Chapter 41: Discovering a Spy

Chapter 41: Chapter 41: Discovering a Spy

The micro-tiller was like a giant, multi-functional toy car, and the four twenty-somethings couldn’t keep their hands off it. After taking turns trying out every single attachment, they confirmed the machine was truly excellent, but also a real gas-guzzler.

For the soil conditions on her land, tilling a single acre with the two-share reversible plow used about three to four liters of fuel—far more than the sheep-drawn plow. Xiaqing happily decided to use sheep power for tilling in the future, save the micro-tiller for other large-scale farm work, and handle miscellaneous chores herself.

After seeing off Su Ming and the other two, who practically begged to stay and be her driver, Xiaqing drove her beloved micro-tiller. She used its dozer blade to clear a smooth path home before parking in front of the frame building in her east courtyard.

The micro-tiller was the most valuable machine Xiaqing now owned. To store it properly, she had converted the southwest room on the ground floor of the east courtyard’s frame building into a garage.

After two trips to haul the attachments back, Xiaqing opened the garage door, stacked them neatly at the very back, and then drove the micro-tiller in. She closed the garage door securely, took a few steps back, and admired her converted space with great satisfaction.

Xiaqing had used salvaged red bricks, stones, and steel bars from three nearby villages to patch up the building, which had been nothing more than a concrete frame. She’d turned it into a two-story warehouse complete with walls, windows, and doors. Because it was a hodgepodge of limited materials, her warehouse looked like it could give Haral’s Moving Castle a run for its money.

Of course, that was only from the outside. The interior of her warehouse was a far cry from Haral’s home. It had only been sprayed with Insect Repellent and filled with charcoal for moisture control. There were no fixtures whatsoever—just the bare, original materials.

Living in this castle would be stifling, but it was perfect for storing supplies.

The moment Xiaqing turned off the micro-tiller, the generator on the second basement level in the southwest of the village also shut down. The lights in the operating room, running on the ample power stored in the batteries, remained on for another eight hours before finally going out. By then, it was past midnight.

While Xiaqing was dreaming about driving the micro-tiller, Sheep Leader stood in front of the garage, head lowered, lost in thought.

At the crack of dawn the next day, Xiaqing took a stroll around her territory. She caught more than ten evolved grubs, crushed eight evolved chafer beetles and moths that tried to attack her, and dug two small mice out of the ground. After her walk and breakfast, Xiaqing sent Sheep Leader to patrol the territory, then ran to the garage and drove out the micro-tiller.

Today, she was going to build the roads from her home to the reservoir and the farmland.

’The micro-tiller is a gas-guzzler? No problem. I have two hundred liters of diesel.’

’Run out of diesel? No problem. I can always trade more supplies for fuel.’

Xiaqing cheerfully backed the micro-tiller out of the garage and parked it. As she got off, closed the garage door, and started sprinkling Insect Repellent, she heard the rapid clopping of Sheep Leader’s hooves.

’Oh no, Sheep Leader is heading for the machine!’

Xiaqing spun around, but she wasn’t faster than Sheep Leader. The creature had already climbed onto the micro-tiller, taken over the driver’s seat, and was narrowing its eyes in a posture that screamed, ’I’m not moving.’

Seeing that he wasn’t there to fight the micro-tiller, Xiaqing relaxed and asked amusedly, "So this was your plan all along? Lying on the hillside watching us test drive it yesterday, then staking out the garage all night instead of going home? Your hooves are cloven. You can’t even grip the steering wheel. How are you going to drive this thing?"

Sheep Leader ignored her, remaining firmly planted in the driver’s seat.

Xiaqing changed her tone, resorting to bribery with food. "Alright, Leader, stop messing around. Come on down, and I’ll go pick some Asparagus Chrysanthemum for you?"

"Maa."

Sheep Leader immediately hopped off the micro-tiller and stood before Xiaqing.

Xiaqing...

’Alright, so this glutton doesn’t want to take over the micro-tiller. He just wants to use it to get leverage over me.’

She had already had her fill of Asparagus Chrysanthemum, so she could afford to feed more to Sheep Leader. After spring, the nitrate and nitrite content in the sprouts would increase, making them less tasty.

There were now five types of edible vegetables in her territory—Asparagus Chrysanthemum, spinach leaves, Perilla, chives, and scallions. After ten years of eating rough rations, Xiaqing was starting to get picky.

