Ice Age: I can control plant growth

Chapter 11 Concept-level capabilities?
The pheasant tumbled in the iron basin for several minutes, and finally realized that it could not escape, so it stopped struggling as if accepting its fate.

Wearing protective gloves, Li Mu reached his hand into the iron basin, and felt for the pheasant's feet along the open gap. Then he motioned Cheng Cheng to pick up the iron basin.

"This pheasant is a decent size. I wonder how much it weighs?"

Cheng Cheng asked curiously.

Li Mu smiled slightly and gently pinched the pheasant's leg muscles, feeling its elasticity.
"It's probably about three or four pounds."

After hearing Li Mu's answer, Cheng Cheng showed a hint of disappointment on his face.

"It's so small. I thought this pheasant would weigh six or seven pounds."

Li Mu patted Cheng Cheng's shoulder gently.

"Don't be fooled by the small amount of meat. The taste is different from that of feed chicken. It's much better than feed chicken."

Li Mu had eaten pheasant before. It didn't have much oil or water, but was all lean meat. The taste was a bit bad. This was the case with all wild animal meat.

However, if you add pork together, the taste will immediately improve a lot.

"Besides, we are not just going to catch this one this time. It's still early, let's continue setting traps."

Li Mu changed the subject and asked the two to continue preparing the trap.

In the next few hours, the three used the same method and successfully captured birds such as partridges, sparrows, and several other birds they had never seen before.

These birds are not big in size, much smaller than the original pheasants, but no matter how small they are, they are still meat.

As night fell, the three returned to the villa with a rich catch.

For them, bird hunting is not only for supplementing meat, but also a form of entertainment.

In an era without electricity, they could not enjoy entertainment in civilized times such as reading and playing games, and bird hunting just filled this gap.

When material conditions are sufficient, people are more eager for spiritual comfort, and bird catching has become a pastime in the end times.

After returning to the villa, the three seemed a little overwhelmed when faced with a dozen birds of all sizes.

Although they grew up in the countryside, they only ate ready-made food. They didn't even know how to kill chickens, let alone handle these birds.

"Lao Li, Chengcheng, how do you make this thing? Are you familiar with it?"

Ah Sao asked tentatively from the side.

"Ah I?"

Cheng Cheng pointed at himself and looked at Ah Sao as if to say, "Are you sure?"

"I don't know how to do that either. Just tie it up and leave it there. Feed it with some food so it won't starve to death. We can wait until we finish eating the pork."

Li Mu was also having a headache. He was only thinking about how to catch the bird. Now that he had the bird, the problem became what to do.

"A Sao, go find a place to put these birds. Cheng Cheng and I will go cook."

"Old Li, can you please plant some vegetables? Do you have any vegetable seeds?"

After hearing what Cheng Cheng said, Li Mu also thought about preparing some other vegetables to eat, as the chicken greens were a bit too light.

"I still have seeds of nine kinds of vegetables: peppers, eggplants, beans, spinach, coriander, lettuce, celery, carrots, and cucumbers. What do you want to eat?"

"Chili, I must have chili, I want to eat stir-fried pork!"

When Ah Sao heard about the chili peppers, his eyes widened.

"What about you, Chengcheng."

"Let's have some cucumbers. We have some garlic in the kitchen. We can make some smashed cucumbers to go with the wine. It's a pity there are no peanuts."

"Okay, wait a minute, I'll go get the seeds."

While Li Mu was busy looking for seeds, Cheng Cheng had already started washing rice in the kitchen, preparing for the upcoming dinner.

When Li Mu returned to the kitchen with the seeds, Ah Sao had successfully settled the lively birds, and Cheng Cheng had cooked the rice just right. Since there was no power supply, they could only cook the rice with firewood.

This rice cooked with firewood has a completely different taste from that made in an electric rice cooker. It exudes a unique aroma that leaves a lasting aftertaste.

Li Mu gently sowed the seeds in the soil and prayed silently in his heart, hoping that the peppers would thrive. If the peppers were not spicy enough, the taste of the stir-fried pork would be greatly diminished.

The green light flashed again, and just a few minutes later, a small tree full of pointed peppers and cucumber vines covered with vines appeared in front of the three of them.

“Although this is not the first time I’ve seen it, it still feels incredible!

"Old Li, if this trick of yours were put into ancient times, it would be like Shennong is alive!"

Cheng Cheng picked three tender green cucumbers with flowers and thorns from the vines and handed them to Li Mu and Ah Sao.

He picked up his own, without even washing it, and stuffed it into his mouth.

“Click…Click”

"A Sao, do you think the vegetables that Lao Li ripens are delicious?"

Cheng Cheng said as he finished a cucumber in three or two bites.

"It is indeed different from ordinary vegetables. Just in terms of taste, compared with Lao Li's, those so-called imported vegetables are not even worthy of being picked up."

Ah Sao was also full of praise.

"Okay, okay, Chengcheng, go light the firewood and peel the garlic while you're at it. I'll wash the vegetables and Ah Sao will get ready to cook."

Although Ah Sao is lazy, he is a good cook.

No one taught him, so he just relied on himself to look up teaching videos on Xiaohongshu and Douyin. After making it a few times, the taste improved.

But today he has the fried pork with peppers that he has been craving for, so he is willing to cook it himself.

After Cheng Cheng peeled the garlic and the pork was thawed, Ah Sao picked up the knife and cut the pork into long flat strips.

Then she skillfully cut the peppers into strips and set aside. Everything was ready.

Ah Sao lit the fire, heated the pan, poured in a proper amount of oil, and when the oil was hot, he poured the shredded meat into the pan and stir-fried it.

The pork made a sizzling sound in the pan. Ah Sao stir-fried it quickly and steadily, and soon the fragrance came out.

Then, he added the chopped chili peppers, stir-fried them for a few times to fully mix the shredded meat and chili peppers, then added some salt, soy sauce and cooking wine and continued to stir-fry.

"Ah sneeze..."

"Ah sneeze..."

Although the peppers were heating in the pot, the spicy and pungent aroma made the three of them sneeze uncontrollably.

"Lao Li, what kind of pepper do you have? Why is it so spicy?"

As Sao was stir-frying, he couldn't help sneezing and tears were about to come out.

He put down the spatula, took out a tissue to wipe his nose, then put on a mask and continued cooking.

"It's just an ordinary pointed pepper. We used to grow this kind of pepper at home, but it's not as spicy as this one!"

Li Mu was equally confused. He didn't understand why the peppers that were ripened this time were so spicy. After all, the seeds were still ordinary pointed peppers.

"Could it be that the expectation in my heart when ripening the peppers caused them to mutate?"

Li Mu suddenly remembered that when he was ripening the peppers, he secretly prayed in his heart that the peppers would be spicier this time, and he didn't expect that his prayer would actually come true.

He recalled his first attempts at ripening tomatoes, hoping they would grow quickly enough to avoid being destroyed by the freezing weather outside.

Unexpectedly, his ability worked and the ripened tomatoes not only grew huge, but also had the effect of keeping warm.

Li Mu pondered deeply, wondering if his ability was not limited to controlling plant growth, but was a higher-level conceptual ability?

(End of this chapter)