64: The old man is a master!

Old Man Lu listened quietly to Ye Tian's description.

He stroked his beard from time to time, his eyes flashing with light.

The smile on his face grew more and more pronounced.

"Good, you have ideas, very good. This is what a college student should look like!"

"Um, Old Man, you don't suspect we have ulterior motives anymore? How about you ask some more questions about Cockroaches? I know quite a bit too!"

Zhang Liang blinked his eyes and finally couldn't help but interject.

"No need. Ordinary people couldn't possibly answer questions so fluently regarding such obscure knowledge. I believe you two."

"Then about this house?"

Ye Tian's face lit up with joy.

"I keep my word. I will rent the house to you without charging a penny, but I have one condition."

"What condition? Please tell us!"

Ye Tian and his companion were startled.

"I want to raise Cockroaches with you!"

"You? Raise Cockroaches together?"

"That's right. And you don't need to worry about me having any ulterior motives. I just purely want to help. You don't need to pay me a penny, and once there are results, I won't ask for any return from you."

"This... Old Man, aren't you afraid of Cockroaches?"

Ye Tian's expression didn't change as he asked a question he already knew the answer to.

"Afraid... I'm only afraid that I'm not raising enough of them. Come, you two little guys, let me show you my treasures."

Laughing heartily, Old Man Lu stood up and beckoned to Ye Tian and his companion.

They arrived under the eaves.

He pulled the black cloth off one of the cages with a swish.

In an instant.

A cage full of startled Cockroaches came into view.

"My goodness, Old Man, how come you have so many Cockroaches here too?"

Zhang Liang, completely unprepared, exclaimed out loud.

Ye Tian also quickly played along, widening his eyes.

Old Man Lu was even more pleased with himself.

"How about that? This Old Man didn't lie to you, did I? I dare say, with me helping you raise them, your business will definitely achieve twice the result with half the effort."

"Um, Old Man, how did you think of raising Cockroaches too?"

Ye Tian couldn't help but ask.

"Well, that's a long story. However, I don't just raise Cockroaches. There are also these."

As he spoke, Old Man Lu began to uncover the black cloths covering the cages one by one.

"This is Green Fly No. 3, larger than ordinary flies, and its larval stage is also longer."

"This is Black Soldier Fly No. 7, a breed I recently cultivated. Its carrion-eating ability far exceeds that of ordinary Black Soldier Flies, and its reproduction speed is also faster."

Pointing to the insects Ye Tian had seen earlier, Old Man Lu introduced them.

"So this thing is called a Black Soldier Fly. Does it have any special features?"

Ye Tian asked curiously.

"Brother Tian, I know this. When I was researching information on Cockroaches, I noticed it. Among the insects currently used to process kitchen waste, apart from Cockroaches, this thing is the most impressive. Moreover, compared to Cockroaches, it has another advantage: its larvae can live in water. So, for kitchen waste with a lot of liquid, they are more convenient to convert."

"Not bad, young man, your range of knowledge is quite broad. Good, good!"

Old Man Lu nodded with satisfaction and then continued his introduction.

"And this Cricket... I won't talk about the Cricket; it's purely a hobby. Let's talk about my Cockroach again. I named it Summer Insect No. 1."

"Summer Insect No. 1? Old Man, is there any story behind this?"

"Hehe, of course there is a story. This is a breed I hybridized from the American Cockroach and the German Cockroach. After several generations of transformation, it is now a completely new breed. In terms of reproduction speed, it far exceeds ordinary Cockroaches. Young man, you just said that you also cultivated a new breed and one ootheca can hatch 100 larvae. Do you know how many my Summer Insect No. 1 can hatch? More than 150."

"That impressive?"

This time, Ye Tian was truly shocked. His were Strong-Grade Cockroaches, and only then did they have such a high hatching rate. Yet, the Old Man could actually use ordinary Cockroaches to cultivate a completely new breed; it was completely different from his own cheating-like methods.

"Old Man, may I ask, what is your profession?"

"Whatever my profession is, it doesn't matter. Right now, I'm just an Old Man who raises insects. How about it? Are you interested in having me join you?"

"Hey, look at what you're saying, Old Man. What do you mean by 'having you join us'? It's clearly you leading us! With you presiding over things, we can worry much less."

Ye Tian and his companion looked at each other, unable to contain their joy.

Although the Old Man didn't reveal his identity, just based on his descriptions of "No. X" and "No. Y", he was definitely not a simple person.

In front of him, the two of them were truly greenhorns in every sense of the word.

At the beginning of their business venture, being able to have such a master presiding over things was simply a dream come true.

Especially for Ye Tian, who was originally a bit worried that his Cockroaches were much more powerful than ordinary ones in certain aspects and would be hard to explain.

But the person in front of him was like someone bringing a pillow just as he was getting sleepy.

If ordinary Cockroaches could have their reproduction rate increased by this much, then it didn't seem like a problem if his own Cockroaches were a bit more powerful.

Thinking this, Ye Tian couldn't help but speak up.

"Then, Old Man, when can we start breeding?"

"Anytime. However, I can only help by keeping an eye on things. Things like food for the Cockroaches will still need to be handled by you."

"That's for sure. Old Man, we are already very grateful that you can help keep an eye on things. How could we let you spend money?"

"Hmm, then it's settled. Come, let me show you my house."

"Alright!"

Having been here for so long, Ye Tian and his companion had long wanted to go inside and take a look, so they trotted along behind Old Man Lu as he walked inside.

Upon entering, Ye Tian realized that he and Zhang Liang had seriously underestimated this place.

The front courtyard at the entrance occupied at most less than a tenth of the space.

Just the rooms that could be lived in numbered over a dozen.

The Old Man casually opened a few of them.

It left Ye Tian and the others dazzled. They suspected they might have walked into the wrong place.

Because those rooms were filled with various instruments, bottles, and jars.

Even the largest room was decorated with a sense of technology. It was so clean and bright that one felt embarrassed to step inside.

"Old Man, what are these rooms for?"

Ye Tian couldn't help but ask.

"Just a few laboratories I set up casually. The equipment isn't very complete, and they can only be used for some simple experiments and data testing. Just don't go into these few rooms randomly when the time comes. The other rooms are all empty; you can live in whichever you like."

"Alright, we definitely won't wander around."

The two of them clicked their tongues, even more curious about the Old Man's identity.

After visiting the living quarters.

The three of them walked all the way to the backyard.

Here, quite a few vegetables and fruits were also planted.

Just like in the front courtyard, every type of vegetable and fruit was planted neatly and had been labeled with numbers.

Stepping into the fields.

Old Man Lu casually picked a few cucumbers and handed them to Ye Tian and his companion.

He also picked one for himself, wiped it on his clothes a couple of times, and took a bite.

"This experimental field contains new breeds that I am still observing data for. I've planted quite a lot of each. If you want to eat them, feel free to pick them."