The daily life of a space tycoon raising children, doting on his husband, and farming.

Chapter 145 The Fisherman

"That's ambitious." Shang Wan pinched his cheek.

Chu Xu turned his head away and muttered, "Don't you dare pinch my face like that."

Shang Wan clicked her tongue inwardly, thinking, "What an awkward kid."

"Mom!" Yuanyuan crawled over and looked up at Shang Wan with her fair little face.

Shang Wan lowered her head and kissed her little face, making the little one smile so much that her eyes curved into an arc. She put down the turtle and cuddled up to Shang Wan.

Chu Xu watched from the side, thinking to himself that as long as the little girl didn't let the turtle crawl on him, he could play with her.

After calming the child down, Shang Wan went to the kitchen, grabbed a small bag of dried meat, and ate it as she walked towards the field.

Since harvesting the bok choy, the five acres of wasteland that were cleared have not been planted with anything for the time being. Originally, Shang Wan thought about planting wheat, but decided against it.

Food can be grown in space, it takes a short time, and it's easy to harvest.

She plans to use her own land to grow vegetables and medicinal herbs.

Gathering herbs from the mountains in small quantities is fine, but if you really want to do a medicinal herb business, you have to rely on artificial cultivation.

However, each herb has different growth habits and different requirements for soil acidity/alkalinity, environmental humidity, weather temperature, soil fertility, etc.

Some herbs can grow in the mountains and forests, but they may not survive if planted in the ground. Even if they do survive, their medicinal properties will be greatly reduced.

The environment of the mountains and forests cannot be replicated by just a few acres of land.

Moreover, ordinary land is not like a spiritual field. In a spiritual field, you just sow the seeds and wait for the harvest; you don't even need to water it. But with ordinary land, there are many more things to pay attention to.

Shang Wan believes that there are always more solutions than problems. She has been thinking about this matter recently and plans to start from both the seeds and the soil.

Seeds are not difficult to obtain. Judging from the experimental results of planting bok choy in the ground, the seeds produced through space have undergone a fundamental change. Not only can they germinate 100%, but they also grow faster than ordinary bok choy. Presumably, the same applies to herbal seeds.

Now all that's missing is the soil.

Shang Wan had an idea: since spiritual spring water can improve people's physical condition, could it also improve the soil?
Of course, the current amount of spiritual spring water in the space is not enough for her to squander on the ground, and she is not so wasteful as to waste such a precious resource.

However, pure spiritual spring water is not enough; diluted spiritual spring water is still worth trying.

For the past two days, she has been diluting several buckets of spiritual spring water every day, allowing the stone to irrigate only two acres of land, creating a control group with the other three acres.

When Shang Wan arrived at the field, Shi Tou had already finished watering the land, strictly following Shang Wan's instructions to only water two mu of land.

"Sister, these bok choy seeds should be ready to be harvested." Shi Tou pointed to the dozen or so bok choy seeds that he had specially saved for seed.

Shang Wan walked over, squatted down, and first collected one plant into her space.

She wanted to see if the space could automatically collect the seeds for her.

In terms of results, no.

The space will only automatically collect seeds of crops from the spirit field.

The seed-bearing bok choy that was just taken in looks exactly the same inside the space as it did outside.

Shi Tou squatted down to pull weeds. "Sister, shouldn't we plant some wheat? I see everyone in the village is planting it."

"It's the villagers' business to plant crops; our family doesn't do it."

Shi Tou worried, "What will happen when we have to pay the grain tax?"

“I can grow it in my space, or I can buy it directly,” Shang Wan said. “With money, are you worried about not being able to buy food?”

Shi Tou nodded, piling the weeds higher and higher. "Sister, these weeds have grown so fast since we watered them. They can grow up to ankle-deep overnight." Shang Wan thought this was a good thing. The better the soil, the better the grass grows. It just meant that Shi Tou would have to pull the weeds often.

"It's no trouble at all, Yuanyuan can help me." Shi Tou grinned. "Yesterday, Yuanyuan even had the monkeys help me pull weeds from two acres of land. After we plant the herbs, I'll have to teach them to distinguish between weeds and herbs, so they don't pull up the herbs we plant."

Shang Wan began to feel sorry for the monkeys. She put all the baby cabbages she had cultivated into her spatial storage, and then helped Shi Tou pull weeds.

The newly grown weeds had shallow roots and were easy to pull up. The two of them talked and in less than half an hour they had pulled up all the weeds in the field.

Shi Tou scattered the weeds, picked out those that could be used to feed the cattle and sheep, and left the rest untouched. After drying, they could be taken back to be used as kindling.

Two more days passed, and Shang Wan took Shi Tou to the mountains to collect some medicinal branches suitable for cuttings. They cut them into small, even sections, soaked them in spiritual spring water, and then planted them in the ground to increase the survival rate.

Neither of them had any experience. Shang Wan's insertion was a little better, but Shi Tou's insertion was crooked and twisted, like an earthworm, which would drive one of them, a perfectionist, crazy.

"That's fine then." Shang Wan wiped the mud off her hands with a blade of grass and then washed them clean in the bucket.

She said to Shi Tou, "Xiao Huan said she's making sauerkraut fish tonight. I'm going to the river to catch two grass carp. You take the things back first."

Stone: "Okay."

Arriving at the riverbank, the water rippled, and a gentle breeze caressed my face.

Shang Wan stood with her hands behind her back, gazing at the distant mountains. Dressed in a green robe, she stood tall and straight like a bamboo shoot. Her black hair was tied back with a simple red ribbon. The river breeze rippled her skirt, making it flutter like floating waves.

There were quite a few people by the river: some were washing clothes, some were fishing, some were playing, and some were washing pots and pans.

The children ran barefoot on the riverbank, picking up stones, playing with oddly shaped stones, skipping stones, and making crisp laughter.

Shang Wan bent down, picked up two small stones, held them in her hand, and slowly approached the children playing. With a flick of her wrist, one of the stones flew out and floated on the river surface for more than twenty times before sinking into the water.

"Wow!" the children exclaimed, their eyes filled with admiration as they looked at Shang Wan, clamoring to learn from her.

"It's simple, just follow my instructions." Shang Wan demonstrated in slow motion, "When you throw it, use your arm strength, not your wrist strength. The more you use your arm strength, the farther it will fly."

After saying that, she threw the pebbles in her hand again, sending them flying more than thirty times until they were almost out of sight before falling into the water.

The children's faces flushed with excitement, and they all followed Shang Wanxue's example, dropping several pebbles into the water, creating a continuous splashing sound.

The fisherman seemed to have lost interest from being disturbed. He pulled down the brim of his straw hat, picked up his fishing rod and basket, and left.

Shang Wan glanced in the direction he left, then looked down and asked the child closest to her, "Was that person fishing from the village?"

The child was Erpang. Hearing Shang Wan ask, he looked up at the spot where the man had been fishing, pursed his lips and thought seriously for a moment, then shook his head, "He was wearing a straw hat, so I couldn't see his face."

Shang Wan asked several more children, and they either said they didn't see anyone, or they said they didn't know, or some hadn't even noticed that there was someone there.

Shang Wan: "Do you guys usually hang out here?"

"I come here often."

"I'll come if my mother comes."

"You can catch crabs here, and after it rains you can catch small fish with a net."

"I'm here to pick up stones."

The children answered in a chattering voice.

The answers reveal that children often come to play by the river as long as there is no flooding or heavy rain.

Shang Wan smiled as she distributed jerky to the children. There wasn't much, just one piece for each child, but it still made the children cheer.

Some stuffed it all into their mouths, some shared it with the adults, and some, unwilling to eat it, secretly kept it away.