Once they understood what had happened, the group looked at the two empty buckets with deep regret and quickly got to work.

Today, they planned to fertilize the crops.

Tong Zhanyan didn’t go to help.

As most of the crops in the fields entered the harvesting stage, his workload was gradually increasing.

Tong Zhanyan went back inside, found a pen and paper, sketched a rough map of the farm, and began to think through the next steps.

First up was the warehouse.

Corn, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes were the first to be planted, but they had to be left to fully mature before harvesting, so while they were planted early, they would be harvested late.

The latest harvest will be this month.

That also posed a problem: where to store everything after harvesting?

Considering the growing number of poultry and livestock he was raising, this time he had planted about ten mu of corn and pumpkins, and another five mu of sweet potatoes through late-season cuttings.

Given his current circumstances, he can’t really talk about yield yet, but twenty-five acres should still yield around 20,000 jin.

Twenty thousand jin—even if he emptied his current warehouse completely, it might not be quite enough, and there are still many farming tools, boxes, and miscellaneous items in there.

Building a new warehouse is imperative.

The question is where to build it and how many to build.

He doesn’t plan to rotate the climate across the entire base in the short term, so after the corn is harvested, it will still need to be taken to the watermelon field to dry.

Temperatures there are high only during the day; once night falls, they drop. In an environment with such a drastic temperature difference, fog easily forms, so the corn must be brought inside at night during the drying process.

Having a warehouse would certainly be more convenient.

Tong Zhanyan sketched a warehouse over there.

That warehouse is just a temporary storage spot; it doesn’t need to be very large.

There’s already a warehouse in front of the small house; that’s where the corn and pumpkins were stored before.

Building another one of the same size next to it isn’t out of the question, but with the growing number of livestock and poultry, preparing food requires a whole crew every time. Not only is it noisy, but the smell of pig feed is quite strong.

Tong Zhanyan lives in the small house, so he’s the one who’ll be inconvenienced.

Tong Zhanyan hesitated for a moment, then sketched the storage shed at the foot of the hill between the orange grove and the chicken and pig pens.

There’s also a fairly large open area over there.

Corn, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes were meant for feeding the pigs and chickens anyway, so placing them there for convenience made sense.

Tong Zhanyan sketched two warehouses.

Upon further thought, he drew a larger square to enclose the two warehouses.

He planned to cover the entire area with concrete and raise the floor slightly.

It rains at the farm, and muddy ground isn’t practical; raising the ground level would also help with waterproofing.

Once the warehouses over there are finished, the one in front of the small house can be used exclusively for storing farm tools, boxes, and miscellaneous items.

Tong Zhanyan had also considered building a flat concrete area for drying corn.

He currently uses plastic sheeting, but a concrete surface would be more convenient.

But after giving it some thought, he decided against it.

The watermelon patch would need to be cleared again for the next planting, and he planned to plant some new summer crops there at that time.

Once the concrete was laid, it would be fixed in place, which would actually limit his ability to clear new land.

With the warehouse plans finalized, Tong Zhanyan tapped his pen on the paper and began thinking about streetlights and the irrigation system.

So far, the entire base had lighting only at the two main gates and the two small buildings; everywhere else remained unlit.

This left the base pitch-black as soon as night fell.

Although there were light fixtures overhead and moonlight could filter in, it was somewhat obstructed.

Whenever farm work kept them busy into the night, Tong Zhanyan would turn on the overhead lights to replace the sun.

Occasionally turning on those lights had no real impact on the crops, and Tong Zhanyan didn’t mind the small amount of electricity it consumed.

However, as their workload grew, they found themselves working late more and more often, so having streetlights would certainly be more convenient.

Tong Zhanyan didn’t plan to install too many streetlights; aside from the area near the small building and the warehouse, he only marked a few spots along the wider main paths.

He wasn’t heartless enough to make Ning Langdong and the others get up in the middle of the night to work.

Besides, the light wasn’t bright enough anyway—they’d still have to turn on the overhead lights.

As for the irrigation system, Tong Zhanyan wasn’t aiming for a fully automated setup this time, but rather a basic water diversion system.

Tong Zhanyan had always relied on periodic rainfall for thorough irrigation at the base, but as the number of crops increased, the need for separate irrigation grew as well.

Tong Zhanyan had previously set up a portable irrigation system that could be moved wherever needed, which was quite convenient.

