Chapter 187: There’s a Traitor?
With that, he stepped slightly to the side, giving Lily Hart a clearer view.
Lily Hart strode forward and placed her hands on her hips, sighing as she looked at the small, densely packed plot of land.
"This isn’t nearly enough space to plant..." she said, sounding like a world-weary old farmer.
Her tone and expression made Stan Sterling want to laugh, but he only dared to stifle it, not letting any sound escape.
Then, Lily Hart crouched down and poked a watermelon vine with her finger. "Looks like the roots are here. It’ll survive even if it grows outside the plot."
As she said that, their eyes suddenly met. An idea flashed in Lily Hart’s mind. "That means we can plant more climbing vines!"
"That makes sense," Stan Sterling agreed.
So, Lily Hart ordered a bunch of climbing vegetable seeds—luffa, pumpkin, eggplant, cucumber, winter melon...
She would plant them all along the edge. Once the seedlings sprouted, she could let them climb outward, which would save space and prevent them from being contaminated by the outside soil.
Lily Hart thought she was a genius.
After she and Stan Sterling planted all the seeds one by one with small trowels, Lily Hart was so exhausted she plopped right down on the ground.
’Farming really is manual labor.’
Stan Sterling glanced over, silently took out a cushion, and handed it to her. "Don’t sit on the ground. It’s cold."
Lily Hart took it without a second thought. She lifted her hips just enough to quickly shove the cushion underneath. It was much more comfortable.
Her mind started to wander. "This space is still too small. It’d be great if it could be upgraded or expanded."
"Yeah, we can’t plant much, and everything grows so fast," Stan Sterling added, also a little worried.
If it weren’t for Auspice Base three hundred meters away, its searchlights constantly sweeping past, Stan Sterling might have almost forgotten his real reason for getting close to Lily Hart.
Looking at the small plot of land filled with plants, he felt a long-lost sense of security.
’He wished he didn’t have this other identity, that he was just an ordinary customer staying at the hotel.’
’If they had met in the most normal, simple way... But how could he not notice Lily Hart’s guardedness and vigilance toward him? He was just deceiving himself...’
Suddenly, the scene before him changed. Stan Sterling stared. ’Has the area gotten bigger?’
Originally, the one-square-meter area had been outlined by a bright red line that only he could see, which was why he had been so certain of its size before.
But now, as he stood up and looked from side to side, the area enclosed by the red line was clearly larger.
A quick comparison showed it was three times bigger than before. In other words, it was now three square meters?!
He turned to share this amazing news with Lily Hart, who jumped up in excitement.
"Really?" Lily Hart asked, needing confirmation.
Stan Sterling then paced out the approximate area to show her, and Lily Hart began to get a sense of it herself.
But her first reaction was: ’Doesn’t this mean we have to plant everything all over again?’
She stared blankly at the ring of various vegetable and fruit seeds they had just planted along the edge.
Clearly recalling the exhaustion of their recent work, she collapsed onto the ground, her legs sprawled out wantonly. She was just short of lying down completely.
Seeing this, Stan Sterling smiled, pursing his lips, and obediently picked up a trowel to get back to work himself.
Lily Hart wasn’t the type to "watch someone die without helping," so after a short rest, she got up to help him.
Besides, she was curious to see what this little sapling was capable of.
Working together, the two of them made quick work of it, replanting all the climbing varieties in the new corners.
They planned to build a trellis for them later, letting them climb with abandon and produce tons of fruits and vegetables.
Once they finished moving the climbing plants, they left the rest untouched—they were already getting too large. The shortest was still the soil-improving sapling, which only came up to Lily Hart’s knee and seemed to be growing very slowly.
Meanwhile, the peach, pear, and pine trees were on another level, shooting up like wild stallions that had broken their reins. The sight made both of them happy.
Now there was plenty of empty space in the middle again. Lily Hart was just starting to wonder what to plant next when a wave of drowsiness washed over her.
But she forced herself to stay alert and asked one last question, "Are the residents of Auspice Base very poor?"
Stan Sterling froze, unsure what she was getting at. He paused his work of loosening the soil and said carefully, "They’re average. Not wealthy, but not poor either."
’Okay, that was as good as saying nothing,’ Lily Hart thought.
Lily Hart asked another question. "Then why aren’t any of the residents of Auspice Base coming out?"
Stan Sterling understood then. Although he had been staying in the hotel, his balcony faced the RV, giving him a clear view of everything.
It was just that the awning today was too obstructive, so he hadn’t seen much, only that business was bad.
He shook his head, his knuckles white as he gripped the trowel. "I don’t know," he said cautiously. "Maybe the zombies have been harder to kill lately, or perhaps something happened inside the base?"
He was clearly hinting at something. Lily Hart’s guess was similar to his, but she didn’t know the specifics.
’In any case, it had to be something big enough to affect her business.’
Having gotten a slightly more definite answer, Lily Hart patted the dust off her backside and hands, said a quick goodbye, and headed back to the RV, swinging her arms.
Only after she left did Stan Sterling breathe a sigh of relief. Coincidentally, the work here was done. He stored the tools in his space and returned to the hotel as well.
Back in his room, he made sure no one was around before opening a contact on his Light Brain.
There were hundreds of messages, all from the other party. He ignored them all and sent one of his own: "What happened at the base?"
Though it was late, the reply came quickly, dripping with sarcasm. "Yo, not dead yet?"
"Cut the crap," Stan Sterling replied coldly. He just wanted the information he needed and couldn’t be bothered with their games.
The person on the other end seemed to choke on their words. A few minutes later, a new message arrived: "What could happen? We just had a spy, so we’re investigating."
Stan Sterling stared at the message, his gaze darkening. A mocking smile played on his lips. He clearly didn’t believe it.
’A spy? Just an excuse.’
’It had to be that paranoid Base Commander making trouble again. And this time, he was targeting Boss Hart.’
Stan Sterling sat down against the foot of his bed, one leg bent. He rested an arm casually on his knee, his fingertips tapping as he thought.
From what he knew of Shane Wilder—the Base Commander of Auspice—the man was timid but extremely ambitious.
He figured Shane Wilder wanted to make a move on the lottery shop but didn’t dare to, mainly because there were too many rumors about Lily Hart online.
Some said she was a Tenth-rank Superpower User who could kill without a trace. Others claimed she was a savior sent by the heavens to rescue everyone from their suffering.
In short, the theories were all over the place.
So, Shane Wilder had to settle for the next best thing: letting his confidants fleece the lottery shop while preventing other residents from doing the same.
This created the dismal business scene from today. As for how he knew all these details, it was part of the grand promise Shane Wilder had made to him...
He’d said something like, any great prizes from the lottery would be his for the choosing, as long as he obediently stayed by Lily Hart’s side, gathered more information, and his rewards would be plentiful.
To this day, Stan Sterling hadn’t seen any of those "benefits," but their plan was proceeding as scheduled.
He could already imagine the scene in the coming days: business would be just as dismal, and he didn’t know how upset Boss Hart would be.
Stan Sterling thought this, feeling a pang of sympathy, but he did nothing. He just washed up and went to bed.