Chapter 389: Goodwill

It was bad enough that the Tenth Territory was neighbors with the ticking time bomb that was No. 9 Territory. To think their eastern neighbor would turn out to be someone like that!

Shi Zhong sighed. “Thankfully, our territory is big enough. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. We need to get the eastern wall enclosed as soon as possible.”

Xiaqing comforted Shi Zhong, “He’s lost his Evolutionary Ability now, and he’s injured. His combat power is very low; he can’t beat Shi Du. But you should still get that eastern wall up as soon as you can, Uncle Shi. After losing his Evolutionary Ability, Yan Meng’s body will be weak, and there’s a good chance he’ll lose control during the Harmful Rain.”

“Xiaqing’s right,” Kuang Qingwei added. “We’ll chop down trees quickly tomorrow. We have to beat everyone else to it and get enough thorn wood for the wall.”

Everyone agreed.

Xiaqing continued, “There’s one more thing I gathered you all here for today. On the gentle slope by the riverbed, about fifty meters south of the Thorny Wood Forest on Mountain No. 50, there’s some highly viscous yellow clay. It would be perfect for building greenhouses.”

“Really?” The usually composed Qi Fu jumped to his feet upon hearing the news.

“No wonder you told me to rent the vehicles for a few extra days, sis! It was for hauling clay!” Kuang Qingwei was both excited and nervous. “Do you think Dead Renjie and his group are looking for clay too?”

Shi Zhong started cursing his son. “That brat Shi Du is completely useless! He’s been there so many times and never noticed the yellow clay.”

Mrs. Zhao asked, “Qing, is there a lot of clay over there? Will it be enough for us?”

“It should be enough. That river slope is quite long, but only a fifty-meter stretch can be excavated with construction vehicles. I originally planned to wait until we finished chopping down the trees and then use the logging trucks to haul the clay back. But now that things have changed, we can’t wait anymore.”

Xiaqing paused for a few seconds before continuing, “We should start tomorrow and get all the clay back within two days. First, everyone report how many greenhouses you plan to build. Then, Brother Qi and Brother Shi will go see Yue Haiying. Auntie, Brother Qing, the three of us will calculate how many vehicles we’ll need.”

As it happened, every territory was planning to build two standard greenhouses this year.

After Qi Fu and Shi Zhong left, Kuang Qingwei had already calculated the amount of clay needed. “Each standard greenhouse is fifty meters long, six meters wide, with walls one meter thick and 3.5 meters high. The total amount of clay needed is 2,170 cubic meters.”

‘Over two thousand cubic meters of clay…’

Kuang Qingwei’s face was etched with worry. “Dump trucks are especially hard to rent right now. I called this afternoon trying to rent two more, but they said there really aren’t any available, no matter the price. We’d have to wait until the Harmful Snow at least. How about this? I can take some people and start hauling clay back with your micro-tiller?”

The micro-tiller’s bucket was tiny. Relying on it to haul all that clay would take forever.

Kuang Qingwei couldn’t rent any vehicles. Xiaqing hadn’t expected that he would fail too. She ran through a list of people she knew in her head and quickly found a target. “The construction in No. 8 Territory isn’t finished yet, so they must have construction vehicles. I’ll contact Xin Yu.”

The only reason Xiaqing knew that No. 8 Territory was still under construction was thanks to that chatty Reunion construction team leader, Lu Yuhui.

Lu Yuhui had mentioned to Xiaqing that after finishing the wall for the Third Territory, she would be working in No. 8 Territory and hoped to finish before the Harmful Snow. The Harmful Snow of the tenth year of the Natural Disaster was still at least half a month away.

Xiaqing successfully got through to Xin Yu, then contacted Zhou Zhaoping, the assistant at No. 8 Territory, and managed to rent the vehicles.

She had just hung up with Zhou Zhaoping when Qi Fu called. After listening, Xiaqing nodded. “Let him come over.”

Neither Kuang Qingwei nor Mrs. Zhao were Auditory Evolvers. Since Xiaqing didn’t have the call on speaker, they couldn’t hear what she said to Zhou Zhaoping and Qi Fu, and they stared at her expectantly.