However, as the land expanded, running the hoses every time became a hassle, especially since some plots were too far from the river—the hoses alone had to stretch hundreds of meters.

Tong Zhanyan planned to connect fixed pipes to the water pump and install some faucets, so they could access water directly wherever they were.

Since the land would be plowed with a rotary tiller—a machine powerful enough to crush rocks—the pipes definitely couldn’t be buried in the soil.

That left only one option: burying them along the roads.

Tong Zhanyan had always carefully planned the routes whenever he cleared new land, ensuring vehicles could reach every spot.

Now, this actually worked to his advantage.

Tong Zhanyan spent some time calculating the optimal routes and distances for the pipes and taps.

He planned to install a faucet every 500 meters.

For the pipes, he intended to use large-diameter sewer pipes, so that if he wanted to add other irrigation systems later, he wouldn’t have to worry about insufficient water flow.

Tong Zhanyan had also considered open ditches, but they were likely to accumulate debris, and since the irrigation nozzles were small, they would clog easily.

Of course, the intake points for the underground water system would definitely need to be filtered; otherwise, they would clog just the same.

If the pipes buried underground got clogged, that would be even more of a hassle.

With streetlights and an irrigation system in place, electrical wiring was definitely a must.

That was simple enough: just connect all the streetlights in parallel and install some outlets near the faucets.

After finalizing the plan, Tong Zhanyan drove around to inspect all the locations.

Once he confirmed the sketch was accurate, he returned to the small house to contact the construction crew.

He hired the same construction crew as before.

Their usual scope of work didn’t include laying water pipes or installing streetlights, but they were willing to take on the project.

Procuring the materials was a bit more complicated, as Tong Zhanyan insisted on using only non-polluting materials, which would take some time.

Tong Zhanyan knew this wasn’t a small project, so he wasn’t in a rush.

After finalizing the details, Tong Zhanyan paid a deposit.

Putting the blueprints away, Tong Zhanyan contacted the research team he’d worked with before.

With the water pipes in place, a water pump was definitely needed.

The previous one worked quite well, but its power was a bit too low to cover such a large network of pipes.

After explaining the situation to the supplier, Tong Zhanyan ordered a water pump capable of handling all the pipes and automatically detecting whether they were in use.

Tong Zhanyan also ordered another 800 sprinkler heads.

Since 200 sprinkler heads make up one set, 800 meant four sets, so he also ordered four sets of pipes.

With more and more crops, the number of plants requiring individual watering was increasing, and the previous setup was no longer sufficient.

The supplier had already produced the sprinkler heads once before, so they could simply replicate the design; they also sourced the pipes directly, which made the process quite fast.

In addition, Tong Zhanyan ordered four more small-sized tillers.

As the crops in the fields began to be harvested, it was time to start clearing new land.

The large tiller is massive; it takes less than two hours to go over fifty mu of land, which is more than enough.

However, the small tillers are starting to fall short.

After the large tiller passes, there are still many clumps of soil left; to completely break them up, the small tillers have to go over the area several times.

Plus, the fields currently being planted will need to be tilled again later, so one machine is no longer enough.

After confirming everything was in order, Tong Zhanyan paid the deposit again.

The two deposits combined cost him well over 100,000 yuan, and that was just the down payment.

After a brief rest, Tong Zhanyan went to the warehouse to fetch marking sticks and red plastic bags, then drove to the area behind the small building.

It was time to start clearing the land again.

He planned to do a preliminary clearing before the construction crew arrived, so the irrigation system and streetlights could be extended to this area as well.

He had already figured out exactly how to clear the land this time.

This time, he planned to clear another 100 mu.

Simply turning the soil over doesn’t count as clearing the land; the key to his clearing efforts here was whether he could keep up with the supply of humus, eggshell powder, plant ash, and, most importantly, fertilizer.

As for humus and plant ash, ever since the school formed a new leaf-collection team, they’ve been delivering over ten truckloads every week—more than enough.

The eggshell powder farm has been a steady supplier, and Tong Zhanyan has been saving the eggshells from his own meals and those used at the back-door canteen.

It’s been over three months since the last land reclamation, so he’s accumulated quite a bit.

A hundred mu is a bit much, but he can barely manage it.

The fertilizer isn’t enough.

It’s nowhere near enough.

