The footsteps were steady and rhythmic; Xia Qing recognized them as Tan Junjie's. It wasn't patrol time for checking for danger, so he was alone.
He must be looking for her, after the toon sprouts. Xia Qing took off her mud-covered gloves and pulled out her phone.
Sure enough, Tan Junjie stopped at the buffer zone north of New Territory No. 3 and called Xia Qing. "Xia Qing, is now a good time? I'd like to exchange some toon sprouts and perilla leaves with you."
After giving the toon sprouts to Luo Pei, Xia Qing had been waiting for them to exchange supplies with her, but five days had passed. She had almost assumed they had plenty of safe vegetables.
Xia Qing smiled slightly. "Sure. How many, Captain Tan, and what will you exchange them for?"
Tan Junjie asked directly, "What do you want?"
Such an arrogant tone—did he think she could have anything she wanted? Xia Qing revealed what she wanted most: "I want a water pump to draw water from the reservoir for irrigation."
Tan Junjie paused, then discussed it with Xia Qing, "Water pumps either use oil or electricity, neither of which is convenient for you. How about I have someone make you a hand-operated waterwheel?"
Won't those tall, round waterwheels from history textbooks get chewed up by evolving insects? Xia Qing paused for a moment before asking, "Do you have any sheep-powered ones?"
Tan Junjie also paused for a while before replying, "I'll go back and ask."
That afternoon, Xia Qing received a call from Tan Junjie. "Sheep-powered ones are fine, but your sheep is too strong; I don't have any that can handle the strain on the parts. If it's human-powered, you're strong enough to pedal it without much trouble."
The fact that it doesn't require electricity or oil was very appealing. "Then human-powered will do. Thank you, Captain Tan. How about the exchange?"
Tan Junjie discussed with Xia Qing, "One human-powered waterwheel for four catties of toon sprouts and two catties of perilla?"
This was much lower than Xia Qing had expected. "Okay. I hope Captain Tan will keep this a secret; I don't want more people to know that I have edible toon sprouts in my territory."
Tan Junjie immediately agreed, "Of course, I also hope to have another opportunity to exchange safe food with you in the future. It will take a few days to transport the parts from the safe zone; I'll contact you again when they arrive."
Xia Qing asked, "Will Zhong Tao and the others deliver them?" "Yes, the road is almost clear. What supplies do you need? Zhong Tao can bring them over."
After hanging up, Xia Qing didn't contact Zhong Tao because she had no points on her card and no supplies to exchange. Having exchanged a set of protective clothing with Tang Huai, she didn't want to use perilla leaves to exchange for supplies for the next three months. As for toon sprouts, she only wanted to exchange them with Tan Chunjie and Luo Pei.
Unfortunately, Luo Pei wasn't interested in toon sprouts. Xia Qing thought about it carefully and felt this made sense. Even injured, Luo Pei, once the third strongest fighter in the Qinglong team, wouldn't lack supplies and wouldn't care about a few clusters of toon sprouts.
Xia Qing put away her phone and stopped thinking about it, searching along the terraced fields from top to bottom. Spring is the season of budding; perhaps she could make a new discovery.
After half a day, she actually made an unexpected find.
Xia Qing opened her phone and used the plant pictures in "The Complete Planting Guide" to repeatedly compare them with the plant sprouts she found in a narrow, long terraced field, which were only two or three centimeters tall, confirming the name of the plant.
Peanuts! !!
Xia Qing pulled out her testing device and discovered that the peanuts were all growing in this terraced field, about six or seven square meters in size, and they were all yellow-light peanuts! She was so excited her hands trembled.
So, peanuts can grow this beautifully!
Luckily, this terraced field was in a remote location with a steep slope, and luckily the seedlings were yellow-light; otherwise, these seedlings, even prettier than succulents, would have been devoured by Sheep Boss long ago!
According to the "Complete Guide to Planting," densely packed peanut seedlings don't grow well; thinning and transplanting are necessary.
Xia Qing selected the two lower terraces, which were equally steep, and worked weeding, tilling, transplanting, and watering until dusk. Sheep Boss, impatient from waiting, had already gone home.
Finally, after finishing, Xia Qing straightened up and looked at the three peanut fields, beaming with joy.
A peanut windfall had fallen from the sky; she now possessed two hundred and twenty peanut plants!
Peanuts bloom in spring, bear fruit in autumn, and wither in winter. They came last winter to clear the forest, right when the peanuts were wilting. This meant there were peanut seedlings growing down the mountain!
Xia Qing walked briskly downhill, imagining the wonderful days of eating boiled peanuts in the fall, almost wanting to shout to express her barely contained excitement.
Over the next few days, Xia Qing searched her entire 7,500-acre territory and indeed found two more small patches of peanut seedlings. Unfortunately, these seedlings all tested negative, indicating excessively high levels of harmful elements, making them inedible.
Although she didn't find any more edible peanut seedlings, Xia Qing had an even more gratifying and considerable harvest: twenty-five yellow-light soybean seedlings, thirty-six green-light garlic seedlings, and fifty-two green-light spinach seedlings.
Overwhelmed by the harvest, Xia Qing, afraid of forgetting where these plants were, drew a simple map of her territory, marking the locations of all the edible plants.
After marking them, Xia Qing made another new discovery: the shapes formed by connecting the locations of all the green and yellow-light plants she found in her territory resembled a small stream flowing down from the mountain.
The most important resource in her territory—the spring—was also located on this stream.
Xia Qing, who knew nothing about geology, boldly speculated based entirely on intuition: this edible plant belt, resembling a stream, might be where the underground spring flowed!
If this speculation was correct…
Xia Qing's gaze followed the edible plant belt upwards, looking towards the evolutionary forest beyond the isolation zone, which she hadn't drawn.
If this speculation was correct, did that mean that there was also an edible plant belt within the evolutionary forest of the gently rising northern mountain range?
This thought swirled in Xia Qing's mind for half the night, and the more she thought about it, the more excited she became.
The next morning, after getting up, Xia Qing stood at the back window on the second floor and looked north. Her gaze slowly climbed along the high slope where the Chinese toon tree and the abandoned courtyard stood, until it reached the towering mountain peaks in the distance, then gradually calmed down.
Even if her hypothesis is correct, and the uncontaminated spring water truly flows down from higher ground, the edible plants in the higher evolutionary forest are limited to annual herbaceous plants like weeds and wild vegetables, and tall trees such as pine, peach, walnut, or wild persimmon. It's spring now, far from the ripening of the fruit, and venturing into the evolutionary forest wouldn't yield any substantial gain.
Secondly, even without knowledge of geological structures, Xia Qing knows that besides flowing down from higher ground, spring water could also originate from deep within the mountains, perhaps from crevices in the rocks.
Therefore, for now, she should diligently farm within her territory and, after making thorough preparations, venture into the evolutionary forest in the autumn.