Chapter 1243: Once Again Overcoming the Catastrophe

Four hours later, two large cargo planes took off from Guiwu Safe Zone airport, carrying 135 tons of premium crab-shell fertilizer.

Zhang Zhenghong, standing beside the airport runway, wiped a handful of stinking sweat from his face and flung it viciously to the ground.

He never wanted to see Hui San's poker-faced, straight-shooting sniper again in his life!

Standing outside the airport, Black Panther Squad captain Bao Zhen stared grimly at the blinking red lights beneath the plane, wishing he could fire a shell straight at them and blast that stinking woman, that iron rooster, and the fertilizer all to pieces.

At the front of the plane, Yang Jin, sitting beside Xia Qing, pointed at the window. "Xia Qing, look down there."

By now they had long left the brightly lit runway of the airport. Xia Qing looked down through the window and saw countless pale-blue specks flickering. As the plane climbed higher and higher, the light of those specks grew fainter and fainter, until the night swallowed them completely.

Those points of light reminded Xia Qing of the scene from before the catastrophe when her parents took her to see fireflies. Only now the points of light were countless times more numerous than those fireflies, stretching on without end. "Are those specks plankton in the sea?"

Yang Jin's gaze slid away from the small tuft of hair sticking up on top of Xia Qing's head and turned to the heavy clouds outside the window. "Mm, those are evolved noctiluca and sea fireflies."

Hearing Yang Jin's words, Huo Zhun, sitting in the row behind, immediately fished out his phone, wanting to show Xia Qing the photos of noctiluca he had taken before.

Wang Man, sitting beside him, raised an arm to block him and shot a glare at this idiot. Huo Zhun silently stuffed his phone back into his protective suit pocket and shrank back to behave himself.

After the plane pierced through the high-altitude clouds, Xia Qing saw a sky full of twinkling stars. She gazed quietly for a while, and when the plane stopped jolting and began flying smoothly, she closed her eyes and seized the moment to rest.

Evolvers all had keen perception. Afraid his gaze might disturb her, Yang Jin also leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes to rest.

However, he silently edged a little closer to Xia Qing, wanting to be nearer to her, and nearer still. Two minutes later, when his arm was almost touching Xia Qing's arm, he finally stopped, content.

Only when she heard the person beside her breathing grow long and steady did Xia Qing relax, empty her mind, and truly begin to rest.

Tang Huai in the front row, hearing that things had gone quiet behind him, silently stood up and raised his phone, wanting to take a photo of the two of them together, when Yang Jin and Xia Qing opened their eyes at the same instant.

"Ah!" Tang Huai's hand jerked in fright, and his phone dropped.

After he shrank back, Xia Qing and Yang Jin closed their eyes again, the corners of their mouths curving up in identical arcs.

An hour and a half later, the two planes landed steadily inside Hui San Safe Zone airport. The tail ramp slowly opened, revealing bags of organic fertilizer packed full inside the cargo hold.

Xia Qing stepped off the plane, swept a glance that showed no other cargo planes, and knew at once that Squad Leader Luo and Zhao Baolin's team, who had rushed off to Guiyi, had not yet returned.

She walked quickly up to Yang Benming, who had almost jogged over, and reported in. "Director, all 135 tons of organic fertilizer purchased from Guiwu have been brought back. This points card wasn't needed—Guiwu covered the shipping cost for this batch of fertilizer."

Yang Benming took back the points card and looked at Xia Qing as though she were made of gold. "Good, very well done! You've all worked hard."

"It wasn't hard, it's what we should do." If it weren't for the fact that the two bases were friendly cooperative bases, and that until Hui San's organic fertilizer plant was built Hui San still had to purchase fertilizer from Guiwu, Xia Qing and Yang Jin, who held the moral high ground, would absolutely have beaten Guiwu's Fatty Zhang into a Zhang matchstick.

Yang Benming looked at Xia Qing and found her more and more to his liking no matter how he looked. "Territory Seven has already worked out a crab-shell fertilizer usage reference table. Territory North Zone One and Center Nine together need 35 tons of organic fertilizer. Take 5 tons back by helicopter; I'll send the remaining 10 tons by military helicopter, and they'll arrive within three hours."

Xia Qing had already received the usage list Tang Heng had sent her. 35 tons of crab-shell fertilizer was exactly the amount needed to improve the soil in Territory North Zone One.