However, Tong Zhanyan wasn’t clearing this land to grow crops; instead, he intended to plant red clover, peanuts, soybeans, alfalfa, field beans, arrowroot, and green manure radishes.

Plants like red clover fix nitrogen and improve soil quality while they’re alive, and after they die, their leaves and stems are buried in the soil as green manure.

Soil enriched by these plants is essentially pre-fertilized, making subsequent planting much easier.

Therefore, the approach to future land reclamation needs to change.

In addition to the basic steps of turning the soil and mixing in humus, every time new soil is turned over, an additional step of planting red clover and other such crops must be added.

Tong Zhanyan had wanted to do this before, but back then, he didn’t have enough seeds.

Now it’s different; the total area planted with red clover and similar crops has already reached thirty mu.

Even if their growth is slightly stunted due to a lack of fertilizer, given their seed-producing capacity—where a single plant can yield one or two hundred seeds—it will still be enough to cover a hundred mu next time.

Of course, this coverage is nowhere near as dense as the planting in Tong Zhanyan’s previous world, but it’s sufficient for now.

The entire base is shaped like a vertical rectangle.

The small building is located on the lower left side, with fifty mu of land currently allocated in front and behind it.

For the new plot, Tong Zhanyan planned to clear the fifty mu to the right of the fifty mu adjacent to the small building—there was nearly fifty mu of open land there.

Beyond those fifty mu, Tong Zhanyan planned to clear another fifty mu extending upward from there.

Since there were already fifty mu of land laid out next to it, he could simply follow that layout for the new plot, making the process simpler and faster.

Tong Zhanyan finished the planning in just half an hour.

Once he was done, Tong Zhanyan went straight back to swap out for a larger tiller.

In the Live stream.

Watching this scene from afar, the crowd—who had been counting how many crops had been harvested from the fields—immediately shifted their attention.

“That’s definitely a hundred mu.”

“A hundred… It’s already a hundred now. Adding another hundred all at once—isn’t that a bit much? Will there be enough fertilizer?”

“I’m starting to feel more and more that this farm won’t be enough for him sooner or later.”

“I even think it might only take him another two years to fill this farm.”

“What if he really does fill it up? Buy another one? I don’t think there are any other bases that large…”

“Build one himself?”

“I looked it up. His base is on the outskirts of the city, so he should be able to expand outward if needed. He’d just have to buy up nearby buildings, which might cost a bit.”

“Wait… can you guys calm down? That’s a thousand mu of land, not just one mu…”

“Exactly. Instead of worrying about running out of land, you should be worried about what we’ll do if he actually fills it up and we can’t eat all the crops.”

“…You’re not much better, upstairs. How dare you say we won’t be able to eat all the crops?”

“Although I also think this is a luxury problem, why does the thought still get me so excited? A thousand mu of land, completely full, crops everywhere—we’d never be able to eat all that much produce…”

“You’ve got me all fired up just hearing you say that.”

Tong Zhanyan simply ran a large tiller over the land once to roughly mark out the specific area, then headed to the hospital.

Qing Jiyue was on a call with someone.

The other person spoke, and he listened with a frown.

Seeing that Qing Jiyue showed no intention of avoiding the topic, Tong Zhanyan sat down beside him after entering and listened in as well.

The person on the other end was from the Qing Family—Qing Jiyue’s “informant.”

To help Qing Jiyue focus on recovering, Qing Suifeng generally only reported the good news and kept the bad news to himself.

“…His injuries aren’t too severe, but since he was in the middle of combat when he got hurt, he couldn’t stop the bleeding right away and lost quite a bit of blood.”

Qing Jiyue lowered his gaze. “Mm.”

“Don’t tell him I told you this. He doesn’t want us to say anything, for fear of worrying you.”

“Alright.”

“I’ll go back to work now.”

“Alright.”

The call ended.

Tong Zhanyan took Qing Jiyue’s hand.

Qing Jiyue’s tense nerves gradually relaxed a little.

He looked at the hand he was holding.

From years of hard labor, Tong Zhanyan had a thin layer of calluses on the palms of his hands; he did too, though his were the result of training.

Tong Zhanyan’s hand was warm, and that helped ease the anxiety and urgency in his heart.

“You need to let your wounds heal first,” Tong Zhanyan said.

“Mm-hmm.” Qing Jiyue knew.

Tong Zhanyan smoothed out the pillow and helped Qing Jiyue settle back against it.

