Chapter 389: A Fortunate Alliance and the Race for Resources

It was bad enough having Territory Nine—basically a ticking time bomb—as a neighbor. Never did I imagine the neighbor to the east would turn out to be a character like that.

Shizhong sighed. “Good thing our territory’s big enough, or I’d never get any sleep. We need to fence off that east wall as soon as possible.”

Xia Qing reassured him. “He’s lost his evolution abilities and is injured, so his fighting strength is way lower than Shi Du’s. But Uncle Shi, you should still get that wall up fast. Yan Meng’s in a weak spot now, and if he loses control during the Devastation Rain, things could get ugly.”

“Xia Qing’s right,” Kuang Qingwei chimed in. “Let’s get moving tomorrow and chop enough Thornwood for the wall before anyone else does.”

Everyone agreed right away.

Xia Qing went on, “There’s something else I wanted to tell everyone: about fifty meters south of Hill Fifty’s Thornwood grove, there’s a gentle slope by the riverbank. It’s filled with thick, sticky yellow clay—perfect for building a greenhouse.”

“Seriously?” Qi Fu, usually so steady, practically jumped out of his seat.

“No wonder Sis asked me to rent that truck for a few extra days—it was for the clay!” Kuang Qingwei looked both excited and anxious. “Do you think Renjie and his crew are after the clay too?”

Shizhong started grumbling about his son. “Shi Du’s completely useless, I swear. He’s been out there so many times and never noticed the yellow clay!”

Zhao Ze’s mother asked, “Qing, do you think there’s enough clay over there for all of us?”

“Should be no problem. That river slope is pretty long, though only a fifty-meter stretch is suitable for the excavator. I was planning to wait till we’d finished cutting wood, then haul the clay back with the timber trucks. But now, plans have changed—we can’t afford to wait.”

Xia Qing paused for a few seconds before continuing, “Best if we start tomorrow, get everything done in two days. Everyone, let me know how many greenhouses you need to build. Qi and Shi, you two meet with Yue Haiying, Auntie, Qing—let’s figure out how many trucks we’ll need.”

As luck would have it, every territory planned to build two standard greenhouses this year.

After Qi Fu and Shizhong went out, Kuang Qingwei had already crunched the numbers. “Each standard greenhouse is fifty meters long, six meters wide, wall one meter thick, height three and a half. That means each one needs about 2,170 cubic meters of clay.”

Over two thousand cubic meters of clay…

Kuang Qingwei frowned. “It’s impossible to rent more dump trucks right now. I tried calling this afternoon to reserve two more, but they told me none were available—no matter how much I offered. We’d have to wait till after the Devastation Snow. If there’s no other way, maybe I’ll use your rotary tiller and start hauling the clay back bit by bit?”

But a rotary tiller can barely carry anything—it’d take forever to move all that clay.

Kuang Qingwei couldn’t get the trucks, and Xia Qing didn’t expect him to hit a dead end either. She ran through contacts in her head and quickly had an idea. “Territory Eight’s construction isn’t finished yet, so they must have engineering trucks. Let me reach out to Xin Yu.”

The reason Xia Qing knew Territory Eight was still being built was all thanks to the chatty chief of the heavy equipment crew, Lu Yuhui.

Lu Yuhui had mentioned to Xia Qing that after finishing the wall for Section Three, she’d be working in Territory Eight, hoping to wrap up before the Devastation Snow hit. There was still at least half a month before the tenth year disaster’s Devastation Snow.

Xia Qing quickly got through to Xin Yu, then connected with Zhou Zhaoping, Territory Eight’s assistant, and managed to secure the trucks.

She’d just hung up with Zhou Zhaoping when Qi Fu’s call came in. After hearing him out, Xia Qing nodded. “Send him over.”

Neither Kuang Qingwei nor Zhao Ze’s mother were hearing evolvers, so Xia Qing hadn’t put the call on speaker. The two of them stared at her, hoping for answers.

