Gourd Farm

Chapter 5: Setting up a Stall 

"Give us a catty too."

At this point, Yang Feng was experiencing his first time selling on a stall. As he bustled around, he noticed that three or four customers had already ordered from him. However, he was still feeling flustered and overwhelmed by the experience.

"Hey, aunty, please don't rummage around like that. If you mess everything up, I won't be able to sell them," he said.

As time passed, more and more people gathered around Yang Feng's small stall. There was a frenzy of buying and grabbing, leaving only a pound or so of damaged berries. Looking at the various plastic bags filled with money, Yang Feng felt extremely happy.

"10, 20, 30..." he counted.

The scattered coins added up to an astonishing 485 yuan, which surpassed his expectations. Feeling delighted, Yang Feng decided to treat himself to some chicken later. He hadn't eaten meat in a long time.

Suddenly, a petite, fair-skinned girl with a slender figure approached Yang Feng's stall and softly asked, "Boss, how much are these strawberries?" As she lowered her head, a strand of hair fell down, and she used her finger to tuck it behind her ear.

Yang Feng recognized her as the girl who was selling watermelons next to him. After glancing at the remaining strawberries, he thought for a moment before saying, "These are all leftovers with poor appearance, so you can have them all for 15 yuan."

"Can you make it cheaper?" asked the young girl, sounding a bit embarrassed. "Business is not good for watermelon today, and I only have 10 yuan. Can you sell it to me?"

Yang Feng thought for a moment before agreeing. These were leftovers that nobody wanted, so 10 yuan was better than nothing. He picked up the fruit and put them in his bag, and the young girl did the same. Even the crushed ones were not left behind.

After finishing his sales for the day, Yang Feng went to the market to buy half a bag of potatoes, half a chicken, and a bottle of beer. He had a good meaty lunch and took a nap, waking up to find it was already dark.

Yang Feng went to check on his bokchoy in the vegetable garden. As expected, the water from the gourd had worked wonders. The bokchoy had grown to about ten centimeters in height in just two days, and the nearby chili peppers were already blooming.

"I'm going to be rich now," thought Yang Feng.

Yang Feng was certain that the water from the gourd was responsible for the rapid growth he witnessed in his bokchoy and chili peppers. However, he was unsure about the specific effects of the water on plants and the time frame in which it acted. He would have to wait and explore more in the future.

The following day, Yang Feng resumed his usual routine of setting up his strawberry stall in town. However, he was pleased to discover that his business was now much better than before, with repeat customers even appearing.

One of his customers impatiently spoke up, saying "Boss, can you be faster? I still need to buy other things."

"Ah, okay, okay," Yang Feng replied with a smile

Yang Feng was busy searching for change, he had brought too little change in his hurry to set up the stall today.

"Sorry about that, can you wait a moment? I'll get you some change," he said.

There were only two stalls on this road, so Yang Feng had to ask the strawberry-selling girl for change.

"Excuse me, can you give me some change?" he asked.

"I'm afraid I won't have enough for myself later," the girl replied, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"It's okay, once I finish this sale, I'll go out to the street to exchange some for you."

"Okay then." The girl took some coins out of her knitted bag and gave them to him.

After finishing the sale, Yang Feng rode his bike and said to the girl, "Could you watch the stall for me while I go to the street?"

"Sure."

The girl was originally worried that Yang Feng would run away, but now that there is a stall here, she's not worried anymore. Can he really not even take the scale?

After waiting for about ten minutes, Yang Feng returned on his bike and handed the girl five yuan in change. "Thank you," he said.

The girl took the money and pursed her lips. "You're welcome."

Today's strawberries sold pretty well. Yang Feng counted and made 230 yuan. This batch of strawberries is basically over.

If he wants to sell more, even with the help of fertilizers, it will take about ten more days.

However, he is not worried. The vegetables and peppers in the garden can be sold in the next few days.

As it was almost noon, when he went to the market to buy vegetables, he saw a stall selling seeds.

There were various seeds on the ground, such as seedless watermelons, fruit cucumbers, and cantaloupes(melon).

Yang Feng planned to buy a few types of seeds that are in season and go back to plant them in the garden. He chose a bag of yam beans, which have a good yield and a reasonable price.

He also picked up some Tefeng melon and Hami melon.

When he returned home, Yang Feng took a dung water  ladle and prepared to water the empty space in the garden with it. As the saying goes, "If you want the crops to bloom, you must rely on the manure."

Note: dung water is a mixture of water and animal waste, commonly known as dung water or manure.

After finishing these tasks, Yang Feng looked at the ripe vegetables.

Vegetables are best when they are tender, as they become stringy and less delicious as they age.

After several days of experimenting with gourd water, Yang Feng has gained preliminary control over the timing of its usage.

The normal growth cycle of vegetables is about a month, depending on factors such as weather and temperature. However, with the use of gourd water, the vegetables that should have taken a month to mature have only taken five days.

Gourd water can normally accelerate growth by six times, but its effect depends on the purity of the water. Yang Feng always mixes one-third gourd water with 100 pounds of normal water. While the less water used, the better the effect, if the purity is too high, the gourd water may not be enough.

Despite the benefits of gourd water, this gourd can only accumulate one gourd of water within 24 hours. This shattered Yang Feng's dream of getting rich overnight. He was unsure what to eat for dinner and didn't want to bother too much, so he picked a few vegetables and prepared noodles.

The vegetables he grew are now evenly shaped, with a bright green color, and not a single bug in sight. In contrast, his neighbor's garden required daily spraying of various pesticides, yet they still couldn't avoid being attacked by bugs.

As Yang Feng tasted the vegetables he grew himself, he found them sweet and crisp, with a different taste from ordinary vegetables. While he couldn't explain it, he just knew that they were better than others.

At first, Yang Feng was worried that accelerating ripening would affect the taste, because he had seen similar methods on TV before.

But those were all chemical agents, medicines, and the like, which had a particularly large harm to the human body, and were secretly used by some unscrupulous merchants.

As soon as it was dawn, Yang Feng picked up the gourd and saw that it was full of water.

He ran to the vegetable garden and saw that the tender green vegetables from yesterday were now almost as big as Chinese cabbage.

Yang Feng was dumbfounded. How could he sell these now?

He pulled out one and pinched it with his hand. With a "crunch," the vegetable broke off, still very tender.

This reminded Yang Feng of the space vegetables he had seen on TV before.

Whether it was green peppers or other vegetables, they were all huge in size and of good quality.

His own vegetables seemed to be similar to space vegetables, with both appearance and taste being top-notch. He didn't know how the market would react, so he decided to take it slow.