Chapter 116

Chapter 116

Xiao Che chased Jin Bao out of the courtyard and saw her racing toward the northeastern corner.

That corner of Blackwind Fort held the ruins of collapsed mud-brick houses.

Jin Bao crouched among the rubble and brushed away the snow with her little hands before placing seed potatoes and tomato seeds on the black soil.

Then she squatted there and stared at them without blinking, just as she used to stare blankly at ants on the ground in Sanjiacun.

When Xiao Che caught up, he found Jin Bao studying the seeds on the ground. He did not dare disturb her.

Xiao Che quietly stood to one side.

As Jin Bao focused her mind, one thought repeated inside it: Potatoes, grow up quickly. Tomatoes, come out quickly.

Almost visibly, the potato and tomato seeds resting on the ground began to take root and sprout.

In less time than it took to drink a cup of tea, the tomatoes grew into a lush patch. They blossomed, set fruit, and grew as the fruit turned from green to red.

Jin Bao had planted only a tiny pinch of seeds, perhaps five or six in all.

Now six tomato plants stood before her, laden with enormous red fruit.

The heavy tomatoes bent the green vines until they gradually sagged toward the ground.

Xiao Che stared in utter shock.

“Daughter, are… are you all right?”

Xiao Che knew his daughter had used her supernatural ability again. Reviving the dead tree last time had made her sleep an entire day. After forcing so many seeds to grow and bear mature fruit, how many days would she sleep this time?

Jin Bao shook her little head. “Daddy, Baby’s still okay. Making these seeds grow up and bear fruit doesn’t make Baby sleepy. Baby isn’t tired.”

Xiao Che could not understand the situation either. It seemed he would have to observe her further.

Judging from what had happened, the poplar may have consumed so much energy because it was dead and Jin Bao had restored it to life. These were seeds, and seeds naturally took root and sprouted. Could that difference explain it?

Xiao Che was puzzled, but he needed to keep watching before reaching a conclusion.

While he stood distracted, Jin Bao had already picked the largest tomato and bitten into it with an enormous chomp.

The tomato’s sweet-and-sour juices burst inside Jin Bao’s mouth, delighting her so much that her eyes narrowed.

She had no time to speak. Hugging the huge tomato, she devoured it in great bites. Before long, the entire fruit had disappeared into her stomach, and she immediately picked another.

Then she suddenly remembered that someone else was standing nearby.

Jin Bao hurriedly rose and offered the tomato to Xiao Che.

“Daddy, eat fruit. It’s yummy.”

Xiao Che had long since begun salivating at the sight of Jin Bao eating. Looking at the fruit she offered, he swallowed, then accepted it.

Without hesitation, he brought it to his mouth and took a massive bite.

The fruit was bright red. If he had not witnessed Jin Bao eating it, he might have assumed it was poisonous. Instead, it tasted wonderful – sweet, tart, and thirst-quenching. In the summer, or down in the Southern Frontier, it would surely become an immensely popular food.

Furthermore, one tiny seed could produce so much fruit. The yield was truly impressive. If they cultivated tomatoes on a large scale, the residents of their valley would no longer go hungry. They could be eaten as a vegetable or a meal, were filling and delicious, and Xiao Che felt he could eat them forever without tiring of the flavor.

The more Xiao Che thought, the more excited he became, though his mouth did not stop moving. He had already finished one tomato.

When he looked down, Jin Bao had eaten two or three more.
“Daughter, these are cooling foods. Don’t eat too many. I’ll have Aunt Ma cook some for you later.”

Jin Bao nodded quickly. “Tomatoes and scrambled eggies over rice! Baby can eat a huge bowl. It’s really yummy.”

Xiao Che did not know whether to laugh or cry. His daughter truly was a little glutton. More importantly, they could barely feed themselves right now. Where would they obtain eggs? They were a rare luxury throughout the Northern Frontier.

Winter lasted half the year here. The hens probably grew too cold to lay eggs.

But Xiao Che did not dampen her enthusiasm. He indulgently agreed and decided to find a way to obtain some eggs.

Beaming with delight, Jin Bao crouched beside another patch of plants that had already turned yellow.

Xiao Che had clearly seen this patch grow from fist-sized clumps of earth moments ago. Could those be the potatoes his daughter had mentioned?

The name certainly seemed fitting.

The plants above the potatoes had been a vibrant green before, but now they were yellow.

Jin Bao pulled Xiao Che farther away. Then she used her newly awakened Wood-Type Ability to command the potatoes to burst from the ground.

Xiao Che’s mouth hung open throughout the process. This was possible too?

No one needed to dig them out? The potatoes could simply jump from the earth by themselves?

Jin Bao had already run over in delight and lifted a potato plant. Large and small yellow-brown tubers covered its roots.

“Daddy, look! Potatoes! Baby loves them the most.”

Xiao Che took the potatoes from Jin Bao. They felt extremely heavy, weighing at least fifteen jin.

He counted roughly twenty of various sizes. Even the smallest was only slightly smaller than his fist, while the largest probably weighed an entire jin. Such an enormous yield was even more exciting than that of the tomatoes.

Xiao Che’s hands trembled with excitement. He hurriedly pulled off one potato, scrubbed the dirt from it with snow, and prepared to put it in his mouth. He wanted to taste exactly how delicious this potato was. Could it possibly taste even better than a tomato? Why else had Jin Bao longed for it so intensely?

“Daddy, what are you doing?”

Xiao Che had opened his mouth wide and was about to take a ferocious bite when Jin Bao’s puzzled voice stopped him.

He forced his mouth shut again, crouched, and looked at her.

“Daddy wants to taste how delicious this potato is and learn why my daughter has missed it so much.”

Jin Bao covered her mouth and burst into laughter.

“Daddy, this potato is raw. You can’t eat it until it’s cooked. Silly Daddy.”

Xiao Che froze, then joined Jin Bao in laughing.

“Daddy was ignorant. Then let’s take them back and have Aunt Ma cook them for you. Daddy will taste them too. How does that sound?”

Jin Bao nodded her little head. “Okay! Everyone can taste them. They’re really yummy. Baby doesn’t lie.”

Finally, Jin Bao used her ability to draw every potato from the earth and harvested all the tomatoes, piling them nearby.

By the time they finished gathering the potatoes, Xiao Che’s eyes nearly fell out of his head.

He had personally watched Jin Bao place the potatoes on the ground. She had planted only seven or eight.

Yet now a small mountain of potatoes stood before them. The yield was far greater than that of the tomatoes and had truly opened his eyes.

Unable to wait, Xiao Che summoned Ye Qi and ordered him to bring men to carry everything away.

The moment Ye Qi saw the produce that had appeared from nowhere, he knew the Young Miss was responsible. He was not surprised, though he had never seen such food before. Could this be the new seed that the Young Miss had carried away earlier?