Chapter 273: Universal Planting System (12)

While washing, she opened her Light Brain, logged onto the Star Net, and searched for seasonings like salt.

The delivery industry in the Interstellar Era is already highly developed; as long as an order is placed, a flying Robot will deliver it to the door. Within the same planet, it arrives in under half an hour, and even to different planets, it takes no more than three hours.

Unfortunately, the consumption level on the Garbage Star is far too low. While seasonings like oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar do exist, no one is willing to spend Star Coins to buy them, so over time, they were removed from the System Mall.

And she cannot log onto the Star Net of other planets...

Xie Yang pondered two methods: one was to coax the Main System into opening a purchase channel limited to this plane.

However, ever since it lost a sum of private points in the 60s plane, this guy has refused to open that door for her again.

The other method was to buy an Automatic Sea Salt Maker in the System Mall, deploy it into the Ice Lake, and harvest a certain amount of sea salt every day.

The Ice Lake on the Garbage Star has both freshwater and saltwater sections.

As for the problem that the lake water also contains radiation...

She found a Radiation Filter in the System Mall for 60,000 points each.

In the past, she wouldn't have even glanced at such an expensive product, but her points were currently quite abundant, and the radiation problem could not be underestimated.

She let the Main System choose between these two plans.

The Main System chose the latter without hesitation.

Xie Yang: "..."

It is truly holding a grudge over that lost sum of private points.

That works too.

Then she would buy the Radiation Filter and the Automatic Sea Salt Maker, produce edible sea salt herself, and be well-fed and well-clothed.

The Main System deducted the points very swiftly, and after the deduction, it announced her point balance with a hint of cheer:

【Host, the remaining point balance is 599.】

Xie Yang: "..."

A little over 100,000 points spent almost entirely in less than three days?

She really is a little spendthrift!

But in fact, every bit she spent was on the essentials!

Is a Physical Enhancement Potion needed? Yes!

Is Children's Nutrient Solution needed? Yes!

Is a Plant Ripening Agent needed? Yes!

Is a Sea Salt Maker needed? Yes!

Is a Radiation Filter needed? Extremely!

Since they are all needed, there is nothing to feel bad about.

She had survived the days of being heavily in debt, and this time she at least still had a three-digit balance; stay calm!

Main System: 【...】

Once the Automatic Sea Salt Maker and the Radiation Filter were redeemed, Xie Yang followed the instructions and deployed them into the nearest saltwater Ice Lake.

She estimated that it could produce about 100g of edible refined sea salt every half hour; this was because of the extra filtration step, otherwise, the production speed would be even faster.

But Xie Yang was very satisfied; at this rate, becoming a sea salt merchant on the Garbage Star was just around the corner!

The problem is—which resident of the Garbage Star would buy salt?

In the end, she would probably be the one using most of it herself.

With the salt settled, Xie Yang's Cooking speed increased.

After washing the trotters and bones clean, she blanched them in boiling water.

There were no kitchen utensils or cookware at home, so Xie Yang split a large coconut from the Sub-system Space in half, poured the intoxicating coconut juice into a container, washed the hard coconut shell clean to use as a pot, and blanched the meat in batches.

She divided the blanched pig trotters into three portions; one was brushed with nectar from the Sub-system Space to be roasted. Aside from adding sweetness and detoxifying, the nectar didn't have any overly heaven-defying effects.

The other two portions: one salt-baked, one clear-stewed.

Compared to honey-roasted and salt-baked, the clear-stewed pig trotters had a softer and stickier texture when gnawed on.

The large pork bones were also divided into two pots; one was stewed until cooked to suck out the marrow, and the other was used to make a rich broth.

For the beef and lamb offal, which had a stronger gamey smell than pork offal, she used a Cantonese-style stewing method.

It would certainly look better with soy sauce, but since there wasn't any, she could only stew it plain.

With the hard coconut shells, the stewing pot problem was solved, but the oven...

Xie Yang thought for a moment, dug out the metal sheets she had previously picked up from the dump, and used tools to hammer together a simple oven, with a fire underneath and roasting on top.

For this, the Sub-system helped her collect a large pile of the best partners for roasting—apple wood and jujube wood.

These things were almost never seen in District 31, but she had seen withered branches and leaves dumped by other Habitable Stars at the ecological landfill; she just hadn't thought of it at the time, so she could pick up more next time she went.

"Mom! Come look! The green hair has grown taller!"

"..."

Xie Yang walked to the door, unable to laugh or cry, and leaned against the doorframe to correct her son's phrasing: "This isn't called green hair, it's called spices."

"Spices?"

"Yes! Mom will teach you; the one at your feet is cumin, the one next to it is called black cardamom, that cluster over there is green onion, and further over is ginger..."

You can't remove the gamey smell of offal without spices when braising, but she was in a rush, and due to environmental factors, she only planted simple and easy-to-grow herbal spices.

The effect of the Plant Ripening Agent from the system was very significant; after three sprays, by the afternoon, most of the spices were already mature and ready to be picked.

Xie Yang picked some of each and hurried off to braise the offal, leaving the rest to continue growing in the ground for seeds.

The little one still kept his eyes glued to the side, guarding this little vegetable patch, and would excitedly raise his voice to tell Xie Yang whenever there was any change.

It was fortunate that there wasn't a second household within a five-hundred-meter radius, otherwise, they would have thought her family had grown some kind of treasure.

That afternoon, smoke curled continuously above the home of Xie Yang.

Stewed big bones, stewed pig trotters, baked pig trotters, baked lamb trotters... the gradually thickening aroma of meat drifted out of the shelter, spreading through the air.

The little beast cub smelled this fragrance and couldn't help but straighten its upper body, its little nose tip twitching rapidly; what was this? It smelled so good!

The even better-smelling part was yet to come—

When the aroma of the braised offal came out, the overbearing fragrance directly overwhelmed the rich scent emitted by the meat bones and pig trotters, making the little beast cub drool immediately.

"So good, so good, so good!"

He kept twitching his little nose, sniffing and searching all the way along this scent, and finally entered the house...

That night, the excited voice of the little beast cub drifted out from time to time from the warm shelter of the Xie Family:

"Mommy, what is this? It's soft and glutinous and so delicious!"

"This is called Braised Large Intestine."

"Then what about this? This is also so delicious!"

"This is Braised Pork Stomach; try this pig liver too, isn't it also very tender and delicious?"

"Delicious, delicious! Zai Zai likes them all so much!"

Besides the childish voice, the overbearing aroma of the braised offal also drifted out at the same time.

Five hundred meters away at the home of Xiya, Xiya, who had already been hauled onto the bed by Xiya Ma to be urged to sleep, sat up with a start after smelling the faint, overbearing fragrance in the air, howling and insisting that he was hungry.

Xiya Ma furiously pulled him over and gave him a beating: "Hungry for what? Didn't you just drink your Nutrient Solution?"

"The fragrant one! I want to drink the fragrant one! I don't want the weird-tasting one!"

"What fragrant one? Where is there any fragrant one? You must be asleep and dreaming, right?"

"No! I'm not dreaming!"

Xiya not only had a keen sense of smell but also clear logic, and he pouted to refute his mother:

"I haven't fallen asleep yet, how could I be dreaming? I really smelled it! Awoo—"

"..."