Chapter 78: Spinach Explosion

What does it mean for the roof to leak just as the rain pours down all night? This is exactly it!

"I'm on my way."

Xia Qing stepped out of the house. Within the range of the strong light beam shining down from above, she saw that on the low slope north of the river channel, the rainproof cloth of the rain shelter covering the spinach had been torn open. Three arched support frames stood tall, like three middle fingers jabbed straight at the sky.

Damn it! They had to ripen now of all times—not earlier, not later.

Xia Qing cursed under her breath, ordered herself to stay steady and not lose her temper, and ran north with Sheep Boss.

Passing the river channel, Xia Qing kept up her speed and slapped away several aquatic creatures that leapt up to attack her, then charged under the rain shelter on the low slope's planting area.

Flustered and frantic, Chen Zheng apologized profusely. "Sister Qing, it's my fault. When I passed this terraced field, I accidentally bumped the spinach, and they just exploded."

It really was an "explosion"—this whole mess was caused by spinach-seed bombs.

This wasn't Chen Zheng's fault. Zhang San had said that when spinach seeds ripened, the seeds would only spray out if the leaves were pulled off, and Xia Qing had instructed Chen Zheng the same way. But who would have thought that when the spinach in the territory ripened, they would explode from just a touch? "The spinach seeds were supposed to ripen in the next couple of days anyway. Are you hurt?"

Chen Zheng shook his head like a rattle-drum, his protective mask wobbling askew. "I'm fine. What do we do now?"

Chen Zheng was a main combatant on the squad and had never handled logistics before—he truly had no idea how to quickly clean up this mess.

Xia Qing immediately ordered, "You bring the rainproof cloth from over there and cover the spinach seedlings. I'll fix the shed frame."

"Got it." Chen Zheng hurried off to fetch the rainproof cloth.

After the two of them patched up the rain shelter and cleared out several dozen Calamity-evolved insects that had burrowed in to cause damage, Chen Zheng felt even more ashamed. "Sister Qing, you rest. I'll go check the shed up above first, then come back to pick up the spinach seeds."

While Chen Zheng went to inspect the rain shelter on the high slope, Xia Qing picked up the sprayer and sprayed insecticide wildly around the outside of the low-slope rain shelter, driving away the Calamity-evolved insects that had gathered to eat the seeds, then began picking up spinach seeds that had fallen on the muddy ground outside the shelter and among the Calamity grass.

If she didn't pick them up now, it would be even harder after the rain.

Seeds in the mud—pick them up; seeds shot into Calamity grass stems—dig them out; seeds stuck in tree bark or stone crevices—pry them out…

After Chen Zheng finished inspecting the high-slope rain shelter and returned, he picked up seeds together with Xia Qing. Dajiang, who had come by on patrol, also stayed to help collect seeds.

Working together, the three of them managed to gather everything pickable before the next bout of Calamity rain and insects could destroy the seeds.

The seeds scattered inside the shelter were simply impossible to attend to right now—cover them first.

The sky gradually brightened. By eleven o'clock, the sun, absent for what felt like a century, finally returned, breaking through the clouds and pouring down ten thousand rays of light.

The second Calamity rain of Year Ten of the Catastrophe finally ended after lasting fifty hours. The exhausted lords collapsed on the ground—some numb, some crying, some laughing, some crying and laughing at once.

Xia Qing was the numb one—numb from exhaustion and pain.

Dajiang and the other two confirmed no more plants were showing aggressive Calamity evolution and wanted to help Xia Qing clean up the exploded spinach field. But these three had already helped her a great deal, so Xia Qing told them to go back and rest.

Limping back to the cabin with Sheep Boss, Xia Qing's hands trembled as she removed the protective masks from herself and Sheep Boss. She added food and water for Sheep Boss, then pulled out nutrient solution and downed two painkillers with it. After setting an alarm for one hour, she lay down and didn't move.

Sheep Boss finished his feed, too drained even to chew cud, and fell asleep with his head resting on Xia Qing's leg.

An hour later, Xia Qing was half-resurrected. Dragging her aching body, she went to open the ventilation ports of the rain shelter, letting the plants, which had been cooped up for two whole days, breathe fresh air.

It had just rained, so the Calamity element content in the air was higher than usual, but Xia Qing had to open the vents—because she had no equipment to add oxygen to the rain shelter, and being sealed up too long would be bad for the plants' growth.

