Chapter 1339: Borrowed Stay

The sound of Xia Qing using a micro-tiller to clear the ground and dig the foundation traveled into Territory Two.

Tang Huai, who was on a video call showing his family the green-light kudzu roots he had dug, pressed the walkie-talkie button. "Sister Qing, do you need help?"

Xia Qing operated the machine with one hand and pressed the walkie-talkie button with the other. "I'm digging the foundation for the kitchen and bathroom. I don't need help today, but tomorrow I'll need people to haul bricks over, cut rebar and make ring beams, and pour the main structure of the house. No meals provided, I'll pay hire points at market rate."

The lords of Northern District One's price for mutual labor was 5 points per day for ordinary workers, with evolved ones and skilled workers getting more as appropriate.

Xia Qing was hiring to build a house, so the construction skilled worker Qi Fu got 25 points per day.

Of course, that was the normal price. If allied support was needed during an emergency disaster period, the lords would quote a price based on the urgency of the rescue required.

After this year's third autumn rain, Xia Qing partnered with Territory Five to dig clay and chop wood to fire bricks, which could now be hauled back for building.

Besides the new bricks, Xia Qing had also prepared enough rebar, cement, putty powder, lumber, and stone. As long as there were enough hands, the main structure could be poured tomorrow, then after the concrete set, she'd hire people to help stack the walls, and the house's walls and roof would be done.

Then the allies would go to Mountain Fifty to modify the hidden valley, while Xia Qing handled the interior renovation of the two new rooms herself.

While everyone's attention was focused on the hidden valley, Xia Qing would work on the kitchen and bathroom interior renovation while also building the basement.

That way, even if some construction noise came from Territory Three, it wouldn't arouse suspicion.

Hearing Xia Qing needed help, Tang Huai immediately signed up. "I'm free tomorrow, I'll come over after breakfast."

Zhao Ze followed. "Sister Qing, I'll head over first thing tomorrow morning."

One after another, the allies eagerly signed up.

Besides the young and strong, Lord Huo Lei said he'd carry the machine over to cut rebar for Xia Qing, and Zhao's mother, who had only one hand, said she'd come help pass tools and chat with everyone, not counting as work.

Even Tan Qi said she had building experience and would bring Shiyi over to carry bricks, the two of them counting as one worker.

Tomorrow was the weekend, no school.

As long as they signed up in the lord channel, including Lord Seventeen Wen Nengjie, Xia Qing didn't refuse anyone.

The outside world was full of curiosity about Territory Three. Although quite a few people had entered Territory Three, very few had been to Xia Qing's courtyard.

Xia Qing took this opportunity to satisfy everyone's curiosity.

Two rooms didn't need this many people? But with more people coming, the work would be done sooner and they'd disperse earlier.

Not just these regularly online allies, Xia Qing's friend Seeing Xin Yu also came online upon hearing Territory Three was building new rooms. "Xia Qing, what building materials are you still short on? I'll bring them over tomorrow."

Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie button. "Do you have large sheets of glass on your end?"

Seeing Xin Yu replied, "Yes, send me the dimensions, I'll have someone cut them and deliver them to you. Shall I bury the underground septic tank pipes while I'm at it tomorrow?"

After soil anaerobic bacteria evolved, every territory in Northern District One was renovating kitchens and bathrooms, upgrading the level of domestic sewage treatment to improve the living environment.

Territory Eight had a construction team made up of refugees that specialized in taking on this kind of renovation project.

Within Territory Three, the house where Xia Qing lived and the small hut by the farm fields both already had septic tanks built. The newly built kitchen and bathroom didn't need new pits dug for septic tanks; pipes could just be connected to the existing septic tanks of the two-story building.

After thanking Seeing Xin Yu, Xia Qing began focusing on digging the foundation.

Sheep Boss and Wolf Lao Er, having eaten their fill, ran over and squeezed under the micro-tiller's cover, watching Xia Qing work.

Does Daigua also wanted to join the fun, but Does Ergua was afraid of the machine's huge noise and pungent smell and refused to go near it, so Does Daigua took Does Ergua under the eaves into the insect-proof netting set up there to pick cotton.

