Chapter 4122: When the Pumpkins Ripen (15)

The two still didn't drive. Because the gasoline Arrogance possessed was not much. And that gardening store was not far from the subway station, so they first took a bus, and then took the subway to the gardening store.

They thought it would be a small shop on a commercial street, but in reality, it was an exhibition of a suburban farm. And because of the Halloween holiday, many people gathered here, all choosing gardening supplies and various seeds.

"What do you plan to plant next year?" Greed asked.

"I don't know. Whatever Pamela gives me, I'll plant."

"You are really not afraid of plants hitting you."

"I assure you, any seed you buy here has a chance of jumping up and hitting you."

"How could Brainiac allow it?"

"He doesn't allow it. But he can't control Pamela. On the bright side, even if it's just to make plants hit people, he will definitely try his best to ensure the plants grow vigorously, rather than letting them be too weak or die of disease. Compared to the harvest, hitting people is nothing."

"You guys are really crazy."

"And Brainiac has also taken measures; Bruce has been developing a brand-new plant harvester that can well deal with the situation of plants hitting people."

"This is truly the most absurd research motivation I have ever heard."

"But this has indeed provided many jobs. The Kent family farm had to hire six bodyguards to prevent Clark's father from having his ribs broken by cabbage during the busy farming season."

"Krypton should have left more people."

They wandered around various stalls. Everything was sold here, and the most eye-catching were those big pumpkins. Obviously, Pamela's seeds were widely circulated. And in this magical city, almost everyone could subdue pumpkins that would hit people, so now the pumpkins were all lying honestly on the ground.

"Hello, what do you want?" A woman wearing a headscarf stood behind the stall and smiled at them, "There are all kinds of vegetable seeds here, as well as flower seeds and grass seeds. Part of it can be settled in cash, and the other part requires points."

"Alright, what can be settled in cash?"

That woman took out a few packs of seeds and said: "Asparagus, lettuce, cabbage, artichoke, and kale."

"How much are grass seeds?"

"Grass seeds require points. And I don't have much left here; if you want to create a whole lawn..."

"No, it's probably just to fill a square foot of space."

"Then these will be enough. You need to pay me three points. Don't you want vegetable seeds?"

The woman was very hard-working in promoting vegetable seeds. Arrogance knew that the vegetable seeds she promoted were relatively easy to plant. If they were those oil-producing crops or plants like tomatoes that needed racks, he might really not be able to get them.

"Alright. I want asparagus, lettuce, and cabbage."

Arrogance picked some and paid the money. Afterward, they went to the farm tool stall. Greed squatted in front of the stall and said: "You need a bigger pair of scissors to trim the branches of the chestnut tree. Then you need a ladder to pick chestnuts. The base for the bird drinking place can be made, but the water pipe and faucet need to be bought..."

They picked many things scattered. Fortunately, many less commonly used things here could be settled in cash. On the way back, Arrogance said: "I'm afraid we have to divide the work. You go and fix the things in the courtyard, and then I'm going to carve pumpkins."

"You really intend to carve it yourself?"

"Yes. And I intend to carve two, one to take to the banquet, and the other to place in front of my own door."

"Alright. The scraps carved down will be lunch for the two of us."

After returning home, Greed began to tidy up the courtyard. First, he had to make the fence lower. These hedges grew higher and higher, causing that when standing on the first floor, one could almost no longer see the lake, and could only see a little bit of the edge of the lake and the distant woodland, completely wasting the beautiful scenery outside the window.

This was easy to handle; take the scissors and trim, trimming the hedge to a suitable height. In this way, one could see most of the lake surface. Of course, people outside could also see the situation in the house relatively clearly. But after all, it is sparsely populated here now, and no one would pay attention to whether the homeowner is processing a moose in the house, so being lower doesn't matter.

Immediately after was filling the lawn. Shovel away the originally sparse grass seedlings, and then sprinkle the grass seeds on top. Of course, under normal circumstances, grass would not sprout in this season, but after all, there is gray mist, and it can be ripened a little bit.

The front yard cannot have any debris. Everything must be moved to the backyard, so that the experts who come to test will think this is a good courtyard. Fortunately, there is usually nothing piled up here. Greed tidied up simply, and the front yard became empty.

Then was the wall in front of the house, which could not have peeling or stains. After flushing it once with a water gun, it became shiny.

Immediately after was the mailbox. Actually, the mailbox was quite new, but it might be because the wind recently was a bit strong, causing it to be a bit crooked, and the paint surface was also peeling a bit. So it needed to be straightened and repainted.

Then the fallen leaves on the road in front of the courtyard also needed to be swept clean. Although there might be more soon, one could take a few photos when it was clean, which would help with subsequent applications.

After everything was done, it wasn't over yet, because the backyard also needed to be tidied up. The regulations given by Brainiac clearly wrote that the backyard was unqualified. And in Greed's view, it was indeed not very qualified.

