Yun Feiyang spent the New Year's Eve with Shen Shi'an and stayed until January 31, preparing to leave home. He couldn't go back. February 5th was the Spring Festival. If he didn't go back, he would hit the peak of the Spring Festival travel rush. It was uncertain whether he would be able to get home before New Year's Eve.
Pushing the suitcase to the door, Yun Feiyang was reluctant to leave: "You really don't want to go home with me to celebrate the New Year? My parents are looking forward to it and said that they have prepared a lot of delicious food for you. It's warm on the island now. , then let’s go swimming and surfing in the sea together, catching fish and shells, how happy it will be, brother.”
Shen Shi'an handed him a cloth bag, which was filled with sealed tomato sauce and freshly squeezed tomato juice. Hearing this, he shook his head: "Thank you uncle and aunt for me, and wish them a happy new year and all the best. I won't be here this year." It's over. Don't worry, I'm not alone. Shen Xun is with me. Besides, Mr. Gu is coming over on New Year's Eve."
Yun Feiyang was surprised: "Mr. Gu is coming to celebrate New Year's Eve with you?"
"Yes." Shen Shi'an nodded, his expression indifferent, showing no emotion. In previous years, Mr. Gu, as the first heir of the family, would accompany his family elders to pay homage to their ancestors on important festivals such as New Year's Eve. Usually, he could only make a quick trip to H City when he was young. I don’t know why this year, but I called Shen Shian more than a week ago and agreed to come over for dinner on New Year’s Eve.
Yun Feiyang's father was coming to celebrate the festival with her, so Yun Feiyang couldn't bother taking her to the island anymore. Swallowing back all the persuasion, he raised his hand and hugged Shen Shi'an: "Okay, let's make a date next year. You have a good New Year, and when I come back I will bring you an authentic green coconut that's bigger than a basketball. It's fragrant and sweet and I'll keep it for you." I still want to drink after drinking.”
Then he looked down at the child next to Shen Shi'an's legs: "Xunxun, come here and say goodbye to your Uncle Yun."
Shen Xun didn't want to pay attention to him and bared two rows of fangs at him: "Ugh..."
Ruibao, who was standing on Yun Feiyang's shoulders, immediately flapped his wings and screamed: "Goodbye! Goodbye! Goodbye, baby!"
"Okay, okay, okay," Yun Feiyang quickly reassured: "He is not Xiaohei, and he will not threaten you to peel melon seeds. Why are you so afraid? Tsk, he is getting more and more cowardly."
Shen Shi'an calmly hid the child behind his back, and said to Yun Feiyang: "Are you sure you can go home with the parrot? Otherwise, you can leave it here with me, and it won't be troublesome to raise it."
"Don't worry, it's no problem." Yun Feiyang opened the zipper of his down jacket a little and put Ruibao into his inner pocket. Only his head was exposed: "I'm taking a train, not an airplane. The inspection is not that strict. When the time comes, Ruibao will be like this." Stuff it into your clothes and put a scarf around your neck. As long as it doesn't bark, no one can see it. I already rehearsed with it last night. The little thing is very smart."
Then he said to Shen Shi'an: "Okay, it's very cold outside. You don't need to send the children away. I just have a suitcase and a cloth bag. You can take the elevator downstairs and take a taxi."
Shen Shi'an was polite and nodded: "Let me know when you get in the car and when you arrive."
"No problem, let's go brother, happy new year!"
Shen Shi'an waved: "Happy New Year and have a safe journey."
They watched Yun Feiyang get into the elevator until they returned home and closed the door. Shen Shi'an lowered his head and looked at the child: "I want to enter the space, you watch TV alone..."
Before he finished speaking, Shen Xun had quickly hugged his calf, and his hands and feet were entangled in a candy-like posture that could not be torn off: "...No...I have to go with An An..."
"I have an important job, what if you make trouble?"
Shen Xun immediately shook his head like a rattle, "...no...don't make trouble...obey me..." After saying that, he stretched out three white and tender paws: "...promise..."
Shen Shi'an thought about it and decided to believe him for once.
Entering the space with Shen Xun who looked like brown sugar, Shen Shi'an put the glass bowl filled with cherries into his arms and asked him to sit on the green grass next to the black soil: "Don't move around here, Call me if you need anything."
The child blinked his eyes and nodded obediently. As soon as Shen Shian left, his fiery gaze immediately turned to the Lingquan not far away - there seemed to be nothing around the Lingquan, but without Shen Shian's permission He couldn't get close at all. Recalling the severe pain of his claws being burnt by thunder last time, Shen Xun pursed his lips and reluctantly looked back.
Shen Shi'an walked into the tomato forest. The lush "tomato trees" looked the same as before. The tomatoes as big as basketballs were still as red as fire, and the plump flesh was almost transparent, which looked very tempting. Best of all, there were no signs of being overripe and about to rot.
