Abandoned the Immortal Cultivator, returned to his hometown to farm and sing

Chapter 1346, page 1333: The Old Luo Family's Groundworm
What exactly is going on?

Even if he's busy with cultivation, business negotiations, and various other things, it shouldn't cause such a drastic change.

A long-term employee? Does that mean Qi Ruomu has joined the company?

Even if you start a job, you can't just leave without telling your boss, right?

However, Qi Ruomu said, "My niece, Qin Qiuyan, caused the Qiuyan No. 16 tuber to grow incorrectly in the field. My senior sister asked me to go to Guizhou to take a look."

Oh, so you weren't officially hired, just a hired hand.

Qiuyan No. 16 is a delicious potato newly cultivated by Qin Qiuyan, specifically for wolf tooth potatoes.

It's normal that they don't know, since they've completely delegated the breeding and cultivation aspects to Wenying.

It's only natural for Wenying to assign work to her junior apprentice.

I didn't see the twenty cucumbers that the little kid was being ordered around like a spinning top.

"How about you go? Did you resolve it?" Luo Yihang asked again.

Qi Ruomu said proudly, "Remove the 'ma' part. With me in charge, is there anything I can't solve!"

"Qiuyan No. 16 is a variety with high amylose content, so potassium fertilizer must be sufficient. Although my niece thought of this and determined the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium ratio to be 1:1:2 during the greenhouse experiment, she overlooked the micronutrients, such as boron deficiency under field conditions."

"Boron is a catalyst for sugar transport and starch synthesis. It plays a particularly important role in the synthesis of complex carbohydrates such as high amylose."

"If there is a lack of boron, the tubers will naturally not grow well. Once you supplement them, there will be no problem. You can just pinch them with your hands."

Wow, that's impressive! You can tell a pro just by looking at their work.

"Have you been paid your service fee yet?" Luo Yihang asked casually.

Speaking of this, Qi Ruomu was furious. "Give me whatever you want! I paid for my own train ticket."

Luo Yihang was puzzled. "That can't be. Wenying has plenty of funding. Surely she wouldn't refuse to reimburse train tickets."

Qi Ruomu curled his lip and said disdainfully, "Do you think my senior sister would part with the money? She's a real tightwad, not a penny to her name."

Forget about that. In Wenying's eyes, research funding is research funding, and no matter how much the budget is, it can't be wasted.

"Spending money recklessly" includes paying wages to junior apprentices.

It also includes things like team dinners, showing concern for each other's lives, and preparing gifts for birthdays.

If Shi Juan hadn't been watching over things, the atmosphere in the lab would have been incredibly serious.

When Luo Yihang and the other executives chatted in private, they all said that Wen Ying was the Huo Qubing of their time.

Serving under her was demanding and stressful, but it yielded results.

She's not very good at taking care of people. She's completely uncaring outside of work, but when she gets into work, she instantly transforms into a cold-faced war goddess. Although she's not fierce or yells at people, she's just incredibly scary.

But it can produce results.

They ate and lived together, she endured hardship before enjoying anything, and had no pleasures whatsoever. But she was still very successful.

Isn't this just like Huo Qubing? He endured the most hardship, traveled the farthest distance, and fought the fiercest enemies.

But they always manage to win.

He was ennobled after one battle and ennobled as a marquis after another, receiving the most rewards.

Luo Yihang was so pleased with himself that he even wanted to call himself Emperor Wu of Han.

Qi Ruomu, who was brought by Wenying, was essentially the same as Wei Zifu, and should be granted the title of Empress for her merits.

I'm just afraid his wife won't allow it...

"I'll talk to Wenying about this later. It's outrageous." Luo Yihang spoke up for Qi Ruomu, though his words lacked sincerity.

Qi Ruomu scoffed, "Tch, is that all? No wonder people say you're a heartless capitalist."

Hey!
Rumors! Framed! Who spread this...?

"If Ling Tongjie works for you, do you pay him?" Luo Yihang asked rhetorically.

Qi Ruomu spoke frankly and righteously, "What money do you need? Just a meal is good enough. I'm your senior brother."

See? They all have the same kind of face.

Nobody is allowed to touch my research funding, not even my own junior colleague!

However, since Qi Ruomu did the work, he should be paid for his labor. We can't let him pay out of his own pocket.

As for labor fees...

Luo Yihang suddenly remembered something, “Senior Brother Qi, why don’t you take a temporary position as an advisor with me? There’s a project that needs your help.”

"What project is it?" Qi Ruomu asked.

Luo Yihang briefly recounted the projects he had discussed with Dubai before the Naadam Festival, focusing on the ones he could.

"Oh ho, so I'm involved in this too?" Qi Ruomu knew that a huge deal had been struck with Dubai, worth 160 billion US dollars, which caused a sensation around the world and spread far and wide.

Qi Ruomu was naturally happy to participate in such a big project, but she still had to pretend, "Oh, I don't know if I have the time. You know I'm quite busy, I'm going to be selected as an Outstanding Young Scientist."

