Chapter 878: The Strong Leader in the Greenhouse

After finishing her work, Xia Qing hurried over to the greenhouse. She joined the employees of the Ninth Planting Center’s planting division, following behind Zhang Tao as they learned how to test water quality and discussed the fertilizer and water requirements for the upcoming rice and corn planting.

Zhang Tao’s area of expertise was promoting the large-scale cultivation of crops. In Zhang San’s research team, she was the top expert in this field. Earlier this spring, when Yuan Yan and Madam Shi went to Section Seven to study planting techniques, it was Zhang Tao’s research group that trained them.

This field of research is the crucial link that turns experimental achievements into crop seeds suitable for wide-scale planting.

More specifically, Zhang Tao is responsible for taking the elite seeds bred by the breeders and expanding them across several to dozens of acres. During the planting process, she tests the batch’s germination rate, the stability of the two evolution elements, and key metrics like the rate of Devastation Evolution—especially aggressive Devastation Evolution. If all of these meet standards, the seeds are ready for mass promotion.

Promoting the large-scale cultivation of quality crops is a major responsibility of the Ninth Planting Center. So in addition to producing food, the center also takes on research tasks. That’s one of the key reasons why the director of Hui Three Base agreed to all of Zhang San’s requests and opened up a green channel for the Ninth Planting Center.

Determined to improve her own planting skills, Xia Qing never missed a chance to learn from Zhang Tao. Whenever she came across something she didn’t understand, she’d ask detailed questions and quickly jot down the important points in her notebook.

Blending into the group, Xia Qing asked questions and took notes so diligently she didn’t look like a leader at all. Yet Zheng Chen noticed that the other greenhouse workers kept glancing at her with a mix of awe and gratitude.

Everyone working here was either a disabled veteran or the family of military personnel who couldn’t be placed elsewhere in the Safe Zone. Landing such a stable job wasn’t easy for any of them, and Zheng Chen, being a soldier himself, understood their gratitude toward Xia Qing—and felt grateful to her himself.

Arranging jobs for disabled veterans is a challenge at every base. Hui Three’s approach to this is something more places ought to adopt.

Zheng Chen understood why the staff respected Xia Qing: partly because she was a powerful figure, and partly because of the way she worked.

As an Advanced Evolutionary, Xia Qing was an exceptional sniper and undeniably a true powerhouse.

Whenever tricky problems arose that the other teams at the planting center couldn’t resolve, they’d bring them to Xia Qing—and she always handled them decisively.

She never wasted time dancing around the issues—she focused on what mattered most.

If the problem was another department in the Safe Zone refusing to cooperate with the Ninth Center, and Yan Yue couldn’t handle it, Xia Qing would step in to negotiate herself. If the problem was internal, she’d go straight to the person responsible: punish who needed punishing, reassign who needed reassigning, and fire who needed firing.

The Ninth Center had been up and running for less than two months, but Xia Qing had already fired eight employees—and booted out their families along with them.

Her stance was crystal clear: the Ninth Center isn’t a hospital or a convalescent home. Anyone who doesn’t obey the rules or tries to slack off can get out.

Won’t leave? She’d just toss you out herself.

Getting tossed out means certain death? Then that’s your problem.

It was precisely Xia Qing’s tough, no-nonsense approach that made people both fear and respect her. In a year of disasters, being too soft only gets everyone killed. Only a decisive leader can keep people alive.

Xia Qing was the kind of leader people wanted to follow.

Right now, this tough leader was carefully taking notes, her short black curls streaked with two thin, red hairs.

Those were probably Red Squirrel hairs. A month of living in Section Seven, and Zheng Chen already knew Xia Qing’s territory only had one human—but plenty of animals. She kept chickens, red squirrels, and even a sick white-faced snub-nosed monkey.

Watching Xia Qing’s little head—marked by its two red hairs—bobbing in front of him, Zheng Chen twirled his fingers and looked away.

After going over the water test reports for 200 greenhouses and offering improvement advice for the substandard ones, Zhang Tao had finished her work. Zheng Chen drove Xia Qing’s car to take Zhang Tao back to Section Seven.

When he brought the car back, Zheng Chen found Xia Qing standing outside the warehouse, listening as Planting Director Mao Chuntai and Warehouse Director Zhong Tao reported a shortage of materials.

