Chapter 345: Vegetables Have to Be Grown

Qi Fu laughed. "If we didn't grow them ourselves, could we have bought them? Try these sunflower seeds — if the gang hadn't come over, my wife wouldn't even bear to fry them up to eat."

"Still, Brother Qi and his wife really know how to grow things — the sunflower seeds are even bigger than the ones from my plot." Xia Qing was sincerely impressed; she took a seed and cracked it open to eat.

It had been so many years since she'd had any that she'd forgotten what fried sunflower seeds tasted like — she only knew they were good.

Xia Qing wasn't the only one who thought so; Zhao's mother also wore a look of emotion. "I never thought I'd get to eat fried sunflower seeds in this lifetime."

Shi Zhong asked, "Sunflower seeds can be fried, but they can also be pressed for oil. The oil we press ourselves is bound to be better than what we buy, and oil keeps longer — it can be stored a few months longer than the seeds. Can Brother Kuang get his hands on an oil press?"

Kuang Qingwei raised a finger and pointed upward. "... Oil presses have been banned. Hui-2 Base won't supply our base. They say they're afraid the lords will use corn to press oil and waste grain."

Without anyone having to ask, Kuang Qingwei went ahead and explained why pressing corn oil would waste grain.

Corn only has an oil content of 3%–4%, and it's concentrated in the corn germ. When pressing oil, you first have to crush the kernels to get the germ. If the germ contains a lot of impurities like corn starch, it not only wastes grain but also lowers the oil yield. So pressing corn oil requires a dedicated, large-scale oil press.

Large oil presses are expensive, and the lords can't possibly afford them, so the base simply banned even small household oil presses.

Zhao's mother complained, "Even if it's for that reason, they can't ban oil presses — you can still press sunflower seed oil."

Shi Zhong also said, "Right. The oil cake left over from pressing sunflower seed oil can be eaten by people, and it can also be used to feed chickens, feed fish, and make fertilizer — not a bit of it goes to waste."

Kuang Qingwei gave a wry smile. "In some people's eyes, us eating oil pressed from yellow-light sunflower seeds is itself a waste."

In disaster years, high-quality resources are monopolized at high prices by the upper levels, and the common people at the very bottom of society can only fill their bellies with compressed rations made of grass and a little grain, barely staying alive.

If they hadn't come out to farm in the territories and grown their own sunflower seeds, they couldn't have afforded something as precious as oil for seasoning.

Even after coming out to farm, once the lords had supplies in hand, they still couldn't trade for green-light or yellow-light oil — not just because of the price, but because there simply was none in stock.

They could only trade for oil pressed from red-light plant seeds after the harmful elements were removed, and its taste and nutritional content couldn't compare with oil pressed from green-light and yellow-light seeds.

This was the most infuriating part of all: no matter how flowery the broadcast made it sound, the reality was that the sunflower seeds the lords worked so hard to grow were bought up by the Territory Management Department at 25 credits per jin, but once processed into food and oil, the lords couldn't buy any of it back!

"Only by eating well can your physical fitness improve, can you resist environmental pollution, can you trigger physical evolution, can you shake off the identity of an ordinary person and become an Evolver. In the more than half a year since we came out, both my and my wife's strength-evolution levels have gone up."

Qi Fu wasn't lying — although his own strength evolution had been triggered by a super-pathogen infection, his wife's had genuinely gone up because her diet had improved.

Xia Qing confirmed this as well. "In the more than half a year since I came out, my strength-evolution level has gone up too."

"My son is the same, and my wife and I are in better health too." Shi Zhong also confirmed. "The environment keeps getting worse, and ordinary people living on compressed rations will find survival harder and harder. Brother Kuang, how old are you this year?"

Kuang Qingwei answered, "44, but my wife is only 22 this year — she still has the possibility of evolving. Right now all the good stuff at home goes to her first. We're planning to wait until she evolves an ability before having kids."

Qi Fu also said, "My wife is 33 this year — she still has two years to raise her evolution ability. We're planning to wait until she's past 35 before having kids too."

Zhao's mother had her own calculations. "My family's A-Ze is 38 this year — past the age — but he took a wife and had grandsons and granddaughters, so he needs safe food even more. Such a big piece of territory — someone has to inherit it, right?"

When he finished, everyone laughed.

Before coming out to the territories, they had never thought about any of this — just staying alive was good enough. Farming was hard work, and the risks really were high, but now there was something to look forward to in their days, and they were living with spirit and energy.

The mood had lifted, and things that had been hard to bring up earlier because of concerns could now be said.

The well-informed Kuang Qingwei lowered his voice. "I've heard a rumor — it may not be reliable: the business yesterday of raiding Territories 158 and 159 for grain, it might have been done by the Sufeng Squad."

"Possible." Xia Qing had the same suspicion. "Territory 158 is home to military dependents, so its defenses should be stricter than ours. By doing this, Sufeng can strike at the Base Commander's faction, use the chance to plant people in the inspection teams, and also intimidate the lords into getting the grain and vegetables collected up faster."

Zhao's mother was also indignant. "More than half the rotten things done in our base were done by the Sufeng Squad."

Shi Zhong said quietly, "I won't hide it from everyone — I only want to hand over a few dozen jin of corn; the rest will be sealed and kept in the territory. This winter my family isn't going back to the Safe Zone — we'll stay in the territory and build a greenhouse to grow vegetables. How many credits we can sell for aside, at the very least we'll be able to eat fresh green-light vegetables ourselves."

Qi Fu nodded too. "That's our plan as well."

Zhao's mother also said, "Zhao Ze and I want to learn how to build a greenhouse — we'll have to trouble everyone when the time comes."

Qi Fu didn't think it was anything difficult. "Auntie has already grown two crops — a greenhouse is just one more fire wall and a sheet of plastic film; everything else is the same. Zhao Ze does engineering — one look at our greenhouse and he'll know how to build one."

Xia Qing hadn't spoken, but she had already traded for several sheets of greenhouse plastic film — she was definitely staying in the territory too.

Kuang Qingwei, who had just been planning to take his wife back to the Safe Zone for the winter because of the raid incident, saw that none of them were leaving and began to waver again.

Going back was safe, but the food certainly wouldn't be as good as in the territory, nor the living as spacious.

Xia Qing spoke up. "I asked Third Brother and Brother Luo — they're both staying in their territories over winter. With Third Brother and Brother Luo here, our patch of territory is the safest of all the territories."

Hearing Xia Qing's words, Kuang Qingwei made up his mind on the spot. "The greenhouse has to be built, and vegetables have to be grown! People in the Safe Zone all think we've stashed a lot of grain — going back to live there definitely won't be peaceful."

Qi Fu added, "Xia Qing's right — our place is a treasure. To our north is Mountain 49, which blocks the cold wind and keeps wild beasts out. Captain Tan and the others on the inspection team are also very responsible — when danger comes, Territory 1, Xia Qing, and Territory 7 all help out, and if you get sick or hurt you can get treated in time."

Kuang Qingwei added, "And there's Territory 8 — Seeing Xin Yu is planning to build a factory to produce fungal powder. Once Territory 8 has more people, our territory will be even safer. Territory 12 will definitely keep people on too — Tang Dong has cleared over five hundred mu of wasteland."