Chapter 149: Gifts and Gratitude After the Storm

Lord of Plot Eight?

Xia Qing couldn’t help but wonder how Xin Yu’s pocket watch ended up hidden away in the little squirrel’s tree hollow, especially since the squirrel treated it like a prized treasure.

Did the squirrel steal it, or just find it somewhere?

Where did it get it—was it stolen or picked up?

Since the squirrel couldn’t talk and Xin Yu clearly wasn’t the chatty type either, Xia Qing kept her questions brief. She only asked, “Did she say how you’d get it back?”

Chang Li answered, “She said she’ll contact you through the Inspection Team.”

Except for Territory Seven, which had its own “courier,” all trades between lords were handled via the Inspection Team.

Xin Yu acted quickly.

Half an hour later, Xia Qing got a call from Tan Junjie. When she brought the pocket watch to the North Barrier, he handed her a small basket woven from willow branches. “The Lord of Plot Eight sent this to thank you: two jin of greenlight garlic.”

By the current exchange rates, the worn-out pocket watch hardly matched this price. Clearly, it meant a lot to the Lord of Plot Eight.

Thinking back, Xia Qing recalled her one and only meeting with Xin Yu. The shape of her eyes behind the mask matched those in the photo.

Xin Yu must be the girl in that picture.

Tan Junjie asked how Xia Qing fared during the hailstorm. She answered honestly, “Three solar panels cracked, the pumpkins took a hit, and all the wild fruit was wiped out. The other crops managed okay.”

Once the Inspection Team moved on, Xia Qing heard Su Ming quietly say to Yuan Rui, “Territory Three and Plot Ten got off easiest—no one hurt, crops didn’t lose much either.”

Plot Ten only had Shi Du’s family of three. Xia Qing remembered Shi Du mentioning their family tended more than ten mu of farmland. For three people to protect that much land against sudden gales and hail, they must have a quick way to cover the greenhouses with rainproof tarps.

It wouldn’t do to ask about this on the Lord’s Channel, and Shi Du didn’t have a satellite phone, so calling wasn’t an option.

Xia Qing had been consciously avoiding working with Shi Du these last two months; aside from trading produce and that time they checked out Territory Nine, she’d barely spoken to him. She decided next time he took a mission clearing Mountain 49, she’d go along and see if he’d share any tricks.

If he had any, Xia Qing hoped she could trade points for the info.

With the sun up, steam rose from the ground and the temperature started climbing fast.

There was no choice—Xia Qing had to take the rainproof tarp down. Otherwise the greenhouse would get too hot, hurting the seedlings.

She needed her partner to help roll up the tarp. So Xia Qing went up the highland and called Boss Sheep, who was busy eating greenlight toon leaves knocked down by the hail. One girl and one sheep worked for over an hour before they managed to take down and fold up the tarp.

After that, Xia Qing gently straightened the corn seedlings blown askew by the wind before finally checking the battered yellowlight pumpkins.

The pumpkin leaves were shredded and the tiny pumpkins didn’t survive, but the vines were tough. Give it a few days and they’d recover, sprout new shoots, bloom, and grow fresh pumpkins.

It was the potatoes that truly worried her.

Though the old potato stems hadn’t been struck by hail, the wind had flattened them all. Xia Qing knew without even asking Qi Fu and Shi Chong—the potatoes had to be harvested right away.

So she got to work.

Xia Qing grabbed her shovel and bamboo basket and started digging. She loved crops that grew hidden underground—there’s just something exciting about not knowing the result until you pry them from the earth. It felt like treasure hunting.

Evolved potatoes become a nightmare when Xiangified, but otherwise, they just keep growing. From fifty-six yellowlight potato plants, they harvested three full baskets, big and small. She and Boss Sheep hauled them home and weighed them—nearly four hundred seventy jin worth.

The cave wasn’t ready yet. How was she supposed to store all these potatoes? Xia Qing’s first thought was to seek advice from Qi Fu.

But Qi Fu hadn’t woken up yet. Every so often, Shi Chong, Kuang Qingwei, and Zhao Ze would check the Lords’ Group for updates, but there was still no word from Plot Five.

This definitely wasn’t the right moment to ask about storing food and potatoes.

Xia Qing flipped through her notebook, finding the entry she wrote back in March on how potatoes needed sunlight to sprout.

Now, having harvested them, she wanted to prevent sprouting—definitely no sunlight. Xia Qing carefully took the potatoes from the baskets and set them somewhere shady, letting the dirt dry off first before worrying about anything else.

Then, Xia Qing delicately took the ‘thank you’ gift from the Lord of Plot Eight out of the little basket, careful not to let it get scratched. Ever since Blue Star’s great biological evolution, even the tiniest injury could get infected and turn deadly.

