Chapter 105: Digging a Fish Pond

Chapter 105: Chapter 105: Digging a Fish Pond

"Chinese cabbage seeds, thank you, Brother San." Xiaqing wanted both types, but she obediently followed Zhang San’s instructions and chose only one. She picked the cabbage seeds because, compared to loofah, Chinese cabbage had more culinary uses and was easier to store.

"Okay," Zhang San agreed cheerfully. "Get a set of ingredients for fish with pickled greens ready for me, too."

Xiaqing unhesitatingly agreed to her idol’s additional request: fish and sour bamboo shoots, accompanied by a small piece of ginger, two small chili peppers, and four small cloves of Green Light Garlic.

A few days ago, Xiaqing had harvested all forty-four garlic plants in her territory, yielding sixteen heads of Green Light Garlic and twenty-eight heads of Yellow Light Garlic. She broke apart the heads, eating the small cloves and saving the large ones for planting.

When preparing ingredients for her idol, she naturally had to give him the best. Zhang San was both generous and petty. If you gave him something good, he would never shortchange you. But if you gave him something subpar and ruined his mood, Xiaqing might just end up on his blacklist, keeping the Second Territory company.

In exchange for these supplies, Xiaqing received one hundred Green Light Cabbage seeds. She was delighted. ’My idol, Zhang San, really is generous.’

After storing the cabbage seeds, Xiaqing stewed a pot of fish with sour bamboo shoots, prepared a salad with two Green Light tomatoes, and ate everything with a side of fragrant rice. Being able to not just eat her fill but eat well during the Natural Disasters was a source of immense satisfaction.

The next day, after her patrol, Xiaqing took a basket and went to pick vegetables for Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui. Eggplants, string beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers—a little of each was enough to fill it.

Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui arrived on time, hauling eight hundred pounds of earthworm manure and a thousand pounds of crab shell fertilizer. They unloaded it at the edge of Territory No. 3, then took the heavy basket of vegetables from Xiaqing. Zhong Tao asked enthusiastically, "All this fertilizer is pretty heavy. Are you sure you don’t need us to help you move it?"

Xiaqing shook her head. "I’ll use my micro-tiller with the cart attachment. I can haul it back in one trip. These are all the vegetables I could pick from the garden, and they’re all pretty misshapen. Brother Tao, Brother Kui, you’ll have to make do."

Only after she started gardening did Xiaqing realize that not all cucumbers grow straight—some were curved, coiled, or tapered. Tomatoes weren’t always round and smooth, either. Some were oval, misshapen, or grew in clusters of two or three, and they would even split open when the weather was bad. In short, how the vegetables decided to grow seemed to depend on their mood and the weather.

Zhong Tao was all smiles. "What are you talking about? They taste the same no matter what they look like. Of all the territories in our North District, you’re the most willing to invest in your farm, and your vegetables are the best. The produce from other places can’t even compare to yours."

Having dealt with him for several months, Xiaqing knew by now that you could only trust about twenty percent of what came out of Zhong Tao’s mouth. ’How could my vegetables possibly be the best? Without even looking far, the produce from Qi Fu’s and Zhang San’s territories is definitely better than mine.’

’Qi Fu has farming experience and is willing to invest; I learned many of my cultivation methods from him. And when I went to pick out the cat, I got a glimpse of Zhang San’s Territory Land No. 7 from a distance. I saw at least ten neat, standardized greenhouses. Knowing how picky Zhang San is, who knows what incredible things he’s growing in there.’

Zheng Kui told Xiaqing, "The agricultural trade fair is scheduled for mid-July. It’ll be held in the Safe Zone’s trading hall, and they should start promoting it over the broadcast soon. Lords will be able to trade vegetables and grains with each other, and also buy seeds from the Safe Zone."

Xiaqing’s interest was immediately piqued. "Brother Kui, do you know what kinds of seeds the Safe Zone will be offering?"

Zheng Kui answered, "I’ve only heard about rice, corn, sunflower seeds, and a few kinds of vegetables."

Zhong Tao lowered his voice. "There will definitely be more than that. The potato distribution caused a major security incident, and our Hui San Base was publicly reprimanded by the Hui City Main Base. Mayor Tang wants to use this event to save a little face."

To save face with a trade fair, the event had to be a big one. To entice the Lords who had already left the Safe Zone to return and participate, they would have to offer goods that were truly appealing. Xiaqing started to feel a flicker of anticipation for Hui San Base’s first agricultural trade fair.

After seeing Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui off, Xiaqing didn’t bother using the micro-tiller to move the fertilizer. She first carried the bags just inside her territory’s Wild Grass Wall, then called over Sheep Leader. Between the two of them, human and sheep, they hauled all eighteen hundred pounds of organic fertilizer home in two trips. If not for there being too many bags for them to hold, she and Sheep Leader could have carried that much weight in a single go.

