The mutation of these sweet potato vines seemed to have stabilized.
And that strange energy also seemed to have reached some kind of balance within the plants.
Gu Xi released her ability to sense them carefully, then took out a portable Abnormality Detector to measure their mutation coefficient.
The results showed that the sweet potato vines had a mutation coefficient of 4.8. While still within the edible range, they were not much different from the wild mutant plants in the distance, which generally had coefficients above 6.
They were edible, but the taste would be anything but good!
Meanwhile, the sweet potato vines that Wei Heng had harvested earlier with the machine and piled to the side were virtually unchanged from when she had left at noon. Their mutation coefficient was likely still around 3.
Gu Xi glanced at the other side of the stream, paid the sweet potato vines no more mind, and slowly got up to return to the container home.
The jet-black wild chrysanthemums were too big to carry into the house.
So, Gu Xi used her Earth Ability to create a large vase on the spot and casually set them aside.
After entering, she pulled out the only chair in the room, sat down, and propped her chin on one hand, staring out the window with a blank expression.
Time ticked by, second by second. Gu Xi just sat there, her emotions showing no fluctuation.
Until a small green sprout emerged from her fingertip and twirled around her wrist.
"Gu Xi." Wei Heng stood at the door and knocked on the metal sheet. "The sweet potato vines left in the field have mutated again. I'm afraid they're not edible anymore..."
This world was just that fucked up. Plants growing in the ground could mutate at any time, anywhere.
What was even more fucked up was that scientists still hadn't figured out the reason for these plant mutations.
No wonder so many people on the forums lamented how difficult farming was...
But no matter how hard it got, you still had to live, right?
"What's the situation with those two sisters across the stream? Did you find anything out?" Gu Xi gently stroked the small green sprout on her fingertip. "I don't think I've ever seen them at the camp before..."
"They came from another camp." Wei Heng walked over, pulled a small bag of seeds wrapped in plastic film from his pocket, and presented it to Gu Xi as if it were a treasure. "Look, what's this?"
"What is it?" Gu Xi glanced at it but didn't recognize them.
"They're tomato seeds."
Wei Heng looked at her, his eyes sparkling. "Qin Yi and her sister brought some crop seeds with them... Didn't I just go over to help? When I was leaving, she insisted I take some as a thank-you gift..."
"I couldn't refuse. Then I remembered you wanted to plant tomatoes, so I asked if they had any tomato seeds. I never expected them to actually have some. What a coincidence, right?"
Wei Heng held the seeds out to her, his eyes sparkling as he looked at Gu Xi, just like an obedient puppy waiting for his owner's praise.
Gu Xi's gaze shifted from his sparkling eyes to the tomato seeds in his hand. She nodded. 'It is quite a coincidence.'
She remembered that tomato seeds were not cheap.
"Gu Xi, how about we have tomatoes tonight?" Wei Heng licked his thin, slightly dry and pale lips, looking at Gu Xi with anticipation.
Life at the base hadn't been easy these past few years. Even when he was in the Special Service Team, he rarely had the chance to eat a relatively expensive fruit and vegetable like tomatoes.
"Sure." Gu Xi took the small bag of seeds from his hand and nodded. "But there's a problem."
"What problem?" Unsure if it was out of nervousness or just craving tomatoes, Wei Heng subconsciously swallowed.
Gu Xi said, "...I don't know how to grow tomatoes."
Wei Heng was speechless. 'Ah, this... Don't you Wood Element users just use your abilities to make them grow?'
"I don't." Facing his suspicious gaze, Gu Xi repeated herself with perfect confidence.
The two of them stared at each other. In the end, Wei Heng silently opened his personal terminal.
'Fine, if you say you don't know how, then you don't. But it's okay, there are videos on how to grow tomatoes on the forum...'
But just as he logged into the official forum, a pop-up notification appeared.
The notice said that in order to help pioneers better reclaim land and grow food, the Central Base would soon be organizing a large group of experienced agricultural experts to be dispatched across the country...
Wei Heng paused for a moment, then turned the Light Screen to face Gu Xi, gesturing for her to look.
Gu Xi thought, 'Are they going to provide on-site technical guidance and training?'
Wei Heng glanced at her and cautiously suggested, "Why don't we learn, too?" Although he was also a novice at farming, he couldn't shake the feeling that Gu Xi's simple and crude planting method was a bit off.
