Ordinary observers in fast time travel

Chapter 945 A Day in the Greenhouse

Thinking of this, Shi Jia immediately dialed Xu Dayong's number, "Old Xu, how's the drip irrigation equipment I asked you to order last night?"

The phone was noisy on the other end, and Xu Dayong's voice was a little hoarse. "Ms. Yuan, I'm so sorry, I've searched every shop in our base, big and small, but I still couldn't find any drip irrigation equipment."

Shi Jia was somewhat disappointed upon hearing this, "No?"

“Yes, our base’s agricultural production relies entirely on the breeding base and seed experiment base. Right now, apart from you, no one goes outside to plant, so…” Xu Dayong said with difficulty.

Shi Jia suddenly realized that she had forgotten this was the apocalypse, and it was normal that drip irrigation equipment was unavailable. "Then can you help me find out where there are any drip irrigation devices manufactured before the apocalypse?"

Xu Dayong hurriedly said, "Miss Yuan, the cultivation base may still have drip irrigation equipment. However, I don't have connections at the cultivation base, so I may not be able to help you, Miss Yuan."

"It's alright, I'll contact them." Shi Jia didn't say much more and hung up the phone. She then immediately dialed her adoptive father's number.

"dad."

"Xiaxia, is something the matter?" Yuan Lei's voice sounded very tired.

This was very unlike Yuan Lei, and Shi Jia sensed that something might have happened at the base. "Dad, has something happened?"

"Fang Yanlei, Fan Lin, and your Uncle Han's nephew Han Junxiang got into a fight in the villa area, which triggered an energy riot among the superpowered individuals," Yuan Lei said.

"Energy chaos in a superhuman? Is it a mutation?" Becoming a superhuman doesn't mean you're permanently immune to the virus; there's still a chance of reinfection.

Furthermore, the unstable energy within a person with superpowers also carries a certain chance of mutation.

Yuan Lei was surprised by his daughter's keen observation and said, "Two ability users have mutated, but the patrol team arrived in time and quickly brought it under control. Don't worry, it's not a big problem. By the way, Xiaxia, why did you call Daddy?"

Shi Jia still felt something was off. If nothing was wrong, would Yuan Lei's voice sound so tired? But since he didn't want to talk about it, Shi Jia didn't press him further.

“Oh, I want to get a drip irrigation system. I asked around, and it seems that only the cultivation base still has some. So I thought I'd ask Dad if he could sell me one,” Shi Jia said.

"Drip irrigation equipment?" Yuan Lei wasn't familiar with this, so he asked Secretary Chen. "Yes, we do. I checked the cultivation base's information before. Currently, the cultivation base relies entirely on growers for planting, so drip irrigation equipment isn't needed. Therefore, there should be quite a few unused drip irrigation systems in the cultivation base's warehouse."

"That's great! If you have extras, Dad, please get me two sets. I need them urgently," Shi Jia said quickly.

“Okay, I’ll have Secretary Chen take care of it in a bit.” Yuan Lei expressed his complete support for his daughter’s work.

"Okay, thank you, Dad. Thank you, Secretary Chen. I'll bring some vegetables home tonight. You can have Secretary Chen come and pick them up."

Secretary Chen was delighted to hear that the young lady wanted to send him vegetables. He thought to himself, "This young lady is getting better and better at handling people."

Yuan Lei was quite satisfied. Although it wasn't a big deal, it was something that happened outside of work, and if it happened too often, it would inevitably cause dissatisfaction.

"Alright, if there's nothing else, you can go ahead and get busy," Yuan Lei said.

Everything is fine now, but the cost of the drip irrigation equipment hasn't been discussed yet. "Dad, I don't have any more contribution points left."

Yuan Lei raised an eyebrow. Was she asking him for money? But it wasn't a big deal, and he was about to agree when his daughter said, "So, can I use potatoes to offset the cost of the drip irrigation equipment?"

