"SQUEAK! SQUEAK!" Maphario chirped excitedly, inspecting the flower and plant seeds one packet after another. Some he would sniff and glance at before tossing them aside. For a select few, he picked out ten or so of the plumpest seeds and set them in a separate pile. After going through the whole lot, he had only chosen four or five types of seeds, totaling less than fifty in all.
"What kind of seeds are these?" Shen Yibin asked. He wanted to figure out the pattern behind Maphario’s choices, so he could see if he could find similar ones elsewhere. This small amount didn’t seem to be nearly enough for Maphario to plant.
"Let me see." The store clerk craned his neck to look at them one by one. Pointing to the first packet Maphario had chosen, he said, "These are morning glory seeds. A very common flower."
Who hadn’t seen a morning glory before? When Shen Yibin was in elementary school in the countryside, he often saw some of the more beauty-conscious girls use morning glory juice to dye their fingernails. "What about this one?" he asked, pointing to the second type.
"This one is Schizanthus, originally from Chile. Its leaves are dark green and covered in short, sticky fuzz. The large, funnel-shaped flowers come in purple, blue, red, yellow, or white, and have golden veins. It’s a great indoor ornamental plant. See, those pots over there are examples." After explaining, the clerk even pointed out a few samples for Shen Yibin to see.
"It is nice. This flower is also called butterfly grass, right?" Shen Yibin had seen this one before, too; the blossoms were indeed quite beautiful. "And what about this one?"
"Yes, some people do call it butterfly grass," the clerk nodded. "These are Cineraria seeds. Cineraria is also known as the ’florist’s cineraria.’ The leaves are large, shaped like melon leaves, and are a glossy green. The flowers grow at the top of the stem, with numerous florets clustered together in a corymb that densely covers the top of the branches, often in a flat-topped shape. They come in a rich variety of colors—everything but yellow—and there are even bi-colored red and white varieties. They make a great gift for friends and family," the clerk praised. Of course, he wasn’t about to mention the flower’s other, much lamer name—the cucumber flower.
"These are China aster seeds. Their leaves are ovate or oblong, with a capitulum inflorescence. The petals come in light white, pale red, and bluish-purple. It’s also a very common ornamental plant... Erm, and these are sunflowers, which I’m sure I don’t need to introduce, right? However, these seeds are for a specially bred ornamental variety of sunflower. The flowers are beautiful, but they don’t produce many sunflower seeds..." The clerk introduced each of the seeds one by one.
It was just that the number of seeds Maphario had picked was truly small, and they were all inexpensive varieties. The clerk was almost too embarrassed to ask for money. If Shen Yibin hadn’t also been buying a pot of Monstera deliciosa, he really wouldn’t have bothered explaining everything to them.
"Alright, please bag these seeds for me. We’ll take that Monstera deliciosa, too. How much will that be?" Shen Yibin took out his phone, ready to pay.
"With the pot, four hundred yuan will do. The seeds are on the house!" This Monstera was quite lush, and the pot it came in was nice too, so of course it was much more expensive than the smaller ones. "Where’s your car parked? I’ll have someone carry it over for you."
"It’s in the parking lot. Just follow me." Shen Yibin didn’t haggle and transferred the money directly. The Monstera pot, however, was giving him a bit of a headache. ’The roof of my car might not be high enough. It might not fit.’ Fortunately, the shop was used to this kind of business. After carrying it to the car, they tilted the pot diagonally and just barely managed to squeeze it in without damaging the leaves.
’This little bit of seeds probably isn’t enough, is it? Should we go buy some more?’ Shen Yibin mused. The open space outside that bamboo grove wasn’t small. He figured Hah’Er wouldn’t mind giving up some of his usual play area for Maphario to plant flowers. These few seeds would probably only fill a small portion of that clearing. ’Should I look for more seeds somewhere else?’
"But we don’t know what kind of seeds he likes," Xia Shixuan said with a frown. "Looking at what Maphario chose just now, there doesn’t seem to be any pattern."
"Look up what common traits these plants have, and then we’ll figure something out," Shen Yibin said as he started the car and slowly drove forward. Xia Shixuan took out her phone and quickly searched for sunflowers, Cineraria, morning glories, and China asters.
"It seems like they do have something in common," Xia Shixuan said uncertainly, shaking her phone. "I just checked. It looks like these are all annual or biennial plants. None of them are perennials."
An annual plant is one that germinates, grows, flowers, and then dies within a single year. Hearing Xia Shixuan’s explanation, it started to click for Shen Yibin. Hamsters only live for one to three years. ’He’s probably not interested in long-lived plants, is he? If we had Maphario plant a walnut or a ginkgo tree, his great-grandchildren for dozens of generations probably wouldn’t even see the fruit.’
"What other plants are annuals?" Shen Yibin asked. Since that’s what Maphario liked, he might as well find some more for him. ’Also,’ he thought, ’I need to ask how long Maphario’s lifespan is when we get back. If it’s only three years, I have to see if the Future Pet Shop has any way to extend it. Otherwise, Hah’Er will probably be heartbroken.’
"There are tons. Besides the ones we just mentioned, there’s also rice, peanuts, sorghum, pumpkin, sweet potato, gourd, soybeans, chili peppers, eggplant, tomato, corn, wheat, water chestnuts, vanilla, and so on," Xia Shixuan read from her phone.
"Huh? Why is it all grains and vegetables? Well, let’s go find a few seed shops and take a look." Shen Yibin frowned slightly, then turned the car around and headed for the seed market. ’Sigh, with the tiny amounts Maphario wants, the clerks probably won’t even want to bother with us.’
Thankfully, the clerk at the seed shop was fairly enthusiastic and didn’t turn them away because the sale was too small. He brought out all sorts of seeds for Maphario to choose from. After searching for a long time, Maphario finally picked out peanut, corn, watermelon, soybean, cucumber, tomato, and eggplant seeds. Again, he took less than ten of each kind, which made it awkward for Shen Yibin to even calculate the payment. He just threw down a bill and ran off with the seeds.
’Sigh. I thought you were some kind of Don Juan of the flowerbeds, but it turns out you’re just a humble little farmer. You picked way more grain and vegetable seeds than flower seeds.’
He then took Maphario to look at various fertilizers nearby, but Maphario seemed uninterested in chemical fertilizers and they left without buying anything. ’Looks like this little guy plans on going for all-natural, organic cultivation, huh?’
"Shen Yibin, where are we going next?" Xia Shixuan asked curiously, seeing that he didn’t seem to be heading back yet. ’Didn’t we already buy the seeds and mealworms?’
"Do you know where they sell toys?" ’I still need to buy some tools for Maphario. Otherwise, it’ll be too much work for him.’