"Leader, you and I were practically born for farming." Xiaqing unloaded the six bags of fertilizer from Sheep Leader’s back and reached up to remove its panniers, but the sheep bleated unhappily and shifted away.

"Did it get snagged in your wool again?" Xiaqing checked and saw that the strap connecting the two panniers she had made for Sheep Leader had, indeed, gotten tangled in its fleece.

Xiaqing carefully removed the panniers and consulted with Sheep Leader. "How about I give your wool a little trim?"

Sheep Leader didn’t know what a "trim" was, but when Xiaqing brandished a long pair of shears and gestured near its body, it immediately tensed its muscles, narrowed its eyes, and glared at her unhappily.

"I’m not going to slaughter you for meat, I’m just shearing your wool. You’ll feel much more comfortable, and you’ll look even more handsome! When your wolf friend comes to visit again, they’ll be stunned by your good looks." Xiaqing coaxed it with a few pieces of dried bamboo shoots as she began to shear the wool.

Xiaqing only gave Sheep Leader a simple trim on its back and neck, as the wool on its belly was too short to need it. But because Sheep Leader was so large and its fleece so thick and long, she still sheared off more than three pounds of wool.

’That’s enough to make a decent-sized wool cushion,’ Xiaqing thought, happily gathering the fleece. She praised the patchily-shorn sheep, practically with her eyes closed. "Now that your wool is trimmed, you’re not just cooler and lighter, you’ve also gotten more handsome, Leader. More handsome than Yang Jin of the Green Dragon Team! Now, from any angle, you’re the one and only leader. Let’s go! Time for a soak in the new bathtub I made for you!"

Its fleece now patchy and uneven, Sheep Leader held its head high and puffed out its chest as it soaked in the medicinal bath, munching on Green Light pasture grass. It was so comfortable it was on the verge of sighing.

After its bath, Sheep Leader sat in its dedicated passenger seat on the micro-tiller. The breeze felt wonderfully cool and comfortable on its shorn fleece. Extremely satisfied, it rubbed its head against Xiaqing.

Xiaqing, who was driving, was nearly knocked into the machine’s tracks by the forceful nuzzle. She chuckled and ruffled Leader’s head, then drove the micro-tiller to a spot not far from the fishpond and began operating the excavator attachment to dig a new one.

Even though she had very few Green Light fish, she decided to make the new pond two mu in size. She had plenty of land; there was no need to cramp her precious fish.

While Xiaqing worked with gusto in her territory, Tang Huai, in the Second Territory, swatted a few evolved mosquitoes buzzing around him. Frowning, he complained, "She just hauled back over a thousand pounds of fertilizer and she’s already started tilling. Can’t she take a damn break?!"

Zhou Xun, who was carrying an insect-collecting jar, had his eyes light up with a "brilliant" idea. "Let’s wait until she’s asleep tonight, then go sneak into her fields and steal her vegetables. All her hard work will be for nothing!"

Tang Huai shot Zhou Xun a glare. "Are the two Evolved People with enhanced smell on that madman’s team just for show? If you want to go, go by yourself. Don’t you dare drag me into it."

Seeing Tang Huai get up and leave, Zhou Xun hurriedly asked, "Boss, where are you going?"

"To Territory No. 12 to dig for cicada nymphs."

Seeing his boss walk off so nonchalantly, Zhou Xun asked in a low voice, "Are we not keeping an eye on Territory No. 1 and Territory No. 3 anymore?"

"Of course we are," Tang Huai said without breaking stride. "It’s too noisy here, so my ability is useless. You stay and continue surveillance. Report to my brother immediately if anything happens."

Zhou Xun, the man with Visual Evolution...

It took Xiaqing three days to finish digging the new fishpond. This time, she drew on Qi Fu’s experience, digging a circular pit in the center of the pond that was two meters in diameter and over two meters deeper than the surrounding pond bed. She then lined the walls of the pit with broken bricks.

The purpose of this pit was to make it easier to collect pond mud.

Pond mud is also an excellent organic fertilizer. When the water in the pond was drained or had evaporated, the fish would gather in this pit, making them convenient to catch and the mud easy to collect.

Once the new pond was ready, Xiaqing diverted the water from the first pond into it. In the process, she used a fine-mesh net and managed to filter out five Yellow Light Fish and two Green Light fish.

Xiaqing hadn’t expected to find any more Green Light fish. Including the one she’d caught previously, she now had a total of three: one male and two females. She immediately decided to raise the Green Light fish in one pond and the Yellow Light fish in the other.

’As for Red Light fish?’

’She didn’t even have a cat. What the hell would she raise Red Light fish for?’