Chapter 296: Greenhouse
Chapter 296: Chapter 296: Greenhouse
Lehehe Supermarket and "Fashionably Yours" had successfully derailed the conversation. The rest was basically the two of them in a heated flame war that no one could de-escalate.
Shen Lu closed the main group chat window, completely exasperated. Her mind turned to what they had just mentioned: the food delivery platform.
She recalled that when she first started using her Light Brain, she had made a point to check. The Lower City District didn’t have any food delivery apps; only the Upper City District did.
After all, the economic conditions in the Upper City District and the Lower City District were completely different. The average person in the Upper City District had money, so there was profit to be made from a delivery platform.
But the Lower City District was another story. More than half the population had no fixed income and relied on government food aid to get by. For people like them, just putting food on the table was a struggle, to say nothing of having spare money to buy a Light Brain and order delivery.
Shen Lu suspected this was just an excuse for Boss Jin to line his pockets.
And she guessed President Pan wouldn’t be cleaning up this mess, either.
As she was lost in thought, the car pulled up to the shop. The moment Shen Lu stepped out, a gust of wind blew sand right in her face.
Luckily, she hadn’t opened her mouth, otherwise it would have been even worse.
Shielding her face with her hands, Shen Lu scurried into the shop.
Shen Lu shook her head, trying to dust the sand from her body. Yang Jing walked over and quietly informed her that the day’s work was complete.
"Alright, I got it." After brushing herself off, Shen Lu followed Yang Jing to the backyard.
Shen Lu gave the plot of land Yang Jing was in charge of a quick glance. Everything seemed mostly in order, so she couldn’t be bothered to inspect it in detail.
She went into the corrugated iron shed and spot-checked the seeds that Liu Yaozu and Liu Qiang had sorted.
"Excellent. Keep it up tomorrow."
Liu Yaozu licked his lips. "Hey, sis, think I could get an extra chicken leg tomorrow?"
"We’ll see about your future performance." Shen Lu dusted off her hands and turned to leave.
"If you want to grow vegetables in this weather, you’ll have to put up a greenhouse," Liu Qiang finally couldn’t resist pointing out. "Otherwise, even if they sprout, the wind and sand will kill them."
Shen Lu knew she needed a greenhouse, of course. She was just debating whether to buy one from the System Mall or find a local merchant.
The patch of wasteland in the backyard wasn’t small. Shen Lu had asked the System; building a greenhouse large enough would cost about twenty thousand popularity value.
She was reluctant to spend nearly half of her popularity value in one go.
But the effectiveness and quality of a greenhouse from a local merchant would surely be inferior to one from the System Mall. That’s why Shen Lu had been procrastinating on the decision.
"Alright, I know."
For once, Shen Lu didn’t snap back at Liu Qiang. She just nodded, pushed the door open, and left.
After getting home and showering, Shen Lu was surprised to receive a message from Li Qin.
Li Qin: Are you there, Shen Lu? The sampling for your green onions is complete. If it’s convenient, could you make a trip to the research institute tomorrow?
Shen Lu dabbed moisturizing lotion on her face as she considered whether or not she should go.
’From a safety standpoint, I should probably avoid the research institute for a while,’ she thought. ’Even if I do go, it’d be better to wait until the dust settles from the Gong Tianhua incident.’
Shen Lu: Researcher Li, I’m sorry, but it’s not a good time for me to come by. Could you help me look after them for a while?
Li Qin: Alright, I understand.
Li Qin was a little disappointed to receive Shen Lu’s polite refusal.
She walked over to the shelves in her office where the experimental samples were kept. A dozen or so pots sat on the three-tiered rack, but one, in particular, stood out.
The green shoots in this particular sample pot were already over ten centimeters tall, towering over the other, barren pots.
Li Qin gently tapped one of the green shoots. They were lettuce seedlings.
The seeds were from a new, genetically improved variety that Li Qin herself had cultivated. Compared to older types of lettuce, they were designed to sprout and grow in poorer soil.
