Chapter 1060: Expansion

The work plan previously drawn up by the Territory Management Department did indeed require Magnetic-sense Evolvers to patrol their assigned territory once a day during the Calamity Rain period.

After Ma Xiaoyin of the Safe Zone Planting Center went missing and two Magnetic-sense Evolvers from the Ninth Center were attacked while out on a mission, Base Hui-Three demanded that every department come up with practical measures to ensure the safety of their Class-B Magnetic-sense Evolvers, whose combat strength was relatively low.

Therefore, the Territory Management Department revised the patrol assignment for Magnetic-sense Evolvers, now only requiring them to patrol their assigned territory before the Calamity Rain and after it ended, no longer requiring Magnetic-sense Evolvers to remain stationed in their territory during the rain. As a result, the three Magnetic-sense Evolvers of the Planting Management Department are currently all inside the Safe Zone.

The reason the Territory Management Department required the Ninth Center's Magnetic-sense Evolvers to patrol the Northern Zone One territory once a day during the Calamity Rain is that Northern Zone One has an iron-net perimeter wall, and the Magnetic-sense Evolvers there are protected by the Ninth Center's Security Squad and Inspection Squad, which can guarantee their safety.

Northern Zone Three has no perimeter wall, and there are still the invaders' inside agents from a few days ago. Xia Qing would have to be crazy to let her Center's Class-A employees cross nearly ten kilometers of ruined city during the Calamity Rain to carry out extra tasks in Northern Zone Three.

Hearing Xia Qing's outright refusal of Northern Zone Three's request, Wu Xinlian and Lv Ziqiang immediately felt reassured, got into the vehicle, and followed the security squad toward Territory One.

After finishing her patrol of the territory and cutting the third batch of red-leaf bamboo, Xia Qing ate breakfast, then went to the southernmost end of the territory to inspect the passage and the wild-grass wall covered by the blood-red reagent layer.

In the clear daylight, looking up close at this passage and wild-grass wall, over sixty meters wide and covered in blood-red reagent, was even more stunning than seeing it at night.

Xia Qing looked at this layer of reagent clinging tightly to the ground, insoluble in water, and suddenly had an intuition: this sticky reagent looked very much like something extracted from Calamity-evolved pumpkin vines, because the mucus secreted by the Calamity-evolved pumpkin vines in this territory had exactly this characteristic of adhering to surfaces and being insoluble in water.

In other words, the idol had used the active ingredient extracted from Calamity-evolved pumpkin vines as a base liquid, and added reagents with effects such as melting plants, blocking airborne transmission, and emitting a foul smell to drive animals away, producing such a stunning effect.

Xia Qing even felt that the reason this reagent appeared red was because the idol wanted to use this color to express his anger and intimidate the enemy.

Seeing Xia Qing walking over, the Ninth Center employee who had been seconded from the Inspection Squad to guard the passage stood at attention. "Director."

Xia Qing nodded. "Just changed shift?"

"Yes, came over after eating." The Ninth Center employee smiled happily. "This morning our cafeteria served big steamed buns with spinach soup."

During the Calamity Rain, the Ninth Center cafeteria's meals were raised a notch above usual, switched to all-natural food. Although it was a mix of green-tier and yellow-tier ingredients, it still got the employees excited.

This was a catering level that even military cafeterias couldn't reach. The reason the Ninth Center dared to supply like this was that Xia Qing had set aside a special area within the Ninth Center, and the building materials for the greenhouses built in this area, as well as the fertilizer used for growing crops, were not allocated by the higher-ups but were gathered on the spot by Ninth Center employees themselves.

The Ninth Center employees built fourteen wooden-frame greenhouses in this area. The vegetables grown were not sold externally but supplied exclusively to the Ninth Center cafeteria, meeting the food needs of employees and their families.

Because of these fourteen greenhouses, Zhao Baolin, the head of Base Hui-Three's Planting Management Department, even made a fuss all the way to the Base Commander's office, and was finally scolded by the Base Commander before he calmed down.