After confirming which fertilizers were needed and how much, Xia Qing got straight to work. “Contact Kuang Qingwei in Section Six, Sun Zhe in Territory Forty-Eight, and reach out to the Alliance. If their quality is good and the price is right, buy it immediately. Also, acquire straw from within our territories and start composting…”

Once she’d finished issuing instructions and walked briskly away, Zheng Chen finally passed along the message: “Our lord wants you to come over after you’ve finished up here.”

“Alright, I’ll swing by the territory first and head over right away.”

Watching Xia Qing drive off in the off-roader with her usual efficiency, Zheng Chen—who’d been planning to catch a ride—was left to walk back on his own.

Back at her territory, Xia Qing loaded the Monkey into a cage, popped Little Fei Mao into her pocket, and grabbed a basketful of vegetables before heading on foot from the Northern Barrier toward Section Seven. She liked walking partly for the cool air, and partly because it meant she could give Old Goat some fuel on the way back.

Noticing her idol didn’t look well, Xia Qing immediately offered up her basket. “Third Brother, I just got some Green Lantern lettuce seeds—supposedly called butter lettuce. Give it a try, it’s pretty good.”

Zhang San glanced at the fresh green lettuce and bright red tomatoes in the basket, and the irritation on his face seemed to visibly subside. “Alright.”

Since her idol didn’t mention what he wanted, Xia Qing simply reported business as usual. “Compared to the control field, the spinach grown in the fields with the Yi Stone fragments has a Yi Element content that’s 0.2 points higher. Take a look.”

Taking the report Xia Qing handed over, Zhang San’s frown eased up a bit more. “Did you keep clear records of the amount of Yi Stone fragments and the field size?”

Xia Qing answered immediately, “Yes, I made clear notes, even took pictures. Here’s my seedling record.”

Zhang San put down the test report, took Xia Qing’s phone, scrolled through her records, and his mood improved even more. “Well done. How’s the Devastationweed doing lately?”

So all along, her idol wanted the Devastationweed leaves! Xia Qing instantly relaxed. “All three offshoots from the spring division made it. Both mother plants are also growing well, but the Devastationweed seeds haven’t sprouted yet.”

Xia Qing’s Devastationweed was the only one to be successfully propagated by division since the disasters began—at least in all of Huaguo’s artificial cultivation.

Zhang San, looking at the clear photos and detailed records of the Devastationweed on Xia Qing’s new phone, was actually smiling kindly. “No rush, the weather’s too muggy for Devastationweed seeds to germinate now.”

“Understood.” Xia Qing asked proactively, “How many leaves do you need?”

Zhang San’s expression immediately soured again. “Four. To save someone not worth the effort.”

Needing four rare plant leaves to save some fool—no wonder her idol wasn’t happy. Xia Qing decided to cheer him up with a practical question. “Is he paying in credits?”

“Of course!”

“Third Brother, we’re short on leaves now…”

“No discount. He’s paying double the price, plus I want a set of precision equipment.” After saying that, Zhang San looked a lot more pleased.

That made Xia Qing happy too. “I’ll go back now and cut the leaves. Can you test this stupid monkey for me, and by the way, see if this little brain-evolved squirrel can soak in the recovery medicine?”

Zhang San just stared…

At dusk, Xia Qing was carrying the Monkey in a cage, Little Fei Mao in her pocket, and had the dosage of medicine Zhang San prepared—worth 30,000 credits—on her back. Just as she reached the northern barrier of Territory Four, she heard Old Goat and Flathead getting into a fight.

When she climbed up the slope in Section Three and went to peek from the west corner, Tang Huai, who’d been watching the show, rushed right over. “Xia Qing, you just missed the best part! Flathead learned Old Goat’s flying kick move! Where are you off to? What’s that you’re carrying? Let me have a look!”

Well, there wasn’t anything there she couldn’t show.

Xia Qing lifted up the cloth covering the cage a bit. “A sick monk-faced monkey. Don’t spread this around.”

“A monkey? Where’d you pick that up?”

Tang Huai bent down, saw the big white face of the monkey in the cage, and burst out laughing.

“Hahaha! Oh man—this little monkey’s expression is the spitting image of yours! Hah—”