Chapter 868: Springtime Harvests and Sunflower Plans

After the second Devastation Rain, Xia Qing received 150 X-2 spinach seeds. Like her allies, she planted half within her own territory and the other half in the Hidden Valley.

Of the 75 spinach seeds sown in the Hidden Valley, 43 sprouted into seedlings—a germination rate of 57%. This was because Xia Qing, wanting to stick with the group, skipped using pure spring water to soak the seeds and used only filtered hot spring water from the valley.

Over the course of more than two months, five spinach plants died for various reasons. By harvest time, 38 survived, with 21 being female plants bearing valuable seeds—the highest rate of femaleness among the valley’s six spinach patches.

Female plants could produce seeds, and the seeds could be sold. Xia Qing was overjoyed, while her allies could only envy her luck.

Zhang Shi helped Xia Qing lift the protective ground cover above the spinach while Zhang Shiyi brought over three wooden stools—two large and one small. “Aunt Qing, here you go.”

After living in the Hidden Valley for two months, Zhang Shiyi’s cheeks had grown chubbier and she had become much more outgoing.

“Thank you,” Xia Qing said, taking the stool and handing Zhang Shiyi a small packaging bag, just a bit bigger than her little hand. “Shiyi, can you fill this bag with a hundred spinach seeds?”

“Mm-hmm!” Zhang Shiyi happily took the little bag and sat back to back with her mother. She started picking the spinach seeds stuck to the ground cover, quietly counting each one under her breath.

Watching how obedient and sweet Shiyi was, Xia Qing couldn’t help thinking of the hairless, twitching Monkey waiting at home. Her heart clenched a little.

When the bag was filled with one hundred seeds, Zhang Shiyi handed it to Xia Qing, her big eyes fixed nervously on Xia Qing’s counting fingers.

“No problem. It’s exactly a hundred.”

After Xia Qing placed the small bag next to the larger sack meant for spinach seeds, Zhang Shiyi glanced at her mom. The moment she caught her mother’s encouraging smile, the little girl broke into a silent grin so cute that Xia Qing almost wanted to run home and ditch Monkey on the spot.

With help from Zhang Shi and her daughter, Xia Qing quickly picked up all 1,995 spinach seeds. Then she yanked up the spinach stalks, roots and all, and packed them into a large bag. She’d take both seeds and stalks back to Tang Huai, exchanging them for credits.

Before leaving, Xia Qing grabbed a ten-jin bag of Green Lantern mung bean flour from her backpack and handed it to Zhang Shi.

Zhang Shi had traded credits with her for this. Zhang Shiyi loved noodle soup made from mung bean flour—the kind where you mix the mung bean and white flour, knead it into dough, then roll it thin and cut it into little triangles. Once the filtered hot spring water boils, you toss in the dough triangles, then add a few Green Lantern vegetables and a Yellow Lantern poached egg. For seasoning, just a pinch of salt, some soy sauce, and a few drops of sesame oil.

All their seasoning and eggs came from trades with Zhang San.

Shiyi could eat a bowl of that soup bigger than her own head.

After handing over the flour, Xia Qing pulled out two pink hair ties with little flowers from her backpack and bent down to give them to Zhang Shiyi. “This is your reward for helping me pick spinach seeds. Next time I’ll bring the strawberry seedlings, so you can get your patch ready to start growing strawberries.”

Xia Qing had hired Zhang Shiyi to help catch bugs and feed them to the Green Lantern peanuts. Shiyi’s reward was five Green Lantern strawberries. The five-year-old spent every day carrying her little bag into the Evolved Forest, catching bugs to keep Xia Qing’s half-acre of Green Lantern peanuts plump and healthy.

Only when her mom nodded did Zhang Shiyi finally accept the pretty hair ties and politely thanked her. “Thank you, Aunt Qing. When are you coming next?”

Xia Qing gave her an exact answer. “Tomorrow morning, seven-thirty sharp.”

Tomorrow, she’d be heading up Hill Fifty-Five for the last round of work.

