Chapter 1105: Potato-Specific Fertilizer

When the little Does Daigua monkey who had been waiting to eat came home with its belly all puffed out, Xia Qing, who had just finished cleaning the chicken coop, pressed it into a basin of water and scrubbed it clean, then hung it under the eaves of the corridor to air-dry on its own. "Daidigua, once you're dry, put on the clothes beside you and come find me. The cotton in the shed is ready to be picked."

Employee No. 002 had come back, eaten its fill, drunk its fill, and been washed clean—of course it had to get back on the job. With its small frame, it was perfectly suited to darting through the cotton fields picking cotton.

"Eep—" Does Daigua replied, squatting on the wooden perch and basking comfortably as its fur dried.

Xia Qing led the cow to the big tree outside the village and tethered it there, cut some fresh grass for it, and then, while catching bugs to feed the fish, listened to her allies chatting on the Lord Channel.

Xia Qing had already received Xu Juan's message about Yan Meng's death while on the helicopter. What the allies were chatting about now wasn't that matter, but rather the potato-specific fertilizer that Hui Four Base had developed and was promoting.

During the just-passed third Calamity Rain, the Class-B Magnetic Perception Evolver from Center Nine had patrolled the territory's oil sunflower fields and promptly cleared out the aggressive Calamity-evolved plants hiding in the fields, so during this Calamity Rain, not a single crisis of oil sunflowers wildly growing and crazily spraying sunflower seeds to attack the greenhouses and humans occurred in the North Sector One territory.

This confirmed to the lords that Class-B Magnetic Perception Evolvers really could identify problem plants in advance. Not only could oil sunflowers be grown, potatoes could be grown too.

Because potatoes could serve as both grain and vegetable, and their yield was high, after ruling out the crisis of dancing potato vines, the lords had all decided to plant potatoes on a large scale in the greenhouses. So when they heard a base had developed a potato-specific fertilizer, everyone was very interested.

Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie button. "Sister Li, how is this potato-specific fertilizer sold, and what's the dosage?"

Hearing Zhu Li answered immediately. "This is a foliar fertilizer. Spray once every half month. The dosage per mu is half a jin, and half a jin costs 150 points."

Shi Zhong came online. "In other words, the entire potato growing process requires six to eight applications of the special fertilizer, so the fertilizer cost per mu is 900-1200 points. That's not cheap. Little Zhu, did Hui Four say how much this fertilizer can increase yield?"

Hearing Zhu Li answered, "The seller only said it can significantly increase yield, no specific data given."

Zhang San came online lazily. "Hearing Zhu Li, what are the active ingredients in the potato-specific fertilizer?"

Hearing Zhu Li flipped open the ingredient list and carefully read it out to the big shot. "The other party says this special fertilizer has a nitrogen content greater than or equal to 46%, plus added chlorophyll, and specially added poly-aspart... aspartic acid. Third Brother, do you think we can use this kind of fertilizer here?"

"What the heck?" Lord Huo Lei, who was weeding inside Territory Eleven, straightened up and turned to look at Watching Huo Zhun.

Hmm...

God knew what that stuff was. Watching Huo Zhun pretended he couldn't hear anything, vigorously swung his hoe, and tried to get as far away from his old man as possible.

Before Watching Huo Zhun could get far, Xia Qing's voice came through on the Lord Channel. "Third Brother, poly-aspartic acid promotes root growth and the plant's absorption of nutrient elements—that's the most obvious difference between this special fertilizer and other fertilizers, right? For Hui Four to dare to launch a fertilizer like this, they should have already passed stability testing. Have you seen any news on that?"

After the Catastrophe, Blue Star's ecological environment had undergone obvious changes. Fertilizers used for farming had to pass stability testing—that is, applying the fertilizer to the field or spraying it on crop leaves according to dosage and method, and observing whether the Calamity element content and Calamity evolution rate of the crops changed significantly throughout the entire growth cycle.

