Chapter 60: Pruning and Removing Branches

The mountain was rented out to someone else, so how could she get a cut? Xia Qing sighed.

Besides, if not for the purpose of scouting the mountain, what fool would pass up the green mountains everywhere that don't cost points, and insist on paying several thousand points to enter Mountain No. 49? This kind of business only tricks people with ulterior motives; it won't last long and won't earn many points.

Xia Qing went on comforting herself while continuing to patrol the buffer forest.

After Tang Zheng and the others entered the evolution forest of Mountain No. 49, Yang Jin glanced in the direction where Xia Qing was, then turned and unhurriedly returned to Buffer Forest No. 1.

"Jin-ge—"

Hearing Tang Lu's sickeningly sweet cutesy voice float over, Xia Qing, who hadn't gone far yet, got a bad case of goosebumps. This gossip was way too greasy for her to stomach—she sped up and fled, or her ears would get polluted again.

A cutesy voice is a cutesy voice, but sure enough, Sheep Boss's is still the easiest on the ears.

"Jin-ge—"

Tang Lu, dressed in a skin-tight pink dress, stood prettily inside Territory No. 2 and greeted Yang Jin from afar as he came down the buffer forest on the north side of Territory No. 1. "Jin-ge, I'm over here!"

Yang Jin's face looked even uglier than when he'd faced Tang Zheng earlier. "Does Young Lady Tang need something from me?"

She was too far away—Tang Lu had to shout, and it was really hard to sound delicate. "I finally got my hands on 50 liters of pollution-free spring water and delivered it overnight. Jin-ge, take it to treat Instructor Luo."

"No need. I heard from the Second Young Lady Tang that the Tang family's old madam is ill. Young Lady Tang should take the spring water back and offer it to your elder." Yang Jin walked down the slope, his figure completely hidden by the tall wild grass.

Tang Lu stamped her foot in anger, then turned and scolded Tang Huai. "What are you lot good for? Can't you see the grass is this tall? Clear it out right now!"

Even if the wild grass in Territory No. 2 got cleared, the grass in Territory No. 1 would still grow as before—you still wouldn't be able to see Yang Jin! Tang Huai couldn't be bothered to explain; he just took the mission to clear the wild grass, refusing to argue with this brainless woman.

After driving Tang Huai away with her scolding, Tang Lu started cursing Tang Zheng again. "Why did she bring up grandma being sick in front of Jin-ge? Putting on a show of filial piety? Hmph! I knew long ago she didn't come along with any good intentions! Where the hell did Xu Pin go? Haven't seen him in ages!"

"Reporting to Eldest Young Lady, Vice Captain Xu took some people out." After Tang Lu's bodyguard finished speaking, he shot dead a palm-sized spider that had been leaping at Tang Lu.

"What kind of godforsaken place is this!" Tang Lu shrieked, turned, and fled toward the village. If it weren't for Jin-ge, she wouldn't want to stay here for even a second!

Meanwhile, Tang Heng, Tang Huai's younger brother, led Xu Pin, vice captain of the Sufeng Squad, to the signpost of Territory No. 7. "Captain Xu, Zhang San is right in this territory."

Right ahead, there was still a dense wall of grass taller than a person. Even so, Xu Pin accurately pinpointed the positions of the two hidden sentries inside the grass wall, and obediently stood beneath the signpost to call Zhang San.

The phone rang and rang, but no one picked up—just as expected. Tang Heng pulled out a walkie-talkie. "Captain Xu, the folks in these territories usually use walkie-talkies to contact each other. Let me ask if Zhang San is around."

After Xu Pin nodded, Tang Heng turned on the walkie-talkie and asked loudly, "This is Tang Heng from Territory No. 2. Is Third Brother from Territory No. 7 there?"

Soon, Kuang Qingwei's voice came over the channel. "Third Brother definitely isn't here in the morning. If you want to find him, you'd better come back at 7:45 tonight."

Tang Heng held the walkie-talkie and looked at Xu Pin. "Captain Xu, Zhang San's temper isn't small. If we force our way in and he finds out, it'll be hard to trade supplies with him afterward."

Just because of one piece of spoiled lamb, Zhang San still refuses to trade with Territory No. 2 to this day. Such a petty man must be a bald guy with a ruined face!

"Let's head back." Xu Pin turned and walked back. Since he couldn't meet Zhang San, he'd go check out Mountain No. 49. He didn't believe Yang Jin would buy a mountain for no reason—there had to be important resources on Mountain No. 49.

Relying on that inexperienced woman Tang Zheng, he wouldn't be able to find out anything at all.

