Chapter 441: Warmth Amid the Coming Winter

This year, a harsh winter looms ahead. All the lords are busy preparing supplies to shield their crops from the cold.

From winter irrigation to sprinkling ash, covering plants with dried leaves or crushed straw—everyone’s been following the broadcasts and the advice from Qi Fu and Shizhong. Now, the final step is digging cold-proof trenches to encircle the greenhouse and the wheat and rapeseed fields. There’s nothing more anyone can do after this.

If these precautions still aren’t enough for the wheat to survive, then everyone will just have to accept their fate.

Because of that, every territory is extra diligent with this last step. Whenever someone hits a snag, they turn to the Lords’ channel for ideas and solutions.

Yue Haiying chimes in with a new angle: “Qi, is there any kind of anti-freeze for plants?”

Before the disaster, temperatures at the Hui Three Base rarely dropped below minus five degrees. So even veterans like Qi Fu and Shizhong don’t know much about cold-proofing farmland. Qi Fu admits it, “I’m not sure myself. Logically, there should have been something before the disaster, right?”

Kuang Qingwei immediately jumps in, “I’ll ask around, but if it does exist, I bet it won’t be cheap.”

Hearing the words ‘hard to find’ and ‘expensive,’ Xia Qing, who’s still trenching with the rotary tiller, silently counts down: one, two…

“There is anti-freeze for plants.”

Sure enough, a pro shows up. But it isn’t Li Si—it’s Zhang San. He sounds unusually upbeat, his voice full of energy. “But plant anti-freeze works best between 5 and 15 degrees Celsius. Don’t use it below minus 5.”

Everyone else: …

Zhao Ze can’t help muttering, “Third Brother, it doesn’t freeze at 5–15°C anyway. Why bother with anti-freeze?”

Zhang San, still in a good mood, talks even more. “Non-cold-resistant plants can lose vigor at those temps.”

After waiting a bit and seeing neither Li Si nor Assistant Xiao Liu promoting any specialty products from Territory Nine, Xia Qing realizes why Zhang San feels so chipper today.

Sure enough, Zhang San’s call comes quickly. “Xia Qing, now that the Green Lantern soybeans have arrived, do you want to keep them in my storage room or in your own territory?”

Xia Qing answers right away, “Let’s leave them with you for now. I’ll collect them when it’s time to plant. Third Brother, did Fire Phoenix’s people really agree that easily?”

Zhang San snorts, “The evidence was airtight. She didn’t have a choice.”

No need to ask—he means Single Ying, Fire Phoenix’s vice captain. Xia Qing feels giddy inside. At lunchtime, she brings up a sack of Green Lantern pecans from the basement: two pounds as a thank-you gift for Idol in exchange for reptile repellent, and a pound for herself to nibble on for a brain boost.

After swapping medicine with Ji Li, Xia Qing snips off another bag of toon seeds from the old Toon Tree on her way home. Now, only a few fruits dangle at the very top, out of reach even with the pruning shears. If she wants those, she’ll have to tie a sickle to a long bamboo pole and slice them down.

No rush—she can handle that on her next visit.

By now, the Wolf Pack and Hu Zifeng’s squad have already left. In the territory, only Xia Qing, Old Goat, and Er Gou remain. It’s quiet, almost lonely, but Xia Qing feels warm and fulfilled.

She walks back home with Old Goat, greets the watchful Er Gou, and brings the bag of toon seeds upstairs to the sunny second-floor balcony to dry. As she does, she hears the sound of straw being rustled.

Turning around, she spots the Red Squirrel, still bandaged, climbing out of the haystack. It grabs the chicken cage with its tiny paws, eyes fixed longingly on the toon seeds. Its bushy tail sways with anticipation.

It’s hungry and wants a taste.

Xia Qing lifts an eyebrow and carries over a strand of toon seeds. The Red Squirrel immediately retreats into the straw. But once Xia Qing places the treat in the cage, it grabs a string of toon seeds—almost as tall as itself—and drags it toward the haystack.

When it can’t fit the whole thing inside, the little fellow starts snapping off the pods one by one, expertly peeling away the tough shells to get at the fragrant seeds inside.

Watching all this, Xia Qing feels even more confident that she can use toon seeds to grow toon sprouts.

She’d wondered before: If Green Lantern Toon Tree seeds can sprout, why aren’t there more toon saplings each year? Even if Old Goat likes to munch on them, there’s no way he could eat every sapling on the mountain.

Now she gets it—almost all the seeds from this tree end up as Red Squirrel snacks.

As she spreads toon seeds out to dry, Xia Qing chats with the Red Squirrel munching in the cage. “You’re just one squirrel, homeless and alone. Do you always store up this much food each year, or did you sense the winter would be tougher and decide to stockpile more?”

The Red Squirrel sits atop the straw, rapidly shelling and eating its toon seeds, totally ignoring Xia Qing. To be fair, it doesn’t really understand her words—only that she means it no harm. That’s why it dares to stay and eat its fill, making up for the energy it lost while injured.

When she’s done, Xia Qing turns and asks, “How old are you this year? Old Goat’s only a bit over one. You can’t be much older, right?”

Noticing Xia Qing’s eyes on it, the Red Squirrel’s tail goes on alert, flaring out as it hides two seeds and darts back into the straw.

Xia Qing laughs and pops open the cage. She fishes the squirrel from its nest, ignoring its indignant squeaking as she holds it still with one hand and gently unwraps the bandage around its belly to check the wound.

The commotion draws Old Goat and Er Gou upstairs. Xia Qing doesn’t bother scolding them about coming up anymore—she just greets them and keeps examining the Red Squirrel’s injury.

No wonder the Red Squirrel rebounds so quickly—it’s a true native of the Evolved Forest. Xia Qing applies antibacterial ointment, re-bandages its wound, then opens the second-floor window.

“There you go. Your cut isn’t infected with any nasty mutant bacteria. In another couple of days, it’ll be completely healed.”

The moment Xia Qing opens her hand, the Red Squirrel bolts out of her palm in a blur. But to her surprise, it doesn’t flee to its old squirrel den on Hill Forty-Nine, Section Three. Instead, it dives straight into the sheep shed and burrows into the hay.

Xia Qing watches for a moment before asking Er Gou, who’s lingering nearby. “Er Gou, that hay in the sheep shed is for you and Old Goat to survive the winter. The Red Squirrel won’t pee in there, will it?”

Er Gou lifts his head and looks at Xia Qing, expression pure as ever.

He’s actually squinting at the fridge, plotting how to break in. He cares far more about the stash inside than about the hay in the sheep pen.

Xia Qing shuts the window, sees Old Goat eyeing the fridge, and teases him: “Don’t bother, Old Goat. It’s just python meat. Not your thing.”

Out of the five hundred pounds of python meat Xia Qing kept, only a bit has been turned into jerky. The rest sits in cold storage and the fridge. Zhang San said a hundred pounds would be plenty for her to eat, so now Xia Qing is thinking hard about how to make the most of the leftover hundred pounds.