If applying this kind of fertilizer would disrupt the crops' Calamity-Yi two-element balance and significantly raise their Calamity element content and Calamity evolution rate, then it meant its stability was substandard.

A fertilizer with substandard stability, no matter how well it promoted crop growth, would have the opposite effect.

Hearing that Xia Qing knew what poly-aspartic acid was, Zhang San's voice became noticeably more affable. "From the ingredient list, it should be this kind of amino acid. As for the stability testing, just check the Agriculture Department website yourself and you'll know."

Hearing the exchange between Xia Qing and the big shot, Watching Huo Zhun, under enormous pressure, swung his hoe even faster. Sister Qing really wasn't leaving him any way out at all.

"Alright, thank you, Third Brother."

After successfully gaining favor in front of her idol, Xia Qing immediately climbed the ladder. "Third Brother, what are you planning to eat for lunch today? The big tomatoes in my territory have ripened. Would you like scrambled eggs with tomatoes for lunch today? Shall I send some over?"

Zhang San was silent for over a dozen seconds before saying, "No need. I'll have Zheng Chen come get it."

"Alright, Third Brother, I'll go pick them right away." Xia Qing first went home and packed five chicken eggs, then went to Greenhouse One and carefully picked four red tomatoes with regular shapes, and together with the purple violets she had dug up in Blind-Eye Tiger's territory that day, handed them all to Zheng Chen. "Brother Zheng, I want to ask Third Brother to help me test the quality of this little plant."

Her idol had said he didn't want to see her, so Xia Qing didn't dare rashly run over and get scolded. What she hoped now was that the purple violets she had dug back were the evolved variety her idol wanted. That way, it would both make her idol happy and make up for her loss.

Zheng Chen took the plain, unremarkable little plant in the transparent sampling test tube, was silent for a few seconds, seeming to want to say something, but in the end said nothing, turned and left.

Xia Qing acted as if she had seen nothing, returned to her own territory, and continued with her busy work.

When it was time for lunch, Xia Qing heard Yu Wenchuang calling out on the Lord Channel. "Is Young Lady Xia finished? This is Yu Wenchuang."

The lords, hearing Yu Wenchuang looking for Xia Qing again, all pricked up their ears to listen.

Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie button and calmly asked, "Not yet. Little Boss Yu has come looking for me twice this morning. Is there some urgent official business?"

Asking when she already knew the answer!

What kind of official business could their Chonglian Group possibly have to discuss with a farmer?!

No wonder this stinking woman could pal around with Seeing Xin Yu—every word out of her mouth was unpleasant, she needed disciplining!

Yu Wenchuang suppressed his fury, his voice carrying a note of familiarity. "There are indeed some business matters I need to discuss with Director Xia. I wonder when you have time—shall I come over to your place?"

Xia Qing answered calmly, "Four o'clock this afternoon. I'll be waiting for you at the Center Nine office."

How was he supposed to discuss anything if she made him go to the office?!

Just as Yu Wenchuang was about to press the button, he heard Professor Fu Tianfeng's voice come through again. "Xia Qing, look at the test report I just sent to your phone."

"Alright, Third Brother, I'll look right away." The moment Xia Qing heard her idol's tone, she understood that the purple violets she had sent to Territory Seven were the kind her idol needed.

After saying that, Xia Qing turned off the walkie-talkie directly, opened her phone to look at the purple violet test report her idol had sent over, and saw that many of the test values on the report had small upward arrows next to them, which meant that the active ingredient content in the purple violets she had collected from Blind-Eye Tiger's territory exceeded that of ordinary purple violets.

Xia Qing sent a message asking: Third Brother, are the violets I dug up the same quality as the grass stems I previously found in the evolved tiger's teeth gaps and wounds?

Zhang San replied: Yes. Send me the coordinates of where this herb originally grew. I need the specific environmental data of the original location.

Xia Qing sent over the coordinates she had recorded at the time, and added: That place is the core territory of the evolved tiger I rescued. It has at least four evolved tiger companions nearby, all larger and more powerful than it.

Zhang San...