Chapter 4: 4. Chapter 4: The Lord's Rights

Chapter 4: The Rights of a Landlord

Two months ago, when Xia Qing came with her squad to clear the territory, she had already thoroughly scouted this area. Territory No. 3 covers 5,580 mu and is the third-largest among the two hundred territories that have been cleared so far.

To thoroughly eliminate evolved pests, the arable land within the territory had been cleared and burned once, and the three abandoned villages within the territory had been sprayed twice with potent insecticides and repellents.

Xia Qing had participated in the village’s disinfection process from start to finish, so even though dusk was falling and she was the only person within several thousand mu, she felt no fear of being attacked by evolved creatures as she walked into the abandoned village where the grass grew taller than a person.

This was because there were no longer any large creatures capable of attacking here.

Passing through the waist-high weeds, she entered the best-preserved two-story self-built house in the abandoned village. Xia Qing placed her bag in the living room on the first floor, went out to find some dead wood, closed the door, and lit a fire before she began to examine the supplies she had received from the hall.

One primary purification filter cartridge, capable of purifying 200 liters of low-pollution fresh water. The water in the Longpan Reservoir is low-pollution, which was one of the reasons Xia Qing favored this location.

Thirty jin of compressed rations. Although her appetite had increased after evolving, it would last her four months if she was frugal.

Six jin each of evolved wheat, mung beans, cotton, and small potatoes, along with one packet each of evolved pumpkin, cucumber, tomato, and eggplant seeds. If these seeds could be grown, Xia Qing would have food in the pot in four months, and vegetables even sooner.

What Xia Qing regretted was not receiving any evolved sweet potatoes. Last year, while on a mission with the Green Dragon Squad, Xia Qing had been given a small piece of evolved sweet potato; the wonderful taste was something she still couldn't forget.

Because the rations and seeds were distributed by the bag, Xia Qing couldn't be sure if all landlords received the same types of seeds. She would have to find a way to ask around. If they were different, they could trade with each other to grow a wider variety of crops.

After putting the seeds away, Xia Qing took out the old mobile phone she had just received. Upon turning it on, she found two green vertical lines on the screen, and it flickered intermittently. This was normal; a phone that could still turn on in the tenth year of the apocalypse was a good phone, no matter what.

On the phone's desktop was a Word document titled "Complete Guide to Planting," which contained pictures and text introducing over thirty types of safe and optional crops, including sweet potatoes.

Xia Qing didn't have time to look at it carefully now. She set the phone aside and took out the small radio the base had issued to landlords, which was also "quite good."

After the natural disasters caused the collapse of the vast and efficient modern communication systems built by humanity, using simple radios and transceivers to send and receive information had become the primary way for humans to communicate over long distances.

Currently, signal coverage had been restored within the safe zone of the Hui San Base, but the communication quality was nowhere near pre-disaster levels. Within the safe zone, mobile phones could only use three functions: communication, text messaging, and the Hui San Base task platform app. The signal towers outside the safe zone had not yet been repaired, so there was no mobile signal in Xia Qing's territory; it could only be used as an e-reader and a clock.

After placing the base-issued phone and radio next to the phone she was currently using, Xia Qing took out her land use certificate. As she carefully read the text on the back of the certificate, her eyes gradually brightened.

The broadcasts repeatedly stated that they would protect the rights of the landlords, but they never mentioned specific protective measures.

Amidst the natural disasters, while the attacks on humans by evolved plants and animals were terrifying, what was even more despairing was the slaughter, looting, and bullying by one's own kind.

Of the population that died after surviving the first three years of the natural disasters, at least thirty percent were killed by their own kind.

Xia Qing’s father was "accidentally killed" by a high-level evolver when wild beasts attacked the safe zone.

Xia Qing had watched that scene unfold with her own eyes, but because she lacked the strength, she had been unable to avenge her father to this day.

Now, with food and supplies in short supply, landlords who left the control of the safe zone, held food, and were isolated and helpless would naturally become fat targets in the eyes of many.

