During times of famine: I have a spiritual spring space

Chapter 24 Planting Pumpkins

"Captain, didn't I tell you last time? Hui and I cut down 10 trees." Chen Jian'an interrupted his captain.

Captain Li nodded: "That's true, what's wrong?"

Let them cut down trees! They have no shortage of trees in the mountains here. Just tell them, they'll register it, and then they can go cut them down.

It's nothing serious.

"Hui and I just went up the mountain to take a look, and guess what?"

The captain glared at him: "Spit it out!"

"The trees we cut down are gone, and I saw other trees being cut down as well. Captain, has anyone else in our village cut down trees recently?" Chen Jian'an asked.

Needless to say, if someone in the village cuts down trees, he is undoubtedly the prime suspect.

The team leader was taken aback: "You guys are the only ones cutting bamboo in the village lately! Your Uncle Fu did cut some, though."

Zhuang Lihui understood that the bamboo that Chen Jian'an had time to carry back must have been picked up by Chen Dafu.

It's also Chen Jian'an's fault. Generally speaking, bamboo isn't very heavy; people usually just cut it down and take it back. With your bamboo, people probably thought it was unwanted!

"Did you steal a lot?" the captain asked again.

Zhuang Lihui nodded: "There are quite a lot. Including the 10 we cut down, there should be twenty or thirty."

"Wait a minute, I'll go with you to take a look."

The team leader went back into the room, and soon came out again, this time wearing a pair of liberation shoes.

The Liberation Shoes are made of cotton canvas uppers and rubber soles, and are lightweight and comfortable. They were first produced in 1950 and were initially issued to the army as military shoes.

The old captain's pair of shoes were brought back by his son when he was in the army.

Zhuang Lihui's gaze fell on the basket of pumpkin seeds spread out under the eaves of the team leader's house. He touched it with his hand, and a few pumpkin seeds were secretly put into his spatial storage.

Seeing this, the old captain thought Zhuang Lihui was embarrassed to take it, and laughed, "Take some if you want to eat, it should be enough."

Actually, it's best to stir-fry it with salt; it will make it even more fragrant.

Zhuang Lihui shook his head: "No."

The three of them walked up the mountain. Zhuang Lihui cursed himself for being an idiot. He should have just gone back to inform them! He had to make two trips back and forth.

However, thinking about the few pumpkin seeds in the space, Zhuang Lihui thought it wasn't a bad deal!

"Captain, come take a look here. We didn't manage to cut this far a few days ago, but now it's gone. It looks like someone sawed it off," Chen Jian'an said.

The sawdust is still there!

The old team leader went over to take a look and, sure enough, the sawdust was fresh, probably no more than two days old. But what puzzled him was that there were no signs of fallen trees.

Anyone who has ever cut down a tree knows a basic fact: the direction a tree falls from will leave a very obvious mark, smashing and damaging all the low-lying bushes and trees in that area.

However, this was not the case here; the vegetation within a radius of ten or twenty meters remained intact.

It's like a tree being cut down, and before it even falls, someone takes the whole thing away.

That doesn't make sense!

Where would you find someone with that much strength?

How heavy must a tree be, with its trunk and branches combined? Not to mention one person, even four or five people couldn't support it.

"That's really strange." The old captain frowned, completely baffled.

"What's so strange?" Chen Jian'an hadn't realized the problem yet.

Zhuang Lihui said, "There are no signs of trees falling here, and we don't see any branches. Logically speaking, the branches would have been cut off and discarded. Have you ever seen a timber thief pick up all the branches?"

In reality, he created space for the entire tree before it even fell, so it's no wonder he couldn't have left any trace.

That's why, despite cutting down so many trees, no one heard a thing.

Chen Jianan reacted instantly to this.

"Ah! Yes! Why?"

Afterwards, the old captain inspected the other felled tree stumps, and they were all the same: all that remained was a stump and a pile of sawdust; the trees had vanished before they even fell.

"Captain, do you think it might be...?"

Chen Jian'an didn't say the word "ghost," but the old captain and Zhuang Lihui knew what he wanted to say.

"What nonsense are you talking about?" The old captain glared at Chen Jian'an.

But in reality, he's even more superstitious about those things than young people. Over 60% of the older generation believe in those things. Especially in rural areas, this figure can soar to 80% or even 90%.

Chen Jianan shrank his neck.

"Alright, I'll go back and discuss this with someone. Lihui, if you need more timber, cut some more." The old captain didn't want to stay any longer.

Zhuang Lihui nodded: "Okay!"

"Brother Hui, aren't we going back?"

After this commotion, Chen Jian'an suddenly felt that the mountain was a bit eerie, especially with the sound of crows coming from above, which added to the sense of terror.

"What are you afraid of? We're already here, let's go! Let's take a look around!"

Actually, Zhuang Lihui wanted to test what the effect would be if crops were combined with the spiritual spring outside the space.

I just managed to get some pumpkin seeds, so I can try planting a couple in the mountains. If it works well, I can come with Chen Jian'an next time we go into the mountains and pick some openly.

That truly made it a wild pumpkin, and no one could doubt it.

If it works well, all sorts of "wild" things will appear on the mountain at any time, which you can then collect.

The origin of the item needs no explanation.

We can't just attribute everything we take out of the space to that fictitious "Uncle Wang".

Provoked by Zhuang Lihui, Chen Jianan forced a smile and said, "Scared? You're kidding."

To prove he wasn't afraid, he deliberately walked in front.

"I remember there used to be a spring over there in the valley, but I don't know if it's dried up now. Why don't you wait here for me for a while?" Zhuang Lihui said to Chen Jian'an after walking for a while.

Chen Jianan: "There should be. Brother Hui, go get some water if you want! I'll wait here."

He really didn't want to go towards the mountain valley.

Zhuang Lihui crawled over there, that's right! He crawled over there. Perhaps no one had walked there for too long, the original path was covered by vegetation, no wonder Chen Jian'an didn't want to follow.

Upon reaching the valley, the soil was slightly damp, and the spring was still there, but noticeably smaller.

Without hesitation, Zhuang Lihui took out three pumpkin seeds from his spatial storage, found three good spots, planted them, and then took out a spiritual spring to water them.

In less than a minute, the pumpkin seeds had sprouted.

Meanwhile, the grass next to them was growing wildly. However, Zhuang Lihui wouldn't give them a chance; he pulled them out on the spot and continued to water the melon seedlings with the spiritual spring.

Nourished by the spiritual spring, the pumpkin seedlings are growing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

It seems that as long as there is enough spiritual spring water, crops can grow at a high rate in the outside world.

Zhuang Lihui calculated that it would take 10 waterings with the spiritual spring outside to achieve the same effect as one watering in the spiritual spring space. The difference in soil quality is still significant, but it's still acceptable.

He just squatted there, watering the pumpkin seedlings with the spiritual spring every two or three minutes.