Unable to sleep, Jiang Ye was full of energy. Holding the bottle cap, he continuously watered the two small seedlings.
With a sizzling sound, the two small seedlings grew rapidly!
Jiang Ye had seen many grains and vegetables before, but these two seedlings were very special. He couldn't tell what variety they were. Therefore, he could only keep watering them and identify them when they grew. He hoped they would be something relatively filling.
Finally, the two small seedlings stopped growing, settling at half an arm's height.
They were lush and leafy.
Like ornamental small trees.
Jiang Ye thought that the flowerpot was too small and wondered if it had restricted the seedlings' growth.
But then, on several branches of the two small seedlings, flower buds formed!
They were ready to bloom and bear fruit!
Jiang Ye was indescribably excited. He twisted his head and counted the flower buds. There weren't many, only ten in total. He thought this was truly a miracle. Planted from a cappuccino cup, and just by watering them without doing anything else, they were about to bloom! These magical seeds were truly easy to cultivate!
He continued to water them!
The flower buds absorbed water and grew, finally blooming one after another!
The moment they bloomed, Jiang Ye was stunned.
The flowers were not white, yellow, blue, or red, but black?
Completely black, pure black, as if dyed with ink.
Having lived so long, he had seen flowers of all colors, but he had never seen black flowers before. He couldn't say they were unattractive, just incredibly ugly. Like burnt paper flowers.
Before Jiang Ye could even process what was happening, the black flowers quickly withered.
Seeing the black flowers fall off one by one, he was startled. There were no alien bees or butterflies here. Had he forgotten about artificial pollination? Could flowers bear fruit without pollination?
Fortunately, his worries were completely unnecessary. On the small branches where the black flowers had been, small green spheres soon began to swell.
The second bottle of water was also finished. Victory was in sight. Jiang Ye unhesitatingly unscrewed the third bottle of water and continued to irrigate.
At the same time, he checked his watch. It was already three in the morning.
Three hours, two large bottles of water, and both magical seeds had already reached the fruit-bearing stage!
It was incredibly fast!
The small green spheres continued to swell, gradually becoming flattened at both ends, and finally took on the shape of oranges.
Not small kumquats, but large oranges the size of eggs, plump and alluring, a beautiful orange-yellow. To be honest, if such beautiful large oranges were placed on supermarket shelves, they would definitely be snapped up by the aunties!
After finishing the third bottle of water at four in the morning, exactly ten oranges ripened and fell from the branches one after another.
Jiang Ye carefully picked up all the oranges and placed them on the floor beside him, feeling as if he were dreaming. He had expected the seeds to take at least several weeks to grow, but he had obtained fruits in just four hours! No fertilizer, no pest control, no pollination, just mindless watering, and it was done! Even an idiot could grow them!
Genetically modified technology was indeed amazing.
The seed packet claimed it was safe genetically modified technology, and Jiang Ye decided to believe it. It was the Galactic Empire era, and technology had developed for so many years; this technology should be very reliable. Besides, he didn't have much food right now, so he had to try eating what he grew.
He picked up an orange and carefully peeled it.
While peeling, Jiang Ye was actually a little apprehensive. The flowers were black; would the orange segments also be black?
But fortunately, the orange segments were normal, just like the oranges he ate as a child.
And they were very juicy. Jiang Ye accidentally broke a segment, and golden orange juice spurted out, splashing all over his face. It even made his eyes water.
So much juice reminded him of the oranges sold on Douyin, which gushed juice like a faucet when cut and squeezed. When Jiang Ye was a child, he was skeptical of these orange advertisements, thinking that with such exaggerated juice, if he bought a few boxes, the whole village would have to build flood control measures!
No more random thoughts, time to eat!
He threw a segment of orange into his mouth and bit down!
A strong burst of juice immediately splashed out, filling his entire mouth.
"Holy crap!" Jiang Ye cried out.
It was too sour!
It felt like he had a mouthful of hydrochloric acid with sugar!
They weren't ripe at all!
As expected, things that were rapidly ripened didn't taste good. The oranges looked fully ripe, but they weren't ready to eat. They needed at least a week to lose their sourness and become sweet. If such sour oranges were sold at the market, the young men who tried them would definitely beat up the vendor.
Putting down the orange, Jiang Ye wanted to continue watering to see if the two small orange trees could bear fruit again.
Unfortunately, the orange trees quickly withered, turning into a pile of dead branches and leaves.
It seemed they were a one-time yield, with each seed producing five large oranges. That was still quite profitable.
Jiang Ye counted the seed packet; there were 28 seeds left. Including the two planted during the night, there were exactly thirty seeds in total. This meant that if he planted them all, he would get a total of 150 large oranges. That was quite considerable!
The only regret was that the oranges produced were seedless; otherwise, he could easily have cultivated a large orange grove.
And there was the most crucial problem: he didn't have enough water to grow so many oranges.
Jiang Ye felt sleepy and slumped onto his seat, closing his eyes to fall into a deep sleep. Before falling asleep, he suddenly thought, could he dig a deep well and find water underground?
He felt this was a strong possibility, but he would deal with it after waking up. Not sleeping could lead to sudden death!