Chapter 921: Potato Harvest and the Helpers’ Rewards

“Little Fei Mao, time to get to work!”

Xia Qing pulled Little Fei Mao, Section Three’s first employee, out of her pocket and placed the tiny monkey among the 200 Green Lantern oil sunflower seeds Kuang Qingwei had delivered, letting it pick out the best of the batch.

Dropping into a pile of nuts, Little Fei Mao wiggled his fluffy tail with delight. He quickly dug out one sunflower seed and popped it into his mouth, then grabbed a second, then a third—he didn’t stop until his cheeks puffed out, and only then did he scurry back into Xia Qing’s pocket to stash away all the premium seeds.

Once the job was done Xia Qing rewarded him with the very oil sunflower seed he’d chosen and a Green Lantern chestnut.

Then Xia Qing soaked the selected top-quality oil sunflower seeds, grabbed her tools and set out to harvest the Yellow Lantern potatoes from the two terraced plots in Greenhouse One. Once the potatoes were up she’d need to fertilize, till, and replant with oil sunflowers.

She’d stayed up all night collecting mistletoe and originally planned to keep things light today, leaving the potato harvest for tomorrow.

But after talking with Yang Jin Xia Qing decided to get the potatoes out this morning. The Pure Spring in Death Sea’s Lanwu region hadn’t yet been overrun by the snow-white Super Evolution Fungus, but Yang Jin warned her fighting between ocean overlords and aerial predators near Gui City was escalating, and a bird wave could break out at any moment.

Last August’s bird wave still haunted Xia Qing. She put rest aside and notified everyone in the Lords’ Alliance to stay alert, then went straight to harvest.

This spring Xia Qing used her own store of low-devastation-element Yellow Lantern potatoes, along with some she’d traded for, to plant both terraces, and set another 600 potato chunks in Greenhouse Six.

Potatoes grow differently than other crops. You slice them along the eyes, coat the pieces with wood ash, let them air-dry for about two days until the cut surfaces toughen, then bury them. Every piece has one or two sprouting eyes, and 95% of them will produce a potato plant when planted.

So out of everything Xia Qing plants potatoes have the highest sprouting rate—yet that doesn’t change the fact that potatoes are the lowest-quality crop on her land.

She put 400 potato chunks in the terraces and 600 in Greenhouse Six, and from those emerged a total of 943 potato plants.

But Greenhouse Six wasn’t shielded by Yi Stone during the second Devastation Rain, so the Yellow Lantern potato shoots there suffered. The average Devastation Evolution rate was 14.7%, with about a 5% chance of aggressive transformation—the notorious Dancing Potato Vine. Another 9% didn’t evolve but still slowly built up Devastation Element as they grew, surpassing 15‰ and becoming inedible Red Lantern produce. Counting other losses too, of the 564 sprouts in Greenhouse Six only 385 survived.

Meanwhile the terraces, protected by Yi Stone, had better soil and water, so 360 potato plants made it through.

Statistically there should’ve been six or seven Green Lantern potatoes suitable for selective breeding this year. Yet shockingly, out of 749 plants not a single one qualified!

At planting, Greenhouse Six potatoes had 9–10‰ Devastation Element, but now most have dropped in quality to 13‰, teetering on Red Lantern territory.

The terrace potatoes turned out a bit better, at around 8‰. After four painstaking months only 22 plants achieved 5.6–6.5‰, making the cut as average optimized seed potatoes. The rest ranged from 6.5 to 8.5‰.

That’s why Xia Qing always says potatoes are her territory’s worst-performing crop.

But potatoes double as both a side and a staple, and spicy shredded potatoes is a foolproof dish that takes all of a minute or two to cook up. No way is Xia Qing giving up on potatoes.

Next spring she’ll take slices from these ordinary optimized potatoes and plant them again, aiming to raise the quality through continued selection.

The quality isn’t great, but potatoes have one clear advantage: their yields are unbeatable on Xia Qing’s land.

She loosened the soil at the roots with her shovel, then yanked up a potato vine—like opening a mystery box, she started counting the potatoes.

Five were bigger than her fist, six medium-sized, and a few more about the size of a pigeon egg or even smaller.

Xia Qing’s eyes sparkled. She spun around to show her friends. “Old Goat, Er, look at this—our potatoes really took off this year!”

Her efforts really paid off, with this harvest topping last spring’s by a good margin.

“Baa~~~”

Old Goat stared at her with those big cartoonish eyes, replying in a squeaky voice that didn’t suit his burly frame at all.

“Woof~”

Wolfdog Er, who never used to bark much, had picked up the habit from Old Goat and answered in a surprisingly affectionate tone.

“Tasty!” Xia Qing picked the potatoes and gently set them in the basket, then handed the potato vines to Old Goat. “We could only grow such good potatoes because of all your hard work, Old Goat. Tilling the soil, hauling water, tending the fields—you’ve really earned your reward today. Go ahead and enjoy your victory feast, but not too much. Remember the vines have a bit of toxin.”

The pasture grass in his own private shed was much better quality than these vines, but Old Goat just wanted something fresh and different, so he dug in happily.

Xia Qing ruffled Er’s head and pulled a pack of freeze-dried jerky from her pocket. “Er, we wouldn’t have a harvest without you patrolling every day, keeping the insect net safe from bugs. You’ve worked hard too, so here—have some freeze-dried beef.”

Er’s tail wagged once and he swallowed all the jerky in one bite, so Xia Qing gave him a tough piece of wind-dried beef as a chew while she kept working.

“Baa~~~” After finishing the tender leaves on the first vine, Old Goat bleated for a second helping.

Er finished his meat then padded into the field, ready to help with the harvest by carrying vines. Xia Qing patted his head and handed him a vine. “Careful, the potatoes are covered in dirt. Help me carry the vines out, okay?”

Er immediately grabbed the vine Xia Qing handed over, carried it out, and laid it down in front of Old Goat.

From the 22 average optimized plants Xia Qing harvested 230 potatoes of all shapes and sizes. These would go home, dry for a couple days under the shade, and then be tucked away in the basement storage to save as seeds.

Then Xia Qing set to work harvesting the regular-quality potatoes from the terraces.

Juggling digging and picking, Xia Qing couldn’t move very fast.

Er, waiting nearby for more vines, watched her work for a while before leaving the territory. A moment later her phone pinged—Er had officially checked out of the territory.

Xia Qing never limited her companions’ freedom. The wolfdog was free to come and go, so she pocketed her phone and kept busy.

But soon Er returned—this time not alone, but with a filthy Monkey clinging to his back as he trotted into Greenhouse One on the high slope.