Chapter 1564: Plan to Plant Dragon Fruit

After a brief exchange with the base commander and the agricultural director who had hurried over, Zhang San boarded the helicopter. Xia Qing saluted the two leaders, then hopped on board as well and ordered, "Take off. Return to the territory."

"Yes!" Pilot Hu Zifeng acknowledged the order, started the helicopter, pulled up on the collective, and flew north under the escort of two military helicopters.

After watching the helicopter take off, Green Dragon squadron leader Yang Jin, who was in charge of ground positioning, stood up and waved to Xia Qing aboard the helicopter.

Co-pilot Er Yong glanced back at the motionless Xia Qing, and desperately wanted to send their boss a message: Boss, what's the point of waving? Do you know why Sister Qing wears a one-way light-blocking protective mask? She's got several bruises on her face! If you want to make Sister Qing happy, hurry back and let Yan Long beat you up, then go back to the territory and cook her a couple of delicious meals!

Xia Qing held her sniper rifle, focused intently on the left flank, on full alert as she carried out the defensive mission. After escorting Third Brother safely to the Number Seven Territory laboratory, Xia Qing collapsed straight into a chair.

Damn it, protecting Third Brother on a trip to a human settlement was way more exhausting than protecting him in the Evolution Forest.

Zhang San, who had stripped off his protective suit and was carefully washing his hands, shot Xia Qing a look in the mirror and snorted, "You asked for it."

Zhang San's trip to the safe zone for a consultation should have been protected by Zhang Jingwu and Zheng Chen's squad. But Xia Qing was uneasy and insisted on bringing the territory alliance's elite along, which is why Zhang San said she had brought it on herself.

Xia Qing said with a grin, "I was just afraid someone would snatch you away."

Xia Qing didn't doubt Zhang Jingwu and Zheng Chen's squad's combat ability; she simply didn't dare underestimate her idol's talent for attracting admirers. Her idol was a national-treasure-level medical research talent and top-tier doctor—anyone who got their hands on him would be kicking the King of Hell right out the door. Who wouldn't want to snatch a talent like that?

Zhang San unhurriedly dried his hands, took a dragon fruit out of the refrigerator, and set it down in front of the new human, who was sitting in a slovenly posture.

"Thanks, Third Brother." Xia Qing wiped her hands with a disinfectant wipe and, peeling the dragon fruit as she went, discussed the day's events with her idol. "Third Brother, are you planning to approve the Resource Sharing and Access Application submitted by the Red Two Base Research Institute, in exchange for giving Doctor Xu Min the opportunity to join a research project at Red Two's Seventh Laboratory?"

Zhang San explained, "I attended an online seminar on Mirror-13 research the day before yesterday. The Seventh Laboratory at Red Two Base has now reported that Mirror-13 shows a huge difference in metabolic rate between in vitro models and in vivo animal studies, and the research has hit a bottleneck. They hope for my assistance. Xu Min from the critical care medicine department holds the 'live data' that the lab cannot generate. Her perspective can reshape the priorities of Mirror-13 R&D. Having her serve as the clinical research consultant for that study group will play a positive role in breaking through the bottleneck."

Xia Qing was surprised. "Third Brother, Red Two's research group doesn't have live data?"

Zhang San nodded. "In June of Year Seven of the Catastrophe, all countries on Blue Star unanimously agreed to classify Shang-13 as a Class One permanent biotoxin, strictly prohibiting any synthesis, production, or possession for any purpose, and enacted legislation to crack down hard on such crimes. After that, very few people used Shang-13 anymore. Everyone who had been poisoned by Shang-13 before then has already died."

That's why, when Liehuo this time synthesized Shang-13 and turned it into a bomb to detonate in a human safe zone, it was classified as an especially major case, with a special investigation team set up at the national level to investigate.

Xia Qing took a bite of the dragon fruit and asked, "Third Brother, could Pan Yuanwen have given the special-effect potion to Vice Director Wang because he knew Red Two Base was researching Mirror-13?"

