From Apocalypse Boss to Farmer: My Vegetables Make Me Stronger!-Chapter 73 - 68: Soul Questioning

The situation with Zhou Jing would have to wait.

After all, who knew if City A was just another piece of bait deliberately released by someone with ulterior motives to test Gu Xi?

Gu Xi wasn’t in a hurry and began methodically tending to her small farm.

Li Ming always said that fishing requires a bit of patience, doesn’t it?

The day she was set to meet Huang Er arrived in a flash.

In the afternoon, when Zhou Jing came over, she saw Wei Heng tilling the fields with the Qin sisters helping on the side. Gu Xi, however, was nowhere to be seen.

She was taken aback for a moment, then feigned curiosity and asked, "What are you all doing?"

Just as she finished speaking, she looked up and saw Gu Xi walking out with a large bag of sweet potatoes. Each one was plump and round with pure color, and their mutation index was visibly low.

Zhou Jing lowered her gaze, hiding the glint that flashed in the depths of her eyes.

’Her long wait hadn’t been in vain. She’d finally get her hands on what she was after.’

"Gu Xi, you’re all..." Zhou Jing walked over with a wide smile.

"Planting sweet potatoes." Gu Xi didn’t hide it from her. While sprouting the sweet potatoes, she explained, "A few days ago, I went to the South City base to meet a grain merchant and struck a major deal..."

This was the first time Zhou Jing had watched the entire process of Gu Xi planting crops with her own hands.

Previously, at the lab, Mr. Zhao would only let Gu Xi accelerate the growth of a portion of the plants. When it involved certain classified data, he would deliberately have them step away.

This time, after watching Gu Xi’s entire planting process, Zhou Jing was shocked by Gu Xi’s simple, brute-force method.

But upon comparison, she discovered that the sweet potatoes Gu Xi personally grew were exceptionally good. Not only were they plump and round, but very few of them were cracked.

Compared to the large patch that Qin Yi helped grow nearby, although the mutation index looked similar, there were quite a few misshapen ones.

In terms of appearance alone, they were far inferior.

Of course, as a food source, as long as the mutation index was low enough, appearance wasn’t really important.

’But Zhou Jing knew this proved one thing, at the very least: Gu Xi’s control over her ability was far more precise than that of Qin Yi, a High-level Wood Ability User.’

When she thought again about Gu Xi’s brute-force planting method... waves of shock crashed through Zhou Jing’s mind.

’Even a High-level Wood Ability User like Qin Yi couldn’t possibly tend to the growth of every single plant at that speed, yet Gu Xi could.’

’What did this mean?’

’Was Gu Xi’s ability really only level four?’

Zhou Jing looked in disbelief at the young girl squatting in the field collecting sweet potatoes, but she quickly averted her gaze.

After a moment, she walked over to Wei Heng with a basket of sweet potatoes, glanced at the ones in his basket, then at her own, and frowned slightly. "Why do I get the feeling that the sweet potatoes in your basket look better?"

Zhou Jing straightforwardly showed her confusion, even starting to rummage through both their baskets right in front of Wei Heng.

’She was a researcher. It wouldn’t fit her persona if she didn’t notice such a small difference.’

Wei Heng glanced at her, puffed out his chest, and said with a proud look, "Of course. These were personally grown by our Gu Xiaoxi. How could they be the same as anyone else’s?"

Zhou Jing: "..."

She wanted to probe a little more, but the roar of a helicopter came from the distance.

’That Huang Er character actually brought a helicopter with such fanfare just to pick up sweet potatoes? Isn’t that a bit too high-profile?’

Zhou Jing frowned slightly.

Zhou Jing couldn’t get involved in what happened next at all.

Gu Xi and Wei Heng were there to do business, and they had already strode over to exchange pleasantries with Huang Er. Zhou Jing wanted to get closer and eavesdrop, but her good friend Qin Yi pulled her aside and started gossiping about some people.

Zhou Jing: "..."

After Huang Er left in the helicopter, Zhou Jing looked at Wei Heng again. She had communicated with this man online for a while, and she was confident she could smoothly coax information out of him.

