The Sweetness of the Seventies
Chapter 451 - 422 Adaptation, the Sweet Spring Water_1

Chapter 451: Chapter 422 Adaptation, the Sweet Spring Water_1

He Tiantian closed her eyes but didn’t fall asleep as her mind was still busy with thoughts.

She was so occupied during the day that she had no time to deal with her own matters, only able to use the time at night.

"Gurgle gurgle meow..." He Tiantian murmured softly in her heart, missing the Snake King.

The Snake King, groggy from his cultivation, awoke and felt the familiar air of Qijia Village, saying, "We’re back, aren’t we?"

"Yes, we have returned," He Tiantian responded, "Grandma and Grandma Lan are sleeping beside me now, so I can’t take you to the back mountain."

Scanning the situation outside, the Snake King thought for a moment, nodded, and said, "That’s alright, I can go by myself."

"Oh right," He Tiantian remembered. The Snake King had leveled up and was no longer the Little Silver Snake that could only coil around her ankle. "Snake King, you’re amazing—it’s just my fault for being too preoccupied and forgetting."

"You do have a lot of things going on," the Snake King said with a touch of grievance.

"I’m sorry, Snake King," He Tiantian apologized, "once everything calms down, I will keep you company properly."

"Mhm, then you should sleep, I’m going to the back mountain," the Snake King said. "If there’s anything, you can summon me."

"Got it, Snake King," He Tiantian agreed quickly, as a faint golden light left through the window.

In the cave on the back mountain, the Snake King told He Tiantian briefly and then started his cultivation.

With her worries gone, He Tiantian slowly drifted into dreamland.

The next morning, He Tiantian got up early.

As the saying goes, the early bird catches the worm. He Tiantian took a shoulder pole and buckets to fetch water.

Qi Zhengmin followed He Tiantian like a little tail, asking, "Sister Tiantian, are we going to fetch water?"

"Yes, we don’t have tap water here, just mountain spring water," He Tiantian said with a smile, "but you’ll fall in love with the sweet water here!"

By the water pool, many people were already fetching water.

He Tiantian continuously greeted everyone.

Qi Zhengmin was also very well-behaved. She addressed others just as He Tiantian did, earning everyone’s praise.

On their way back, Qi Zhengmin asked, "Sister Tiantian, isn’t the water contaminated since the pool is left in the open?"

"Take a look at this bucket of clear water, do you think it’s dirty?" He Tiantian asked. This pool was the treasure of Qijia Village, encircled by a wooden fence half a person tall. Children and small animals simply couldn’t get close to it.

"It’s not dirty," Qi Zhengmin observed the clear spring water in the bucket and honestly replied.

"This is a gift from nature, of course, it’s not dirty," He Tiantian said. "If it is ever dirty, it’s because we humans make it dirty, not nature."

Qi Zhengmin pondered over this thought.

After seven or eight trips back and forth, they finally filled the large tank at home.

Breakfast was prepared by Wang Shuping and Liang Hongyu, who came over to help. They cooked rice porridge and prepared some side dishes. Wang Shuping also cooked an egg for each person—that was breakfast.

After breakfast, Qi Zhengmin scratched his head and said to everyone, "I’ve found that even such a simple breakfast tastes delicious here. You should know that if I had to eat this for breakfast in Country M, I would definitely not be happy."

"Silly girl, that’s because you have a lot of food options in Country M. Here, if you don’t eat, you’ll be hungry. When your stomach is empty, anything tastes good," Third Grandma Qi laughed heartily, "You should treasure food when you go back!"

Anna smiled and said, "Mom, I also think it tastes good. I’ve noticed that the water and rice here are different from what we have in Country M."

"Of course, they’re different," Qi Shuliang said. "The water that Tiantian fetched this morning is a mountain spring that has been flowing through our village for hundreds of years, cool and sweet. The rice for the porridge is grown with organic fertilizer by our local farmers; it’s low yielding but tastes much better than the rice grown with chemical fertilizers in the United States."

"Is that really the case?" Anna asked, blinking her green eyes with curiosity.

"Brother He, you’re involved in agricultural research, what do you think?" Qi Shuliang asked, directing his question at the two experts beside him.

He Jingyu chuckled and said, "The role of chemical fertilizers is well known for greatly increasing yield. It does affect taste, but not very significantly, so you don’t need to be too concerned. The main thing is that the water here is good."

After all, China has not yet reached the point of using chemical fertilizers universally, so the awareness in this area isn’t profound.

However, within the agricultural research community, it’s known that while chemical fertilizers are beneficial, they should be used in moderation. Overuse does not bring any benefits to the plants.

Right now in China, there is not enough chemical fertilizer available to increase yields even if people wanted to.

Thinking of the peach orchard on the mountain, Qi Zhengmin wore a pair of old cloth shoes that belonged to He Tiantian. They were a bit too big, but fitting well enough with two pairs of socks, she followed the others up the mountain.

So He Tiantian led Qi Zhengmin and Qi Zhenghan on a half-day tour to the peach orchard behind the mountain.

By the time they arrived, most of the peaches on the trees had already been picked and placed in baskets.

A layer of soft grass was laid at the bottom of the baskets, and each peach was spaced out to prevent them from bumping into each other and getting damaged.

Qi Zhengmin wanted to eat some peaches, and He Jingyu gave them a meaningful look. He had already secretly stored three large baskets of peaches in the cellar.

In total, there were more than three thousand pounds of peaches.

It took four ox carts to finally load all the peaches.

Secretary Qi, together with Qi Shuli, Qi Shuming, Qi Shugen, and He Jingyu, went to the county town to hand in their assignment.

When they returned in the evening, Village Chief Qi was very happy. The peaches were graded as top quality and priced at sixty cents a pound. Now, remember that pork cost only seventy cents a pound. Not only was the price high, but a pound of peaches could also be exchanged for a grain coupon, which meant that the more than three thousand pounds of peaches from Qijia Village could be swapped for just as many pounds of grain coupons. Every household would get a share of the money and could also receive grain coupons to be used as industrial coupons.

As for the reward for He Jingyu and Wang Shuping, that would be decided after the report was submitted to the province. Both the provincial and municipal governments would jointly provide rewards.

"Brother He, from just over a hundred trees, we could earn so much money. Imagine if there were a thousand trees, ten thousand, a hundred thousand—how much money would that be?" Qi Dazhu said with a laugh, those trees are like golden eggs for our village!

"Hehe, I hope the peaches will always be this expensive," He Jingyu said. "Now that the agricultural off-season is here, before we start digging the river, let’s first clear up a couple of low-lying hills. There are a lot of materials on them to create organic fertilizer. Next spring, when the fertility is sufficient, we can directly transplant peach saplings."

Qi Dazhu nodded and asked, "Brother He, how many saplings are there in the peach orchard?"

"Last year, due to limited efforts, Shuping and I managed about thirteen hundred plants, enough for about forty mu of land, covering a whole hillside," He Jingyu said. After all, with no yield last year, he did not want to ask Village Chief Qi to send people to help, so the amount of peach saplings they produced wasn’t very high.

It wasn’t that the couple didn’t want to do more; they simply didn’t have enough energy.