Chapter 141: How Many Melons Can One Vine Grow

Logically speaking, the first batch of potatoes had problems, so the quality of this batch of seeds should be guaranteed.

Xia Qing knew how difficult it was to cultivate edible crops after the Catastrophe, and she also understood why the germination rate of crops was so low.

But Luo Pei had said that the corn seeds he gave to each territory were the same grain seeds openly traded within the Safe Zone.

The lords used grain painstakingly grown by themselves to trade for seeds from the Safe Zone management department, yet the germination rate was ten percent lower than what was on the market — that was utterly unreasonable.

After the Catastrophe, base management was chaotic, and most of those in power racked their brains to pursue private gain. Even the tiniest sliver of authority would be exploited to the utmost.

In this unreasonable grain seed incident, no one knew how many layers of power and interest exchanges were entangled.

In the ten years she had spent at the bottom of the base, Xia Qing had lost count of how many times she had seen and experienced this kind of thing.

When someone bullied her and she could fight back, Xia Qing struck back on the spot. When she couldn't fight back, she jotted it down in her little notebook and waited for the right moment to retaliate.

If she truly couldn't find a suitable moment, even if it was just throwing a stone to smash two panes of his glass to make him uncomfortable, Xia Qing wouldn't let herself stew in frustration.

Honest people had long been bullied to death; none of those who survived to the tenth year of the Catastrophe were pushovers. The lords definitely wouldn't let this matter drop.

We'll see.

Xia Qing carefully recorded the seed germination data in her notebook, then took out a seedling-transplanting trowel, moved the seedlings from the densely sprouted spots to the bare spots, and watered them.

Transplanting had to be done early; once the seedlings grew and their roots deepened, they were easy to kill in the move.

After finishing the corn seedlings, Xia Qing went around the mung bean field, the cotton field, and the vegetable field one by one, and finally arrived at the sweet potato, potato, and pumpkin fields.

Xia Qing had traded with Tan Junjie and obtained sixteen sweet potato seedlings in total. During the second Calamity Rain, six underwent Calamity evolution, and four, although they didn't undergo Calamity evolution, saw their internal Calamity element content rise, shifting from green light to yellow light.

So out of the sixteen green-light sweet potatoes she had planted in March, only six green-light ones remained now.

Of the two hundred sweet potato vines she had cuttings-planted in mid-May, a hundred and forty still survived — sixty green-light and eighty yellow-light.

The cutting-planted sweet potatoes had also entered the late growth stage. As long as the third Calamity Rain didn't bring a long-duration red-level shower, the proportion of Calamity-evolved sweet potatoes wouldn't be too high.

Even if a long-duration red-level Calamity Rain did appear, Xia Qing wasn't afraid, because she had the Yi Stones. According to the data Luo Pei had given her, her three Yi Stones could protect a circular area about forty-five meters in diameter. Although it wasn't enough to cover all the farmland, the key areas could still be shielded.

A bountiful harvest was in sight.

Although the potato vines were even more withered than a few days ago, Xia Qing wasn't in a rush to dig them up, because even if she dug them out she had nowhere to store them. She would wait until the potatoes were fully mature, then dig them all out at once and store them in the mountain cave.

In the few days since the mountain cave was dug out, Xia Qing had been continuously monitoring the temperature and humidity inside. The temperature was between thirteen and sixteen degrees, and the humidity was about the same as outside.

If the mountain cave didn't leak during the third Calamity Rain, Xia Qing would start waterproofing and damp-proofing it, then install Yi Stones inside and store food there.

She was now like a diligent little squirrel, constantly fussing over her nest, striving to stockpile food for the winter.

Speaking of squirrels, Xia Qing got angry.

The six jin of tobacco shreds she had traded for with mung beans had been carried off, half of them, by that red-haired evolved squirrel, and not a single bird had been lured.

Xia Qing didn't stuff the remaining half into the bird's nest anymore either; she simply put it into the mountain cave to use as a moisture-absorbing material.

Passing the sweet potato field and the potato field, Xia Qing stopped beside the pumpkin field. Looking at the pumpkins that had grown to the size of a baby's fist, she was reminded again of the matter of how many pumpkins to leave on one vine.

Xia Qing turned on the walkie-talkie and heard Qi Fu discussing with Shi Zhong the feasibility of raising fish and shrimp in the rice paddy.

Xia Qing wasn't interested in this.

Most fish had already evolved teeth — they could chomp through wire mesh with a crunch, so gnawing on rice roots would be a piece of cake. Even if she picked fish that hadn't evolved teeth to put in, they might still evolve teeth during the Calamity Rain. Xia Qing only had a little over five hundred rice plants; she couldn't afford the gamble.

