Chapter 1001: Abnormal Plants Within Territory Three

After digging the pits, Xia Qing watched Lord Huo Lei and Kou Changzhi finish installing the automatic rain-cover drop device on the first shed, and with her experience, she understood how to assemble it. She could dig the pits and assemble the remaining sheds herself.

Kou Changzhi discussed pricing with Xia Qing. "The key parts of this set are the pulleys, clasps, and handles. How about we sell a set for 200 points? If we include the steel cable and matching shed-pull rope, the price is 360 points. Qing-jie, Huai-ge, what do you think?"

Each shed needs two pulleys, four clasps, and two handles, all forged by Lord Huo Lei. Xia Qing asked, "Uncle Huo, can you recoup your costs selling a set for 200 points?"

Lord Huo Lei nodded. "Yes. The material cost per set is 120 points. This profit margin is even higher than what I used to make selling iron goods."

Tang Huai asked in a businesslike manner, "Besides material costs, there are labor, transport, sales, and installation costs. How much do those add up to?"

Kou Changzhi answered, "If we don't count shipping and we do the installation ourselves, the cost for North Zone 1 and Zone 3 is 160. For the other three zones, we'll partner with a territory there that wants the work—only delivering parts, no installation—and the cost is about the same."

Tang Huai looked at Xia Qing. "A 20% profit margin isn't low. Our target customers for this equipment are territories. If the price is too high, it'll be hard to open up sales."

Xia Qing nodded. "Then let's set the price like that. I want the full set—16 sets. I'll install them myself."

Xia Qing wasn't trying to save on installation fees; she simply didn't like outsiders walking around inside her territory. Tomorrow she could ask Captain Hu Zifeng's squad to help her dig the pits and assemble them.

Xia Qing's territory currently has 13 large sheds and 2 greenhouses. Because she converted one planting greenhouse into a beekeeping greenhouse, after the third Calamity Rain she'll need to build another planting greenhouse to meet her need for fresh vegetables in winter.

Tang Huai immediately followed up. "Territory Two wants 50 sets."

"Great!" Kou Changzhi happily took out his account book and recorded the first two orders.

Last time, with the Green-Light rice incident, he didn't know who had blackened his name. The supply channel he'd maintained for nearly ten years was lost, and he was also isolated by the other local merchants.

To say he wasn't upset, that it didn't pain him to lose the points, would be a lie; but to say he was terribly distressed, not really.

But beneath the skin of a middleman, Kou Changzhi had an even thicker skin—Commerce Minister of the Territory Alliance.

This position let him connect with the Chonglian Group's first-tier local agent and the Azure Dragon Squad's Commerce Department—upstream bigwigs he wouldn't have dared dream of reaching when he was just a middleman, ones he couldn't even touch.

For the key supplies the Territory Alliance needed, Kou Changzhi could purchase directly through these two bigwigs!

Although the points he currently earned as Commerce Minister weren't as many as what he'd made running his middleman business, the corresponding risk was much lower. And he believed that as the Territory Alliance grew and expanded, the points he earned would keep increasing.

So now, Kou Changzhi was full of drive.

After unloading, Xia Qing paid the points readily. Not long after seeing Kou Changzhi, Lord Huo Lei, and Tang Huai out of her territory through the south gate, the Aggressive Calamity-Evolved Plant Inspection Group arrived.

This group had 14 people in total. Besides the magnetic-sense evolvers Wang Jun and Geng Min, there were also eight Ninth Center security team members and a four-person inspection squad.

The inspection squad was led personally by Tan Junjie, and its members were all old acquaintances of Xia Qing: Su Ming, Cao Xianyun, and Yuan Rui.

Xia Qing calmly opened the door and invited them in. She didn't want to expose her magnetic-sense ability, so she had to allow Wang Jun and Geng Min to patrol her fields.

The Ninth Center employees entering Territory Three for the first time were all very excited.

Because this was the territory of Xia Qing, who served as director of the Ninth Center and enjoyed quite high popularity among the staff!

However, these employees all kept their excitement bottled up inside, looking very proper on the surface. They had all received professional training and wouldn't randomly look around or touch things inside the territory.

Under the protection of the security team members, Wang Jun and Geng Min began patrolling the fields plot by plot, while the inspection squad waited outside the sheds.

