Chapter 386: Warm Plans and Winter Walls

After seeing Da Ya off, Xia Qing stood with Old Goat and Er Gou by the chicken yard, gazing at the 22 chickens inside. Even though 11 of them belonged to Zhang San, Xia Qing couldn’t hide her excitement.

“Old Goat, now that we’ve got Green Lantern Fertilizer, we’ll spread some on your pasture next year. The grass will grow taller and stronger.”

Old Goat narrowed his eyes, staring intently at the growing number of chickens in the yard, as if he was checking for something, looking all serious.

“Er, we’ve got 19 hens now! I’ll cook you an egg tonight.” With ten hens at the peak of egg-laying season, they could easily collect six or seven eggs a day. Add in the nine older hens who still sometimes laid one or two, and there were more than enough eggs for Xia Qing and Er Gou. If Lame Wolf’s little sister did well while resting in the Wolf Den, she could get a couple, too.

A grin lit up Xia Qing’s face as she zeroed in on the noticeably white-feathered hen. “I’m calling dibs on Little White’s eggs. I’m the main fighter in our territory, gotta stay at my best.”

Er Gou broke out laughing, baring his fangs in a wide grin.

With all these chickens, they’d need a lot more grain and veggies to keep them fed.

Xia Qing had just traded with Yang Jin for 400 jin of Green Lantern Rice. She’d harvested another 200 jin of mung beans and 750 jin of corn that autumn. She’d even sold a sack of corn through Kuang Qingwei to get funds for the fence, and there were still over 600 jin left. That was plenty to feed Xia Qing, Old Goat, Er Gou, and the Green Lantern Chicken.

With the weather turning cold, the tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, and pumpkins had stopped bearing fruit, time to pull those up. Only cabbage and sweet potato leaves were left in abundance in the greenhouse—other types had only a few or a dozen plants left, needing to be saved for seed.

Back in July, Xia Qing planted 250 cabbage seeds: 100 Green Lantern seeds she’d exchanged with Zhang San, and 150 Yellow Lantern seeds from a deal with the Territory Management Department. All the Green Lantern seeds went into the terraces; half the Yellow Lantern seeds went into the terraces, the other half into the greenhouse.

The Yellow Lantern cabbage seeds Xia Qing got were only stable for two generations. With the third Devastation Rain this year hitting hard, only ten of the Yellow Lantern cabbages planted in the field and greenhouse had survived and formed heads. The terraces, nourished by pure spring water, fared better—thirty-five Green Lantern and forty Yellow Lantern cabbages had made it.

Xia Qing couldn’t bear to let the chickens eat her preserved tomatoes, eggplants, chili peppers, and pumpkins stored in the vegetable room—they were strictly for herself.

So, she needed to speed up plans to build greenhouses for both veggies and chickens.

After dinner and feeding the chickens, Xia Qing picked cotton while thinking it was time to add greenhouse construction to her agenda, especially since she’d already finished sowing wheat and rapeseed.

The cotton bolls on the lower branches of the cotton plants had already split open first. Now, the upper branches were finally starting to open, revealing soft, pale yellow cotton.

She’d already tilled and sown wheat and rapeseed, so she wasn’t in a rush to dig over the cotton field. Better to wait until all the bolls had ripened, then pull the plants and dry them out to use as firewood back home.

Once the cotton in the greenhouse was picked, Xia Qing went to the edge of the Abandoned Village to harvest another round of Devastation-evolved black cotton. With that, her farm chores for the afternoon were done.

She asked Old Goat to haul the cotton back, then wandered the territory with a shovel, looking for good soil to use for building greenhouse walls.

All the lords were at about the same pace—everyone was thinking about building greenhouses.

Zhao Ze’s mother asked, “Where’s everyone planning to build? Wouldn’t it be better to put greenhouses close to the buffer forest? In winter, the forest will help block the wind.”

Zhu Li from Territory Six chimed in, “Old Kuang and the crew are working on the thorn wall, and we’re planning to build our greenhouse just south of the river, close to the slope if possible.”

Madam Shi replied, “We don’t have a slope in our territory, so we’re just going to make our greenhouse walls really thick. Qi, are you there? How thick are you guys planning to make yours?”

Qi Fu must have been busy, so Yuan Yan answered, “The radio said 80 centimeters is enough, but we don’t have fences around our territory—winter winds are much stronger here than in the Safe Zone, and it’ll be a few degrees colder—so we’re planning to make ours a meter thick. On the north side by the mountain, it’ll be three and a half meters tall.”

“We’ll go for 1.1 meters thick, put more effort in now and worry less in winter.” Madam Shi made the call, then asked Xia Qing, “Qing, what about you?”

Xia Qing replied, “I’ll just go with the sizes Sister Yuan mentioned.”

“Xia Qing’s got the best spot—mountains to the northwest, and with the winter wind coming in from the northeast, she’s protected.” Zhu Li couldn’t help feeling jealous, then asked, “So when you build, are you using only soil for the walls, or bricks and soil?”

That was a pro-level question—Yuan Yan answered, “We want to brick the outside and fill it with earth inside. That way it’s waterproof, and the greenhouse lasts a couple more years.”

Zhao Ze’s mother asked, “Isn’t it also okay to cover the earthen walls with greenhouse plastic sheets or rain covers, like the radio said yesterday?”

Yuan Yan wasn’t sure either. “I guess that works, too. I just figured using all those broken bricks from the ruins saves us some plastic film and rain covers.”

Madam Shi answered, “Good point—if we can save anything, we should. I’ve actually got a couple of rain covers ruined by Devastation-evolved potato vines and sunflower seeds, perfect for this.”

“That’s a good plan. Rain covers definitely keep things warmer than brick walls,” Yuan Yan agreed.

Plant expert Li Si logged in, “Plastic film and rain covers aren’t breathable. If you use them to cover soil walls, you’ll need regular disinfection; otherwise, it’ll breed a ton of bacteria and harmful insects.”

Everyone stopped and stared for a few seconds when Li Si joined the chat.

Evolved bacteria might be invisible, but they were even scarier than giant mutant beasts—impossible to defend against. Zhao Ze’s mother hurriedly asked, “Sister Si, with our conditions here, how often should we disinfect?”

Li Si replied, all business, “There’s no fixed interval. You have to consider the environment inside the greenhouse and the results of any tests before deciding.”

That was classic Li Si—straight to the point. Zhao Ze’s mother didn’t get it, and decided right then to use bricks for her walls.

Xia Qing started counting silently: one, two, three…

Assistant Xiao Liu from Territory Nine logged in right away. “Lords, greenhouse planting is very different from open-air farming. Our territory has an exclusive, patented Greenhouse Planting Manual. If you follow its instructions, you can greatly increase your yields. Each manual is only 600 credits.”

Finally! Xia Qing snapped her fingers and kept digging for clay with her shovel.

Seeing no one reply, Zhu Li started complaining, “Assistant Liu, it’s not that we don’t want to buy. We just harvested, but we need to buy compost starter, build thorn walls, and start the greenhouse. We just don’t have enough credits.”

Assistant Xiao Liu responded politely, “Ms. Zhu, I’ll report your situation to the lord. If there’s a discount, I’ll let you know. Ms. Xia, do you want to buy one?”

Xia Qing frowned. Had the folks at Territory Nine not heard how poor she was? If Assistant Liu was singling her out, what was the point?

Standing inside a pit over a meter deep, Xia Qing replied coldly, “Assistant Liu, I only scraped together enough credits for the wall after selling my grain. I don’t even have enough for compost starter, let alone your expensive manual.”