Chapter 169 - 167: Ploughing the Land

Words : 1148 Updated : Sep 19th, 2025

The five armored vehicles of the SWAT and paramilitary police stopped at the gate of Shelter No. 2 in Baling County, poised for an assault. Even though only one of the paramilitary police armored vehicles was equipped with heavy weapons on its roof, and the other four were just light troop carriers, just one rotary heavy machine gun was enough to breach the shelter’s gate. The machine gun did not fire, even though the gunner had already placed his finger on the trigger, and the crosshair in the sight was aimed right at the shelter’s gate before them. "Is there still no response?" asked Team Leader Li, looking at the shelter’s gate illuminated by the headlights of the five armored vehicles, turning to another SWAT team leader beside him. Team Leader Li, this SWAT officer, the officer from the paramilitary unit in charge of the squad, along with the Baling County SWAT and paramilitary commanders, formed a temporary command team on site. Decisions on which strategies to adopt to resolve the incident, and whether to use force, were all determined by this temporary command group of five. "The phone’s been connected, and we’ve tried calling over the radio, but there’s been no answer from inside." The other SWAT team leader, surnamed Zhang, known as Old Zhang, was rather impatient, "If you ask me, we should just launch a forced assault. We don’t need the heavy machine gun—planting explosives on the four hinges of the gate could take down this protective door." The gate of Shelter No. 2 in Baling County was merely an ordinary civil defense door, and to an explosives expert like Old Zhang, there were many methods to open it. Actually, Team Leader Li supported Old Zhang’s idea of launching an assault. It’s so cold letting everyone stay in a state of readiness like this. If any of his men caught some frostbite, it wouldn’t be worth peeling the skin off those criminals. Things aren’t like before. Back then, a standoff just meant a test of patience, but now, it’s also about whether the team can withstand the severe cold of minus several tens of degrees. It makes no sense that the criminals could comfortably waste time inside the shelter while the police were left to freeze outside in the icy wind and snow. The paramilitary officer in charge was similarly inclined towards a direct attack. Although the soldiers could still hold on, such a standoff would unlikely break anytime soon, and he didn’t want his soldiers to suffer the cold any longer. "Issue the final ultimatum, wait ten more minutes, and if they don’t open the door, we’ll force our way in!" Finally, the officer made a decision. Upon receiving the order, someone immediately proceeded to execute it, while Team Leader Li, Old Zhang, and the other two commanders also instructed their troops to prepare for the assault. The ten minutes passed in a flash, and seeing the door still tightly shut with no sign of opening, the paramilitary officer in charge issued the command to storm. However, just as they were about to dismantle the gate of Shelter No. 2 in Baling County by explosives, the wheel on the door moved slightly. The once tightly closed gate of Shelter No. 2 in Baling County finally opened. ———————————————— Pushing the small cultivator and watching the blades chop the soil and the remaining rice roots together, Chen Xin hummed a cheerful tune. Having completed the harvest of this month’s vegetables, he also began tilling the fields, preparing to plant the second crop of rice for the year. Although intending to convert the dry rice to water rice, the current conditions were not yet suitable, so this second crop would still be dry rice. Currently, the rice seeds had already begun to sprout, and he needed to finish tilling the soil before the seedlings grew out. Chen Xin wore a protective mask because the freshly fertilized greenhouse smelled really strong, and without the mask, the odor would be intolerable. These fertilizers came from his water treatment reaction tank, containing the fermented products of processed toilet wastewater, which are traditional organic fertilizers. In the past, these fertilizers might have been insufficient, but with the harvest of the first crop and the biomass produced by the oxygen machine, the composting materials were temporarily adequate. Chen Xin crushed these rice stalks and fed them into the upgraded reaction tank. Although a few days of fermentation wouldn’t turn these stalks into fertilizer, the previously stored portion and the increased fermentation efficiency brought about by the system upgrade provided Chen Xin with sufficient fertilizer. The fertilizer was sprinkled in the field and mixed into the soil during tilling. This method, called base fertilization, could influence the entire season’s crop growth. Before the advent of chemical fertilizers, base fertilization and plowing were critical parts of traditional agricultural production activities. Even with the modern advancements in agriculture with machinery and fertilizers, they remained indispensable agricultural practices. Pushing the cultivator, the small field was soon fully tilled. Looking at the tilled field, Chen Xin smiled, his heart filled with hope for a good harvest this season. "Grow up quickly!" After tidying up the cultivator, Chen Xin looked at the seedlings being nurtured and earnestly wished for them to grow faster. However, no matter how fervently Chen Xin wished for the seedlings’ growth, plants have to adhere to the natural objective laws, and they cannot grow instantaneously. So, even as Chen Xin stared longingly at the seedlings, wishing for rapid growth, they still appeared as tender sprouts emerging from the soil, with no noticeable change. Nevertheless, Chen Xin happily gazed at the seedlings, almost imagining them already bearing the weight of a bountiful harvest. Despite placing profound hopes on the seedlings, Chen Xin eventually turned to other tasks after watching them for a while, given that aside from them, there were other important matters that warranted his attention. The herbs promised to Doctor Hong Rui had already been sown. Since he hadn’t planted such things before, Chen Xin felt unsure and only planted a third of the seeds. He followed Doctor Hong Rui’s instructions on planting and sowed them on a specially reserved planting board. The current situation seemed favorable; most of the seeds had germinated. However, whether they would grow and eventually yield a harvest, Chen Xin was still uncertain. Given that encountering issues during plant growth is utterly normal and despite the fact that his greenhouse has not seen any crop diseases in the past half year, possibly due to the system upgrade, Chen Xin believed he couldn’t be careless. After thoroughly inspecting all the crops and ensuring there were no issues, he finally left the greenhouse. As per his routine, Qin Lan would deliver this month’s supplies today, and Chen Xin needed to organize the harvested vegetables and prepare for the exchange.

Chapter 169 - 167: Ploughing the Land

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