Chapter 758: Harvesting the Rapeseed

Back in the room that smelled of wood, mother and daughter shut the doors and windows tight before taking off their protective masks and gloves, washing their hands clean, and sitting down at the spotless dining table.

Zhang Shi handed her chopsticks to her daughter, watching her with an encouraging gaze.

Zhang Shiyi lifted her little head, looking at her mother in confusion.

Zhang Shi's voice was gentle. "Shiyi, you can talk here."

Making any sound inside the Evolution Forest was extremely dangerous. Already used to silence, Shiyi opened her mouth and tried several times before finally managing a soft, sticky little call.

"Mama."

Once May arrived, each day grew hotter than the last, and the crops' growth sped up as well.

The soybean, mung bean, and potato plants had all grown to thigh height. The fastest-growing was the corn—the stalks were already taller than Xia Qing.

The roughly one-meter-tall cotton plants had put out pretty blossoms, and the rice and wheat had also headed and flowered. The fields were full of hope everywhere, and full of urgency everywhere too.

Seeing these thriving crops, the lords couldn't help wondering how many of these seedlings, in the coming second Harmful Rain, would undergo harmful evolution—or even aggressive harmful evolution—leading to reduced harvests or even total crop failure.

To ease the anxiety, the lords could only prepare as much as possible, so every territory had been busy lately.

Xia Qing, dressed in a breathable new-material summer outfit, cut down the yellowed, leaf-dropping rapeseed plants heavy with pods, sorting them onto three rainproof tarps spread out inside the greenhouse to dry.

On the largest tarp, 204 stalks of yellow-grade rapeseed were laid out to dry—this kind could be pressed for oil and eaten directly, and Xia Qing planned to keep it rather than trade it away.

On the second tarp, 55 stalks of red-grade rapeseed were drying. The seeds of this kind had to be sent to the food processing plant for harmful-element reduction before they could be made into food or oil. Such food had very low nutritional value and would be sold cheaply to ordinary people in the Safe Zone to fill their stomachs.

On the smallest tarp, seven stalks of yellow-grade rapeseed with a harmful-element content of just over six parts per thousand were drying. These were breedable optimized seeds that had popped up in the one-mu plot, and could be kept for use as seeds.

The reason those two hundred-plus stalks couldn't be used as seeds was that their harmful-element content had already exceeded ten parts per thousand.

After a rough estimate, Xia Qing found that the harvest from one mu of rapeseed couldn't even cover the cost of the fertilizer, insecticide, and fungicide used on the rapeseed field. Not to mention the cost of building the greenhouse, or the labor—both human and sheep—that had been poured into this one mu of land from last winter all the way to May this year.

It wasn't just the rapeseed—the overwintering wheat in the fields had also lost money.

The root cause was that before last winter's harmful snow, the Blaze Beast-Hunting Squad had used gas bombs on Mountain No. 50, causing the red-grade harmful snow over the Northern Zone One territory to last far too long, which led to the crops planted in the territory's fields at the time losing more than half their yield.

With not a single seedling left in the fields, what harvest was there to speak of!

Although the Blaze Squad had compensated the lords' losses with yellow-grade wheat seeds, looking at the sparse wheat and rapeseed fields, the lords still ached and cursed Blaze for being good-for-nothing.

Of course, behind the scenes they cursed by name; on the lord channel they cursed by insinuation. Blaze was Hui One's top squad, and the lords couldn't afford to offend them.

Zhu Li cursed a couple of times, then asked, "Has anyone gotten breedable optimized seeds from their rapeseed field? I've only got three stalks here with a harmful-element content of 6.5‰, which together produced 53 rapeseed pods—the seeds I got out couldn't even plant half a mu of land."

Although this batch of rapeseed had lost money, the lords still chose to keep planting it.

First, because the aggressive harmful-evolution form of this rapeseed only grew a few small thorns—its danger rating was far lower than that of the dancing potato vines. Second, this winter's harmful snow probably wouldn't be as severe as last year's, so more rapeseed plants should survive the harmful-snow period, then make it safely through next year's first harmful rain and successfully set seed.

Yuan Yan also came online. "I've only got two stalks here."

