Chapter 18

In the backyard, a large pile of garbage was covered by Su Jing with black plastic to avoid being seen by Old Zhang and his construction workers.

What made Su Jing feel a bit regretful yet relieved was that the vortex did not appear in the early hours of the morning, and no garbage fell down. The regret was naturally because he couldn't get more garbage, but the relief was because he was worried that too much garbage would be hard to hide, and it might be discovered by Old Zhang and others.

Su Jing lifted a corner of the black plastic and rummaged through the pile of garbage. He had already roughly gone through this pile of garbage, and there was basically nothing that would cause trouble if exposed. However, to be on the safe side, he was concerned about any possible oversight, so it was better to cover it up. If his guess was correct, this pile of garbage should come from the One Piece world. Ribi is a unique item in the One Piece world, and the other garbage also matches the One Piece world.

Su Jing first picked out a large number of wooden boards and moved them all into the kitchen, reducing the entire pile of garbage by more than three-quarters. Su Jing had checked, and these wooden boards, rotted to this extent, were not valuable even if they were made of rosewood. Moreover, these were not precious woods, and ordinary ships would not use precious woods, so they could only be used as firewood.

Su Jing rummaged through the remaining garbage, picking out rusty iron sheets and piling them up to sell as scrap iron later. Although the One Piece world has ultra-high technology, it is only in a few cases. In fact, the overall technology is not advanced, and the iron smelting technology is even worse than Earth's. These rusty iron sheets, which Su Jing could break with just a few steps, would not be valuable.

Su Jing picked up a long gun that looked like it was from the Anti-Japanese War period, which should be a weapon used by the Marines in One Piece. He wanted to see if it could be used; if it could, it would be good to use as a hunting rifle. He lightly bent it, and the gun barrel broke into two pieces at a rusty spot. Su Jing was speechless and could only separate the iron and wooden parts, selling the iron as scrap and using the wood as firewood.

Su Jing carefully rummaged through everything and was depressed to find that, apart from the Ribi he had already picked out, there was nothing valuable in the remaining garbage. This pile of garbage was truly garbage.

"Huh, what's this?"

Su Jing suddenly noticed a seed on the ground where he had just flipped the garbage pile.

It was as big as a loquat seed, dark green, half buried in the soil, with a white-green sprout poking out, looking very vibrant.

"What kind of seed is this? Loquat? Lychee? It doesn't seem to be any of them."

Su Jing compared it with all the fruit trees in the yard, but none matched, and it didn't match any seed he had ever seen.

Su Jing's heart skipped a beat. Could this seed come from the One Piece world?

"Let's grow it first. We'll know what it is when it grows."

Su Jing dug a hole in the ground, buried the seed, leaving the sprout exposed, then found a broken basket, turned it upside down to cover the seed, and nailed four stakes around the basket to firmly secure it. This was to protect the seed from being stepped on, hit by something, or eaten by birds. The basket had many small holes, so there was no need to worry about ventilation or sunlight.

After doing all this, Su Jing carefully checked all the garbage again, confirming that there was nothing else valuable, and then called people to take away the scrap iron. He threw away the rags, weeds, and other things, cleaning up the backyard.

Seven days passed quickly.

The courtyard wall had been built to six meters high, and the old house had been completely renovated, looking brand new.

It had to be said that Old Zhang and his team were really efficient, of course, with the incentive of money. Su Jing had said that if they could shorten the time by half, he would pay them double, and if they could shorten it by two-thirds, he would pay them triple. So they all worked hard to speed up. In the end, Su Jing indeed paid them triple, but most of the cost was still for building materials, totaling 155,000 yuan. Old Zhang and his team left happily, saying that if he needed to build anything in the future, he should find them, and they would give him a 10% discount.

But what made Su Jing depressed was that the courtyard was built, but the vortex had not appeared again, and he didn't know if there was a problem.

In the past few days, Su Jing had been eating monster meat, cooked with Ribi, which had made his appetite very picky. He also exercised every day, and his body became stronger day by day. Now he could easily do 300 push-ups, 300 sit-ups, and 100 pull-ups, and he was getting better every day. His muscle lines became more balanced and harmonious, and his height increased from 1.72 meters to 1.73 meters.

In addition, Su Jing went to the seaside every day to catch fish using monster meat as bait. When he was in the mood, he would cook a few dishes and send them to Zhenhong Seafood Restaurant to take care of his uncle's business. This way, Su Jing had about 10,000 yuan in income every day.

"Come, come, it's time to eat."

Su Jing carried a large basin of fish and walked into the yard, shouting.

Instantly, two tabby cats, a golden eagle, three parrots, two dogs, and several small birds... many small animals ran over.

Many of them had been attracted by the smell of the monster meat Su Jing cooked and had stayed. Su Jing had taken them all in, but he didn't feed them all monster meat. He fed more to the tabby cats and the golden eagle, which he liked, and less to the others. Most of the time, he fed them fish, as there were plenty of them.

Su Jing threw some small mackerels, and the two tabby cats sniffed them, slightly dissatisfied, and meowed at Su Jing, but still lowered their heads to eat. The parrots and dogs also ate, but they clearly weren't happy. The golden eagle glanced at them, didn't eat at all, and flew to Su Jing's shoulder, calling out to him.

After a few days of taming, the golden eagle had already regarded Su Jing as its owner and was very dependent on him. Its body had grown much larger. Su Jing measured it, and its wingspan had increased from 0.9 meters to 1.2 meters. Its eyes were brighter and sharper, and its feathers were more vibrant, making it very lovable.

"Huh, why does it seem like one of the small birds is missing?"

Among the small birds Su Jing had taken in, he noticed that two or three were missing each day for the past two or three days.

Logically, these small birds, after eating monster meat, should not want to leave. Could they have been eaten by the cats, dogs, or the golden eagle?

"Did you eat the small birds?"

Su Jing pointed at the animals and asked, but of course, he got no answer.

Su Jing didn't have the heart to play detective over a few small birds. They might have just flown away. He took a sprinkler, walked to the basket, and watered the sprout, which had grown to one meter tall and had poked through the holes in the basket. It looked like a vine but didn't need to rely on anything, standing straight and green, swaying in the wind.

Su Jing had looked it up online but couldn't find any plant that matched. Worried about being investigated, he resisted the urge to post a picture online.

Su Jing watered the vine with the sprinkler, a task he did every day. Suddenly, he sniffed and caught a whiff of a fishy smell. He looked around, and when his gaze fell on the basket, he was taken aback.