect solution for them.
Wu Xiu also said, "Anyway, it was originally going to be sorted out for composting anyway, I don't know how effective this stuff that Azhi brought back will be."
Ye Qingyun: "Let's give it a try. If it works well, the seeds that my brother bought today can be planted sooner."
The group acted immediately, bringing several baskets of farmyard manure from their homes and dumping them next to the mushrooms.
The fleshy fungus seemed to have smelled the aroma; its edges trembled slightly as it slowly crawled toward the fertilizer, then opened its facial features and began to swallow.
In no time, most of the farmyard manure had been piled up.
Looking at the fleshy fungus again, its color brightened considerably, and some sticky liquid droplets seeped from its surface, dripping down its gills. Where the droplets landed in the soil, they quickly solidified into round, shiny black granules, looking just like excellent fertilizer.
The Jiang family looked on in astonishment. "This thing is amazing. It looks like it really likes to eat poop."
Jiang Shu tried to hold it in, but with all the different smells in the shed mixed together, he finally couldn't take it anymore and ran outside to vomit.
Jiangzhi couldn't stand the smell either, shivered, and quickly went back inside.
Yuan Ying laughed at them, saying, "You two kids used to cry and fuss as children, helping us carry manure and plant vegetables. But you're getting worse as you get older."
Yuan Ying was referring to how, when they were little, they didn't want to stay home alone and would cry, wanting to go with the adults to plant vegetables.
Back then, there was no concept of poop and pee.
The brother and sister looked at each other after returning to the house, still feeling uneasy about the smell inside and the sight of the flesh-bomb mushrooms feeding on farmyard manure.
Indeed, everyone has their own area of expertise.
Asking them to grow vegetables is simply not an option!
The two men's reactions made Jiang He and the others laugh uncontrollably.
After the succulents were transplanted, everyone came out. Jiang He tied a rope around the foot of the tent curtain and attached a bell to it.
The bell will ring whenever someone tries to lift it to look.
That can be considered a theft prevention measure.
That night, because of the konjac, Ye Qingyun remembered the mulberry leaves he had picked for free in the No. 1 collection area.
I'm planning to make some mulberry leaf tofu to give my family a change of pace.
She picked some that were still relatively fresh.
After washing, put them in a pot and boil them until soft, then take them out, rinse them with cold water, and squeeze them dry.
Chop it up and put it into the bowl that Grandpa Jiang used to use to grind medicine. Add some water and grind it into a paste with a pestle.
Ye Qingyun poured the ground juice onto a cloth to filter it. The filtered green juice was then poured into a pot and simmered over low heat, stirring constantly. When the juice thickened, a spoonful of lime water was added and stirred well. The mixture was then poured into a basin, covered, and allowed to solidify slowly.
Before long, the lid was lifted, and inside the pot was a tender piece, its green color radiating the fresh fragrance of mulberry leaves.
Logically speaking, eating mulberry leaf tofu in this weather isn't very appropriate, but Ye Qingyun was getting tired of the staple foods at home, so he thought of changing the flavor.
She used a knife to cut the mulberry leaf tofu into cubes and put them in a bowl. Finally, she poured some minced garlic and a few pieces of braised meat on top, and that was her dinner.
Surprisingly, the two elders really liked this way of eating.
Grandma Jiang is getting old and loves to eat soft, fluffy things.
That evening, Grandpa Jiang, unusually, came out to have dinner with everyone.
Jiangzhi was very happy to see that he was in much better condition. "Grandpa, look how much better you are than before!"
Grandpa Jiang laughed and said, "Thanks to the giant centipede you brought back earlier, I prepared some medicine, and the effect is indeed quite good."
He sighed.
"However, I still can't go out. The damage is to my health, and I need to recover slowly."
Grandma Jiang scolded, "Why are you going out in this freezing weather? Look at us, we stay indoors most of the time. You should take good care of yourself and stop worrying about things like this."
Ye Qingyun smiled and said, "Mom is right. Dad, at your age, it's time to enjoy life. In the dead of winter, you can just come out here and chat with us."
Grandpa Jiang smiled and agreed.
The brazier in the hall was burning brightly, the glowing embers crackling softly, warming the surrounding air.
The family sat around a low stool by the brazier.
Jiang Jun modified the area above the brazier by installing a hollow round table around it. The bottom can be used for heating, and the hollow top can be used to place a pot for cooking, which is very convenient.
At this moment, on the hollow round table are freshly made mulberry leaf tofu and a small bowl of steaming hot buns, steaming with white vapor.
Mealtimes are always the most relaxing time at home.
Mulberry leaf tofu has a refreshing taste with a light mulberry leaf flavor. It's smooth and melts in your mouth, with a slightly bitter aftertaste that helps cut through any greasiness.
It tastes even better when eaten with braised pork—the braised pork is salty and fragrant, the fatty parts are oily and juicy, and the lean parts are chewy.
