Chapter 405: Harvesting Sweet Potatoes

Chapter 405: Chapter 405: Harvesting Sweet Potatoes

When she first arrived in the territory in the spring, Xiaqing traded the centipedes and snakes she’d caught, along with a Little Wild Boar she later captured in a valley, for the High Slope where the Green Light Big Chuntun Tree grew. She also exchanged for 16 Green Light Sweet Potato Seedlings from Tan Junjie.

Before the second Harmful Rain, she took cuttings from the sweet potato vines to propagate 200 plants. After enduring two Harmful Rains, 150 of those plants survived to produce sweet potatoes with a Harmful Element content below 15‰. Of the survivors, 66 were Green Light and 84 were Yellow Light.

Based on the numbers alone, the sweet potato seedlings Tan Junjie had traded her seemed quite stable, but that wasn’t actually the case.

If Xiaqing hadn’t planted the cuttings in the terraced fields on the Yi Element-rich hillside and irrigated them with Pollution-free Spring Water, she likely would have harvested less than a quarter of the Green Light sweet potatoes she did.

Sweet potatoes had the longest growing period of all the crops Xiaqing planted. They had to endure two Harmful Rains during their growth cycle, which increased their Harmful Element levels by 3‰ to 4‰.

In other words, Yellow Light Sweet Potatoes with a Harmful Element content above 10‰ could only be eaten, not used as seed stock. Those with a content between 5‰ and 10‰ only possessed one generation of stability. Only Green Light sweet potatoes with a Harmful Element content below 5‰ possessed two generations of stability.

Therefore, only Green Light sweet potatoes were valuable enough for widespread cultivation—and their value was quite high.

This was because both the sweet potato leaves and the tubers themselves were edible. After about two months of growth, a new batch could be propagated via cuttings. Even without the benefit of Pollution-free Spring Water and Gao Yi Element Soil, their yield was second only to Mad Pumpkins, surpassing other crops grown in the territory.

The reason the Territory Management Department hadn’t promoted them was that the conditions for cultivating Green Light Sweet Potato Seedlings were quite demanding, making low-cost, mass propagation impossible.

Xiaqing had harvested over 350 Green Light sweet potatoes of various sizes today, but she didn’t want anyone to know her territory had a prime cultivation zone, so she couldn’t sell all of them.

As per the quantities she’d promised her allies during the Lords’ meeting, Xiaqing began selecting sweet potatoes to be set aside for seed.

Seed stock needed to be large and unblemished. For each territory, she would provide two Green Light sweet potatoes and four Yellow Light Sweet Potatoes with a Harmful Element content of around 7‰. Including Territory No.15, this came to a total of 30 potatoes.

Xiaqing had originally gotten her Green Light Sweet Potato Seedlings from Tan Junjie, so Territory No.15 probably didn’t need to trade with her for seed potatoes. Nevertheless, Xiaqing prepared its share just in case.

Furthermore, Xiaqing decided to claim her entire harvest was just one hundred Yellow Light Sweet Potatoes. She had previously mentioned having just over twenty plants on the Lord channel, and a yield of around 130 potatoes—the hundred she was "selling" plus the thirty for seed—was a plausible amount. This would prevent anyone from suspecting she had a long-term food storage unit in her territory.

"Sheep Leader, try this vine. It’s Green Light." Xiaqing snapped the sweet potatoes one by one off the main vine, placing them into a bamboo basket lined with dry grass. She then handed the vine to Sheep Leader.

Just as Sheep Leader was happily gnawing on the vine, Xiaqing’s phone rang. Tan Junjie, the captain of the investigation team, was too tied up to come himself, so he’d sent Hu Zi to deliver the replies from the other territories.

The South Gate was crowded and full of prying eyes today, so the two had arranged to meet in the North Isolation Zone of No.3 Territory.

"The note you gave our captain yesterday was only delivered this morning. I was worried about delays, so I asked each Lord to give me a reply within half an hour." Hu Zi handed the slips of paper to Xiaqing.

