After sitting down, Ye Mian checked the farm information as usual.
Today’s Spiritual Essence value: 5+1. It was so-so.
“Let’s plan today’s work schedule.”
Infected by Ye Mian’s serious expression, the other two couldn’t help but sit up straight. However, upon hearing her words, they both froze for a moment.
Was that all she wanted to talk about?
Xue Kai was the first to react. “Is there a priority task to complete? Tell us.”
Lu Ning also vaguely understood and waited for Ye Mian’s next words with an air of obedience.
“Yes,” Ye Mian nodded. “And I’ve calculated it—if we work hard and complete two tasks today, the farm can be upgraded to Level 2.”
“It can upgrade?” Xue Kai immediately became energized. “Come on, come on, hurry up and give me some work to do.”
Ye Mian had thought about it before going to bed last night. Out of the five newly refreshed main tasks, only two were the fastest and easiest to complete.
One was to plant ten different types of crops, and the other was to harvest and process crops.
So, she took out the ten types of seeds she had obtained from yesterday’s seed gift pack and laid them out on the table one by one.
This action left both Xue Kai and Lu Ning, sitting on the other side of the table, in a daze.
“Today, we’ll plant these and the rice. Let everything else wait for now.”
Just as Ye Mian expected, after snapping out of it and seeing the labels on each seed bag clearly, Xue Kai stood up excitedly. “So many varieties?! I’ll go turn the soil and sow them right now!”
“Wait a minute.”
Stopping him, Ye Mian signaled for him to sit down again. “No rush, this is only the first thing.”
“Oh…”
“The second thing we need to do is process three types of crops. It shouldn’t be simple cooking. I know wheat can be ground into flour; what else?”
This part was still Xue Kai’s specialty. He thought for a moment and said, “We can peel and dry all the corn, then thresh and grind it into cornmeal.”
“Also, I don’t know if ketchup counts? If not, I can also try making homemade sweet potato starch or potato starch.”
As expected, no problem was actually a problem when it came to him.
Ye Mian nodded with satisfaction. “Good. List the steps for the process, and we will assist you.”
Lu Ning nodded along, looking at Xue Kai with some surprise. She hadn’t expected him to know so much.
“OK!” Xue Kai grabbed a notebook and pen and started writing.
When he finished, they found that the steps were actually quite simple and were mostly manual labor.
After a quick glance, Lu Ning raised her hand. “I can handle the threshing and mashing. It shouldn’t be too hard, right?”
“It’s not hard. I’ll give you a demonstration later, and you’ll learn it in no time.”
Xue Kai tore off the page and placed it on the table for Lu Ning to see. He didn’t rush off to work yet but quietly waited for Ye Mian’s next arrangement.
Although both tasks were now accounted for, Ye Mian did indeed have a third thing to say.
“Finally, I want to find Evolutionaries.”
“Hmm?” Lu Ning instinctively asked, “What kind are you looking for? Is it someone you know?”
Xue Kai, on the other hand, reacted immediately. “Evolutionaries like us?”
“Yes and no.” Besides looking for new employees, Ye Mian had a new idea. “If everything goes as planned, the farm’s area will expand after the upgrade, and the things we can plant should increase as well.”
“But with the crops we’ve harvested so far, the three of us can’t finish them all. We might not even have a place to store them, let alone after the upgrade.”
“So, I want to find a place where more Evolutionaries gather and trade with them.”
In Carp City yesterday, they had seen almost nothing but Mutants. Even if there were Evolutionaries, they didn’t dare show themselves easily. She believed other cities were likely the same.
Therefore, she could only place her hopes on areas outside the cities.
After hearing her words, the two across from her looked at each other, realizing they both remembered their conversation from last night.
“Um,” Xue Kai spoke first, trying to remind her tactfully. “Ye Mian, you have to understand that in this world now, Mutants aren’t the only dangerous things.”
Lu Ning silently nodded in agreement.
Ye Mian naturally understood what they were worried about. She didn’t argue but simply pointed to her head. “Have you forgotten what my skill is?”
“Ah…”
“Can you even distinguish between good and bad Evolutionaries?”
Looking at Lu Ning’s question, Ye Mian shook her head. “It’s not quite that accurate, but I believe when it comes to the definition of ‘danger,’ my brain shouldn’t specifically distinguish whether it comes from a Mutant or an Evolutionary.”
“If something really goes wrong then, I might need you to take us and run. Are you confident?”
Unexpectedly, she had even thought about the escape plan in advance. Lu Ning raised an eyebrow slightly and then smiled. “Alright, leave it to me.”
Seeing the two reach an agreement, Xue Kai thought there was nothing left for him to do, but then he saw Ye Mian turn her gaze toward him.
“The problem now is where to look. Do you have any ideas?”
Lu Ning, who had always lived a simple life between her home and the boxing gym, also looked at Xue Kai.
“Uh, I actually do have a bit of an idea.”
As he spoke, Xue Kai reached out and took a thick map from a bag nearby. He flipped to a marked page and spent a moment drawing on it with a pen.
“Alright, look.”
