Chapter 38: Chapter 38: Planning the Space, Heart-shaped Persimmons Go Viral

After a short nap of about half an hour, Gu Qinghuan felt refreshed. She slung a water bottle over her shoulder, grabbed a burlap sack, and headed out.

The two kids were still sleeping, so she decided not to bring them along that afternoon.

This worked out well—Zhong Zijun could start teaching them some basic knowledge, giving them a bit of an early education, and they could help out with some chores, too.

As for the schisandra berries, she could go look for those herself.

Her first stop was the big river.

It was midday, so there wasn’t a soul in sight by the riverside.

She crouched on the large rock where the village women usually did their laundry.

Gu Qinghuan dipped her hand into the water, letting a trickle of spiritual spring water seep from her fingertips.

Spiritual spring water seemed to have a strong allure for animals—she’d discovered this during her earlier experiments in the mountains.

She waited for about a minute.

Suddenly, the water in front of her began to churn, teeming with countless dark shadows beneath the surface. Several large fish even leapt out of the water, which was a bit startling to see.

She knew it was about time.

She reached her hand into the water again.

This time, the dense mass of shadows in front of her vanished in an instant, and the water level by the riverbank even dropped by two centimeters.

Gu Qinghuan smiled in satisfaction, washed her hands, and got up to head into the mountains.

There were quite a few people on the mountain that afternoon, most carrying baskets on their backs—it was harvest season, after all.

Gu Qinghuan wasn’t one for small talk. Aside from nodding at people she knew, she ignored the rest.

Everyone was used to her temperament by now. Deep down, they even felt a bit sorry for her—a girl this beautiful, and yet her future seemed ruined.

Gu Qinghuan found a secluded spot and entered her space.

The fish pond she’d dug at noon was now filled with river water, and the fish and shrimp inside were swimming happily. She even caught sight of a few large softshell turtles among them.

She’d thought about dumping all the seafood from her kitchen—fish and lobsters—into the pond as well, but worried they might end up fighting each other.

So she dug a smaller pond nearby, specifically for the seafood.

Now it was perfect.

With the fish ponds sorted, it was time to get started on planting.

Although Gu Qinghuan wasn’t an expert in farming, after a year in the countryside, she’d picked up most of the basics and could be considered half a farmer.

So the simple planting work wasn’t a problem for her.

First, she used the vending machine to buy a batch of high-quality seeds from the future.

Rice, wheat, corn, spiral peppers, cucumbers, snow peas, water spinach, lettuce, cilantro, chives, long eggplants, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, cilantro, scallions, garlic shoots.

White radish, cherry radish, Shanghai greens, dwarf yellow cabbage, red amaranth, cherry tomatoes, Provence tomatoes, pumpkin, winter melon, yardlong beans, and so on—she bought them all, since they weren’t expensive anyway.

These vegetables would be hot commodities in the winter. She could eat some herself without drawing attention, and the rest could be sold for cash—a win-win.

Her space could be controlled with her mind, and with the boost from the spiritual spring water, planting was effortless.

With the seeds bought, Gu Qinghuan began planning out her space.

She took the villa and the spiritual spring as the center. To the east, where she’d just dug two fish ponds, she decided to designate that area as the livestock zone—she could raise chickens, ducks, cows, and sheep there in the future.

The space stretched as far as the eye could see. She could plant a vast meadow for them to graze on.

Her goal was to be self-sufficient in meat.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t afford to buy meat, but home-raised was much more cost-effective.

There was a big difference between future feedlot meat and the pure, naturally raised meat of the present.

With the spiritual spring water’s boost, Gu Qinghuan could only imagine how delicious the meat would be.

She planned to make the northern area the planting zone, arranging all the crops there, including the fruit trees she’d transplanted earlier.

With the rough plan set, Gu Qinghuan started planting with her mind.

First up was rice, the trickiest crop—it needed to be grown in paddies and required seedling cultivation.

Gu Qinghuan diverted some water from the big fish pond and created a few acres of rice paddies by hand.

Next was seedling cultivation, which was simple enough. The space had the perfect temperature and sunlight, so she just scattered the seeds densely and let them grow. Once the seedlings sprouted, she’d transplant them into the paddies.

Wheat was even easier—she just scattered the seeds evenly over the soil and sprayed them with spiritual spring water, then waited for the harvest.

The other seeds were much the same—she buried them at regular intervals in the designated plots and sprinkled them with spiritual spring water.

The soil in her space was fertile and weed-free, so she didn’t even have to weed. The spiritual spring water was the best fertilizer. The rest was just a matter of time.

Gu Qinghuan finished all the planting in less than an hour. She also organized the orchard, so that next time she found any fruit trees, she could transplant them right in.

Oh, and she needed to put the schisandra berries she’d picked that morning up for sale in the vending machine.

Huh, the heart-shaped persimmons she’d listed at noon had already sold a few portions—what a surprise.

Honestly, thirty cents per jin was a bit pricey. Converted to future prices, it’d be twenty or thirty yuan per jin.

She thought the persimmons were worth it—after being improved by the spiritual spring water, they tasted amazing—but others might not agree. Only those who tried them would know.

So she hadn’t expected them to sell so quickly.

She was reminded of a meme about young people in the future: “Fifty bucks for a bottle of mineral water? Gotta try it at least once.”

Maybe the people buying her persimmons were just like that!

Gu Qinghuan shook her head with a helpless smile, put the schisandra berries up for sale, and marked them as “wild, pure schisandra berries, fifty cents per jin, ten times compensation for any fakes.”

She’d smuggled in a total of 183 jin of schisandra berries that morning. If she sold them all, that’d be nearly a hundred yuan, and she still had over a hundred jin at home.

She felt like a hamster, earning money bit by bit, and she really liked and enjoyed everything about her current life.

After tidying up, she left the space, grabbed her burlap sack, and continued on—she planned to head to another mountain that afternoon to see if she could find anything else.

—

Her guess was spot on.

Office drone Wang Tao was working overtime while browsing Taobao.

Suddenly, a product caught his eye.

What the heck, twenty-eight yuan for a jin of persimmons?

Even dried persimmons aren’t that expensive!

Wang Tao, not convinced, clicked on the product details and immediately burst out laughing.

“This seller is ridiculous. Wild heart-shaped persimmons, sweet and juicy—okay, I’ll give them that.

But ‘relieves fatigue, makes you feel refreshed’? What is this, a miracle elixir?

And they even dare to offer a tenfold compensation for fakes—do they even know what they’re saying?

No way, I have to teach them a lesson today. I need to see for myself what a twenty-eight-yuan jin of persimmons tastes like.”"