Chapter 1292: Cultivable Optimized Spinach

After encouraging the little monkey who was striving for self-sufficiency, Xia Qing crossed the greenhouse planted with overwintering wheat and stepped slowly onto the stone slab bridge. The water level beneath the bridge had dropped a section, and the current had slowed; the grass seed-heads and dew-laden blades of wild grass on both banks of the reservoir were heavy with moisture—one touch and a sheet of dew would drip down, wetting her shoes and trouser cuffs.

This scene gave Xia Qing a sense of urgency.

After Blue Star evolved, Hui City's climate in spring, summer, and autumn remained similar to before the catastrophe, but winter had undergone obvious changes. In another half month, the temperature would plummet from the current around 10°C to between minus 15 and minus 25°C, ushering in the ice-bound winter.

In the eleventh year after the catastrophe, humanity already knew how to cope with winter. But this year's situation was more complicated—the sudden evolution of soil microbes a few days ago might trigger a medium-to-large-scale beast tide.

Relying entirely on iron-net walls to resist a medium-to-large beast tide was not enough.

A few days ago, she had witnessed from the air how animals had scaled Liehuo's solid wall over six meters high and trampled Liehuo Mountain flat. The wall in North Sector One was only a little over four meters high—even with electricity running through it, it couldn't stop a medium-to-large beast tide.

Once fierce beasts charged in, people could take shelter underground, but immobile houses and greenhouses would be trampled flat by the beast tide, so the tide absolutely had to be stopped from surging into North Sector One's territory.

Therefore, before the beast tide charged over, humanity had to dispatch at least three disaster-elimination echelons to guide the out-of-control animals back into the Evolution Forest, or eliminate them directly.

As North Sector One's top sniper, Xia Qing would entrust her territory to the Beard Feng Squad, while she herself led the First Disaster-Elimination Echelon and stood on the very front line.

Although she had a certain confidence in herself, in her allies, and in the screening squad led by Tan Junjie, the necessary preparations still had to be made in advance, just in case.

One of the preparation tasks she had to complete today was harvesting the eighty-plus stalks of Gao Yi Element spinach from the terraced fields.

This was the last crop of Gao Yi Element green-light spinach Xia Qing had grown outdoors this year; the plants' Yi Element content ranged between 7.5 and 8.1?.

Xia Qing first pulled out over thirty stalks of spinach with relatively low Yi Element content, then stood holding an iron shovel beside a dark-green spinach whose leaves were growing flat against the ground, somewhat unable to bring herself to do it.

This stalk of spinach, with a Yi Element content of 8.1?, was the only cultivable optimized variety to appear in this crop, and also the highest-Yi-Element-content spinach Xia Qing had cultivated in two years.

The beast tide wasn't the main reason—if it weren't that researcher Zhang Han from Territory Seven was going to enter her territory, Xia Qing would have covered this crop of spinach with a layer of plant ash, pressed straw on top, and protected them with Yi Stones, letting them live until next spring, set seed successfully, and then use this spinach seed to cultivate even better-quality spinach.

But now, she could no longer leave them in the terraced fields.

After Zhang Han entered Territory Three, she would certainly not only inspect the beekeeping greenhouse, but also apply to collect several plant samples from within the territory. If she collected this one stalk, she could determine that Hui-3 Base's X-2 had been cultivated from Xia Qing's place.

Because the figure of 8.1? was one point higher than the Yi Element content of X-2 spinach cultivated in the standardized greenhouses that the Hui-3 Research Institute and the Planting Center inside the Safe Zone used to drive out Qiang Element.

Once this news was released, a large number of breeding experts would become interested in her crudely equipped terraced fields and apply to come in for research.

So exposing the spinach's quality was equivalent to exposing that this was the origin of X-2, equivalent to exposing the most important resource within her territory—the unpolluted spring water.

