Chapter 116: Planting the Second Batch of Vegetables

Wait!

Xia Qing stopped and looked at the two large bird nests on the dawn redwood tree. "Boss, where are the egrets and night herons from our territory?"

Lao Zhong ignored Xia Qing and kept walking with the water bucket on his back.

Xia Qing followed Lao Zhong back, scanning with her eyes for traces of birds. Not on the nearby trees; not by the reservoir; not by the two fish ponds…

So, after the egrets and night herons hatched their eggs, they moved away with their chicks?

Moving away is fine too — saves fish. She could stuff some tobacco into the egret nests to attract magpies that eat pests. Two birds with one stone.

No sooner said than done. Xia Qing went home, fetched some Red Lantern tobacco, made two wads, stuffed them into the egret and night heron nests, then went back home and soaked the roots of the rice seedlings, passionfruit, and Sichuan pepper saplings in spring water. Leaving these sprouts soaking too long isn't good either, so after dinner Xia Qing put on her night-vision goggles, listened to the broadcast, and went to the fields to transplant seedlings and plant trees. Even though she couldn't see very clearly at night, Lao Zhong still followed behind her.

The paddy field had been prepared beforehand, and Xia Qing nimbly transplanted four hundred rice seedlings into it. Then she took the two kinds of saplings up Gao Po and planted them along the edge of the planting zone.

Strictly speaking, Hui-3 Base wasn't suitable for growing passionfruit, which likes warm, humid climates, but some plants become highly adaptable after evolving. If it could grow in the territory of the lord who traded passionfruit with her, it could certainly grow in soil nourished by unpolluted spring water.

After planting the trees, Xia Qing hoisted Lao Zhong — who had been stumbling along because of the dimming light — onto her shoulder and took him home.

Maybe because it hadn't seen Xia Qing for two days and a night, Lao Zhong was extra clingy tonight. He actually abandoned the comfortable tatami on the first floor and slept on the grass mat beside Xia Qing's bed.

Lying in bed, Xia Qing listened to Lao Zhong's breathing and slept especially soundly.

The next day, when Lao Zhong woke up and shook his head, Xia Qing heard the movement and opened her eyes, greeting him warmly. "Morning, boss."

Lao Zhong squinted at Xia Qing for two seconds before getting up and clip-clopping down the stairs. Although Lao Zhong couldn't talk, Xia Qing accurately read the meaning expressed by his facial expression:

This sleeping spot isn't comfortable!

Xia Qing rolled over, buried her face in her arms, and laughed muffled for a while before getting up, changing her clothes, going downstairs to start a pot of Green Lantern rice porridge, then going out to patrol the territory, picking some fresh vegetables along the way to make a simple cold dish, and baking two flatbreads. Even though the house only had oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, and even though Xia Qing's cooking was so-so, she still felt her own food tasted better than the evolved-person cafeteria in the safe zone — even no worse than the restaurant she and Xu Juan had gone to.

If she used enough seasoning, her food would definitely taste better than the restaurant's. With skills like these, why would she need a cook? One more person in the territory would be far more complicated than one simple-minded sheep. Xia Qing had spent ten years scheming in the safe zone; now she just wanted to live comfortably.

After a hearty meal, Xia Qing went to check the seeds she'd soaked in spring water the night before. The Complete Planting Guide said corn needs twenty-four hours of soaking. She'd started soaking them yesterday afternoon after getting back, so they couldn't be planted until this afternoon. Radish and sunflower seeds only needed two hours of soaking before planting. Chinese cabbage would be planted next month, so for now she stored its seeds together with the ones she'd traded from her idol, keeping them safe.

Xia Qing took fertilizer and tools and went to prepare the terraced fields for radishes and sunflowers.

Because the terraces were spacious enough, Xia Qing didn't pull up the cucumbers, eggplants, long beans, and tomatoes that were past their peak fruiting season. Instead, she cleared two more terraces that had never been planted. The fertilizers she had on hand now were worm castings, crab shell fertilizer, fermented leaf compost, plant ash, and sheep manure. Sheep manure was the scarcest, so she had to save it for the Green Lantern spinach. For the others, Xia Qing applied them in full according to the fertilization ratios in the Green Bean Cultivation Guide Li Si had given her.

After planting one crop, Xia Qing had come to deeply understand the importance of fertilizer. Enough fertilizer means crops grow well; crops that grow well have stronger resistance, so when the blight rain comes they won't blight on a large scale, and yields will be high.

What is farming for? Of course, to harvest more food. So you have to be willing to invest.

After spreading the fertilizer, Xia Qing grabbed the shovel and was about to turn the soil when Lao Zhong charged over.

