Chapter 105: Digging a Fish Pond

"Chinese cabbage seeds, thank you, Third Brother." Xia Qing really wanted both kinds, but she obediently followed Zhang San's request and chose one. She chose Chinese cabbage seeds because compared to loofah, Chinese cabbage had more ways to be cooked and was easier to store.

"Good." Zhang San agreed in a great mood. "Prepare me a portion of ingredients for sour cabbage fish too."

Xia Qing agreed to her idol's additional request without hesitation: fish and sour bamboo shoots, along with a small piece of ginger, two small chili peppers, and four small cloves of green-light garlic.

A few days ago, Xia Qing had harvested all forty-four garlic plants in her territory, getting sixteen green-light garlic and twenty-eight yellow-light garlic. Xia Qing broke the garlic bulbs apart — the small cloves for eating, the large cloves saved for seed.

When preparing vegetables for her idol, of course she had to give the best. Because Zhang San was both generous and petty — give him something good, and he would never shortchange her; give him something bad and ruin his mood, and Xia Qing might end up on the blacklist, keeping company with Plot Two.

These supplies earned Xia Qing a hundred green-light cabbage seeds. Xia Qing felt sweet inside — her idol Zhang San really was generous.

After putting away the cabbage seeds, Xia Qing stewed a pot of sour bamboo shoot fish, made a cold dish of two green-light tomatoes, and ate it all up with fragrant rice. Being able to not only eat her fill but eat well during a natural disaster — she was extremely satisfied.

The next day after inspecting her territory, Xia Qing took a vegetable basket to pick vegetables for Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui. Eggplant, green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and chili peppers — a little of each made up a full basket.

Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui arrived on time, hauling eight hundred jin of worm castings and a thousand jin of crab shell fertilizer, and unloaded them at the edge of Plot Three. Then they took the heavy basket from Xia Qing's hands. Zhong Tao asked warmly, "So much fertilizer is pretty heavy — you sure you don't need the two of us to help you carry it in?"

Xia Qing shook her head. "I'll hitch the tiller to the cart and haul it back in one trip. These are all the vegetables that can be picked in the garden, and they're all growing crooked and cracked. Brother Tao, Brother Kui, make do with them."

After starting to grow vegetables, Xia Qing learned that cucumbers aren't all straight — there are also curved ones, curled ones, ones fat on one end and thin on the other; tomatoes aren't all round and smooth either — there are oval ones, misshapen ones, ones that grow two or three fused together, and when the weather's bad, tomatoes will split open. In short, what shape any vegetable grows into depends on its mood and the weather.

Zhong Tao's face was all smiles. "Sister, what you're saying — no matter what they look like, the taste is the same. Of the thirty-plus plots in our North District, yours is the one where the owner puts the most into farming, and the vegetables grow the best. Other plots' vegetables are way worse than yours."

After several months of dealing with him, Xia Qing already knew she could only believe two-tenths of what came out of Zhong Tao's mouth. How could her vegetables possibly be the best? Not to look far — the vegetables produced in Qi Fu's and Zhang San's territories were definitely better than hers.

Qi Fu had farming experience and was willing to invest, and Xia Qing had learned many growing methods from him. When she went to pick a cat, Xia Qing had glanced from afar at Zhang San's Plot Seven — in just what she could see, there were ten neatly arranged standardized planting greenhouses. Knowing Zhang San's picky nature, who knew how many good things were growing inside those greenhouses.

Zheng Kui told Xia Qing, "The agricultural products trade fair has been set for mid-July, to be held in the Safe Zone trading hall. They'll probably start hyping it on the broadcast soon. When the time comes, lords can trade vegetables and grain with each other, and also buy seeds from the Safe Zone."

Xia Qing immediately grew interested. "Does Brother Kui know what seeds the Safe Zone can provide?"

Zheng Kui answered, "I only heard there's rice, corn, sunflower seeds, and a few kinds of vegetables."

Zhong Tao lowered his voice. "There have to be more than that. Because the potato distribution caused a major safety incident, our Base Three was named and criticized by the Hui City main base. Mayor Tang wants to use this event to salvage a bit of face."

To salvage face through the trade fair, the scene had to be lively. To get the lords who had already left the Safe Zone to come back and show support, they had to offer supplies that would attract the lords. Xia Qing also developed some anticipation for Hui Three Base's first agricultural products trade fair.

After seeing off Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui, Xia Qing didn't bother using the tiller to haul the fertilizer at all. She first carried the fertilizer inside her territory's tall grass wall, then called over Sheep Boss. Between the two of them, they hauled the eighteen hundred jin of organic fertilizer home in two trips. If it weren't for having too many bags and not enough hands, she and Sheep Boss could have moved it all in one trip.

