Chapter 70: Weathering the Xiang Rain

The news in Hua Nation never changed: tales of chaos and disaster abroad, but here at home, everything was just fine—aside from some coastal bases. Most bases were thriving, rolling in good tidings.

Xia Qing finished washing the dishes while listening to the Hua Nation news broadcast, then headed back to the living room to catch the Hui City Base broadcast and get the real updates from Hui San Base. But she was really waiting for the most important part—the weather report.

For folks who work the land, you might as well say their fate’s tied to the sky. That’s why every single lord paid close attention to any hint of weather changes.

“According to the joint forecast from the Hui One Base Central Meteorological Station and Hui San Base Meteorological Station, Hui City Base will see its second major Xiang Rain event of the year the day after tomorrow.” Xia Qing’s heart skipped a beat and she immediately stopped what she was doing to listen closely. “…On May 21st, both the Safe Zone and outside territories of Hui San Base will experience Xiang Rain. The maximum alert is orange. It will last two days and drop about 90 millimeters in total…”

The following farming knowledge broadcast was entirely dedicated to this Xiang Rain, giving lords advice on how to protect crops that had already been growing for two months.

Just like how Xia Qing had to sweet-talk Boss Sheep, the Hui San Base announcer first poured a bit of sugar in the lords’ ears: “This round of Xiang Rain isn’t as strong or as long as the last one, and among the two this year, it’s the safest we’ve had in five years. As long as everyone makes the right preparations, spring crops are sure to pull through and give bountiful harvests. Next, let’s go over the main ways your crops can cope with the Xiang Rain…”

After carefully jotting down all the broadcast’s advice in her notebook, Xia Qing turned off the radio and switched on the walkie-talkie.

The lord channel was already buzzing about the incoming Xiang Rain.

Qi Fu spoke up first, totally at ease: “The broadcast’s right. This rain’s arriving at just the perfect time. Every crop in our fields, besides the cotton, has already grown past the sapling stage—makes it way less likely to mutate from the Xiang element. But if this rain came two weeks later, it’d hit the flowering period for wheat and mung beans, and then we’d lose half the harvest.”

Zhao Ze jumped in, “Brother Qi’s right, but are we seriously supposed to cover every field with rainproof tarps? Not to mention whether we have enough tarps—just two days isn’t even enough time to get it all set up!”

Kuang Qingwei shot back at Zhao Ze, “Well, you seem to have plenty of time to collect rocks for your landscaping projects—how come you don’t have time to build rain shelters?”

Zhao Ze muttered, “I wasn’t making a special effort, I just picked up some rocks here and there on breaks. Brother Qi, Brother Wei, were either of you able to cover all your fields? We’re talking acres and acres—it’s impossible.”

Kuang Qingwei let it go and turned to Qi Fu for advice, “Old Qi, how are you handling the pumpkin vines?”

Qi Fu answered, “I don’t have enough rainproof tarps, so I’ll just gather all the vines together and cover as much as I can. If some get left out, there’s not much I can do. Anyone got any spare bamboo poles? I’d love to trade for a few.”

Knowing how cautious Qi Fu was, there’s no way he hadn’t stocked up on tarps, bamboo poles, and wood for Xiang Rain prep. Xia Qing figured he was mostly saying this to keep the other lords from asking him for supplies.

Things got quiet in the channel until Tang Huai chimed in, “Those of you with forests might not have enough bamboo and timber for rain shelters—I’ve got even less since I barely have any trees. Hey, Brother Feng from Plot One, could I trade for some bamboo poles?”

“Pfft—” Xia Qing, who was in the middle of a drink, couldn’t help but spit it out.

Tang Huai actually called his sworn enemy “brother” over a few bamboo poles…

Was this seriously the same Tang Huai who argued with Hu Zifeng every day over that wolf mess? Guess even pride takes a backseat when it comes to saving your crops.

Hu Zifeng replied lazily, “Nope.”

Tang Huai, now practically groveling, raised his voice nearly thirty decibels, “You’ve got a whole bamboo grove on Mountain 49—how could you not have bamboo?”

Hu Zifeng yawned, “You want bamboo from Mountain 49? Sure. Pay the mountain fee and go cut it yourself.”

Tang Huai lost it, cursing, “You maniac, just wait—you’ll come begging me one day.”

“Anytime. I’ll be waiting,” Hu Zifeng answered with a yawn, completely unfazed.

That round of cursing wrapped up the exchanges. Xia Qing turned off the walkie-talkie, but quickly got a message from Hu Zifeng: Miss Xia, need any bamboo poles?

She replied she was already prepared, put her phone away, and got to work pulling on her protective suit.

Qi Fu had nailed it. Getting the second big Xiang Rain now was better than it coming two weeks later. But honestly Xia Qing wished it would come five days later instead. On her own territory, she had not just young cotton, but also newly planted sweet potato vines, plus sixteen Green-light Sweet Potato seedlings that had just been half-pruned and hadn’t bounced back yet.

Seriously—yesterday’s forecast said five days without a drop of Xiang Rain. If she’d known, she never would have chosen this exact moment to plant sweet potatoes!

Where the heck did this random storm loaded with Xiang Rain come from anyway? Was it sent just to mess with her?

Muttering angrily, Xia Qing zipped up her protective suit and got right to work.

The Xiang Rain was coming, and she had enough supplies on hand. Of course she’d cover every single crop.

The two planting strips on the hillside were easiest—she just needed to put a layer of rainproof tarp over the insect net already in place. But in the fields there were the wheat, mung beans, cotton, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and pumpkins—all needing new rain shelters built from scratch.

Materials weren’t an issue—if she could get started tomorrow, she’d finish it all in a day. What really worried Xia Qing was the newly planted sweet potato patch… and Boss Sheep, who might go wild again during the Xiang Rain.

That sweet potato patch had to be protected. So did Boss Sheep.

With the Xiang Rain looming, every second counted. Xia Qing dragged the rainproof tarps, bamboo strips, wooden stakes, and steel bars out into the courtyard, sprayed them over and over with Evolved Camphor Tree Sap and Evolved Monkshood sap for pest control, then finished up with Zhang San’s deodorizer.

Boss Sheep hated the sharp scent of camphor sap and hid inside the house, leaving Xia Qing to work alone deep into the night.

She wasn’t the only one. Every lord in Hui San Base who’d heard the news spent the night sleepless.

By five the next morning, Xia Qing had the rotary tiller out, hitched up her homemade trailer. She’d hammered steel bars salvaged from Ruined Village buildings into round wheels and welded them together, then built the trailer bed with a steel frame and wooden boards. It was rough, sure, but spacious enough. Two trips and she had all the materials for rain shelters delivered to the field edges.

Then Xia Qing unhooked the trailer and swapped in a single furrow plow, tilling the gaps between the plots.

Following the method from the broadcast, she shaped the farmland into long strips with enough space between each plot—making it easy to set up rain shelters and dig drainage ditches.

She drove thick bamboo strips deep into the freshly tilled, soft earth and tamped them down tight. Then did the same at matching spots on the far side of the three-meter-wide fields, tied the tips of each bamboo pair together with rope—and just like that, an arched outer frame for a rain shelter was ready.