After harvesting the sweet potatoes, Wei Heng glanced at the time.
2:12 PM
There was enough time.
He decided on the spot to head back to the camp and trade for supplies.
Because they were poor, they had only brought a small amount of essential supplies when they left yesterday. In other words, aside from the items provided for free by the camp, they had brought almost nothing else.
So on this trip back, besides trading for a generator and some Energy Blocks, Wei Heng planned to get some other supplies as well.
Things like toiletries, the spices needed for the kitchen, and... Wei Heng subconsciously glanced at Gu Xi.
'The girl was still wearing the old clothes Ye Lin had given her a few days ago. She only had those two outfits. I have to find a way to get her a couple of new sets of clothes this time, and also some things that girls need.'
'But he didn't know much about that stuff. He'd have to ask Ye Lin...'
When Gu Xi saw Wei Heng looking at her, she thought he was asking if she needed to trade for anything.
After thinking for a moment, she said, "On this trip back to camp, besides getting the generator and Energy Blocks, we also need to find a way to get some nutrient solution..."
Using superpowers to stimulate plants only accelerated their growth process. The nutrients they needed during that growth, however, still had to be obtained from the soil.
And the plot of land by their door, after having sweet potatoes, watermelons, tomatoes, and then sweet potatoes again grown on it in quick succession, was already showing visible signs of depletion.
Even the new land they had cleared that morning was somewhat lacking in fertilizer after a quick crop of sweet potatoes.
The earth needs to rest and recover, too.
To solve this problem, the base had developed a concentrated nutrient solution some years ago. It just needed to be diluted and sprayed on the soil to solve the issue of insufficient fertility.
'But the price of this nutrient solution seems a little steep, doesn't it?'
However, the ones who used this kind of nutrient solution were generally Wood Element users.
After all, ordinary people farmed at a limited speed. By using crop residue and the organic fertilizer from withered wild mutant plants, along with a reasonable crop rotation system, they could almost always allow the land to rest and recover effectively.
But Wood Element users planted at an extremely fast pace, and with that, the drawback became apparent.
Wei Heng nodded and quickly compiled a list of supplies to trade for.
Looking it over, there was quite a lot to get.
Fortunately, besides the sweet potatoes, they also had watermelons and tomatoes... Those were all valuable and rare goods.
Since there was too much to haul back to the camp, one truck clearly wasn't enough.
So Qin Shi went back across the creek and drove their big truck over as well.
Gu Xi kept only a small amount of the watermelons and tomatoes, loading the rest onto the trucks. As for the sweet potatoes... she kept all the ones she had grown herself and only loaded the ones Qin Yi had stimulated today.
Wei Heng and Qin Yi couldn't see any difference in the sweet potatoes, so they didn't think much of it, just assuming Gu Xi wanted to keep the ones with a lower mutation coefficient for herself.
That was perfectly normal. After all, who didn't want to eat better these days?
Qin Shi, however, gave Gu Xi a thoughtful look while helping to move the sweet potatoes.
Soon, Wei Heng and Qin Shi were driving the two big trucks, roaring off in the direction of the camp.
Qin Yi and Gu Xi were left behind to watch the house.
There was no farming to do in the afternoon, and neither of them had a habit of napping.
With nothing to do, the two girls each grabbed a big tomato, squatted in the open space in front of the house, and started browsing the forums.
Right now, the hottest topic on the forums was still the news that Central Base would be dispatching agricultural experts across the country to guide farming production...
In the current environment, clearing land and farming was exceptionally difficult, so everyone had high hopes for this.
The experts hadn't even arrived yet, but some camps were already starting to fight over them!
Thinking of Gu Xi's crude planting methods, Qin Yi looked up at her and tactfully offered a suggestion:
"How about we register too? When the experts come, we can ask them to take a look at our land."
Gu Xi was quickly scrolling through the latest news on the forum and replied casually, "Right now, ninety-nine point nine percent of the pioneers in the country are ordinary people. The first thing the experts need to solve are the problems ordinary people face when planting. Our methods as superpower users are different..."