He placed the map in the center of the table and pointed to the circled section. “The farm is roughly in this position. Although the surroundings are mostly fields and mountains with few households, if you cross the highway to the other side, you’ll find a national road. This national road passes through three relatively large towns, an industrial park, and then leads directly to the neighboring Salt City.”
“I believe there are still some Evolutionaries stranded there who can’t get out, but correspondingly, the number of Mutants will definitely not be small.”
The area was large enough, there were people, and it wasn’t far away.
Ye Mian made an immediate decision. “Then that’s the place.”
“When do we set off?”
“Let’s wait two days. We’ll talk about it after finishing the business at home.”
Hearing Ye Mian naturally refer to this place as “home,” the other two paused before nodding one after another.
Xue Kai put away the map first. “Later, I’ll draw a more detailed route map for you to avoid taking any wrong turns.”
“Good,” Ye Mian stood up. “Meeting adjourned!”
Though she said the meeting was adjourned, the three of them gathered around the dining table again shortly after—before working, they naturally had to eat and drink their fill.
Once breakfast was finished, the three officially began their busy day.
Xue Kai first took Lu Ning to the warehouse to demonstrate how to thresh the wheat and hurriedly peeled some corn to set on the windowsill to dry.
Seeing that he couldn’t attend to the rice fields for the moment, Ye Mian took a hoe and a sickle and called Da Hei into the vegetable garden. She was responsible for digging out roots and loosening the soil, while Da Hei cut down the corn stalks.
By the time she successfully turned over a patch of the vegetable garden and tried to fertilize it, Xue Kai came out with the seeds and began sowing and watering with her.
Ten types of seeds, ten of each. Once all were planted, a text box immediately floated before Ye Mian’s eyes.
[Planted ten types of crops simultaneously (10/10), Experience +30, Points +30!]
[Your farm has successfully reached Level 2!]
[Level Gift Pack has been automatically collected!]
“Huh?”
“Did it change to 30 experience points?”
Ye Mian first looked around. Finding no immediate changes, she opened the farm information to check.
[Dream Farm]
Level: 2 (5/2000)
Area: 10,000 m²
Defense: Medium
Employees: 2
Points: 455
Spiritual Essence: 5+1 (Refreshes daily)
!!!
Although Ye Mian had guessed the farm’s area would expand after upgrading, it had actually expanded by ten times!?
Moreover, the defense level had changed to “Medium,” though she didn’t know the specific effects yet.
Ye Mian then opened the system warehouse and was both surprised and delighted to see that the number of slots had doubled with the level increase. Now there was plenty of space!
Just as she was about to tell Xue Kai the good news, she realized he was no longer in the vegetable garden. He had gone over to the rice fields and started releasing water with a hose.
He really was a hardworking employee who couldn’t stop.
Ye Mian smiled helplessly, then thought of something and glanced at the farm information again.
“Two thousand experience points…”
At the rate of twenty or thirty points per task, she had no idea how long it would take for the next upgrade.
Though ten thousand square meters was already more than they could plant.
She first went to find the self-pitying Wild Sanqi (Panax notoginseng), exiled it to the new overgrown wasteland to work, and then opened the level gift pack in the warehouse.
[Congratulations! You have obtained “Fish Pond Landscaping” X1!]
[Congratulations! You have obtained “Magical Fishing Rod” X1!]
[Congratulations! You have obtained “Wood Pack” X3!]
[Congratulations! You have obtained 1,000 Points!]
“Fish pond? Wood pack? One thousand points!?”
And there wasn’t even a seed gift pack or anything similar.
Ye Mian glanced at the seeds in the warehouse, which were increasing in number and were specifically placed in the top rows of slots. She couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Sowing was quick and easy, but harvesting was not so relaxed.
However, it seemed there was now a new task—fishing.
While thinking, Ye Mian lowered her gaze to look at the newly opened items.
The “Fish Pond Landscaping” only had one option: Use.
[Magical Fishing Rod: No bait needed; the willing will take the hook (Limited to use by the owner)]
[Wood Pack: Can yield an appropriate amount of wood]
“The wood should come in handy later.”
After moving the wood packs to a more prominent slot, Ye Mian clicked to use the Fish Pond Landscaping.
[Placing Fish Pond Landscaping…]
“Hmm?” Ye Mian turned to look around. Seeing nothing, she tentatively walked a few steps behind the house.
Suddenly, a cool breeze blew against her face. The air, now humid, was laced with the scent of flowers and a faint plant fragrance.
Ye Mian paused for a moment as a bamboo forest came into view. As the wind rose, the emerald-green bamboo leaves rustled. The scene was fresh, natural, and carried a sense of tranquility that was refreshing to the soul.
In the middle of the bamboo forest was a small pebble path. After passing through it, one could see a fish pond with undulating waves—clear, yet seemingly bottomless.
The fish pond was built and surrounded by jagged rocks, with many flowers and plants growing around it. On the open space connected to the pebble path sat a low yellow wood chair and a bamboo-woven fish basket.
Next to it stood a small wooden sign with a line of characters carved into it.