Trying to squeeze in something, huh? Just showing off, huh?

Luo Yihang ignored the latter part of his reply and said, "We're still discussing the details. It won't really start for at least a few months."

Qi Ruomu was a magnanimous person; if he couldn't get what he wanted, he wouldn't force it. "Sure, no problem. Just give me an annual salary of a few hundred thousand, don't give me more."

He changed his approach again.

Luo Yihang readily agreed, his face beaming with a delighted expression. "Alright, I knew Senior Brother Qi regarded money as dirt. Don't worry, I won't give you more. Let's tentatively set it at five thousand a month, according to the standard for regular employees. What do you think?"

Kid, you dare mess with me? Let's see who's shameless.

Qi Ruomu was truly "generous," readily agreeing, "Sure. Whatever you say, that's what I'll do."

This left Luo Yihang completely bewildered. "You've reduced a hundred thousand to a hundred thousand? Does that mean I'm good at bargaining, or...?"

Before he could finish speaking, Qi Ruomu added, "Of course, there are other conditions. You need to build me a building at the pig farm. I've already found someone—an animal expert, Lao Niu, who studies earthworm breeding. I was just about to tell you, waiting for you to come back. Now that we've met, let's get to work quickly and get started."

Good grief, he just opened his mouth with a whole building! "Shouldn't we equip you with all the necessary equipment?"

"Isn't that obvious? Of course you have to provide all the supplies, otherwise how can we get the work done? Just follow your lab's standards. I'll send you the order in a couple of days. Hurry up and make the purchases. There are quite a few that need to be pre-ordered; we don't have any in stock."

Luo Yihang sighed helplessly and gave a thumbs up. "Damn, I lost money on this deal. I lost everything."

Equipment purchased according to the Breeding 4.0 laboratory standard would be more expensive than a building.

"You, Mr. Luo, are not short of money. If you need anything, I'll just bring you two pounds of beef." Qi Ruomu was quite assertive, showing no sense of needing to ask for favors.

"Don't worry, I'll buy it myself. I don't need your two pounds of meat." Luo Yihang really wanted to slap himself for being so talkative.

That's a huge loss!

Qi Ruomu studied earthworms because of his "overlapping and modifying" technique for improving saline-alkali land.

The technology faced two main challenges in its early stages, one of which was the development of salt-tolerant ice grass.

Wenying has been researching salt-tolerant ice plant.

The water-salt co-stress characteristics extracted from existing ice plant varieties were already used in the breeding of Qiuyan No. 9.

Then, going a step further, the technology of improving the internal and external balance by regulating the concentration of ions in the body through metabolism was applied to Super Malan Grass.

Learning from and promoting each other, a new generation of salt-tolerant ice grass is being cultivated in the Ping'angou greenhouse.

Field trials will be possible soon.

This time, the salt-tolerant ice grass has improved its salt tolerance from being able to grow in soil with a salt content of 0.6%~1.02% to over 1.2%.

Don't underestimate this 0.2%; it's the dividing line between moderately and severely saline-alkali fields.

Moreover, the new salt-tolerant ice plant grows faster and has larger leaves, which means it absorbs salt faster and in greater quantities.

With improved salt tolerance, more land can be improved.

After all, there are as many as 1.15 million mu of severely saline-alkali land.

The second challenge was the earthworms. Earthworms aren't very salt-tolerant, and even the earthworms raised by Luo Yihang were much more resilient than ordinary earthworms.

Even if you put them in, they'll die in batches; they're treated like consumables.

However, regardless of the first stage, improving soil structure, improving farmland microclimate, reducing surface water evaporation, and inhibiting salinization are all important.

Whether it's the second stage of reducing soil salinity to 0.3% or increasing soil fertility, earthworms are indispensable.

The process of saline-alkali soil is not over once the salt has been absorbed; the microorganisms and organic matter in the soil have also been killed off, and the soil must be restored.

Qi Ruomu's goal this time is to cultivate one or more new varieties of earthworms that are more resilient, more tolerant of saline-alkali soil, larger in size, and eat and excrete more.

“You’re not at a loss. The ones we cultivate here will still be registered under your name. They’ll be called ‘Old Luo’s Earthworms.’ We’ll give them a big red flower and make them look like earthworms.”

"Thick as a finger, as long as a chopstick, slippery and sticky, purplish-black, they're all rooting around in the ground, yelling as they root, 'Old Luo's land has worms, everyone who's used it says it's good, you know, Luo Yihang is the real father.'"

Qi Ruomu is so poor.

Luo Yihang got goosebumps when he heard this; it was disgusting.

"I can't afford to offend them, I can't afford to offend them," Luo Yihang thought, and quickly ran back to his own table.

Sitting there scrolling through my phone is better than chatting with Qi Ruomu.
-
Time passed by minute by minute.

Soon, it was already midnight.

More and more people were coming to Beida Street, and all the empty tables were filled.

People who arrived later couldn't find seats and even discussed sharing a table.

Why is that?