Xia Qing explained, “Territory Eight can rent us three dump trucks and three excavators, but only for the next two days. Yue Haiying is coming by to talk about the Thornwood and the yellow clay. Territory Fifteen has 21 workers but can’t get any engineering vehicles, so they want to team up. We don’t have enough excavators anyway, so some extra hands will help.”

“Right, more people means faster work!” Hearing they’d get the trucks, Kuang Qingwei started mentally tallying how much clay three trucks could move in two days.

Xia Qing discussed with Zhao Ze’s mother, “Auntie, could you find Qi’s wife and call Zhao over with Section Five’s walkie-talkie? We’ve got a lot to juggle these next two days, so Zhao needs to get a head start on organizing things.”

Organizing five trucks, four excavators, and dozens of workers to haul nearly three thousand cubic meters of clay and loads of Thornwood in just two days was a tall order—especially since Xia Qing’s only led small construction crews before.

Tight schedules, a mountain of work, and a big team—this was a job for someone with professional engineering chops. Time to call in Zhao Ze.

“On it!” Zhao Ze’s mother beamed, delighted her son could finally put his skills to good use, and hurried off to find Yuan Yan.

Xia Qing turned and spotted a one-armed man coming over with Qi Fu and Shizhong. She shot up from her seat and strode outside. “Hey, Captain Yue.”

Yue Haiying, towering and broad with only half his right arm left, didn’t recognize Xia Qing. His smile was stiff as he greeted her. “You must be Xia Qing, Lord of Section Three, right? I’ve been out of commission for months now with this injury—no longer a captain. I just farm in Territory Fifteen these days. Please, just use my name.”

“Brother Yue,” Xia Qing switched her greeting right away, guessing he couldn’t recall who she was, and introduced herself.

“I’m Xia Qing, currently the lord of Section Three. After last summer’s second Devastation Rain, I joined the squad you led to clear Scourge Grass from the eastern Evolved Forest. Back then, I was a level-four Strength-Based Evolution—just an extra logistics hand with patched-up old protective gear and a red face.”

Xia Qing only knew the overall mission leader’s name and their military unit number, not Yue Haiying’s. She recognized him the moment they met in person.

The way Xia Qing described herself was completely unfamiliar to a few of the lords standing by. But up until last summer, or before she started farming, that really was who Xia Qing used to be.

Because she had poor equipment and a rough appearance, Xia Qing had been mocked by fellow evolvers riding in the same truck. As the squad leader, Yue Haiying not only tore into those guys, but when they split up into teams for the mission, he went out of his way to group Xia Qing with the military evolvers.

What made this stick with Xia Qing was how rare it was—the kind of decency she almost never ran into during all her years taking assignments.

She was the most overlooked sort of evolver: plain Strength Evolution, thin, sharp-featured, kitted out in barebones gear, serving as unofficial logistics without any real teammates. She faced discrimination, ridicule, and contempt all the time.

Xia Qing never let those little slights faze her, but when someone treated her well, she truly cherished it. That sort of goodwill could be the difference between surviving a close call and not.

She’d only met two people in all those years who ever showed her that kind of kindness: Luo Pei, and Yue Haiying.

Before Luo Pei was poisoned, he’d been strict and silent, like a sniper rifle—cold, but always precise. Yue Haiying, on the other hand, had a fiery temper and a filthy mouth—every word was an insult, and his standards for missions were strict to a fault.

But after Luo Pei was poisoned, he didn’t just give in or fall apart. No matter how much he hurt, he faced everything with a smile.

Now Yue Haiying was left with just one and a half arms, and his whole life seemed to have turned upside down. But instead of giving up, he’d forced himself to rein in his anger and adapt to farming. Just for that alone, Xia Qing figured—even with one and a half arms—he was still a powerhouse, the toughest farmer around.

Evolvers have sharp memories, and with Xia Qing’s spot-on description, Yue Haiying finally remembered her. The scrawny kid she’d been back then was so different from the pale, pretty young woman standing before him today.

Seeing a familiar face who’d once shown him kindness, Yue Haiying’s smile softened for the first time. “Looks like I picked a good career after all. Farming’s got a real future.”