After they finished that topic, Xia Qing asked, "Brother Qi, how many pumpkins is it appropriate to leave on one vine?"

Qi Fu answered patiently, "It's hard to say right now. We all first leave two or three pumpkins on each vine, and once they grow a bit bigger we look at how they're doing before deciding how many to keep. Try to keep the ones closer to the root."

"Alright, thanks, Brother Qi." Xia Qing thanked him, grabbed her machete, and began tidying up the pumpkins.

After tidying up the ten yellow-light pumpkins in the cultivated field, Xia Qing took her blade and hurried to the terraced fields to deal with the five green-light pumpkins there, when she heard Zhao Ze say, "Xia Qing, you weren't around last night. Third Brother even asked about you."

Xia Qing pressed the button. "I was too tired yesterday. I finished my work and went straight to sleep. Does Brother Zhao know what Third Brother wanted me for?"

"Third Brother didn't say." Zhao Ze asked curiously, "There isn't any heavy work in the fields right now either. What are you busy with?"

Zhao Ze's tone reminded Xia Qing of the people in Territory Four climbing trees to spy on her territory. She replied coldly, "It's precisely because the field work hasn't been heavy these past two days that I found time to forge a couple of blades. My strength has increased, so the old blades felt too light and weren't comfortable to use."

Zhao Ze...

Scary, can't afford to offend, I'll steer clear.

Kuang Qingwei immediately asked, "I didn't expect Sister Xia Qing to have this skill too. Do you sell the iron blades you forge? How many points per blade?"

Xia Qing, who had stopped in the pumpkin terraced field on the hillside, pressed the walkie-talkie button. "I haven't mastered the craft. It took me two days to forge just two blades. They're for my own use. I'm not selling."

Shi Zhong spoke up too. "Being able to forge your own saves a lot of trouble. The three machetes I brought out from the Safe Zone have already chipped, and I still have to take them back to the Safe Zone to be repaired."

Xia Qing replied, "My machete is broken too. If I take it to the smithy, they charge too many points. I had no choice but to buy materials and repair it myself."

Tang Huai, who was cleaning his gun, muttered softly, "I was wondering why Territory Three has been going clang-clang-bang these past two days. So she's forging iron. She really knows how to do everything."

Tang Zhengpo, who was reading, reminded his son, "Stop staring at Territory Three all the time. Xia Qing came out here to farm. There's nothing to it."

Tang Huai quietly complained, "Dad, I really haven't been staring at Territory Three. She's so loud that even if I don't want to hear it, I can't help but hear it."

"You've had sharp ears since you were little. Your mother and I would say something in the living room, and you'd hear it even with your bedroom door closed upstairs."

Of Tang Zhengpo's three children, only Tang Huai had undergone auditory evolution. He was the hope of their family. "You're thirty this year. It's time you thought about getting married. Find a high-level Evolver to marry, and the next generation will be able to live more easily."

"Dad should think about my sister first. Best to find me a brother-in-law with brain-domain evolution. If the two of them have a child, it'll be a sure brain-domain Evolver." Tang Huai hated hearing this and immediately shifted the topic to his sister. "My sister is thirty-five this year."

Tang Zhengpo had actually considered this matter. "What do you think of Xie Yu?"

Xie Yu, the second-in-command of the Azure Dragon Squad?

Tang Huai immediately shook his head. "Let's forget it. He's bald. I don't want my little nephew to go bald before he's even grown up."

Tang Zhengpo laughed in exasperation, rolled up his book, and knocked his son on the head. "You brat, what era is this and you're still judging by looks?"

Tang Huai covered his head and chuckled. "People judge by looks in any era. Otherwise, how would Yang Jin be so popular?"

Speaking of Yang Jin, Tang Zhengpo asked, "Yang Jin is popular mainly because he's a top-tier Evolver, and he's also smart. Isn't Yang Jin at Territory One now? How do you still have time to come over here?"

Speaking of this, Tang Huai huffed in annoyance. "He just got back to the base and came straight over without even going to the Safe Zone. I thought something big had happened, but there's not a peep out of Territory One. I heard from Wei Chengdong that Yang Jin hasn't rested well these past few days. He's shut himself in sleeping."

"Yang Jin never stirs without profit. He teamed up with Fire Phoenix to explore the sea at Guicheng Base, so they must have made a big haul." Tang Zhengpo twirled the pen in his hand, thinking.

Tang Heng continued, "Luo Pei is permanently stationed at Territory One and has even led people to open up over a thousand mu of farmland. Yang Jin didn't go back to the Safe Zone this time; he came straight here. I think the Azure Dragon Squad really is planning to shift the squad's focus from the Safe Zone to this side. Dad, what do you think is hidden in Mountain Forty-Nine that's worth the Azure Dragon Squad investing so heavily?"