Xiaqing explained, “No. 8 Territory can rent us three dump trucks and three excavators, but only for tomorrow and the day after. Yue Haiying came over about the thorn wood and yellow clay. Territory No.15 has twenty-one laborers, but they can’t get any construction vehicles, so they want to work with us. We don’t have enough excavators, and we happen to need the manpower.”

“Right, many hands make light work!” Hearing that they had vehicles, Kuang Qingwei immediately started muttering and calculating how many cubic meters of clay three trucks could transport in two days.

Xiaqing conferred with Mrs. Zhao. “Auntie, could you go find Sister Yan and use Territory No.5’s walkie-talkie to call Brother Zhao over? There’s too much to do tomorrow and the day after. We need Brother Zhao to sort things out in advance.”

They now needed to coordinate five transport vehicles, four excavators, and dozens of people to haul back nearly three thousand cubic meters of clay and a large amount of thorn wood in just two days. Xiaqing had only been a small construction team leader; this job was a bit too much for her.

The timeline was short, the task was heavy, and with so many people, the work was complex. They needed an engineering professional like Zhao Ze to step in.

“I’ll go right now!” Happy that her son could be of use, Mrs. Zhao ran off to find Yuan Yan.

Xiaqing turned her head and saw a man with a severed arm walking over with Qi Fu and Shi Zhong. She immediately stood up and hurried out of the house to greet him. “Captain Yue.”

The burly Yue Haiying, whose right arm was only a stump, didn’t recognize Xiaqing. He greeted her with a stiff smile. “You must be Miss Xiaqing, Lord No.3, right? I was injured, lost my combat ability, and retired several months ago. I’m not a captain anymore. I’m farming in Territory No.15 now. You can just call me by my name.”

“Brother Yue,” Xiaqing immediately changed her form of address. Seeing that Yue Haiying didn’t recognize her, she introduced herself.

“My name is Xiaqing, and I’m the Lord of the Third Territory now. Last summer, after the second Harmful Rain, I followed the squadron you led to clear the Injurious Grass in the Eastern Evolution Forest. I was a Level 4 Strength Evolver at the time, a non-rostered logistics member. I had the old, patched Protective Suit and a red face.”

Xiaqing had only known the name of the general commander for that Injurious Grass clearing mission and had noted their unit designation, but she hadn’t known Yue Haiying’s name. She only recognized him now that they were face-to-face.

The other lords standing nearby found Xiaqing’s description of herself completely unfamiliar, but that was what she had been like last summer—or rather, before she had started farming.

Because of her poor equipment and unsightly appearance, Xiaqing had been mocked by the other Evolvers in her vehicle. As the squadron leader, Yue Haiying had not only given those people a harsh scolding but also deliberately placed Xiaqing in a group with the military Evolvers when assigning teams for the mission.

The reason this incident left such a deep impression on Xiaqing was that it was a rare instance of kindness in all her years of teaming up for missions.

As a common Strength Evolver—the most looked-down-upon type—who was scrawny, had a poison-marred face, poor equipment, and was a non-rostered logistics member with no companions, she was often subjected to discrimination, ridicule, and contempt.

Of course, Xiaqing wouldn’t let such minor things bother her, but she was still very happy to be treated with kindness. Because that kind of treatment increased her chances of survival when facing danger.

Xiaqing had only ever felt this kind of goodwill from two people: one was Luo Pei, and the other was Yue Haiying.

Before he was poisoned, Luo Pei had been strict and silent, giving off the feeling of a cold and precise sniper rifle. Yue Haiying had a fiery temper, and his mouth was full of curses that were incredibly harsh. His mission requirements were also extremely strict; anything less than perfect was unacceptable.

Luo Pei was poisoned, but he didn’t become depressed or dispirited. No matter how much it hurt, he faced it with a smile.

Yue Haiying was now disabled, his status and profession having changed dramatically. But he hadn’t given up on himself either. Instead, he was trying hard to suppress his explosive temper and adapt to his new identity. For this reason alone, Xiaqing believed that even though he only had one and a half arms, he was still a strong man—a strong man among farmers.

Evolvers all had good memories. With Xiaqing’s accurate and vivid description, Yue Haiying remembered what she had looked like back then. The scrawny little girl was a far cry from the fair-skinned, pretty young woman standing before him now.

Encountering an acquaintance who was showing him goodwill, Yue Haiying’s smile became a little more natural. “Looks like I chose a pretty good profession. Farming has a lot of promise.”