Chapter 228: Five Pieces of Greenhouse Plastic Film

Swoosh swoosh swoosh—

In the Thorn Rain, Xia Qing drove the micro-tiller to cut grass. She noticed the evolved bugs hiding in the thorn grass had clearly increased compared to the past two days, and had grown bolder too.

An evolved snake over two meters long shot out of the thorn grass at extreme speed, lunging for Xia Qing's eyes. Seeing it hadn't grown exaggerated fangs, Xia Qing couldn't be bothered with it.

"Slap!"

The evolved snake slammed into the glass window of the micro-tiller's rain cover. As it slid down in frustration, Xia Qing opened the window, reached out, grabbed it by the seven-inch mark, and stuffed it into a bag.

Harvest, +1.

"Clack clack—"

A mantis over twenty centimeters long came charging with oversized pincers. From the sound of its wings beating, Xia Qing knew this fellow's shell had definitely evolved in hardness. The rain covers on all four sides of the micro-tiller and the one on her protective mask were made of the same material—dust-repellent, water-repellent, and reasonably hard. A two-meter-long evolved snake couldn't smash through it, but it couldn't withstand a mantis blade either.

Xia Qing gripped the steering wheel with her left hand and raised her gun with her right.

"Bang!"

The mantis lost its head to the shot. Its body tumbled into the thorn grass and was ruthlessly crushed under the micro-tiller's tracks, becoming fertilizer for other creatures.

Evolved insect eliminated, +1; harvest, +0.

"What's going on at Territory Three? Another dangerous thorn-evolved plant appeared? Both a micro-tiller and gunshots." The gunshot carried to Territory Two, and Tang Huai immediately sent an inquiry.

Xia Qing pressed the button on the lord walkie-talkie and replied briefly, "Everything's normal."

Hearing the reply and the swoosh-swoosh-swoosh of the grass-cutting noise, Tang Huai started cursing again inside his territory: Damn it, will this woman die if she says two more words!

"Xia Qing." Zhang San's listless voice came through. "Do you need support?"

Idol. A top-tier quality idol after the Great Biological Evolution of Blue Star!

Super-fan Xia Qing immediately stopped cutting grass, pressed the button, and answered earnestly, "Third Brother, I can still handle things on my own for now. I'll contact you if an emergency comes up."

Playing favorites, blatant playing favorites! Tang Huai in Territory Two kept on cursing.

Zhang San replied, "Pinch off some spinach leaves first as a deposit."

Has the idol not been eating well again? Xia Qing immediately replied, "Okay, I'm driving the micro-tiller toward the fields right now. I'll go pinch some right away."

Tang Huai...

Damn it! He wants to grow spinach too!

Li Si's calm voice came through the lord channel. "Xia Qing, I want to trade for the evolved White Hair Chicken-Claw Vine and spinach in your territory. What supplies do you need?"

I've been waiting for you for a long time.

Xia Qing pressed the button and replied sincerely, "Fourth Sister, most of the White Hair Chicken-Claw Vine in my territory was smashed dead by the hail. I just traded with Third Brother yesterday. Let's wait until after the Thorn Rain and let it recover before trading again? For the Green-Light spinach, do you want the whole plant like Lu Zhengke, or just the leaves like Third Brother?"

Li Si replied, "The Chicken-Claw Vine trade can be postponed. I want the Green-Light spinach with roots and soil—ten plants."

After saying that, Li Si went offline. Assistant Xiao Liu from Territory Nine came online, still in his standard business tone. "Miss Xia, the current exchange price for Green-Light spinach is sixty credits per jin. I don't know the total weight of your five spinach plants. Would fifty credits work for you?"

Work? How dare you even bring it up?!

Xia Qing, driving the grass-cutter toward the vegetable greenhouse, replied coldly, "Not trading. I'm keeping them to trade spinach leaves with Third Brother."

"Well said!" Hearing Xia Qing put Territory Nine in its place, Tang Huai felt immensely satisfied. "Can Green-Light spinach and the Green-Light spinach Zhang San likes be the same price? A Green-Light plant with roots that can be planted—can that be priced the same as a rootless vegetable?"

Tang Heng, just back from Territory Twelve, discussed with his brother. "Xia Qing's spinach is definitely not ordinary. Do we need to report this situation?"

Tang Huai nodded. "Of course we need to report it. Let's first see how she prices things, then we'll trade for a few plants too."

With the trade going poorly, Assistant Xiao Liu from Territory Nine went offline, and Li Si came back online. "Xia Qing, what supplies do you need?"

Xia Qing named her price directly. "I want one piece of thickened greenhouse plastic film, sixty meters long and seven meters wide, and four bags of compost bacterial powder."

Li Si asked precisely, "By thickened, do you mean how many 'si'?"

"Si" is also a unit of measurement—100 si equals 1 millimeter.