Worried that evolved rodents might chew up the micro-tiller, Xiaqing drove the machine back into the garage. Only after taking Sheep Leader to pick some Asparagus Chrysanthemum did she return, drive the tiller back out, and start working on the road.

Hearing the sound of machinery from the Third Territory, Su Ming and the other two, who were passing by on patrol, were filled with envy. In the basement of the Deserted Village, Wei Chengdong chuckled. "Turn on the generator. Let’s charge the batteries some more."

It was 470 meters from Xiaqing’s small building to the stone bridge crossing the creek to the north. Xiaqing used the excavator bucket to level the path she had worn, then compacted the earth. The process was so therapeutic; she felt completely at ease.

But her contentment didn’t even last half an hour. Sheep Leader, having eaten his fill, returned. He raised his head and blocked the micro-tiller, his expression clearly saying, "If you don’t let me on this thing, we’re going to have a problem."

Xiaqing wasn’t angry to see him; in fact, she had been hoping to share the joy of driving with someone. Since she was all alone in her territory, sharing it with a sheep would have to do. So, Xiaqing turned off the micro-tiller and let Sheep Leader hop into the driver’s seat. Then, muttering to herself, she deftly dismantled the small metal toolbox for wrenches and pliers that was mounted on the track cover to the right of the seat. On the sturdy metal lid, strong enough to hold Sheep Leader’s weight, she installed a large wooden lounge chair and lined it with a cushion of hay.

Once the lounge chair was installed, without any prompting from Xiaqing, Sheep Leader moved over and claimed the more comfortable seat. Xiaqing chuckled, started the engine, and continued building the road. Sheep Leader lay in his exclusive seat, chewing his cud. Both human and sheep were very satisfied.

The people in the Second Territory were no longer interested in the faint sound of the micro-tiller, but someone in Territory No. 4 to the east was very interested indeed. They had actually climbed the tallest pine tree in Territory No. 4’s northern Buffer Forest to get a distant look at the situation in the Third Territory.

Spotting a machine about the size of a cat moving slowly about 1.5 kilometers away, Zhao Chong, who was in the tree, took out his binoculars and adjusted the focus. He first saw the micro-tiller’s excavator bucket. But as he panned the binoculars back slightly, he let out a cry of shock and fell straight out of the tree, which was over ten meters high. His scream carried all the way to the Third Territory.

’That’s not Zhao Ze’s voice,’ Xiaqing thought, holstering her gun and pulling out her walkie-talkie to contact Tan Junjie. "Captain Tan, this is Xiaqing from the Third Territory. Someone was just spying on my territory with binoculars from a large tree in Territory No. 4’s Buffer Forest. When I spotted him, he got spooked and fell out of the tree."

Tan Junjie immediately replied in a serious tone, "Received. We’ll investigate right away."

"Thank you for your trouble, Captain Tan." Xiaqing put away her walkie-talkie and went back to building the road.

Why use the walkie-talkie? Because anyone on the same channel could overhear the conversation, and Xiaqing wanted this incident to be public. Besides, satellite phone calls weren’t cheap, and Xiaqing saved money wherever she could.

After finishing the road from her home to the stone block bridge she had built herself, Xiaqing was starting on a new branch road to the farmland and reservoir when she received a return call from Tan Junjie. "We’ve apprehended Zhao Chong from Territory No. 4. He’ll be dealt with according to the Territory Law. How did you spot him spying?"

According to the Territory Law, if a Lord is caught spying on another territory, they are fined five hundred points, lose their discounted rate for material exchanges, and have their tax-exemption period reduced from five years to three. If an employee within a Lord’s territory is caught spying on another territory, in addition to the aforementioned penalties for the Lord, the employee is expelled from the territory, fined five hundred points—with any shortfall to be paid off through compulsory labor—and is permanently barred from applying for A Level and Level B positions within the Safe Zone.

In chaotic times, severe punishments were necessary. Five hundred points were equivalent to two years’ income for an ordinary person who didn’t dare venture outside the Safe Zone. In a Disaster Year when just getting enough to eat was a struggle, ordinary people had no savings at all. The compulsory labor projects for those who couldn’t pay the fine were repairing the protective walls or clearing the Evolution Forest—both of which were basically a death sentence for an ordinary person.

Xiaqing was very satisfied with Tan Junjie’s efficiency. She answered calmly, "I saw the reflection from his binocular lenses."