It seems that the fruits grown in the space have a longer shelf life than he expected. This is good news, but this is not the purpose of Shen Shian's visit this time.
When he first planted tomatoes, Shen Shian only designated a planting area of three meters by three meters, a total of nine square meters. Unexpectedly, almost all of the more than two thousand seeds survived and grew into a dense and prosperous tomato forest. . What's even more amazing is that when he observes from outside the tomato forest, the original nine-square-meter planting area seems to have not changed at all, but once he steps over any boundary of the nine-square-meter planting area, the surrounding space will suddenly expand by hundreds of digits. Thousand times, showing the whole tomato forest, as if stepping into a new and different space.
If his inference is correct, then there is indeed a spatial folding on this land, and it can freely expand its area as the plants on it grow. And Shen Shian's purpose is to test through experiments how many times the land in the space can expand.
He originally planned to conduct this experiment after the exam, and the materials and tools were ready. However, before the experiment began, he unexpectedly discovered the secret of the spiritual spring protective shield, and then experienced the transformation of a dog into a spirit. , was temporarily delayed. Now that he and Shen Xun were the only two people left at home, there was no need to worry about outside interference, so it was a good opportunity to continue the experiment.
The space is completely isolated from the outside world, there is no way to receive satellite signals, and ordinary land area measuring instruments cannot be used. Shen Shi'an took out the industrial tape measure he had prepared in advance, and after taking several measurements, he successfully obtained the area of the tomato forest: 3,600 square meters——
It expanded four hundred times compared to the initial area he marked out.
Shen Shi'an wrote down this number in his notebook, and based on the total number of 2,362 tomato trees, he calculated the default average optimal growth area required for each tomato tree in the space: 1.524 square meters.
Then three additional experimental fields were drawn next to the tomato forest, ten centimeters long, ten centimeters wide, and covering an area of 0.01 square meters.
The reason why the experimental field area was chosen to be so small is that there are already enough tomatoes in the space. Although the shelf life is considerable, what to do if there is not enough to eat is still a big problem.
Secondly, Shen Shi'an roughly estimated that the original total area of the land in the space was only one hundred meters by fifty meters, that is, about 5,000 square meters, about half the size of a playground. Even if this area can be expanded, every inch of original area is still very precious. Before determining the final use, it is better not to waste as much as possible.
After the experimental fields were marked and numbered, Shen Shi'an planted three tomato seeds in field No. 1, five in field No. 2, and ten in field No. 3. He scooped a basin of spiritual spring water from the creek, and then planted them in sequence. Irrigation completed. The rest can only wait quietly.
According to the spatial default, the optimal growth area required for each tomato tree is 1.524 square meters. Under ideal conditions, if the space expansion multiple is not restricted, the three experimental fields will expand to 4.57 square meters, 7.62 square meters, and 15.24 square meters respectively. meters, the corresponding expansion multiples are 457 times, 762 times, and 1524 times.
Shen Shian wrote a series of numbers in his notebook. If the expansion of the No. 3 experimental field is successful, it means that 1524 times is not the limit of land area expansion. Then he will further increase the number of seeds in the same area of the experimental field until the expansion limit is tested.
Clamping the pen in the book and closing it, Shen Shi'an sat next to Shen Xun, raised his hand and took a big cherry from the glass bowl. I just bought cherries yesterday. They are so red that they turn black and purple, and they taste sweet and refreshing. The child liked it very much. He would not let go of the fruit plate and would not give it to anyone except Shen Shian. Last night, Yun Feiyang deliberately teased him, and the two almost came to a fight.
After eating and spitting the core into the palm of his hand, Shen Shi'an looked around and asked Shen Xun, "Where did you throw the core?"
Shen Xun's cheeks were bulging, like a little squirrel storing food for the winter. He pointed at the black soil in front of him: Okay, it's all gone into the soil. He took the core from Shen Shi'an's palm and buried it in it. He also poured some spiritual spring water on it: "...delicious..."
Bury a cherry stone today, and a tree of cherries will grow tomorrow. It’s awesome.
Shen Shi'an laughed and raised his hand to rub his head. After a while, he turned his head and glanced at the experimental field. His eyes lit up and he stood up immediately: the seeds had germinated.
The last time Shen Shi'an discovered that the seeds had grown into a tomato forest after one night - if you include the difference in time flow rates inside and outside space, it was actually two nights. He thought it would take at least a few hours before he could see any changes, but he didn't expect that after watering the seeds from the spiritual spring, the seeds would grow so quickly.
Seeing a mature tomato forest is a completely different experience than witnessing the whole process of a seed growing into a tree.
It was as if I was watching a video of plant growth that had been fast-forwarded hundreds of thousands of times. The tomato seeds that were planted just over 20 minutes ago were sprouting, sprouting, and stretching at an astonishing and breathtaking speed. In just one When he was young, he had already grown to the height of Shen Shi'an's waist.
