Chapter 98: Green Bean Cultivation Guide

Before Qi Fu could answer, Zhao Ze started shouting in surprise, "Xia Qing, your green bean pods are ready to pick?!"

Xia Qing replied calmly, "Not all of them, just a few of the early-blooming ones have turned black. I read in the Planting Encyclopedia that once they turn black, they can be harvested."

The person who wrote the Planting Encyclopedia was far inferior to Li Si. The Planting Encyclopedia only stated that green bean pods could be harvested once they turned black, then sun-dried and sealed for storage. But it didn't say how to sun-dry them, how to tell when they were dry enough, or what the conditions for sealed storage were.

Qi Fu answered, "Before, we dried them with the pods still on, and when the pods burst open, that counted as dried. Evolved green beans should be the same, right, Fourth Sister?"

Li Si wasn't online and didn't speak.

Shi Zhong answered, "Xia Qing, you should still dry them with the pods on for now. When Fourth Sister comes online and says to split them open and dry, you can peel them then—it's not too late."

Shi Zhong made a lot of sense. If Xia Qing shelled the green beans now, and it turned out they were supposed to be dried with the pods on, she couldn't possibly stuff the beans back into the pods. "Got it. Thank you, Uncle Shi, Brother Qi."

Zhang San spoke up lazily, "Xia Qing, give me two jin of green beans. It's hot—I'll have a couple bowls of green bean soup to cool off."

Xia Qing replied immediately, "Third Brother, the ripe ones are yellow-light green beans."

Xia Qing's two mu of green bean fields had only twenty-seven green-light plants; the rest were all yellow-light. She couldn't bear to eat the green-light ones herself, wanting to save them for seed.

An idol should of course eat green beans, but that would have to wait until she had enough green-light bean seeds.

Hearing they were yellow-light, Zhang San lost interest. "Does anyone have green-light ones?"

The other lords didn't make a sound. Li Si spoke up, "I do. I'll bring some over to Third Brother later."

Zhang San, still lazy, "I only eat this year's new beans."

Li Si replied immediately, "There aren't any in the territory right now. I'll bring them to Third Brother in five days."

Zhang San didn't respond—he had clearly agreed to the deal.

Through this transaction, Xia Qing confirmed that the degree to which Zhang Si found Li Si disagreeable was far less than the degree to which he found Tang Huai disagreeable. Another point: just now when Qi Fu called out to Li Si, she didn't respond, but the moment Zhang San spoke, she appeared. If it wasn't a coincidence, then she had set Zhang San as a special contact.

Does the walkie-talkie even have that function?

Or maybe she had specifically assigned someone to monitor the walkie-talkie around the clock, so that the moment Zhang San came online, she would be notified immediately?

Xia Qing picked a few more green bean pods and stuffed them into her bag, then repeated her earlier question, "Fourth Sister, this is Xia Qing. May I purchase a green bean cultivation guide from you?"

"You don't need to emphasize who you are—I can tell the difference between male and female voices." Li Si replied coolly, "One guide, two green-light cucumbers."

"Alright, thank you, Fourth Sister." Xia Qing happily agreed. No need to ask—Li Si wanted green-light cucumbers to taste the cucumbers Zhang San liked to eat. Two cucumbers in exchange for a detailed evolved green bean cultivation guide—Xia Qing had gotten the better end of the deal by far.

Qi Fu quickly followed up, "Fourth Sister, this is Qi Fu from Territory Five. I'd like to trade for a green bean cultivation guide too. Would two green-light eggplants work?"

Zhang San had also eaten the green-light eggplants from Territory Five.

Li Si didn't answer. About fifteen seconds later, a gentle female voice gave a reply, "Hello everyone, I'm Assistant Xiao Liu from Territory Nine. I will be handling the following transactions."

A new person had appeared. Xia Qing straightened up and listened carefully.

