Chapter 253: The Reason an Edible Chestnut Grove Formed

After top-dressing, the field needs one thorough watering. The flat fields rely on Sheep Boss using sheep-powered water wheels to draw water, and the terraced fields rely on Xia Qing and Sheep Boss carrying water uphill on their backs.

Once the water bicycle was installed, before Beard Feng's squad arrived, Sheep Boss could no longer wait and started pedaling.

Because she hadn't yet spread fertilizer, Xia Qing hadn't opened the farmland's irrigation channels. The water Sheep Boss pedaled up flowed right back into the reservoir through the channels. Sheep Boss, doing useless work, played with great delight, his eyes narrowing into slits.

Xia Qing rubbed its head, then quickly went to spread fertilizer on the yellow-light mung bean field. After the third Harmful Rain, the seedlings in the field had grown much sparser, so fertilizing went very fast.

But this kind of speed is something no farmer would ever want.

After Xia Qing opened the irrigation channel of the yellow-light mung bean field and let the water Sheep Boss drew up flow toward the mung bean field, she casually stuffed a compressed ration into Sheep Boss's mouth and praised him in a gentle voice, "Boss, good job, Boss is the best. Without Boss pedaling the water wheel, all the seedlings in our fields would have died of thirst."

Having gotten the treat and been praised by Xia Qing, Sheep Boss's confidence soared; his pedals were nearly sparking. Sick Wolf squatted beside the water wheel, watching Sheep Boss pedal intently, seemingly learning.

When Guan Tong, Dajiang, and Xiaojiang arrived and saw this scene, they didn't know what to say.

Sick Wolf noticed people coming, stood up and turned around, showing them the same fierce expression as the broken-legged wolf.

This was the first time Xia Qing had seen such obvious wildness in Wolf Dog Lao Er.

Xia Qing raised a hand to greet the three of them, then said softly to Wolf Dog Lao Er, "Lao Er, I need to leave the territory for a while. Guan Tong and the others are here to help us guard the territory. There's meat at home, and we need a fierce wolf to watch it before I can go out to work with peace of mind. Lao Er, come home with me, okay? Boss has to pedal the water wheel to irrigate, and you have to guard the house."

The sick wolf tucked away its ferocity and followed her home. The two helpers in the territory had been arranged perfectly clearly by Xia Qing.

After this bout of diarrhea, Sick Wolf's condition had clearly improved — he ate more and walked faster than before. This might also be why he dared to show his fierce side to the humans "intruding" into Territory Three.

Xia Qing asked cheerfully, "Lao Er, were you there when we fought the Fengyun Squad last year? What kind of ability did you evolve?"

Sick Wolf naturally couldn't directly answer Xia Qing's question, and unhurriedly followed her home.

Broken-Waist Wolf was in the sheep pen Xia Qing had cleaned, fussing with the medicated patch on his back.

His concern over the missing patch of fur far exceeded Xia Qing's expectations. Xia Qing reassured him in a gentle voice, "Broken-Waist, stop licking. Once the patch is done and your wound heals, the fur will grow back. This winter you'll definitely look majestic and impress my lord the Queen."

Broken-Waist Wolf stopped licking his fur and gazed calmly at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing said cheerfully, "I'm going to the Evolution Forest to dig up a sapling. Broken-Waist, you and Lao Er watch the house. Apart from you two and Sheep Boss, no living creature is allowed into our home. Understood?"

After giving instructions, Xia Qing took her tools and returned to the edge of the farmland, where she successfully used the edible vegetables from the farming greenhouse to hire Guan Tong and the others to spread fertilizer, weed, and watch the water for her.

Not just the animals, but the humans in the territory were also arranged perfectly clearly by Xia Qing.

Light and familiar with the route, Xia Qing quickly reached the chestnut grove and sprayed the pest-repellent.

Seeing humans come again, the evolved hornets' buzzing rose sharply, but no high-level evolved hornets came out to lead an attack on Xia Qing.

