Chapter 246: A Forest of Chestnuts and Strength

Bang.

Xia Qing shot down the advanced evolved hornet that was diving at Qi Fu’s head, then handed her long-handled shears over. “Qi Ge, use this. I’ve got another pair. You handle the high branches and the ones far off, I’ll take care of what’s close.”

“Alright.” Qi Fu didn’t waste a word, grabbed Xia Qing’s shears, and set back to work. He immediately noticed her tool was heavier and a lot sharper than his, so his pace picked up fast.

Xia Qing pulled a second pair of shears from her pack and kept clipping.

Having more hands made the work go so much faster.

In no time, they’d cleared all the chestnuts from the four Greenlight trees. Xia Qing set their next task: “Qi Ge and I will bag these up, the rest of you go pick from the Yellowlight trees.”

All the Greenlight chestnuts, spiky shells and branches and all, filled six sacks to bursting—each sack had to weigh at least one hundred and fifty pounds. Xia Qing gave the orders. “Guan Tong and I will haul a load back. Qi Ge, team up with Peng Jian and keep harvesting.”

Peng Jian asked, “Should I escort you two back?”

“No need. The bug repellent’s still working on us.” Xia Qing and Guan Tong quickly tied up three huge sacks each, slung them over their shoulders, and started climbing the hillside.

Qi Fu caught a glance as he and Peng Jian went to pick more Yellowlight chestnuts. Seeing Xia Qing and Guan Tong each carry more than four hundred pounds and still sprint up the hill left him totally stunned.

Back at Territory Three, Xia Qing and Guan Tong dropped the chestnut haul off to Da Jiang and Liangzi, who were guarding the place. Seeing that mountain of Greenlight chestnuts, their jaws nearly hit the ground.

Time was tight, so Xia Qing and Guan Tong dropped off the supplies and rushed back right away.

By the time they returned to the chestnut grove, the team already had seven sacks filled. This time, Xia Qing and Shi Du carried the haul back.

This time, Qi Fu was shocked to see Xia Qing wasn’t carrying three bags, but four!

Xia Qing was always the one hauling supplies, partly because she was the strongest strength evolver in the squad, partly because the evolved hornets’ noise in the grove messed with her senses so badly that carrying chestnuts gave her a chance to escape their attacks for a while.

When Xia Qing and Shi Du came back, Hu Zifeng reminded her, “Xia Qing, you’ve already made two runs. Take a breather. We’ve got time. Shi Du, come join me and Peng Jian.”

“Alright, I’ll rest for a bit.” After two nonstop trips Xia Qing definitely felt the fatigue. Instead of climbing another tree, she just grabbed a sack and started picking up chestnut balls and loose chestnuts off the ground.

Qi Fu watched Xia Qing refuse to sit idle even when she said she’d rest, and realized task runs like these were a whole new level of labor. He’d spent almost a decade on the Construction Crew and always prided himself on stamina, but working alongside Xia Qing made him realize he still had a long way to go.

He made up his mind to ask Xia Qing about her training routine when they got back. He had to up his game if he ever wanted to be on her team.

Once all the chestnuts were bagged up, everyone set off together. Hu Zifeng and Peng Jian took charge of security, while the four strength evolvers handled the hauling.

As they climbed the hill, Peng Jian grinned and called to Xia Qing, “Qing-jie, your evolved squirrel is mad at you up in that tree.”

Even with over five hundred pounds on her back Xia Qing managed to glance back. Sure enough, the Evolved Squirrel had fluffed up its fur and was jumping up and down on a cedar tree beside the grove, letting loose what must have been a string of harsh words.

“However long we fought those hornets, that squirrel spent just as long scavenging leftovers. I bet it picked up more chestnuts today than it has in the last two weeks combined.” Xia Qing hitched up her big pack. “Come on, let’s go home and open up these chestnuts!”

After carrying nearly four hundred pounds back to Territory Three, Qi Fu had to sit and catch his breath for a while. Looking at all those chestnut balls waiting to be shelled, he considered asking his wife to help, but was afraid Xia Qing would think he wanted extra pay, so he kept quiet.

He didn’t have to bring it up—Xia Qing beat him to it. “Qi Ge, there’s way too many chestnuts. If your wife’s got some free time, could she come help us shell them?”

Qi Fu jumped up. “She’s free, there’s nothing urgent on our end right now. I’ll go fetch her, and bring all our pliers too.”

The chestnut shells were sticky—stomping wasn’t going to work. They needed pliers, and Xia Qing’s side didn’t have enough.

Shi Du, who didn’t know that Territory Three and Five had formed an alliance yet, saw Xia Qing needed help and chimed in, “Let me bring my mom. She’s great at stuff like this.”

All three members from Territory Ten were decent people, so Xia Qing had no objections. “Are you taking the rotary tiller over?”

Shi Du’s mom had injured her leg during the third Xiang Rain event and still wasn’t fully healed.

“No need. I’ll carry her over.” Territory Ten was just south of Territory Five and not far from Xia Qing. As a strength evolver, carrying one person this distance was nothing to Shi Du.

Soon enough, Yuan Yan and Shi’s mother arrived.

After a decade of disaster years, none of them had ever seen so much food at once. Everyone grinned from ear to ear, swapping recipes and stories about all the good things they could make with chestnuts as their hands flew through the work.

Xia Qing noticed Shi’s mother really was quick and strong at this kind of thing. No wonder their whole family dared to carve out a farm here.

They finished shelling all the chestnuts before dark. As a reward, Hu Zifeng, Peng Jian, and Qi Fu each took home three pounds of Yellowlight chestnuts. Guan Tong and Shi Du, who helped haul the loads with Xia Qing, got four pounds each. Bullets used by Hu Zifeng’s squad on this mission were also settled using chestnuts.

Da Jiang, Liangzi, Shi’s mother, and Yuan Yan, who only helped with shelling, each got a pound too. They were thrilled with the share and asked if Xia Qing needed help carrying the chestnuts home, but seeing she didn’t, everyone said their goodbyes.

As Shi Du carried his mother out of Territory Three, her own heavy pack slung on her back, the two of them left cheerfully and ran into Tang Huai leaning on the signpost at Territory Two. He waved and greeted them. “Looks like you scored big.”

“Yeah.” Shi Du replied with a grin. “Huaige, done eating so early and just out for a stroll?”

Tang Huai…

Eat? Don’t even get me started!

With only Qi Fu and his wife left in Territory Three, Qi Fu finally brought it up to Xia Qing. “Sis, I want to buy five Greenlight chestnuts off you. I want to see if I can get them to sprout.”

Even though these evolved chestnut trees attracted hornets, their territory had over a thousand acres of Buffer Forest. Planting a handful of chestnut trees in a corner wasn’t going to get in the way of farming at all.

Xia Qing asked, “Are there any Greenlight or Yellowlight saplings in your territory? I can trade you Greenlight chestnut seedlings from the woods instead. I rented out that section of the valley near Plot Forty-Nine from Luo Ge, since it borders my territory. Those trees belong to me.”

If the Area Three of Plot Forty-Nine hadn’t belonged to Xia Qing, she’d have dug up every seedling she could. Most of the time, when squads went out to gather, they harvested edible plants or fruits by the most destructive means possible—after all, the Evolver Forest wasn’t private property. Anyone could go in and take what they could find.

Qi Fu and his wife finally understood why it was Xia Qing leading the team to Plot Forty-Nine to gather supplies instead of Hu Zifeng. Yuan Yan congratulated Xia Qing. “I was just about to remind you to pick a few small Greenlight chestnut saplings to dig up and bring back. Turns out you saved yourself the trouble!”