But Li Qin was well aware of her own limitations.
At her current skill level, it should have been impossible to cultivate such outstanding lettuce seedlings.
Seed modification required numerous experiments—taking months, if not years, to show even minor results.
But this pot of lettuce seedlings was growing exceptionally well. While the others hadn’t even sprouted, these were already over ten centimeters tall. In another two months, they’d be ready to harvest.
This pot of lettuce must have undergone some kind of beneficial mutation. There was no other way to achieve these results.
But Li Qin had pored over the records for this pot of lettuce countless times and couldn’t find any anomalous data.
It was just like how she couldn’t figure out why Shen Lu’s pot of green onions had managed to grow at all.
It was all a mystery.
「...」
Shen Lu lay down on her bed and casually used the Lottery Ticket she’d received for the day.
[Congratulations, Host! You have drawn prize #71 from the blind box: One mu of medium-grade fertile land.]
[Medium-Grade Fertile Land: The soil quality of this farmland is quite good and suitable for growing crops. With diligent cultivation, you can expect a relatively easy harvest.]
Shen Lu stared at the prize she had won, slightly stunned.
’See? The things I’m drawing are getting more and more fantastical,’ she thought. ’Looks like the Fiji Cup is just around the corner.’
Still, this mu of medium-grade fertile land had come at the perfect time. Now the labor of the three members of the Liu Family wouldn’t go to waste.
One mu of fertile land was still a little small for the backyard, though. She’d need at least four mu to cover the entire patch of wasteland.
Now that she had the fertile land, she couldn’t put off getting the greenhouse any longer.
Shen Lu said, "I’ve figured it out! You deliberately made me win this mu of fertile land just to get me to spend my popularity value!"
Shen Lu complained to the System as she placed the order for the greenhouse. "You guys are so damn sneaky!"
[Host, we’re only doing this to provide you with better service~]
Shen Lu: "SOB, my twenty thousand popularity value! Do you have any idea how long it takes me to save that much?!"
Shen Lu: "By the way, will the vegetables I grow myself have the same special properties as the ingredients from the System Mall?"
[Host, I must reiterate: this System only provides high-quality, healthy, and harmless ingredients. It does not provide anything with special properties~]
’Right,’ Shen Lu thought. ’So the System doesn’t know either.’
She’d have to test it all herself.
The greenhouse installation would take an hour. Shen Lu didn’t care how strange it would look for a greenhouse to suddenly materialize in her backyard; she just hit confirm.
The mu of fertile land was also laid out. She’d have Yang Jing start tilling the new soil tomorrow.
Once that was all done, Shen Lu pulled the covers over her head and went to sleep.
Wu Jun and Huo Qian, however, were in no mood to rest.
Standing on the fifth floor, Wu Jun’s eyes went wide as he stared at the greenhouse that had materialized out of thin air.
He sent Huo Qian a message: Holy shit, did you see that? What the hell is that thing?
Huo Qian was far calmer than he was: Never seen a greenhouse before?
Wu Jun: Of course I have. But I’ve never seen one pop up out of nowhere in the middle of the night.
Huo Qian: Don’t make such a big deal out of it. Didn’t the boss tell us that inexplicable things occasionally happen around Boss Shen? He said we just need to keep a close watch and report back to him immediately.
Wu Jun: Oh, right. Okay, I’ll take a couple of pictures for the boss.
Huo Qian: Wait for you to take pictures? Heh. By then it’ll be too late.
Wu Jun: So what do we do?
Huo Qian: I already recorded a video and sent it.
Wu Jun: KissyFace.jpg
Huo Qian: KickingYou.jpg
Huo Qian: Wu Jun, I’m warning you. Send another one of those disgusting pictures and don’t blame me for what happens next.
Wu Jun: You’ll never get married if you’re this aggressive...
Huo Qian: Don’t you worry about me. I can just get myself an obedient husband.
「...」