Tianhan doesn't have a nightlife culture. Even the night market, except during tourist festivals like the Harvest Festival and the Flower Sea Food Festival, usually ends around 10 PM.

Early to bed and early to rise makes you healthy. How did this thousands-year-old custom change?
So many people running outside in the middle of the night.

After midnight, even people sitting on the street scrolling through their phones couldn't sit still anymore.

They kept craning their necks to look at the intersection, like geese at the village entrance.

The vendors in front of the stalls also got busy, pulling their flatbed carts and hurrying towards the intersection, walking very fast, just like the aunties who heard that the supermarket was giving away eggs.

15:00.

Some vendors have already returned, beaming with pride, their chests puffed out and heads held high, with several insulated boxes already loaded onto their carts.

hula.

The waiting guests all stood up, shouting and yelling, "One pot!", "Two pots!", "More raw intestines!", "More pig liver!", and so on.

Beida Street seemed to have been revitalized, transforming into a bustling vegetable market.

Luo Yihang also stood up and peered into the shed.

The stall owner unloaded the insulated box, opened it, and inside were fresh pig offal.

Pig liver, kidneys, pig heart, and the like.

The large pot of boiling water on the stove was also lifted.

The air was thick with mist, and the aroma of rice filled the air.

Oh, it was porridge.

"Pork offal? Congee? Pork offal congee? Why would you want pork offal congee in the middle of the night?" Luo Yihang asked, puzzled.

"Isn't it all because of your kid?" Qiangwa said with a laugh and a scolding tone.

Luo Yihang pointed to himself, "Me? What does that have to do with me? I didn't even know they were cooking porridge here."

It's ridiculous to take all the blame upon yourself; you're not a scapegoat.

"You raise so many pigs, and you only slaughter them at 11:30 every night. By the time the offal is delivered here, it will be past midnight." Qiangwa's words made a lot of sense.

Luo Yihang set up a pig farm, a huge pig farm.

We used to have 100,000 pigs slaughtered every month... Now we have more than 110,000 pigs.

Every afternoon, the animals are transported to slaughterhouses for quarantine and disinfection. They are then slaughtered overnight and transported out again before dawn to be delivered to supermarkets across the country.

We strive to ensure that every meal delivered to every household is the freshest.

The first batch of pigs each day is indeed slaughtered around 11 a.m.

The pork offal was delivered to Beidajie at 12:15 AM, that's really fast.

"Of course, the trucks are waiting at the slaughterhouse early in the morning, loading them up and delivering them over as soon as possible, one batch every half hour, until 2 a.m. It's all about efficiency and freshness."

Qiangwa was smug, as if he had arranged it all himself.

It's really something new.

Luo Yihang went over and took a look around.

The fresh pig offal was still warm and even trembling.

Pork offal includes not only common items such as pork heart, kidneys, and pork liver.

There are also pig tongues, pig throats, pig intestines, raw intestines, and all sorts of scraps.

The white rice porridge has been cooked for a long time and has become thick.

Luo Yihang could tell from the aroma of the rice that it was Tianhan fragrant rice.

This is a hybrid rice variety of indica and japonica. When made into porridge, it should be a lighter, more refreshing consistency, not this thick.

Thick porridge is usually made with rice from Northeast China.

To cook Tianhan fragrant rice to this consistency, it needs to be soaked beforehand for at least two hours.

Then simmer it for a few more hours... no, it still won't get this thick. The rice water looks like it's turned into a gel, and when you scoop it up, it clings to the spoon.

There was something in the porridge. Luo Yihang, with his sharp eyes, spotted some small white particles—it was yam.

Chopped yam.

That makes sense; yams naturally contain mucus and are high in starch, which can thicken them.

Besides yams.

On the counter next to it were soaked Ophiopogon japonicus, lily bulbs, lotus seeds, Poria cocos, Astragalus membranaceus, red dates, longan, and a bowl of washed pears.

If you add these to porridge, it will be incredibly nutritious.

There were two or three people at each stall.

One is busy processing pig offal.

Another person was busy ladling porridge from a large pot into a clay pot, which was about the size of a basin. The clay pot, which was more than half full of porridge, was sitting on the stove and continuing to cook.

Finally, someone called out to them.

Another person went from table to table with a notebook to order food.

It seems Qiangwa and his group have been here many times; there's no need to recite the menu.

Qiangwa first ordered a pot of pork offal congee with poria cocos and lotus seeds to strengthen the spleen and remove dampness.

Su Jing ordered an extra pot of pork offal congee with Ophiopogon japonicus and lily bulbs to clear heat and moisturize dryness, and also asked for extra pork intestines and a pear for added relief.

While I was at it, I asked the stall owner to deliver two pots of nourishing porridge with astragalus, red dates, and longan to the police officers on duty at the intersection. I also suggested adding extra pork liver to help them recover properly.

They're so particular, they turned a late-night snack into a medicinal meal.

Beer with goji berries, knee pads for clubbing, nourishing yourself while staying up all night.

The main feature is a swimming pool that's being filled and drained simultaneously, evoking memories of youth...

(End of this chapter)