Farming Games are All About Grinding
Chapter 218 - 210: The First Giant Cauliflower!

Chapter 218: Chapter 210: The First Giant Cauliflower!

"Looks like there’s an event today." Han Qiwu perked up with interest and directly opened the door to step outside.

Turning his head, he noticed an unread email notification pop up on the mailbox.

"Notification for the Awakening of Insects event?"

Han Qiwu walked over, opened the mailbox, and reached in to unfold the parchment inside:

[Awakening of Insects: As the season turns, yang energy rises, temperatures warm, spring thunders crash, and rainfall increases. Life flourishes—all creatures come alive. First phase: Peach blossoms begin to bloom; Second phase: Orioles start singing; Third phase: Hawks transition into cuckoos.]

[Awakening of Insects Event: Magpie Defense will begin at 12:00 noon]

[Event location marked]

Indeed, there was an event.

Though the event’s start time was a bit inconvenient—it interfered with lunch.

At least the event seemed proper this time.

Magpie Defense.

No longer focused on ’stealing’ things.

After carefully putting away the parchment, Han Qiwu went back inside to eat breakfast before returning to the yard to manually water the rice paddies.

"Little rice, grow quickly. Once grown, into the pot you’ll lie."

The rice crops were growing well. Although they had only been submerged for five days, they had already reached a height of 30 to 40 centimeters. Their vibrant green stalks swayed in the breeze, and the slender leaves looked healthy, appearing relaxed and carefree.

After finishing the watering, Han Qiwu glanced at the gaps in the rice fields and silently thought it was a bit of a waste.

Wouldn’t it be great to raise some rice field flower fish here?

They could aerate the water while making efficient use of space.

Han Qiwu had always harbored an ambition. Once the farm conditions allowed, he planned to implement a mulberry-dike-and-fishpond system, full-scale vertical agriculture.

When the time came, he’d carefully plan the layout to turn the farm into something picturesque and efficient.

After watering the rice paddies, Han Qiwu habitually cast a glance toward the plot growing cauliflowers.

With that glance, he spotted something significantly larger than the rest.

Wait a minute.

Something seemed off.

How did such a massive cauliflower suddenly appear out of nowhere?

Han Qiwu raced over to the cauliflower plot, filled with excitement.

As he approached, several lines of pollen-formed prompts gradually appeared before his eyes:

[Last night, the Flower Fairy had an enjoyable time frolicking in your yard.]

[As a reward for hosting, your yard was granted the following special effects:]

[Effect 1: The likelihood of giant cauliflowers appearing dramatically increased. After successfully growing one, the rate returns to normal.]

[Effect 2: For one week, the maturation times for all flowers and plants in your yard are reduced, and mutation chances greatly enhanced.]

[Tip: The Flower Fairy scattered some fresh flower seeds in your yard. Please water them promptly to facilitate germination.]

After reading the prompts, Han Qiwu understood.

No wonder a giant cauliflower had suddenly appeared.

Turns out the Flower Fairy had visited.

Such a polite bunch—they come so rarely, yet only stay for one night before leaving.

How could he convince them to stay longer?

"I guess I’ll need to plant more flowers." Han Qiwu made a mental note of this, but as for the flower seeds mentioned in the prompts, he wasn’t in a hurry to water them.

Judging by the sky, it was about to rain soon.

Bringing his thoughts back, he stepped closer to the giant cauliflower and bent down to pull it out with force.

[Giant Cauliflower (Silver Star Quality☆)]

[Inedible]

[Price: 1000 Gold]

[Effect – Role Model: Can enhance Gold-Star quality and the appearance probability of giant crops within a 7×7 radius.]

[Effect – Preservation: The state of the giant cauliflower is stable and does not require storage in an inventory.]

[Note: The functionality of giant cauliflowers extends way beyond just being decorative.]

The giant cauliflower looked fairly simple—it was just an enlarged version of a regular cauliflower, measuring about 1.2 meters in diameter, with a rich and fragrant aroma.

