I See through Everything

Lü Weibin knew full well that the core customers for White Truffles weren’t individuals, but various high-end restaurants, especially Western ones.

Although these restaurants sold dishes to customers claiming the White Truffles cost tens of thousands of yuan per kilogram, only a fool would believe that. They obviously had to make a profit, so they would certainly choose to source their ingredients at the lowest possible price.

Lin Shuya suddenly frowned, having thought of a problem. "If we only plant 15 to 30 mu, then won’t the remaining hundred-plus mu of intelligent greenhouses be left idle?"

Just then, Li Wenna finished brewing the tea and poured a cup for each of them.

Hearing this, Lü Weibin sounded helpless. "There’s nothing we can do. If we plant too much, we’ll crash the market. Perhaps we could consider growing some other kinds of mushrooms?"

"Other kinds of mushrooms?" Lin Shuya rubbed the bridge of her nose, looking troubled. "It’s definitely not suitable to use intelligent greenhouses for ordinary mushrooms; it would be too hard to recoup the costs. As for valuable wild mushrooms like Termitomyces, porcini, and matsutake, we don’t have time to research the cultivation techniques."

Lü Weibin asked, puzzled, "Haven’t Termitomyces and matsutake already been successfully cultivated? They’re sold everywhere on the market!"

"For real?" Lin Shuya was completely baffled. As an industry insider, how could she have never heard such news?

She immediately picked up her phone to look it up.

After searching online for over ten minutes, it finally dawned on her. Looking at the so-called Termitomyces and matsutake, Lin Shuya was speechless.

"Those are all impostors."

"Impostors?" Although Lü Weibin had done his research on White Truffles, he was completely clueless about other edible mushrooms and was just repeating what he’d heard.

Lin Shuya explained, "The ’black-skinned Termitomyces’ on the market now is scientifically named *Oudemansiella ovispora*. It’s a completely different species from true Termitomyces. While not as delicious as the real thing, the flavor of the black-skinned version is still decent. It’s not bad."

She then elaborated on the situation with true Termitomyces. "It’s still impossible to artificially cultivate Termitomyces. This is mainly because it thrives in termite nests in a highly symbiotic relationship and is mostly found in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau region."

"As for the so-called matsutake on the market, it’s actually either *Agaricus blazei* or *Stropharia rugosoannulata* being passed off as the real thing. *Agaricus blazei* tastes a bit better, but *Stropharia rugosoannulata* is quite mediocre. A kilogram of dried, genuine matsutake slices would cost over 1,000 yuan."

Profit truly is the greatest motivator.

Lü Weibin instantly understood the mindset of those malls, shops, and street vendors.

They’d take *Stropharia rugosoannulata*, which costs a few dozen yuan per catty, and pass it off as matsutake, which sells for several hundred. Even if they only sold the fake for a little over a hundred yuan, their profit would be more than five or six times their cost. They’d cheat as many people as they could.

Just as Lü Weibin was lamenting the dishonesty of these merchants...

Lin Shuya thought for a moment before looking up. "Let’s plant Morchella in the remaining intelligent greenhouses!"

"Morchella? Researcher Lin, I’ve heard they’re very difficult to cultivate." Lü Weibin sounded hesitant.

"I know. I’ll handle the technical issues."

Hearing this, Lü Weibin relaxed a bit. ’After all, the boss lady said she would handle it. Even if she doesn’t solve it in the end, I won’t have to bear much of the responsibility.’

In truth, Lin Shuya had chosen Morchella precisely because its cultivation techniques were already relatively mature; it just wasn’t suited for open-air planting.

Conveniently, the farm now had a large number of intelligent greenhouses available, which were perfect for growing Morchella.

Dried Morchella goes for about 200 to 400 yuan per kilogram, and 100 kilograms of fresh Morchella yield 13 to 15 kilograms of dried product.

The yield per mu in ordinary greenhouses is very unstable, sometimes resulting in a complete crop failure. When there is a harvest, it’s typically around two to three hundred catties per mu, though a few lucky greenhouses can achieve yields of around a thousand catties per mu.

Before starting her research into edible fungi, Lin Shuya had already familiarized herself with the production techniques and current research status of various valuable species.

She was quite knowledgeable about the current state of Morchella cultivation.

A common formula for a Morchella substrate bag was 54% mixed sawdust, 33% wheat, 10% humus, 1% quicklime, and 2% gypsum, with the wheat grains needing to be soaked in limewater for 12-16 hours beforehand.

But based on her experience researching White Truffles, this cultivation formula for Morchella was far too crude.

’Why can some greenhouses achieve yields of over a thousand catties?’

’That can’t be entirely due to climate.’

Although the ideal temperature and humidity for Morchella are contradictory, every few years, each region experiences a perfect window of time that allows them to meet their growth conditions. After all, the fungus is a naturally occurring species, so it has to be able to reproduce in the wild.

Climatic factors only determine *if* the Morchella can fruit, not the *scale* of the fruiting.

The factors determining the scale of fruiting are things like the humus, trace elements, macroelements, chemical compounds, and pH level of the soil.

Therefore, Lin Shuya was certain that an optimal reproductive environment and optimal growth elements must exist for Morchella.

It was just like with her research on White Truffles, where she had compressed the growth cycle from seven or eight years to just over ninety days and increased the yield from a mere dozen-or-so kilograms per mu to 600-1200 kilograms per mu.

The same could be done with Morchella.

Lin Shuya was absolutely certain of it.

If she could increase the yield per mu for Morchella while simultaneously compressing its growth cycle, the energy consumption and depreciation costs of the intelligent greenhouses could be largely offset.

Having decided what to plant in the remaining greenhouses, Lin Shuya returned to the edible fungi laboratory in the research area.

Evening fell, the sun sinking in the west.

The sunset was particularly dazzling this evening, with crimson clouds painting half the sky. The air, however, felt a bit heavy.