Chapter Seventeen: Save... Save Me

After confirming that the rabbit was indeed building a nest, Zhong Di left. Rabbits are easily startled, and once they begin nesting, it’s best not to disturb them; if frightened, the entire litter could be lost.

Cluck, cluck... cluck, cluck, cluck...

Just then, the hens in the coop suddenly started making a commotion—it must be time to lay eggs! Today was truly an eventful day: first, he’d caught the rabbit nesting, and now he’d stumbled upon a hen about to lay.

Usually, hens make noise when laying, but this time it was different—he was right there, observing at close range.

He watched as the hen squatted in the nesting box for a short while, then quickly ran out.

“Could it be she’s embarrassed because I’m watching?” Zhong Di muttered. Hens usually squat in the nest for quite a while to lay eggs.

Wait, that’s not it—she’s already laid the egg!

There was a new egg in the nest, and it was a double-yolked one.

Excited, Zhong Di went to the laying spot, picked up the double-yolked egg, and then gathered the other eggs, leaving only one behind.

Anyone who has collected eggs knows to always leave an egg in the nest; the reason is simple—to prevent the hen from moving her laying spot.

Holding the eggs, Zhong Di’s eyes shone as he looked them over and headed back to the kitchen.

It wasn’t that a double-yolked egg was so valuable; what mattered was that he’d discovered something odd.

The hen that had just laid the egg seemed to be one of the escape artists. This aroused Zhong Di’s curiosity.

Previously, there had been three double-yolked eggs when there was a gap in the coop. Once the gap was sealed, there hadn’t been a single double-yolked egg.

Now that the gap had been scratched open again, here was another double-yolked egg almost immediately.

How could he not think more on this?

Crack!

With a crisp sound, Zhong Di quickly broke the shell, dropping the double-yolked egg into a bowl, then cracked another egg he’d just collected.

He took the two bowls to a spot with good light and examined them closely.

The difference was obvious: the double-yolked egg had more yolk, and the color was richer.

More importantly, the double-yolked egg had a faint, fresh fragrance, which the regular farm eggs lacked.

So, it wasn’t his sense of taste at fault—there was something special about these eggs!

Setting the bowl down, Zhong Di returned to the chicken coop and gazed at an old poplar tree nearby.

“Poplar, poplar, you used to talk to me—could you tell me where my chicken just went?”

He muttered to the tree, not sure if it would work, but worth a try.

Suddenly, a surge of information entered Zhong Di’s mind, followed by a wave of dizziness. Astonishingly, it worked.

He filtered through the message, identified the location, and pushed through various weeds—bindweed, sow thistle, pigweed...

Finally, in a small corner, he spotted a plant—an utterly ordinary one.

If the poplar hadn’t told him, he would never have noticed it.

The whole plant stood about half a meter tall, with a similar spread. The main stem was densely branched and woody—it was clearly a shrub.

If he remembered correctly, he had a top score in plant identification and had perused countless botanical atlases. There shouldn’t be a plant in all the plant kingdom he didn’t know.

“Help... help me... help me.”

A faint, halting cry for help echoed in Zhong Di’s mind.

“Who—?”

Instinctively, Zhong Di called out, then studied the plant before him.

After a moment’s scrutiny, he realized the plea for help had come from this very plant.

Immediately, streams of information poured into his head.

“You’re saying you need nutrients? That’s why you release a scent to attract chickens to eat your leaves and then defecate nearby?”

Pfft!

Zhong Di nearly burst out laughing. He’d heard of things pleading for death, but this was the first time he’d heard something pleading for dung.

“You need a lot of nutrients? Otherwise, you’ll slowly wither away?”

But there were dead leaves everywhere, decomposing into nutrients—how could you be lacking? Zhong Di was a bit puzzled after receiving this information.

“Only animal manure works?”

Now Zhong Di understood. He didn’t know why animal dung was necessary, but there must be a reason.

“You want me to help you, and you’ll give me something in return?”

Zhong Di kept muttering, as if talking to himself.

This plant understood mutual benefit—truly a marvel. All right, he’d help out.

Through their exchange, Zhong Di learned that the plant’s idea of “help” was to grow leaves rich in a special sap.

These leaves could trigger positive mutations in plants or animals—just like the double-yolked eggs.

So, a transaction was struck: Zhong Di would provide well-composted animal manure, and in return, the plant would produce special leaves for him.

Without this prompting, the leaves would not have any unusual properties.

Zhong Di was a little annoyed at being threatened, but the feeling soon passed.

Thinking about it, trading manure for double-yolked eggs was rather exciting.

What’s more, the plant’s leaves had even more miraculous effects—something to explore slowly. He’d once felt that his “cheat” wasn’t as overpowered as in novels, but now this loophole had been filled.

The ability to perceive plant behavior was truly powerful. Without it, he’d never have found this plant, and even if he had, he wouldn’t have known how to use it.

After picking a few leaves, Zhong Di left the Wild Sand Immortal Sprout—the plant’s little gift to him.

For now, he named the plant Wild Sand Immortal Sprout, since it grew in the northwest, where fierce sands were common, its leaves sprouted from tender buds, and it had magical properties.

For experimental purposes, Zhong Di caught three hens from the coop, isolated them with wire mesh, and fed them the Wild Sand Immortal Sprout leaves. Now, all he had to do was wait.

With this going on, Zhong Di lost all interest in cooking. After feeding the hens, he sat nearby to watch.

Woo woo... woof.

Yusheng barked impatiently at Zhong Di, clearly starving and begging his dad for food.

“Hush, don’t fuss. I’ll give you last night’s egg in a bit,” Zhong Di said to Yusheng, then quietly resumed his observation.

Yusheng calmed down immediately, as if he understood his father’s words.

After a while, one hen began darting about, clucking loudly. Before long, an egg rolled out from her backside—a double-yolked egg.

The other two hens remained quiet; Zhong Di figured their eggs weren’t ready yet, unlike the first one.

He collected the double-yolked egg and happily returned to the kitchen, humming a tune as he began preparing lunch. Twenty yuan each—one hundred would be two thousand, a thousand would be twenty thousand.

Zhong Di could already picture the scenes to come.