But Wei Heng just dusted off his pants and turned to go make dinner.

Zhou Jing: "..."

The sky gradually darkened, and seeing that it was almost dinnertime, Zhou Jing felt it was inappropriate to stay any longer.

During that time, she had hinted at Qin Yi, but the sweet girl indicated that she herself was just a freeloader, so...

Zhou Jing gave up. ’Oh well, I’ll find another chance next time. At least today wasn’t a total loss.’

Zhou Jing lowered her gaze to the toolbox in her hand, a sharp glint flashing in her eyes before vanishing.

...

After dinner, the group of young people gathered in the courtyard to chat as usual.

Shen Yue took advantage of Wei Heng going to wash fruit, snatched his recliner, and asked lazily, "What’s this I hear about someone coming to find Wei Heng to rekindle an old flame today?"

Wei Heng frowned slightly.

It was Qin Shi who briefly recounted what had happened that afternoon.

At the end, she even specifically pointed out, "She took a total of eight sweet potatoes back with her, six of which were grown by Gu Xi..."

Shen Yue sneered, "Well, that’s interesting."

Gu Xi raised a surprised eyebrow as Shen Yue continued, "Zhou Jing took four sweet potatoes back to the lab today... When she left, Yang Chi checked, and there were no sweet potatoes left in her toolbox."

Qi Xiang rubbed her chin, asking curiously, "So you’re saying she secretly stashed four sweet potatoes?"

But Shen Yue shook his head. "It’s not that simple."

With that, he opened his personal terminal, enlarged the Light Screen, and gestured for everyone to look with a tilt of his chin.

It was a surveillance video.

The camera angle was very discreet.

In the silent, deserted wilderness, as the sky gradually darkened, Zhou Jing passed by a small hill and quickly threw out two sweet potatoes...

This video must have been filmed while Zhou Jing was on her way back from Gu Xi’s place.

After watching the video, Qi Xiang frowned slightly. "That’s not right. She’s still missing two sweet potatoes."

Wei Heng, who was standing to the side with a large bowl of grapes, also frowned slightly.

Shen Yue tapped his personal terminal on his wrist. "I had Yang Chi check all the surveillance footage along the route. Zhou Jing was on camera the entire time. But the strange thing is, by the time she got back, there were indeed only four sweet potatoes left in her toolbox."

Where did the other two sweet potatoes go?

And who took them?

It was obvious that Zhou Jing had accomplices near the experimental fields, possibly more than one.

Gu Xi’s thoughts, however, turned to the two sweet potatoes Zhou Jing had tossed away on the road...

Shen Yue looked up as if he knew what she was thinking and said, "Don’t worry. I’ve already had Yang Chi look into the two missing sweet potatoes. As for the two that Zhou Jing threw out on the road, I’ve had someone take care of them already."

Gu Xi raised an eyebrow in surprise. "How did you take care of them?"

Shen Yue leaned back casually in the recliner, stroking his chin with a hint of smugness. "I had someone swap them out. A classic switcheroo."

A classic switcheroo?

"Switched with what?" Gu Xi cut straight to the point.

"I had Yang Chi get them from the lab. I even made him pick two that were about the same size..." Shen Yue seemed to know what she was worried about, paused, and then deliberately added:

"Don’t worry, they weren’t from the batch of seed crops the base sent over."

His tone was quite meaningful.

Gu Xi was a little surprised. She hadn’t expected Shen Yue to be so perceptive.

’Actually, the seed crops the base sent to the experimental fields also had a very low mutation index. They didn’t look much different from this batch of sweet potatoes she had intentionally grown for show. The real difference between the two... was probably that the sweet potatoes from the base, the ones meant as seed crops, had all passed through the hands of the Healing System... An ordinary person might not notice the difference, but someone with ulterior motives certainly would.’

Gu Xi calmly met Shen Yue’s gaze. She didn’t know how much he had already guessed...

Just then, Wei Heng placed the bowl of washed fruit in front of Gu Xi, looked up at Shen Yue, and asked the most crucial question:

"What about the two sweet potatoes you swapped out? What did you do with them?"