Chapter 68: Trading Earthworm Castings
Passing through the original northern buffer zone of Territory No. 3, Xia Qing entered the High Slope.
After the High Slope area was merged into Xia Qing's territory, the inspection teams patrolling the perimeter no longer passed through this old buffer zone, which had already been incorporated into her domain.
If Xia Qing hadn't regularly sprayed the buffer zone with insect repellent and weed killer, this fifty-meter-wide strip would have vanished long ago.
She kept it to prevent pest outbreaks; the buffer zone could act as a barrier against pests coming down from Territory No. 49, serving as a halfway protective wall for her territory.
The other half of the wall, of course, was Xia Qing herself. Even if an army of evolved locusts attacked, they wouldn't dream of passing through the protective wall she had established.
Crossing the old buffer zone, Xia Qing entered the High Slope planting area. First were the evolved perilla plants; to ensure Boss Sheep could eat them, Xia Qing had not enclosed the perilla within the insect nets.
After crushing an evolved mantis that was holding a sickle and attempting to attack her, Xia Qing entered the area covered by the insect nets. The first terrace inside the net was planted with Green-Light Alfalfa. Of the twenty alfalfa plants Zhao Ze had compensated her with, only two had died, and the rest were thriving. Xia Qing had tasted a tender sprout once, and the flavor was actually even better than the perilla.
Of course, this might have been because she had eaten so much evolved perilla that she was truly sick of it.
The pumpkins planted in the next terrace up were giving Xia Qing a headache. If she hadn't tested them repeatedly, she would have truly suspected that these pumpkin vines, which grew at a frantic pace without ever producing a single flower, had already evolved.
The five Green-Light pumpkin vines had not only filled the entire fifty-meter terrace but had even encroached upon half of the lower Green-Light Alfalfa terrace. The fifteen Yellow-Light pumpkins planted next to the sweet potato field at the bottom of the slope were equally worrying.
If the pumpkin vines failed to bloom again next month, Xia Qing would have to cut them down to feed the sheep.
Further up were the onion, ginger, garlic, and chive fields. For ease of management, Xia Qing had transplanted all the vegetable seedlings she found in the Gaopo Wasteland courtyard here.
Above those were three terraces of peanut plants, followed by empty terraces prepared for sweet potatoes. Xia Qing crawled out from under the insect nets and walked upward, arriving before two apple trees that had been pruned of their fruit and two jujube trees that had not only sprouted but had also bloomed.
The small yellowish-green flowers of the jujube trees were both fragrant and beautiful.
Xia Qing wasn't worried at all about the jujube flowers being eaten by insects, because these two Green-Light jujube trees could actually kill insects!
The branches and the undersides of the leaves of the evolved jujube trees were covered in a dense layer of sharp thorns. Any insect daring enough to provoke the tree would be pierced by the thorns and slowly turn into a dried husk. This made Xia Qing suspect that the jujubes she harvested in the future might actually taste like meat.
Finally, Xia Qing reached the flat area on the High Slope. She plucked many toon leaves from a large toon tree for Boss Sheep. Humans couldn't eat toon sprouts in the summer, but the leaves remained a staple for Boss Sheep.
Returning to the reservoir, Xia Qing called Boss Sheep down from the waterwheel to eat, while she squatted by the fish pond to feed the fish.
As dozens of insects of various sizes, just freshly killed, were tossed in, the fish pond immediately erupted into a frenzy. By the time the water surface returned to calm, even the insect wings were nowhere to be seen.
This was the new world of Planet Blue, where the law of the jungle prevailed; organisms that were neither strong nor capable of staying low would die without leaving a trace.
Being both strong and capable of staying low, Xia Qing stood up, brushed off her hands, gave Boss Sheep a nod, and went to check on her sweet potato vines while weeding.
The growth rate of the sweet potato vines was not slow, though not as terrifying as the pumpkin vines.
