Chapter 867: Schemes and Seeds: The Balance of Power Shifts

“If she didn’t have some brains, how could she have survived eleven years of disaster?” Yan from Territory Five ventured her guess about Feng Wen’s pregnancy. “She can’t risk returning to the Safe Zone, and out of the five Hui Three territories, ours is the safest and most prosperous.”

Tang Huai caught on. “So you’re saying Feng Wen wants to marry Yan Meng?”

Zhao Ze disagreed. “With the fierce energy she showed going after Sister Qing, she doesn’t seem like the type to settle down and farm.”

Kuang Qingwei offered his two cents. “It could go one of two ways: either she’s after marrying Brother Huai said—Yan Meng, or she wants to replace him and become the lord of Territory Fourteen herself.”

Tang Heng leaned toward the second option. “Think about it, once her child is born, they’re the rightful heir to Territory Fourteen. If Yan Meng dies, her kid could inherit the land. Even if life won’t be perfect, she could hire people to farm for her. That’s still better than what she’s got now.”

Yan Meng had been at the territory for two years and never once truly farmed.

Zhu Li chimed in. “Or maybe she plans to copy Tang Lu and just lease out the whole territory. Once her kid’s born, Yan Meng’s pretty much marked for death.”

Tan Qi joined in too. “She could also go back to the Safe Zone right now. Pregnant women there get special protection.”

During these disaster years, it was hard for humans to reproduce. In the Safe Zone, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and infants got generous subsidies.

Huo Zhun rubbed his thick earlobe as he spoke. “Yan Meng’s no fool either.”

Shi Du grinned. “Of course not. Now we’ll see who gets the upper hand: will it be her or him? Best case, they fight so fiercely they both end up wrecked. Honestly, letting Feng Wen into Territory Fourteen was a genius move by Sister Qing!”

Tang Huai glanced over at Zhu Li, who was also an Auditory Evolutionary, with a bit of envy. “Li, let us know in the group chat if you hear anything moving early, alright?”

“You got it.” Zhu Li nodded, eyes bright with excitement.

With the gossip session over, the Alliance meeting wrapped up and everyone headed back to their own territories to get on with work.

“Xia Qing, where’s the little Honey Badger?” Tang Huai, being carried by Huo Zhun past the northern barrier of Section Three, kept looking around. He’d missed the brawl between Old Goat and the little Honey Badger these last few days thanks to his broken toe, much to his regret.

Wait, is the Honey Badger part of the combat team now too? Huo Zhun glanced at Xia Qing’s emotionless face, which reminded him of the white-faced snub-nosed monkey living its best life in Section Three. He wondered whether that monkey had gotten any better.

Expression unmoved, Xia Qing explained, “The little Honey Badger fought with two Eurasian Lynxes and got hurt. Hasn’t left the Evolved Forest since.”

“Injured?!” Tang Huai’s eyes darted with sudden interest.

Seeing his brother’s obvious scheming, Tang Heng reminded him, “Bro, Honey Badgers eat bugs.”

Ah… Can’t believe I forgot about that.

Tang Huai quieted down. “Sister Qing, I’ve got a lead on finding the sheep. Is there enough space in your sheep shed for two?”

“Plenty.”

Honestly, her sheep shed could house two sheep or even five wolves without a problem.

After face scanning her way back home, Xia Qing made for the Green Lantern Orchard to check on the apple and jujube trees hit hard by hail. A quick check showed one of the apple trees had dropped in quality and was now just a Yellow Lantern.

Next, she noticed something off about the new leaves sprouting from a jujube tree—not because of any magnetic field shift, but their shape. They just didn’t look like before.

Xia Qing called out to a companion walking by. “Old Goat, does this jujube sapling seem weird to you?”

Old Goat’s eyes sparkled as he walked up, gazing up at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing…

Greedy thing, I wasn’t about to hand you fresh leaves to munch on…

But when Xia Qing made it clear there’d be no snack, Old Goat squinted and started scraping at the dirt with his hooves. Flathead hadn’t shown up these days, so Old Goat was itching for a fight!

Which worked out for Xia Qing too. “Old Goat, your legs seem sturdier than ever. Do you feel stronger these days? Want to play with the iron fork? You pulling the iron fork always looks so cool—haven’t seen it in so long…”

All that flattery made Old Goat lift his head proudly and shoot Xia Qing a look, silently saying, ‘Quit stalling and fetch the iron fork already.’

“On it!”

Xia Qing snapped off a handful of toon leaves, then hurried after Old Goat down the hillside. “Honestly, you look awesome pulling the iron fork. Where would our territory be without you?”

With a big iron fork in tow, Old Goat took off running, Xia Qing racing after him.

Back when people from Fifteen and Seventeen came to clear out Devastation Grass, they pulled it up by the roots so the iron fork wasn’t needed for that. Old Goat and Xia Qing made short work of the area harvested by the combine, wrapping up in less than an hour.

But Old Goat hadn’t had enough fun, so he kept racing along with the fork, Xia Qing sprinting behind, while Er lounged in the shade just watching and grinning.

By dusk, Old Goat was mud-caked and finally satisfied, leading his equally grubby sidekick home.

With daylight left, Xia Qing washed Old Goat and gave him a trim. After his wool came off, Old Goat felt light and immediately warmed up to Xia Qing even more.

She found her shearing skills had leveled up too—much neater work than last year.

She’d just finished Old Goat’s trim when she went to give Monkey an IV and found he’d had diarrhea again.

So Xia Qing dunked him in water, gave him a quick scrub, and trimmed his fur too—not for the wool, but because it made cleaning up afterward easier.

Monkey looked a lot skinnier with his new cut, just hanging from the clothesline for his IV. His small black hands trembled and he looked more than a little pitiful.

Worried he’d catch cold and get even sicker, Xia Qing tossed a handful of straw over his belly.

With more than two pounds of fresh wool and a few ounces of monkey fur gathered, Xia Qing dug out last year’s cut wool from the storeroom and started pondering what to make.

After a little thought, she decided to turn all that fluff into a winter mattress.

The next morning, Xia Qing packed the washed, cleaned wool and monkey fur into breathable bags and hung them to dry next to Monkey. Then she left Er in charge of the house and headed up Hill Fifty-Five for a half-day’s work.

In the afternoon, Xia Qing got back to handle her next chore: threshing and drying the freshly harvested wheat.

Machine use order was decided by drawing lots—Qi Fu got the first slot, Xia Qing drew second.

After threshing, 223 pounds of Yellow Lantern Wheat dried down to 196 pounds, which was right in line with Xia Qing’s estimates. It wasn’t a huge haul, but stuffing two bags of wheat into the underground grain store’s shelves still left her genuinely happy.

A good harvest always puts a smile on a farmer’s face. Joy filled the chat group too. Even Wen Nengjie, though he didn’t break the top ten for machine access, was up for an afternoon slot tomorrow and sent thanks to Xia Qing again and again.

Later, when Wen Nengjie finally got to use the dryer and thresher, he sang Xia Qing’s praises non-stop in the group. Not that she noticed—she was off in the Hidden Valley picking spinach seeds.

After all, dozens of X-2 plants she’d sown there had ripened right on schedule.