Chapter 389: Goodwill

Having Territory Nine, which is like a ticking time bomb, as a neighbor was already bad enough. Who would have thought the neighbor to the east turned out to be this kind of person!

Shi Zhong sighed, "Good thing our territory is big enough, otherwise I wouldn't even be able to sleep. We need to fence off the east wall as soon as possible."

Xia Qing comforted Shi Zhong, "He's already lost his evolution ability now, and he's injured too, so his combat power is very low. He can't beat Shi Du. But Uncle Shi should still fence off the east wall as soon as possible. After Yan Meng lost his evolution ability, his body is weak, and there's a real chance he could lose control during the Calamity Rain."

"Xia Qing's right." Kuang Qingwei continued, "Let's chop trees fast tomorrow. We absolutely have to beat the others to it and chop enough Thorn-wood for the wall."

Everyone agreed unanimously.

Xia Qing went on, "There's one more thing I called everyone together for today: the gentle slope by the river channel, about fifty-some meters south of the Thorn-wood grove on Hill Fifty, has very sticky yellow clay. Bringing it back to build greenhouses would be perfect."

"Really?" Qi Fu, usually so steady, leaped to his feet the moment he heard the news.

"No wonder Sis told me to rent the vehicles for a few more days — it was for hauling clay!" Kuang Qingwei was both excited and nervous. "Could Si Renjie and the others have gone looking for soil too?"

Shi Zhong started cursing his son, "That brat Shi Du is completely useless. He's gone over so many times and never noticed there's yellow clay over there."

Mother Zhao asked, "Qing, is there a lot of clay over there? Is it enough for us to use?"

"Should be enough. That river slope is fairly long, but only a fifty-meter stretch can be dug with engineering vehicles. I originally planned to wait until we finished chopping trees, then use the tree-hauling vehicles to haul the soil back. But the situation has changed — we can't wait any longer."

Xia Qing paused for a few seconds before continuing, "We'd better start work tomorrow and haul the soil back in two days. Everyone first report how many greenhouses you want to build, then Brother Qi and Brother Shi go see Yue Haiying. Auntie, Brother Qing — the three of us will figure out how many vehicles we need."

As it happened, every territory this year was planning to build two standard greenhouses.

After Qi Fu and Shi Zhong went out, Kuang Qingwei had already calculated the soil volume. "Each standard greenhouse is fifty meters long, six meters wide, with walls one meter thick and three and a half meters high. The total soil needed is 2,170 cubic meters."

Over two thousand cubic meters of soil...

Kuang Qingwei's face fell. "Hauling vehicles are especially hard to rent right now. I called this afternoon to try renting two more, and they said there really aren't any vehicles available — no matter how much money you offer. The earliest is after the Calamity Snow. How about I take some people and start hauling soil back with your micro-tiller first?"

The bucket on a micro-tiller is so tiny — relying on it to haul soil would take until the year of the monkey.

Kuang Qingwei couldn't rent vehicles. Xia Qing hadn't expected Kuang Qingwei to be unable to rent vehicles either. She ran through everyone she knew in her head and quickly found a target. "Territory Eight's construction isn't finished yet — they must have engineering vehicles. I'll get in touch with Xin Yu."

The reason Xia Qing knew Territory Eight was still under construction was entirely thanks to that chatty Chonglian construction team leader, Lu Yuhui.

Lu Yuhui had mentioned to Xia Qing that after finishing the wall around Territory Three, she would be working at Territory Eight, hoping to wrap up before the Calamity Snow. There was still at least half a month until the Year Ten Calamity Snow.

Xia Qing got through to Xin Yu smoothly, then contacted Zhou Zhaoping, the assistant at Territory Eight, and successfully rented the vehicles.

She had just hung up on Zhou Zhaoping when Qi Fu's call came in. Xia Qing listened, then nodded directly. "Tell him to come over."

Neither Kuang Qingwei nor Mother Zhao were hearing-type Evolvers, and Xia Qing hadn't turned on the speakerphone, so the two of them couldn't hear clearly what she'd said with Zhou Zhaoping and Qi Fu. They just stared at her eagerly.

Xia Qing explained, "Territory Eight can rent us three hauling trucks and three excavators, but only for tomorrow and the day after. Yue Haiying is coming over about the Thorn-wood and yellow clay. Territory Fifteen has twenty-one laborers, but they can't get engineering vehicles, so they want to work with us. We don't have enough excavators, and we need the labor."

