Chapter 89: There’s No Way We Can Finish All These Mushrooms and Potatoes

The physical automatic irrigation system, designed by Guai Guai and built by Nong Yasi, was finally completed.

Nong Yasi managed to squeeze in the time to put it together.

She barely had any time—she had to carve out moments from her exhausting manual labor to work on this thing.

Materials were scarce, so Nong Yasi used mostly stone for the construction.

Luckily, no matter what kind of stone Nong Yasi needed, Pang Ziyuan could always mold it for her.

Some stones needed to be shaped more precisely, while others could be a bit rougher.

But regardless of the materials, the project was finally done.

“Yue Bai, have you noticed there seems to be a lot more white mist around our place lately?”

As Nong Yasi admired her new automatic irrigation system, she asked Shi Yuebai, who was sitting in her wheelchair.

She’d been so busy running around that she hadn’t paid any attention to her surroundings.

It was only after finishing her work that she noticed wisps of white mist drifting over the potato field.

Shi Yuebai didn’t reply, just sat at the edge of the potato field, looking toward the riverbank.

Nong Yasi had cleared a small patch of land by the riverbank, and the children’s mushroom kits had been unwrapped and placed along the edge of the potato field.

Shi Yaoyao was teaching Dajiao and Xiaojiao how to dig up potatoes and plant sprouted ones into the new field.

They didn’t have much planting technique—after all, none of them were professionals.

But from a distance, Shi Yuebai could see that eight-year-old Shi Yaoyao was getting along especially well with sixteen-year-old Dajiao and fifteen-year-old Xiaojiao.

In fact, Yaoyao even seemed a bit sharper than the older girls.

Of course, that was only relative.

Compared to a normal eight-year-old from before the wasteland, Yaoyao still had a long way to go.

But Second Sister-in-law Shi was overjoyed.

She felt her way over and said to Shi Yuebai and Nong Yasi,

“Yaoyao is speaking so fluently now, and she’s getting more and more sensible.”

Shi Yuebai responded lightly and channeled a bit more spiritual energy into the purification array at her feet.

She couldn’t feel pain; as long as she was alive, her body weight would skyrocket from the radiation.

So as long as Shi Yuebai was awake, she was constantly infusing spiritual energy into the various arrays.

The spiritual energy was so dense it became visible as white mist.

“Auntie, the mushrooms have grown a ton again!”

Shi Yaoyao came over, holding a piece of decaying wood covered in mushrooms.

The largest mushroom was already bigger than Yaoyao’s face.

Nong Yasi frowned and came closer.

“How did they grow so fast? Are these mutant mushrooms?”

Mutated things were inedible—there was no telling what might happen if you ate them.

Maybe it looked like a plant, but once in your stomach, it could mutate into a bug.

Shi Yuebai glanced over. “It’s fine, they’re just regular mushrooms.”

Mushrooms and lingzhi thrived on spiritual energy.

On Shi Yuebai’s land, the spiritual energy was so thick it turned into white mist, so the mushrooms naturally grew big and fast.

Plus, in a place like the wasteland, radiation was everywhere, which already made crops grow quickly.

But any harmful effects of radiation on the potatoes and mushrooms were purified by Shi Yuebai’s array.

So the potatoes and mushrooms grew explosively under the dual influence of radiation and spiritual energy.

No wonder they were thriving.

The mushrooms were more obvious since they grew above ground.

The potatoes were hidden underground, out of sight, so they didn’t seem as shocking.

But by Shi Yuebai’s estimate, there were probably plenty of potatoes down there too.

“It’s just that there’s no way we can finish all these mushrooms and potatoes.”

Shi Yuebai looked past Yaoyao at the dozens of pieces of decaying wood—each one wasn’t that big, but in just half a day, they were all covered in mushrooms.

The air was filled with the fresh scent of mushrooms.

Nong Yasi seemed to notice too. She turned around and jumped in surprise.

“So, so many…”

The children’s mushroom kits Pang Zhenggong had found last time only had three types: oyster mushrooms, pink mushrooms, and golden mushrooms.

But there were three different colors.

Now, the edge of the newly cleared potato field was covered in red, yellow, and white mushrooms.

It actually looked quite pretty.

Shi Yuebai pressed her fingers to her brow.

“Starting today, every meal will be mushroom soup with potatoes.”

“The Pang family and Qiao family have all helped out. Except for Xu Xuejiao and Captain Qiao, everyone who worked gets an extra kilo of mushrooms to take home.”

Except for Xu Xuejiao and Captain Qiao, that only left Dajiao and Xiaojiao from the Qiao family.

Nong Yasi glanced back at the two girls.

They were already playing with Yaoyao.

Following Yaoyao’s instructions, they kept digging up potatoes, planting new ones, and picking mushrooms.

With the Shi family, Pang family, Guai Guai, and Dajiao and Xiaojiao, there was no way they could eat all those potatoes and mushrooms.

Especially since Nong Yasi watched Dajiao dig up a potato tuber the size of a soccer ball.

It was honestly a bit scary.

“Yue, Yuebai… We only planted the potatoes not that long ago, right?”

Nong Yasi was bewildered.

She really couldn’t figure out what category Shi Yuebai’s powers belonged to anymore.

Shi Yuebai could gather water, control paper airplanes, and now it seemed she could even accelerate plant growth.

Shi Yuebai said, “Calm down. Don’t act like you’ve never seen anything before.”

She turned and headed toward the public restroom.

She made her way up the slope.

Ah Hong had already finished building the walls of the “Tong” frame and was now working on the water storage tank.

Once the tank was done, everyone could use the showers at the public restroom.

Up at the restroom, the spiritual energy wasn’t as thick as below.

That was because Shi Yuebai rarely came up here; she spent most of her time down below.

Sitting in her wheelchair, Shi Yuebai looked down—the main structure of the “Tong” frame was done, just waiting for the trench to be filled in to close off the entrance.

No one was dealing with the trench right now.

The Pang and Shi families, Guai Guai, and the three mercenaries all had their tents behind the wall.

Yi Zhe and the others hadn’t been back in a long time—no one knew how things were going at the front lines.

So only the Qiao family had to live in the trench.

If Xu Xuejiao didn’t take care of the trench, the “Tong” frame couldn’t be closed off.

But Xu Xuejiao was stuck—she couldn’t just leave the trench unfinished.

Everyone could see that Dajiao and Xiaojiao could play freely inside the “Tong” frame.

But once they left it, who knew what dangers they might face.

Once the trench was finished as planned, the “Tong” frame would become a closed box.

To get in, they’d have to build a bridge.

For the sake of Dajiao and Xiaojiao’s safety, Xu Xuejiao would have to finish digging the trench, even if it was thankless work.

That night, Dajiao and Xiaojiao came out of the trench, looking clean, each carrying a plastic bag.

Captain Qiao came back late after a day of scavenging, but hadn’t found anything usable to trade with Shi Yuebai.

He was a bit disappointed at first.

But when he and Xu Xuejiao sat in their pit and saw the two girls come back with two bags each, they were both shocked.

(The previous book wasn’t finished—it was locked. I’ll go back and sort that one out after I finish this one.)"