The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 847 - 825 White Peony

Chapter 847: Chapter 825 White Peony

Manbao searched for peonies in the mall and found quite a few pictures, which looked especially beautiful to her. So she got excited and was about to place an order, but then something felt off as she looked.

Why do the descriptions say it’s a species "closest to the ancient variety?"

And isn’t the size of this flower too abnormal?

Manbao leaned in and asked the seller, "How big is this flower?"

The seller replied instantly, "Very big, when it’s fully bloomed it’s as big as a fist. Don’t worry, this is the latest variety from our farm, the one closest to the ancient kind."

Then Manbao remembered the peonies she had just seen at someone else’s place; the largest one was about the size of her head. The smaller ones... were as big as her face, and yet...

Manbao indignantly said, "Then why does your picture show it so big?"

"It’s enlarged, so that buyers can clearly see the patterns on the petals and admire their color."

Manbao declared: "It’s too small."

The seller was surprised, "You think it’s small? This is the peony closest to the ancient variety; if you want a big one, go buy a hybrid."

Saying this, he threw over a dozen pictures at Manbao to see, and she was stunned by the images that filled up the chat window.

The seller said, "See? The hybrid peonies, you can find them all over in parks. Chop off one and it could knock someone unconscious. You want that? If you buy our ancient variety peonies, I’ll give you a bag of seeds."

Manbao thought about it and described, "Don’t you have peonies that open up to be as big as a human head?"

"Eh, aren’t you from our planet? Or are you new to flower farming? Forget it, if you want an ancient variety peony, we don’t have it at the moment, but if you want hybrids, then there are plenty. The flowers range from as small as a thumb to as big as a trampoline, we have it all."

Manbao didn’t know how big a trampoline was, but a bed sounded quite large.

She was curious, "As long as the flower is beautiful, why must it be an ancient variety? The pictures you threw out look beautiful too, with all sorts of colors, even rainbow ones."

"Because their genes are unstable; most of the second generation will mutate, and the majority will end up looking very ugly, then continue to grow bigger or smaller. After some research, we’ve found the ancient varieties to be the most stable. Since you’re new to flower farming, you should buy good ones first. This way you can hone your skills, otherwise if your foundation is weak, you’ll never grow good flowers in the future..."

But Manbao pondered for a moment and asked, "Show me the hybrid flowers first. I want those that have grown into blooming or about-to-bloom peonies, and should be as big as a human face, preferably pure white."

The seller was momentarily disappointed, but since Manbao was interested in a relatively expensive kind of flower, he warmly assisted her and threw several pictures at her, saying, "These are real shots, hybrids, with flowers all more or less the same size. Our farm has put a lot of effort into breeding them, given that most peony species nowadays have mutated, either too large to bear looking at, or too small to be seen."

"However, these few potted flowers still have strong mutant genes. This generation of flowers is fine, the second should still hold up, but by the third or fourth generation, it’s not so certain, they’re okay for casual growing."

Manbao was very interested in these flowers; she went ahead and ordered two pots, and asked, "Have all the plants there mutated? Are they all very different from the ancient species?"

"Star Wars, haven’t the plants in your place mutated?" Manbao had just seen a line of text appear when it instantly turned into asterisks. Then a red line popped up in the chat window: "Sensitive language detected, please comply with the law."

Manbao was bewildered, and the seller on the other side was even more dazed. He read through the words he’d just typed, bewildered by what could be the sensitive language.

In his frustration, he grabbed his photon brain and sprinted to the Alliance’s StarNet page. He spammed the sentence, "Star Wars, haven’t the plants in your place mutated?" ten times, only to find it wasn’t banned, which attracted the attention of many other browsers on StarNet. They left comments, "Come look, there’s a lunatic here!"

The seller looked on in silence, ignoring the crazed commenters below his post and turned back to find Manbao, asking, "What should I call you, dear customer? I just saw your order, how about I send you some fertilizer as well?"

Manbao knew their fertilizer was different from what they used here, so she quickly nodded and said, "Sure, that works, my name is Manbao."

"Manbao? That’s an interesting name. Is your area suitable for growing peonies? Although they are hybrids and easy to keep alive, they do have their particulars."

"It’s suitable." Manbao also wanted to chat with him. Since he was a peony cultivator, he surely knew how to grow them better, and might even know how to nurture them. When she had inquired at the flower market, they weren’t too willing to share, so Manbao enjoyed her chat with him.

Talking about why she wanted to buy a white peony, Manbao said, "I saw a pot of white peonies on the street today, and it was very expensive. I noticed that monochrome flowers seem to be particularly pricey; last time I sold a pot of michelia for a good price, too."

"Michelia? What variety?"

"Lemongrass."

The seller was silent for a while and then said, "Is it really Manbao? Do you have lemongrass? How about you sell me a pot?"

Manbao outright refused, "No way."

"Why?"

"First, I don’t have it anymore, now I only have one section of rhizome left, which is for my husband; and second, I can’t sell anything to you guys."

The seller was almost in tears. Due to his special profession, he was privy to certain things since he needed to liaise with various major botanical institutes, especially those conducting research on flowers.

But he had never imagined that he would come across such a stroke of luck, because among so many people in the interstellar community, and the many who used StarNet, the numbers buying flowers from him were astronomical. He just happened to be browsing online, and had stumbled upon someone from a different universe?

And in that universe, there were peonies too, which, from her description, sounded like the real ancient variety.

Totally different from the "ancient varieties" they had obtained through experimental means.

The seller asked, "If you can’t sell, could you send me something? I can trade several pots of flowers for just one pot from you."

Manbao refused, "No, I can’t send you anything, except for credits."

"Credits? Oh, you mean money, do you call it ’credits’ where you come from?" The seller’s heart throbbed with excitement, so he was in no mood for disappointment. He asked, "Could you talk about how peonies are grown in your place?"

Manbao replied, "I don’t know how to grow peonies, but I know about cultivating orchids."

The seller took the opportunity to ask, "Then how are your orchids grown?"

Manbao exited the chat mode and went to Keke to find the relevant entry, then copied and pasted it to the seller.

The seller, looking at the familiar layout, felt something was off and asked, "Why does this look like it’s from an encyclopedia?"

Manbao exclaimed joyfully, "This is from the encyclopedia, oh, I forgot, you can also look up the information in the encyclopedia."

Seller: ...

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