Hughie continuously catalyzed the core of the peach in his hand. However, after a long time, Zhou Kun still didn't see the magical scene that occurred in the auction house previously.
Hughie looked regretfully at the peach core in his hand, which did not change at all, and said in frustration, "Indeed, I overestimated my abilities. How could a precious magical fruit like this one be reproduced so easily?"
Zhou Kun heaved a sigh of relief. After all, if he had brought another magical fruit that would affect the entire continent, he would feel guilty once more.
Zhou Kun felt a little awkward because Naby and Hughie focused their entire attention on him. He said embarrassedly, "I'd like to go for a walk in the manor."
"Naby, accompany Mr. Cohen on a stroll."
Seeing that he had failed to reproduce the peach, Hughie decided to go back to his magic tower and meditate.
"Mr. Cohen, this is the cultivation area of the manor. Now, we are planting the vine seeds that Teacher Hughie brought. However, it will take about a month to harvest the vine."
Naby's crisp and clear voice was lingering in Zhou Kun's ears. However, he was not in the mood to care about it because he found the vine, which Naby mentioned, to be rather familiar.
Hence, Zhou Kun quickly strode towards the cultivation area, moved the leaves aside, and saw what he was looking for.
Isn't this a watermelon?
Although the watermelon that was knotted by the vine was dark, Zhou Kun still managed to identify it to be a watermelon at first glance.
However, there were many different types of melons, and even though it looked like a watermelon, he could not be certain that it was one. He had to taste it to know.
"Naby, do me a favor."
"Mr. Cohen, what can I help you with?"
"Help me look for a ripe melon... Ah, I mean, fruits that are growing from these vines. Help me find some ripe ones."
Although Naby was puzzled, wondering why Zhou Kun was so interested in the vines, she was still happy that she could help.
Hence, Naby began to search continuously among the vines before finally finding a large fruit amidst it.
"Mr. Cohen, look at this one. Does it look okay?"
Zhou Kun, who had been rummaging for fruit, hurried to Naby's side when he heard her words, only to see a huge fruit hidden under the leaves of the vine, which was much larger than the one he had found before.
Zhou Kun patted the melon, making a rather crisp and clear sound.
Consequently, he decided to pluck the melon. However, to his surprise, regardless of how he tried to pinch the vine, it refused to budge.
"Mr. Cohen, these vines are very hard and strong. Unless they're ripe, it'd be difficult to break them."
Despite hearing that, Zhou Kun refused to give up. To his surprise, the watermelon burst apart as soon as Zhou Kun applied more force.
The bright-red flesh was exposed in an instant, and the familiar fragrance of watermelon began to spread.
Ignoring the fact that the watermelon juice had stained his shirt, Zhou Kun picked up a broken piece of watermelon flesh and began chewing it.
The fruit of the other world was indeed delicious, perhaps because they had been watered by magic. The taste of the watermelon was wonderful, and the key aspect was that there were no seeds.
Zhou Kun originally thought that the piece of watermelon he had grabbed just happened to have no seeds, but he looked down at the remaining melon on the ground and realized that there seemed to be no seeds either.
"Mr. Cohen, what are you looking for?"
"There seem to be no seeds in this fruit."
"There will only be a few seeds in the fruit of the vine, and they cannot reproduce. Without Teacher Hughie, we would never have the opportunity to plant this kind of magical plant here. However, there has been a problem with Teacher Hughie's magic recently. If you didn't show up today with the magic fruit, there would perhaps be no way to grow these vines in the manor."
Zhou Kun ignored Little Naby's babbling, and all he could think about was the watermelon in front of him.
George mentioned previously that the dragon fruit was going to be out of stock. Although he had stocked up on a batch of goods, it would definitely be sold out one day. This time, he actually chanced upon watermelons from the other world.
Although the batch of watermelons was dark-skinned, they tasted just like regular watermelons. They were of great quality and were seedless. Zhou Kun felt that they would definitely sell like hotcakes as long as he lied about them being a new variety of watermelons.
"Naby, what do you guys do with the vines in the manor?"
"The vines will be harvested next month. I heard Uncle Gaya mention that they would be sold altogether to the noble patriarch Hans next door."
"How much is Hans offering?"
"That would depend on the number of vines. The output of the last batch was very high. All the vines in the manor were sold for one Dragon Crystal!"
"One Dragon Crystal!?!"
An entire manor's worth of watermelons was sold at such a low price?
"Yes, one Dragon Crystal. However, Uncle Gaya, the village chief, is in charge of allocating the money. During the harvest of the previous batch of vines, each family received 50 kilograms of black wheat flour."
Zhou Kun knew what Naby was referring to when she said black wheat flour. It meant non-husked wheat, which was also whole wheat flour.
"Naby, can you get the village chief to come here? I'd like to talk to him about these vines."
Naby didn't understand what Zhou Kun was saying but after seeing how serious his expression was, she rushed to look for Gaya.
Gaya was a man who was about 40 years old. Logically speaking, he should be considered to be in his prime. Zhou Kun soon knew why he hadn't been recruited to fight on the battlefield. It was because his right foot was disabled, which was obvious as he was limping all the way.
"I heard from Little Naby that you were looking for me, is that right?" asked Gaya who did not know what happened to Hughie just now. He had merely heard from the children that there was a guest in the manor.
"I want to talk to you about a deal regarding the vines."
"Oh? The vines in our manor have all been sold to Master Hans previously." Although Hans was no longer the owner of this manor, Gaya still addressed him as 'Master'.
"How many households are there in your village? I am willing to purchase the vines from the manor directly with white flour. "
"This..." All of a sudden, Gaya couldn't quite figure out what Zhou Kun meant. He thought, 'Who would use white flour to purchase these vines?' Only those who are slightly affluent would be able to afford white flour. Generally, the price of white flour was more than twice that of black flour.
However, Zhou Kun didn't care, because he could easily purchase ordinary flour. In the world he came from, whole wheat flour was not only expensive but also hard to find. That was also the difference between the two worlds.
"I've heard from Naby that during the previous harvest of vines, each family received 50 kilograms of black flour. I shall purchase the vines with 50 kilograms of white flour. How does that sound?"
"Really!?! Wonderful."
After some discussions, Zhou Kun learned that there were only twenty-one households in the manor. All of the members of the households were the weak, the elderly, women, and children. The business of purchasing vines with white flour was thus settled.
Hearing the conversation between Mr. Cohen and Gaya, she wondered whether she would be able to eat white bread from the following month onwards.
She wanted to inform Teacher Hughie about the piece of good news.
Hughie listened to Naby while she repeated Cohen's words with immense excitement. He stroked her head and said, "You guys must thank Mr. Cohen. After all, the vines in the manor are not worth that much white flour."
Upon hearing his words, Naby nodded, seemingly having somewhat understood him.