Chapter 38

Gu Qinghuan had slept for almost half an hour and was now full of energy. With a water bottle on her back and a sack in hand, she headed out.

The two children were still asleep, and she wouldn’t take them with her in the afternoon.

It was just the right time for Zhong Zijun to start giving them some basic education, and they could help with some chores as well.

As for the five-flavor fruit, she could find it herself.

Her first stop was by the big river.

It was noon, and there was no one by the riverbank.

She crouched down on the large stone where the village women often washed clothes.

Gu Qinghuan reached her hand into the water, and her fingertips quietly spilled out some spring water.

The spring water might have a great attraction for animals, which she had discovered during her previous experiments on the mountain.

She waited for about a minute or so.

The water surface in front of her began to boil, and below, countless black shadows swirled around, with several large fish even leaping out of the water, which looked a bit startling.

She knew it was about time.

So, she stretched her hand back into the water.

This time, the dense black shadows in front of her suddenly vanished.

The water level by the river also dropped by two centimeters.

A satisfied smile curved at the corners of Gu Qinghuan’s mouth. She washed her hands and then stood up, heading back toward the mountain.

There were quite a few people going up the mountain in the afternoon, most of them carrying baskets on their backs. It was the harvest season in the mountains.

Gu Qinghuan wasn’t fond of socializing, so apart from nodding at those she knew, she ignored everyone else.

People had gotten used to her temperament and secretly felt a bit sorry for her—such a beautiful girl, with her life ruined.

Gu Qinghuan reached a secluded spot and entered the space.

The fish pond she had dug earlier at noon was now filled with river water, and the fish and shrimp inside were happily flipping around. Gu Qinghuan vaguely spotted a few large soft-shelled turtles mixed in with them.

She had originally wanted to throw the seafood—fish and lobsters—from the kitchen into the pond, but she was worried they might fight each other.

So, she created another small pond nearby specifically for the seafood.

Now, it was perfect.

Once the fish pond was planned, it was time to focus on the planting.

Although Gu Qinghuan wasn’t skilled in farming, she had learned most of the methods for growing crops during her previous year in the countryside. She could be considered a semi-farmer.

So, simple planting tasks were not difficult for her.

First, she bought a batch of high-quality seeds from a vending machine for future crops.

Rice, wheat, corn, bell peppers, cucumbers, peas, water spinach, lettuce, cilantro, chives, eggplants, lettuce, cabbage, cilantro, spring onions, garlic shoots.

White radish, cherry radish, Shanghai greens, dwarf yellow beans, red amaranth, cherry tomatoes, Provence tomatoes, pumpkins, winter melons, cowpeas, and so on—she bought them all. After all, they weren’t expensive.

These vegetables would be valuable in winter, and when the time came, she could harvest some of the less conspicuous ones to eat. For those that were not easy to harvest, they could be exchanged for money, killing two birds with one stone.

Since she could control the space with her thoughts and there was the added benefit of the spring water, planting wouldn’t be much of an effort.

After buying the seeds, Gu Qinghuan began planning the space.

With the villa and the spring water as the center, on the east side, where she had already dug two fish ponds, she decided to turn this area into a breeding zone. In the future, she could raise chickens, ducks, cows, and sheep here.

The space was vast, so she planned to plant a large meadow for them to graze on.

Her goal was to achieve self-sufficiency in meat production.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t afford to buy meat, but raising it herself was more cost-effective.

There was a significant difference between the feedlot meat from the future and the purely natural meat raised now.

With the added benefit of the spring water, Gu Qinghuan couldn’t even imagine how fragrant the meat would be.

She planned to turn the northern part into a planting area, where all the crops would be placed, including the fruit trees she had previously transplanted.

With the general plan in place, Gu Qinghuan began planting using her thoughts.

The first crop was rice, which was the most troublesome. It needed to grow in paddy fields and required seedlings.

Gu Qinghuan drew some water from the large fish pond and artificially created several acres of rice fields.

Next came the seedling cultivation, which was simple enough. The temperature and sunlight in the space were suitable, so she scattered the seeds densely across the field and let them grow freely. Once the seedlings sprouted, she would transplant them into the paddy fields.

Wheat was much simpler. She just evenly scattered the seeds across the soil and sprayed them with spring water, then waited for the harvest.

The other various seeds were not much different. Gu Qinghuan planted them in the prepared plots, spacing them at regular intervals and sprinkling them with spring water.

The soil in the space was fertile, and there were no weeds, so there was no need to worry about weeding. The spring water served as the best fertilizer, and the rest was left to time.

Gu Qinghuan completed the planting work in less than an hour and even planned out the orchard. When she came across any fruit trees in the future, she could directly transplant them into the orchard.

Oh, and she still had to sell the five-flavor fruit she had picked in the morning.

Huh, surprisingly, the persimmons she had hung up at noon had already sold several portions. That was quite unexpected.

In fact, the pricing for the Sanmao fruits was a bit high. Converted to future market prices, it was probably twenty to thirty yuan per jin.

She felt the persimmons were worth the price since they had been improved by the spring water and tasted amazing, but others might not necessarily agree unless they tried them.

So, she hadn’t really expected them to sell so quickly.

It reminded her of a saying about young people in the future: “Mineral water for fifty? I’ve got to buy and try it.”

Maybe the people buying her persimmons were just like that!

Gu Qinghuan shook her head with a helpless smile. She hung the five-flavor fruit up for sale, labeling it as “pure wild five-flavor fruit, five cents per jin, fake ones get ten times the compensation.”

The five-flavor fruit she had smuggled in that morning weighed a total of 183 jin. Selling this batch would earn nearly 100 yuan, and there was still over 100 jin left at home.

It felt great, like being a little hamster accumulating money bit by bit. Gu Qinghuan really liked and enjoyed everything about her current life.

After tidying up, she exited the space, grabbed the sack, and continued walking. In the afternoon, she was heading to another mountain to see if she could find anything else.

—

She was right.

Wang Tao, a corporate slave, was working overtime while browsing a certain online marketplace.

Suddenly, a product caught his attention.

What the heck? One jin of persimmons for 28 yuan?

Even dried persimmons weren’t this expensive!

Wang Tao, skeptical, opened the product details and instantly burst into laughter.

“This seller is out of their mind. Wild chicken-heart persimmons, sweet and delicious, juicy and flavorful—those two descriptions are passable.

But ‘relieves fatigue and makes you feel light’? Are they selling these persimmons as a magic elixir?

And they even dared to make a ‘fake ones get ten times the compensation’ promise. Do they not know the meaning of the word ‘death’?

No way, I have to teach them a lesson today. Let’s see what a 28-yuan persimmon really tastes like.”