"Right, more people make the work go faster!" The moment Kuang Qingwei heard there were vehicles, he started muttering and calculating how many cubic meters three vehicles could haul in two days.

Xia Qing discussed with Mother Zhao, "Auntie, could you go find Sister Qi and use Territory Five's walkie-talkie to call Brother Zhao over? There's too much to do tomorrow and the day after — we need Brother Zhao to come sort things out in advance."

Now they needed to coordinate five hauling trucks, four excavators, and several dozen people to bring back nearly three thousand cubic meters of soil and a large amount of Thorn-wood within two days. Xia Qing had only ever been a small squad leader on a construction crew — handling this was a bit of a stretch.

The timeline was tight, the workload heavy, and with many people doing many different tasks, they needed Zhao Ze, the engineering professional, to step in.

"I'll go right now!" Her son could finally be useful — Mother Zhao happily ran off to find Yuan Yan.

Xia Qing turned her head, saw the one-armed man walking over with Qi Fu and Shi Zhong, immediately stood up, and hurried out of the room to greet him. "Captain Yue."

Yue Haiying — burly, with only half of his right arm remaining — didn't recognize Xia Qing. He greeted her with a stiff smile. "You're the lord of Territory Three, Miss Xia Qing, right? I was injured and lost my combat ability several months ago when I stepped down — I'm not a captain anymore. I'm farming at Territory Fifteen now. Just call me by my name."

"Brother Yue." Xia Qing immediately changed how she addressed him. She also realized Yue Haiying hadn't recognized her, so she introduced herself.

"I'm Xia Qing, the current lord of Territory Three. Last summer, after the second Calamity Rain, I followed the squadron you led to clear the Calamity Grass in the eastern Evolution Forest. I was a Level Four Strength Evolver at the time, a supernumerary logistics worker, wearing patched old protective gear, with a red face."

Xia Qing only knew the name of the overall commander of that Calamity Grass clearing mission and had memorized their unit designation, but she hadn't known Yue Haiying's name — she only recognized him once they met face to face.

The way Xia Qing described herself sounded utterly unfamiliar to the other lords standing nearby, but last summer — or rather, before she came out to farm — that was exactly what Xia Qing had looked like.

Because her gear was poor and she was ugly, Xia Qing had been mocked by the Evolvers in her vehicle. As the squadron leader, Yue Haiying not only gave those people a fierce scolding, but when dividing into groups for the mission, he specifically put Xia Qing in a group with the military Evolvers.

The reason this incident left such a deep impression on Xia Qing was that in the years she had been teaming up for missions, this was one of the rare instances of being treated kindly.

Because she was the most looked-down-upon type among Evolvers — an ordinary Strength Evolver — thin as a rail, her face covered in poison sores, poorly equipped, and a supernumerary logistics worker without any companions, she was often subjected to discrimination, mockery, and contempt.

Xia Qing certainly wouldn't take these trivial matters to heart, but being treated kindly still made her very happy. Because that kind of kindness could increase her chances of surviving when she ran into danger.

She had only ever felt this kind of goodwill from two people: one was Luo Pei, the other was Yue Haiying.

Before Luo Pei was poisoned, he was strict and silent, giving people the feeling of a cold but precise sniper rifle. Yue Haiying had a fiery temper — every other word out of his mouth was profanity, and he cursed terribly. His mission demands were also extremely strict; anything less than perfect was unacceptable.

Luo Pei was poisoned, but he didn't become dejected or dispirited — no matter how much it hurt, he faced it with a smile.

Yue Haiying is now disabled, and his identity and profession have undergone tremendous changes. But he didn't give up on himself either — he worked hard to suppress his violent temper and adapt to his new identity. On the strength of that alone, Xia Qing believed that even with only one and a half arms, he was still a strong person — a strong person among farmers.

Evolvers all had good memories. With Xia Qing's accurate and vivid prompts, Yue Haiying recalled what she had looked like back then. That skinny little girl really looked very different from the fair-skinned, pretty young woman standing before him now.

Meeting an acquaintance who showed him goodwill, Yue Haiying's smile became more natural. "Looks like I picked a pretty good career. Farming has a real future."