When she unpacked the garlic, she found a slip of paper tucked inside the basket. On it, in perfect handwriting, were seven neat words:

Xia Qing, thank you. –Xin Yu.

Although Xin Yu’s weaving wasn’t as neat as Xia Qing’s, her handwriting was far superior.

After storing the note, Xia Qing placed the twenty heads of greenlight garlic with the sixteen she’d harvested herself.

She still had a dozen yellowlight garlics left for eating. The greenlight garlic would be planted in October, and barring any end-of-the-world disasters next year, she’d basically have garlic freedom.

To be fully free with greenlight garlic, she needed even more seed garlic. She wondered if anyone else would offer trades for greenlight garlic over the next two months.

Just after four in the afternoon, the first thing Qi Fu did upon waking wasn’t to announce his safety in the Lords’ Group, but to call Xia Qing and thank her.

“My wife told me everything. You and Dr. Chang from Plot One saved my life,” Qi Fu said, his voice frail. To survive evolved bacteria infection in the head and still be lucid was sheer luck. “No need for fancy words. Once Third Brother’s back and I put on fresh hemostatics, I’ll come thank you personally. My wife will bring over two greenlight spring-water fish and two hundred greenlight scallion seeds soon. The fish aren’t big, so you can raise them for a while before eating. The seeds are good to plant now. After I harvest greenlight ginger this October, I’ll share half with you.”

Greenlight spring-water fish and greenlight ginger—Qi Fu had never mentioned these in the Lord’s Channel. It showed his sincerity. Xia Qing had sent medicine in his time of life and death, asking nothing in return.

Greenlight scallion seeds and greenlight ginger were things Xia Qing lacked—she gladly accepted. But she refused the fish: “I don’t have greenlight scallions or ginger, so I’ll happily take those, Qi Ge. But you should keep the fish for yourself—get your strength back.”

“I’ve still got plenty,” Qi Fu wouldn’t take back his offer. “My wife is already on her way. She’ll meet you at Plot Three’s North Barrier.”

When Xia Qing arrived at the North Barrier, Yuan Yan was waiting. There was a man with her as well, carrying a sack at a distance. Xia Qing guessed it was a thank-you gift for Chang Li.

Seeing Xia Qing, Yuan Yan hurried up to greet her. “I’ve got a head wound and can’t take off my protective mask—sorry about that.”

She handed over a clay jar with the fish. “They’re a little small, so you’ll have to make do with fish soup. I’ll bring bigger ones in a couple of months.”

“Perfect. If I want more fish, I’ll trade with you again.” Xia Qing said cheerfully, then after checking on Qi Fu’s recovery, handed Yuan Yan a bag. “I just harvested these potatoes. Some have wormholes so they won’t keep, and there are a few greenlight dates that got knocked down by hail—the taste is still decent, don’t mind the flaws.”

Yuan Yan and her husband truly wanted to befriend Xia Qing and made no fuss about accepting the gift. “The dates would’ve ripened in another month—such a shame they got knocked down early.”

“As long as they’re edible, there’s nothing to regret,” Xia Qing replied, and they both laughed.

After Yuan Yan left, Xia Qing noticed the two greenlight fish she’d received were a male and a female. It was clear Yuan Yan had picked them out deliberately.

Having eaten plenty of meat lately, Xia Qing wasn’t craving fish, so she put both into the greenlight fish pond. She crouched at the edge for a while, but couldn’t spot any fry swimming around.

Boss Sheep had installed a car-grade isolation net in the pond to keep out river fry, and Xia Qing had switched to a finer mesh to be sure. So it made sense not to see any baby fish.

She wasn’t worried. After all, not a single fish in the pond had died from the hailstorm—so with two males and three females, there’d be eggs before long.

Back at her territory, Yuan Yan carefully disinfected herself and all the goods before going inside to show her husband what Xia Qing and Chang Li had given them.

Chang Li had sent some anti-inflammatory painkillers. Xia Qing’s potatoes were mostly untouched by pests—only three of the eight large ones had wormholes. All ten greenlight dates looked as luscious as walnuts.

With a whole sack of goods in front of them, Qi Fu and his wife felt even more determined to strengthen their ties with Plot One and Plot Three.

“We’ll have fish soup tonight. Let’s cook those big dates too and see how they taste.”

To find enough greenlight fish to send gifts to two territories, Chang Yan had fished out a lot today. She saved a few big yellowlight fish for her husband and any injured workers, putting the rest back in the pond.

Despite his pale face, Qi Fu smiled. “We’ll eat the cooked dates, plant the pits, and hope we get a few jujube trees out of it.”

“If we’re lucky, four or five will sprout from these ten. Give it three years, and we’ll be eating greenlight dates from our own trees.”

The couple looked at each other with teary eyes after this.

They may have been battered and bruised in this disaster, but both were alive—and that was more than enough.