"Boss, the two of us were simply born to farm." Xia Qing unloaded the six bags of fertilizer from Sheep Boss's back and reached up to take off Sheep Boss's carrying baskets. Sheep Boss gave an unhappy bleat and shifted its body away.

"Fur caught again?" Xia Qing checked and found that the connecting part between the two side baskets she'd made for Sheep Boss had indeed caught its fur again.

Xia Qing carefully took the baskets off and discussed with Sheep Boss, "How about I trim your fur?"

Sheep Boss didn't know what fur-trimming was, but when Xia Qing held up long scissors and gestured near it, Sheep Boss immediately tensed its muscles and squinted at Xia Qing unhappily.

"I'm not slaughtering you for meat — it's a trim of your wool. Once I shear it, you'll be more comfortable and even more handsome. When your wolf friend comes by again and sees you, it'll definitely be stunned by how handsome you are." Xia Qing stuffed a few pieces of dried bamboo shoot into Sheep Boss's mouth, coaxing it while she sheared its wool.

Xia Qing only trimmed the wool on Sheep Boss's back and neck; the belly fur was short and didn't need trimming. But because Sheep Boss was big enough with thick, long fur, she still got over three jin of wool.

Enough to make a fairly large wool mat. Xia Qing happily gathered up the wool, and with eyes closed praised Sheep Boss, whom she'd sheared into a mess: "After the shearing, you're not only cooler and lighter, Boss is even more handsome — handsomer than Yang Jin of the Green Dragon Squad. Now in every way, you're the one and only Boss. Come on, soak in a bath in the new tub I made for you!"

Sheep Boss, with fur high in some places and low in others, sat chest-out soaking in the medicinal bath, eating green-light pasture grass — only a sigh away from total comfort.

After the bath, sitting in the tiller's special passenger seat, the breeze blowing on it was indeed cool and comfortable. Sheep Boss was very satisfied and nuzzled Xia Qing with its head.

Xia Qing, who was driving the tiller, nearly got her head knocked into the tiller's track by that nuzzle. She laughed and rubbed Boss's head, drove the tiller to a spot not far from the fish pond, and operated the digging shovel to start excavating a new fish pond.

Although green-light fish were rare, she still decided to dig the new fish pond two mu in size — she had plenty of space, no need to shortchange her precious fish.

While Xia Qing was working furiously in her territory, Tang Huai in Plot Two swatted a few evolved mosquitoes buzzing around him and complained with a frown, "She just hauled back over a thousand jin of fertilizer and already started tilling — can't she take a break?!"

Zhou Xun, carrying a jar of bugs, rolled his eyes and came up with a brilliant idea: "Wait till she's asleep at night, let's sneak into her plot and steal her vegetables, make all her work for nothing!"

Tang Huai glared at Zhou Xun. "You think the two scent-evolved people in the Madmen Squad are just sitting around eating? If you want to go, go yourself — don't drag me down."

Seeing Tang Huai stand up and leave, Zhou Xun hurriedly asked, "Boss, where are you going?"

"To dig up cicada nymphs at Plot Twelve."

Watching the boss walk off so carefree, Zhou Xun asked quietly, "Aren't we keeping an eye on Plot One and Plot Three anymore?"

"Of course we are." Tang Huai kept walking. "There's too much noise here — my ability can't be put to use. You stay and keep watching. Report any situation to my brother immediately."

Visual-evolved person Zhou Xun...

Xia Qing spent three days digging the new fish pond. This time, drawing on Qi Fu's experience, she dug a circular pit two meters in diameter and over two meters deeper than the rest of the pond, then lined the pit walls with broken bricks.

Digging a pit like this was to make it easier to scoop out pond mud.

Pond mud was also a very good organic fertilizer. When the water in the fish pond was pumped out or evaporated, the fish in the pond would gather in the circular pit. This made catching fish and scooping pond mud both convenient.

After the new fish pond was dug, Xia Qing channeled the water from the first fish pond into the new one. During the process, she used a fine-mesh fishing net and screened out another five yellow-light fish and two green-light fish.

Xia Qing hadn't expected to screen out green-light fish. Added to the ones she'd caught last time, she now had a total of three green-light fish — one male and two females. Xia Qing decisively decided one fish pond would raise green-light fish, the other yellow-light fish.

Red-light fish?

She didn't even have a cat — what was the point of raising red-light fish?