Having witnessed the dangers of the front lines, if he could, he didn’t want Qing Jiyue to go back. He feared that one day he might suddenly hear news of Qing Jiyue’s death.

But he knew Qing Jiyue would definitely go back.

Even without his father there, he would still go back.

Because that place needed him, and because he wasn’t the kind of person who, despite having the ability, could stand by and watch others die without caring.

“Yang Hong said he wants to go back to the Gu Family,” Qing Jiyue said.

Tong Zhanyan hadn’t expected to hear this news so suddenly; for a moment, he was taken aback.

Yang Hong had been at the base for seven or eight months now, and during that time, he’d spent most of it helping him out; they’d long since become familiar with each other.

“He hasn’t had those moments of emotional instability for the past two months. The beast tide is coming soon, and things feel off this year—he wants to go back and help…”

Tong Zhanyan didn’t know how to react at first.

There were actually quite a few people like Qing Jiyue, especially those like Yang Hong who had truly been on the battlefield and witnessed that brutality firsthand.

“When does he plan to leave?” Tong Zhanyan asked after a moment.

“He hasn’t decided yet,” Qing Jiyue paused. “Once he stops eating those crops, the frenzy will flare up again soon. Plus, he feels bad about just walking away after eating your crops for several months.”

Tong Zhanyan couldn’t help but chuckle.

Yang Hong and the others had helped him a great deal; if not for them, he would have worked himself to death, and the base wouldn’t have expanded this quickly.

Yang Hong and his team were seasoned workers; the people selected by lottery certainly couldn’t compare.

“He could consider coming back after he’s finished his work,” Tong Zhanyan said. “I’m short-handed here anyway.”

“I’ll pass that along to him.”

Tong Zhanyan said, “Let’s hold another lottery soon. If Yang Hong and his team’s situation is under control, they can move into the small building.”

If Yang Hong and his team moved into the small building, his prison-style luxury single dormitory would be freed up.

“For Yang Hong’s group, who have just entered deep frenzy, draw forty names—twenty from outside and twenty from the front lines.”

After a pause, Tong Zhanyan added, “You can add another ten for those in full frenzy. You handle the arrangements; prioritize those who’ve been withdrawn from the front lines.”

If it were anyone else, he certainly wouldn’t dare to allocate the spots directly—it would lead to exorbitant prices for those spots, and the headache would fall solely on him.

But not Qing Jiyue. He trusted Qing Jiyue.

Qing Jiyue’s lips twitched.

Sixty new people all at once. Those like Yang Hong’s group were one thing, but while Tong Zhanyan currently had plenty of crops with reduced infection rates, those with deep infections… …

In that case, Tong Zhanyan would likely be under immense pressure.

The reason Tong Zhanyan started that farmstay in the first place was to help him.

Tong Zhanyan saw right through what Qing Jiyue was thinking. “I’ve long since been unable to stay out of this. This isn’t just helping you—it’s helping me, too.” Tong Zhanyan’s words weren’t just comfort; they were the truth.

Knowing the situation Qing Jiyue and Yang Hong were in, how could he possibly stand by and do nothing?

If he could help, he would certainly lend a hand.

Besides, he needed manpower too.

Qing Jiyue clasped Tong Zhanyan’s hand tightly. “Thank you…”

Since meeting Tong Zhanyan, he had lost count of how many times he’d uttered those two words to him.

Tong Zhanyan said nothing more, simply holding Qing Jiyue’s hand quietly, feeling the warmth of his body.

That night, Tong Zhanyan returned to the base to sleep.

The next morning, Tong Zhanyan told Tian Xinqing about the raffle first thing and asked him to post the announcement early.

He himself went with Ning Langdong to the back gate.

He had already purchased the furniture when the small building was first constructed, so it was now ready for immediate occupancy.

Yang Hong and the others had no objections to giving up that luxurious single room.

Tong Zhanyan did not get involved in the matters regarding the deep infection; he would wait for Qing Jiyue to handle it herself.

After finishing his work, Tong Zhanyan stopped by to check on the watermelons and the fish in the lake on his way back.

The watermelons had been bitten by earthworms; two vines had been bitten through in the middle. One vine remained intact, but several watermelons had been gnawed, leaving large chunks missing.

The watermelons were only about ten centimeters in diameter, and their flesh was still white.

Tong Zhanyan took a photo and sent it to Old Xu and the others.