Arrogance basically didn't plant flowers in the garden. Besides the vegetables in the vegetable patch, there were some shrubs. Not to mention the aesthetic problem, this was not conducive to animal habitation. Brainiac's environmental protection regulations basically inherited the original New Jersey regulations, which was that once the courtyard exceeded a certain area, there was a responsibility to provide convenient living environments for small animals.

So Americans are not unwilling to plant land in the backyard, but if all of it is cultivated, it might violate many environmental protection regulations, and serious ones might even be accused of ecological extermination. The jury would never loosen up on these issues, so even if there is a small vegetable patch, it must be ensured that the remaining places have enough lawns, shrubs, and flowers.

Actually, if it were just rodents and birds, having a lawn would be enough, but because there are hummingbirds and bees here, flowers must also be planted, and bird houses and bird drinking places must be set up, and then guard against squirrels and small birds grabbing food, but squirrels cannot be harmed, at most they can be shaken off.

Greed first trimmed the shrubs, then leveled the soil around the field, and took out some already grown flowers—these were all brought from the garden in the backyard of his asylum, all planted in the courtyard.

After calculating the ratio, he felt it should be qualified. Then use wooden boards to hang on the fence of the backyard, make a simple bird drinking place, connect the water pipe and faucet, and soon water could come out.

The backyard of Arrogance's house also had trees, but they were all some short trees. Greed checked their situation and found they were growing quite well. But he still said to Arrogance: "We have to get a big tree, preferably a beech tree. This way we can tell the experts that we have experience in raising this kind of tree. The application will be easier to pass."

"You go get it yourself." Arrogance was busy carving pumpkins and said, "If Brainiac says you are stealing trees, I will help you block his messages."

Greed sighed. He had no choice but to go to the woods outside for a turn, wanting to pick a suitable tree to bring back and plant. But just as he entered the woods, he found that there seemed to be more footprints here again.

At first, Greed felt that this might be the police's, after all, the police had been wandering around here, seeming to feel that the accomplices might return, and had not given up monitoring and squatting here.

But soon he found it was wrong, because the police wouldn't wander around here aimlessly, and the person who left the footprints seemed to have wandered in the woods for quite a long time.

Greed observed the shoe prints and found that this was an adult male, but apart from that, not much information was left. The other party seemed relatively cautious, and it was not easy to see more information.

Greed thought for a moment and felt there were two possibilities: either it was another investigator they didn't know, who had been investigating this case and came to the crime scene to investigate after hearing that the children were rescued; the other possibility was the kidnapper's accomplice, who had dropped something here, so they had to return to search.

Greed searched the woods thoroughly, but found nothing missing. Then Gray Mist said to him: "It might be in the lake."

"Then are we going down to look for it?"

"It's better not to, there is a monster at the bottom of the lake. No matter what fell in, no one can fish it out."

"That is to say, they will never find it either."

"Hmm. If it was eaten by the monster, it definitely can't be found."

"Could it be the kind of equipment they used to bypass Brainiac's monitoring? They wanted to set up the equipment in the woods, and then accidentally dropped it into the lake. This can also explain why they wandered in this woods before."

"But they brought children. Children don't seem to be of any use for setting up equipment, right?"

"This might just be a method of mental control. For example, taking them to do these things is a reward of sorts. After all, they have been locked in that cramped basement. Everyone wants to go out for a breather, and in order to exercise authority, the kidnappers decided to set an example, letting the well-behaved children go out with him."

Gray Mist also felt this was possible. However, what exactly happened might still have to wait for the report from the police side. And the good news is that the equipment they dropped here should never be retrieved.

Greed considered whether to tell Brainiac this news. If Brainiac wanted to know what exactly that kind of equipment was, he might choose to go down to the lake to search. Considering there is a monster in the lake, this is not something one or two people can complete, and it might eventually require pumping water, which might cause a big stir and affect their normal life.

However, it seemed that Arrogance was still quite concerned about the child kidnapping case. So after bringing a tree back, Greed still told him this news and his speculation.

"You mean they very likely dropped the equipment in the lake? But would they really be so careless?"

"Have you forgotten? Kidnappers will make some irrational moves because they want to establish authority. It is very likely that they let the children be responsible for a part of setting up the equipment, and as a result, the equipment fell into the lake. And they didn't have time to fish it out before they were caught."

"Possible." Arrogance nodded. He knew very well that what is needed to establish authority and carry out mental control is not low-level means like beating and scolding, but giving people love they have never experienced before. For a child, if they have never received encouragement in their previous family, they will be very eager for recognition, and the best way to give recognition is to hand them some important tasks, making them feel that they are very important. If the kidnapper wanted to achieve this purpose, then they really might have let the children complete important tasks like setting up equipment.

Although Gotham's children are gifted, they are not all Jason. If the kidnapper used products of alien technology, the child might not understand, and might even slip and fall. It can only be said that if Barry hadn't caught them all in one nest that night, the kidnapper would definitely have killed that child in anger. ===== CHAPTER 4123 =====