Chapter Ninety-Nine: Organic Cultivation and Fertilizer Cultivation

Early the next morning, his older sister and brother-in-law arrived. With no needless talk, they headed straight to the city of Coolen for a follow-up examination.

The result was heartening as well: his father’s leg was healing very well, with no hidden problems at all. Looking over the medical report, even the doctor sighed in wonder. How had it recovered so quickly?

After all, even a young man who had undergone such a minor surgery would not have bounced back this fast.

His father, however, spoke very bluntly, saying that food in the countryside was sturdy and wholesome, unlike the city, where vegetables and fruit were basically grown on fertilizers and pesticides.

Hearing him say that, Zhong Di actually agreed in his heart.

Simply put, the food in the countryside was mostly grown with fully composted farm manure or other organic fertilizers, and was therefore healthier to begin with.

Farm manure is organic, but organic is not necessarily farm manure.

Some people might argue that crops grown with chemical fertilizer are just as fine, since they are also organic matter produced through the plant’s own photosynthesis. Your so-called organic fertilizer, after all, is broken down into free molecules that the plant absorbs anyway.

What is the difference, then? In essence, there is no difference at all. Even the fruits and vegetables grown with organic fertilizer do not differ all that much in nutrients from those grown with chemical fertilizer.

They would say it was just being brainwashed by the word organic.

Zhong Di had seen this kind of argument before.

He did not deny the role chemical fertilizer played in modern agriculture, but the ultimate direction would inevitably be one in which organic methods were primary and chemical fertilizer merely supplementary.

Zhong Di wanted to apply this explanation to the human body, by comparing it to vegetable production.

Simply put, if the human body only needed, say, a hundred milligrams of glucose, fifty milligrams of fat, and thirty grams of protein each day, then why not just take in those things directly?

Why go to the trouble of eating meat, steamed bread, and drinking milk? Why not just process the steamed bread into glucose and drink it directly? Why not break milk down into amino acids for faster absorption?

This was much like certain things today, such as calcium tablets or vitamin C. Yes, if you swallow them in one go, they are indeed easy to digest and seem remarkably effective, but what about over the long term? Your body can only grow hollow and weak.

That was why people today became sick so easily. When your body can only absorb these small molecules, or even tinier nutrients, then what does your body become?

Vegetable production was the same. Yes, if vegetables only needed nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, then supplying nitrogen fertilizer, phosphorus fertilizer, and potassium fertilizer would be enough. The plants would indeed grow well, even quickly.

But you would find that vegetables produced this way could be ruined to a deadly extent by the slightest shortage of nitrogen fertilizer, enough to make your crop look utterly transformed overnight.

Vegetables grown in such an environment had extremely poor resistance as well. Once disease or pest damage appeared, it would spread like wildfire, just as the human body of someone who constantly ate easily digestible food would do.

What was to be done? Only reckless spraying of pesticides for control, just as a sick person keeps taking medicine frantically. The vegetables’ resistance would only grow worse and worse, just as with the human body: the moment it could generate no resistance at all, that was the moment of death.

Vegetables were no different. This was, in truth, a vicious cycle.

Soil already contained a certain amount of organic matter, but once chemical fertilizer was used continuously, that organic matter would be exhausted. What remained was a relentless dependence on fertilizer, predatory production, easy disease, more pesticide use, heavy metals accumulating in the vegetables, accumulating in the soil, and finally reaching the human body.

If that still did not make sense, there was another saying: within a few steps of poison, there is sure to be an antidote. In other words, when a plant encounters toxic substances, it will produce certain compounds to resist them.

In the past, people had only cabbages, radishes, and potatoes in winter, yet they were in excellent health. Nowadays people want for nothing, yet they are often ill.

The reason is that, as cabbage grows, it is constantly resisting nature, and the body within it produces certain substances.

After confirming that his father’s leg was perfectly fine, Zhong Di went with his sister and brother-in-law to the place where they were buying the vehicles.

In matters like this, Zhong Di did not understand, so he kept quiet. He simply picked two comparable vehicles and was done with it.

His brother-in-law did offer some opinions. The purchase went very quickly. At first, the saleswoman had seemed quite happy, but the moment she saw that Zhong Di was paying in full, her attitude changed in an instant.

Zhong Di found it strange. Was paying in full not a good thing? But he did not ask further.

The two vehicles were a Wuling Hongguang truck and a BYD. Neither was expensive: the truck cost nearly sixty thousand, and the BYD a little over ninety thousand.

The plates and everything else were all included by the seller; all they needed to do was pay.

After buying the vehicles, they went back that same day. It was already nearly dark by the time they finished everything and arrived at the orchard.

His parents were sent home by his brother-in-law, while the vehicles were left at the orchard. His older sister said they would wait a couple of days, get familiar with the cars, and then drive them.

Once they started driving, it would be straight onto the national highway, where there were far too many vehicles. His older sister did not drive often, and someone as inexperienced as her could easily get into trouble. It would be better to become familiar with the car first before driving it.

Zhong Di thought so too, and said nothing.

As soon as he reached the orchard, Zhong Di saw Shao Hong weighing the herbs for Auntie Xiaohua and the others.

“Yours, four hundred and thirty-eight in all. Come sign here.”

Shao Hong filled in one number after another, then handed the slips to the aunts for their signatures.

At a glance, Zhong Di understood the arrangement. In his place, all wages were settled once a month. Even acquisitions like this were handled the same way. It was convenient and easier to keep track of.

The aunts were all smiling from ear to ear. Listening in, Zhong Di saw that each of them had earned over four hundred, with the lowest still nearly four hundred. In a place where the monthly income was only two thousand yuan, this was high pay indeed.

“Auntie, remember: tomorrow we’re only taking goji berries.”

Shao Hong called out loudly. Only after he finished did Zhong Di approach.

The aunts greeted Zhong Di and left, since it was already almost dark.

“Sea buckthorn, wild hemp, and licorice came in by the ton. Definitely more than enough. The rest are enough too. The only shortage is goji berries. They’re not truly ripe yet, and they’re hard to pick, so we collected the least of those.”

Seeing Zhong Di, Shao Hong took the initiative to report the day’s progress.

Looking at the medicinal herbs piled on the homestead, Zhong Di felt a wave of emotion. There really was strength in numbers. If they had not been buying these things up, how long would it have taken to gather so much?

Wild hemp, for instance, could be harvested early. It grew in many places along field edges and embankments, and was easy to collect. Licorice and sea buckthorn were everywhere too.

Still, Zhong Di suspected that this kind of thing might not last forever. The unified regulation of resources was bound to come eventually, and it would certainly not remain as convenient as it was now. If one wanted to make a bit of extra money, as long as one was diligent, there was money everywhere.

“Mm, good. The money was paid in full, right?”

“According to your instructions, yes, all of it. On average, each person got more than four hundred yuan, which is about three days’ wages for ordinary manual labor.”

“Good. Those aunts have it hard too. If we earn a little less, that can still mean a real help to them. All right, you’ve worked hard today. What do you want for dinner tonight? I’ll cook.”

Zhong Di spoke softly.

He had always believed that one should first tend to oneself when poor, and when prosperous, help the world as well. Now that he had the ability to earn more, he ought to leave more profit for the uncles and aunts.

If he did not, if he kept squeezing wages and painting grand pictures, how would he be any different from those capitalists?