Chapter 99: Picking a Kitten

Chapter 99: Chapter 99: Picking a Kitten

When Xiaqing left the Safe Zone for her territory in mid-February, she had received six pounds of mung beans from the mission hall. Due to a low germination rate, Harmful Rain, and other losses, she now had 4,250 edible mung bean plants left. The vast majority were Yellow Light, with only twenty-seven being Green Light.

The first batch of mung bean pods had finally ripened. It was time to enjoy the fruits of her labor. It wasn’t just Zhang San who wanted to eat sweet mung bean paste; Xiaqing did too.

Xiaqing grabbed a large handful of Yellow Light mung beans and started to cook them. Once the soup changed color, she first poured out half for Sheep Leader to let it cool. Then, she added rock sugar to the pot, turned the heat down to low, and stirred constantly with a spoon until the beans cooked down into a paste.

After getting her own territory, Xiaqing’s quality of life had improved significantly compared to her time in the Safe Zone. After gaining a private training ground of over sixteen hundred acres, her life had leveled up once again.

Although she would get injured to some extent every time she went to the training ground, and her body was never without bruises, she always came out with hunted goods.

She kept the edible prey and traded the inedible parts with Zhong Tao or the Green Dragon Team for supplies to improve her life.

The rock sugar, clay pot, and new smokeless stove were all things Xiaqing had recently acquired by trading her hunted goods.

Next month, her quality of life would improve yet again. Because next month, she would be able to eat flour ground from the wheat she grew herself!

"Leader, come taste the fruits of our labor." Once the sweet mung bean paste and mung bean soup had cooled, Xiaqing called Sheep Leader over to drink his soup.

BAA~~

When it came to food, Sheep Leader was always enthusiastic, responding with a high-pitched bleat as it ran over.

The mung bean soup was quite tasty, and Sheep Leader loved it. The sweet mung bean paste was divinely sweet, and Xiaqing adored it.

While savoring the fruits of their labor, Xiaqing thanked Sheep Leader. "This is from the very same mung bean plants you water every day on the water wheel, Leader. Thank you. Because of you, I get to eat this delicious sweet mung bean paste."

Drinking its soup, Sheep Leader clearly enjoyed the praise, its eyes narrowing into happy slits.

’Food this delicious should be eaten often.’

According to Li Si’s Guide, evolved mung beans had improved resistance to cold and heat. They could grow normally in temperatures between 10 and 35 degrees Celsius, with a growth cycle of about 95 days. The temperature at Hui San Base wouldn’t drop below 10 degrees until the end of October, which meant she could definitely plant another crop.

She had over three hundred acres of arable land, and growing mung beans wasn’t difficult. She could plant as many as she wanted.

Xiaqing had counted carefully. Each mung bean plant in her field now had three to nine pod-bearing stalks. Each stalk had one to five pods, and each pod contained six to fourteen beans. This was the result of following the instructions from the Planting Guide, the radio broadcasts, and Qi Fu.

Li Si’s Guide stated that if her cultivation techniques were followed, each evolved mung bean plant could produce at least thirty pods, and each pod would contain at least ten beans.

Even if it was impossible to perfectly replicate the cultivation and management techniques required by the Guide, Xiaqing was confident she could manage most of them. An increased yield for the second crop of mung beans was a sure thing.

For Xiaqing, the temptation was immense.

If she planted all the beans from her twenty-seven Green Light plants in the terraced fields on the hillside, in another three months she would not only have all the sweet mung bean paste she could want, but she could also supply some to her idol.

’As for the Yellow Light mung beans, planting another standard greenhouse plot would be enough. The fields shouldn’t be left empty, it’s true, but I can’t chain myself to them just for the sake of keeping them occupied. Improving my abilities through training is more important than growing more crops. If I’m not strong enough to protect my territory, then all the food I grow will just be for someone else, whether human or animal.’

After finishing her sweet mung bean paste, Xiaqing went to select a field for the next crop of mung beans.

The Guide advised against planting in the same field from which the mung beans had just been harvested. This practice, known as continuous cropping, increases a plant’s risk of fungal diseases and lowers yields, so she needed to pick a new plot of land.

Mung beans required higher ground with sandy soil and a topsoil depth of at least thirty centimeters.