Xia Qing took a deep breath, used the big iron shovel to dig up this cultivable optimized spinach, transplanting the whole plant into a pot. This spinach was too precious to waste. Xia Qing would move it into the artificial climate cultivation room in her laboratory, letting it bolt and set seed during winter.

Spinach is a dioecious plant, so she couldn't transplant only this one stalk. Xia Qing selected and transplanted over thirty more stalks of spinach, moving them all into the cultivation room together.

After clearing the high-Yi-Element spinach from the terraced fields, Xia Qing put the over thirty stalks of spinach harvested with roots into a vegetable basket. These spinach would be juiced by her to make X Nutrient Liquid, putting her in the best physical condition to cope with the Qiang Snow Period and the beast tide.

After tidying up the spinach terraced fields, Xia Qing heard the north gate open. She carried the basket out of the greenhouse and saw Wolf Lao Er, filthy dirty, trotting back with its little basket in its mouth, followed by a drenched old wolf with a satchel hanging around its neck.

The old wolf truly cared about the eye health of its pack members, having crossed several hundred li of Evolution Forest to come over this early.

Seeing Xia Qing, Wolf Lao Er wagged its tail.

"Wolf Lao Er didn't just catch bugs, it caught a rabbit too?! That's amazing. Wolf Lao Si, you've come over this early?"

Wolf Lao Er broke into a happy smile, and the old wolf nodded.

After the temperature dropped, bugs had all hidden in warm places; Wolf Lao Er must have found a warm valley and dug them out from under fallen leaves and soft soil, which was why it was filthy. The old wolf had crossed the drenched Evolution Forest, its fur covered in dew.

Xia Qing took the little basket and checked the rabbit's quality. "The rabbit is yellow-light and contains no harmful substances—Wolf Lao Er is amazing. Let's go feed the chickens and fish first, then cook this rabbit for Wolf Lao Er to eat; Wolf Lao Si can have a few bites too."

One person and two wolves first went to the fish pond to feed the fish, then to the breeding greenhouse to feed the chickens, before going home to make breakfast. Xia Qing deftly skinned the rabbit and first brought the rabbit's innards to Wolf Number Two.

Although Wolf Number Two got along very well with Wolf Number Four, a wild animal that hasn't eaten its fill won't give up its food to another, unless the other is a cub. So Wolf Number Two ate all the innards itself, not leaving a single bite for Wolf Number Four.

Xia Qing chopped the rabbit meat, added four green-light eggs and boiled them together, and just before it came off the stove, added two handfuls of green-light jerky and six stalks of freshly dug spinach.

Then, she divided the meat and soup into two portions—this was Wolf Lao Er and Wolf Lao Si's food. The Elder's food was spinach with green-light cabbage; Does Daigua's was spinach with the green-light sweet potato roots it had dug itself; Xia Qing's was green-light meat pie and white rice porridge.

After breakfast, Xia Qing took out two light bulbs, told Wolf Lao Si how to use them, and proposed an exchange price: "One light bulb is 50 points. Wolf Lao Si, how many do you want to exchange for?"

Wolf Lao Si traced a "4" on the ground, then pulled a card reader and points card from its satchel, gesturing for Xia Qing to take out her points card.

Xia Qing handed her points card over and watched this old wolf, who loved playing with points cards, skillfully insert the card into the slot with its two clean big paws. The card reader's screen lit up, displaying two strings of numbers:

2430,.

After the Million-Points Old Wolf swiped four 50s, it stared at the screen for a full two minutes before pulling Xia Qing's points card out and giving it back to her.

Xia Qing took the points card and brought up the main reason she had called Wolf Lao Si over: "Wolf Lao Si, were the two wolves that watched videos to learn knowledge last night with Queen Lord Cui Yan, Broken-Face, and Broken-Face's dad newly joined your pack?"

The brown-gray male wolf that had been rescued together with the Broken-Face wolf cub when the old wolf took Xia Qing to the Wanderer Mountain Cave was Broken-Face's father. Broken-Face's mother had already died; Wolf Lao Si did not say the cause of death.