The five of them dropped whatever they were doing and rushed over almost immediately.

Old Xu and Old Wang were clutching their detection devices.

Su Yanran, Tian Xinqing, and Ning Langdong each held a chicken in each hand.

All six chickens looked utterly bewildered.

Tong Zhanyan hesitated as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he said nothing.

After leaving this to them, he headed to the lake.

The aquatic plants in the lake had grown a bit more; though still somewhat sparse, they now looked quite convincing.

He didn’t see any fish floating belly-up.

Tong Zhanyan breathed a slight sigh of relief.

At the same time, he began to ponder the idea of releasing the fish and shrimp they had bought earlier into the lake.

It had been a while since they’d brought them back.

Upon returning, just as Tong Zhanyan was about to check on the fish and shrimp, he saw Gu Yunyang and his group gathered together, gazing up at the mountain.

Tong Zhanyan followed their gaze.

With sparse trees and patchy grass, the mountain looked just as barren as ever.

Tong Zhanyan couldn’t figure out what they were looking at.

“On the largest tree halfway up the mountain,” Gu Yunyang pointed out to Tong Zhanyan.

Tong Zhanyan immediately looked again.

With a clear target in mind, he spotted it quickly this time.

It was a black object perched on a branch, resembling a bird’s nest.

It hadn’t been there before; it must have appeared recently.

Tong Zhanyan realized almost immediately what it was.

He immediately headed up the mountain to confirm it.

Gu Yunyang and his group hurried to follow.

The object was located midway up the mountain; it took them only about ten minutes to reach it.

The tree was quite tall, and Tong Zhanyan had to shift his perspective several times before he could finally see clearly—it was indeed what he had suspected: a beehive.

A beehive usually has only one queen bee.

Among those new bees, there must be a new queen, so the old queen had led a portion of the worker bees to relocate.

This was definitely good news for Tong Zhanyan, as it meant the bee population would grow much faster.

Once Gu Yunyang and the others figured out what was going on, they were quite intrigued; several of them even wanted to climb up and take a closer look.

Tong Zhanyan wouldn’t let them.

The hive was just starting to form; he didn’t want Gu Yunyang and the others to scare the bees away.

After returning, Tong Zhanyan asked Gu Yunyang and the others to help carry the fish and shrimp to the lakeside.

After placing the containers in the shallow water by the lake, Tong Zhanyan didn’t rush to release the fish and shrimp. Instead, he first added some water to the containers to let them acclimate.

Gu Yunyang and the others took this opportunity to peer curiously into the lake and ask questions.

They had been here before, but not very often.

Tong Zhanyan had explained to them why he wanted to raise fish.

Compared to farming, this was a completely new field for them.

The group had discussed it countless times behind his back, which had raised countless questions for them.

Tong Zhanyan answered every question they asked.

After waiting forty minutes, once the fish and shrimp had mostly acclimated, Tong Zhanyan poured them all into the tank.

As soon as they hit the water, the fish vanished from sight.

The shrimp, however, didn’t head for the deep end; instead, they tentatively scattered in all directions.

The group watched for a while longer before heading back to the small building.

Tong Zhanyan checked the live stream.

The chat and comments were all abuzz with discussion about this giveaway.

Many of them simply couldn’t afford the crops, so the giveaway had become their only hope.

Many were praying, praying they would win.

After the announcement was released, the channel for submitting entries reopened.

When Tong Zhanyan checked, there were already over ten thousand entries.

Last time, the window was too short, and some people hadn’t had time to prepare their materials.

This time, they had prepared in advance.

Tong Zhanyan still entrusted the review process to Ning Langdong and his two colleagues.

Those who had already submitted and passed the review could proceed directly to the raffle.

The raffle would officially begin in two days.

After confirming the progress, Tong Zhanyan went to attend to other matters.

There was no harvesting today, so by the time he went to check on Yang Hong and the others in the back, Ning Langdong and his group were already busy in the plot he had marked out yesterday.

By the time Tong Zhanyan arrived, the humus had already been mixed in.

After taking a look, Tong Zhanyan was just about to head over to the corn and pumpkin fields when his terminal buzzed.

The construction team had come to survey the site.

They’d secured the necessary personnel and materials; this visit was for surveying.

They needed to determine the exact quantities required before placing an official order.

Tong Zhanyan retrieved the rough sketch he’d drawn earlier and personally guided them through the site.

