From Apocalypse Boss to Farmer: My Vegetables Make Me Stronger!

Chapter 399 - 384: The Young Man’s Troubles

The information from Mr. Zhao was incredibly detailed. He was apparently worried Gu Xi wouldn’t understand, so he’d even added notes next to certain technical terms. The explanations were simple and clear, making everything easy to grasp at a glance.

It was just... a lot.

Fortunately, with Qi Xiang helping out, Gu Xi spent the better part of the day and finally managed to sort through all the information.

Beside her, once she was finished, Qi Xiang wiped the sweat from her brow, still shaken. It was as if she was back in her days at the Agricultural College, being tormented by her professors. "Mr. Zhao is way too earnest. This information is valuable, but those people might not be willing to learn."

Qi Xiang looked up at the disaster survivors in the distance who were surrounding the farm staff, asking about the land distribution. Listening in, their questions were almost entirely focused on whether ability users would really help with the planting and how the yield would be divided after three years.

As for the official scientific planting course, almost no one paid it any mind.

’Get this group to learn farming? It’s probably a lost cause. After all, won’t the ability users be helping?’

Gu Xi followed her gaze. "Let’s try it first." Ability users were a minority, after all. And setting aside the question of whether this small number of ability users could even feed all the survivors in the country, even if they could, Gu Xi had no intention of doing so.

Wei Heng, however, offered a different perspective. "I saw some precious pre-apocalypse videos on the forums before. Back then, even people living in cities of steel and concrete would find ways to grow something in their own homes..."

’With a free course available, they shouldn’t object... right?’

Qin Yi, who had just wandered over, nodded along. ’It doesn’t matter if those people learn or not,’ she thought, ’as long as I don’t have to.’

Qin Yi thought back to the days when she’d tagged along with Gu Xi to audit a class and was tormented by two professors to the point of utter despair. She felt a sudden wave of relief—thankfully, she was a Wood Element user. Her farming was all done with her powers.

Otherwise... Qin Yi glanced at the hundreds of gigabytes of agricultural data displayed on Gu Xi’s light screen and involuntarily shivered.

’So terrifying.’

Just then, Yang Chi finally escaped the crowd of enthusiastic middle-aged women and ran back, his mouth dry.

Seeing that he looked parched, Gu Xi handed him a bottle of water.

"Thanks, Gu Xi." Yang Chi chugged the water while saying with lingering fear, "Those aunties are too powerful..." His steady and composed image had almost crumbled.

Qi Xiang consoled him from the side. "It just means the aunties like you..."

Yang Chi stared at her blankly. "You can have this ’like.’ Do you want it?" ’Isn’t there another task soon, to go promote scientific planting to everyone? Why don’t we let Qi Xiang go experience the aunties’ ’like’ for herself?’

Qi Xiang shook her head. "No, thanks. They say opposites attract. This business of promoting scientific planting will have to be up to you, Yang."

Qi Xiang reached out and patted the young man’s shoulder.

The young man, Yang Chi: "..." ’My tender shoulders have shouldered too great a burden.’

Qin Yi, however, suddenly remembered something. "Shouldn’t the farm have professional agricultural technicians? Why not just have them handle the promotion of scientific planting?"

She mostly just felt sorry for Yang Chi. Those aunties and women weren’t just pestering him with questions about land distribution; quite a few were also trying to set him up with their nieces and granddaughters...

Hearing this, Qi Xiang couldn’t help but give Yang Chi another look. ’Who would’ve thought? This kid’s quite the ladies’ man.’

"Feeling pretty good about yourself, huh, Yang?"

That remark... Yang Chi didn’t even know how to respond.

After all, he was just an eighteen or nineteen-year-old greenhorn. Even though he was living in the apocalypse, he hadn’t experienced the most chaotic era. How could he not have some... you know... romantic aspirations in his heart?

Yang Chi blushed, looking slightly troubled.

’Being liked by too many people is also a pain.’

