Chapter 1218: Poor Little Qiang Zai

In just two short minutes, fist-sized hailstones punched over a dozen holes through the rainproof tarp of the greenhouse, and more than four bamboo support poles were snapped. The light from the indoor fixtures shone through the gaps, illuminating the blanket of hail outside — and the humans huddled in every corner, sheltering beneath wooden boards or soft-body shields.

Lord of Territory Twenty-Two, Fu Xiaodan, stared blankly at her own greenhouse, her whole mind gone numb.

When she moved into the territory in July, she had expected farming to be hard, but she hadn't expected it to be this hard. Her ninety mu of rice had nearly been smashed to ruin by the hail.

This was grain she had painstakingly grown for over three months — her confidence in paying off her debts…

Fu Xiaodan slowly turned her head, looking with gratitude at Xia Qing, who had led the team over to help her rush-harvest the grain. Her lips trembled, unable to make a sound.

"Copy that. Third Group, no casualties. Returning now." Xia Qing, carrying an oversized scythe made for strength Evolvers and holding an iron umbrella overhead, ended the call with Yan Yue, then turned to look at Fu Xiaodan. "Sister Dan, we're heading out."

"…Okay. Xia Qing, thank you, thank you. You…"

She wanted to say the hail was too heavy now, why not wait a while before leaving. But who knew whether this hailstorm would be followed by a downpour, a gale, or even bigger hail — or whether the Calamity Grass would grow taller, or whether aggressive Calamity-evolved plants or animals would appear.

This was the Year of Calamity — there was no better, only worse.

Fu Xiaodan took a deep breath and shamelessly proposed a trade. "Xia Qing, could you trade me fifty pistol rounds? She Xing is out of ammo too, and her potatoes are expected to undergo aggressive Calamity evolution soon. On my side…"

Fu Xiaodan looked at the relatives and hired workers curled up in every corner.

Territory Twenty-Two had only three Evolvers, and one of them was the fourteen-year-old Wang Bo. After two hours of full-speed rush-harvesting, everyone was exhausted and had no strength left to tend the potato greenhouse. So she needed to trade for ammo, to clear out the aggressively Calamity-evolved potato vines sprouting in the potato field as quickly as possible.

Otherwise, an entire greenhouse of potatoes would soon undergo aggressive Calamity evolution.

Fu Xiaodan, an ordinary person, could barely stand steady on her feet. She couldn't use a gun, but her son Wang Bo could. Wang Bo was a visual Evolver who had been practicing shooting since he was ten, and he still had the stamina to protect the potato field.

Xia Qing glanced at the sidearm at Wang Bo's waist and gave an order. "Dai Yan."

"Here!"

"Give Lord of Territory Twenty-Two fifty rounds."

"Yes!"

Wang Bo, standing beside his mother, already covered head to toe in mud, took the magazine pouch and thanked them loudly. "Thank you, Auntie Qing. Thank you, Brother Dai."

Fourteen years old — before the calamities, still a child, but now forced to be used as an adult. After Dai Yan raised his left hand and clapped him on the shoulder, he lifted his soft-body shield and led the team, following Xia Qing as they ran through the hail and Calamity Grass out of Territory Twenty-Two and back to Central Nine.

"Approved. The medical room will cooperate with the inspection team and do everything possible to treat the wounded." Xia Qing ran while issuing orders over the walkie-talkie.

The loudspeaker broadcasts had warned of extreme weather, but no one had expected the first wave of hail to be this heavy. The lords rush-harvesting in the fields had been caught without shelter, and there were quite a few casualties. Tan Junjie's inspection team was stretched thin and could only apply to Central Nine, hoping Central Nine's medical room would provide aid.

According to regulations, only Zhang San and Xia Qing had the authority to approve such applications.

Xia Qing looked back at the employees following her, braving the hail as they ran back, and grew more and more pleased with them. For this external mission to support the rush-harvest, the First and Second Groups had sent able-bodied employees. After Territory Twenty-Two sent out an emergency call, Xia Qing had reassigned Evolvers with physical disabilities and personally led the team out to provide support.

Not a single member of the Third Group was able-bodied — they wore crude prosthetics, yet displayed fierce fighting capability.

If the hail had come three minutes later, they would have finished rush-harvesting the last greenhouse of rice in Territory Twenty-Two.

Braving the downpour, she returned to Central Nine and found everything in orderly, busy but unhurried operation. In fact, dealing with a disaster of this level was barely a medium-difficulty mission for soldiers who had always been on the front line of disaster relief.

