Ye Mian didn’t stand on ceremony with him. She stood up, brushed off her pants, and went inside to sit down before opening the system warehouse.
She already recognized the Chinese cabbage and spinach, so there was no need to look closely at those seeds.
As for the cilantro seeds… Ye Mian vaguely remembered this was a very strange plant. It wasn’t exactly a “proper” vegetable, but it was often used as a garnish. People either loved it or hated it so much they couldn’t stand the smell.
The original owner of this body belonged to the latter group.
While other seeds were given in sets of ten, the cilantro seeds came in a pack of a hundred. She had no idea how long it would take to eat them all if she planted them.
Helplessly skipping over the seeds, Ye Mian first clicked on the pale green, round fruit called “Jade Fruit” to check its description.
[Jade Fruit: A root vegetable with a sweet taste and rich nutrition.]
Immediately after, Ye Mian opened the vegetable salad recipe. Unsurprisingly, she saw “Jade Fruit” listed as an ingredient.
If she remembered correctly, this vegetable didn’t exist in this world either.
This meant the recipes provided by the system all used these special ingredients. They couldn’t be obtained through normal farming but had to be acquired as extra drops through the bonus of “spiritual essence.”
If it was this much trouble, surely there must be some special effect?
However, no one could answer this question for her. She could only wait until she gathered all the ingredients and made the dish to find out.
Suppressing her curiosity, Ye Mian moved the two recipes together and then, thinking of something, jumped to the mission interface and clicked the side quest tab.
She had only glanced at it briefly before. Looking closely now, she found there was indeed a collection mission that required three types of food: Fruit Sandwich, Vegetable Salad, and Corn Pizza.
Currently, she only had two of the recipes and one Jade Fruit. Completing this mission felt as difficult as reaching the heavens.
Ye Mian looked at the other side quests. Three were collection-based, and one was an exploration quest that required her to go to specific coordinates to investigate and find something.
Among them, only one collection mission was relatively simple: it required fifty stalks of corn and fifty potatoes.
Coincidentally, she had the seeds and was planning to plant them.
Without a second thought, Ye Mian accepted this mission and set the others aside for now.
Just as she accepted it, a new text box popped up.
[Plant some crops and harvest them (10/10). Reward: XP +20, Points +20!]
“Are the main quest rewards only XP and points?” she wondered.
XP could be used to upgrade the farm, but what were these “points” for?
While puzzled, Ye Mian entered the kitchen before Xue Kai came in. She brought out the oil, salt, and dishes and organized them.
A moment later, Xue Kai entered the house looking delighted, carrying a pile of vegetables. “It’s getting late. I’ll start dinner. Is there anything you don’t eat?”
In her memory, the original owner was indeed a bit of a picky eater, but Ye Mian wasn’t. “I’ll eat anything.”
“That’s good. Oh, right, you should collect those vegetables outside. We can’t eat them all at once, and I’m not sure if they’ll spoil.”
Thinking about how she would be planting more crops in the future and couldn’t store everything in the system warehouse, Ye Mian said, “We can leave some out to test it.”
“True. Then I’ll pick a few out later to leave here.”
Ye Mian nodded and walked outside, intending to store the vegetables in the warehouse.
As she reached the vegetable patch, she saw Da Hei, who hadn’t rested at all. He was staring at the vegetables and drooling, a sickle still hanging from his mouth.
“?” Ye Mian raised an eyebrow in surprise. “You want to eat this?”
“Awoo~” All three of Da Hei’s heads looked at her, eyes filled with longing.
Ye Mian picked a carrot that had both the fruit and leaves and handed it over. “Then take a break.”
Da Hei immediately dropped the sickle, bit the carrot, and happily ran to the corner of the wall by the door to gnaw on it, even sharing a few bites with his other two heads.
“…” Had he evolved into a foodie? He’d eat anything.
However, the crops grown on the farm were indeed extraordinary. Neither their size nor length could be compared to ordinary carrots. As soon as she picked one up, she could smell a light, sweet fragrance that made even Ye Mian want to take a bite.
So, after collecting the vegetables on the ground, Ye Mian took a carrot as thick and long as her forearm, washed it, and took a bite of the end that still had a bit of root.
“!!!”
Delicious! So sweet!
Ye Mian had thought the wild vegetable and mushroom soup from lunch was already a top-tier delicacy, but she hadn’t expected a raw carrot to taste this good!
The texture was crisp and fresh; bite after bite was incredibly satisfying.
It was just a pity she hadn’t obtained extra carrot seeds; every one she ate was one less she had.
When Ye Mian finished the whole carrot and walked outside again, she noticed the distant sky was pitch black. However, a faint glow emanated from above the farm, illuminating every inch of the land clearly.
?
Did this mean she had to work overtime at night too?
“Dinner’s ready!”
Xue Kai shouted as he briskly brought several dishes to the dining table.
Although ingredients were limited, the table was quite feast-like, featuring hot dishes, cold appetizers, soup, and even decorative plating.
After serving the food, Xue Kai clapped his hands with a satisfied expression and glanced outside. “Wow, it looks beautiful.”
He thought it looked beautiful?
Then working overtime shouldn’t be too boring.