"Huh," Qin Yi suddenly leaned in, staring at his face. "Your face... why is it as red as a mutated monkey’s butt?"

Yang Chi: "..."

"Uh, the task Gu Xi gave me isn’t finished yet. I’m going to get back to it." With that, he turned and ran off.

He looked... just... like a mutated beast was chasing him.

Watching him, Qi Xiang and Qin Yi both shook their heads, trying to suppress their laughter. ’So immature.’

Wei Heng coughed. For once, he spoke up for the young man. "Alright, Yang Chi is young and thin-skinned. Stop teasing him..."

"Oh? And how come I remember Ms. Zhang trying to introduce her daughter to you, Mr. Wei, just yesterday? And what’s-her-name..." Qi Xiang rattled off several girls’ names—all from the flock of admirers who had been fluttering around Wei Heng the past couple of days.

Her smiling gaze now rested on Wei Heng, making his skin crawl.

But this wasn’t the same Wei Heng as yesterday. He looked at Qi Xiang expressionlessly. "Ms. Zhang mentioned she has a nephew on her mother’s side. He’s also an ability user, and quite dashing... Need me to make an introduction?"

Miss Qi was not one to admit defeat.

The corners of her eyes immediately lifted as she looked at Wei Heng’s face. "Are you sure Ms. Zhang’s nephew doesn’t want to get to know *you*, Mr. Wei? Plenty of admirers have been swarming you to get information about Gu Xi."

And not all of them were women.

Wei Heng: "..." ’Fine. Let’s not resort to mutual destruction.’

"Let’s get back to business," he said dejectedly.

"Are you sure it’s okay to leave that to Yang Chi?" Wei Heng looked into the distance, where Yang Chi had once again been surrounded by a crowd of old men and women.

’Even though that young man, Yang Chi, is pretty sharp, he’s still a greenhorn at heart,’ Wei Heng worried. ’I’m afraid those aunties will trick him into spilling the beans.’

After all, which of these aunties who had struggled and clawed their way to survive in the apocalypse was a simple person?

’What’s more, they’re even using a honey trap on him. I hope the kid doesn’t just happily fall into their trap.’

Wei Heng was a little worried.

Qi Xiang rolled her eyes at him. "That kid Yang Chi is plenty smart."

’Can’t you see he’s like a fish in water among that crowd of aunties? Unlike *someone* who gets cornered by a few girls and guys and can’t even leave his room, needing me to bail him out in the middle of the night.’

Wei Heng was exasperated. It wasn’t that he couldn’t handle that flock of admirers; it was just a long-standing habit that made him instinctively unwilling to use force against ordinary people.

Just then, however, he remembered something else. "Gu Xi, the matter of land contracts has always been handled by the individual bases, but regarding crop seeds, the Central Base previously had a regulation that they must be uniformly distributed..."

Although this regulation had become virtually obsolete with the implementation of the mutant plant reverse-evolution project, if someone with ulterior motives were to make an issue of it... After all, receiving seeds was tied to financial subsidies.

In other words, if you didn’t get your seeds through official channels, you couldn’t apply for official financial subsidies.

That money had always been allocated from the Central Base.

And this concerned everyone’s interests. If someone were to make an issue of it... Don’t be fooled by how grateful the survivors are to Gu Xi now that they’re getting land. If they can’t get subsidies from above in the future... who knows what kind of trouble they might stir up.

"That is indeed a problem." Qi Xiang also grew worried. Gu Xi had taken the initiative to divide the land among the people; she couldn’t be expected to pay for it out of her own pocket, could she?

That made no sense.

But human nature is selfish. People will do anything for their own benefit. When trouble really started, those people wouldn’t care whether it made sense or not.

"They say a small favor is a kindness, but a large one breeds entitlement. This is something we really need to think about carefully," Qin Yi added, also worrying.

Gu Xi, however, looked perfectly calm. She had indeed overlooked this matter before, but it was easily solved.