These five hundred-plus veterans were the stabilizing pillar of North Sector One during these turbulent calamity years. Without them going out to provide aid, this hailstorm and downpour would have destroyed several hundred mu and hundreds of thousands of jin of grain across the North Sector One territories.

On the three lord channels of North Sector One, the exhausted but deeply relieved lords expressed thanks to those who had come to help, recounted the losses their territories had suffered in this downpour, and worried about how long this sudden Calamity Rain disaster would last.

After returning to Central Nine, Xia Qing spent twenty minutes handling work and answering phone inquiries from the Base Commander's office and the Director of the Agricultural Department.

By now, rain was pouring heavily outside, the outdoor temperature was near freezing, and the unmelted hailstones flowed along with the rainwater. Xia Qing stepped on Calamity Grass stubbornly growing through the icy water as she inspected the farmland.

Under the fivefold protection of the steel-frame structure, double-layer rainproof tarp, the sterilizing agent distributed by Territory Seven, the No. 1 Calamity-Absorbing Agent, and the round-the-clock patrols of magnetic-sense Evolvers, ninety-five percent of Central Nine's potatoes had held on until now.

As for how many potato plants would survive after this calamity, it would depend on what level of disaster came next.

After braving the rain to inspect Central Nine, focusing on windproofing and drainage, Xia Qing carried her personal flight unit onto a Central Nine patrol vehicle and returned to her own territory.

Why not fly? Because it was raining.

"Director, please get some proper rest."

The performance of Central Nine's employees satisfied Xia Qing, and Xia Qing's outstanding performance in disaster relief earned the admiration of Central Nine's employees.

She was the leader of Central Nine. Even if she had stayed in her office the whole time directing and coordinating, no one would have objected — but she didn't.

Whether during the last Calamity Rain or this sudden disaster, she had always led the team at the very front. Inspired by her, not a single leader, big or small, in Central Nine hid at the back.

Following a leader like this gave Central Nine's employees an extra sense of security.

Xia Qing nodded, pulled out her key to unlock the south gate, and returned to her own territory.

She first made a round of inspection of the greenhouses. Though there was damage, the critical greenhouses were all intact. After arranging the duty roster with the five members of Beard Feng's squad, Xia Qing glanced at the wild fruit she had brought back from Mountain Twenty-Two — which Yang Jin had dumped into a bamboo basket in the meeting room to dry — then left the small hut by the field.

As for where Yang Jin had put the mineral mixed in with the dung, Xia Qing hadn't asked when she called him earlier, and Yang Jin hadn't mentioned it either.

They had that much trust and unspoken understanding between them.

Returning home, she saw that the wooden boards covering the doors and windows were all intact, none broken by the hail. She swiped open the door and went inside, finding her companions huddled together, not a hair on them wet. Only then did Xia Qing's taut nerves finally relax, and she felt the muscles all over her body protesting to her.

From the moment she had taken the Azure Dragon Squad's helicopter back to the territory until now, over five hours had passed — she hadn't even had time to catch her breath, let alone sit down and rest. Though the X Nutrient Solution was keeping her going, she could feel the exhaustion and wanted to squeeze in with her companions for a little rest.

However, she couldn't rest just yet.

Amid the chirping of the little sparrows in the swallow's nest, Xia Qing took off her protective gloves, put on a pair of antibacterial gloves, and gave medicine to Qiang Zai, who was in a cage under the eaves and had already been soaked by the rain.

Because of one accident after another, and because Xia Qing had been too busy, the stinky Qiang Zai had been off its medicine for two days. When Xia Qing pulled it out to force-feed it the medicine, the poor little thing didn't even have the strength to struggle.

It wasn't that Xia Qing didn't want Beard Feng's squad to look after Qiang Zai — it was because after the great battle between the plucked-fur cub and the tabby cat, Wolf Lao Er had become full of hostility toward Beard Feng's squad. Yesterday, after Xia Qing left the territory, it had carried the cage holding Qiang Zai from the small hut by the field back to the house, and wouldn't allow any human other than Xia Qing to approach.

If Xia Qing hadn't said Qiang Zai couldn't be kept inside the house, her house would have become stinky by now.

Seeing Qiang Zai so pitiful, Xia Qing no longer minded the smell. She wiped it clean with absorbent paper towels, applied the special deodorizer developed by Zhang Song, then carried it back inside and tucked it into Little Feimao's deluxe wooden nest.