"The potatoes were just planted and won't be ready for seven days, so I'll pay you in seven days?" Shi Jia had never considered taking base resources for free. She knew that even the right to use the B6 biogas digester had cost her 100,000 contribution points. A five-year contract for 100,000 contribution points was a huge bargain.

In fact, Shi Jia could have done it without spending any money, but she wanted complete control of the agricultural base so she could research whatever she wanted. Only by paying money could she prevent anyone from finding excuses to interfere with her work.

Yuan Lei, who was about to open his bracelet to transfer money to his daughter, paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "Okay, I agree on behalf of the breeding base."

“Okay, thank you, Dad,” Shi Jia said.

Both father and daughter were very busy, and once everything was settled, they hung up the phone. The midday sun was too strong to work, so Shi Jia set up a deck chair at the greenhouse entrance to sleep.

Here is a sunshade she built herself, with a roof made of thick hay to protect against the sun and insulate against the heat. Lying under it and enjoying the cool breeze is very pleasant.

In the afternoon, she asked Wang Junjun to haul fertilizer while she continued her experiments.

Let's start with the local potatoes. How can we make the potatoes develop viral antibodies? Shi Jia thought of many methods. One was to isolate the virus, but that was unrealistic unless all the viruses on Yi Mu Xing were eliminated. However, she still set up an isolation array as a control experiment.

The second method involves exposing potatoes to the virus in large quantities, selecting those with milder mutations from a large number of mutated potatoes, and then breeding them generation after generation.

While conducting this experiment, we can also cultivate superpowered potatoes, since naturally grown potatoes have a 1% chance of becoming superpowered plants.

If this mutant potato can be stably inherited, then the mutant potato project can be completed easily.

Therefore, this experiment was very necessary. For this reason, Shi Jia specially isolated a piece of land where the soil was not purified at all. The pests were simply killed, and potatoes were planted there. No superpower was used to accelerate their growth, and they were watered with unpurified water.

Thirdly, there's the method of using supernatural abilities to accelerate potato growth, attempting to edit the potato's genes during the growth process to give it viral immunity. This method can quickly produce virus-resistant potatoes, but cultivating supernatural potatoes remains a challenge.

After all, Shi Jia had no idea what the gene chain of the superpowered potato was like, so she couldn't just make it up out of thin air.

After dealing with the native potatoes, she turned her attention to the otherworldly potatoes. It was really strange; the native potatoes could thrive in her planting space, so why were the otherworldly potatoes so difficult to grow in this world?

Aren't they all potatoes? Is it because of different genes, or different constituent substances? Aren't they all carbon-based?
Shi Jia was completely baffled. She could only patiently observe, and like the local potato, she also divided the experiments into three groups: isolating the virus, coming into contact with the virus, and stimulating the growth of superpowers.

The potatoes wouldn't grow at all using the first two methods, and the growth rate induced by her supernatural abilities was also slow. Therefore, she had to abandon the first two methods and revise her experimental plan.

Considering that the alien potato can only grow under the stimulation of superpowers, superpowers are an essential condition. Under this condition, Shi Jia conducted more than ten sets of comparative experiments using local water (including purified and unpurified types) + space fertilizer, space soil; local water + local fertilizer + space soil, etc.

Shi Jia was so busy that the sun was already setting.

"Boss, someone's looking for you," Wang Junjun said immediately after she left the experimental area.

"Looking for me? Who is it?" Shi Jia was exhausted and a little dazed. She subconsciously took out a bag of dried meat from her spatial storage and ate it. The salt and sugar helped her regain some energy. When she and Wang Junjun walked outside the greenhouse, they saw Secretary Chen waiting outside with two other people.

"Brother Chen!" Shi Jia remembered the drip irrigation system and greeted him happily.

"Xiaxia, I've come to deliver the drip irrigation equipment to you. These two are technicians from the cultivation base; they're here to help you install it," Secretary Chen said.

"That's great." Shi Jia immediately led people to install the equipment. "Brother Chen, wait a moment, I'll accelerate the growth of some vegetables for you to take back later."

Secretary Chen wanted to say no, but she was already busy.