"Baa."

Xia Qing stopped. "Boss, what's wrong?"

"Baa." Lao Zhong blocked Xia Qing's path and squinted at her.

At this hour Lao Zhong shouldn't be thirsty or hungry — what was going on? Xia Qing was stumped for a moment. "Did your wolf friend come?"

Seeing that Lao Zhong didn't react, Xia Qing knew she'd guessed wrong. The seeds were almost done soaking, and she didn't have time to play guessing games with him. She turned to keep turning the soil, but Lao Zhong butted her, and she nearly fell flat on her face and ate a mouthful of dirt.

"I—" Xia Qing stumbled forward two steps, caught herself, rolled up her sleeves, and turned around ready to wallop the sheep — only to see Lao Zhong had butted the shovel aside and was looking up at her. Suddenly she understood. "You don't want to pull the plow and till the field, do you?"

"Baa~"

That coquettish bleat from Lao Zhong left Xia Qing speechless. "Boss, this terrace is only five meters wide and ten meters long. If you put on the plow, you really won't have room to maneuver. This little bit of work doesn't need you — I can handle it myself."

Xia Qing coaxed him gently for a bit, but Lao Zhong got stubborn. With no choice, Xia Qing went home, brought back the three-share plow, and hitched it to Lao Zhong.

But after being hitched to the plow, Lao Zhong still refused to move. Xia Qing was at a loss, so she went up to Gao Po, broke off some tender Chinese toon sprouts, and dropped them in front of Lao Zhong. Only then did he eagerly start pulling the plow.

Guided by the Chinese toon sprouts, Lao Zhong didn't run into the pest-control net, and helped Xia Qing quickly till the two terraces. After the plow was unhitched, Lao Zhong lay down nearby to rest while Xia Qing began sowing.

One terrace was about fifty square meters. Based on a sixty percent germination rate for Yellow Lantern seeds after spring-water soaking, a hundred and fifty sunflower seeds planted would mean about two or three sunflowers per square meter — just the right density. Planting sparsely was so that when plants blighted during the blight rain, she could promptly and thoroughly remove them to keep them from infecting the surrounding plants.

A hundred and fifty green radish and white radish seeds in total — Xia Qing planted them all in the same terrace.

After finishing, Xia Qing hitched Lao Zhong to the plow again, turned the soil, and planted Green Lantern cucumbers, eggplants, and tomatoes. These seeds were all harvested from vegetables in her own fields.

Although Qi Fu said it wasn't the season for eggplants and tomatoes, and the Complete Planting Guide didn't mention it either, the planting technical materials Luo Pei gave Xia Qing said they could be planted, so Xia Qing decided to soak the seeds and plant another batch. Evolved seeds were highly adaptable, her fields were nourished by spring water, and the soil was fertile enough. If the Azure Dragon Squad could grow them successfully, Xia Qing figured she could too. If it worked, she wouldn't have to worry about fresh vegetables for the next few months.

Even if they didn't flower or fruit, she'd only lose some Green Lantern seeds and fertilizer. She had plenty of Green Lantern seeds saved for these vegetables, so she could easily spare some for a planting experiment.

For chili peppers, long beans, and scallions — these three vegetables, Xia Qing didn't have Green Lantern seeds, so she could only keep planting Yellow Lantern ones. She also planted the forty onion seedlings she'd traded for.

To keep her secret safe, Xia Qing also cleared a vegetable plot four meters wide and a hundred and sixty meters long next to the Yellow Lantern pumpkin shed not far from the reservoir, planting a little of each vegetable. The vegetables grown here were for trading with other lords, so she didn't water them with spring water.

After planting, Xia Qing sat down on a bamboo chair under the shade of a tree to rest. Even an advanced strength-type evolved person who'd planted over two mu of vegetables in one morning was a bit tired — but mostly she felt a sense of fulfillment.

Biting into a strangely shaped, bright red Green Lantern tomato, Xia Qing leaned back in the chair, looked up at the two empty egret nests in the dawn redwood, and chatted with Lao Zhong, who was lying beside her gnawing an old cucumber. "It's good those four fish-stealing birds moved away. The fish in our ponds are all Yellow Lantern or Green Lantern fish — we can't let them benefit from our hard work. Birds that eat bugs are better."

Lao Zhong, who didn't eat fish, squinted and chewed his cud, ignoring Xia Qing.

Xia Qing didn't mind and kept eating her tomato. Suddenly, she spotted a fiery-red squirrel with a fluffy big tail climbing up the dawn redwood and darting into the egret nest.

Isn't this the evolved squirrel that stole her wheat grains last time? What was it doing in the egret nest? Don't squirrels live in tree holes?