The warehouse was simple.

As for the water pipes and streetlights, Tong Zhanyan had paid attention to the road layout from the start, which made many subsequent tasks much easier.

The surveying did take some time, though.

By the time he saw them off, it was already evening.

The next day, the team arrived early.

They still had to wait for materials for the water pipes and streetlights, but work on the warehouse could begin, and they could start digging the trenches for the buried pipes and wires.

This was a major project, so everyone at the base came to watch the commotion, including the guards at the back gate.

Tong Zhanyan also saw the man who had recovered from the deep infection again.

His condition was under control, so he’d come along to watch the commotion.

He didn’t dare get too close, standing far outside the crowd.

Upon seeing Tong Zhanyan, he paused for a moment, then immediately bowed toward him.

Tong Zhanyan had encountered plenty of grateful people and was no stranger to the stares of those at the school, but this was the first time anyone had actually bowed to him.

Tong Zhanyan stood there for a moment before he realized what was happening.

The next moment, Tong Zhanyan smiled and nodded at him.

Tong Zhanyan didn’t approach; instead, he turned away and got busy with other matters.

On the second day of construction, Tong Zhanyan received the sprinkler heads and hoses sent over by the R&D team.

Ning Langdong and his group immediately gathered around, then eagerly assembled them and took them out to the fields.

Tong Zhanyan took this opportunity to head over to the greenhouse.

The cabbage white butterflies hadn’t changed much; they were still running rampant.

The wheat plants were even more rampant—Tong Zhanyan had only been away for a few days, and they were already taller than him.

Previously, Tong Zhanyan could at least walk around the edges, but as the plants grew larger, he now didn’t even dare to step inside.

Even the edges had become too crowded to navigate.

Tong Zhanyan could only circle the greenhouse from the outside.

Although the wheat had only been planted for half a month, nearly half of it already showed signs of flowering.

The wheat ears that contain the seeds aren’t formed after flowering; they’re present from the start. The flowers emerge from a thin stalk growing above each grain, and then bloom.

Because the plants had grown larger, the flowers on the ears had grown larger too, which looked rather strange.

The shape of the flowers, however, remained unchanged.

With all those leaves around, pollination had become a challenge.

Tong Zhanyan thought for a moment, then went to the warehouse to retrieve a fan he’d bought for the training room long ago but hadn’t used in ages.

Instead of looking for an outlet inside the greenhouse, he ran a wire to borrow power from the neighboring strawberry greenhouse.

While the fan was running, Tong Zhanyan took care to seal the door—which had been slightly ajar due to the extension cord—with duct tape.

Those wheat plants were walking sources of infection.

That night, Tong Zhanyan officially launched the giveaway.

The registration period was twenty-four hours; he would announce the winner at the same time the next day.

The next day, just as Tong Zhanyan had taken the fan out of the greenhouse to clean it in the small building’s bathroom, his terminal buzzed.

The new water pump had arrived.

Tong Zhanyan told Ning Langdong and the others to go open the gate.

Half an hour later, by the time Tong Zhanyan finished his work and went over, the machine had only just been moved from the gate to the riverbank.

Because the groundwater system covered a vast area, the pump was more than three times larger than the previous one.

Where to place the machine was a problem.

Tong Zhanyan called over the construction crew and had them set it up.

Once the machine was in place and tested to ensure it worked, the delivery crew left.

In the afternoon, the materials requested by the construction crew arrived.

There was so much to unload, and since the vehicles outside couldn’t drive directly onto the site for fear of contaminating the soil, Tong Zhanyan and his team pitched in to help carry the supplies.

The streetlights and water pipes were made of iron and were quite bulky and heavy, but the group worked with cheerful enthusiasm.

Although this had nothing to do with farming, it was part of what was making the base better and better.

That night, Tong Zhanyan announced the winners right on schedule.

There were two groups of winners: one from the general public and one from the Four Great Families, with twenty people in each group.

As soon as the list was released, some rejoiced while others were disappointed.

“I didn’t win again… It really feels so hard.”

“Me neither.”

“After all, there are so many people.”

“Waaah…”

“Our whole family didn’t sleep last night. We kept talking about how great it would be if my dad won. His condition is already pretty serious. Sigh…”

“It’s okay. Even people with severe infections have a chance of waking up now. At worst, we’ll just have to wait a little longer. Plus, Senior has been lowering the prices on crops. Maybe someday we’ll be able to afford them ourselves.”

