Chapter Eighty-Nine: The Lamb Egg

After discovering the problem, Zhong Di came to his senses and leaped down from the truck.

The condition of the lemon tree was chlorosis. Overall, the young shoots and leaves were in worse shape, while the older leaves were still mostly fine.

Iron is an indispensable element in photosynthesis. Without enough iron, the plant cannot form chlorophyll, and the result is leaf chlorosis—more precisely, chlorosis in the leaf tissue.

Zhong Di quickly fetched some ferrous sulfate, found a spray bottle, mixed it with water, and added a little Wild Sand Immortal Sprout for no other reason than to give it a soul.

If it was only an iron deficiency, then ferrous sulfate alone would do. It had to be fast.

Plants can only absorb iron in the divalent state. Once ferrous sulfate is exposed to air, it is easily oxidized into trivalent iron, the very thing people call rust.

Holding the spray bottle filled with the ferrous-sulfate mixture, Zhong Di climbed back onto the truck and gave the tree a thorough spraying.

“Ah, what’s that smell? Why is it so awful?”

Sun Miaomiao had been watching, but before long she caught a strange odor.

“Doesn’t it smell like rust?”

After spraying the entire lemon tree, Zhong Di turned around and asked her.

“Yes, exactly, that rusty smell.” Sun Miaomiao came to herself, her voice rising several pitches.

“All right, that should do it. Watch it for a while, and if there’s still a problem, contact me again.”

Zhong Di did not bother explaining much to Sun Miaomiao. He simply jumped off the truck and said that much. With this, the problem was basically resolved; those words were just perfunctory.

From the emotion the lemon gave off, it was excited, clearly having received what it wanted.

Although ferrous sulfate quickly converts to trivalent iron in the air, the moment it was sprayed, absorption had already begun.

The plant did not need much of it to begin with, so this would more or less be enough.

“But the rust on it looks so ugly,” Sun Miaomiao muttered.

“Once it recovers, dip some white vinegar in a cloth and wipe it gently. It’ll come right off.”

As for rust, that was all there was to it. It was like having a rusty knife at home: soak it in white vinegar, wipe it off, and the rust is gone, as if it had been corroded away.

“Oh, then I’ll take it back first. I’ll come find you next time.”

After chatting with Zhong Di a little longer, Sun Miaomiao left. In her present state, she really could not appear before Zhong Di.

Only after Sun Miaomiao was gone did Zhong Di unload the equipment from the electric tricycle and, taking advantage of the moment, go retrieve the package.

The perennial plants he had ordered earlier had arrived. Zhong Di opened them up and looked them over; both the quality and the packaging were beyond reproach.

It was mainly because Zhong Di had said this was only the first batch, and there would be many more later. He wanted to check the quality first.

He placed the many perennial plants under the shade of the trees and covered them properly, then went to see how the sheep slaughter was going. These perennial plants could be planted tomorrow by calling in a few aunties to help.

The sheep had already been slaughtered and was being skinned.

Shao Hong looked utterly inexperienced, whereas the two uncles were very practiced, clearly having done this sort of work before.

By then, Zhong Di, like Shao Hong, did not interfere. He only watched from the side. It took quite a while before the big sheep was fully processed.

Things like the kidneys could not be wasted, so they were all set aside. And then there were the sheep testicles—yes, the sheep testicles were kept as well. It was a ram, and people said the taste was quite good.

The rest consisted of the sheep’s head and four hooves, all of which were also kept for making something else later.

Just the offal alone could fill a large basin; not to mention the head and hooves.

The head could be stewed into soup, and the hooves could be made into spicy sheep hooves—very satisfying indeed. The remaining part was what would become the roast whole sheep.

Zhong Di found a large blue barrel, filled it with cold water, and tossed the entire sheep into it to soak. On the other side, he began preparing everything needed for the roast.

There were the marinade and the coating mixture. The marinade was for soaking the sheep, using scallions, onions, ginger, garlic, cooking wine, and other seasonings chiefly meant to remove the gamey smell and bloodiness.

Truthfully, just from the smell of the meat, there was hardly any gamey odor at all; instead, it carried a faint freshness. But the marinade still had to be prepared.

Since he had prepared quite a lot, Zhong Di and Shao Hong worked together to lift the meat out, cut it up, and evenly coat it with the marinade piece by piece before preparing the coating mixture.

Turmeric powder, flour, salt, pepper, cumin powder, and chili flakes were added in appropriate amounts, then mixed together.

Once everything was ready, Zhong Di checked the time. It was only six o’clock, still far from the ten o’clock end of the workday. Today he planned to start eating at nine.

Roasting the sheep would take about two hours. Now was the time.

“Shao Hong, light the fire and heat the kiln,” Zhong Di said after checking the time, and walked toward the earthen kiln.

“You know how to use this thing? Honestly, ever since this earthen kiln was built, I still don’t know how it’s supposed to work. Isn’t roast whole sheep done with charcoal?”

“Then give me a hand. One look and you’ll know,” Zhong Di said without explanation.

There were roughly two mainstream ways to roast a whole sheep: charcoal roasting and sealed roasting. Today, Zhong Di was using the sealed method.

The fire rose quickly, heating the entire earthen kiln until it was warm and radiant. Zhong Di kept an eye on the time, and only when it reached seven o’clock did he seal the kiln opening and begin applying the coating.

After that, he scattered a layer of sesame seeds over it. Perfect.

“Once I’ve finished sprinkling the salt water, you put the sheep inside. Can you manage on your own?”

Seeing Shao Hong struggling somewhat as he carried the sheep, Zhong Di asked. Although the skin had been removed and the head and organs had all been taken out, it was still quite heavy. Fortunately, Shao Hong was strong.

“Aren’t you going to help me after you sprinkle the salt water? Hurry up, stop talking nonsense.”

Shao Hong snapped back irritably. So you were planning to just stand there and watch after sprinkling the salt water?

Seeing that Shao Hong was having trouble holding it up, Zhong Di quickly sprinkled salt water into the earthen kiln, the purpose being to extinguish the remaining fire and lower the temperature a bit. Otherwise, once the sheep went in, the surface would scorch at once, which would be miserable.

After that, the two of them put the whole sheep inside, covered the kiln with its lid, and then draped several layers of wet cloth over the top.

Once they were done, they moved on to miscellaneous chores. This was not like charcoal roasting, where one had to check and turn it from time to time; they only needed to wait until the time was about right and then take it out.

If there happened to be freshly baked flatbread at that moment, it would be absolutely perfect. Roast whole sheep with flatbread was delicious beyond words.

Pulling weeds, feeding the rabbits, feeding the chickens, feeding the hedgehogs, and so on—the time passed quickly and productively.

The little hedgehogs had already grown up and could run now, yet they had no intention of leaving. They were quite comfortable here.

Zhong Di did not care about that. If they wanted to stay, then let them stay.

As for the fish pond, it had already been repaired today. What remained was installing the equipment, filling it with water, and waiting until the time was right to introduce the fish.