Chapter 23
: Short Video – "The Farmer Boy"
"Deng↑Deng↓Deng——Deng↑Deng↓Deng↑Deng↑Deng↑DengDeng~"
A cheerful farmer's tune rang in my ears. Look closely, this boy is called Ashu. He is eating and looking at his phone with his friend, Warm Pig.
On the small phone screen, a boy dressed in casual clothes and wearing a worn-out farmer's hat is bending over to measure the land with a measuring tape.
"To grow good fruit trees, the land is the most important element. We start by measuring one acre as a large unit to break down the number of fruit trees that need to be planted within it."
The optimal planting density for cranberries is six plants per ten square meters. Within this acre, we mark the area in units of three to ten square meters to facilitate rapid sowing later.
The video is short, only about seven minutes long. Apart from the gentle narration at the beginning, the rest of the footage shows the boy repeatedly measuring and dividing the land.
The boy's voice was heard again at the very end of the video:
[The ten acres have been measured. In the next video, we will explain how to sow seeds. See you in the next episode of Farm Story!]
"Ash, what are you looking at?"
"A farmer boy's farming video looks pretty relaxing, and the Sandslash in the background looks really powerful. I really want to spar with him sometime!"
The boy named Ash looked up and saw his childhood friend sitting in front of him with her Pokémon after buying food.
The farmer's videos weren't very appealing to the young Ash, and because the track was narrow, the number of views was dismal, with only a few hundred people watching and very few likes in a day.
What's more captivating than the video content itself is the Sandslash training Baby Gilas in the distance.
Ash watched the whole video because of that Sandslash.
"Oh? Let me take a look."
The girl had a very strong personality, and because she and Ash had grown up together, she didn't hold back at all, and took the phone from his hand.
It would have been better if she hadn't looked; once she did, she and the vine snake in her arms started breathing heavily.
"Wisteria! Wisteria! Wisteria!"
"Huh—? How come it's this guy!"
Mingyi's face was somewhat ferocious. How come this annoying guy is still haunting her even in the real world? But is that guy actually a farmer?
Ashu, sitting across the table, was somewhat surprised:
"Mingyi, do you know this video blogger?"
"Of course, this is the guy I absolutely have to defeat and settle scores with! Once I get all three Gym Badges, I'll go to the Elysium region and kick that wretched Larvitar to the ground like I kicked a Rattata on the street!"
"Fuji!"
The girl and the vine snake will never forget the humiliation of being blocked on the bridge that day, and they are determined to take revenge!
Seeing the almost solidified black aura on Mingyi's body, Ash consciously refrained from asking about the details of this embarrassing past, as he didn't want to be whipped by the Vine Serpent.
"Mingyi, what do you think of his Sandslash King? It's huge! Ordinary Sandslash Kings can't grow this big."
Ash changed the subject to Sandslash. It was the first time he had ever seen such a huge Sandslash. He had never seen one this big when he watched Pokémon battles on TV before.
Naruto was completely used to Ash's academic underachiever nature. After returning the phone to him, she said:
"You're hopeless, Ash. If you had paid attention in just a couple of classes when you were in school, you would have known that this Pokémon doesn't belong to this guy at all. It must be his elder's Pokémon."
"Huh?"
"This is a Sandslash with the Totem ability. Besides being a natural Totem Pokémon, to breed a Pokémon with the Totem ability, you must defeat a large number of Totem Pokémon of the same species and wear the King's Mark and the Gold, Silver or Ancient Crown when challenging them. Only in this way is there a very small chance of making the Pokémon Totem."
Mingyi first explained the characteristics of Totem Pokémon, and then stated the reason why she judged that this Sandslash was a Pokémon of Xia Ming's elder:
"If you look closely, the Sandslash's teaching of Larvitar is clearly imbued with the emotions of an elder, a special emotion that only elder Pokémon can produce."
Pokémon trained by the same trainer often have a brotherly or sisterly relationship with newly joined young Pokémon. Their teaching style is nowhere near as gentle and personal as that of older Pokémon; they tend to be more meticulous and individualistic.
"Wow, there's so much to learn! Mingyi, you're amazing!"
"Of course!"
Mingyi proudly crossed her arms; she was a born Pokémon Trainer:
"Alright, let's eat. Bai Lu is still waiting for us. Honestly, why did I decide to travel with an idiot like you and a whelp like her?"
After saying that, Mingyi's face showed obvious helplessness and exhaustion.
Ash is an idiot, but he has a natural instinct when it comes to Pokémon battles.
Bai Lu is a weakling, and the knowledge in her head is inversely proportional to her combat level.
She is the only one who possesses beauty, talent, and combat prowess, and is required to simultaneously serve as both captain and older sister. It must be exhausting for her.
Ashu was already used to his little green plum's daily arrogance. He didn't say anything, just kept eating warm pork chop rice while silently following Xia Ming's "Farmer Boy" channel.
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Meanwhile, on the other side...
Xia Ming was unaware that he was about to be continuously stalked by a resentful woman. He was currently on his way to Pierre's farm shop to pick up the seeds of this batch of tree fruits.
Yesterday, after measuring the land of the Manmei fruit, he did not continue to measure the land of the Biba fruit. After reading the notes, he realized that for him at this point, it would be better to do more than he could do, and that choosing to practice on the same type of fruit first was the best option.
At the same time, he acted within his means, only planning to plant ten acres of mango trees first, in case he couldn't take care of them later.
If the results are good, he will cultivate another ten acres of land in the fall and plant another round of crops.
His video account, named "Farmer Boy," focuses on this content: documenting the cultivation of tree fruits.
He plans to create a separate account for videos about daily farm life and super-dimensional activities, called "Little Farmer Looking for Mom." As for why he's looking for his mom, don't worry about that.
"Welcome to Pierre's Farm Shop! Oh, it's Xia! How many seeds do you want to take?"
Pierre warmly welcomed Xia Ming as he walked into the shop. He had already prepared a batch of goods and was just waiting for Xia Ming to speak.
Upon arriving in front of Pierre, Xia Ming gave a brief greeting and then, without further ado, stated the number of seeds he needed:
"Good morning, Uncle Pierre. I calculated it yesterday, and I plan to plant ten acres of cranberries to test the waters. Considering losses, I will need about four thousand trees."
"Four thousand? That's all? Okay, I'll have Venusaur deliver it to you this afternoon. Since that's all you need, I'll waive the seed requirement for next season."
Pierre waved his hand magnanimously; he couldn't let Xia suffer too much.