Chapter 177: Chapter 0177: The Cornucopia and the Bear Child_1
A mysterious smile touched Father Zhang’s face as he pulled Zhang Bin into the vegetable garden.
Then Zhang Bin saw something enormous.
Lying on the ground like two small hills were a pair of gigantic winter melons, each one twice the size of a car.
More incredibly, the two winter melons were still blue-coloured and had not yet turned white. This meant they were still unripe and had a great deal of room to grow. No one could accurately predict just how large they might eventually become.
"Hiss..." Zhang Bin drew a sharp breath, his face a mask of disbelief. He had never seen, let alone heard of, a winter melon so huge.
"Heh heh... Son, that gave you a shock, didn’t it? Would you call this a cornucopia?" Father Zhang asked, bursting with pride.
These were winter melons cultivated with Spiritual Water. At a price of three hundred yuan per half a kilo, these melons might weigh a ton or even more. This made a single one extremely valuable, worth at least 300,000 yuan. Unlike other vegetables, winter melons did not spoil easily and could be stored for a long time, which meant they could be shipped all over the country. If he cultivated a hundred such melons a year, that would be worth thirty million yuan. It was no wonder Father Zhang was so ambitious, aiming to become a billionaire within two years—his confidence stemmed from these two colossal winter melons.
"I really am shocked. Dad, how on earth did you grow these?" Zhang Bin asked. Before his father could answer, a look of surprise crossed his face and he murmured, "Strange... why do I hear a heartbeat and breathing from inside this melon? Don’t tell me it’s become sentient?"
Now it was Father Zhang’s turn to be dumbfounded. He hastily scrambled back several steps, exclaiming in alarm, "No way! How could there be a heartbeat and breathing?"
"But there is," Zhang Bin insisted, equally puzzled. He began to circle the winter melon, observing it closely.
Then, he noticed something behind the melon. Someone had cut a door into it. Although the door was now closed, its outline was still clearly visible.
Father Zhang, who was following behind Zhang Bin, saw it too. He instantly flew into a rage and bellowed, "Xiong Xiong, you get out here right now! See if I don’t tan your hide!"
Xiong Xiong was the most mischievous child in Sanchahe Village. His real name was Zhang Xiong, and as a member of the Zhang family, he was of the same generation as Zhang Bin. In fact, Xiong Xiong’s paternal grandfather and Father Zhang’s grandfather were one and the same.
Father Zhang had seen the boy hanging around his vegetable patch for the past few days and sensed something was amiss, but he had never been able to figure out what.
Now he finally understood. The little rascal had actually bored a hole into the winter melon to use as a playhouse.
Just as Father Zhang finished shouting, the door swung open.
Two children emerged. One was Xiong Xiong, and the other was a little girl with adorable pigtails.
The little girl, nicknamed Yaya, was the daughter of Wang Jun, who lived at the eastern end of the village.
"Uncle, Brother Bin, welcome to my home! Why don’t you come in for a cup of tea?" Xiong Xiong said. He wasn’t scared of Father Zhang at all, but he looked at Zhang Bin with timid eyes, clearly a bit intimidated by him.
"This is your home?" Zhang Bin chuckled, amused.
Father Zhang, however, was so angry he was practically howling. His carefully cultivated winter melon had been turned into a brat’s playhouse, and now the kid was inviting him in for tea?
"It’s my and Yaya’s home," Xiong Xiong declared righteously. "Yaya agreed to be my wife, but I can’t afford to build a big house right now. I thought the winter melon was nice, so I borrowed it. Besides, Uncle, you’re going to grow lots of winter melons in the future. It’s no big deal to leave one for me as a house, so don’t be so stingy. We’re all family, after all!"
"This is a winter melon, not a house! You brat, and you think you’re in the right?" Father Zhang charged over like a whirlwind, grabbed Xiong Xiong, and gave his bottom two heavy smacks.
WHAP! WHAP!
His bottom immediately bloomed like a flower.
Xiong Xiong was only six, so he immediately burst into howls.
Soon, a crowd of villagers had gathered, drawn by the commotion. Xiong Xiong’s parents arrived as well.
They were all caught between laughter and tears, and some even bent over, clutching their stomachs as they roared with laughter.
One person even poked their head inside the melon for a look, exclaiming in amazement, "It really is like a little house! You could actually live in here. This kid is brilliant!"
"Heh heh, my son is the smartest, of course," Xiong Xiong’s father, Zhang Hu, laughed triumphantly.
"Is this how you raise a child?" his wife, Cuihua, hissed, twisting his arm hard. "He ruined Xiao Bin’s winter melon! That’s a terrible thing to do. You know that melon is worth hundreds of thousands of yuan!"
"A beating! He needs a beating! We’ll hang him up and beat him!" Zhang Hu’s demeanor changed in an instant as he roared, his face a ferocious mask.
This terrified Xiong Xiong so much he nearly fainted, and Yaya pouted and burst into tears as well.
"He must be beaten! Beaten soundly!" Father Zhang continued to shout, still furious.
The two children grew even more frightened, their faces etched with terror.
"Alright, Dad, that’s enough. Stop scaring them," Zhang Bin said. He gave Xiong Xiong a lecture and then peered inside the melon. Seeing no serious damage, he decided not to go in. Instead, he closed the little door and infused it with Longevity Qi. The melon’s wound healed rapidly, and soon the door vanished completely, leaving not even a scar.
The crowd of villagers clicked their tongues in amazement.
After the villagers left, Father Zhang said proudly, "Son, I used a special method to cultivate such a huge winter melon..."
He had truly put a lot of thought into cultivating it. Instead of planting the melon directly in the ground, he had used a gigantic vat—one taller than a person—and filled it with soil. Then, he planted the seedling inside.
This way, when he watered it with Spiritual Water, the water wouldn’t seep deep into the ground but would remain contained within the vat. As a result, it didn’t require much Spiritual Water at all. He only had to add diluted Spiritual Water once every three days, and sometimes it was fine even if he went seven or eight days without watering it.
Nourished by the Spiritual Water, the vine grew thick and strong, and the winter melon it produced grew larger and larger.
Of course, he had also covered the vat with a plastic film to prevent rainwater from getting in, as too much water could easily cause the roots to rot.
He finished, saying proudly, "Once these two melons ripen, we can use their seeds to plant the next batch. The new winter melons will surely be even bigger, require even less Spiritual Water, and taste even better. Son, do you see? Isn’t this melon a real cornucopia?"
"It certainly is a cornucopia. Dad, you’re amazing," Zhang Bin said with admiration. "However, when we sell the melons in the future, we should remove all the seeds. We can’t let other people use them to grow melons this huge."
"Of course. This is the key to our family’s fortune," Father Zhang said with a nod. Then he added excitedly, "Manager Wu has come to see these two melons several times. He said we could probably raise the price."
"We can raise the price even more? Excellent! It seems growing winter melons is more profitable than other vegetables. Dad, you’re going to be rich," Zhang Bin said happily.
Father Zhang was even prouder, his face breaking into a smile as wide as a blossoming flower.
Seeing his father so happy, Zhang Bin made a silent vow. I have to protect my family and make sure they can live happily forever. I’ve raised several pets now, and they’ll be able to protect my family when they get stronger. But that might not be enough. The Taiqing Sect has too few Human Cultivators—right now, it’s just me. It seems I’ll have to cultivate a few powerful junior sisters... And of course, they have to be beautiful!
Just as the image of a suitable beauty flashed through his mind, his phone began to ring urgently...