Although Gu Xi had tried to give him some privacy, Wei Heng clearly didn't mind. He started chatting with the people in the group right in front of her.
While the instinct for planting was practically in the blood of the Chinese people, Wei Heng was a novice, after all. After humbly asking the "veteran farmers" in the group for advice, he looked up at Gu Xi. "How about we go with sweet potatoes...?"
Sweet potatoes were high-yield and easy to store. They could be a staple food or made into all sorts of different snacks. The leaves could be eaten as a vegetable, and even the vines could be used as feed for poultry and livestock. After being dried, they could even be burned as firewood.
"...And I heard that before the apocalypse, people used to say that eating sweet potato leaves regularly could even prevent cancer." Wei Heng rested his chin on his hand, asking for Gu Xi's opinion.
Gu Xi had no objections.
Wei Heng had been using voice chat to talk with the group. She had listened quietly from the side for a while and had actually picked up some useful information.
Although she had never farmed and didn't know much about crops, her mastery of her Wood Element superpower was, it could be said, unparalleled.
Gu Xi was confident that as long as she was given a viable seed, she could grow it, no matter the variety.
But could it be eaten after it was grown? That, Gu Xi couldn't guarantee.
In this era where all plants had mutated, they had become strange and unpredictable.
'I have a few ideas,' Gu Xi thought, 'but I won't know if they'll work until I've tested them.'
As he submitted the information, Wei Heng asked Gu Xi, "Besides sweet potatoes, is there anything else you want to plant? How about cabbage and radishes?"
Generally speaking, the seeds sent by the base were all pretty similar—all seeds with relatively low mutation coefficients, carefully selected after being screened by professionals.
But a plant's mutation coefficient wasn't set in stone; it could be affected by the environment at any time.
And the longer a crop's growth cycle, the higher the unpredictability of this mutation.
That was why Wei Heng, like most people, preferred to plant crops with shorter growth cycles.
"Anything is fine." Gu Xi wasn't picky, but if possible, she wanted to plant some fruit.
From the chat between Wei Heng and the other pioneers in the group, Gu Xi had learned that fruit was now an extremely rare commodity that simply couldn't be bought outside.
If ordinary people wanted to eat some fruit, their only option was to go out into the wild and try their luck, to see if they could find some fruits with a low mutation coefficient...
And Gu Xi had a little-known hobby: she absolutely loved fruit. That's why, in the past, the one thing her personal space was never short of was all kinds of fruit... and fruit seeds.
But now there was a problem with her superpower. It was pitifully weak, at most a level three, and even the personal space she had created before was gone.
To create a personal space again, she would have to wait until her superpower recovered to at least level seven.
'I wonder if I'll be able to get back all the supplies I collected before, once I create a new space?'
Wei Heng was very thoughtful. He deliberately turned the Light Screen toward her so she could look carefully before choosing.
But after looking, Gu Xi was disappointed to find that there wasn't a single fruit seed among those distributed by the base.
In the end, she reluctantly chose tomatoes.
...
「The next morning」 The few helicopters belonging to the Central Base flew away.
For the next two days, the camp remained quiet, with no more incidents of mutant plants turning hostile. But Wei Heng told her that the military had actually already been there.
The surrounding area had undergone repeated, rigorous screenings by the military. The danger had now been mostly eliminated, and the camp would soon be unsealed.
That evening, the supplies from South City finally arrived.
The first thing Wei Heng did was bring over her personal terminal, eagerly showing off his aesthetic sense. "What do you think? I picked this out especially for you. It looks good, right?"
Gu Xi stared at the pink, childish-looking watch in front of her and fell silent. "..."
Belatedly, Wei Heng realized something was off. He scratched his head sheepishly and hesitated. "Gu Xi, you... you don't like it, do you?" 'That can't be right. Didn't Mr. Zhou say his little niece loved this pink cat-head design?'
"...Thank you." Gu Xi was silent for a moment before saying with a deadpan expression, "I love it."
And then, a bewildered Wei Heng found himself pushed out of the room.
Gu Xi closed the door. She lowered her head, and after a long moment, she turned on the personal terminal.
She needed to understand this world, thirty years in the future, as quickly as possible.