Xiaqing was no longer a farming novice and knew that the soil in her territory was mostly sandy loam, with some sandy soil as well. Sandy loam was quite fertile, which was why her crops had all grown so well.

Xiaqing selected an empty plot south of the reservoir, not far from her sweet potato and potato fields. Concentrating the crops would make them easier to tend to, irrigate, and protect from pests.

Having selected the plot, Xiaqing immediately began weeding and leveling the ground.

Only after she started farming did Xiaqing truly appreciate how vigorous the Life Force of weeds was. Their seeds had high yields and survival rates, and they didn’t rely on humans for sowing. They used wind, water, or animals to scatter their seeds everywhere. All they needed was a bit of soil and a drop of water to take root and sprout.

After the second Harmful Rain, she had cleared this area, tilled the soil, and even scorched the earth with fire to destroy any remaining roots and seeds. But in just half a month, a new layer of young weeds had already sprouted.

Xiaqing didn’t have time to test the weeds for their Harmful Element content. She pulled them all up, set them aside to dry, and then burned them into plant ash for fertilizer.

After reading Li Si’s Guide, Xiaqing understood that of all the elements crops needed to grow, plant ash was richest in potassium, followed by phosphorus and calcium. The exact composition of the ash varied depending on the type of plants that were burned.

To grow evolved mung beans, one could use composted animal manure, plant ash, and soot-rich earth from a stove-bed. The total amount of fertilizer required for a single mu of land was a staggering two thousand pounds!

The only fertilizers Xiaqing currently had available were plant ash, earthworm castings, and crab shell fertilizer. Even combined, all three didn’t amount to two thousand pounds.

Only after starting to farm did Xiaqing truly understand the importance of fertilizer. She was trying every method she could think of to produce her own organic compost.

Sheep Leader’s dung was fermented into manure for the Green Light plants. Weeds were dried and burned into plant ash. Inside the greenhouse, pest-egg-free weeds were mixed with starter cultures to ferment into leaf mold compost.

Xiaqing deeply regretted not trading with Li Si for more bags of culture starter before Territory No. 9’s assistant, Little Liu, became active. Ever since the shrewd Little Liu took over, prices for trading with Territory No. 9 had gone up severalfold.

It had been over ten days since she top-dressed the cotton with crab shell fertilizer. Although there was no obvious change, the plants hadn’t withered or shown signs of fertilizer burn. So, Xiaqing placed another order with Zhong Tao for two thousand pounds.

She had picked the Evolutionary White-haired Chicken Shit Vine nearly bare, so for this trade, Xiaqing was using her soon-to-be-ripe Yellow Light Mung Beans. In addition to the crab shell fertilizer, Xiaqing also struck a third deal with Sun Zhe for earthworm castings to sow her corn, rice, and various vegetables.

By July, she would be able to bring home her new kitten and chicks, adding another source of usable, fermentable organic manure.

’Wait, no,’ she realized. ’A free-range Evolution Cat buries its waste. I won’t be able to collect it for fertilizer.’

Xiaqing pulled out her phone’s notepad and, after a careful count, realized the kittens were already nineteen days old. She would be able to bring hers home soon.

’What does an evolved kitten that’s just over two weeks old even look like?’ Xiaqing was itching with curiosity and desperately wanted to ask her idol for a photo of the kittens.

All Xiaqing knew so far was that Zhang San’s Evolution Cat had given birth to two kittens. She had no idea about their breed, coloring, or even their gender.

Zhang San really was a model idol, perfectly in tune with his fans’ thoughts and worries.

Just as Xiaqing finished deep-tilling and fine-raking the new mung bean field and setting up the pest-control netting, Zhang San reached out to her. He told her and Hu Zifeng to come to the Northern Isolation Zone of Territory Land No. 7 at ten o’clock the next morning to pick out their kittens.

Xiaqing was so excited by the news that she barely slept a wink all night. Her dreams were filled with picking out a kitten, chasing it, being scratched by it, and being bitten by it.

It was a classic, dramatic chase: the kitten fled, she pursued, and it had no hope of escape.

At half-past nine the next morning, Xiaqing took the dried fish she had prepared the day before and met up with an equally excited Hu Zifeng at the North Isolation Zone of No.3 Territory. Together, they hurried toward Territory Land No. 7.