NOVPUB46: Chapter 34 Planting Ginger
46 -34 Planting Ginger
The troublemakers had left, and Gu Yanzhi finally had time to admire the pristine snow outside.
As a Southerner, the number of times she had seen snow since childhood was limited.
This was only the second time she had seen snow in City C since she had grown up.
Thinking about it, the last time she had seen snow was in her past life, on this very day.
In her past life, it was during the first and only heavy snowfall when Gu Yanzhi received the news of Song Zhao’s death.
It was also then that she was taken away by Gu Yanqi, marking the start of a tragic ten-year period of her life.
However, it was a relief now that Gu Yanqi and Gu Qiang were both dead.
Her brother and loved one were by her side.
With that thought, Gu Yanzhi turned around and hugged Song Zhao tightly, burying her face in his chest, not letting him see the single tear that glistened at the corner of her eye.
“Let’s go, let’s head back,” Gu Yanzhi said after embracing him for a while, feeling the chill and sniffing, she released Song Zhao.
The two of them walked hand-in-hand towards the staircase.
As they passed the 16th floor on their way back, before they even knocked, Gao Zhi’s door opened, and three heads popped out, asking in unison,
“Xiao Gu, have they left?”
“They’ve left, they’ve left.
Grandpas and Grandmas, rest assured and enjoy yourselves, everything’s been settled.”
“It’s good that it’s settled, it’s good that it’s settled,” the three elders patted their chests and let out a breath of relief, their anxious hearts finally calming down. 𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙥𝒖𝒃.𝒄𝒐𝒎
Since Grandpa Li had found Gu Yanzhi and come down to the 16th floor, the three of them had been on tenterhooks listening for any noise at the door, afraid that a bad person might enter.
Now they could finally relax.
Grandma Gao warmly invited the couple in, “Xiao Gu, Xiao Song, come in and have a cup of ginger tea to warm up.”
Out in the frigid outdoors, a warming cup of ginger tea was considered a luxury, available only in a well-supplied household like Building 10, where one might have a chance to enjoy it occasionally.
Grandma Gao, feeling sympathy for her hardworking son and daughter-in-law, had started brewing the ginger tea early in the morning just after they had left for work, so it would be ready to reheat upon their return.
Gu Yanzhi politely declined with a gesture, “No, thank you, Grandma, we’ll just head back.”
Watching the sweet hand-in-hand silhouette of the young couple, Grandma Gao sighed with the sentiment that youth was wonderful.
She too had experienced such happiness with her old man when they were young.
The issue was resolved, and neither Grandpa Li nor Grandma Lin returned to their own homes but continued to chat in Grandma Gao’s place.
Usually, Grandma Gao and Grandma Lin, who were neighbors across the hall, spent their days talking together, their children playing with each other.
Grandpa Li, living downstairs, didn’t come up often and was less acquainted with them, but he got to know them better through this incident.
Sister Li was a member of the non-marital community.
Although Grandpa Li adored children, he loved his daughter more.
Having tried to convince her a few times without success, he chose to respect his daughter’s wishes.
Although he often envied his old friends with their families full of children, he never nagged Sister Li about it again.
When Sister Li was not at home, and Grandpa Li was all by himself without anyone to talk to, life was quite dull.
Being on the 16th floor not only provided him with someone to talk to but also allowed him to experience the joy of playing with grandchildren, killing two birds with one stone.
The three elders also agreed that in the future, when the children were not at home during the day, they would take turns visiting each other’s homes, which would save them quite a bit on heating resources.
Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao returned home to find their milk tea had already gone cold, and she no longer felt like continuing to watch the movie.
Instead, he pulled out several packets of ginger seeds from the space and headed with Song Zhao to the 17th floor, intending to plant some ginger to see how it would go.
Although they had stocked enough ginger for a lifetime, Grandma Gao’s ginger tea had inspired Gu Yanzhi.
Ginger tea had warming effects, so growing some at home meant they could give it away to neighbors or exchange it for needed resources with the government.
“Zhaozhao, do you know how?” Upon reaching the 17th floor and looking at the seeds and soil in his hands, Gu Yanzhi was at a loss.
He suddenly remembered he had never even successfully grown flowers, let alone known how to plant ginger, and looked to Song Zhao with bewilderment.
Of course, Song Zhao didn’t know either.
Although he became an orphan at a young age, Mr.
and Mrs.
Gu had adopted him shortly after his parents’ deaths, and he had lived the life of a young master, never having to plant anything or tend a garden.
“I remember buying some books on planting.
Let’s find them and take a look.”
“Oh, oh!
Ah, right, I’ll look for them.” Hearing Song Zhao’s words, Gu Yanzhi slapped his forehead as it dawned on him, and he began to rummage through the space.
He found a thick book titled “Common Agricultural Crop Cultivation Techniques,” and within it, he found information about ginger.
Combining what was written in the book, Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao realized that the ginger seeds they had were yellow ginger, which was not cold-tolerant.
They went back to search the space and found cold-tolerant tiger ginger seeds.
The book stated that tiger ginger seeds should be planted in spring or autumn.
Before sowing, the seeds needed to be soaked in warm water at about 50°C for 10-12 hours to promote germination, and then they could be planted.
The current season was definitely off, but with the next two years being similar, they decided to ignore the seasonal issue for now.
Following the book’s instructions, they put the seeds into a bowl of warm water, set the bread machine to the fermentation temperature of 50 degrees Celsius, and put the bowl inside.
With nothing else to do while they waited 10-12 hours, both men found themselves idle.
Leaning back on the couch, they casually flipped through the book “Common Agricultural Crop Cultivation Techniques.”
“Eh, we can also try hydroponics,” Gu Yanzhi exclaimed with interest when he turned to a page titled “Hydroponic Ginger Techniques.”
Hydroponic ginger required using existing ginger cut into pieces and dried.
There was no shortage of ginger for Gu Yanzhi, so he picked out a few healthy, plump pieces and got to work.
For drying, he simply lightly roasted the washed ginger in the oven to ensure the surface was dry and moisture-free.
While waiting for the ginger to dry, Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao found a few round cups to use as containers.
They cleaned the containers, then laid a layer of small stones inside, filled them to about three-quarters of their depth with water, and then angled the ginger pieces into them.
The book also mentioned that different concentrations of nutrient solution had to be used at different stages of ginger growth to ensure successful cultivation.
Gu Yanzhi had never made nutrient solution before, but as a top student in bioengineering, preparing a nutrient solution was a small matter to him.
The components of the nutrient solution consisted of nothing more than nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, iron, zinc, manganese, boron, and the like.
“Common Agricultural Crop Cultivation Techniques” did not provide specific nutrient solution component ratios, so Gu Yanzhi flipped through the book again until he found another book that detailed the information.
Based on the content of the book, Gu Yanzhi used fertilizer as the raw material to create different concentrations of nutrient solution for each growth stage of the ginger.
He hadn’t stockpiled much fertilizer, only having bought it on a whim after seeing an elderly lady selling it on the roadside and feeling a moment of compassion.
He could only say that good deeds bring good rewards; although it wasn’t much, those few bags of fertilizer were now invaluable assets in the post-apocalyptic world.