Everyone took a bite of tofu and a bite of meat. The refreshing taste of the tofu balanced the greasiness of the meat, while the aroma of the meat made the tofu even fresher. The two flavors blended together, making it a very pleasant meal. Before they knew it, they had eaten half a bowl more rice.
Grandpa Jiang clearly liked it very much and even ordered an extra bowl of mulberry leaf tofu.
After eating and drinking his fill, he sipped the hot soup, smiled with his eyes narrowed, and looked at his children and grandchildren gathered around him. Listening to the voices filling the room, he felt that the warmth in this cold winter was more comforting than the heat from the brazier.
That night, Jiangzhi went to bed earlier than usual.
This time, I had the same dream. I dreamt that the grassland had grown several times larger, and that half of it had been transformed into a tropical rainforest-like forest by the influence of the air sac hydra.
However, Jiangzhi forgot all of these scenes as soon as she woke up.
The next day, Jiang Zhi, unusually, stayed in bed and didn't leave her room until lunchtime.
No one at home called her.
Despite the freezing weather, Grandma Jiang and the others wanted the children to rest more.
The older generation can't sit still, but they don't expect the younger generation to be like them.
The first thing Jiangzhi does after getting up is run to the fields.
Before even entering, I could see that the vines had grown taller and were now bulging out over the tent.
As soon as she stepped inside, Jiang Zhi froze.
The several fleshy fungi that were originally planted next to the vines were all squeezed to the side. Some were crooked and twisted, and some were simply pushed away from their original positions, as if they had been forcibly moved.
Jiang Zhi looked suspiciously at the vines, which were now even larger than yesterday.
This guy looks like he's disgusted by these fleshy fungi.
Jiang Zhi put the last bag of fleshy fungus that had been placed on the ground into her space device, intending to go to the research institute later to have Professor Shen study it.
At this moment, Jiang He also came over to check on the situation in the field.
I was very pleased to see that the originally yellowish-white soil had turned black and shiny due to the fungus.
"This 'flesh-covered mushroom' is really effective. The soil has become much more fertile overnight. We can try planting some scallions today."
Jiangzhi, unfamiliar with the situation in the field, said upon hearing this, "Second Uncle, I'm leaving this field in your care. And as for the vines, if anything happens, just let me know."
Jiang He laughed and said, "Okay, don't worry."
It was midday, and everyone in the family was busy.
Even her brother, along with Jiang Wen and Niu Dali, went to ask Jiang Wang for tips on catching fish.
After finishing her lunch, Jiang Zhi put on her lotus leaf coat and headed to the research institute.
Before leaving, Ye Qingyun reminded him, "Your dad also rode his bike there today. You'll have to ride back on his bike later, otherwise it'll be freezing cold walking all this way."
Jiang Zhi responded.
It took half an hour to get to the research institute.
The entire gate was closed, and it was quiet inside, unlike usual when people were coming and going.
On the wall next to the gate, there was a notice with messy handwriting but still legible: Due to insufficient power supply in winter, the mutant testing area and training room will be temporarily closed from today until further notice.
Although Jiang Zhi already knew about this from Jiang Shan, she still felt it was a pity to see the research institute so empty.
She even got a membership card for the training room beforehand, otherwise, in the dead of winter, it would have been a good opportunity for her second brother, Jiang Wen, to train there.
She didn't dwell on it and went straight to the office building.
Professor Shen was overjoyed to hear that it was Jiang Zhi and came out to greet her personally.
"What a rare guest! Please come in and have a seat with us."
The two went up to the sixth floor together.
Professor Shen's office is right next to Jiang Shan's office, but it is much larger and has access to multiple laboratories and a specimen room for mutated organisms.
Jiang Zhi looked around and thought the laboratory was quite interesting.
Professor Shen smiled and said, "How about it, Comrade Xiao Jiang, how about coming to work for me? Our conditions are quite good."
At this moment, the assistant brought up a cup of tea.
Jiang Zhi took a sip and said without beating around the bush, "Professor Shen, I'm here today for two main reasons."
She took out a snakeskin bag full of *Mammillaria truncata* mushrooms, saying, "My first reason for coming here was to ask if you buy these."
Professor Shen's gaze had just fallen on the snakeskin bag when he suddenly leaned forward as if burned. He adjusted his glasses. "This is..."
Ginger twig: "This stuff can be used as fertilizer to improve the soil."
Professor Shen's eyes narrowed, and he stepped forward excitedly, "This...this can be used for composting?"
Professor Shen carefully picked up a piece.
First, it turned halfway in the light, then gently rubbed the surface covered with a wet, sticky substance with its fingertips, even softening its breathing.
This was the first time he had ever seen this mutated plant in person.
Professor Shen's Adam's apple bobbed slightly—if they could successfully cultivate it, the No. 1 collection area of the base might really be able to take another big step forward! As soon as this thought popped into his head, a bright light shone in his eyes.
Jiang Zhi smiled and said, "I think you would be interested in this, so I'd like to trade something with you."
Professor Shen calmed himself down and asked, "What would you like to change?"
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