Chapter 698: Anomaly in Territory No. 14

Jiang Mu and Jiang Ying were both ordinary people with no prior farming experience, so going to claim an unfenced plot in an area without wire fencing would be too risky for them; they agreed to Yuan Rui's proposal.

Jiang Ying moved into Territory No. 15, ate and worked alongside everyone first, and once she had enough experience, she would clear a plot of her own to grow vegetables for herself.

Jiang Ying also made a deal with Yuan Rui: she didn't need anyone else's help to clear land and could take her time doing it herself.

Although Tan Qi and Jiang Ying weren't close, they knew each other. Hearing that Jiang Ying was coming to the territory to be her neighbor, Tan Qi was quite happy.

Aunt Yan, her dad, and Xia Qing were all very busy, so once Jiang Ying came, she'd finally have company.

Tan Junjie had prepared building materials based on the needs of a two-story small house; now that three more rooms had to be added, the materials were no longer enough.

The shortfall was mainly in two types of materials: rebar and cement.

Rebar forms the skeleton of a house's structural columns, and cement is an indispensable raw material for making concrete.

Rebar for construction wasn't scarce—it could be bought within the safe zone of Hui-3 Base—but cement was more troublesome.

To build a sturdy house suitable for living through the years of natural disasters, one needed high-quality cement with added special insect-repelling components and double the corrosion resistance. This kind of cement had high production costs and an expensive price tag, and it wasn't sold to the public.

Unable to get enough cement, Tan Junjie took Xia Qing's advice and changed his approach.

He got a small packet of cement as a sample, asked Zhang San—an all-round expert from the Northern Zone 1 territory—to test it and figure out the composition of the insect-repelling ingredients. Then he gathered the raw materials and asked the fungal powder factory in Territory No. 8 to help produce insect-repelling powder to add to ordinary cement, improving its quality.

Now there was no time to gather more materials and ask Territories No. 3 and No. 8 to make insect-repelling powder, yet Tan Junjie didn't want his daughter's house to have a lower safety factor just because three extra rooms were being added—this was the reason he'd invited Xia Qing and Qi Fu over together.

After marking out the foundations of the two houses with white lime, Xia Qing offered Tan Junjie a plan: "Keep the exterior walls at 37 centimeters, change the partition wall between the living room and the east and west rooms to 24 centimeters. Then…"

Xia Qing stood on the white-lime line that divided the east room into a north and south room: "On this wall, put two structural columns here and here. Don't build the partition wall for now—the cement saved will be enough to put up the exterior walls of those three rooms next door."

The structure of the house quickly took shape in Zhao Ze's mind: "Sister Qing's method works. If leaving it open looks ugly, the south bedroom and north storage room can be divided by a wooden wall, and later switched to a brick wall."

After Qi Fu also approved the plan, construction on Tan Qi's house began.

Territory No. 15 had plenty of people, and Territory No. 1 also sent people to help, but none of them knew how to build a house. The key steps—digging the foundation, tying rebar, and mixing concrete—needed Xia Qing and Qi Fu to lead and guide. Hearing Zhu Li and Tan Qi followed along as assistants, busy and quite happy.

Many hands make light work; on the first day they finished digging the foundations for both houses and erected the rebar structural columns. Tan Qi hopped back and forth between the grid squares of the house foundations like a happy antelope.

On the road back to their respective territories in the evening, Qi Fu brought up a matter: "Someone in Tang Huaijian's lord group said that Lai Mingke, the lord of Territory No. 29 in Northern Zone 2, fired a kiln of bricks to build a house."

"Firing your own bricks definitely saves money, but he used firewood to fire the kiln, so the hardness of the bricks probably won't be enough." Zhao Ze had also seen the message and commented, "Compared with brick walls, concrete walls are still sturdier and more earthquake-resistant."

Although he didn't currently have enough points to build a new house, if he ever built one in the future, Zhao Ze would definitely use concrete walls.

Xia Qing nodded too; her thoughts were the same as Zhao Ze's. The two-story small house she lived in now and the rack building beside it had just been built with reinforced concrete before the natural disasters began, so even in the eleventh year of the disasters, the houses were still barely livable.

Qi Fu explained, "The house will use concrete—I was thinking of firing a kiln of bricks to build the courtyard wall. The yellow clay we dug up last year could be used."

Kuang Qingwei walked out from Territory No. 6: "Brother Qi, making adobe bricks, building a brick kiln, and firing a kiln are all hard, skilled jobs. If the temperature isn't controlled well, the bricks that come out can only be used to fool people."

Hearing Zhu Li didn't quite understand: "How can bricks fool people?"

Kuang Qingwei explained, "The kind that were split by hand on TV and livestreams before the disasters."

After Hearing Zhu Li understood, she didn't think much of the brick-firing idea either: "Brother Qi, firing bricks to build a courtyard wall is worse than just picking up stones on the hillside."

Qi Fu gave a simple laugh: "The house in my old hometown was built with bricks my parents fired themselves. I know how to fire bricks, so when I saw Territory No. 29 firing bricks, my hands got itchy too—I want to give it a try."

Hearing that Qi Fu knew how to fire bricks, Xia Qing decided to throw in: "Bricks are neater and easier to use than stones. The broken houses in my territory can't be torn down for usable bricks anymore. Brother Qi, when are you planning to start?"

Seeing Xia Qing was interested, Qi Fu grew even more enthusiastic: "I'll first use the yellow clay left over from the greenhouse to fire a small batch and test it. If it works, I'll figure out a way to haul yellow clay out from Fifty-Two Good Mountain."

Xia Qing nodded: "If it works, I'll work on it with you. Save me some of the bricks you fire."

Kuang Qingwei was tactful: "My wife and I don't have much strength, so we won't add to the chaos."

Zhao Ze, who also wasn't very strong, was very interested: "When I was in college, my specialized course teacher lectured on traditional brick-firing methods—count me in too."

Hearing Zhu Li had just opened her mouth to speak when she heard a sound inside Territory No. 14. She immediately grabbed her husband with one hand and Xia Qing with the other, pulling them back into Territory No. 6, and signaled Zhao Ze and Qi Fu to follow quickly.

Having gone on missions together last winter, everyone still understood the basic hand signals, so the two immediately moved north with them and entered Territory No. 6.

When danger appeared, Zhao Ze instinctively wanted to hide behind Xia Qing, but Kuang Qingwei was a step faster and had already pushed Hearing Zhu Li behind Xia Qing.

"Shhh, shhh!"

This time not only Hearing Zhu Li and Xia Qing, but Qi Fu and Zhao Ze also heard the sound of someone cutting grass with a blade coming from inside Territory No. 14. Hearing Zhu Li lowered her voice: "Are they planning to actually farm properly now?"

A while back, the Territory Management Department verified the area of farmland each territory had already cleared and was cultivating normally; only those exceeding four mu were issued 150 spinach seeds.

Because Yan Meng of Territory No. 14 had insufficient cultivated area, he had hired people from Territory No. 17 to urgently clear and farm the land. Later, when Territory No. 6 hired people from Territory No. 17 to work, Hearing Zhu Li overheard them quietly complaining about the situation inside Territory No. 14.

After confirming it was just someone cutting grass, everyone walked back out of Territory No. 6 and hurried back to their own territories.

Xia Qing continued to use her hearing to monitor Territory No. 14. The frequency and force of the person cutting grass inside the territory wasn't something a person who'd been chronically ill could manage. Either Yan Meng, who'd been chronically ill, had recovered, or Territory No. 14 had taken on a new person.

Either way, it wasn't good news for Xia Qing.