Chapter 216: Territory Alliance

In the end, Xia Qing decided to leave not a single one. Because every territory had sunflowers, and anyone paying attention to the territory channel and broadcasts knew how sunflowers could cause trouble. During the seventy hours of Blight Rain, she had too much to do—no need to leave herself a hidden danger.

After Xia Qing bent down and pulled out the first sunflower, the phone in her pocket rang. The caller was neither Zhang San nor Luo Pei, but Qi Fu.

Qi Fu asked, "Is now convenient? Your sister-in-law and I want to bring you some freshly dug ginger."

After Qi Fu woke up from his injuries, he did indeed promise to give Xia Qing half of the green-light ginger in his territory as a thank-you gift. But if it were only about delivering ginger, one person coming over would have been enough. Xia Qing figured they must have something else to discuss, something not convenient to say over the phone. "I'm free. I'll wait for you and sister-in-law at the North Isolation Belt."

After pulling out the remaining three sunflowers, Xia Qing told Ram Boss and Sick Wolf to head home first, while she went to the North Isolation Belt to meet Qi Fu and his wife.

The couple quickly arrived at the North Isolation Belt of Territory Three, handed the ginger to Xia Qing, and explained, "We originally planned to harvest at the end of October, but this Blight Rain is too heavy—we were afraid the ginger wouldn't last until then, so we dug some up first and brought you a few jin."

Unlike other plants, ginger has three harvest periods during its growth: ginger harvested between late June and early July is called mother ginger; ginger harvested from September to early October is called young ginger; ginger harvested from late October to November is called old ginger.

Ginger harvested at different times has different moisture and spiciness levels. The ginger kept for seed is old ginger.

Xia Qing took the bag of ginger weighing a full ten jin, invited them into her territory, and proactively opened the conversation. "Brother Qi, sister-in-law, you must be about ready in your territory, right?"

The couple followed Xia Qing down the hillside. Yuan Yan answered, "Everything we could think of is prepared. We came over to take a look at your oil sunflowers. Sis, last time you asked Li Si about oil sunflowers—did you sense something off?"

She hadn't expected they were also here because of the sunflowers. Xia Qing answered, "I ran a detector over them and found that some oil sunflowers have Blight Element content close to fifteen parts per thousand. I'm afraid they might undergo aggressive Blight Evolution during the Blight Rain."

After saying that, Xia Qing added with a smile, "I was scared by those dancing potato vines last time."

Hearing that was the reason, Qi Fu and his wife exchanged a glance. Yuan Yan moved closer to Xia Qing and lowered her voice. "If you trust me, while it's still light out, take us to where you planted the sunflowers for a walk around."

Could it be that Yuan Yan had also "evolved" an "ability" similar to hers? Xia Qing's mind raced, but her face remained calm as she nodded. "Sister-in-law, Brother Qi, it's this way."

Walking toward the terraced fields, Qi Fu explained, "Your sister-in-law's family contracted over a thousand mu of land before the disaster. She's been working the fields with her family since she was small—she knows more than I do."

"No wonder you came out to farm—turns out you're both experts." Xia Qing led them into the Gao Po terraced-field greenhouse.

Yuan Yan wandered around the sunflower field, while Qi Fu observed Xia Qing's greenhouse. "This idea of yours is good. Next year I'll build terraced fields too, and put up a greenhouse like this—good drainage, and the roof is high."

Xia Qing explained, "These terraces were already here. I found the soil quality was good, so I cleared them out and kept planting."

Qi Fu sighed, "Whoever farmed here before the disaster must have been a real old hand at farming."

If not an old hand at farming, they wouldn't have been so careful, nor had the ability to make the fields so neat.

Yuan Yan, in the field, pointed at a sunflower and discussed with Xia Qing, "Sis, pull this oil sunflower out, okay? It's very likely to cause trouble during the Blight Rain."

For a lord, every single seedling in the field is a treasure—asking someone to pull up a seedling is very unreasonable. Qi Fu explained, "Before the second Blight Rain, your sister-in-law noticed a few potato vines acting off, and later those potatoes turned into dancing potato vines. This time she looked at several oil sunflowers in our field and felt they were even more off than those potatoes last time, so we pulled them all out."

Xia Qing nimbly pulled out the sunflower Yuan Yan had identified and offered sincere thanks. "Thank you, sister-in-law. If aggressive Blight Evolution really happened, the loss wouldn't be just this one plant."