Qin Yi thought about it and figured that made sense, so she didn't say anything more.
Instead, it was Gu Xi who suddenly sighed, "There's so little information online..."
Qin Yi sighed along with her. "I know, right? So much pre-apocalypse data has been lost. Even though the country has been rebuilding all these years, the information available in the central database is still limited..."
'The central database? Is that the concept Dr. Qi proposed back then?'
Gu Xi lowered her eyes. "Everything will be all right."
"Yeah, everything will be all right." The sweet girl, Qin Yi, quickly cheered up and pulled Gu Xi into the gossip forums with her.
The girl seemed to love smiling; the dimples on her face never disappeared.
With such a lively, cute, and sweet girl by her side, time passed exceptionally quickly.
Just as dusk fell, Wei Heng and Qin Shi returned in the big trucks.
They brought back a truck full of things. Besides the generator, Energy Blocks, and some living supplies, there was even an air conditioner and a large freezer!
Gu Xi was taken aback. She remembered that the camp didn't have these items when they left yesterday.
Gu Xi looked up at Wei Heng.
While unloading the cargo, Wei Heng explained, "It was a coincidence. A new batch of supplies arrived just this afternoon. When we got back, the logistics department's transport plane hadn't left yet..."
Gu Xi took a large box from him, thinking to herself, 'That really is a coincidence.'
With the two Qin sisters helping, everything was put away quickly.
Qin Shi was very capable; she set up the generator all by herself.
Moreover, she had also brought back a water pump. Tomorrow, after they ran a pipe from upstream in the creek and connected a drinking water filtration system, they would have running water.
Looking at the brightly lit kitchen, Wei Heng decided to show Gu Xi his skills tonight.
'A professional crisis is looming. To protect his own livelihood, he has to demonstrate his greatest value, right?'
Wei Heng rolled up his sleeves and began to display his culinary talents: steamed sweet potatoes, stir-fried bitter melon with tomatoes, cold-dressed sweet potato leaves, french fries, sugared tomatoes, watermelon rind vegetable soup... and for the grand finale, he even made candied sweet potatoes!
He also carved an exquisite fruit platter from a large, green-rinded watermelon.
It could be called a truly lavish feast.
Gu Xi hadn't tampered with the dishes, but because the ingredients themselves had a relatively low mutation coefficient, and Wei Heng's cooking was quite good, the Qin sisters were extremely satisfied with the meal.
Wei Heng, however, felt that something was slightly off. 'Why don't tonight's sweet potatoes taste as good as before?'
But he didn't say anything, instead bringing up another matter. "The list of agricultural experts Central Base is sending to our area has been finalized..."
"Ye Lin said there are three people coming this time. Two are professors from the Agricultural University, and the other is a researcher from the Central Base Superpower Research Institute. He has a pretty unusual name, Xv Yiyisan..."
Hearing this name so suddenly, Gu Xi froze for a moment. 'Xv Yiyisan... is that the crybaby I picked up back then?'
"This Xv Yiyisan is also a powerful Wood Element user, I hear," Qin Shi added from the side, as if unintentionally.
Gu Xi kept her head down, nibbling on a sweet potato without joining the conversation.
After dinner, the two sisters stayed for a while longer before reluctantly leaving, carrying two large watermelons and a big bag of tomatoes.
That night, Gu Xi lay on the freshly made bed, covered with the new quilt Wei Heng had just traded for, thinking about the name that Li Ming had once called out as a joke—Xv Yiyisan...
'Time really flies. To think that the little crybaby she picked up back then has now become an agricultural expert...'
Gu Xi's feelings were a bit complicated.
She had thought she would have trouble falling asleep that night, but unexpectedly, she soon fell into a dream...
In her dream, it was as if she had returned to the autumn of the twenty-eighth year of the apocalypse.
The Zombie Emperor stood in the wasteland, watching her coldly. Behind it was an endless Mutant Plant Army...
Gu Xi tightened her grip on the scimitar in her hand and, just as she had back then, charged forward without hesitation.
But this time, the comrades who had once fought shoulder-to-shoulder with her were not by her side...