That rosy-pink hair tie was obviously chosen just for a daughter. Zhang Shi nodded in thanks, then gestured toward an empty spot in the peanut patch. “During the Backflow Rain, forty-five Green Lantern peanuts devolved into Yellow Lantern, twenty-three Devastation Evolved plants had to be pulled up, and seventy-eight Yellow Lantern peanuts that underwent Devastation Evolution were also removed.”

When the Backflow Rain hit, the Yi Stones that were rented for protection during the second Devastation Rain had already been ‘returned to the Azure Dragon Squad’. Without their shielding, the valley’s crops still suffered some losses under the renewed Devastation Rain.

Xia Qing nodded. “These plants were already weak. If they hadn’t been protected last time, they’d have been wiped out by Devastation Evolution long ago.”

Zhang Shi nodded, then asked, “What will you plant after harvesting the peanuts?”

Xia Qing already had it worked out. “Sunflowers. The seeds our base issued have about a two percent chance of aggressive Devastation Evolution, so growing them here is safer than in my territory. Honestly, luck’s been on my side this year. Five sunflowers I grew in my territory mutated into cultivable, improved seeds—every one Green Lantern quality.”

Sunflowers are oil crops, so when Zhang Shi heard Xia Qing had bred Green Lantern-quality ones, she was happy too. “The base sunflowers are a dwarf variety for pressing oil. Each flower can produce 1,500 to 2,000 seeds. Once mature, about 1,200 of those can be used as seeds. If we manage to harvest all five flowers, that’s 6,000 seeds. Soak them in hot spring water and we should get a 50% germination rate—enough to fill a whole acre.”

Xia Qing didn’t know whether Zhang Shi had just learned these planting techniques or if she was always talented. Either way, she was now explaining theory like a pro and handling lab gear as if she’d done it her whole life. No matter how you looked at it, she was a proper research scientist now.

The lab Zhang San carved out in the valley’s cliff as a refuge for the mother and daughter now saw its true purpose thanks to Zhang Shi.

Xia Qing nodded. “This type of sunflower takes 90 to 110 days to mature. As soon as the peanuts are harvested and these go in, we’ll be able to reap them before the next rice seedling season. During the growing period, I’ll need help from you and Shiyi—please run the grow lamps for a few extra hours each day.”

Because Xia Qing’s acre was on their side of the valley, she used supplies to trade for daily field management with Zhang Shi and her daughter.

Sunflowers love sunlight, but the valley doesn’t get enough natural light—so artificial lighting is a must.

Zhang Shi nodded. “No problem. After the harvest, just give me ten Green Lantern sunflower heads.”

“Deal.” Xia Qing noticed Zhang Shiyi watching with her big, eager eyes and smiled at her. “I’ll be harvesting sunflowers by mid-next month, so I’ll pay up front with 200 Green Lantern seeds. As soon as the seeds finish dormancy, you can plant them in the new experimental field.”

Hearing this, little Shiyi’s face lit up in delight.

Zhang Shi added, “After you press the Yellow Lantern sunflowers next month, can I trade for some oil?”

Vegetable oil is a crucial dietary energy source, and with life now settled, Zhang Shi and her daughter could cook just like before the catastrophe.

After selling the spinach seeds and stalks to Tang Heng, Xia Qing headed back to the territory but found her allies chattering away—on their lord communicators, discussing which fields had just received threshers and dryers, and on the phone group, talking about what crops should go into the valley fields next.

Some, like Xia Qing, wanted to try sunflowers; others leaned toward potatoes. Both plants had a chance of aggressive Devastation Evolution, so sowing them without Yi Stone shields in the middle of Devastation Rain was like planting a ticking time bomb.

Without even needing to coordinate, all the lords planned to leave a space in each field for chicken coops. When the third Devastation Rain hit, they’d move their precious Yellow or Green Lantern chickens from their territory into the valley to keep them safe.

The Green Lantern crabs everyone bartered for with the Tang Family had been raised in the valley from the start—no need to transfer them back and forth.

When Xia Qing opened her communicator back at the territory, her allies were already buzzing about the news: Hui Three Pharmaceutical was about to release a new medicine—Scar Cleanse.