Seeing that everyone had only two or three, Tang Huai asked Xia Qing, "Xia Qing, what about you? You've got half a mu more rapeseed than the rest of us—you should have a few more, right?"

Xia Qing pressed the button. "I've got seven stalks here, and the harmful-element content is also just over six parts per thousand."

Wen Nengjie immediately came online. "Seven stalks is enough to plant half a mu. With Sister Qing's luck, planting them might very well pop out some green-grade optimized seeds. Are Feng-ge and Heng-ge there? How's it looking on your end?"

Tang Heng came online, his voice mild. "My ratio here is about the same as everyone else's—I got 68 optimized stalks in total, six of which are green-grade."

The one who came online for Territory One wasn't Beard Feng, but Tang Zhou. "Territory One's ratio is about the same too—we harvested 320 stalks, 58 of them green-grade."

Territory One had planted fifty mu of rapeseed going into winter last year, and Territory Twelve had planted ten mu, so the ratio of breedable optimized seeds they harvested really was about the same as everyone else's.

But! Their optimized seeds included green-grade rapeseed, and that made all the difference.

Kuang Qingwei immediately came online to ask, "Heng-ge, Tang-ge, can I ask where you got the rapeseed seeds you planted last year?"

This was big news, and everyone pricked up their ears to listen.

Tang Heng remained mild. "Part of them came from our base's Planting Center, part from Hui Five. Hui Five's yellow-grade rapeseed is a bit better quality than our base's, and the green-grade rapeseed plants were also grown from seeds bought from Hui Five."

Tang Zhou replied, "Territory One's situation is the same as Territory Twelve's."

Kuang Qingwei immediately noted it down. "Thanks, Heng-ge, Tang-ge. Looks like Hui Five's quality rapeseed seeds grow pretty well over here too."

Xia Qing nodded in agreement.

After more than a year of farming, she'd found that the stability of quality seeds bought from other bases and planted differed greatly from the data given by their place of origin.

For example, the specialty of Bai San Base—the BS-6 green-grade rice seed—planted in the best soil in Xia Qing's territory grew poorly, and its harmful-element content shot right up. And the Y-3 green-grade corn, a specialty of Red Eleven Base, grew with better vigor and stability in Territory Three than BS-6 did.

Analyzing the reason, Xia Qing believed it was because Bai San Base's climate and soil conditions differed greatly from Hui Three Base's. The same went for Red Eleven, separated from Hui Three by a vast thousand-li stretch of Evolution Forest—only the gap was a bit smaller than the former.

But the quality wheat M-14 and quality rice J-2 bred by Territory Seven, only three kilometers from Territory Three, grew extremely well in Territory Three.

Hui Five was six hundred li from Hui Three, and its climate was similar to Hui Three's. So it was only natural that Hui Five's quality rapeseed seeds grew well over here.

Qi Fu reached the same conclusion as Xia Qing. "From now on, when we trade for quality seeds, we should prioritize Hui One and Hui Five. Our three bases are close to each other, and the climate conditions are about the same."

"Qi-ge's right." Zhao Ze also came online. "By that logic, our base's X-2 might not necessarily grow well if promoted to other bases."

This was good news for the lords of Hui Three Base—if it really was the case, the price of X-2 high-harmful-element spinach wouldn't drop too low.

Just as everyone was about to launch into a heated discussion on this issue, a very forceful woman's voice suddenly came online.

"Tang Zhou, you're at Territory One?"

Tang Zhou recognized who it was, and his scalp tightened a little, but he still answered honestly, "Yes, I just got back the day before yesterday."

Tang Zhou loved farming, so during his rest time after completing missions, he preferred to stay in his territory rather than the Safe Zone.

It was precisely because he'd come back to hold down the fort that Beard Feng had the chance to go out on missions.

Yan Long asked again, "Busy now?"

Inside Territory Three, Xia Qing silently lit a stick of incense for Tang Zhou.

Tang Zhou could feel the pressure, but he didn't dare tell anything but the truth. "Not busy, Yan-jie, just say the word."

"Good, I'm coming over now."

Tang Zhou:... Is there still time for me to run?

Xia Qing: If I run fast, can I still make it in time to watch the show?