Xia Qing had done her research. The greenhouse film used by the Safe Zone Planting Center was 100 si thick. Since greenhouse plastic film was not a publicly traded supply within the Safe Zone, Xia Qing didn't know whether that counted as thickened. She asked modestly, "Fourth Sister, I plan to use it for growing vegetables. How many si do you think is appropriate?"

Regardless of why Li Si had come to this territory, what entanglement she had with Zhang San, or why she was collecting native plants from this territory—when it came to planting, she was extremely professional. "100 si. Any thicker and it'll affect light transmission, which isn't good for plant growth. Shall we trade at the Territory Three signpost in twenty minutes?"

Xia Qing agreed just as readily. "Okay, I'll go dig them up right away."

All the lords...

Tang Huai's eyes spun quickly. He immediately called Xu Pin. "Both Zhang San and Li Si are very interested in Territory Three's spinach. Yes, yes, they're willing to pay a high price to trade... Not clear, they didn't mention it... Okay, understood."

After hanging up, Tang Huai pressed the walkie-talkie button with great bravado. "Xia Qing, I also want to trade for ten Green-Light spinach plants with roots and soil. Name your price."

When the Sufeng Squad buys things, of course she has to skin them hard. Xia Qing gave her price. "Four pieces of greenhouse film, sixty meters long and seven meters wide, 100 si thick."

He knew this woman was ruthless, but he didn't expect her to be this ruthless. Still, Tang Huai agreed readily—after all, it wasn't his credits being spent, so he didn't feel a thing. "Deal. Once the road opens, we'll bring the greenhouse film over and I'll contact you."

"Deal." Xia Qing agreed unusually readily. It seemed Tang Huai's relationship with the Sufeng Squad was growing more and more distant. Xia Qing was pleased.

She parked the micro-tiller in front of the cabin, went inside to grab her tools, and went to dig up spinach with Hu Zifeng.

Kuang Qingwei's inquiring voice came through the lord channel. "Xia Qing, are you building a greenhouse? Not going back to the Safe Zone for the winter?"

She had asked for so much greenhouse plastic film—her intention was already obvious. Xia Qing replied, "Yes. I don't have a place to stay in the Safe Zone anymore. I'll stay in the territory to guard the winter wheat and grow some vegetables on the side to earn credits."

Five pieces of thickened film—that's not exactly "just casually" growing a few things. While they were being tortured to death by the Thorn Rain, Xia Qing had already started planning to build a greenhouse and grow vegetables. Kuang Qingwei was genuinely impressed.

Shi Zhong responded, "We're staying in our territory for the winter too. Having company will put my mind at ease. Let's exchange more tips when the time comes."

"I'll be the one learning from you." When it came to farming, Shi Zhong and Qi Fu were the experts. Xia Qing had never built a greenhouse before—she had to learn from them.

"Good." Shi Zhong, aching all over, sounded more energetic than a normal person as he encouraged everyone. "Everyone grit your teeth one more time. Get through this last half day, and we'll be waiting to harvest the grain."

Zhao Ze said dejectedly, "I have less than half my corn left. After the third wave of red Thorn Rain, I probably won't even have a quarter left."

The seedlings are all gone—how are they supposed to produce grain?

Kuang Qingwei started lamenting again about the Green-Light mung beans destroyed in his fields. "Two thousand mung bean plants! If they hadn't been destroyed, conservatively I could've picked sixty jin—sixty jin!"

Anyone who came out to farm had their own calculations. Of the six jin of Yellow-Light mung beans taken from the base, the probability of detecting Green-Light beans was less than one in a thousand. Every lord treated them like treasures, and not one of the Green-Light beans produced was eaten—every single one was planted.

Watching the Green-Light seedlings grow little by little, which lord wasn't silently calculating how many jin of beans they could harvest, how many credits they could exchange them for, and how many scarce supplies they could buy?

The lords all felt Kuang Qingwei's heartache firsthand. Xia Qing parked the micro-tiller outside the vegetable greenhouse. Once inside, she didn't even want to look at the vegetable plot that had been cleared into bald patches. She pinched off a big bunch of spinach leaves, put them in a basket, and handed it to Hu Zifeng. "Sorry to trouble you, Captain Hu—deliver this to the North Isolation Belt and hand it to the people from Territory Seven."

Xia Qing had planted three plots of spinach in total. She didn't pinch the dense Green-Light spinach in the Gao Po terraced fields, but pinched this sparse plot in the greenhouse—and pinched a few plants down to the bare stems. Hu Zifeng couldn't make sense of this move, but he didn't ask anything. He took the basket and went to make the delivery.

After Beard Edge left, Xia Qing dug up ten spinach plants from the ordinary green-light spinach field, drove the tiller while cutting grass along the way, and delivered them beneath the territory road sign.