Chapter 12: Sunflower? Sunlight?
It had been almost seven days, and the compensation for the house still hadn’t arrived. Jiang Ning wanted to make some more money, but going deep into the uninhabited zone alone was a long shot.
Although she still had a little money, that was her food money.
The farm was still short of a batch of flower pots and farming tools; she had to find another way.
Perhaps she could go and discuss it with Auntie Li in the afternoon?
Knock, knock, knock—
Just as she was thinking, there was a knock on her door. Jiang Ning stopped her wandering thoughts and quickly got up to open it.
Standing outside the door was a robot. Judging by its form, it was Alpha, the one who had handled her business the other day. Behind Alpha stood a middle-aged man in a formal suit, looking quite distinguished.
Jiang Ning and the middle-aged man outside the door looked at each other, both stunned.
Jiang Ning was simply curious as to how such a person, who looked rich and noble, had found her, while the middle-aged man was surprised that the plaintiff was a child.
However, the middle-aged man had seen all sorts of situations. He quickly adopted a polite attitude and said, “Hello, I am the butler and guardian of the person who crashed into your house. My young master is still in a coma in the hospital and is unable to come forward, so I am temporarily acting on his behalf to express our apologies. We are willing to pay double compensation for the damage to your house.”
“I apologize.”
Two weeks ago, after receiving a call from the hospital, the butler had rushed to Planet M412. The moment he saw his young master, the butler knew that his brain had triggered its self-protection mechanism again because his body couldn’t withstand the immense psychic energy.
As for what the young master had experienced before falling into a coma, he had no idea. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have waited for the Municipal Center on Planet M412 to file a complaint against him before compensating the victim.
Hearing about the double compensation, Jiang Ning remained calm on the surface, but her heart was already racing with excitement.
So the person who crashed into her house was a rich young master.
Jiang Ning felt like she had hit the jackpot. She came to her senses and coughed lightly. “It’s alright, my house wasn’t that badly damaged.”
“It’s just that your young master seems to have been hit quite hard, being in a coma for half a month. Next time, you should remind him to switch to a different brand of flying vehicle. This one’s quality is poor, it lost control,” Jiang Ning said.
The butler: “…”
If only it were just the flying vehicle losing control. But he knew about his young master’s condition.
Sigh—
The butler pursed his lips. “Thank you for your concern. I will relay it to the young master when he wakes up.”
Under Alpha’s witness, the butler readily paid double compensation to Jiang Ning, then summoned a flying vehicle and left swiftly.
The whole process took less than ten minutes.
Jiang Ning, who had gained an extra thousand star coins for free, smiled at Alpha and slowly gave a five-star rating in the service section on his screen.
She could finally understand a little of the feeling of those demolition households who became rich overnight.
Awesome!
She felt she could take a whole stack of such rich young masters.
After Alpha left, the envious neighbors all poked their heads out. However, they weren’t familiar with Jiang Ning and couldn’t just go up and ask her how much compensation she had received.
Li Xiang, who lived next door to Jiang Ning, was the closest. Seeing her face blooming like a flower, Li Xiang felt a wave of contempt in his heart. Just this little bit of money made her grin from ear to ear.
But Li Xiang was really curious about how much money Jiang Ning had gotten.
Just now, hiding in their houses, they had all seen the man who was led by the robot from the Municipal Center. His clothes, speech, and mannerisms were all those of a rich person.
“How much did he compensate you?” Li Xiang asked.
At this moment, all the neighbors standing by their doors, pretending to be busy, pricked up their ears, quietly waiting for Jiang Ning’s answer.
Why couldn’t that rich person have crashed into their houses?
Jiang Ning raised an eyebrow. “Want to know?”
Li Xiang felt that Jiang Ning’s expression was very punchable, but he couldn’t resist his curiosity. He nodded. “Yes, hurry up and tell me.”
“I’m not telling you.” Jiang Ning gave a mysterious smile, turned and went back into her house, not forgetting to close the door behind her.
The slums were crowded and complex; Jiang Ning deliberately kept a cautious mind.
The principle of not flaunting one’s wealth was applicable in any era, especially since she was now an orphan.
Everyone in the slums was green with envy over the compensation Jiang Ning had received. They stared at her closed door for a while, and only after confirming that she really wasn’t coming out did they reluctantly return to their own homes.
After that, Jiang Ning stayed at home for three months. During this time, she renovated her house, added some new furniture, and most importantly, her farm had begun to take shape.
Indeed, once a person’s basic needs were met, they began to pursue spiritual fulfillment.
The agronomy major she had studied in her previous life was in the field of plant research. Before being killed by the bull, she had been researching the topic of 【The Stimulating Effect of Plant Extracts on the Activity of Brain Nerve Cells】.
If she had the chance, she wanted to continue her research in the interstellar era.
At seven in the morning, Jiang Ning watered the sunflower in her farm as usual.
Under her meticulous care, the sunflower was growing well. Although it was a bit malnourished, it was showing signs of flowering.
Jiang Ning had a premonition that the sunflower would fully bloom in the next few days.
So, starting the next day, Jiang Ning adjusted her schedule to wake up at five. According to the habits of sunflowers, four to six in the morning was its blooming time.
