Chapter 1245: The Exhausted Top-Tier Sniper

Zhao Baolin, the head of Hui-3's Planting Management Department, who had been dispatched to Gui-1 Base to oversee the crab-shell fertilizer procurement deal, along with Luo Pei, who was assigned to protect him, finally returned this afternoon at 3 p. m. with 150 tons of fertilizer at a markup of 600,000 contribution points.

All the crab-shell fertilizer Hui-3 needed to improve its farmland was now in place, and the Planting Center and the territory threw their entire workforce and machinery into soil improvement.

Of course it wasn't only Hui-3—both Hui City and Red City Bases, which had been affected by this natural disaster, were working day and night to improve their farmland and rush-plant overwintering grain crops.

Hui-3 Base, which had reacted fastest to this sudden natural disaster, suffered the least losses, and was the first to propose disaster-relief measures, was designated as a positive model and publicized nationwide. Hui-3 Base naturally also named Xia Qing an Advanced Disaster Relief Worker and gave her commendation and a reward.

What was the reward? 1,500 points and 500 points of base contribution value.

Because this mission was taken by Xia Qing in her capacity as a Hui-3 public official, on official business, the pay was much lower than when she took missions as a top-tier sniper. 1,500 points was one month's salary for a base administrator of her rank, so this reward was already not small.

For people living in the Safe Zone, 500 base contribution value had a better cost-performance ratio than 1,500 points. Because base contribution value could not only be used to exchange for supplies, but also to redeem housing discounts, medical security, and eligibility to purchase scarce supplies and other base welfare items.

What did 500 contribution value mean? Ordinary citizens had to make contributions to the base to earn contribution value. Xia Qing had been at Hui-3 Base for many years, and when she left the Safe Zone her base contribution value was 6,100 points, at a middle-to-lower level among ordinary evolvers.

After entering the territory and her combat power increased, she had multiple times assisted investigation teams in clearing dangers during the natural disaster, twice commanded disaster elimination after becoming an administrator, later took two missions as a top-tier sniper, and added the contribution value earned from this official trip—her contribution value finally broke ten thousand, reaching points.

This figure was still at a low position among advanced evolvers, but Xia Qing didn't care about such things.

Because she lived in a territory more than two hundred li from the Safe Zone, first, she had no plans to buy housing in the Safe Zone's inner city; second, she didn't need to go to Safe Zone hospitals for treatment or to buy medicine; third, she had no children who needed to attend the Safe Zone's better-quality schools—so contribution value was of little use to her.

The 1,500-point reward was deposited directly into Xia Qing's salary card, and she declined the commendation ceremony. So the commendation ceremony was changed into an experience-sharing session, to be held at a suitable date after the overwintering wheat was planted, at the Safe Zone Agricultural Department.

Xia Qing had already confirmed her participation in the Blue Dragon Squad's November sniper training camp and could not attend the experience-sharing session, so it was changed to be attended by Yue Haiying, deputy director of the Ninth Center, Yan Yue, office director, and Tang Heng, head of the Territory Alliance's Soil Research Department—all of whom had made outstanding contributions in this disaster relief—who would introduce the disaster-relief experience of Northern District One to other planting units of the Agricultural Department.

For this, Tang Zhengpo specifically called Xia Qing to express his thanks.

Everyone was smart, and the words didn't need to be spelled out—Xia Qing immediately understood that the Tang family intended to use this as an opportunity to groom Tang Heng for a political career.

Everyone said that after the Great Biological Evolution, Blue Star belonged to the evolvers. But in the Tang family, this saying simply didn't exist.

Tang Zhengpo was not an evolver, and he didn't use that standard to evaluate his three children either; instead, based on each child's abilities and interests, he chose development paths for them.

The eldest, Tang Ning, went into business, managing the family's restaurants, hotels, and supermarkets; the second, Tang Huai, stayed in the territory to farm and raise insects, supplying the family shops with high-quality ingredients; the third, Tang Heng, entered politics, to raise the Tang family's voice at Hui-3 Base.