Seeing that Xia Qing thought things through clearly and was willing to trust them, Yuan Yan smiled. The acid-rain burn scars on her face twisted with the smile, giving her a fierce look. "We're neighbors—helping each other out is only right."

After clearing out the two sunflowers in the terraced field, Qi Fu and his wife followed Xia Qing down to check the sunflowers in the vegetable greenhouse on the cultivated land.

Passing the sweet potato terraces, Xia Qing proactively explained, "These are sweet potatoes I propagated by cutting. There's another terrace below with quite a few too. When I harvest them, I'll send you a bag."

Only then did the couple look at the plants in the terraces, and their eyes lit up.

Xia Qing had once mentioned on the Lord Channel that she propagated sweet potatoes by cutting sweet potato vines, but she said only twenty-some survived. Everyone knew she must have understated the number, but no one expected she'd understated it by more than ten times!

Looking at this huge patch, and then at the color of the sweet potato leaves, there were definitely more than twenty green-light sweet potatoes in here!

The corners of Qi Fu's mouth stretched almost to the back of his head. "Then we won't be polite with you, sis. We'll follow the rules and trade grain with you for them."

Xia Qing kept Yang Jin's trading rules firmly in mind and nodded in agreement.

The couple followed Xia Qing across the stone slab bridge into the vegetable greenhouse on the cultivated land, where they found two more problematic sunflowers—one of which was actually a green-light sunflower tied with a red cord.

Xia Qing, who had exactly two green-light sunflowers, pulled it out without hesitation.

After finishing the check on the sunflowers, the couple prepared to head back to their territory.

They had taken the initiative to come help, and Xia Qing appreciated the gesture—of course she wouldn't let them go back empty-handed. She picked a basket of vegetables for them to take. "I know Brother Qi and sister-in-law must have planted plenty. These are green-light ones—you can dry them and save them for winter."

Yuan Yan didn't stand on ceremony with Xia Qing either. She took the basket directly and handed it to her husband, then discussed with Xia Qing, "Sis, what would you think about talking to Brother Luo and paying points to store the autumn-harvested grain in his territory?"

Compared to the Lord Management Department in the Safe Zone, Qi Fu and his wife trusted the Azure Dragon Squad more—they trusted Luo Pei.

"I was planning the same thing. When we have time, let's bring it up with Brother Luo privately." Xia Qing didn't want to expose the food storage room in her territory, so she planned to store grain and seeds in Territory One. That way she could legitimately avoid buying grain from Zhong Tao.

Hearing that Xia Qing was thinking the same thing, Yuan Yan grew even more pleased. "If Brother Luo is willing to help, we don't mind paying more points. As long as the grain and seeds can last until planting time next year, we won't have a thing to worry about."

Xia Qing nodded and lowered her voice to remind her, "Sister-in-law, don't tell anyone outside about your ability to spot when crops are off."

Yuan Yan gripped Xia Qing's hand firmly with her rough, dry hands. "Besides you, we haven't told a soul."

Yuan Yan wasn't one to talk much either. After saying that, she didn't continue, but Xia Qing understood perfectly well what the couple meant.

Yuan Yan and Qi Fu chose to share the secret of their evolved ability with Xia Qing, showing enough sincerity. But Xia Qing couldn't reveal that she had a similar ability. She had already exposed three-system evolved abilities—that was enough. Still, she accepted the sincerity from Territory Five.

Xia Qing's hands clasped with Yuan Yan's. Her red face was dyed even redder by the afterglow of the setting sun as she sincerely extended an invitation:

"We're all out here farming—we can't form squads to take missions and earn points, but we can form an alliance. From now on, Territory Three and Territory Five are in an alliance. We help each other out. What do you think, sister-in-law?"

Yuan Yan's face flushed with excitement too. "Good! We're not a squad—we're a territory alliance. We'll farm the land well together, and we'll survive together."

Qi Fu, holding the basket, was so excited his eyes teared up. The basket handle was bent out of shape from his grip. "Right, we're an alliance. We'll live well, with plenty to eat and drink."

The territory alliance of Hui Three Base—powerful enough to stand against the Base Management Department and the Squad Alliance—was thus established, just before the most severe Blight Rain of the tenth year of the disaster.

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