The Farming Genius and the Seed Potatoes
“Hnngh!”
Seo-dan gritted her teeth, gripping a carrot by its leafy green hair and hauling with all her might.
Good luck with that. Like it's gonna come out just because you strain every day.
Perhaps finding his granddaughter's struggle endearing, old Mr. Choi was personally showing her how to harvest carrots, walking her through the method step by step—the very same technique he'd once learned from me.
I'd already softened the ground with Flowing Ground today, so harvesting wouldn't be all that difficult. As long as you knew the trick, anyway.
The person getting the work done with surprising ease, though, was Chairman Choi Jin-hyuk. He'd presumably never set foot in a field before, yet he moved with the practiced confidence of someone who'd done this a dozen times.
So this is what talent looks like, huh.
“Not too strenuous for you?” I asked.
“Strenuous? This is actually quite enjoyable.”
Watching Chairman Choi Jin-hyuk wipe the sweat from his brow with a proud smile… there was something truly strange about the sight.
It was the outfit.
Until just moments ago, he'd been wearing a sharp three-piece suit. Old Mr. Choi had declared it far too uncomfortable for field work and dug out a pair of pants for him to change into—and the result was spectacular.
The suit jacket had vanished somewhere, leaving him in a short-sleeved white dress shirt. But the bottoms…
Loose, breezy mompe work pants printed with purple flowers, topped off with navy rubber boots that someone, at some point, had clearly worn before.
…Haven't I seen that getup somewhere before?
Ah, right. Secretary Jang Woo-jin always worked dressed exactly like that.
“Haha. If I'd known farming was this much fun, I should have taken my secretary up on that weekend farm she kept recommending.”
Choi Jin-hyuk examined the carrot he'd just pulled from the earth, still cradled in his palm.
A large, flawless carrot—not a single crack on it. A deep satisfaction welled up from somewhere in his chest.
I turned to the beaming chairman with a smile of my own.
“Take the carrots you harvested yourself as samples. Try them when you get home, too.”
“Are you certain that's all right?”
“Of course.”
Truth be told, the carrots growing in Mana Plot 2—the backyard of old Mr. Choi's residence—weren't contributing much to sales anymore. In other words, they were a drop in the bucket compared to the full-scale harvest now underway at the field I'd purchased recently.
I planned to use this batch to satisfy curiosity about the specialty crops that Mana Land produced. Something like a perk for whenever a new crop was under development, you could say.
“This feels like receiving a gift I never expected.”
Chairman Choi Jin-hyuk chuckled as he gathered up his carrots.
'According to his father, who tried them himself, they're incredible for the eyes.'
He'd been overworking lately himself, and his eyes were tired. Eating them firsthand would tell him exactly how effective they were.
The moment Bong-gu, half-hidden against my back, heard that the harvested carrots were free for the taking, his eyes lit up.
Boing!
“You'll hurt yourself jumping like that!”
“Kkyuuu, kkirit! (I am the strongest. I won't get hurt.)”
Landing safely on the ground, Bong-gu's eyes gleamed before he flung himself flat against a single carrot root.
“Kkyut!!”
Do you really think straining like that is going to pull it out?
No exaggeration—the carrot was about the same size as Bong-gu himself. I helped him out and yanked one free.
“Krurrr… (Mine, don't take it…)”
“Yeah, yeah, you don't need to glare like that. I was going to give it to you. Not taking it away.”
I brushed the dirt off the carrot and tucked it into my bag.
“I'll give it to you when we get home later, so quit worrying.”
“Kkyut.”
Bong-gu seemed to accept this, nodding his head—then swept his gaze around the field and froze in alarm.
“Euratcha!!”
On the other side of the plot, old Mr. Choi and Seo-dan were wrenching carrots out of the ground and hurling them aside—pulling and flinging, literally.
“Like this? Like thiiiis??”
“That's it! Well done, my little sprout!”
Every root that came free was met with a round of thunderous applause. Seo-dan's face had gone completely red.
Hryaap!
Pop!
Another one out.
That kid… is seriously strong, isn't she?