“I hope that day comes.”

“I hope that day comes soon.”

“Hang in there, Senior!”

……

After the list was released, Tong Zhanyan entrusted the follow-up tasks to Tian Xinqing and Ning Langdong.

Notifications, coordination, and accomodations—there was plenty to do.

While Ning Langdong and the others were busy, Tong Zhanyan focused on observing the process by which the wheat, after pollination, entered the grain-filling stage and then matured.

In this regard, they were no different from ordinary wheat—except that the speed was terrifyingly fast.

This process usually takes about a month for ordinary wheat, but they completed it in just five days.

Watching them mature, Tong Zhanyan felt no joy; on the contrary, his headache only grew, for he realized that harvesting had become a problem as well.

The wheat had grown too tall, with numerous sharp leaves. The only solution was to knock them down before harvesting, but the process of knocking them down was quite difficult.

Previously, outside the protective shield, the Devil King and his group had knocked them down during beastification.

That method wouldn’t work in the greenhouse because there wasn’t enough space.

It wasn’t that the greenhouse couldn’t accommodate a person in a fused state, but they’d have to squeeze into the middle first before fusing; otherwise, the door would definitely break.

The problem was they couldn’t get in.

Just as Tong Zhanyan was racking his brains, the construction crew showed up.

The warehouse was finished.

Tong Zhanyan went to take a look.

Unlike residential buildings, warehouses have a relatively simple structure, so they’re easier to construct.

The cement was quick-drying; by the time Tong Zhanyan arrived, the floor was already walkable, though it would need to cure for a while longer before it was fully usable.

Tong Zhanyan was quite satisfied.

Once they confirmed there were no issues, the construction crew went to install the water pipes; the trenches had already been dug.

Tong Zhanyan walked with them for a while, taking the opportunity to check on the corn, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes.

The corn kernels had already begun to harden, as had the pumpkin skins; they would be ready for harvest in no more than two weeks.

The sweet potatoes, however, were still a ways off, but they should be ready by the time the corn and pumpkins were harvested.

Tong Zhanyan was just thinking about how to organize things when his phone rang.

Qing Jiyue was contacting him.

The hospital had approved his discharge.

Qing Jiyue hadn’t fully recovered to the level of an ordinary person yet, but he no longer had to stay in the hospital indefinitely.

Qing Jiyue was probably tired of being there; as soon as he heard he could be discharged, he decided to leave without a second thought.

Tong Zhanyan discussed it with him and decided to go over tomorrow to help him with the paperwork.

That night, Tong Zhanyan mentioned this to Yang Hong and the others in advance.

He now had to bring bodyguards whenever he went out, and Yang Hong and the others served as his bodyguards.

The next day, when Tong Zhanyan arrived at the back entrance, the car was already waiting.

Yang Hong and the others were already in the car.

Tong Zhanyan had been rushing to the hospital whenever he had a spare moment lately, so they were already used to it.

Tong Zhanyan got into the car.

In the car, Yang Hong formally told Tong Zhanyan about their plan to return to the Gu Family; the situation this year was making him uneasy.

After hearing his words, Tong Zhanyan was just about to speak when the car suddenly stopped.

There was a traffic jam ahead.

Tong Zhanyan rolled down the window and looked ahead; the line of cars wasn’t very long, and it seemed like there had been an accident.

Just as Tong Zhanyan was about to lean out further for a better look, a strange, uneasy sensation washed over him.

He immediately scanned his surroundings.

In that brief moment, more than ten cars had already pulled up on both sides and behind them.

Across from Tong Zhanyan’s window, someone got out of a car, seemingly intending to go check out the front.

As he moved, he glanced over at Tong Zhanyan’s side.

That single glance sent a chill down Tong Zhanyan’s spine. He jerked his head back. “Yang Hong, let’s go around—”

“Bang.”

Before Tong Zhanyan could finish his sentence, something whizzed past his face and slammed into the seatback next to him.

It was a bullet.

Yang Hong and another man lunged toward him simultaneously, trying to shield him, but it was too late.

Outside the car, a figure undergoing beastification and lunging toward them was followed by a violent upheaval that engulfed the vehicle.

Tong Zhanyan wasn’t surprised when the car’s violent roll sent him crashing into the door. He had only one thought: It’s finally here.

He had messed with too many people’s interests.