Chapter 133: Application to Search Territory Nine

It is now eleven in the morning, the outside temperature is twenty-eight degrees, and the temperature inside the cave is slowly dropping — currently sixteen degrees, meeting the requirement.

The humidity inside and outside the cave is about the same right now; controlling humidity is no problem for Xia Qing — it's just a matter of installing a door and using some dehumidifying materials.

However, this is Xia Qing's first time digging a mountain cave, so she can't judge whether it will collapse or leak. She'll have to see how the cave holds up during the third Calamity Rain before deciding whether to store food inside.

After finishing the cave, Xia Qing went home, took a shower, and only then went to check on her second crop of plants.

Very good — not a single one has sprouted. Xia Qing sighed, turned to look at the cotton to soothe her eyes and relax.

The cotton is now about one and a half meters tall; the lower fruiting branches bear cotton bolls, the middle ones are blooming, and the upper ones have flower buds. On the ground, quite a few small cotton bolls have fallen.

Every cotton boll is hard-won. Fertilizing, weeding, watering, pruning the wild shoots, removing the side buds, pinching the tips — everything she could do, Xia Qing did exactly as the Complete Planting Guide, the broadcasts, and Qi Fu's teachings prescribed. If the bolls still drop, there's nothing more she can do.

Xia Qing picked up a freshly fallen small cotton boll as a little top, spun it in her palm to play with, then went to look at the pumpkin field.

Compared with the cotton, the pumpkin vines that Xia Qing had given a thorough trimming were far more well-behaved.

Ten Yellow Lantern pumpkin vines had actually produced twelve flowers of various sizes, and beneath the wilted blossoms, fuzzy little green pumpkins had already formed. Seeing these little pumpkins made Xia Qing's hands itch; she couldn't resist wanting to take a few more cuts at the vines to make them bear more fruit.

How many pumpkins should one vine be left with? If this many flowers open, will they compete for the plant's nutrients, so that in the end not a single pumpkin grows big — like the cotton dropping its bolls?

Xia Qing turned on the walkie-talkie to ask Qi Fu, and heard Kuang Qingwei talking about fertilizer.

"Yes, it's worm castings, two points per jin. Anyone who wants some, place an order with Captain Zhong — Captain Zhong and his team can use a truck to help deliver it."

Shi Chong of Plot Ten asked, "Is delivery free? Fertilizer isn't light."

Kuang Qingwei answered enthusiastically, "That I don't know. But even if there's a delivery fee for Captain Zhong and his team, the seller covers it — nothing to do with us. Who's buying? There's over two thousand jin ready to go right now. Captain Zhong says our area has a lot of people, so he can make a special trip just for us. If you want worm castings later on, you'll have to order in advance — no telling when your delivery will be scheduled."

Over two thousand jin? Xia Qing, who was playing with the cotton boll, raised an eyebrow. Had Sun Zhe expanded his worm farm, or had other people also started making fertilizer?

Qi Fu and Xia Qing had already ordered quite a lot of worm castings from Sun Zhe, but the two of them still ordered five hundred jin along with Shi Chong and Zhao Ze; the rest Kuang Qingwei bought up entirely.

After the worm castings were divided up, Kuang Qingwei actually started talking about crab-shell fertilizer. "Brought over from the Guicheng base — it's the good fertilizer used by their planting center. It's not just crab shells inside, but they're all bones of sea creatures, with crab shells making up the biggest share. You can use it with absolute confidence."

"Because of the distance, the price is higher than worm castings — six points per jin, and there's plenty to go around."

Hearing there was phosphorus fertilizer, Shi Chong and Qi Fu were both very interested and asked question after question. Kuang Qingwei wouldn't say a word about the source of the crab-shell fertilizer, only that it worked well and was absolutely worth the price.

Because of the high price, Qi Fu and Shi Chong didn't dare order much without seeing the goods first; each bought a hundred jin. Kuang Qingwei asked the others, "Xia Qing, Zhao Ze, you two don't want any? This is good stuff — miss this village and there'll be no such shop again. Without phosphorus fertilizer, crops won't grow well; if they don't grow well, they won't survive the Calamity Rain; and if they don't survive the Calamity Rain, you won't just lose your harvest — you might wreck your land and hurt people."

"No points left." Xia Qing refused outright. She could buy fertilizer from Zhong Tao at four points per jin, so naturally she wouldn't pay two extra points to buy it from Kuang Qingwei.

Zhao Ze also didn't want to spend money unnecessarily. "I'll wait until Qi-ge and Shi-ge have used theirs up and see how it works before deciding."

After finishing the business talk, Kuang Qingwei brought up the latest news he'd picked up. "The sea creatures over at the Guicheng base are getting more and more out of control. I heard a large stretch of territory in the southwest of Huiwu Base was seized, and over two hundred thousand people have fled from Guisan to Huiwu Base in the last two months."