Zhang San reasoned rigorously, "If Pan Yuanwen is the same on the inside as he appears on the outside, he would definitely give the potion to Wang Lizhi, who was more seriously injured. If he's two-faced, he'd have even more reason to give the potion to Wang Lizhi to maintain his public image. So his giving up the potion has no causal relationship with whether or not he knows about Red Two Base's research project."

The analysis was perfectly logical—as expected of her idol! Xia Qing nodded, took another bite of the sweet, juicy red-fleshed dragon fruit, and asked, "Third Brother, I'm planning to plant a greenhouse of dragon fruit at the Ninth Center in June. Do you have enough seedlings in your greenhouse?"

The problem of dragon fruit plants' attack-type Shang evolution rate being too high has not yet been overcome, so it cannot be promoted for large-scale planting. But growing them inside standardized greenhouses that isolate Shang elements is no problem at all.

Currently, the Ninth Center has 660 mu under cultivation, with another 1,000 mu of farmland being reclaimed. After this June's harvest of overwintering wheat, the Ninth Center plans to plant 500 mu of high-quality yellow-light rice and 100 mu of high-quality green-light rice. The demand for rice seedlings and vegetable seedlings is enormous, so standardized greenhouses need to be built for raising seedlings.

The Ninth Center's application submitted to the Agricultural Department has already been approved. Once the ground thaws in early spring, two standardized greenhouses will be built inside the center for raising vegetable and rice seedlings.

After the seedling-raising is done, Xia Qing plans to plant a greenhouse of red-fleshed dragon fruit to meet the Ninth Center employees' nutritional needs and improve the physical fitness of employees and their families.

Zhang San, who was cutting the dragon fruit with a scalpel, answered lazily, "Go ask Zhang Tao. If there aren't enough, start taking cuttings as soon as possible."

"Yes, thanks, Third Brother." Xia Qing was calculating how many dragon fruit cuttings she would need the Zhang Tao team to propagate.

Not just the Ninth Center's 1.5-mu standardized greenhouse—the territory alliance's allies also wanted to plant a couple in their own plots in the hidden valley, and she planned to fill one whole vegetable bed in her own territory, because the boss, Daigua, and Ergua all love eating them. Lao Er doesn't like them that much, but he can eat a few bites too.

Dragon fruit plants' attack-type Shang evolution rate is too high? Number Three Territory doesn't have a standardized planting greenhouse that can isolate Shang elements?

That's not a problem at all, because Xia Qing has Yishi! Lao Si and Yang Jin raided the Fire Phoenix's private vault, and Xia Qing, the werewolf task broker, got 78 high-grade Yishi as her share!

Not to mention how many pieces of Yishi there are—she has a full nine heavy boxes of the stuff. Nine!!!

Xia Qing happily took a big bite of the dragon fruit, bubbling over with joy.

Zhang San speared a piece of dragon fruit with a toothpick and shot a look at the new human across from him, whose eyes were bruised and whose nose was smeared with juice. "What did Pan Yuanwen mean by that last line?"

Xia Qing quickly swallowed the last bit of fruit in her mouth and answered, "He was probably thinking of his son Pan Junde, who died in the Wanhe Settlement."

Zhang San frowned. "Did you have any dealings with his son?"

Xia Qing pulled out a wet wipe to clean her mouth. "I went on a few missions with him. He should have been a stamina-type Evolver. When our family left the Wanhe Settlement, he was still alive. I don't know how he died."

The Wanhe Settlement wasn't that large and hadn't brought in the then-very-expensive evolution ability testing equipment, so the people there could only infer their own or others' evolution ability types based on combat performance.

Zhang San continued to ask, "His son was about the same age as you?"

"Same age. The year the Catastrophe hit, he was in his first year of high school, just like me." Xia Qing silently thanked the heavens that the Catastrophe had struck after she finished middle school, letting her get her nine-year compulsory education diploma, so she didn't have to study for exams like Huo Zhun and Shi Du, who, twelve years into the Catastrophe, still had to hit the books.

Zhang San answered rigorously, "Being in the same grade doesn't necessarily mean being the same age. Yang Jin is only two years older than you, and when the Catastrophe hit, he was already in college."

Xia Qing……

This conversation cannot continue. Unfollowing. I'm unfollowing this idol!