Chapter 146: After the Hailstorm: Harvest and Thieves

Today’s hailstorm and torrential rain came out of nowhere and ended just as fast. It hailed for twenty minutes and poured for another hour before the sky cleared.

After eating their fill, Hu Zifeng’s squad headed back to Plot One. Xia Qing tidied up and headed home. She carefully opened the sheep shed door, only to find three wolves and one sheep left inside—the alpha wolf and one other were nowhere to be seen.

Boss Sheep was lying beside the wolf with the injured waist. He glanced up at Xia Qing, clearly having no intention of standing.

The wolf assigned to guard duty stood protectively in front of the other two, eyes fixed warily on Xia Qing. The one with the injured leg still looked fierce, but had at least improved a little—not baring its teeth. The wolf with the hurt waist gazed at Xia Qing calmly, as if silently asking what she wanted.

“The rain’s stopped, so I’m taking off the rainproof tarp. Otherwise it’ll get stuffy in here pretty quick.” Xia Qing removed the tarp and switched out the wolves’ drinking water before finally checking her losses from the storm.

She’d bought the highest quality rainproof tarp—tough and a bit elastic. So while the hail broke more than fifty greenhouse supports, the tarp itself proved its worth and didn’t tear.

The worst-hit were the transplanted Xiang-evolved cotton plants. Without tarp protection, they were battered into half-bare stems, only a few ragged leaves clinging on. There’d be no harvest from those this year.

Many big branches and leaves in Buffer Forest snapped under the hail, but the trees themselves survived—they’d recover. No need to even inspect Mountain 49 Area Three, she knew it’d be the same as Buffer Forest.

The ground-cherry berries must’ve been obliterated by the hail—there was no saving them. But Xia Qing already ate her fill and dried plenty for later, so she didn’t feel too bad.

The yellowlight pumpkins she hadn’t managed to cover before the hail got their leaves shredded and most vines broken. Inside the territory, two small patches of redlight peanuts, six wild grape plants, both patches of pasture grass for Boss Sheep and a handful of chicken-vine and edible wild plants—all in the small shelters—had fared no better than the pumpkins.

The chicken-vine, redlight peanuts, and pasture grass might bounce back, but the wild grapes were definitely finished.

Corn planted in late June had just been watered in the last couple of days, but now dozens of stalks were blown over by the morning’s gales—they could still be propped up. The mature potato haulms were knocked flat too.

Some cotton bolls were blown off, but if they were that easy to lose, they would’ve fallen soon anyway—might as well fall now.

All in all, crop losses weren’t too bad.

The greenlight chickens were already scratching for food in the mud. The fish pond was deep enough, so the edible fish weren’t affected much by the hail. Xia Qing’s livestock made it through unharmed.

The biggest loss was to her solar panels. She’d covered them too late—three out of five panels were shattered by the hail.

Good thing she just swapped with the Azure Dragon Unit for a diesel generator. Hopefully, Yang Jin won’t jack up the prices on the diesel, oil and generator just because of this storm.

Xia Qing went to inspect the cave she’d dug in the past few days. The cave hadn’t collapsed but its inner walls were slick with water, dripping steadily down.

If just an hour of rain caused this much leakage, this cave couldn’t store food—unless she lined it with cement and waterproofing. Uncertain what to do yet, Xia Qing put the cave problem aside and turned to the rest of her chores.

After sunrise, the temperature slowly crept up. Xia Qing opened the greenhouse vents to give the crops some air, then dashed up the highland to check her greenlight orchard.

Her grapes, passionfruit and peppercorn trees were all sheltered under rainproof canopies and came through unscathed. The apples and jujube trees took a beating—broken branches and shredded leaves—but their trunks stood strong, so they’d recover too.

After checking the jujubes, Xia Qing started picking them up. There were 136 green jujubes on the tree. Hu Zifeng only brought back a little over a hundred—many must have been washed away by the rain.

These were greenlight food—she had to recover them.

Xia Qing searched the highland thoroughly and found a dozen more jujubes, still missing about ten. No way nuts the size of walnuts could just vanish. She refused to believe it, turning over rocks and rustling through the grass for more.

“Found one!”

After ten minutes of searching, Xia Qing finally spotted a big green jujube wedged between some rocks. She cheered and reached for it, when she suddenly heard the rush of wind behind her.

She rolled out of the way and drew her knife to block, just as a flash of red streaked past.

The red squirrel was after her jujube!

She slashed at it, but was a beat too slow. The nimble red squirrel had already snatched up the jujube and leapt for the treetops.

Watching the squirrel stuff the fruit in its mouth while perched on a branch, Xia Qing fumed. “You little thief! Stealing my tobacco leaves was one thing, but you dare take my food now? Give the jujube back or you’ll regret it!”

The squirrel shoved the jujube in its mouth, gave its fluffy tail a taunting shake, then bolted up the tree. Xia Qing immediately gave chase.

Months of hard training had sharpened Xia Qing’s running, sight and hearing. She couldn’t outrun the red squirrel but could track which way it dashed.

She chased it in one burst from Territory Three all the way to Mountain 49 Area Three, where the red squirrel vanished from view.

She came to a stop under the pine where it’d last been, senses straining. After two minutes of concentration, Xia Qing looked up at the towering pine.

There was noise high up along the trunk—a tree hollow, most likely the red squirrel’s den.

With the trunk slick after the rain, Xia Qing wasn’t in the mood to climb. Instead, she pulled her handgun, loaded it and aimed at the tree trunk.

She was using armor-piercing bullets, designed for tough-skinned evolved animals. The sturdy pine trunk took a deep hit from the shot.

After the first bullet, the chewing sounds inside the hollow abruptly stopped.

With her gun trained on the tree, Xia Qing’s voice was cold. “Return the food you stole from my territory.”

There was a faint rustling from inside. After waiting a moment and getting no response, Xia Qing fired again, another loud shot.

Three months and over a thousand rounds worth of practice had made her deadly accurate. Her second shot hit the first exactly.

The hollow was blasted through, and a sharp squeal rang out—the red squirrel had been thoroughly spooked.

Xia Qing aimed at the squirrel, voice even colder than the hail itself. “Bring back the food you stole or I’ll split this tree and clean your den out myself.”

More rustling came from inside. Xia Qing’s eyes followed the sound upward and spotted a flash of red high up—about six meters—and then a jujube plummeted down, landing at her feet.

It was a big green jujube, but one already gnawed by the squirrel!

That only made Xia Qing angrier. She fired at the hollow again.

“Chiii!”

Panicked now, the red squirrel hurled down jujubes one after another—ten in all—plus five pits. Then, it peered down at Xia Qing from a branch, as if to show that’s all it had.

So it understood why she’d chased it all this way, and it knew these jujubes were hers. Five pits on the ground, and the earlier half-eaten one—it had already chewed through six fruits in no time. If she didn’t teach it a lesson today, by next year there wouldn’t be any jujubes left for her to pick.

Xia Qing aimed her gun at the red squirrel, her voice icy. “You stole and damaged my food, so now you owe me compensation. If you refuse, you’ll die right here.”

Maybe the red squirrel didn’t understand her words, but it could feel her anger. It retreated into the hollow, rummaged for a bit, and then tossed down something green with a hint of red.