Chapter 367: Seawater Intrusion

Also in a fine mood were Sheep Boss, who had eaten the spinach-and-corn-husk rations, and Sick Wolf Lao Er, who had drunk the spinach-and-snake-meat porridge.

The alpha wolf and the broken-legged wolf's sister in the abandoned mountain cave ate the food Broken-Waist Wolf delivered that morning, so they didn't need to eat again today.

After the meal, one person, one sheep, and one wolf lay in the shade of the solar panels on the rack-roof, resting and watching over the corn. Here there was only wind, flowing water, and birdsong; none of the noise from Territory Two could be heard. Quiet, peaceful years.

Xia Qing used the walkie-talkie to contact Kuang Qingwei and arranged to rent a corn sheller an hour later to shell the dried late-planted corn.

Although the noise had gone on all night, thanks to the protection of the forty-member hazard-inspection team, the night passed safely. The lords were in much better spirits today than yesterday; they kept on harvesting grain, building the enclosure wall, and checking in with each other over the walkie-talkie about their progress.

To everyone's surprise, the fastest wall-construction progress was actually Territory Four.

Qi Fu, Shi Zhong, and Kuang Qingwei kept consulting Zhao Ze about wall-building. Zhao Ze, whose farming couldn't keep up, answered everyone's questions knowledgeably over the walkie-talkie. Xia Qing, who had spent five years on a construction crew, felt she gained a little from listening.

While the lords were discussing how to reduce the vitality of freshly cut tree stumps, Zhang San came online. Though his voice was lazy, anyone could tell he was in a good mood.

"I'm free today, so I can prepare some medicine. You can dilute it and soak the thornwood in it to greatly reduce the thornwood's vitality."

Hearing there was such a good thing, the lords of the Lords' Alliance scrambled to trade for it.

Tang Huai, who wished he could be online twenty-four hours a day, hadn't spoken since the refugees arrived yesterday—either he was worked to the bone or driven half out of his mind. Not hearing his voice, everyone genuinely felt a bit out of sorts.

While Xia Qing waited at the northern isolation belt for Kuang Qingwei to bring the sheller, she got a call from Zhang San. "Xia Qing, the chicken tastes great. Next year you can hatch more chickens and raise them. I'll trade with you at 250 points per jin."

The public price for live green-light animals is 180 points per jin. Zhang San opened at 250, which shows he really likes the chickens he raises himself.

Without Zhang San having to ask, Xia Qing would hatch more chicks anyway. Not just because of her idol—she also wanted to eat the delicious green-light chicken herself. "Don't worry, Third Brother. Next spring I'll hatch as many as I can."

Zhang San suggested, "Hens sitting on eggs lose egg-laying time. Bring the eggs over here—I have an incubator."

"Okay." Taking advantage of her idol's good mood, Xia Qing proposed, "Third Brother, could you hatch more chicks next spring? Qi-ge and the others want to raise some too. If I trade with them, I'll have to trouble you, Third Brother."

With delicious food in hand, the petty-tempered Zhang San became very easy to talk to. "Sure, I'll mention it tonight."

"Thanks, Third Brother." With another hidden worry resolved, Xia Qing felt great. In less than an hour she used the sheller to separate the kernels from the cobs of the late-planted corn.

The cobs went into bags to be dealt with later; the kernels went into bags and were spread out under the eaves, covered with a tarp to keep drying.

Sick Wolf and the swallows watched over the corn kernels, Sheep Boss went to catch bugs to feed the fish, and Xia Qing hurried to the southern part of the territory to protect the construction crew, because the second batch of refugees was about to arrive.

The second batch of refugees delivered still came in five big trucks—refugees left over after Territories One and Two had picked. While waiting to go to Territory Eight for a second selection, three of them lost control of their emotions.

One of them suddenly lost control, grabbed the refugee in front of him, and bit savagely at his neck. After the inspection team pried the two apart, the refugee who had a chunk bitten out shouted, "Quick, quick, stop the bleeding and disinfect me, quick!"

