“So stingy.
You’re only adding a cold dish.”
Hai Yao curled her lip.
Though she verbally complained about Ling Shuying being cheap, her legs carried her in wide strides toward the Tidal Pool.
Meanwhile, at the Sea Erosion Cave, Ling Shuying took long, deep breaths.
She was adjusting her body to its most stable state.
Even with Qing Ling’s visual enhancements, the tools for this ecological surgery weren’t professional laboratory equipment, but her own flesh-and-blood hands.
Her breathing, her heartbeat, or any unconscious tremor could scratch the seedlings.
Ling Shuying continuously adjusted her breathing, like an ascetic deep in meditation.
As the physiological curve in her vision smoothed out into its most stable state, Ling Shuying opened her eyes, filled with rationality and calm.
She leaned over.
Her arms moved slowly but with focused strength, and the hand holding the tweezers was as steady as a rock.
In sync with the rhythm of her breathing, she concentrated entirely on using the tip of a fishbone to pick out the nearly transparent algae-eating snails one by one, fine sweat beading on her forehead.
Hai Yao had long since returned.
Watching Ling Shuying work, she didn’t interrupt.
Instead, she sat quietly at the cave entrance, avoiding the incoming rays of light while preparing the buffer materials and carefully placing them in the spots Ling Shuying had designated.
The two of them worked in silence, each focused on their own tasks.
One.
Two…
Thirteen.
All the parasitic snails had been extracted without harming the algae seedlings.
Ling Shuying breathed a sigh of relief.
Keeping her visual enhancement active and taking advantage of the lingering sunlight, she thoroughly scanned the condition of the seedlings from top to bottom, inside and out.
Now that the parasitic snails were completely cleared out, only a patch of felt algae in the substrate remained to be cleaned.
Ling Shuying had plenty of experience dealing with this type of felt algae.
Simply tearing it out by brute force wouldn’t work.
This algae possessed an incredibly strong Life Force; even if only a tiny sliver of a frond remained, it could still absorb the nutrients meant for the seedlings and grow back.
To kill it completely, she had to target its biological properties and thoroughly deactivate it.
Ling Shuying deduced the formula for the deactivation agent without needing Qing Ling’s auxiliary calculations.
The trauma this felt algae had caused her in the past was so profound that she would remember the formula for dealing with it for the rest of her life.
Low-concentration lemon water and sargassum extract.
These were natural reagents available on the island, with compositions that best matched the deactivation agent for felt algae.
While Hai Yao went to make more buffer packs, Ling Shuying gathered the raw materials and carefully mixed them.
Visibly, the felt algae shrank slightly and ceased all movement before its color gradually faded from brown to pale white.
The agent was working.
Ling Shuying shook the mixture in her hand, silently memorizing the ingredients and proportions for future use.
The agent was taking effect on the felt algae, but it would take at least twelve hours to completely deactivate it.
During this time, Ling Shuying needed to keep observing, recording the reagent’s effects on the felt algae while watching out for any adverse reactions it might cause to the Basic Algae seedlings.
Having finished all this, Ling Shuying nodded in satisfaction.
The parasitic snails were extracted, the extermination of the felt algae was underway, and the water body in the Sea Erosion Cave was calming down.
The next thing she could do was add a “protective film” over the seedlings.
When it came to seedling protection, Ling Shuying felt a bit ashamed.
As a scholar, she understood the importance of protection during the breeding phase, but she had been troubled by her failure to find suitable materials.
If there were a good physical barrier, the seedlings would remain unaffected even if the seawater disturbance was stronger.
But right now, a pollution prevention barrier had to be established.
Otherwise, the seedlings might attract other parasites or weed algae.
As Ling Shuying pondered, several plans laid out in her mind proved unsatisfactory.
Banana leaves?
Not hard enough, and not transparent either.
The material needed to meet several characteristics: it had to be fine, light-transmitting, water-permeable, and structurally supportive.
In Ling Shuying’s mind, she truly didn’t know what could fit the bill.
At this moment, Hai Yao returned carrying the last two bags of water.
She slowly poured them in, then put her hands on her hips and said to Ling Shuying, “The work is done, and I want to eat tonight.
“Add a cold dish!
Don’t forget!”
She was only thinking about eating.
Looking at the Sea Erosion Cave that Hai Yao had filled, Ling Shuying had an idea and asked, “What protective materials do you use for growing vegetables in shallow pools?”
“What do you mean, protective materials?
You mean something to block bugs?” Hai Yao replied bluntly.
“Well…” she started to speak, but paused on second thought, opening her mouth again to negotiate terms.
Ling Shuying immediately glared at her.
Hai Yao chuckled awkwardly and rubbed her head with a silly smile before saying sheepishly, “No playing tricks anymore.
I’ll give you this method for free.
“The village usually uses plastic film covers produced by ancient machines.
They’re cheap, abundant, and easy to use.
“But I don’t like using them.
“My own local trick is to use sun-dried jellyfish.
“The beach is covered with stranded jellyfish.
As long as they’re processed well, they can block bugs, and the vegetables grown under them taste good too.”
Jellyfish inner membrane!
High density, light-transmitting, and water-permeable—it perfectly met Ling Shuying’s needs.
She was beginning to appreciate Hai Yao a bit now.
Although these islanders’ folk remedies had no scientific basis, they were surprisingly effective.
Silently noting down Hai Yao’s method, she then said, “Good idea.
Let’s go to the beach to pick up jellyfish right now.”
Hai Yao looked at Ling Shuying.
The pale green eyes conveyed an unfathomable emotion that gave Hai Yao goosebumps.
But for the sake of her meals, Hai Yao readily agreed and promised to help her choose suitable membranes.
The two walked shoulder to shoulder, maintaining a comfortable distance.
Whenever they encountered a jellyfish on the way, Hai Yao would wrap it up and pick it up, trying to stretch the jellyfish membrane and checking it against the light to see if it was fine and uniform enough.
The suitable ones were kept safely.
As for the unsuitable ones…
they were also kept safely, to be made into cold jellyfish salad for dinner.
When there were no jellyfish on the beach, the two made idle conversation.
“How did you get here?
“Why are you here?
“You say you’re a scholar from the City State?
And you specialize in farming?
You’ve gotta be bragging.
I’d believe it if you said you were a cook.
“How are we going to get out of here later?”
Hai Yao chattered endlessly, full of questions.
Ling Shuying remained a woman of few words, occasionally picking a few easy questions to answer.
“Are you planning to never leave and live here for the rest of your life?”
Hearing this, Ling Shuying stopped abruptly and answered earnestly, “I will return to the City State.
“With my algae strains, and with food.”
That touch of pale green surfaced in Ling Shuying’s eyes again, as Qing Ling’s ecological deduction ran unconsciously.
In the future, she saw a maritime utopia supported by algae technology, where humans and nature coexisted harmoniously, society was at peace, and hunger and pain were a thing of the past.
Before Hai Yao could react, she stepped forward and continued walking.
Hai Yao was taken aback.
She had only asked casually and hadn’t expected Ling Shuying to answer so seriously.
She hurriedly chased after her, asking as she ran, “Hey, you said those little green dots of yours can grow vegetables.
Is that true or fake?”