Gu Xi looked at him silently for a moment. "...Let's learn how to grow tomatoes first."
The sweet potatoes from this morning could be explained away as a one-off incident, but if the tomatoes she grew ended up the same way... that would be hard to justify.
What's more, two new neighbors had arrived across the stream.
So, these tomatoes had to be grown normally.
This was a bit difficult for Gu Xi. She was used to directly ripening plants with her Wood Element ability...
Fortunately, after the second great mutation thirty years ago, there was no rhyme or reason to how plants mutated, which gave her some room to maneuver.
Wei Heng searched the official forum for a while and quickly found a video on growing tomatoes.
After watching it, they both frowned.
Tomatoes were very delicate, unlike sweet potatoes that would yield a harvest no matter how casually you planted them.
The most crucial part was that they needed to be pollinated.
Speaking of pollination, Gu Xi suddenly thought of something:
After the second great mutation, both plants and animals were affected, gaining that strange energy inside them. However, insects seemed unaffected and didn't have that strange energy in their bodies.
Over the years, after continuous extermination campaigns by the army, most of the high-risk insects in the wild had been wiped out. The ones that remained were almost no different from before the apocalypse.
Except for being much larger.
Gu Xi thought about the oversized butterflies she had seen in the woods today... 'Maybe I can ask them to help with the pollination?'
Of course, the video mentioned that artificial pollination was also an option.
But artificial pollination for tomatoes required a special "red ink." Never mind them, not even the Qin sisters across the stream would have something like that.
Because of this critical technical problem of pollination, the two of them didn't get to eat tomatoes that night after all.
Wei Heng cooked a pot of large sweet potatoes in the dark.
Under the eerie moonlight, Gu Xi hugged a large sweet potato and squatted in front of the container home. Looking at the lights that had suddenly turned on across the stream, she turned her head to Wei Heng and said, "The camp should have a generator, right? Tomorrow, let's plant more sweet potatoes..."
Wei Heng squatted next to her, also looking at the lights opposite them with envy. "You want to trade food for a generator? It's not impossible. But energy is tight right now. If we want to trade sweet potatoes for a generator, we'll probably need to plant a lot more..."
Gu Xi thought of her one hundred acres of uncultivated wasteland and declared grandly, "No problem." No matter how many sweet potatoes it took, she would handle it all.
'In any case, the secret of the sweet potatoes is already out. If I try to hide it now, it will only make people more suspicious.'
'It's better to just be open about it.'
'Besides, the arrival of those two new neighbors this afternoon was a reminder... I'll have to observe a little longer.'
After the apocalypse, there was no electricity or entertainment in these wild mountains.
After finishing the sweet potatoes, the two of them planned to wash up and go to bed.
Before they parted ways, Gu Xi suddenly turned back and asked Wei Heng, "By the way, where did you find me back then?"
Wei Heng had just reached his own container home and was about to push the door open. Hearing her question, he turned and gave her a surprised look. "You don't remember where you were before you passed out?"
The sky had completely darkened by now, but Gu Xi's vision seemed unaffected. She stared at Wei Heng for a moment before saying, "I had been starving for several days back then, and there was something wrong with my ability. My mind wasn't very clear..."
"I see," Wei Heng said. "We found you in the ruins of area NX1984..."
Gu Xi said, "I heard from Mr. Zhou that you were the one who found me first that day..."
"That's right." Wei Heng nodded. "That day, I went scavenging with Mr. Zhou and the others... When I found you, you were unconscious in a patch of grass..."
He smiled and briefly recounted the story of how he found her. At the end, he joked, "They say you should repay a life-saving grace with your hand in marriage. Gu Xi, for the rest of my life... you'll have to provide all my food."
Gu Xi stared at him for a moment, then nodded in agreement. "...Alright."
With that, she pushed open the metal door on her side and went into her room.
Late that night, Gu Xi lay in bed, her eyes shining as brightly as stars.
'When I suddenly asked Wei Heng where he found me, his reaction was natural. The surprise in his eyes didn't seem feigned.'
'And from start to finish, I never sensed any malice from him.'
'Could it be that the appearance of the two new neighbors, and that small bag of tomato seeds, were truly just a coincidence?'
'...I'll wait and see.'
A long moment later, Gu Xi closed her eyes.
'And that NX1984 ruin area. I have to find time to go check it out.'