"Inedible? Doesn’t matter. I couldn’t finish eating something this big anyway." Han Qiwu sighed with emotion, gently patting the giant cauliflower.

Finally, after 27 days, he had successfully grown this giant cauliflower.

It hadn’t been easy.

"The research plan listed a study timeline of one year, so there’s still plenty of time." Han Qiwu gradually regained his composure, considering his next steps.

For now, he definitely couldn’t report to Mr. Tang.

The timing was too short, and the results were too stunning.

If he reported it four or five months from now, it would seem more reasonable.

Since the giant cauliflower had this "role model" effect, he decided to plant it back in the field and see if he could grow more giant crops.

Once he picked up the hoe, he’d sow some spring melon seeds nearby.

Maybe he’d even end up with a giant melon.

After placing the giant cauliflower back in the field, Han Qiwu returned to his house and retrieved some experimental tools that hadn’t been touched in over two weeks. Carefully, he took five or six samples from the giant cauliflower, then returned to his house and used a high-resolution microscope to examine them.

You can’t put all your eggs in one basket.

The results were already right in front of him—he had to backtrack and test things himself.

Knowledge was like this; the more you used it, the fresher it became.

If he could truly devise a method to cultivate giant crops without relying on the system, it would be quite an achievement.

Such improvements might even be scalable for widespread usage.

After adjusting the microscope’s lenses a few times, Han Qiwu nodded to himself.

As he’d suspected, the giant cauliflower was a polyploidy plant.

But unlike other polyploidy plants, the polyploidy levels within this cauliflower seemed unusually varied.

Among the five samples, there were diploids, triploids, tetraploids, pentaploids, and even hexaploids.

"Quite the genetic mishmash." Han Qiwu scratched his head.

Even though the samples were all from the same plant, why did the variation turn out to be so high?

Could this be the secret to its size?

Previously in the lab, Han Qiwu had tried inducing polyploidy using 0.2% colchicine solution, but the resulting tetraploid plants only developed thicker leaves and bulkier stems—no such significant differences.

"This is tricky." Han Qiwu continued to bury his head in research.

Time flew by during his study, and before he knew it, more than three hours had passed.

Han Qiwu stood up and shook his head lightly to loosen up.

"Crack crack crack crack crack crack."

The sound of joints popping was enough to make one’s teeth ache.

Han Qiwu’s physical fitness had significantly improved; his muscle tone had become far more prominent.

Farming truly was a good exercise.

"Snap!"

"Boom!"

Lightning flashed and thunder roared as the spring rain, both torrential and urgent, poured down to quench the thirst of various plants.

"Why is the spring festival always timed with rainy weather?" Han Qiwu muttered with some resignation. After glancing at the time, he put on his raincoat and begrudgingly pedaled his bicycle toward the event marker point.

Hopefully, he’d reap some good rewards.

Heading out during a rainstorm to participate in an event sure didn’t feel great.

Of course, fishing was an exception.

The Magpie Defense event marker was located on the western side of town, near the laurel forest.

Due to the forecasted heavy rain, Han Qiwu hadn’t brought Little Prince or Little Shui along. Instead, he took the laurel wood axe with him—if he had time, he’d chop some trees himself later.

Didn’t want to risk those two getting drenched.

After an hour of trudging through mud and water along the map route, Han Qiwu finally reached the event marker.

To his surprise, the marker point turned out to be a bird’s nest in a tree.

How was he supposed to deal with this?

Climb?

Han Qiwu looked up at the streaks of lightning cutting through the sky and felt slightly concerned.

"Please, no lightning strikes here."

Rolling up his sleeves, he prepared to start climbing the tree.

But before he could touch the trunk, a dazzling white light flashed before his eyes.

"Crack!"

Han Qiwu watched as a bolt of lightning descended from the sky, striking toward the direction of the bird’s nest.

"Luckily, it missed!" Han Qiwu exhaled in relief and turned to leave.

Suddenly, the lightning bolt that had pierced through the bird’s nest began traveling along a branch, heading straight toward Han Qiwu.

"No! Please!"