An employee nearby asked, "Director, can we raise chickens next year? We can catch bugs to feed them just like the lords do, and fermented chicken manure makes excellent fertilizer."

Xia Qing nodded. "The breeding project has already been included in the plan, and will be pushed forward starting next year. Keep a close eye on the passage, and report any anomalies immediately."

"Yes!" The voices of the two employees, one male and one female, rang out loudly, startling several grasshoppers into flight.

After getting the consent of Territory One's agent Yin Jie and Territory Two's agent Tang Huai, Xia Qing drove an off-road vehicle from the northern isolation belt into Territory One, then walked through Territory Two on foot, and entered the Ninth Center.

During the Calamity Rain, the Ninth Center drew up a leadership duty roster to ensure that a leader was on duty at every time period to handle emergencies in a timely manner. Although Xia Qing was the director, she had many other tasks, so she did not take shifts at the Ninth Center. She would only step in to handle emergencies that the Ninth Center could not deal with internally.

In last night's bird tide, the Ninth Center leadership commanded effectively, and all 222 employees went all out. Of the 200 steel-frame sheds and 50 steel-frame solar greenhouses in the Center, only 11 sheds had their rainproof cloth damaged, and 6 people were injured.

In addition, the Ninth Center also dispatched 98 employees to support disaster relief in Northern Zone One. Without their participation, the reagent from Territory Seven could not have been quickly delivered to the lords, and last night's casualty count would have at least doubled.

When disaster struck, it was the Ninth Center's veterans who, together with Northern Zone One's iron-net wall and Inspection Squad, defended this territory.

Once this Calamity Rain ended, Xia Qing wanted to discuss with her third brother the matter of expanding the Ninth Center's staff. If her third brother agreed, she wanted to expand the Ninth Center's headcount from the current 320 to 500.

Even if the Planting Management Department disagreed and refused to allocate wages for these additional employees, she would use the dividends she and her third brother received from the Hui-Three Pharmaceutical Factory to pay these people's wages.

Because these expanded personnel were not just farming employees, but also the backbone force for protecting the territory and her third brother when emergencies arose.

"Xia Qing, finished with work?"

After finishing her patrol of Territory Nine, Xia Qing was crossing Territory Two along the path trodden out beside the barrier ditch when Tang Huai, who had been waiting by the road, walked over and greeted her.

From last night when he learned that the evolved wolf Yang Jin had rescued had died, until now, Tang Huai had not said a single word in the lords' channel. He had no smile on his face now either, and his eyes were bloodshot—he clearly hadn't rested well.

Xia Qing didn't know why this matter had affected him so deeply. She nodded and continued walking forward.

Tang Huai silently followed Xia Qing for a stretch before asking, "How did it die?"

Xia Qing answered calmly, "Neck injury. Even if it had been saved, it would have been paralyzed all over."

Tang Huai was silent for a few more seconds, then asked, "How did its neck get injured? Given Yang Jin's combat strength, if he wanted to capture this wolf alive, he definitely wouldn't have hurt its neck."

The matter of the Wanderers launching a beast tide in an attempt to strike Base Hui-Three's Northern Zone One territory had already been filed for investigation. Xia Qing couldn't disclose more information, so she only answered him, "It wasn't Yang Jin."

Tang Huai acknowledged this with a sound, stood quietly at the boundary between Territory One and Territory Two, and watched Xia Qing drive away. Last night, he had just fallen asleep when he dreamed of his two Samoyeds being brutally killed by Tang Rui, skinned and eaten. He had woken with a start and been unable to fall back asleep.

Liu Jing, the auditory evolver from Territory Two, came over and asked in a low voice, "Boss, what are you thinking about? Whose neck got hurt?"

Tang Huai couldn't be bothered to deal with this guy, turned around, and walked back.

Liu Jing followed behind Tang Huai, chattering away, "Boss, let's build a road like Territory One too. That way Sister Qing can drive her off-road vehicle right into our territory, and we won't have to trudge through mud..."