The veins grow along the stems, fine hairs grow on the skin, and the small buds stretch into green leaves... When you listen quietly, you can even hear the sound of juice flowing happily in the roots. Static plants explode into dynamic vitality. Such a carnival and dance of life can only be described by the word miracle.
When the height of the stem exceeded Shen Shi'an's head, the light yellow flower buds gradually poked out from between the leaves. Shen Shi'an had already turned on his mobile phone to record the growth time of the tomato seedlings. When the buds fully bloomed and pollination was successful, they should be able to bear fruit...
etc.
Shen Shi'an froze, and suddenly realized a crucial question that he had always ignored: How to pollinate tomatoes in space?
The space is completely isolated from the outside world. No objects or creatures can enter unless passing through it. And he has been in the space for such a long time and has never found any traces of bees. In this case, how did the previous batch of tomato plants successfully pollinate and bear fruit?
Before Shen Shian could figure it out, all the eighteen newly planted tomato trees were already in bloom. As if some condition was triggered, a strange buzzing sound suddenly sounded throughout the space.
Shen Shi'an turned around suddenly and followed the sound to the two trees in front of the bamboo house——
There were two trees in front of the bamboo house. One was a peach tree, full of green leaves. The other one was unknown to him. It was full of bright yellow translucent flowers. At this time, there were dozens of flowers like The decomposed light spots generally dispersed and turned into countless buzzing flying insects.
Where are the flowers? They are clearly hundreds of bees the size of melon seeds gathered together. These bees are translucent and light yellow all over. When they stand still on the branches with their hooked legs intertwined with each other, they look like flowers in bud or in full bloom.
Shen Shi'an hugged Shen Xun and jumped to the other side of the stream before the bees swarmed over. However, the bees obviously had no interest in the two of them and flew directly to the eighteen tomato trees, among the flowers on the trees. Flying and dancing.
After about twenty minutes, the swarm gathered into a group and flew back to the branch, clinging to each other again to form a motionless "flower". The first two times Shen Shi'an entered the space, he vaguely noticed that these "flowers" were somewhat different from the ones he saw for the first time, but he couldn't tell what the specific differences were. At this time, he finally understood:
After collecting pollen, the bees grew slightly in size. It is difficult to detect a single flower, but when dozens or hundreds of flowers gather together, the size of the "flower" changes obviously.
Shen Shi'an waited for a while, making sure that the bee colony returned to a still state without any movement, and then released Shen Xun. So far, it seems that the bee colonies in the space only respond when there are plants blooming, and increase in size as the amount of pollen collected is increased. Although he is not sure what species it is, as long as it is not aggressive, the existence of the bee colony is a rare good news for Shen Shi'an. At least there is no need to catch bees from the outside for pollination.
Shen Xun was obviously thinking more far-term, staring at the bee tree and swallowing: "...honey...delicious..." The flowers bloomed by absorbing the spring water of life, and the honey brewed from the pollen must be very nourishing!
In this moment, the flowers on the tomato tree have withered one after another, leaving behind the green fruits as big as grapes. Seeing that the tomato trees had almost stopped growing, Shen Shi'an took a tape measure to measure the area of the three experimental fields in sequence.
There are three tomato trees in Experimental Field No. 1, with an initial area of 0.01 square meters, a completed area of 4.57 square meters, and an expansion of 457 times;
There are five tomato trees in Experimental Field No. 2, with an initial area of 0.01 square meters and a completed area of 6.66 square meters, expanding 666 times;
There are ten tomato trees in Experimental Field No. 3, with an initial area of 0.01 square meters and a completed area of 6.66 square meters, an expansion of 666 times.
In other words, the expansion limit of land in space is 666 times. Because Experimental Fields No. 2 and No. 3 have reached their expansion limit, the average area occupied by each tomato tree is smaller than the default space, and they look a bit crowded.
Calculated based on this figure, the initial area is 5,000 square meters multiplied by 666. The actual planting area owned by Shen Shian in the space is approximately 3.33 square kilometers, which is equivalent to the area of 16 bird's nests.
He really became a big landowner in one day.
On the other hand, the cherry pit buried by the landlord's silly son has not responded yet. Shen Shi'an believes that this should be due to the growth difference between herbaceous plants and woody plants.
The experimental goal was successfully achieved, and Shen Shian was very satisfied. Turning around, I saw a child circling back and forth around the bee tree, not knowing what he wanted to do, so he ignored him and packed up the seeds and tools, ready to soak in the Lingquan Pond for a while. Before Yun Feiyang was here, he couldn't enter the space for too long. Counting that since Gouzi became a spirit, it has been two weeks since he took a bath in the spiritual spring.
However, Shen Shi'an noticed something was wrong as soon as he reached the Lingquan Pool. There was a dead silence in the misty Lingquan. The sound of gurgling water that usually flowed from the spring could not be heard at this time.
With his heart suddenly tightening, Shen Shi'an walked quickly through the mist and walked to the spring:
The spring is completely dry, and there is no trace of spring water.