With so much farm work in the territory, picking cotton was Does Ergua's favorite.

Xia Qing, a Level Six and a half strength evolver, was a professional construction worker, and with professional equipment, she had dug the foundations for both rooms before dark.

After eating the packed dinner from Territory Seven, Xia Qing handed the territory over to Beard Feng and Xiao Jiang, left the territory, and headed for Mountain Forty-Nine, Area Three, to help Zhang Shi and her daughter move.

Although Xia Qing hadn't said anything, Beard Feng and Xiao Jiang both knew Xia Qing was going to the pig-raising valley on Mountain Forty-Nine.

Because twenty minutes earlier, the Broken-Waist Wolf, wearing protective gear, had gone to the bamboo rat greenhouse under Peak Three of Mountain Forty-Nine, properly collected samples of animal feces and soil from inside the greenhouse, tested the temperature and humidity inside, then bit a fat bamboo rat to death for dinner, and carrying the samples, headed for Mountain Forty-Nine, Area Three.

These samples would be tested in Territory Three's laboratory, and once the results came out, the Broken-Waist Wolf would determine, based on the results, who deserved a scolding.

Following the Broken-Waist Wolf's habit, after checking the bamboo rats, it would stop by to check the wild boars raised in the valley. Xia Qing was the person in charge of the pig-raising, so she had to go over to inspect and take samples with the Broken-Waist Wolf.

To be honest, Beard Feng and Xiao Jiang were very curious about this inspection, eager to know if the Broken-Waist Wolf would dare to growl at Xia Qing if substandard conditions were found in the pig-raising valley, and how it would handle the vine it had taken from the bamboo rat greenhouse.

Just twenty minutes earlier, the Broken-Waist Wolf, using its keen sense of smell, had discovered that when Er Yong fed bamboo leaves to the bamboo rats, he hadn't picked out a thin vine mixed in with the leaves.

That counted as not being careful with work, and deserved a scolding.

After being scolded, Er Yong amiably explained to the Broken-Waist Wolf that the thin vine was non-toxic, wasn't food for the bamboo rats, and it was fine mixed in with the tender bamboo leaves.

After hearing the explanation, the Broken-Waist Wolf didn't lose its temper, just solemnly stuffed the section of thin vine wrapped around the bamboo branch into a packaging bag and took it away.

From the look of things, the Broken-Waist Wolf was going to identify the vine and figure out whether it was actually harmful to the bamboo rats. The Broken-Waist Wolf's actions had already made Er Yong uneasy, even suspecting that it wasn't an ordinary thin vine, but a harmfully evolved thin vine.

"Broken-Waist, this is Tenth Sister, who used to live in the hidden valley. She's staying in this cave for 10 days, and once the basement in my territory is built, she'll move in."

At nine in the evening, inside the cave in the pig-raising valley on Mountain Forty-Nine, Xia Qing lowered her voice and introduced Zhang Shi to the Broken-Waist Wolf.

Following the key points Xia Qing had told her in advance, Zhang Shi tried to keep her breathing and heartbeat steady as she greeted the evolved wolf whose combat ability completely overwhelmed her. "Brother Duan, I'm Zhang Shi, sorry for the trouble."

Sensing that the evolved wolf before her wasn't radiating a sharp, hostile magnetic field, Zhang Shi tried to stay calm and waited for the evolved wolf's reaction.

She had already joined Territory Three, and needed to learn as soon as possible how to communicate with the evolved wolf and adapt to her future work environment.

Because the patient she had to care for was also a brain-domain evolved wolf.

The Broken-Waist Wolf stopped looking at Zhang Shi and turned its head to stare at Xia Qing's backpack.

Xia Qing immediately opened the backpack, letting the Broken-Waist Wolf see the sleeping little Ye Yiyi, and explained in a low voice, "This is a human infant, Yiyi. She can't be stimulated, so Tenth Sister gave her medication in advance to prevent her condition from being triggered by the change of environment."