In the dining hall, Li Yu stood at the front, introducing the five newcomers. Everyone had already noticed them during dinner.
Lao Xie and the others, especially, had already gone over to eat with them during dinner.
"Everyone has seen that some new people have arrived. They also came from Liberation City. I hope everyone can get along well." Li Yu gave a brief introduction and said no more.
In fact, Li Yu was also very curious about their current underground planting base. They weren't professionals at all and had been fumbling around on their own.
But after more than three months of construction, there was at least some output.
To say nothing else, the rice being grown underground was already beginning to head, and in a little over a month, it would be ready for harvest. The area was roughly one acre.
Additionally, some other vegetables were planted: 600 catties of tomatoes were harvested, 600 catties of cucumbers, 3000 catties of corn, 3500 catties of potatoes, and over 600 catties of Chinese cabbage, and over 700 catties of radishes.
In total, various crops added up to tens of thousands of catties.
When it was first built, Li Yu's father was strongly against building such a large basement, a two-thousand-square-meter basement, and two stories at that, feeling no different from a parking garage.
Moreover, the walls of this basement were extremely thick, nearly two meters, and the construction specifications included waterproofing, heat insulation, and cold insulation.
Therefore, in such a sealed environment, ventilation became especially important, and many ventilation fans were installed in this area.
Under normal circumstances, everyone tried not to turn on the heating when not needed, to save electricity.
To maintain a constant temperature in the basement, the two-story basement, when combined, was nearly 4000 square meters, which is equivalent to seven acres.
A quarter of this underground planting area was still empty and unused.
After lunch, everyone in the base went down to the underground planting base, where some sofas and chairs were placed in the empty areas for people to rest.
Li Yu and his second uncle were somewhat expectant, hoping that An Ya, with her agricultural background, might have some suggestions. After all, his grandfather and the others had farmed in fields their whole lives, but indoor planting was still a bit different.
"An Ya, take a look. Do you have any suggestions?" Li Yu asked directly, getting straight to the point.
An Ya looked at the six-meter-high basement, where several suspended gardens were built with shelves.
At first glance, it was quite spectacular.
"Hmm, Mr. Li, I'm currently looking at our structure, and it's actually a bit wasteful of space. We can actually use intercropping methods.
Intercropping means that in the same space, multiple crops can be planted simultaneously without being affected. There are actually many intercropping methods:
1. Large intercropping with small: Large vegetable plants can be intercropped with small vegetable plants, such as eggplant intercropped with watermelon.
2. Sun intercropping with shade: Shade-loving crops can be intercropped with sun-loving crops, for example, papaya in a forest, ginger intercropped with watermelon, as ginger prefers shade.
3. Deep intercropping with shallow: Deep-rooted vegetable plants intercropped with shallow-rooted vegetables, for example, green beans intercropped with scallions."
Listening to An Ya speak eloquently, much of what she said was practical. Li Yu and his second uncle exchanged glances.
They both secretly thought: We've found a treasure.
"Also, the crops we are currently growing, I've noticed, are somewhat lacking in nutrients. Since we can't buy nutrient solutions now, we can actually make our own nutrient solutions from things like fruit peels, eggshells, or even rotten vegetable roots."
The second uncle suddenly said, "We actually have a septic tank and a biogas digester, but we try not to use them indoors."
"Actually, they can be used. Also, regarding our rice..."
In her professional field, An Ya's entire aura changed, becoming particularly professional, serious, and earnest.
This appearance made people feel that she was very professional and a person of true ability.
Leading her aside, Li Yu said seriously to An Ya, "Outside, there's a blizzard, and temperatures are tens of degrees below zero, so these plants we're growing indoors are of utmost importance."
"Now I'm putting you in charge of this indoor planting with my fourth uncle and the others. Of course, you will be the main lead. Professional matters should be handled by professionals, and you are a professional, so you should handle this. Do you think you can do it?"
An Ya said without hesitation, "Yes, yes, thank you, Mr. Li, I will definitely do a good job."
Her expression was full of confidence.
Seeing this, Li Yu smiled and said, "Alright, do your best."
Everyone stayed downstairs, while An Ya immediately began to adjust and improve the current issues or areas needing improvement in the underground planting base.
Bai Jie stood by, feeling somewhat uneasy. She really couldn't imagine what she, Xiao Lan, and even Shi could do in the base.
After all, outside, it was freezing, and there was no chance to kill zombies because hardly any zombies could be seen.
Seemingly waiting for Li Yu's arrangements, Bai Jie and the others stood beside Li Yu, feeling a bit lost. They didn't know what they needed to do.
Seeing that everyone seemed to have their own tasks to attend to, at this stage, Li Yu also found it difficult to arrange for them to stand guard on the perimeter wall.
Seemingly sensing their confusion, Li Yu also didn't know what to arrange for them to do for a moment.
He suddenly remembered the Chinese cabbage that had just been harvested two days ago, so he said, "Why don't you all help pickle the Chinese cabbage?"
He then called out to Lai Dongsheng's wife, "Zhou Shen, have them help out then."
Zhou Shen, who was knitting a scarf, said, "That's wonderful, but there's no rush, no rush."
Bai Jie and the others quickly nodded and said yes.
Li Yu saw that they were still wearing the clothes they had on when they came in that day, so he said to them, "Later, I'll have Li Yuan get you some clothes, including both outdoor and indoor clothes. No, I'll tell her myself."
Li Yu seemed to remember something and suddenly paused, saying, "Never mind, you should rest for two days for now. Take good care of your bodies."
"Okay, thank you, Mr. Li." Bai Jie's face bloomed into a smile, her eyes holding an indescribable fervor.
Li Yu's gaze accidentally met her fervent look, and his heart skipped a beat. He quickly shifted his gaze to the wall in front of him.
Bai Jie's gaze just now was as if she wanted to devour him, it was so frightening.
After saying all this, Li Yu returned to his room in the villa. Those few little wolfdogs were changing rapidly, looking different every day.
Moreover, many times, they could quickly understand and obediently carry out some simple commands given by Li Yu, which greatly surprised him.
Their soft, fluffy fur made one's mood much better just by touching it.
