Chapter 68: Guardians of the Highland: A Day in the Life of Xia Qing

Xia Qing crossed the northern barrier that once marked the edge of Territory Three and stepped onto the highland.

Now that the highland was part of Xia Qing’s territory, the Inspection Team no longer patrolled this old barrier since it had officially become her land.

If Xia Qing didn’t regularly spray repellent and weedkiller along the barrier, this ten-meter-wide strip would’ve vanished long ago.

She kept it as a precaution against insect outbreaks. The barrier could hold back pests coming down from Plot Forty-Nine, forming a partial wall of defense for her territory.

As for the other half of the ‘wall’? That was Xia Qing herself. Even if a swarm of evolved locusts attacked, they’d never make it past the barrier she’d built.

After crossing the old barrier, Xia Qing reached the planted section of the highland. The first crop she saw was the evolved perilla—she’d left it outside the insect net so that Boss Sheep could munch on it.

After crushing an evolved mantis that dared to raise a sickle at her from the perilla, Xia Qing walked into the vegetable garden under the insect net. The first tier of the terraced field here held green-glow alfalfa. Out of the twenty plants Zhao Ze gave her as compensation, only two had died—the rest were thriving. Xia Qing had tried the tender sprouts once and was surprised to find they tasted even better than perilla.

Maybe it tasted so good because she was just sick of eating evolved perilla day after day.

Up on the next terrace, though, her troubles began—pumpkins. If she hadn’t tested them several times, she’d suspect these wild, ever-growing pumpkin vines had evolved the Life Drain trait. They were covered in vines but not a single blossom.

Five green-glow pumpkin vines filled a fifty-meter field and even spilled into half the alfalfa plot below. The fifteen yellowlight pumpkin vines near the sweet potato fields at the foot of the slope were just as troubling.

If the pumpkin vines still don’t bloom by next month, Xia Qing resolved, she’d cut them up and feed them to Boss Sheep.

Further up were crops of scallions, ginger, garlic and chives. To make everything easier to manage, Xia Qing had transplanted all the seedlings she found in the old abandoned yard here.

Beyond that, three terraces had been planted with peanuts, then another terraced field waiting to be filled with sweet potatoes. Xia Qing stepped out of the insect net and kept climbing, stopping finally at two apple trees—picked clean—and two jujube trees that were not only budding, but blooming as well.

The jujube trees had tiny yellow-green flowers, both fragrant and lovely.

Xia Qing didn’t worry at all about insects nibbling her jujube blossoms, since these green-glow jujube trees actually wiped out insects that tried.

The evolved jujube branches and leaves bristled with dense, sharp spines. Any bug foolish enough to land was impaled and slowly turned into a dried insect husk. Xia Qing couldn’t help but suspect her future crops of jujubes might end up tasting like meat.

Finally, Xia Qing reached the flat area atop the highland and plucked a hefty bunch of toon leaves from the huge Chinese toon tree for Boss Sheep. By summer, humans couldn’t eat toon shoots anymore, but the leaves were perfect for her loyal sheep.

Back at the reservoir, Xia Qing called Boss Sheep down from the waterwheel for lunch while she crouched by the fish pond to feed the fish.

She tossed in dozens of freshly killed insects, and the pond erupted in a frenzy. When the water finally settled, not even a bug wing remained.

This was the law of Blue Star’s new world—the weak get eaten. If you’re not strong or crafty, you won’t leave a trace behind.

Standing tall as someone who was both strong and adaptable, Xia Qing dusted off her hands and called out to Boss Sheep, then headed over to check her sweet potato vines and do a little weeding.

The sweet potato vines were growing fast, though not as terrifyingly rampant as the pumpkin vines.

As she weeded, Xia Qing checked her vines and found tiny red bumps growing on them. In a few days, they’d put down roots into the soil and she could snip the vines for propagation.

But before she could plant the cuttings, she’d need to enrich the waiting terraces with fertilizer.

Xia Qing pulled out her phone and called Sun Zhe.

The call connected quickly. Sun Zhe sounded full of energy. “Hey, Qing-jie.”

There wasn’t any noisy background from the construction crew on Sun Zhe’s end—she could even hear birds. Xia Qing figured he wasn’t at the site, so got straight to the point. “Did you guys manage to get earthworm castings? If you did, I’m looking to buy a few bags.”

Sun Zhe replied cheerfully, “We did! Our family teamed up with someone and took Plot Forty-Eight to raise worms and collect the castings. How much do you need, Qing-jie?”

Xia Qing’s tone lightened with a smile. “How many pounds are you able to sell right now?”

Sun Zhe answered right away. “Up to four hundred pounds. One point for every two pounds—does that work for you, Qing-jie? If we go cheaper, we won’t even cover the labor.”

She hadn’t expected Sun Zhe to have so much stock already. Xia Qing was direct: “Deal. Can you sell me all of it? Do you want supplies or points for payment?”

Because they’d started late and missed the ideal planting season—and since Plot Forty-Eight was close to the Safe Zone and had been thoroughly scavenged by others—they hadn’t found anything edible in their land. So Sun Zhe hoped to swap for seeds or vegetables. “Do you have any edible plant seeds, Qing-jie? Trading seeds would be even better.”

Xia Qing gave her price on the spot. “I’ve got one hundred and fifty yellowlight scallion seeds. One point for two seeds. Also, I’ve got twenty pounds of dried, vacuum-packed yellowlight bamboo shoot. Twenty points per pound.”

After setting the numbers for the seeds and bamboo shoots, Sun Zhe said enthusiastically, “Tomorrow, Captain Zhong Tao will bring them over for you. I split the land with Captain Zhong’s cousin Zhong He. We’re close to the Safe Zone here—much safer—and the territory’s even within normal phone coverage.”

Hanging up, Xia Qing started leveling the field next to her sweet potato patch, inwardly admiring Sun Zhe’s knack for choosing partners.

Zhong Tao, while just an ordinary person, was sociable and in charge of transport for fifty territories north of the Safe Zone. He knew all the local territories like the back of his hand. With his help, Sun Zhe and Zhong He’s worm castings could be traded safely with other territory lords, no marketing needed.

Two days later, Zhong Tao delivered four big sacks of worm castings to Xia Qing. She handed over the dried bamboo shoots and scallion seeds, then swapped fifty pounds of dried evolved Chinese fevervine for soy sauce, salt and vinegar. She also traded Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui fifty scallion seeds and two pounds of pickled bamboo shoots.

Chive and scallion seedlings look almost identical at first, but when they mature, it’s obvious which is which. Xia Qing had sixty scallions, eight of which had flowered and set seed. She traded over half her stock. Beyond Zhong Tao, Zheng Kui, Sun Zhe and a few other lords, the most unexpected new customer for her seeds this month was Tang Huai from Plot Two.

This month, Tang Huai had suddenly taken an interest in farming. Sometimes he even joined in pest-control discussions in the lord’s channel—so Plot Two wasn’t a complete waste anymore.

If Territory Three didn’t have a spring, Xia Qing might’ve chosen the flatter, deeper-soiled Plot Two instead.

Last month’s batch of pickled yellowlight bamboo shoots hadn’t spoiled. The taste wasn’t exactly great, but still palatable, so she added sour bamboo rat stir-fry and pickled bamboo shoot soup to her menu.