Chapter 149: Lord No. 8’s Thank-You Gift

Chapter 149: Chapter 149: Lord No. 8’s Thank-You Gift

’Lord No. 8?’

Xiaqing was curious how Xin Yu’s pocket watch had ended up in a little squirrel’s tree hollow, treasured as if it were the most precious thing in the world.

’Did the little squirrel steal it, or just find it somewhere?’

’Where could it have stolen it? Where could it have found it?’

The little squirrel couldn’t talk, and Xin Yu was clearly not one for socializing. Xiaqing knew better than to pry and stuck to the crucial question. "Did she say how she’d get it back?"

Chang Li replied, "She said she’ll contact you through the patrol team."

Aside from No. 7 Territory, which had its own "delivery person," all supply exchanges between the other Lords were handled by the patrol team.

Xin Yu moved quickly.

Half an hour later, Xiaqing got a call from Tan Junjie. When she brought the pocket watch to the Northern Isolation Zone, Tan Junjie handed her a small basket woven from willow branches. "This is a thank you gift from Lord No. 8: two pounds of Green Light Garlic."

Based on current exchange rates, a broken pocket watch wasn’t worth nearly this much. ’This watch must be very important to Lord No. 8,’ Xiaqing thought.

Xiaqing carefully recalled her one and only meeting with Xin Yu. The shape of the eyes behind her mask had been very similar to the ones in the photograph.

’Xin Yu must be the little girl from the photo.’

Tan Junjie asked about her losses from the hailstorm, and Xiaqing reported honestly, "Three of my solar panels were cracked, the pumpkins got smashed, and all the wild fruit is gone. The other crops weren’t too badly damaged."

As the patrol team walked away, Xiaqing overheard Su Ming muttering to Yuan Rui, "The Third and Tenth Territories made out the best. No injuries, and not much crop damage."

The Tenth Territory was just Shi Du and his family of three. Xiaqing had heard him mention that they cultivated over a dozen mu of land. For a family of three to protect that much land during a sudden squall of wind and hail, they must have a quick way of covering their greenhouses with rainproof cloth.

This wasn’t something to ask about on the Lord channel. Besides, Shi Du didn’t have a satellite phone, so she couldn’t call him.

Xiaqing had been deliberately avoiding Shi Du for the past two months, so she hadn’t gone on any missions with him. Aside from the produce exchange and that time they’d all gathered to watch the situation at No. 9 Territory, they hadn’t been in contact. She decided that the next time Shi Du accepted a mission to clear Mountain No. 49, she would go too. It would be a good opportunity to ask if he had any special techniques.

If he did, Xiaqing was willing to trade points for the knowledge.

As the sun rose, moisture from the ground began to evaporate, and the temperature started to climb.

Xiaqing had no choice but to remove the rainproof cloths. Otherwise, the temperature inside the greenhouses would get too high, which would be bad for the seedlings.

Taking down the rainproof cloths required help from her companion. Xiaqing went to the High Slope and called down Sheep Leader, who was busy munching on Green Light toon leaves knocked down by the hail. The two of them, one person and one sheep, worked for over an hour to get the cloths removed and folded.

Then, Xiaqing carefully straightened the corn seedlings that had been bent by the wind before going to check on her hail-damaged Yellow Light Pumpkins.

The pumpkin leaves were shredded, and the few small pumpkins that had just started to grow were a lost cause. But pumpkin vines have a tenacious Life Force; they would probably recover in a few days, sprouting new shoots, new flowers, and new fruit.

The bigger problem was the potatoes.

The mature potato plants hadn’t been directly hit by the hail, but the wind had knocked them all over. Xiaqing didn’t need to ask Qi Fu or Shi Zhong to know the potatoes had to be harvested as soon as possible.

She got right to it.

Xiaqing grabbed a shovel and a bamboo basket and started digging. She loved crops that grew underground, where you never knew how big the harvest would be until you dug them up. It was as fun as a treasure hunt.

Evolved potatoes were terrifying when they turned malignant, but when they didn’t, they were incredibly prolific. From fifty-six Yellow Light Potato plants, she harvested three full baskets of all sizes. Xiaqing and Sheep Leader hauled the potatoes home to weigh them. Good grief, a whopping four hundred and seventy pounds!

’How am I supposed to store all these potatoes?’ The cave wasn’t ready yet. Xiaqing’s first instinct was to ask Qi Fu for advice.

But Qi Fu still hadn’t woken up. Every so often, Shi Zhong, Kuang Qingwei, or Zhao Ze would ask about him in the Lord group chat, but there was never a reply from No. 5 Territory.

The atmosphere wasn’t right for asking about how to store grain and potatoes.

Xiaqing flipped through her notes and found an entry from March, back when she planted the potatoes. It said that to get them to sprout, you had to leave them in the sun.

Now that she’d harvested them, she didn’t want them to sprout, so she definitely couldn’t leave them in the sun. Xiaqing carefully took the potatoes out of the baskets and laid them out in a shady spot, intending to at least let the dirt on them dry first.

Then, Xiaqing carefully took the "Thank you gift" from Lord No. 8 out of the small basket, taking care not to get scratched. After the great evolution on Blue Star, even a tiny cut could lead to a fatal bacterial infection.

After taking out the garlic, Xiaqing discovered a small note in the basket. On it were five words, written in neat script:

Xiaqing, thank you. Xin Yu.