“Hahaha! Grandpa, maybe I'm actually a genius! A farming genius!”
“A genius, all right.”
“Hah, huff. Whew… at this rate I could keep going forever!”
Maybe finish catching your breath before making declarations like that.
It looked like she was about to keel over at any moment.
“Shall we call it here and go rest inside? It's awfully hot.”
“Ah, yes, let's. Seo-dan, Father. Let's head in.”
“Aw, but I wanna keep going!”
Seo-dan pouted in disappointment. Apparently, the day's greatest achievement had been planting a positive image of farming in the young sprout's heart.
Right up until that moment, I'd assumed she simply liked it a moderate amount.
A grave miscalculation, as it turned out.
We all headed back into the house together. Seo-dan's face was flushed an alarming shade of red.
Even old Mr. Choi seemed to notice by now that something was wrong.
We settled onto the living room sofa and each downed a bowl of the sikhye—sweet rice punch—that Secretary Jang Woo-jin had brought out.
“Ahh~”
“Delicious again today.”
Honestly, I wonder if being a chef, not a secretary, would've suited that Jang Woo-jin fellow better.
We were lounging around, leisurely catching our breath, when Seo-dan spoke up.
“I want to move down here and live!”
The words landed like a bolt from the blue.
Ah—though only for the girl's father, that is.
“You wanna come live with this old gramps, Seo-dan?”
“Living with Grandpa would be the best, best thing ever!”
“Hehehe, my pretty little puppy!”
Old Mr. Choi was completely over the moon.
Seated beside the beaming pair, only Chairman Choi Jin-hyuk looked utterly lost as he asked,
“Wh-why the sudden desire to move here?”
“Living with Grandpa is great, and now that I've tried farming, it's actually fun? If I stay here, I get to farm with Grandpa all the time, don't I?”
Oh. So she genuinely took to the farming.
But offering a dose of practical reality was also an adult's duty, no?
“It'll be harder than you think,” I told her. “Farming, day after day.”
“…Doesn't look like much of anything to me. Farming is the absolute best gig ever.”
Jolt.
Farming is nothing much, she says.
What a truly remarkable prodigy we have here.
Farming, above all things, demands a farmer's blood, sweat, and tears—their devotion and diligence! And she calls all of that nothing much.
…Well, I did give her a fair warning. If she wants to come down and find out for herself, who am I to stop her?
After a few months of getting thrown around in the dirt, that head of hers would set itself straight.
I simply shrugged. As if my reaction had given her all the confirmation she needed, Seo-dan's eyes sparkled as she declared,
“Dad. Once I'm in high school I'll have to study hard in Seoul anyway, so for middle school I'm just going to live here.”
“Choi Seo-dan!”
“Whaaat, you're always telling me to do whatever I want to do!”
The loser of the ensuing debate, after a lengthy public trial, was Chairman Choi Jin-hyuk. He'd been tripped up by his own words from the past.
“Well… she's already at the tail end of her second year of middle school. If it's just one more year, I suppose that's fine… Fine.”
Chairman Choi Jin-hyuk quietly consoled himself.
To think he'd have to be apart from his daughter for a whole year!
I could see him wailing inwardly, clear as day.
Old Mr. Choi shouted as though everything had worked out perfectly.
“Then that means you'll be going to school with Ji-on, doesn't it?”
Choi Seo-dan's transfer paperwork went through at remarkable speed.
The very day I reviewed the carrot trade contract documents and stamped my seal, Seo-dan moved down to Jakgol-ri for good.
Which brings us to today—barely a week since the weekend farm visit—and the reason I now found myself face to face with Choi Seo-dan in my classroom.
“We're in the same class? Looking forward to it.”
The moment she finished her introduction at the front of the room, Seo-dan came straight over to me. Behind us, the other kids started murmuring.
“She looks like a total country mouse.”
“Hey! That's called having an elegant vibe.”
“Whoa, two kids from Seoul in one class…”
Somehow it reminded me of when I'd first transferred in. Ugh, this feels uncomfortable.
Seo-dan, for her part, paid the reactions no mind.
