Chapter 19: The Secret of Mental Power

He handed over the materials. The bank staff came over to take photos and do an assessment. The rest was just waiting. There was a process that needed to be followed. This was the rundown Xiangshui Town, so the bank had to be careful too.

Liu Heming had a lot of things to do on his end. Although he didn’t need to work hard on clearing the land anymore, he still had to grow vegetables. The seeds in those five big trays had started sprouting one after another, which made him extremely happy. Like a playful child, he checked them several times a day.

When he lifted the covers this morning, at least 90% had sprouted. He knew he had to take them out now. Otherwise, the seeds wouldn’t grow as strong; he wasn’t trying to grow bean sprouts, after all.

He didn’t have professional seedling trays, so he made boxes of various sizes himself from scrap wood. The soil inside was carefully sifted by him, with no large particles at all, and he mixed in some expensive organic fertilizer.

He set out the big trays and removed the paper towels on top. Seeing the densely packed sprouted seeds, his earlier joy turned into a headache.

Why? Watching seeds sprout was one thing, but transplanting these small seedlings was very time-consuming. And you had to be very careful—if you used too much force, the fragile new sprouts could easily break. With how crowded they were, he guessed it would take hours to finish transplanting them.

Liu Heming now felt a bit regretful. If he had known, he would have just buried them in the soil and been done with it. Why did he have to create so much trouble for himself? So what if he had to wait a few more days to eat vegetables?

Even though he wasn’t willing, this task had to be done by himself. Holding the tweezers, his hand seemed to tremble slightly; he almost pressed his eyes right up to the seeds.

He picked them up one by one, gently pressed them into the small holes he made in the soil, and after doing a few rows, he sprinkled a thin layer of loose soil on top. Then he continued transplanting the seeds from the trays into the seedling beds.

He didn’t know how long it took, but he finally transplanted all the cucumber seeds from one tray. Then he covered the bed with a plastic film and poked a few holes in it.

“Whoa, only half an hour passed?” He checked the time on his mobile phone and was shocked.

In his mind, at least two hours had gone by, because in the past, he would never have had the patience to sit there and transplant seeds bit by bit. He would have definitely taken breaks to stretch his arms and legs. But now, thinking back carefully, it seemed he really had just sat there quietly and worked.

“Could this be the effect of Mental Power? Making me more focused?” Liu Heming muttered to himself.

He couldn’t think of any other reason. The only thing that could have caused such a big change in him was the still-unclear Mental Power. It seemed now that the two points gained in Mental Power were even more powerful than the three points gained in Strength.

Originally, he had set aside a whole day to transplant these five trays because he didn’t believe he could sit still and do it properly. He would have just rushed through it carelessly.

Just like how he used to do things—often starting off strong but finishing weakly. It wasn’t that he couldn’t persist, but his mind couldn’t stay that focused.

Discovering the secret of Mental Power made him incredibly happy. With a burst of energy, he even transplanted the much smaller tomato seeds.

This time, he paid more attention to the time. It took one hour and three minutes in total, but the tomato seeds were smaller and there were more of them. He used a cotton swab to transfer them. The main thing was, the only reason he took a break was because his eyes were getting blurry from staring.

“Hehe, the System is really awesome. I should do more tasks related to Mental Power in the future,” Liu Heming chuckled happily to himself.

After successfully handling the smallest tomato seeds, his confidence soared. He wanted to keep going and finish transplanting the remaining chili pepper, tomato, and green bean seeds all at once. But then, his mobile phone rang.

He felt a little excited, thinking it might be the bank calling. Unexpectedly, it was the delivery company—the laptop he ordered online had arrived.

He hadn’t expected it to arrive so quickly; he just ordered it from George yesterday afternoon. He had planned to wait until the Harvest Ranch acquisition was complete, set up broadband, and then have happy video calls with his parents.

For other appliances, he might consider buying second-hand, but he didn’t dare buy a laptop on eBay. Mainly, he wasn’t good at judging them, and this was the first luxury item he bought, costing him over a thousand US dollars.

He signed for the delivery, opened the box, and took a bunch of proud photos with his mobile phone. After all, it was an Apple laptop—back in China, he could definitely show off to his friends. But for now, he had to be patient. Without broadband, he would wait until everything was set up before boasting to his friends back home.

Sitting back at the table, he slowly transplanted the remaining seeds into the beds, carefully covered them with plastic film, and felt like he had completed a very tough task.

If he told his mom about this, she wouldn’t believe him. He remembered when he was little, there was a small bag of soybeans at home, and his mom asked him to pick out the bad ones. He didn’t have that much patience back then—he only did half before going out to wander around.

This once again proved how amazing the System was, making Liu Heming even more confident about buying the Harvest Ranch and developing it properly.

People always say it’s hard to change one’s nature, but now the System could even make small adjustments to his personality. What else couldn’t it do? If it just casually poured some planting knowledge into him, he would be set.

He still felt a bit nervous about the $60,000 loan. This wasn’t 60,000 Chinese Yuan—converted, it was over 400,000 Chinese Yuan. The main issue was, he didn’t have a stable job here; all his income had to come from farming. And that kind of income was the most unreliable. Even though the US government had planting subsidies, they depended on your yield.

If the yield was low and the quality poor, the subsidies would be limited. If things went badly, he could go bankrupt and become a homeless wanderer. Then, how would he ever get to see his baby? There was no way Sasha would let him.

But now, he felt much more relaxed. He had a strong feeling that with the System in hand, he could conquer anything. Although he still knew almost nothing about the System, he thought it was really awesome.

After happily daydreaming a bit more, he felt he should celebrate a little. He wouldn’t shoot his gun as fireworks again—bullets weren’t cheap either. He found a can of peaches and decided that would be his reward.