Chapter 1220: Sudden Disaster Ends

"Did everyone hear? In Territory 23, the potato seedlings knocked over the greenhouse's earthen wall and crushed Xu Cunchao's mother to death."

Xia Qing, battling the howling cold wind, was patrolling the greenhouses in her territory with Wolf Lao Er when she heard Tang Huai sharing the latest news on the lord channel.

Yuan Yan felt something was off about this. "The potatoes in Territory 23 have all evolved into killers, hasn't she. Why was she by the earthen wall?"

Tang Huai sighed. "She was leading people to rush-harvest the potatoes."

Upon hearing this news, the lords all fell silent.

Tang Huai asked again, "Xia Qing, you there?"

Xia Qing, walking through the cold wind, pressed the walkie-talkie button. "Here."

Hearing that Xia Qing was on, the lords who had been standing guard over their territories through the latter half of the night all perked up.

Tang Huai continued reporting. "Territory 23's rice paddies had 12 mu destroyed. Right before Xu Cunchao's mother had her accident, she was being passive-aggressive on the lord channel, saying the inspection team and the Ninth Center treated people differently depending on who they were. Fu Xiaodan shot back at her a few times. She was in the middle of making a fuss when the potato greenhouse wall collapsed and crushed her underneath."

"Who does she think she is, worth a single glance from Qingjie?"

After the thunderstorm disaster, the Ninth Center rented out dryers to help lords dry their rush-harvested grain. Territory 23 was unhappy about being placed at the back of the queue for using the dryers, so they blocked the road and demanded to be served first. Otherwise, the people of Territory 23 would just lie down in front of the machinery vehicles and refuse to get up.

The Ninth Center's staff had no choice and called Xia Qing for instructions. Xia Qing ordered the staff to issue a warning and then drive straight through—anyone who didn't get up would be run over. Only then did the people of Territory 23 clear the road.

Perhaps feeling they had offended Xia Qing over that incident, this year during the third killer rain, a passage grew red killer grass that attracted large numbers of birds. When Xia Qing rushed over for disaster relief and passed by Territory 23, this old lady was especially attentive in showing Xia Qing the way. Seeing that Xia Qing didn't drive her away, she had Xu Cunchao visit Territory 3 multiple times to deliver their premium green-light vegetables to Xia Qing, hoping to ease relations between them.

Xia Qing naturally didn't accept them, and she certainly didn't have the time to hold a grudge or take revenge over such a trivial matter.

Xia Qing remembered very clearly why the Ninth Center's external support team hadn't gone to Territory 23. "Territory 23 demanded free aid. The Ninth Center has no such obligation."

The Ninth Center is the planting department; it's not responsible for territory security or hazard inspection. During natural disasters, when territories need the Ninth Center to send people out to provide aid, of course they need to pay a fee.

This wasn't an overbearing rule the Ninth Center made up itself, but a convention established by common practice. When Mountain 50 had its disaster relief, Xia Qing deployed the Azure Dragon Squad, Zhao Ze, and Watching Huo Zhun to go help, and that also required payment.

The Ninth Center's staff are indeed all veterans, but they've already been discharged. They have no responsibility or obligation to provide free rescue to anyone.

Wen Nengjie's hoarse voice came online. "Qingjie did the right thing. What damn era is this still trying moral blackmail? It's a miracle these people have survived to Year 11 of the disasters. Thanks, Qingjie, for sending people over to harvest the grain. Once this disaster passes, I'll deliver the points card to the Ninth Center right away."

If the Ninth Center's people hadn't come to help, Wen Nengjie simply couldn't have spared the manpower to reinforce the brick kiln. If the brick kiln had been smashed down by the hail, the bricks he and his brothers had spent two months almost finishing firing would all have been ruined.

Through this incident, Wen Nengjie's belief in clinging tight to Xia Qing's thigh grew even firmer. In normal times it's fine, but once a disaster strikes, it's hard for ordinary people like them just to survive. Disaster relief must rely on outside help.

Xia Qing and her Ninth Center are the strongest outside help Wen Nengjie can hire, with reasonable fees.

Xia Qing was just about to reply when she saw a rainproof tarp on a greenhouse in Territory 4 get blown into the sky by the gale. She immediately pressed the walkie-talkie. "Territory 4, Teacher Wang, do you need assistance?"