Then Xia Qing took out her little notebook and tallied up the losses caused by the second Calamity rain.

In this Calamity rain, Territory Three lost 300 wheat plants, 240 mung bean plants, 220 cotton plants, 50 cutting sweet potato seedlings, 40 yellow-light potatoes, 6 green-light sweet potatoes, 5 yellow-light pumpkins, 2 yellow-light eggplants, 2 yellow-light cucumbers, and 1 yellow-light tomato.

The eggplants, cucumbers, and tomato underwent Calamity evolution because the spinach explosion tore open the rainproof cloth, and these plants were bitten by Calamity-evolved insects that rushed into the shelter.

The reason so many potatoes were lost was that those four aggressive Calamity-evolved potatoes had ruined over twenty normal potato seedlings.

Although a quarter of the cutting sweet potato vines were lost, it was within Xia Qing's expectations. The losses of the other crops were not significant, and Xia Qing breathed a sigh of relief. Dragging her exhausted body, she went to pick up the spinach seeds.

Fortunately, she had long ago followed the method Zhang San taught, surrounding the spinach field on all four sides with four layers of rainproof cloth, leaving only the top open so the spinach could receive sunlight and air and grow normally. So this time, when the spinach seeds exploded, the seeds sprayed outward were all blocked by the rainproof cloth—only the area above took the hit from the spinach seeds. Otherwise, the consequences would have been even more unthinkable.

Picking them up wasn't difficult.

Xia Qing removed the rainproof cloth covering the spinach terraces. After checking and finding that all the spinach seedlings were still green-light, she breathed a long sigh of relief.

The post-explosion spinach seedlings being green-light meant that this entire batch of spinach seeds was green-light. She just didn't know whether the seeds would be affected after being sprayed out and coming into contact with the Calamity rain.

Logically, they shouldn't be—because spinach seed shells are extremely hard. With only brief contact, Calamity elements shouldn't be able to penetrate the hard shell and affect the seed embryos.

Each green-light seed was worth 20 points, equivalent to what she earned working four days on the safe-zone construction crew. So she had to pick them up—not a single one could be wasted.

Spinach seeds in the soil of the terraces—she shoveled the soil along with them into bags to take home, dried it, then picked them out. Seeds stuck on the rainproof cloth or shot into the rain shelter's support frames—she picked up every single one.

A little over an hour later, Xia Qing loaded a big bag of soil onto Sheep Boss's back and carried another big bag herself. Then, one person and one goat, limping, they returned to the home overgrown with Calamity grass.

Xia Qing first carried the two bags of soil up to the second-floor living room of the small building and spread them out to dry on the sunny balcony. The second-floor balcony had glass windows, so birds or insects from outside couldn't get in to steal the seeds.

Exhausted Xia Qing picked the last two strawberries—one for her, one for Sheep Boss.

The strawberries were really delicious. Xia Qing felt her strength returning.

Enduring the pain, she carefully inspected the house and the adjacent warehouse inside and out. After confirming that no snakes, insects, rats, or ants had broken through the walls or roof to get in, she didn't bother dealing with the solar panel on the roof that had been chewed up, and started the fire to cook.

Tonight's dinner was cornmeal spinach porridge and compressed rations.

The spinach leaves and tender stems riddled with holes from the sprayed seeds—she would eat those herself. The tough stems and roots she chopped up and mixed with compressed rations as concentrate feed for Sheep Boss.

After eating their fill, one person and one goat lay down and fell asleep.

Apply medicine to the whip wounds on her body? No energy for that.

Take a bath? Even less energy for that.

When Xia Qing opened her eyes again, it was already six o'clock the next morning, and Sheep Boss was no longer in the room.

A Level-7 hearing evolver, yet she hadn't heard when Sheep Boss got up. This gave Xia Qing a wake-up call: if someone or an evolved animal had launched an attack on her last night, she would have died eight hundred times over.

Something like this absolutely could not happen a second time.

Xia Qing sat up and got dressed, discovering that the whip wounds on her body—inflicted by the dancing potato vines—somehow didn't hurt as much anymore.

The whipping force of the dancing potato vines was no weaker than that of a Level-3 strength evolver. Logically, with injuries this severe, even with medicine she should have had to endure the pain for a week. How could just two painkillers have reduced it this much?

(End of Chapter)