In the foreseeable future, the Tang family would only do better and better. Xia Qing had taken a liking to their character and abilities, so she decided to bring the Tang family in to jointly open a fertilizer plant.

Besides the Tang family and the Blue Dragon Squad, Xia Qing also invited her idol Zhang San and four retired soldiers from the Jiaolong Special Operations Team of Territory Eleven.

Unexpectedly, the day she sent out the invitations, something came up and the big shot was in a bad mood and refused to cooperate.

So, the four-party cooperation among Xia Qing, the Tang family, Territory Eleven, and the Blue Dragon Squad planned to contract a stretch of coastline east of the eastern Evolution Forest of Hui-3, rich in sea crabs and shellfish resources, build a primary processing plant by the sea to remove salt and organic residues from the crab and shells, then transport them back to the territory's deep-processing plant to be ground, have harmful substances removed, and fermented, producing high-quality organic fertilizer.

Territory Eleven was responsible for obtaining raw materials from the coastline and the sea; the Blue Dragon Squad was responsible for the seaside primary processing plant and raw material transport; the Tang family was responsible for the secondary processing plant and sales.

Xia Qing?

She provided the organic fertilizer plant with the agent for removing harmful substances from raw materials, and served as the technical guide for that production link.

Removing harmful substances was the highest-tech core production link in this type of organic fertilizer manufacturing, determining the fertilizer's quality. If this link didn't meet the standard, it would fail product quality inspection and couldn't be brought to market.

Did Xia Qing have this ability? No—she was learning on the job and selling as she went.

So, after planting the overwintering wheat, Xia Qing had to both attend special training and frantically study highly technical knowledge and complete its transformation and practical application in the short term, as well as give lessons to the wolf pack.

Such a busy Xia Qing naturally had no time to run to the Safe Zone to attend the experience-sharing session.

What would others think if she didn't show up? What others thought had nothing to do with her, not worth half a point!

"Whatever they want!"

Looking at Xia Qing sprawled on the sofa, Seeing Xin Yu, although she felt a bit sorry for her, still couldn't help laughing. "Try this dragon fruit, it really tastes good."

That morning, Xia Qing had spent half a day attending a class with researcher Zhang Xu at Territory Seven, and when she came out her head was dizzy and swollen.

Daya, seeing she was in bad shape, picked two green-light dragon fruits from the greenhouse and gave them to her.

These were premium fruits being cultivated by Zhang Tao's group; once cultivation succeeded, they would be promoted for planting at Hui-3 Base.

However, judging from the current research progress, widespread planting was still a long way off. Because the attack-type mutation rate of the dragon fruit couldn't be brought down.

Once this crop underwent attack-type mutation, it became high-risk level. Its attack ability could instantly smash dancing potato vines to bits.

The reason Zhang Tao's group chose to research such a dangerous fruit was that the dragon fruit plant was not tall, could be grown in greenhouses, yielded over 8,000 jin per mu, and was a high-fiber, high-antioxidant "superfruit."

If promotion succeeded, it would greatly improve the dietary quality of ordinary citizens.

Tempted by the delicacy, Xia Qing, who had nearly worked herself to death on the training field, didn't get up either—she just opened her mouth.

Seeing Xin Yu used chopsticks to pick up a piece of dragon fruit and stuffed it into her mouth.

"Really pretty good." As the delicacy entered her mouth, Xia Qing blissfully narrowed her eyes, her expression very Wolf Lao Er-like. "I'll mention it to Third Brother, exchange a few dragon fruit saplings next spring—do you want some?"

"Yes!"

Territory Eight had standardized planting greenhouses, so of course Seeing Xin Yu wouldn't refuse such a delicious and high-yield fruit.

After eating two more pieces, Xia Qing finally stated the purpose of inviting her friend over today. "Do you want to go to Territory Seven to learn crab-shell processing techniques?"

Seeing Xin Yu, whose lips had been dyed red by the dragon fruit, was stunned. "I can go too?"