Xiaqing thanked him. After taking the five slips of paper, she handed over a bag with fifteen pounds of Yellow Light Sweet Potatoes.

Yellow Light Sweet Potatoes sold for 40 points a pound in the Safe Zone, making this bag worth 600 points. Hu Zi knew how difficult farming was and how much trouble Xiaqing had gone through to harvest these potatoes, so of course he refused to accept them.

Before she could even speak, Hu Zi took a step back. "No, really, you should keep them for yourself. We’re all supposed to get a few in a couple of days anyway."

"It’s not a gift. It’s a trade." Xiaqing certainly wouldn’t have brought this many if it were a gift. "Solar power output decreases in the winter, so I need to find other ways to generate electricity. I remember you saying that pedal-powered bikes can be used not just for pumping water, but also for generating power. I’d like to trade for a bike that can generate electricity. Do you think fifteen pounds of Yellow Light Sweet Potatoes is enough?"

Back in the spring, Xiaqing had traded four pounds of Asparagus Chrysanthemum and two pounds of Perilla for a pedal-powered water pump system. It had been valued at the Green Light vegetable price of 50 points per pound, for a total of 300 Points. Factoring in that a power-generating bicycle would need a small motor, Xiaqing had added a few extra pounds of sweet potatoes to her offer.

Hu Zi still didn’t accept, reminding Xiaqing that pedal power wasn’t very practical. "The efficiency is really low. The electricity you generate doesn’t even make up for the energy the rider burns. You should really consider trading for a fuel-powered generator. If you don’t have enough points, you could take a storage battery to No. 6 Territory to get it charged. Even that would be more cost-effective than a power-generating bike."

Kuang Qingwei had a lot of solar panels in his territory and ran a battery-charging business, a fact the investigation team was well aware of.

Xiaqing explained, "It’s not for me. It’s for my Evolutionary Sheep."

Sheep Leader was incredibly strong and loved pedaling the bike to pump water. It wasn’t needed for irrigation in the winter, so Xiaqing wanted to get a power-generating bicycle and put it in the living room for the sheep to pedal for fun.

If the combined power from the solar panels and Sheep Leader still couldn’t meet the territory’s needs, only then would Xiaqing turn on the diesel generator. After all, the generator burned fuel the moment it was on, whereas Sheep Leader just needed to eat grass.

’Of course! If Sheep Leader can pedal a bike to pump water, it can pedal one to generate power! How did I not think of that!’

A grin revealing his two prominent canines, Hu Zi accepted the sweet potatoes. "This sheep of yours is an incredible asset. Evolutionary Sheep are really strong. I’ll find a way to get my hands on a bike with a sturdy frame, but it might take a few days."

Sheep Leader was so strong that it had already broken three of the water-pumping bicycles in the past six months.

After thanking him, Xiaqing asked, "Was that commotion in Second Territory going on late last night?"

"Don’t get me started!" The topic made the usually quiet Hu Zi angry, and he couldn’t help but start venting. "They’re all refugees, right? The ones No.1 Territory took in are farming honestly, and the ones in No. 8 Territory are working steadily in the factories. But the ones in Second Territory are just impossible!"

"The Su Feng Team brought them in, dumped them on Tang Huai, and then just washed their hands of the matter. Refugees aren’t insects..." Hu Zi paused for a few seconds before continuing. "To be fair, Tang Huai is doing his best, but those people have no intention of farming to earn their keep. Oh, right, two people from the Fiery Fire Team came along on the Su Feng plane and have already entered No. 9 Territory. You should avoid the southern passages of your territory for the next couple of days, so you don’t run into them."

After he finished, Hu Zi added a reminder for Xiaqing. "The Fiery Fire Team is one of the top teams in Hui Yi. They have powerful connections."

’Even though Yang Jin managed to bog down Fire Phoenix with the news about the spinach seeds, the Fiery Fire Team still sent people over. It looks like Fire Phoenix is very serious about this business of cultivating Cordyceps Fungus.’