"Grow mung bean sprouts?" Little Taotie blinked his eyes, filled with curiosity, and rubbed his little hands, cooing, "Shall we try planting them?"
Children always drift from one thought to another swiftly, quickly forgetting the glasses that had slipped down his nose, his mind and eyes filled only with planting mung bean sprouts.
Gu Yixing was happy he had forgotten about the glasses and cooperated actively, "Okay, let’s grow mung bean sprouts."
Gu Yixing had never actually grown mung bean sprouts before and, while Little Taotie wasn’t looking, he quickly looked it up on his phone.
After putting down his phone, he looked completely confident, like someone who often grew mung bean sprouts.
"There are five steps to growing mung bean sprouts. Now, let’s start with the first step—selecting the seeds!"
Little Taotie frowned, "But we don’t have mung bean seeds at home."
"We do!" the nanny came running over with a small bag of mung beans.
Little Taotie looked at the mung beans, puzzled, "These are mung beans, not mung bean sprout seeds."
The nanny gently patted his little head, softly saying, "The seeds for mung bean sprouts are mung beans."
Gu Yixing nodded, "Right, if we want to grow mung bean sprouts, we need to choose the right seeds, which means picking the right mung beans."
Little Taotie took the bag of mung beans from the nanny, eager to use them right away.
Gu Yixing quickly stopped him, "Choose plump, round, pest-free, healthy mung beans. Such beans will improve the germination rate, yield, and quality."
"Plump? Round?" Little Taotie poured the beans into a basin, squatted in front of it, and began picking beans.
Mung beans that were a bit yellow, had small spots, or were flat were picked out by Little Taotie.
This step should be done carefully and seriously—it was key.
Once Little Taotie, full of enthusiasm, passed the selected mung beans to Gu Yixing for inspection, Gu Yixing spoke about the second step.
"The second step is treating the seeds. Put the seeds in water and stir to pick out those with impurities or defects, including those floating on the surface. These seeds have a lower germination rate."
Little Taotie started picking beans again.
A moment later, he passed over a dish filled with water, "Done!"
"Very good, soak the seeds in warm water for five hours to allow them to fully absorb the water. Don’t soak them too long, or the seeds will burst."
Little Taotie eagerly raised his hand, "I’ll set the alarm!"
"Alright, you do that."
Gu Yixing took the seeds out and used a cheesecloth to dry their surfaces.
Little Taotie circled around him, asking, "Do we need to dry them completely?"
Gu Yixing nodded and began preparing the container.
He readied a basket, cleaned it in advance, and also prepared a moist cheesecloth for dealing with the mung bean sprouts.
"Next, we begin the actual planting of the mung bean sprouts!" Gu Yixing declared, "Place the soaked seeds on the surface of the basket, cover them with a damp cheesecloth, and regularly spray the cheesecloth to keep it moist. However, do not overwater to avoid waterlogging and root rot."
Little Taotie was very actively involved throughout the process, though Gu Yixing handled most of the difficult tasks.
Gu Yixing selected an unoccupied room in the villa, maintaining the room temperature around 20℃, a suitable temperature that promotes sprouting and growth.
In the following days, Little Taotie always ran to that room to check on the mung bean sprouts and even kept an observation journal:
On the third day, as the mung bean sprouts started to push through, Brother Xingxing covered them with small stones.