Chapter 144: Hail

After greeting them, Xia Qing hauled hard on the rope to pull the rain cover up, only to find Ram Boss standing still without moving.

This wasn't Ram Boss's fault — it had never done this work before and didn't know how to pull. The moisture and chill in the gale grew heavier and heavier. Though Xia Qing, who had been battered by natural disasters for ten years, was anxious, she was not at all flustered. She pulled the rope faster while calling out to Ram Boss, "Boss, stay put. Once I get this side fixed, I'll be right over."

Xia Qing pulled the rope harder, dragging the rain cover from the east side of the greenhouse to the west, quickly tied off the rope securing the rain cover, and rushed over to Ram Boss — only to find the lead wolf gripping the rope in its teeth and pulling hard, with the rain cover already half raised by it.

"Queen, my lord, that's right, just like that." Xia Qing was delighted. She turned to secure the rain cover in the middle of the greenhouse, then rushed to Ram Boss and the lead wolf, took the rope from the wolf's mouth, and quickly tied it off. The wind and rain were coming on fierce; Xia Qing had no time to seal the rain cover airtight, so she could only shield these seedlings first, then move on to the next shed.

"Ram Boss is awesome, Queen, my lord is amazing. Come on, let's hit the next one."

Xia Qing charged toward the planting area on the lower slope with one wolf and one sheep, and kept busy.

The Beard Feng squad, who had run over from Territory One to help, were stunned at the sight of one person, one wolf, and one sheep laying rain covers in the gale. Two of them even lost their footing and tumbled down the hillside.

Is this something a normal person, a normal sheep, and a normal wolf could pull off?

What the hell… is this something a normal person could witness?

Beard Feng came to his senses first and bellowed, "What are you all gawking at? Three to a group — grab rain covers from the cabin and cover the sheds. The rain's about to hit. Move!"

"Yes, sir!" The nine squad members immediately split into three groups and sprinted toward the cabin. Beard Feng, steeling himself, charged toward the planting greenhouses on the lower slope and shouted to Xia Qing from a distance, "Xia Qing, I'll help you."

With the Beard Feng squad arrived, Xia Qing felt half-relieved. "Captain Hu, secure the rain cover on this end. I'll take that end. We'll pull it up together in a bit."

"Got it." Beard Feng, steeling himself, ignored the wolf that clearly looked like trouble, quickly tied off one corner of the rain cover, and stood up to help Xia Qing swing the rope — only to find that since he'd arrived, the wolf and the sheep had both knocked off. The sheep stood nearby in spectator mode, and the wolf had vanished somewhere.

No time to worry about the wolf and the sheep — covering the rain covers was the priority. Beard Feng sped up.

The Beard Feng squad had been doing farm work in Territory One and Territory Three for months now and were no longer the farming newbies they once were. They worked in sync, moving fast.

When the dark clouds were swept up by the gale from the east and covered the entire sky, everyone felt the temperature plummeting.

"It might be hail — hurry!"

Xia Qing bellowed, clutching the last rain cover as she charged toward the sweet potato, potato, and pumpkin sheds that hadn't been covered yet. She quickly checked the progress of the other groups and shouted, "Chen Zheng, come help Captain Hu and me cover the last greenhouse. The rest of you, once you've finished your current sheds, move on to the small ones — the red lantern peanuts, dianzi, and forage grass."

"Yes, ma'am!"

In the gale, everyone shouted back and moved fast. No matter how much Qiong element the hail carried, vegetables smashed by hail were done for.

When the walnut-sized hailstones came crashing down hard, no one had time to even cry out in pain — they all sped up. They were wearing protective masks and suits anyway, so getting hit by hail only hurt.

After Xia Qing pressed the rain cover onto the last greenhouse, she stood up straight in the shed, took one look at the pumpkin plants — not a single leaf left intact by the hail — and shouted to Beard Feng, a dozen meters away, "Captain Hu, take your squad to the cabin and rest. I have to head home to check on the wolves."

