The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 140 - 129: Full of Rewards (Extra - for Reaching 15000 Recommendation Tickets on Qidian)

Chapter 140: Chapter 129: Full of Rewards (Extra Chapter for Reaching 15000 Recommendation Tickets on Qidian)

The weather at the start of this spring was exceptionally good, with three or four days of sunshine followed by two days of light rain, then another two or three sunny days, and then it would rain again.

The Zhou Family plowed the fields for seedling cultivation, airing out the fertilizer that Zhou SiLang had piled up to confirm its usability. After drying for two days, they did not hesitate to spread it generously onto the fields.

The night before, the family had already soaked the grain seeds. Due to the suitable temperature, they simply hung the seeds in cloth bags overnight. The next day, upon inspection, they noticed that the grains had sprouted tiny white shoots.

Confident that the seeds would all germinate, Old Zhou headed out early in the morning with his two sons to sow the seeds.

Manbao, after all, did not replace the family’s rice seeds because, just as Keke said when harvest time came in autumn, some particularly good ears of rice would certainly be kept for seeding. Keke had mentioned that using these rice seeds a second time could lead to various diseases, possibly infecting other rice plants, which would not be good.

Since everyone’s fields were large continuous swathes, it would be bad to cause everyone’s crops to get sick because her family used a different kind of rice seed.

Since the grain seeds couldn’t be changed, Manbao shifted more of her energy, apart from studying, onto planting ginger and yams, as well as foraging for wild vegetables.

She would check on the ginger and yams in the fields every few days and was pleased to see them grow well. She even tried fertilizing them.

Of course, she personally only did a bit of the work, as the rest was handled by Zhou SiLang and his two younger brothers. This was their second time fertilizing, the first being when they initially sowed the seeds, laying down a thin layer of fertilizer.

However, recently the ginger and yams were growing rapidly, particularly the yams. Zhou SiLang noticed the leaves were slightly yellow, so he decided to fertilize them.

The real situation was that seeing a good portion of the fertilizer from his pit being taken away by his father, he felt he couldn’t just sit by idly. So, he simply spread the remainder of his fertilizer over the fields.

What’s eaten is yours, and the same goes for farmyard manure; only what is spread on one’s own land is truly theirs.

The experience of competing with his father for the fertilizer was quite unique, stirring excitement in not only Zhou SiLang but also Manbao for an entire evening.

However, Old Zhou didn’t care in the slightest since the manure in the family’s two pits was nearly ready. He didn’t give much thought to the little that Zhou Si had left, and of course, there was no way Zhou Si would get any fertilizer from him.

Hence, Zhou SiLang was contemplating starting a new compost heap lately. For this, Manbao had even given him a tip, suggesting he go into the mountains to dig up some poisonous mushrooms to plant on the compost pile.

This was because the entry for poisonous mushrooms had appeared, stating that they could decompose things like dead leaves that are not easily broken down in nature.

Isn’t that just like composting?

But her suggestion was ruthlessly rejected by Zhou SiLang, for poisonous mushrooms weren’t that easy to find, and with the time he had, he was better off chopping the leaves into even finer pieces.

Zhou SiLang wasn’t too keen on poisonous mushrooms, but Manbao was quite interested.

Because the credits for poisonous mushrooms were released, with rewards even greater than those for Ligustrum seeds—7,500 credits, along with an extra 300 credits because of the large quantity she had gathered, providing excellent research specimens for scientists.

Along with other inedible mushroom species and various wild vegetables that were extinct or on the verge of extinction, Manbao’s credits kept dinging and increasing daily.

Moreover, unlike before when she accumulated credits only for the plants she recorded for the encyclopedia, this time she also started receiving credits for clicks.

After some research, Manbao learned that once an entry is created by the encyclopedic researchers, she could earn credit rewards whenever someone clicks to read those entries.

These were click rewards, which she would share with Keke and the encyclopedia—even though each credit was only one or two points, she was still very happy.

Manbao asked around and learned that she was receiving click rewards recently because the wild vegetables she recorded were very popular.

The encyclopedia had recently cultivated several types of wild vegetables and announced it, so many people became aware of it.

People of the future pay special attention to food, hence quite a few browsed the encyclopedia for entries on wild vegetables, which led to Manbao earning from clicks.

As for the things she had previously recorded, they only got sporadic clicks, which took a very long time to accumulate into one credit, and Manbao always ended up forgetting them.

Furthermore, Keke told her, "If you can dig up and record the soil where the poisonous mushrooms grow, I can apply to give you the same amount of credits as the mushrooms."

Manbao asked curiously, "What do you need the soil for?"

"Mushroom seeds typically take the form of spores or mycelium. The poisonous mushrooms you’ve recorded can only serve as specimens. For now, scientists can only use them for study, they cannot yet cultivate them from your samples, so..."

Manbao understood and asked with sparkly eyes, "Does it mean if I give you the soil, new poisonous mushrooms might grow from it?"

Keke: "Yes."

"So, is it the same with other mushrooms, that if we bring back the soil they grow in, we could cultivate mushrooms?"

Keke was silent for a moment before replying, "As long as we meet the conditions required for the fungi to grow, theoretically, that’s possible."

"What conditions are needed for mushrooms to grow?" Manbao loved eating mushrooms. During the warm, rainy season each year, they occasionally found mushrooms which her sister-in-law would cook with a few eggs or with purchased meat. They were particularly delicious.

Keke replied: "Different fungi require different conditions, and some are extinct in the future. Without scientific research, I cannot give you an answer."

Manbao then batted her eyes and asked, "Do you need their soil to research the environment, too?"

"Yes, because without cultivating them, no one knows what conditions they’re suited for. Haven’t you noticed that in the entry for poisonous mushrooms, the cultivation environment is left blank?"

Manbao understood, feeling somewhat disappointed. This meant she likely wouldn’t be able to cultivate mushrooms this year.

She sighed, then went to the spot where she had picked the poisonous mushrooms and dug up a large handful of soil for Keke before turning back home, "Remember to credit my points."

Now she had a total of thirty-eight thousand four hundred fifty-eight points. Although it was still a long way from the points needed to purchase a potion, wasn’t the prospect promising?

Keke felt the host needed more encouragement, "Host, I’ve noticed that your region is quite abundant with natural resources, it’s just that you’ve explored too little, which is why your credit growth is so slow. Once you grow up a bit more, you’ll earn credits much faster."

Manbao looked troubled, "How long until I’m grown up?"

For a child, growing up seemed like a distant, distant future.

After gathering a lot of information, Keke said to her, "Soon. Many who have grown up say time flies like a fleeting horse, zooming by in an instant. Host, you will also grow up fast. So, I suggest you continue to focus on accumulating knowledge and wealth."

"Because only with sufficient knowledge can you know about more plants, and only with more wealth can you travel to many places to learn about them."