Being hurt and in pain wasn't the scary part, nor was bleeding—the scariest part was infection by the evolution bacteria. These refugees hadn't changed clothes or been disinfected for many days, so the chance of the wound being infected by evolution bacteria was very high. Disinfection had to happen as soon as possible.

But unluckily, the bite victim's wound, after being sent to Territory One for treatment, became infected with evolution bacteria. Because the victim's constitution was weak, even Zhang San's special-effect medicine couldn't pull him back from the brink of death.

The out-of-control refugee who had bitten him also quickly showed symptoms of evolution-bacteria infection and died two hours later. The bodies of both were sealed in airtight bags and placed on an oil-doused woodpile to be thoroughly cremated.

Watching the thick smoke rise from the pyre, Xia Qing, wearing her protective mask, seemed to smell the scorched odor of the bodies as well.

It wasn't that her protective mask had broken—it was that she had smelled it too many times, and the odor had already burned a deep imprint into her brain.

After the refugees were hauled off to Territory Eight, Lu Yuhui, while welding wire mesh onto the wall's steel pipes, chatted with Xia Qing. "Yesterday that hearing-evolver refused to work in the Territory Eight factory. Territory Eight found six female workers—but not all of them are men."

Territory Eight's factory provided room and board, with a twelve-hour workday and a base pay of 60 points. That was a pretty good deal. Xia Qing replied, "Keeping someone like that around would just be a hidden danger."

"That evolver is named Gu Hong, a member of the Silver Snake Squad from Guisan Base. The Silver Snake Squad was one of the organized squads for this refugee exodus. When they left Guisan Base, they had over fifty thousand people; by the time they reached us, only three thousand were left."

Having gone through an exodus herself, Xia Qing understood clearly in her heart that the Silver Snake Squad had used the ordinary people who followed them as shields. The ordinary people knew this too, but they had no choice but to travel with the squad, because that gave them a better chance of surviving.

Xia Qing asked, "Did Sister Lu ask about the giant octopus?"

Territory Eight had taken in quite a few refugees, and Lu Yuhui loved chatting with people so much that Xia Qing figured she must have asked around.

Lu Yuhui set down the welding torch, her tone heavy. "I asked. There really is a giant octopus, but it didn't damage the safe-zone wall. The real reason they fled is that the Guisan Base safe zone was hit by seawater intrusion."

Seawater intrusion means seawater reaches land through the ground.

During the two years of massive volcanic eruptions at the start of the Calamity, crustal movement was violent and Blue Star's geography changed beyond recognition. In recent years crustal movement has been relatively calmer, but still more frequent than before the Calamity.

If we go by the direction of crustal movement, land can be divided into two types: rising and sinking.

The area where Guisan, Guisi, and Guiwu Bases of Guicheng sit is a plain formed by silt carried by rivers—the soil is very fertile. But most of these three bases' areas are below sea level. What's more unsettling is that the Guicheng land block itself belongs to sinking land, and after the Calamity began, Guicheng's block sank much faster than before the Calamity.

After the Calamity began, Xia Qing's family of three didn't go to the fertile, resource-rich Guisan and Guiwu Bases, but headed for Hui Three Base. Part of the reason was that the land block there is rising, so the risk of being hit by floods and seawater is lower.

She hadn't expected Guisan to be submerged so quickly. Such a major disaster event, yet the news broadcasts hadn't reported it at all.

Xia Qing said nothing more. She picked up Lu Yuhui's welding torch and, with one hand, pressed a roll of wire mesh against the wall's steel pipe and began welding.

Survive!

She had promised her parents that no matter how bad Blue Star's environment became, she would do her best to survive and run toward happiness.

In the years before, when Xia Qing didn't know where happiness was, she never despaired. Now happiness was right behind her—she was even less likely to despair or give up.

Unless a world-shattering catastrophe struck, no one was going to take her territory from her hands!