Su Ming walked with Xia Qing to the edge of Shed 11, looked at the lush sweet potato vines inside, and asked, "Qing-jie, may I trade for some sweet potato leaves?"

The inspection squad had no farmland; their rations were allocated by their superior department, and they traded with lords for vegetables. Because Xia Qing was busy every day, Su Ming hadn't found a suitable opportunity to trade vegetables with her for a long time.

Xia Qing nodded. "Sure."

Yuan Rui also asked, "Qing-jie, these are Green-Light sweet potatoes, right?"

The quality of a plant could be roughly judged from the color of its leaves; this couldn't be faked, and Xia Qing had no need to hide it. Xia Qing nodded. "When I tested them last month, most were still Green-Light."

"When these sweet potatoes are harvested, will you sell them, Qing-jie?" Seeing Xia Qing nod, Yuan Rui submitted his trade request. "Can I buy fifty jin?"

"Sure." For Xia Qing, it didn't matter who she sold the sweet potatoes from her tilled sheds to.

Seeing quite a few flowering plants growing inside the greenhouse, Tan Junjie knew Xia Qing planned to keep bees.

Territory One had Green-Light bees that the Azure Dragon Squad had gotten from Hui Six, and Tan Qi also wanted to keep bees. Tan Junjie was just thinking about trading with Xia Qing for seeds of quality flowering plants when he heard Su Sibao, the Ninth Center security squad leader, call out, "Director, there's an abnormal plant over here."

Xia Qing followed the sound with her eyes and saw that what they were inspecting was Shed 6, where the sunflowers and most of the soybeans had already been harvested.

The main event she had been preparing for over two months was about to begin.

Arriving at Shed 6 with Tan Junjie's squad, Xia Qing saw that Geng Min and Wang Jun were indeed standing by the soybean field. She opened her mouth to ask, "Which one?"

Geng Min pointed at the soybeans in front of her. "Director, this one, this one, and those six over there are all abnormal."

On Xia Qing's normally expressionless face, her two brows slowly furrowed, making Wang Jun's heart skip a beat. He remembered the last time Xia Qing had shown that expression was because someone on the construction crew had taken a joke about her too far.

Then the very next day, that person had fallen from the scaffolding and died.

Su Ming's eyes went wide. "That many?!"

"Yes, these eight plants are aggressively Calamity-evolved soybeans." Wang Jun's face was solemn. They had already patrolled thousands of mu of plants across two territories and only screened out a total of 12 abnormal plants. For Xia Qing's small patch of soybeans to have 8, that ratio was terrifyingly high.

Recalling that Xia Qing's Green-Light soybeans had been traded last year through the Lord Channel, using Green-Light eggs, with Li Si of Territory Nine, Tan Junjie felt the matter was very serious. "Xia Qing, during the second Calamity Rain, what was the Calamity-evolution rate of these soybeans?"

Xia Qing's expression had already returned to calm. "These are all Green-Light soybeans. The Calamity-evolution rate during the second Calamity Rain was around 12%. I harvested a batch ten days ago; only these pods are still somewhat tender, and I planned to harvest them again before the third Calamity Rain."

Geng Min felt something was off. "The Calamity-evolution rate was that low during the second Calamity Rain—how did it climb by the time they matured?"

Visual evolver Su Ming carefully observed the soybean plants and asked, "Did you notice anything abnormal when you harvested the soybeans, Qing-jie?"

Xia Qing shook her head. "This is my first time growing this kind of soybean."

Post-catastrophe plants differed greatly from pre-catastrophe ones. The first time growing a crop, you didn't even know what the normal state looked like, let alone being able to judge what was abnormal.

With the help of Tan Junjie's squad, Xia Qing dug up the abnormal plants together with the soil on their roots and packed them into large packaging bags.

Tan Junjie asked, "I'll take these soybeans away?"

Aggressively Calamity-evolved plants could be completely cleared out by the lord, or handed over to the Hazard Inspection Squad for handling. The abnormality rate of these soybeans was too high; Tan Junjie wanted to submit them to the Territory Management Department for professional testing.

Xia Qing slowly shook her head. "I'll send them to Territory Seven and let Third Brother take a look at what's going on."

Zhang San was far more professional than the Territory Management Department, so of course Tan Junjie didn't object.