Before they'd gone far, Xu Pin and his group ran into a screening squad patrolling along the isolation belt.

Xu Pin stood at attention and gave Tan Junjie a military salute. "Instructor Tan."

Tan Junjie returned the salute, didn't even take off his protective mask, and led the squad onward.

Xu Pin stood where he was and shouted, "Instructor Tan may not know yet, but the Azure Dragon Squad has bought Mountain No. 49. The evolution forest north of this territory is now the Azure Dragon Squad's responsibility, so there's no need for you to patrol here anymore."

Tan Junjie walked past him calmly. "I'm leading the squad to carry out orders. Who owns the mountain has nothing to do with me."

Watching Tan Junjie's squad walk away, a Sufeng squad member behind Xu Pin spat. "Just a squad leader in charge of five or six people, and he dares put on airs in front of you. As if he were still the military academy instructor throwing his weight around before the catastrophe."

"Shut your mouth." Xu Pin said "shut your mouth" out loud, but there wasn't a trace of blame on his face for his subordinate's loose tongue. "Even though the great biological evolution has made humans re-stratify by ability, there's still plenty I need to learn from the instructor."

"That snide dog!" The hearing-evolved Cao Xianyun cursed under his breath. "How could the military academy produce such a disgrace?"

"We'll deal with him sooner or later!"

"Continue the patrol. Stay alert."

"Yes, sir."

All the excitement outside had nothing to do with Xia Qing. After patrolling the territory with Sheep Boss, she squatted beside the potato and sweet potato fields and listened carefully. The whoosh of wind, the chirping of birds, the rustling of long earthworms wriggling in the soil, and… the scraping of cutworms crawling!

Xia Qing opened her eyes, walked over, dug out an evolved noctuid larva—a cutworm—five meters from the potato field, and tossed it to the big magpies that flew over.

The two big magpies that didn't get any bugs to eat refused to leave and stood beside Xia Qing waiting to be fed.

After clearing out all the evolved grubs and cutworms from the soil around the two fields, Xia Qing gazed lovingly at the pale-red potato vines, which had grown much taller. Vines this tall—surely there should be potatoes on the roots by now?

She was too tempted to hold back; she'd dig up two small potatoes first to satisfy her craving.

Xia Qing pulled out her phone and flipped through The Complete Planting Guide, only to be disappointed to learn that potatoes only grow after the potato vines bloom.

The potatoes won't bloom until next month…

With potatoes out of the question, Xia Qing turned her gaze to the sweet potato vines. Sweet potatoes don't need to bloom to grow. The sweet potato vines are this long—they must have grown, right?

After squatting by the field for ten minutes, Xia Qing finally couldn't resist reaching out her guilty claws, carefully scraping away the soil at the sweet potato roots. Then she discovered that although the sweet potato roots had begun to swell, they weren't even as thick as her little finger—they couldn't be counted as sweet potatoes at all.

After filling the soil back in, Xia Qing moved on to the cotton field.

The cotton plants had already grown to her knee height, and the main stem had sprouted three to five branches. Yesterday's base broadcast said that once cotton reached this stage, it was time for "pruning and removing branches."

Pruning and removing branches means keeping the fruiting branches that grow flower buds on the cotton's main stem, and snapping off the leaf branches that don't directly grow flower buds. Because leaf branches grow faster than fruiting branches and consume more nutrients, snapping off leaf branches in time promotes fruiting branch growth and increases cotton yield.

Xia Qing had been very interested in this farm work when she heard the broadcast last night, because removing branches just means snapping off leaf branches—she could squeeze juice from the snapped-off leaf branches to test each cotton plant's qiang element content.

Every crop was precious after the catastrophe. Xia Qing compared the leaf branch and fruiting branch pictures in The Complete Planting Guide with the cotton plants in front of her, and the more she looked, the less she could tell leaf branches from fruiting branches. She didn't dare snap any off.

She turned on the walkie-talkie and, sure enough, heard the lords of Territories No. 4, 5, and 6 discussing pruning and removing branches.

Zhao Ze fretted, "All these branches look the same. Which ones am I supposed to snap off? I don't dare start."

Qi Fu patiently instructed, "Count from the bottom up. The first fruiting branch usually grows in the armpit of the fifth to seventh leaf on the main stem. Once you find the fruiting branch, strip off all the branches below it."

Zhao Ze grew even more worried. "Brother Qi, a lot of my cotton plants haven't even grown five leaves yet. How many leaves have yours grown?"

Answering that question would mean revealing your own crop's growth situation to others, so no one answered. Xia Qing counted the leaves on the cotton plant in front of her—seven leaves had already grown.