Chapter 112: The Manul Is Injured

In the orchard, the mosquito-repelling herbs and mint were scattered here and there, sometimes in little clusters of three or five, sometimes in pairs and trios, sometimes gathered into broad patches.

Both the mosquito-repelling herb and the mint had recovered beautifully. They were lush, vigorous, and a brilliant green, far lovelier than the ragged weeds around them.

More importantly, Zhong Di always seemed to catch a faint fragrance drifting at the tip of his nose, as if the scents were mingling together: the cool freshness of mint and the clean aroma of the mosquito-repelling herb.

Of the two, Zhong Di preferred the smell of mint.

He casually picked a mint leaf, put it in his mouth, and chewed a few times.

Ah. That felt wonderful. Zhong Di drew in a sharp breath; his whole mouth turned cool and refreshing, comfortable beyond words.

He blew lightly into his palm, and it too was filled with a fresh, pleasant scent. He even found himself thinking that even someone plagued by severe bad breath would emerge with a mouthful of clean air after eating this mint.

He glanced around again. Quite a few perennial flowers had bloomed once more. Had their roots recovered so quickly?

Under normal circumstances, newly planted perennials needed a long time for their roots to settle. Only after the roots had fully recovered would they begin to form buds and bloom again.

But the plants before him were gorgeous, even more beautiful than he had initially expected.

If he had not come today to check on the herbs, he never would have discovered that these flowers had recovered so well.

Zhong Di looked them over, composed himself, and then broke off some mint and some mosquito-repelling herb. There was no way he could test them in his own orchard; he would have to take them somewhere else.

If he had heard Shao Hong correctly, the well house was full of mosquitoes, and that was indeed the case. Unlike flies, mosquitoes loved dampness. In general, the more water there was, the more mosquitoes there would be.

Water was also one of the main places mosquitoes bred, whereas flies were different. Flies liked heat and dryness.

The sky was already growing dark. In at most half an hour, the sun would have completely set.

Zhong Di did not waste any time. He went straight to the well house, still holding the mint and the mosquito-repelling herb in his hand. Sure enough, as long as he held them, no mosquitoes came near him.

To confirm it further, Zhong Di held each plant separately and tested them one by one. After observing the results, he found that both plants did indeed repel mosquitoes.

The difference was that the mosquito-repelling herb worked better, while the mint was not quite as effective. The evidence was the number of mosquitoes gathered around him.

After testing them, Zhong Di told everyone about it. Shao Hong and his parents all tried them as well, and in the end they unanimously agreed that this was good stuff and that it ought to be propagated.

Mosquitoes were a problem that had troubled who knew how many people, whether they lived in the countryside or in the city.

If you burned mosquito coils at home, they smelled awful, and over time they were harmful to the body. If there were no children in the house, that was one thing, but with children around, people did not even dare light them.

If you did not burn them, mosquitoes were everywhere, constantly making life miserable. At night especially, they would single you out to bite, sometimes so badly that you could not even sleep.

And that was not even the worst of it. The worst was when they bit sensitive places like the eyes or the mouth, or, well, that other spot. Honestly, if you woke up in the morning and it itched, were you supposed to scratch it or not?

Once propagated, the plants could be placed in flowerpots. Then anyone who needed them could simply take away a couple of pots. The only thing Zhong Di did not know was what would happen once they stopped being watered with the Wild Sand Immortal Sprout.

He planned to run some tests and see how they fared.

If it turned out that they could do without the Wild Sand Immortal Sprout, then even if the effect was not quite as strong, that would still be acceptable.

Or they could set up a service system: the farm would only provide them to members, with different membership tiers receiving different quantities of mosquito-repelling herbs. Once the herbs’ effect began to fade, they could be taken back to the farm to be nurtured for a while, and then rotated out again.

After coming up with these ideas, Zhong Di discussed them with his older sister and worked out some of the details. In the end, though, everything would have to wait until the test results were in.

"Zhong Di, dinner’s ready."

Just as they were discussing it, Shao Hong finished cooking. The main dish was stewed chicken with mushrooms, and the rest were side dishes. The staple food was steamed buns.

"I’m coming," Zhong Di replied, then went with his sister to the table.

Everyone at the table was staring fixedly at the stewed chicken with mushrooms, all waiting for the lid on the little ceramic pot to be lifted.

According to Shao Hong, a stew like this needed to be covered and simmered for a while to bring out the flavor. In fact, Zhong Di had always thought the same way: waiting made it taste better.

That sort of goodness came from anticipation slowly building up in the waiting.

As Zhong Di watched, he had the strange feeling that fragrance was leaking out from beneath the lid, teasing the greedy little bug in his stomach until it could hardly sit still.

In that brief stretch of waiting, the lid was finally lifted.

Wow. It smelled absolutely incredible.

It was not only the aroma of chicken, but also the fresh, savory scent of mushrooms. Maybe because their garden was always watered with a little of the Wild Sand Immortal Sprout, these mushrooms were fresh to the point of bursting.

It felt as if all that freshness had been melted into the soup. After drinking it, his whole mouth was filled with rich, fragrant flavor.

Very soon, before the chicken had even been finished, the entire pot of soup had been drunk clean. After that, the chicken itself was devoured at top speed. The pace was astonishing.

By the time the night had fully fallen, Zhong Di and the others had finally finished dinner. Aside from his sister, who had to drive, the rest of them all drank a little wine.

Zhong Di thought that if he could brew some fruit wine of his own, it would be wonderful to drink. But that was something for later.

After his parents left, the Pallas’s cats immediately arrived. Zhong Di even suspected that these creatures had been waiting nearby all along, ready to slip in the moment they found an opening.

There were six Pallas’s cats that came today, and two of them seemed to be injured. One of them appeared to have a paw caught in something.

Could it be?

"Shao Hong, hurry and bring the first-aid kit," Zhong Di called out anxiously.

Then he turned back to the cats and asked tentatively, "Do you want me to help you?"

The moment Zhong Di finished speaking, the Pallas’s cat hurriedly nodded, then pushed the two injured ones forward. The other four stood there watching intently.

Soon, the first-aid kit was brought over.

Only then did Zhong Di slowly move closer. Pallas’s cats still had a certain amount of attack power, so he had to be careful.

At a glance, he saw that it was a trap of the kind used to catch wild rabbits. Good heavens, who had set this?

Then he looked at the other one. There was no trap, but the leg was injured too, as if it had been strangled by something.

Something was off.

This felt deliberate, almost human.

Could someone be trying to catch these Pallas’s cats?

And from the looks of it, they wanted to catch them alive. Even the traps were the kind with relatively little force, traps that would only injure a leg rather than necessarily snapping it.