She had set out from Territory North Zone One, traveled over a thousand kilometers, fought her way to the Guiwu organic fertilizer plant, and brought the fertilizer back—all to improve her territory's soil. So of course Xia Qing didn't stand on ceremony. "All right, thank you, Director."

"The fertilizer purchase subsidy plan will be announced later. Go back and rest well when you return. Report any situation at any time."

Yang Benming knew Xia Qing disliked pleasantries and disliked talking. He raised a hand and patted her shoulder, then expressed his thanks to Yang Jin, Zhou Zhaoping, and the others, turned around, and went to arrange the distribution of this batch of fertilizer that had arrived in the nick of time.

Strength evolvers working with forklifts had the 5 tons of the finest crab-shell fertilizer unloaded and loaded into the Green Dragon Squad's helicopter cabin in under twenty minutes. Xia Qing led her team aboard, and they flew back at full speed to Territory North Zone One—the sooner this batch of fertilizer was spread on the fields, the better.

Was it nighttime now? At this critical juncture, there was no longer any distinction between day and night.

On the base commander's orders, every piece of soil-testing equipment in the safe zone—including that of Hui San Pharmaceutical Factory—was requisitioned to test the density of the catastrophe-evolved anaerobic bacteria in farmland soil everywhere.

Once the test results came in, staff from the Agriculture Department calculated the crab-shell fertilizer dosage according to the usage reference table provided by Territory Seven, and then the military and squads transported the fertilizer to the safe zone planting center and to the various territories outside the safe zone.

The people in the fields, once they got the fertilizer, immediately began spreading it, plowing, and irrigating. Once the crab-shell fertilizer took effect, they could plant overwintering wheat and rapeseed.

Calculating the time, as long as they moved fast enough, the sown crops should sprout before the ground froze.

The crab-shell fertilizer Xia Qing brought back was unloaded directly inside Territory Twelve, where the Soil Research Department and the Inspection Team sold it to the various territories by quota.

Reseller Kuang Qingwei sold crab-shell fertilizer at 8 points per jin. Hui San's bulk purchase price from the Guiwu organic fertilizer plant, made before the news was announced, was 5 points per jin.

Because of a "work error" at the Guiwu organic fertilizer plant that nearly caused an unnecessary misunderstanding between two friendly cooperative bases, the Guiwu side, to express their apologies, waived the shipping cost for this batch of fertilizer.

To raise the lords' enthusiasm for improving their soil, the Hui San base commander specially approved a dedicated fertilizer subsidy. After the subsidy, lords could purchase crab-shell fertilizer at 3 points per jin, in the amounts they needed, to improve the soil of their already-cultivated farmland within their territories.

Not only the fields planted with overwintering crops—the amount of fertilizer the base sold at a discount was calculated based on the farmland the lords had already cultivated.

All farmland within a territory had to be sampled as required, then tested and the fertilizer dosage calculated by the designated agency, after which the lords purchased fertilizer by quota to improve all the farmland within their territories!

The lords, who had thought they would have to bankrupt themselves to buy fertilizer, were fired with enthusiasm; the chatter on the walkie-talkies did not stop all night.

Xia Qing inspected Center Nine, confirmed that the soil improvement work was proceeding in an orderly fashion, and then returned to her own territory.

She had no time to rest at all. She called Hu Zi Feng over to spread the purchased crab-shell fertilizer on the fields through the night. Then, using a handful of green-lamp pasture, she had Sheep Leader, wearing night-vision goggles, plow the land once over, brought over the pump from the water-fertilizer integrated machine, and pumped water to irrigate the improved fields.

Although Sheep Leader, having plowed over a dozen mu, still had strength to spare, Xia Qing couldn't bear to make it pedal the water-drawing bike to water the fields at night.

Sheep Leader, having finished pulling the plow, had no objections either. It lay at the edge of the field chewing its cud in reverse, watching its two subordinates busy in the field.

All the territories in this area were irrigating their farmland at the same time, so the river's water level dropped by a large margin, causing the lords to speed up once more for fear that other territories would use up all the river water.

When the morning mist dispersed, filthy Xia Qing lay side by side with Sheep Leader and Wolf Lao Er on the slope of the West Buffer Forest, quietly watching the sun rise from the east through the breaking morning mist, her heart brimming with strength.

She had once again overcome a catastrophe, and could continue to survive on this stretch of territory together with her companions.