Shi Chong sighed. "Even if they're from different bases, they're all citizens of Hua. If they really come in huge mobs to seize food, the army won't be able to stop them all, and they won't shoot everyone dead either."

Zhao Ze tried to comfort himself. "We're on the north side of the Safe Zone. Even if people from Guicheng come, they'll hit the Safe Zone first — they won't reach us. If they really do come, we'll just harvest our crops early and run."

Qi Fu showed a fierce side he had never before revealed on the lord channel. "I'm not running. If they dare to charge into my territory, I'll kill every single one of them."

"Same here." Xia Qing chimed in. No matter how many came, she would kill them all clean. This was her territory; the food in it had been grown by her, one seed at a time. Anyone who came to seize it, she would kill.

Zhao Ze asked quietly, "Is Assistant Liu there? I remember Fourth Sister saying she has poisons that can shut up anything that breathes. I want to trade for some to keep on hand."

Online customer service Xiao Liu replied immediately, "Mr. Zhao, our territory does indeed have several preparations with this kind of effect, but they are for experimental use only and are not for sale. Here we suggest you consider hiring Evolvers to protect your territory, or purchasing weapons for self-defense."

Hearing that Territory Nine had several kinds of poisons, the lords' hearts were all in their throats.

Xia Qing put down her little top, took out her phone, and began flipping through the Territory Law — she remembered that storing highly toxic drugs within a territory violated the Territory Law.

Before Xia Qing could find the relevant legal provisions, Zhang San spoke up. "Is Tan Junjie there?"

"Captain Tan isn't here. If you have something to say, you can tell me." The one who answered Zhang San was Hu Zi, a member of the Inspection Team.

Zhang San stated calmly, "According to our country's regulations on the management of hazardous chemicals, including toxic and harmful drugs, Class II and above hazardous chemicals must be stored and managed centrally, and may not be taken out of base laboratories without authorization. Territory Nine is not a base laboratory, yet it stores preparations classified as Class I hazardous chemicals — this is illegal. I request Captain Tan report this immediately, and immediately conduct a search and clearance of the hazardous chemicals in Territory Nine to ensure the safety of the surrounding territories."

"Right!" Xia Qing had just turned to the interpretive provisions of the Territory Law concerning the management of toxic and harmful drugs and chemical preparations when Zhang San spoke up.

Territories don't belong to the Safe Zone, and the danger level is high. The lords would certainly prepare self-defense measures to the best of their ability — like Xia Qing's gun.

Li Si of Territory Nine does research; keeping some toxic chemicals for self-protection is normal. Although keeping them is illegal, if she doesn't talk about it, who would know?

But Li Si had mentioned it once when she was trying to scare Tang Huai before, and now Xiao Liu says there are several kinds. For Territory Nine to speak about it like this means they simply don't take the relevant laws and regulations seriously.

With natural disasters raging, the country is busy fighting them and doesn't have enough law enforcement personnel, so many people despise the law and act wantonly.

Territory Nine openly says on the lord channel that they have contraband — do they think the Inspection Team will turn a blind eye, or do they think they can use this kind of tactic to intimidate the other lords?

The other nearby lords really didn't dare, or it wasn't worth it, to openly go up against Territory Nine — just as Xia Qing would only report it privately to Tan Junjie.

But the always-petty Zhang San was not afraid of Territory Nine. With this chance right in front of him, it would be strange if he let Territory Nine off the hook. The people of Territory Nine knew Zhang San well; they should have thought of this. The more Xia Qing mulled it over, the more she felt something was off about this whole thing.

Hearing Zhang San ask the Inspection Team to search Territory Nine, Assistant Xiao Liu's customer-service-style gentle tone could not be maintained. She explained hurriedly, "There are no hazardous materials in our Territory Nine. What I said earlier was nonsense I made up to protect myself."

Xia Qing, who had been in close contact with Xiao Liu of Territory Nine for two days, felt that her emotional shift now was a bit off — as if this Xiao Liu was not the same person as the one she had met.

Tan Junjie's stern voice came online. "We have received the lord's report and are requesting instructions to report it to the Territory Management Department. We ask the lord of Territory Nine to consent to the Hazardous Inspection Team entering Territory Nine to search for and confiscate Class I hazardous chemicals."

Territory Nine's Assistant Xiao Liu went offline; Li Si came online.

Li Si did not answer Tan Junjie's request, but pointed the spear directly at Zhang San. "All I have here are some common preparations for planting research. Is it necessary for you to go this far, Third Brother? I don't believe your territory doesn't have any. If the Inspection Team is going to search, then search Territory Seven along with it!"