Gu Xi fiddled with it for a while and discovered that while the device looked the part, it wasn't actually a true smart-brain system.
At least, it was very different from the smart-brain system proposed by Dr. Qi thirty years ago. Many of the originally envisioned functions had not been realized...
After a moment's thought, she opened the search bar. But this personal terminal was a basic model issued by the base specifically for pioneers. Many functions were unauthorized, the available information was very limited, and most of it was related to planting...
Gu Xi stared at the screen for a long time, then decisively exited the search bar, opened the official app that came with the terminal, and clicked on the forum section inside...
Just then, a small box suddenly popped up on the lower right corner of the Light Screen—it was a forum friend request from Wei Heng.
Gu Xi frowned slightly. She found it a bit strange. She hadn't registered a forum account and was only logged in as a guest, so how did Wei Heng find her so precisely?
While quickly browsing the messages on the forum, Gu Xi accepted Wei Heng's friend request and sincerely asked him that very question.
Pioneer Wei: Select 'People Nearby' and check the ID number.
Gu Xi wasn't stupid; she understood instantly.
The long string of numbers following her guest status likely represented the region with the first few digits, the camp number with the middle digits, and the long string at the end was the time she first logged into the forum.
Their camp had only just been established and didn't have many members. She was probably the only person who had just received their personal terminal today...
No wonder Wei Heng found her as soon as she went online.
After spending all night on the forums, Gu Xi finally had a rough understanding of the world thirty years in the future.
The next morning, she had just washed her face with cold water when Wei Heng showed up excitedly, holding a bowl of dark vegetable mush. "Gu Xi, the camp is being unsealed tomorrow, you..."
Halfway through his sentence, Wei Heng suddenly felt that something was off.
He looked up and studied Gu Xi seriously. "You don't seem surprised at all..."
Gu Xi raised a hand and said calmly, "At five in the morning, the camp posted the news about the unsealing on the forum..."
Wei Heng frowned slightly, looking her up and down from all angles. "Gu Xi, don't tell me you didn't sleep all night?" 'Who would've thought? She's a total net addict.'
'I'm not an addict,' thought Gu Xiaoxi. 'I just wanted to understand this world better.'
An hour later, with her newly acquired land contract in hand, Gu Xi followed Wei Heng to the camp's agricultural technology station to pick up crop seeds and farming machinery.
By the time they arrived, quite a few people were already lined up in front of the station.
The two of them slowly joined the back of the line. Wei Heng, who was walking in front, suddenly thought of something. He stopped and turned back. "Gu Xi, you just came from the ruins, so you probably don't have any money in your account, right? We'll have to apply for a loan first..."
Gu Xi frowned. "Aren't those seeds distributed by the base for free?" She had seen information about this on the official forums last night.
Wei Heng explained, "The seeds are distributed by the base for free, but there are rules about the quantity and types of free seeds each person can receive. That day, I helped you pick out a few extra types, remember..."
Gu Xi: "?"
For some reason, she suddenly had a bad feeling.
Wei Heng glanced at her and said sheepishly, "Originally, I thought the balance in my account would be enough..."
"But this is my first time pioneering and farming, so I don't have any experience. When I was picking out seeds that day, I accidentally chose a few too many..." Wei Heng's voice grew quieter and quieter.
To be honest, this was the first time he'd ever had to worry about money.
When he was in the Superpower Special Team, the country covered his food and lodging, so he had no need to spend money. He sent all his allowance to the families of his fallen comrades.
Half a year ago, after that incident, he voluntarily left the Special Service Team. Most of his discharge pay, however, was spent on superpower inhibitors...
As a result, he was now a bit strapped for cash.
Fortunately, the country was now strongly supporting agriculture and farming. As long as you had a land contract, you could get a loan.
Moreover, since Gu Xi was a newcomer who had just returned to the base from the ruins, she was eligible for a three-year interest-free loan...
Wei Heng comforted her, "Gu Xi, you really don't have to worry about not being able to pay back the money. Once we grow some crops, we can use them to repay this part of the loan..."
After hearing him out, Gu Xi asked with a deadpan expression, "So, besides the free seeds from the base, how much more do we owe?"
Wei Heng quietly muttered a number.
Gu Xi: 'Forget it all. To hell with the tomatoes!'