“You guys have CA on Wednesdays here, right?”
“Was it different before?”
“Fridays, where I was. Huh, and wouldn't you know it, today's Wednesday.”
“Yep. After lunch we head to club activities.”
“Club? Oh, perfect timing.”
Seo-dan sidled up closer and asked, all too casually,
“Your club does farming too, doesn't it?”
…How did she know that?
We hadn't done any serious outside activities yet, but starting this week, the plan was to head out to the field. And finally, to plant the new crop.
The new crop I'd chosen was, none other than, the potato.
I'd already prepared the seed potatoes in the garden plot where I'd be dragging the club members today.
And the first person to plant these potatoes would be—none other than Lee Dae-kyung, my clubmate and classmate.
“What are you daydreaming about, making that face?”
Aw, great. The corners of my mouth had escaped my control.
The thought of a new crop being born, that's what.
Seo-dan gave me a slightly wary look and said,
“So, who do I talk to about joining your club?”
“…I can't believe our homeroom teacher was that kind of plant nerd.”
Nothing like her delicate first impression—those wild, wide-open eyes blazing with pure passion, like some kind of yaksha demon.
Seo-dan shuddered and rubbed her arms.
Either way, Seo-dan had apparently joined our club—the Vegetation Research Club—without a hitch.
“All right, everyone! Starting today, we'll be holding outdoor experiential learning. The location is the field that Ji-on has kindly provided for us.”
The construction on Plot #1—where the waterway had been a wreck just yesterday—had been completed to the last detail.
In a word: finally, I could drag those poor souls out for some hands-on fieldwork.
The club members, who until now had been stuck in the science room leafing through plant encyclopedias, were visibly thrilled at the news of an outdoor lesson.
“Woo-hoo—the real deal!”
The moment we arrived at the field, the noise level shot up. One of the members, Park Chi-woo, sprinted ahead, shoving everyone else out of the way.
Kim Chae-ah, watching him with an expression of profound pity, turned to Ms. Park Ye-ji.
“What are we planting here?”
The teacher glanced sideways at me.
“Well, that is…”
“We're planting potatoes. The seed potatoes are already prepped over there.”
As if I'd stop at just the potatoes. I'd set out everything—work gloves, hand trowels, watering cans—all matched to the number of people.
The only problem being that I hadn't anticipated Seo-dan tagging along, so we came up one set short.
Which meant that, inevitably, I'd have to play supervisor.
I walked toward today's target: a boy standing at the very back of the group, as if trying to hide among the others.
Lee Dae-kyung—standing there with an awkward posture, glancing nervously around at everyone else.
“Dae-kyung.”
Flinch.
Lee Dae-kyung shuddered violently. To think a single call of his name could startle him like that.
I draped an arm gently around his shoulders.
“We've been in the same class this whole time, but we've barely talked, haven't we?”
“Uh, umm…”
Lee Dae-kyung.
He was somewhat of a celebrity at our school. The Oksoo Middle School elite—top of the entire grade, honor student, record-holder for most terms as class president.
But all of that was offset by one enormous flaw.
He stuttered—and he was so timid he could never finish a sentence properly.
“Straighten those shoulders and look ahead,” I said, nudging his back forward.
“Uh, okay.”
“See those sacks piled up over there?”
Nod, nod—
Lee Dae-kyung nodded at the seed potato sacks I was pointing to.
“We're going to take the seed potatoes from there and plant them in the field—and you and I are going to give the demonstration.”
“Uh, um… m-me?”
“Yep, you.”
That way, I get to meet my new specialty crop.
I led Lee Dae-kyung over to the potato sacks, pressed a single seed potato into his hand, and grabbed a hoe and a hand trowel for each of us.
“Hah—”
Lee Dae-kyung's face had gone ghost-white.
No need to be scared.
But being terrified wouldn't make the task go away.
I steered him in front of the furrow I'd prepared in advance, then called out at the top of my lungs,
“All right, everyone! We're about to demonstrate how to plant seed potatoes—so watch closely!”
The full-scale development of a new crop had officially begun.