Limeng stood on the ridge of the experimental plot, watching his assistants use a Fontaine measuring rod to check the plant height of the new batch of "Aka-ho Dual-Resistance No. 4." This generation of selectively bred crops had inherited the maternal advantage in lodging resistance, while its panicles were three centimeters longer than those of No. 3, with grain arrangements packed even tighter. Sumeru purple greens had already been intercropped between the ridges, their root-secreted nitrogen-fixing substances turning the soil a healthy dark brown.
The dome of the central granary in the Serenitea Pot was practically bursting at the seams. Golden mountains piled high with Akaho corn brushed against the thick wooden beams; the newly harvested ears had nowhere to go and could only rest aggrievedly under a huge canvas shed temporarily erected outside the barn. The air was filled with the sweet, dry fragrance of grain and the scent of sunlight baking the earth.
Ganyu carefully stepped onto the top of a bamboo ladder, her slender wrists lifting slightly as a wisp of frost condensed at her fingertips, reaching deep into the grain piles to sense the moisture levels. The rustling of the canvas roof blown by the wind startled a flock of sparrows that had nested using golden corn silk, sending them fluttering toward the glowing edges of the boundary-shivering sky.
Chapter 72