Xin Yu’s basket-weaving skills weren’t as good as Xiaqing’s, but her handwriting was much better.

After putting the note away, Xiaqing stored the twenty heads of Green Light Garlic with the sixteen she had harvested herself.

She still had over a dozen heads of Yellow Light Garlic to eat. She would plant these Green Light Garlic in October. If no world-ending disaster struck next year, she would be basically self-sufficient when it came to garlic.

To be completely self-sufficient in Green Light Garlic, she’d need even more cloves for planting. She wondered if anyone else would put Green Light Garlic up for trade in the next two months.

A little after four in the afternoon, the first thing Qi Fu did upon waking up wasn’t to report that he was okay in the Lord group chat, but to call Xiaqing and thank her.

"My wife told me... it was you and Doctor Chang from No. 1 Territory who saved my life." Qi Fu’s voice was weak, but the fact he was conscious at all after an Evolutionary Bacteria infection in his head meant he was incredibly lucky. "I won’t waste words on thanks. When Brother San gets back, I’ll trade for some hemostatic medicine and send it over. In a little while, my wife will bring you two Green Light Spring Fish and two hundred Green Light Onion seeds. The fish aren’t very big, so you can raise them for a while before eating them. The onion seeds can be planted right away. And when I harvest my Green Light Ginger in October, I’ll send half your way."

Green Light Spring Fish and Green Light Ginger... these were items Qi Fu had never mentioned on the Lord channel. This was a true show of his sincerity. He was grateful that at a moment of life and death, Xiaqing had sent the life-saving medicine without demanding anything in return.

Xiaqing didn’t have Green Light Onion seeds or Green Light Ginger, so she couldn’t bring herself to refuse those. But she didn’t want the Green Light Spring Fish. "I don’t have Green Light versions of onions or ginger, so I won’t be formal with you, Brother Qi. But please don’t have your wife bring the fish. You keep them for yourself. You need to focus on your recovery."

"I have more," Qi Fu insisted. Once he made an offer, he wouldn’t take it back. "She’s already on her way. She’s waiting for you at the North Isolation Zone of the Third Territory."

When Xiaqing reached the Northern Isolation Zone, Yuan Yan was already there. A man was with her, holding a bag and waiting a short distance away. Xiaqing guessed he was holding the thank you gift for Chang Li.

Seeing Xiaqing, Yuan Yan hurried over to meet her, apologizing first. "I have a head injury too, so I’ll keep my Protective Mask on."

With that, Yuan Yan handed Xiaqing a ceramic pot containing the fish. "They’re a little on the small side, only really good for making soup. In a couple of months, I’ll bring you some bigger ones."

"Sounds good. If I get a craving for fish, I’ll trade with you then," Xiaqing said, readily accepting the pot. After asking about Qi Fu’s condition, she handed over a bag she was carrying. "I just harvested my potatoes. These few have wormholes so they won’t keep long. There are also some Green Light Dates inside that were knocked down by the hail. They still taste pretty good when cooked. I hope you don’t mind."

Yuan Yan and her husband genuinely wanted to befriend Xiaqing, so she accepted the bag without ceremony. "The dates would’ve been ripe in another month. It’s such a shame they were knocked down now."

"As long as they’re edible, it’s not a shame," Xiaqing replied, and they both laughed.

After seeing Yuan Yan off, Xiaqing noticed that the two Green Light fish she’d brought were a male and a female. She had clearly chosen them on purpose.

Xiaqing had been eating plenty of meat lately, so she wasn’t craving fish. She released both of them into her Green Light fish pond. She then crouched by the water’s edge for a while, but couldn’t spot any fry swimming about.

To make sure the pond contained only Green Light fish, Xiaqing had already replaced the isolation net on Sheep Leader’s water-collecting cart with a finer mesh one. This guaranteed that no small fry could get in from the river, so it was normal that she couldn’t see any yet.

She wasn’t worried. Not a single fish in the pond had been killed by the hail, so none had floated to the surface. With five Green Light fish in the pond now—two males and three females—they were bound to lay eggs sooner or later.

When Yuan Yan returned to her territory, she first disinfected herself and everything she’d brought back before going inside to show her husband what Xiaqing and Chang Li had given them.

Chang Li had given them a blister pack of anti-inflammatory and pain-relief pills. As for Xiaqing’s gift, although she’d claimed the potatoes were worm-eaten, only three of the eight large potatoes actually had any bites. The ten Green Light Dates were nearly the size of walnuts and looked delicious just by looking at them.

Looking at the bag of goods, Qi Fu and his wife felt even more resolved to foster a good relationship with No. 1 Territory and the Third Territory.

"I’ll make you fish soup tonight. Let’s cook these dates and try them, too."

To find Green Light fish to send to the two territories, Yuan Yan had netted a large haul from her fish pond earlier that day. She kept a few large Yellow Light Fish for her husband and the injured workers in their territory, but released all the rest.

A smile appeared on Qi Fu’s pale face. "Let’s eat the cooked dates, and we’ll plant the pits to see if they sprout."

"Ten pits... if we’re lucky, we might get four or five trees out of them. In three years, we’ll be eating our own Green Light Dates."

After she spoke, the husband and wife looked at each other, their eyes welling up with tears.

They had suffered through this Natural Disaster, and though they were both injured, they had survived. It was truly a blessing.