Chapter 211: Something Feels Off

The other lords asked quite a few questions, but when Li Si seized on Xia Qing—who had only asked one question—to press her, no one found it strange. Because before Li Si was arrested, she had already been very interested in Xia Qing, or rather, in what was grown inside Xia Qing's territory.

Xia Qing answered calmly, "Because of the seeds I brought out from the agricultural trade fair, apart from corn, the sunflowers grew the thickest and tallest."

The thicker and taller the plant, the harder it is to deal with after undergoing Calamity Evolution—Xia Qing's answer was impeccable.

Before Li Si could continue questioning, Zhang San spoke up lazily, "Captain Tan, have you done a spot inspection on Territory Nine this month?"

Everyone…

Tan Junjie replied seriously, "Not yet."

"Good." Zhang San's tone clearly carried a hint of overstepping. "Please give me a heads-up before you go, Captain Tan."

Good. Zhang San is still the same as before—he can't stand Li Si. With Zhang San keeping an eye on things, Li Si can't break the law, and the lords can focus on farming and dealing with the Calamity Rain with peace of mind.

Li Si coldly proposed a trade, "Third Brother, can I trade fifteen grams of your Number Three special-effect hemostatic medicine? Whatever plants you take a fancy to in my greenhouse when you come over, you can take them away."

Territory Seven and Territory Nine don't get along—will Zhang San agree?

Everyone held their breath, waiting for the petty-minded Zhang San to speak.

Zhang San asked listlessly, "How many plants?"

Li Si, who had no concept of points, went offline; Territory Nine's assistant Xiao Liu came online, answering gently and professionally, "Lord Zhang, our lord had an urgent matter and asked me to negotiate the trade with you. Would three plants be acceptable?"

Xia Qing, who was petting a sheep, complained to the sheep being petted, "Li Si must have been dragged off by Assistant Liu."

Zhang San replied lazily, "Fifteen plants."

Knowing Zhang San's temperament, Assistant Xiao Liu didn't haggle either. "Alright, thank you, Lord Zhang. Would it be convenient for us to come pick up the medicine now?"

In such a rush to get the medicine, someone in Territory Nine must be injured in a way ordinary hemostatic medicine can't heal. Who is this person? Li Si? Xia Qing narrowed her eyes, her hand turning to the sparse wolf fur, continuing to pet.

Zhang San replied, "Pick out the well-grown ones of the black-flowering plants in the middle section of your easternmost greenhouse, and send over fifteen plants, roots and soil included."

Assistant Xiao Liu paused for a few seconds before answering gently, "Alright. Thank you, Lord Zhang. We'll go dig them up now and deliver them to the Territory Seven road sign in fifteen minutes."

From that few-second pause, Xia Qing sensed Assistant Xiao Liu's reluctance—the black-flowering plants Zhang San wanted must be very precious.

What plant has black flowers and is also very valuable? Xia Qing thought carefully, and indeed recalled two evolved plants that had once been posted on the mission bulletin board in the Safe Zone mission hall, with bounties offered for finding them:

Ciliate Bugle and Black Bat Flower.

If it's these two, then it's no wonder Xiao Liu was reluctant. But this also shows how precious Zhang San's special-effect hemostatic medicine is.

The Number Three special-effect hemostatic medicine Li Si wants to trade for probably isn't the same kind of hemostatic medicine that Xia Qing and the other lords trade with Zhang San using green-light plants or animals.

Xia Qing pulled out her small notebook, carefully noted down this clue, then began planning what to do over the next three days so as not to miss anything important.

Halfway through writing, Xia Qing received a call from Luo Pei. "Xia Qing, is something wrong with the sunflowers in your territory?"

Luo Pei is recuperating in Territory One and rarely comes to Territory Three, so he isn't clear on the situation on Xia Qing's side.

Xia Qing replied, "I detected that quite a few sunflower plants have Calamity Element content above ten parts per thousand. I'm worried that during a prolonged Calamity Rain, they'll undergo Calamity Evolution."

The dividing line between yellow-light and red-light plants is a Calamity Element content of fifteen parts per thousand. Above that is red-light; below that, down to five parts per thousand, is yellow-light.

A Calamity Rain lasting seventy hours will definitely raise the Calamity Element content in the atmosphere. Once plants absorb excess Calamity Element through their roots, stems, and leaves and their internal balance is disrupted, they can't expel the excess Calamity Element quickly enough. When that happens, green-light plants may turn yellow-light, and yellow-light plants may turn red-light.

Although red-light plants don't necessarily undergo Calamity Evolution, the probability is higher than for green-light and yellow-light ones. Moreover, even if red-light crops grown in greenhouses don't undergo Calamity Evolution, they lose their edible value and must be removed. Otherwise, when the plants bloom, the pollen from red-light plants transferred to yellow-light and green-light plants will reduce seed quality.

Cotton is the only exception, because no one grows cotton for food in the first place.

Luo Pei understood Xia Qing's concern and replied, "The planting team members in my territory also brought this up. They plan to pull out all the sunflowers with Calamity Element content above thirteen parts per thousand in the days before the Calamity Rain."

"That's a good idea. I'll pull mine out too." Xia Qing responded.

Luo Pei asked again, "Are you planning to use Use Yishi? Do you want me to give Beard Feng a heads-up in advance?"

Beard Feng's squad doesn't know Xia Qing has Use Yishi, and Xia Qing doesn't plan to let them know. "I'm just planning to use two small pieces of Use Yishi to protect the green-light spinach and green-light rice. I've already cut holes in the greenhouse frames over those two plots, so it shouldn't be noticed."

After hanging up, Xia Qing drew a horizontal line under the plan she'd already written—"Pull out dangerous sunflowers."

The reason she gave Li Si was only superficial; what she told Luo Pei was also only part of the reason. The real reason Xia Qing was paying attention to the sunflowers—she didn't want anyone to know.

The reason she asked Li Si about the possibility of sunflower Calamity Evolution was that Xia Qing had noticed something very off about a few sunflowers in her own fields.

At the agricultural trade fair, Xia Qing traded two hundred yellow-light sunflower seeds with her points and planted them in the terraces and cultivated fields in her territory, growing a total of 120 sunflowers: 90 in the terraces, and 30 in the greenhouse on the cultivated field below the hillside.

Xia Qing was lucky—among the 120 sunflowers, two were green-light, one in the terraces and one in the cultivated-field greenhouse.

As with all other green-light plants, Xia Qing tied very conspicuous red ribbons on these two sunflowers, and day in, day out—whether it was pest control, fertilizing, or weeding—she gave them extra care.

Half a month ago, Xia Qing noticed that the green-light sunflower in the cultivated field, along with several sunflowers around it, was growing more slowly than the others and was shorter.

Logically this shouldn't be the case, because green-light plants get more and better fertilizer and water than the others—they should be growing more vigorously.

After a careful inspection, Xia Qing found that among this cluster of short ones there was a yellow-light sunflower that gave her a somewhat off feeling.

Xia Qing suspected it was because of "weakness" that its internal balance had been disrupted and it had turned into a red-light plant, but testing showed this sunflower's Calamity Element content was only seven parts per thousand—still far from yellow-light.

Although it was a yellow-light plant, and although on the surface it showed nothing amiss, Xia Qing just felt there was something indefinably off about it.