Chapter 938: School's Out

Xia Qing handed a four-jin-plus young rooster and a bag of edamame to Ji Li. "Brother Ji, sorry to trouble you."

Looking dead serious, Ji Li took them and asked, "What do you want to trade for?"

Xia Qing answered, "Did Brother Ji bring the latest insect repellent? The spray kind."

Ji Li nodded, dug eight bottles of insect repellent out of the bag he was carrying and handed them to Xia Qing, then continued east to trade supplies at Territory Eleven and Territory One. Territory Eleven had sweet chili peppers, Territory One had a green lantern bamboo rat.

After Ji Li walked off, Xia Qing went home, packed the qiangwu grass into the secure medicine box, and sent her idol a message telling him she hadn't put the qiangwu grass leaves inside.

Behind any anomaly, unpredictable danger may lurk.

Having lived through eleven years of the catastrophe, Xia Qing trusted her instincts and was prepared to deal with sudden disasters at any moment.

Zhang San took ten minutes to reply to Xia Qing: Come over this afternoon when you get the chance.

After deleting the message, Xia Qing put her phone in her pocket and walked toward her off-road vehicle with a blank expression.

Is there something off about Ji Li? She didn't know, and her idol probably wasn't sure at this point either, but being cautious was never wrong.

Xia Qing greeted her companions and hurried to Central Nine.

After passing through the wild-grass wall of Central Nine, Xia Qing heard the sound of orderly footsteps and turned to see the security team's off-duty personnel doing jogging endurance training on the training ground.

Four magnetic-sense evolvers trailed behind the formation. Apart from Wang Jun barely keeping pace with the orderly ranks, the other three had already lost their running form, their hair soaked as if just pulled from water. Geng Min in particular, bringing up the rear, had begun to lose focus in her eyes, staying upright purely on willpower.

Wu Xinlian's husband Liu Ke, a magnetic-sense evolver who had just reported for duty at noon that day, was also in the training formation. Liu Ke was a physically fit auditory evolver who had been out on plenty of missions back in the Bright Green Squad, so he had been assigned to the security team.

Xia Qing didn't interrupt their training. After parking at the lot, she hurried to the central office.

Outside was stifling, while inside the air-conditioned office it was pleasantly cool. Of the four people in the room, those who could stand all rose to greet Xia Qing.

Xia Qing walked to her desk, sat down, and got to work. Of the six air-conditioners she had requisitioned from the Housing and Construction Bureau, one had been installed in this office, three in the school classrooms, one in the monitoring room, and the last in the infirmary.

In the air-conditioner usage plan Yan Yue had submitted, one unit was meant for Xia Qing's office, but Xia Qing had reassigned it to the infirmary. Because she spent little time in the office, installing a dedicated unit there was a waste of resources. To be more comfortable at work, she simply moved her desk out to the front room next to Yan Yue's, and turned the back room into an archive.

Through this air-conditioner incident, the people of Central Nine once again gained a deep impression of their director's working style—no love of pomp or pretension, just getting things done.

It was precisely because Xia Qing led by example that Central Nine had built up a rigorous, fair, and efficient work atmosphere, giving the employees and their families who stayed here a sense of security they had been missing for eleven years. Everyone here strictly followed the center's management rules, terrified of being kicked out.

Under such a working atmosphere, Central Nine's efficiency was extremely high. Xia Qing had been away only three days, and the Construction Department had already finished two more solar greenhouses. At this pace, the solar greenhouses originally scheduled for completion on October 10 would be finished ahead of schedule by mid-August.

In September, once the Housing and Construction Bureau allocated the materials for building the perimeter wall, all Construction Department staff could throw themselves into wall construction, and the wall would definitely be finished before the ground froze.

Xia Qing was satisfied with the progress of every task. After leaving the office, she headed straight for the greenhouses to check on the corn and rice. When she came out of the greenhouse, she heard the rhythmic clang-clang, clang-clang-clang, clang-clang of a hammer striking iron, followed immediately by the laughter of children.

The basic-education school in Northern Zone One inside Central Nine had let out for the day.

Xia Qing stood at the greenhouse door, listening quietly. It had been eleven years since she had heard so many people laughing and chattering together without a care.

The children were out of school, and Central Nine had reached its end-of-work time. Employees filed out one after another from the office, greenhouses, construction site, and training ground, gathering in formation and heading for the cafeteria.

Employees with children didn't need to assemble; they picked up their kids and then went to the cafeteria to eat.

Three-year-old Geng An'an let go of her grandmother's hand and darted toward Geng Min like a happy little bird; Geng Min was practically dragging both legs as she walked.

Liu Anqi, who had just walked out of the school with her backpack, let out a shriek, jumped up and down happily a few times on the spot, then shouted "Daddy! Mommy!" and dashed toward Liu Ke, who was supporting his wife.

Wang Jun wiped the sweat from his face and walked briskly to the school gate. When he saw Zhong Tao's ten-year-old son Zhong Ping'an come out holding seven-year-old Wang Shunkang, his shoulders sank slightly—he was clearly relieved.

Xia Qing gazed quietly at Wang Shunkang, who was a head shorter than Zhong He. This child, who had only attended one week of first grade in the safe zone, had been placed in the intermediate class after an entrance test, which showed just how much effort Wang Jun had put into his son.

"Sister Qing!!!"

Tan Qi, wearing the class monitor's red armband, spotted Xia Qing standing far off at the greenhouse door the moment she stepped out of school, ran over in the blink of an eye, and lifted her flushed little face still dotted with sweat, beaming.

Xia Qing smiled too. "I thought you'd be the first one out."

"School rules don't allow using abilities outside of physical-education class." After explaining, Tan Qi lowered her voice and asked excitedly, "Did Sister Qing hear? A top sniper called Night Heron appeared on the Green Dragon Squad!"

Xia Qing nodded and answered calmly, "I heard."

"Now Uncle Luo's burden on his shoulders can finally ease a little, and he can stay in the territory and rest for a bit."

Xia Qing, who had no desire to take on the burden of a top sniper, didn't pick up that thread. "Come on, I'll drive you back."

"No need, no need. The round trip between the school and the territory is part of my daily training." Tan Qi smiled and waved her hand, then dashed toward Central Nine's north gate.

As Xia Qing walked toward the parking lot, she saw Wang Jun pulling Wang Shunkang and looking in her direction, so she turned and went over.

Wang Jun's eyes lit up immediately. He pulled his son along and hurried to meet her. "Director, you're off work too, right? Want to go to the cafeteria to eat?"

"No, I still have things to do." Xia Qing bent down and asked gently, "Shunkang, can you keep up at school?"

Wang Jun tightened his grip on his son's hand, silently encouraging him to open his mouth and greet her.

With a silly, dazed look on his face, Wang Shunkang slowly nodded. Wang Jun quickly told Xia Qing about his son's situation. "This school is really great. The classroom has air-conditioning, the teachers are serious and responsible. Shunkang sits at the same desk as Zhong Tao family's Ping'an, and the classmates in the class don't bully him for being quiet. This kid got an Excellent on his math homework yesterday."

"That shows Shunkang's IQ isn't low." Xia Qing reached out and patted Wang Shunkang's little head, her voice gentle. "If you don't like talking, then don't talk. Go have lunch with your dad—there's a meat dish today."

The fact that Xia Qing was willing to pat Shunkang on the head in front of so many people was like sticking a protective talisman labeled "Director Xia" on her son. Wang Jun's eyes instantly welled up, his cracked lips trembling, unsure how to express his gratitude.