Assistant Xiao Liu's voice was gentle, but her words were anything but, "Our lord's Evolved Green Bean Cultivation Guide contains five proprietary planting techniques that have not been made public in the Safe Zone. The transaction price is eight hundred points. After obtaining the Guide, the lords must strictly follow the instructions on the Guide's cover page when using the cultivation techniques. If improper use results in the leakage of the techniques, Territory Nine will pursue you for patent infringement and add you to a permanent trade blacklist. This transaction will not accept points. Lords interested in the transaction, please state your territory number and the type and quantity of trade goods."

Xia Qing immediately pressed the button, "Sister Liu, may I ask if the transaction Fourth Sister just made with Territory Three still stands?"

"It stands." Xiao Liu gently reminded her, "Please address me as Assistant Liu in the future, Miss Xia."

Xia Qing immediately corrected herself, "Understood, thank you, Assistant Liu."

Eight hundred points—eighty jin of yellow-light vegetables or sixteen jin of green-light vegetables. Something that valuable had been traded away by Xia Qing for two uncounted cucumbers, and everyone had been at a loss for words.

After much deliberation, Qi Fu chose to proceed with the trade, "Assistant Liu, this is Qi Fu from Territory Five. May I trade sixteen jin of green-light eggplants for the Guide? But I only have two green-light eggplant plants, so I can't deliver it all at once. Can I split it into three deliveries?"

Assistant Xiao Liu replied gently, "That works, Mr. Liu. Deal."

Luo Pei spoke up gently, "Assistant Liu, can Territory One trade building materials for the Guide?"

Assistant Xiao Liu's voice grew even gentler, "May I ask what building materials your esteemed territory has available for trade?"

Luo Pei answered, "Insect-proof putty powder, wall paint, and roof waterproof coating."

Assistant Xiao Liu replied immediately, "Would forty jin of roof waterproof coating work?"

"That works. Thank you, Assistant Liu." Luo Pei agreed.

Then, Tang Zhengpo from Territory Twelve spoke up, "Hello, Assistant Liu. Can Territory Twelve trade four portions of barbecue seasoning for it? The barbecue seasoning is my exclusive secret recipe, publicly priced at two hundred points per portion in Hui-Three Safe Zone."

Xiao Liu's voice was gentle, "That works, Mr. Tang. Deal."

Zhang San spoke up lazily, "Territory Seven trades one portion of barbecue seasoning, paying with medicine."

Tang Zhengpo's tone when speaking with Zhang San was no different from when he spoke with anyone else, "Third Brother, may I have one bottle of non-toxic insect repellent spray?"

Zhang San replied lazily, "Sure."

Hearing their father complete a deal with Zhang San, Tang Huai and Tang Heng from Territory Two nearly cried.

As expected, Li Si came online to get the same item as her idol, "Third Brother, I want one bottle of non-toxic insect repellent spray too."

Zhang Si refused outright, "Not trading. Mix it yourself."

"Hahaha—" In the green bean field, Xia Qing couldn't help laughing out loud. The old goat, lying not far away in the green shade, glanced at Xia Qing throwing a fit in the green bean shed, then disdainfully turned its head away.

Xia Qing picked the two most presentable green-light cucumbers from her own vegetable garden and traded them for a four-page, double-sided printed copy of the Green Bean Cultivation Guide.

After carefully reading the usage instructions on the cover page and confirming that as long as she didn't teach the proprietary techniques to others, she wouldn't be violating any taboos, she began to study seriously.

From beginning to end, the guide didn't mark which techniques were Li Si's exclusive proprietary technology, but after reading the entire guide, Xia Qing felt as if the clouds had parted and the sky had cleared—she suddenly knew exactly how to properly grow evolved green beans.

So it turned out that evolved green beans had no dormancy period and could be sown immediately after being sun-dried.

So it turned out that evolved green beans were deep-rooted plants and required the soil to be deeply tilled and finely raked.

So it turned out that evolved green beans should be pruned, and on afternoons when the sunlight was too intense, they needed to be shaded, or given water after being scorched.

So it turned out…

With this Guide in hand, the content about green bean cultivation in the Planting Encyclopedia issued by Hui-Three Base could be completely deleted.