Zhao Ze was still doing disaster relief at Mountain 50. As disaster relief commander and ally, Xia Qing had an obligation to provide aid to Territory 4.

Hearing Xia Qing's voice, Zhao's mother in Territory 4, who had only one arm, immediately put down the loudspeaker, pressed the walkie-talkie hanging on her body, and shouted back through the howling wind, "No assistance needed. We're collecting a rainproof tarp that got torn by hail on a rice paddy greenhouse. We couldn't hold onto it and the wind blew it away."

"Copy that." Xia Qing immediately contacted the Ninth Center. "Ninth Center, a rainproof tarp is blowing over from Territory 4. Watch out."

The wind now is a northwesterly. If Territory 4's rainproof tarp blows across the boundary, it will land in the Ninth Planting Center.

The voice of Zhong Tao, head of the Ninth Center's warehouse management department, came through. "Copy that. Target spotted and announcement issued. Duty personnel are in position to intercept."

After confirming the rainproof tarp had been intercepted, Tang Huai greeted Zhong Tao. "Tao-ge, you're on night shift tonight?"

"Yeah." Zhong Tao replied cheerfully. "How's Huai-ge's territory holding up?"

Tang Huai replied, "Not bad, just lost two greenhouses. Serves me right too—those two greenhouses' tarps both had patches. I forgot about that."

A rainproof tarp that's been patched after being torn can still be used, but during severe natural disasters like hail, torrential rain, and gales, its defensive capability is clearly inferior to a brand-new tarp. So whenever severe natural disasters are forecast, lords will replace the tarps in advance.

Zhong Tao asked, "Not the insect-raising greenhouses, right?"

Tang Huai replied, "Of course not."

"That's good then."

The lord channel fell quiet, but the wind at their ears grew louder and louder.

Having finished patrolling the territory, Xia Qing picked up Wolf Lao Er and let the wind push her back to the small hut by the fields. If she didn't get back inside soon, both she and Wolf Lao Er would be blown away. She had to take shelter in a sturdy structure as quickly as possible—even if the gale flipped the greenhouses, she could only watch helplessly. Because relying on the puny strength of humans and wolves, there was no way to resist a disaster of this magnitude like a gale.

The gale blew until dawn before stopping, leaving a scene of devastation everywhere, and also blowing away the excess killer elements in the atmosphere. This sudden natural disaster finally ended after lasting 10 hours.

In this disaster, within the northern District 1 territories, 14 people died, 61 were injured, and 178 greenhouses were destroyed. Even so, this area still had the lightest losses among the five territories around Hui San.

Xia Qing's Greenhouse 11, which grew half a mu of green-light sweet potatoes and half a mu of green-light rice, was flipped over by the gale.

Fortunately, before this disaster began, Xia Qing had Er Yong and the others harvest the green-light rice. And since sweet potatoes grow underground, no amount of gale could blow them away. So relatively speaking, Xia Qing's losses were quite small.

The Ninth Center lost six wooden-structured vegetable greenhouses. Mountain 50, due to its terrain, had the rainproof tarps covering the high-danger zone blown over by the wind. The emergency disaster relief procedure was lifted, and post-disaster handling work began.

A squad of well-equipped special forces in special protective suits stopped outside the high-danger zone of Mountain 50. One soldier squatted down, let the person on his back stand steadily on the ground, and only then stood up.

Xia Qing reached out to support the person who had been carried over. "Third Brother, this is High-Danger Zone 1."

"Mm." Zhang Zhen, wearing the special protective suit, responded, stepped on the straw mats laid on the ground, and entered the laboratory built beside High-Danger Zone 1.

Xia Qing walked over to Zhao Ze. "Zhao-ge, you worked hard last night. Later, take Territory 7's vehicle back to your territory."

Zhao Ze, who had been staring at the laboratory door, came back to himself. "Ah, alright… Qingjie, why did Third Brother come?"

"Third Brother was worried, so he came to take a look." Xia Qing turned to look at Yang Jin.

Yang Jin spoke up. "Mountain 49 and Territory 1 are under control. I'll protect Third Brother together with you. The territory's fine, right?"

Xia Qing replied, "Greenhouse 11 is damaged, a few trees fell. Losses aren't big."

Yang Jin smiled. "That's good. Later we'll head back and harvest the sweet potatoes first."

Xia Qing was silent for two seconds, then nodded.