Ye Mian sat down at the table and took out her exclusive set of utensils as usual. Before starting, she said, “Thanks for the hard work.”
“It’s fine, I like cooking.”
Xue Kai also got a bowl for himself. His chopsticks were temporarily carved from wood; though they looked a bit shabby, there was no choice in such times.
“It’s a shame there’s no rice, otherwise it would taste even better.”
“Mhm…” Ye Mian took a bite of lettuce from a normal-looking vegetable salad. “It’s delicious.”
It was also crisp and sweet, but with a completely different texture and flavor.
“Hehe, try this stir-fried bok choy; I just lightly seared it in oil. And this shredded cabbage—it’s especially sweet and refreshing. The pure carrot soup is a bit simple, but the taste is amazing.”
The more Xue Kai spoke, the hungrier he got. Seeing that Ye Mian tried every dish and was satisfied, he began to eat heartily as well.
Despite the lack of rice, these vegetables were still incredibly delicious and filling. After Ye Mian indicated she was full, Xue Kai finished the remaining dishes like a whirlwind, feeling a bit stuffed.
After cleaning up and washing the dishes, before Ye Mian could bring it up, Xue Kai said proactively, “I’ve already thought of the regional planning for the farm land.”
“First, wheat and rice definitely can’t be next to each other, so one goes East and one goes West. Then, the corn and potatoes should also be separated to prevent their flavors from mixing. We can leave a patch of vegetable garden in the middle to make it easier to plant more vegetables later.”
Hearing this, Ye Mian directly took out all the seeds she had in her warehouse, including the vegetable seeds she had gained as extra drops during the harvest.
“Ah? Cilantro seeds too?” Xue Kai was a bit stunned to see the large bag of cilantro seeds. After a moment, he continued, “Then we’ll plant these vegetables, the corn, and the potatoes today. The rice needs a paddy field and the wheat needs higher ridges; we’ll wait until tomorrow for those.”
“Alright.”
After putting away the wheat and rice seeds, Ye Mian took out a bag of premium fertilizer. “And this. Fertilize first, then sow.”
“Oh?” Xue Kai took it and looked at it, a bit surprised. “I was planning to burn the hay and use the ash as makeshift fertilizer. Having this is even better.”
“Then let’s start!” Ye Mian couldn’t wait to see what the random event was, and she also wanted to taste the new food.
They had already turned over a lot of soil in the afternoon. Now, they just needed to dig a few more trenches to lead water for irrigation and separate the sections before they could fertilize and sow.
Ye Mian remembered the demonstration from the novice tutorial video. After learning a thing or two on the spot from Xue Kai, her movements quickly became proficient.
However, considering that a harvest too large would be troublesome and they wouldn’t be able to keep up with the work, the two agreed to plant half of the potato and corn seeds. They would plant all the cabbage and lettuce, and as for the easy-to-grow cilantro, they would just scatter a few seeds to test the waters.
Compared to cutting grass and digging soil, sowing was a very easy task.
Before long, Ye Mian had finished her half of the work.
When she stood up and looked, she saw that Xue Kai had finished long ago and was carrying his hoe to another side to dig up grass roots and turn the soil, looking extremely industrious.
Although Ye Mian wanted to help, her body really couldn’t take it. She carried her hoe closer and said, “I’m going up to rest first. Don’t work too late.”
“Okay,” Xue Kai looked up and responded to her. “It’s fine, I can’t sleep anyway.”
Moreover, as soon as he stopped, his head was filled with thoughts of his family, his girlfriend, and those two bastards who had betrayed him.
It was better to keep himself tired; it felt more fulfilling and satisfying.
“Mhm… Goodnight then.”
After saying that, Ye Mian added as an afterthought, “You can pick any of the empty rooms on the second or third floor. They’re all the same anyway.”
Meaning, they were all empty.
“OK!”
The three-story building didn’t look very big from the outside, but once inside, one could see the space was quite large.
The first floor was a combination of a living room, kitchen, small bathroom, utility room, and warehouse.
The second and third floors each had four rooms and a large bathroom.
Ye Mian walked into the bathroom on the second floor. There was only a shower head hanging on the wall, a sink made of the same stone material, and a squat toilet—simple and empty.
The only advantage was that it was large enough to fit any future appliances.
Taking out the toiletries from the warehouse, she washed herself from head to toe and scrubbed the dirty clothes she had been rolling around in for half the day.
She originally thought she would just wring them dry and put them back on before going to her room to let them air out.
To her surprise, the surrounding air seemed to have a built-in drying function. In the time it took her to brush her teeth and wash her face, her long hair was already half-dry, and the clothes hanging by the sink were soft, dry, and as good as new.
“…”
Ye Mian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Everything about the farm was magical and great. There was only one downside—the lack of full automation.
Dressed, Ye Mian rubbed her aching shoulders and her nearly numb waist as she returned to her rustic-style bedroom.
Then, she collapsed and fell asleep.
At dawn, Ye Mian woke up with a start and saw a text box floating before her eyes.
[Successfully triggered a random event—Visitor from Another Land. Time remaining: 00:09:59]
[Triggered a random event (1/1). Reward: XP +20, Points +20!]