Because the not-so-smart high-level evolved hornets had all been beaten to death, and the smart ones knew they couldn't do anything to humans, so they didn't come out to provoke her.

Xia Qing didn't dig up saplings right away, but first tested the air quality of the chestnut grove and found that the Harmful Element content in the atmosphere was the same as elsewhere.

This meant there was no Yishi underground in the chestnut grove, so the reason this chestnut grove formed was not the first scenario Xia Qing had guessed.

Then she began testing the stream flowing through here, the grass under the chestnut grove, and the nearby plants, confirming there was also no unpolluted spring water leaking out to cause low-Harmful-Element creatures to gather, ruling out her second guess.

This was also within Xia Qing's expectations. Yang Jin had led people wandering around the mountain for several days; such an obvious water source he would definitely have tested.

If it's not because of Yishi, and not because of unpolluted spring water, then what reason made the Harmful Element content of the chestnut trees here so low?

Xia Qing's head was aching from the hornets' noise, so she simply stopped thinking about it. She took out her pole pruner and walked around the four green-light chestnut trees, looking for chestnut burrs she had missed yesterday.

In half an hour, Xia Qing had cut more than twenty chestnut burrs from the four green-light chestnut trees, brimming with a sense of accomplishment. If she weren't surrounded by thousands of buzzing hornets, Xia Qing would actually quite enjoy the work of searching for burrs among the chestnut leaves — it had a treasure-hunting kind of fun to it.

There were definitely missed burrs on the yellow-light trees too, but Xia Qing didn't plan to keep looking today, and began testing the chestnut saplings in the grove.

This chestnut grove had twenty-three chestnut trees over a year old, and eight saplings that had just sprouted this year.

Regardless of size, Xia Qing tested all eight saplings. Unexpectedly, these saplings weren't all green-light and yellow-light — three of them were red-light.

After carefully observing the red-light chestnut saplings, Xia Qing understood why all the trees in this grove were edible chestnut trees.

Because the red-light saplings' leaves hadn't evolved stickiness, the leaves were all chewed rotten by insects, and the red-light saplings simply couldn't grow large. Only the green-light and yellow-light trees that evolved sticky leaves could survive here, forming a symbiotic relationship with the evolved hornets.

Having figured this out, Xia Qing felt that the insect-ridden chestnut trees looked cute no matter how she looked at them.

This kind of chestnut tree could be promoted for planting! The chestnuts in the storage room could be sold for a higher price.

Carefully digging up the sturdiest green-light chestnut sapling, wrapping the soil around its roots with grass rope so it wouldn't loosen, Xia Qing placed the sapling into her back basket and began the return trip.

Just as she stepped out of the chestnut grove, she saw a red squirrel squatting on a fir tree, rubbing its little paws and waving its fluffy big tail as it stared at her, the longing in its eyes almost spilling out.

Xia Qing couldn't bear to part with the green-light chestnuts, so she took out her pole pruner again, found a burr on a yellow-light chestnut tree, cut it down, pried it open, and placed two yellow-light chestnuts under the fir tree. "These are for you. The missed burrs up in the trees are all yours too. Thank you."

After leaving the chestnuts, Xia Qing sped up climbing the slope. Only after the hornet swarm retreated did Xia Qing breathe a sigh of relief — her head was nearly bursting from the hornets' noise.

Walking the original route for less than ten minutes, Xia Qing saw the red squirrel appear on a red-leaf tree not far ahead of her, its fur color matching the tree perfectly. The little fellow squatted on a branch rubbing its little paws, waving its big tail, and gazed at Xia Qing with eager eyes.

So fast — it had already delivered the two chestnuts back to its nest?

Xia Qing was impressed.

Seeing how cute it was, Xia Qing pulled two more yellow-light chestnuts from her pocket and placed them on the ground in front of her. "Picking chestnuts isn't easy for me either. My head is still buzzing right now, and my clothes are filthy beyond recognition. These are the last two."

After Xia Qing left, the red squirrel quickly hugged the chestnuts and vanished in a flash of red.