At five in the morning on the third day, Jiang Ning got up from bed. Looking through the window, she saw that the sunflower had indeed bloomed.
Jiang Ning was a little excited and immediately wanted to check if the sunflower in her consciousness had also bloomed.
The moment she probed, Jiang Ning’s eyes suddenly tightened.
The world of consciousness today was dazzlingly bright; she couldn’t see anything clearly.
About a quarter of an hour later, the white light in her sea of consciousness gradually dissipated.
Jiang Ning was surprised to find that a small sun was hanging on the phantom image of the sunflower in her sea of consciousness.
Wait.
Sunflower? Sunlight?
Something’s not right. Jiang Ning felt that something was very wrong.
Jiang Ning withdrew from her sea of consciousness, rubbed her face hard, and then re-entered.
The small sun was hanging on the sunflower’s stamen, steady and stable. It neither fell off, nor did the light around it show any signs of extinguishing, as if it had grown from the sunflower itself.
Jiang Ning took a while to build up her mental fortitude before she manipulated her world of consciousness to probe towards the small sun.
The moment her consciousness touched the small sun, the small sun directly merged into her body.
It disappeared?
At the same time, Jiang Ning’s body felt unprecedentedly light, and she was full of mental energy.
That familiar warm current appeared again, coursing through her body.
Was this her psychic energy?
To test her guess, Jiang Ning decided to continue the unfinished plant summoning from last time.
Jiang Ning held her breath and concentrated.
Time passed slowly, one second, two seconds, three seconds…
She opened her eyes, and a seedling identical to the previous one appeared before her.
Jiang Ning: “?!”
Fine, fine, let’s play abstract, shall we?
The corners of Jiang Ning’s mouth twitched a couple of times.
It seemed she had awakened a plant-based ability with the properties of the sunflowers from Dave’s garden…
Jiang Ning calmed her complex emotions and wanted to try summoning again, but the feeling of emptiness from her body stopped this thought.
Her body, which had just been full of energy, now felt extremely tired, like her kidneys had been overdrawn after excessive exertion.
Jiang Ning: “…”
She stared at the newly summoned sunflower seedling before her and sighed silently.
Ah~ this damn ability…
It seemed that the psychic energy of one sun was just enough to summon one sunflower. To summon more plants and complete her farm plan, she would need more sunlight.
She just didn’t know how long it would take for a sunflower to produce one sun.
If one sunflower only produced one sun, how long would it take for her to have enough psychic energy to develop her farm!
Jiang Ning placed the sunflower seedling in front of her into a flower pot she had bought long ago and ordered another block of planting soil from the StarNet.
She switched to another seller this time. She had heard that the soil from different planets was not the same. The sunflower grown from the planting soil she had bought last time was a bit malnourished.
This time, Jiang Ning chose one with a slightly higher return rate.
The logistics this time were even faster than the last. The package was delivered to her door just one hour after she placed the order.
She processed the planting soil according to the same steps as last time, then transplanted the sunflower into it, took it outside, and placed it next to the number one sunflower.
Jiang Ning labeled this sunflower as 【Plant No. 2】.
The flowering period of a sunflower is one month. She wondered if this ‘mutant’ one also had a one-month period.
Auntie Li, who was hanging clothes at her doorstep, watched the busy Jiang Ning and finally couldn’t hold back anymore. She walked over, her hand resting on the gate of the farm Jiang Ning had made. “Jiang Ning, even though you got the compensation for your house, you can’t just spend it recklessly like this. There’s no good future in growing plants on Planet M412. Not to mention that planting soil is expensive, the plant market has long been monopolized by the top companies. The plants sold by ordinary people have no quality assurance, and those people won’t buy them.”
She had originally thought that Jiang Ning was just upset about not being able to awaken an ability and wanted to plant that seedling to vent her emotions. But she hadn’t expected her to persist for three months.
Not only did she plant one, but now she had gotten a second one.
She had watched this child, Jiang Ning, grow up. She couldn’t just watch her make one mistake after another.
Auntie Li earnestly advised, “Listen to your aunt’s advice. As for abilities, if you haven’t awakened, then you haven’t. Look, my family hasn’t awakened either, and we’re living just fine. Occasionally, we hunt a couple of mutated beasts with the neighbors, and it’s barely enough for the whole family to eat and drink. Besides, yours is a plant-based ability. Even if you awakened it, it wouldn’t be of much use. You shouldn’t be so fixated.”
“We’re going to the uninhabited zone to hunt again in three days. This time, you’ll come with us. Don’t live off your savings anymore,” Auntie Li said with a firm attitude.
Jiang Ning finished watering the two sunflower seedlings, looked up at Auntie Li and smiled, ignoring her words about stopping her planting. “Okay, I’ll go with you in three days.”
After all, she was still living in the slums. She couldn’t give up this only way of making money now.
Auntie Li was very satisfied with Jiang Ning’s obedient attitude. She nodded and went back to her own house.
After Auntie Li left, Jiang Ning began to work on installing a fully automated irrigation system for her farm.
Hunting mutated beasts could take anywhere from three or two days to a week.
During that time, her sunflowers would wither and die without anyone to take care of them.
In addition to the fully automated irrigation system, she also had to upgrade the defense of her small farm.
To prevent people with ulterior motives from stealing her plants.