The wind was blowing from the east now, and the sheep shed was the west room with its door facing east. When she'd left in the morning, the sheep shed's big door was open. If the door hadn't been closed, the hail would be smashing straight into the sheep shed right now.

The two money gods in the sheep shed had only just begun to heal — they couldn't take a pounding from egg-sized hailstones.

Xia Qing held up a bamboo basket to shield herself from the clattering hail as she ran home, and found the sheep shed's door already shut. She had no idea how many wolves were inside.

Shut was good. Xia Qing immediately checked the other spots.

The screen door installed outside the security door had been smashed to bits, but thankfully the hail was slanting in from east to west, and the east side of her house had no windows, so the glass wasn't broken.

But the solar panels on her roof had been hit. Xia Qing immediately grabbed wooden boards and rushed up to the roof, covering all the solar panels.

Then Xia Qing quickly covered the fermentation fertilizer shed, went inside and shut all the doors and windows, grabbed a rain cover, and held up the iron umbrella she'd just made as she went to cover the sheep shed.

The sheep shed's roof wasn't as sturdy as the main house's — it couldn't take the pounding. After laying the rain cover, Xia Qing held up the iron umbrella, which was getting clattered by the hail, knocked on the sheep shed's door, and shouted, "Are you all okay?"

After calling out, Xia Qing braced against the wind and cracked the door open a sliver, and saw five wolves and one sheep inside all staring at her in unison, each with a different expression.

Excellent — not a single one was stupid.

Xia Qing silently shut the door, then used the rain cover, flapping noisily in the wind, to block the driving wind and rain, before charging toward the chicken coop.

The green lantern chickens might be small, but they weren't stupid either — they were all huddled under the covered section of the coop, safe from rain and hail. Reassured, Xia Qing went home, packed a bunch of food into her back basket, and hurried to the cabin by the fields.

By now the hail had shrunk from egg-sized to pigeon-egg-sized, and its hardness had dropped too — it shattered into pieces on impact, melting into the downpour, mixed with smashed grass and tree leaves, rushing noisily toward the river channel.

If the Beard Feng squad hadn't arrived in time, most of Xia Qing's crops would have ended up like those grass and tree leaves — washed by the storm into the river channel and on to Zhao Ze's territory.

The Beard Feng squad had indeed taken on the mission of defending Territory Three, but what Xia Qing and Yang Jin had originally agreed on was repelling outside enemies and protecting the territory's safety — it didn't include dealing with gales, heavy rain, or hail, or even Qiong rain.

Xia Qing understood clearly that the Beard Feng squad was doing its utmost to protect Territory Three to repay her for "taking in" Luo Pei to heal his wounds within the territory.

But Xia Qing couldn't put on airs as a "benefactor," because she'd taken Luo Pei in to heal because Yang Jin had given her plenty of benefits in return. Today the squad had come to help, so by every reasonable measure she ought to show her gratitude. In a year of natural disasters, offering delicious food was the best way to say thanks.

When Xia Qing arrived at the cabin with the food, she found only three people inside — the rest were still patrolling the greenhouses in the downpour.

Inside, Guan Tong took the iron umbrella from Xia Qing's hands, while Chen Cheng shared the latest news with her. "Lucky we moved fast — the crops didn't get hit by hail. Territory Four's crops got smashed. Zhao Ze was just crying for help on the lord channel, and no one else spoke up — they're all busy for sure."

"If you guys hadn't come so fast, I'd be the one crying right now." Xia Qing set the back basket on the ground and lifted the rain cover. "It's so early, you definitely haven't eaten yet. I brought food from home — just heat it up and we can eat."

Guan Tong folded up the thirty-plus-jin iron umbrella and leaned it against the wall. "Sister Qing, you made this umbrella too?"

Xia Qing set the big iron kettle full of water on the rack, stuffed firewood underneath as she answered, "A couple days ago I was repairing the machete and had some material left over, so I thought of those iron umbrellas you all used the first time we went into Mountain Forty-Nine to dig bamboo shoots, and tried making one. Didn't expect it'd come in handy so soon."