As Xia Qing weeded, she flipped through the sweet potato vines and discovered they had grown tiny red nodules. In a few days, these nodules would grow roots to anchor into the soil, and she could then cut the vines for propagation.
To propagate the sweet potato vines, she would need to replenish the fertility of the prepared terraces.
Xia Qing took out her phone and called Sun Zhe.
The call connected quickly, and Sun Zhe's voice was full of energy. "Sister Qing."
On the other end, there was no noisy background sound from a construction team; instead, one could hear birds chirping. Xia Qing deduced that Sun Zhe was not with the construction team and asked directly, "Have you guys produced any earthworm castings? If so, I'm planning to buy a few bags."
Sun Zhe's voice sounded cheerful. "We have. My family partnered with others to take over Territory No. 48 to raise earthworms for castings. How many pounds does Sister Qing want?"
Xia Qing's voice carried a hint of a smile. "How many pounds do you have available for trade right now?"
Sun Zhe gave a direct number. "At most four hundred pounds. It's two pounds for one point. Is that acceptable, Sister Qing? If we go any cheaper, we won't even cover our labor costs."
Unexpectedly, Sun Zhe had already produced so much earthworm casting. Xia Qing was very decisive. "Fine. Can you sell it all to me? Do you want to exchange for supplies or points?"
Because they had emerged late, they had missed the optimal planting season; also, because Territory No. 48 was close to the Safety Zone, it had been scavenged countless times by humans, and no edible plants had been found within it. Therefore, Sun Zhe wanted to exchange for edible vegetables or seeds. "Does Sister Qing have any edible plants? It would be even better if you had edible plant seeds to exchange."
Xia Qing quoted her prices directly. "I have one hundred and fifty Yellow-Light onion seeds; it's two seeds for one point. I also have twenty pounds of dried, vacuum-sealed Yellow-Light bamboo shoots, at twenty points per pound."
After Sun Zhe finalized the quantity of onion seeds and Yellow-Light shoots for the exchange, he happily told Xia Qing, "I'll have Captain Zhong Tao deliver them to you tomorrow. My family partnered with Captain Zhong's cousin, Zhong He, to take the land. This area is close to the Safety Zone, so it's much safer. The part of the territory closest to the Safety Zone is still within signal coverage, so we can use regular phones."
Xia Qing hung up the phone. As she leveled the ground next to the sweet potato field, she marveled at Sun Zhe's ability to pick the right people.
Although Zhong Tao was an ordinary person, he was very good at socializing. As the squad leader responsible for material transport for the fifty territories north of the Safety Zone, he was very familiar with the situation of these territories. With his help, the earthworm castings produced by Sun Zhe and Zhong He could be traded with lords in need without any promotion, greatly increasing their security.
On the third day, Zhong Tao transported four large bags of earthworm castings to Xia Qing. Xia Qing gave him the dried bamboo shoots and onion seeds. She also used fifty pounds of dried evolved White-Haired Chicken Feces Vine to exchange for soy sauce, salt, and vinegar, and then traded fifty onion seeds and two pounds of sour bamboo shoots to Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui.
Onion and chive seedlings look very similar during their early growth stages, but they look quite different once they mature. Xia Qing had sixty onion plants, eight of which had flowered and produced seeds. Xia Qing used more than half of the seeds to exchange for supplies. Aside from Zhong Tao, Zheng Kui, Sun Zhe, and the lords Wu and Liu, the person who surprised her most was Tang Huai from Territory No. 2.
This month, Tang Huai's interest in farming had suddenly increased; he would occasionally participate in discussions about pest control in the Lord Channel, so Territory No. 2 wasn't a total waste.
If it weren't for the spring water in Territory No. 3, Territory No. 2—which was flatter and had a thicker soil layer—would have been Xia Qing's first choice.
The Yellow-Light sour bamboo shoots Xia Qing had pickled last month hadn't spoiled. Although the taste couldn't be called "good," they were edible, so her menu now included stir-fried bamboo rat with sour bamboo shoots and sour bamboo shoot soup.
(End of Chapter)