Landlords without sufficient strength would, at best, have their hard-earned crops stolen, and at worst, lose their lives. This was the main reason why many people were still afraid to leave the safe zone to farm, even knowing that the high-level evolved beasts had been driven hundreds of miles away.

To give landlords peace of mind while farming, the base had mapped out very large areas for each territory to keep distance between landlords, promised to send troops to patrol 24 hours a day, and granted landlords one important right

All resources within the scope indicated on the land use certificate belong to the landlord. Anyone who enters the territory without the landlord's permission commits the crime of illegal trespassing and will be strictly punished according to the law. Acts taken to stop illegal infringement in order to protect the landlord's person, property, and other rights from ongoing illegal infringement, even if they result in damage or death to the infringer, are considered legitimate self-defense.

Simply put: Killing someone who trespasses on your territory is not a crime!

The opportunity to avenge her father had finally arrived.

Xia Qing picked up a tree branch as thick as a thigh, snapped it easily, threw it into the fire, stretched her back, and pulled over her massive canvas bag.

This two-hundred-jin canvas bag contained all of Xia Qing's belongings: a set of bedding, a sleeping bag, a bag of simple kitchenware and seasonings, a large bag of carpentry and electrical tools, two large bags of building materials, six knives, a small radio she had used for years, a powerful slingshot, and one hundred and fifty books.

These books included gardening, planting, animal husbandry, carpentry, electrical work, home renovation, and other skills needed to survive in the territory.

After her mother passed away, planning and preparing for a new life after the natural disasters was the thing Xia Qing and her father loved to do most when they were tired. After her father died, this became the main motivation that kept Xia Qing alive.

In the tenth year of the natural disasters, she finally stepped out of the safe zone to start a new life.

Xia Qing packed the books one by one into a waterproof and moisture-proof storage bag, opened her clothing bag, and took out a mobile phone hidden inside.

The phone issued by the base to landlords could not communicate with the outside world while in the territory, but hers could.

Strictly speaking, this phone was a "satellite communication terminal," a graduation gift her parents had given her the year the natural disasters began.

After China's satellite communication, the only one capable of global coverage, was restored in the third year of the natural disasters, satellite communication terminal equipment became a hot resource to fight over. In the Hui San safe zone, some people used satellite phones to trade for life-saving food and medicine, while many others lost their lives because of them.

After her father was killed and Xia Qing had to move into the evolver dormitory and share a room with strangers, she hid the phone. She only turned it on when she was sure it was safe to look at old videos and photos, or to receive satellite text messages publicly sent by the state and the Hui Yi Base headquarters to learn news beyond the broadcasts.

Now that she was in her own territory, Xia Qing could safely use her own phone. The last time she had turned it on was on New Year's Eve; it had been exactly sixteen days until today.

After turning it on and connecting to the communication satellite, the phone quickly received hundreds of disaster warnings, news reports, and announcements.

Xia Qing read them one by one. Like the content she had received before, she had already obtained the information mentioned in the text messages and short reports through the radio, with only one exception.

A strange number had sent her a text message fifteen days ago, on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year. This strange number and the content of the message were already deeply engraved in her mind.

Because on that same day, three minutes before the receipt time of this message, the phone she used inside the safe zone had also received a text message with the same content from this very same phone number.

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Dear readers, the author would like to provide an explanation of the biological naming conventions in this book: (Since it hasn't been published yet, I'm putting it directly in the main text)

The evolution of all creatures on Blue Star is divided into two types: ordinary-level evolution and evolution exceeding the ordinary level. For the convenience of reading, when biological names are mentioned later in the text, creatures with ordinary-level evolution will be referred to by their original names, while creatures with super-level evolution will have the word "evolved" added before their names, such as "evolved potato," "evolved snake," etc.

By analogy, high-level evolved creatures that exceed the ordinary evolution of the species by more than five times will have the words "high-level evolved" added to their names, such as "high-level evolved potato," "high-level evolved snake," etc.

(End of chapter)