Chapter 1085: Plucked-Fur Baby

Yesterday, Feng Wen and Yan Meng were arguing in the area of Territory No. 14 near Territory No. 15. Tan Qi and Little Shiyi, who were clearing weeds inside the territory, ran to the wild-grass wall between Territory No. 15 and Territory No. 14 to eavesdrop.

Last night, when Little Shiyi was on the phone with Zhang Shi, she told her about it as big news. Having grown up in Evolution Forest, this was the first time Little Shiyi had watched two humans argue fiercely, so she described it in great detail, even telling Zhang Shi about Yan Meng and Feng Wen's emotional fluctuations.

Based on her daughter's description, along with her own observations of Territory No. 14 over the past two days, Zhang Shi reached a conclusion: both Yan Meng and Feng Wen had developed an intense desire to kill the other.

Feng Wen wanting to kill Yan Meng was perfectly normal; Yan Meng wanting to kill Feng Wen, who was still carrying his child in her belly, was indeed a bit abnormal.

There was another abnormal point—the fact that Yan Meng and Feng Wen had gone to argue near Territory No. 15. Xia Qing felt they had deliberately argued loud enough for the people of Territory No. 15 to hear.

Xia Qing set these matters aside for the moment and asked calmly, "Sister Shi, what do you think?"

Zhang Shi smiled. "I have no thoughts on it."

Even if Territory No. 14 were vacated, it would become a target that every faction in Hui-3 and even the entire Hui City would scramble for. Zhang Shi and Ye Yang's foundations were far too thin; it was simply impossible for them to seize this territory and make Little Shiyi its lord.

Zhang Shi had told Xia Qing the news because she figured that rather than letting strangers move into the territory and increasing the potential risks to the Northern District One territories, it would be better to let Xia Qing take over this piece of land.

Zhang Shi said she had no thoughts on it, so Xia Qing dropped the topic and went back to checking the peanuts in the field. She hadn't expected that, after leaving the hidden valley and finishing her inspection of the progress on the contaminated-soil treatment project at Mountain No. 50, she would receive a call from Feng Wen.

Feng Wen's voice was kept very low and carried a thick weariness. "Xia Qing, do you still remember Shan Ying, the vice-captain of Hui-1's Blaze Squad? She contacted Yan Meng today."

How does a person contact a ghost?

Xia Qing's voice was calm. "I still have things to do. If you have something to say, say it. If not, I'm hanging up."

Feng Wen knew Xia Qing's temperament well and immediately switched to getting straight to the point. "Something's happened on Blaze's side. Shan Ying agreed to treat Yan Meng's injuries on the condition that Yan Meng join Blaze and let her enter Territory No. 14. You have a grudge against Shan Ying, so you definitely don't want her to come in, right?"

"As long as you ask the lord of Territory No. 7 to examine Yan Meng's body and prove that he's been mentally unstable since he took Blaze's medicine back in April this year, I'll tell you which people in the Ninth Center and the inspection teams are Blaze's moles."

"Don't think that just because you've sealed off the four gates of Northern District One, medicine can't be smuggled in. Yan Meng has already gathered evidence of you colluding with the northern wolves to harm people. If you don't let him get the medicine, he'll hand the evidence over and make sure you can't stay here."

Feng Wen's voice grew urgent. "As long as you let Zhang San write a certificate, you can preserve my child's right to inherit the territory. I'll take care of Yan Meng for you, and I'll hand over full management of Territory No. 14 to you."

Take care of Yan Meng for me? Hah. Xia Qing stopped walking and gazed quietly at the dense wild grass ahead.

Getting no response from Xia Qing, Feng Wen calmly analyzed the current situation for her. "If Yan Meng is healed, he'll work with Shan Ying against you. If Yan Meng dies, my child loses the right to inherit the territory, and this territory becomes the biggest variable right beside you—leaving you in a very passive position too, right?"

Variable? Xia Qing asked calmly, "Are you done?"

Hearing Xia Qing still acting like this dead-fish, Feng Wen grew even more panicked and threw out her next condition. "As long as you help me this once, I'll tell you which people inside the Northern District One territories are Blaze's moles, and tell you why aggressive qiang-grass suddenly appeared on the passage during qiang rain. As long as these people aren't cleared out, you'll never have peace here."

So this was her real negotiation condition. Feng Wen still underestimated her. Xia Qing hung up the phone directly and asked the little yellow weasel hiding behind the rock, "Plucked-fur baby, are you out hunting on your own?"

The baby of the Plucked-fur yellow weasel family trembled, shakily raising its little head. Only then did Xia Qing notice that this little yellow weasel, which had a ring of sparse white fur around its mouth, was holding a snake in its jaws.

Xia Qing understood what it had come for and asked the clever little yellow weasel in a gentle voice, "Plucked-fur baby, you caught a snake—do you want to trade it for an egg?"

To clear out the qiang-snakes in the northern territories, Xia Qing had posted pictures of qiang-snakes at the door of the Plucked-fur yellow weasel family's home. Every time she came by, she would patiently and repeatedly emphasize to the yellow weasel family that these little green or red snakes with a bump on their heads were extremely dangerous, and if they caught any qiang-snakes, they could trade them to her for eggs.

Eggs were a favorite food of the yellow weasel family. She hadn't expected that the first one to trade an egg with Xia Qing would actually be the Plucked-fur baby.

The baby of the Plucked-fur yellow weasel family placed the snake on the rock, retreated to what it considered a safe spot, shakily poked out half its little head, and stared at Xia Qing with its shiny black eyes.

Although the snake this little yellow weasel had caught wasn't a qiang-snake, Xia Qing didn't want to dampen its enthusiasm. She took out the picture of a qiang-snake from her backpack, then picked up the little snake on the rock and compared it with the qiang-snake in the picture, patiently explaining the difference between the two. "Look, Plucked-fur baby, the qiang-snake I want has a bump on its head. The one you caught doesn't have a bump, so this isn't a qiang-snake, which means I can only give you one egg."

After explaining several times, Xia Qing pried out the smallest egg from the egg tray in her backpack, placed it on the ground, put the snake into a bag, and continued walking forward.

The Plucked-fur baby waited until Xia Qing had walked far away before quickly running to the egg. It opened its mouth and tried several times, found that it couldn't pick the egg up in its jaws, then skillfully cracked the shell with its teeth and sucked the contents down in one go.

Hearing the commotion behind her, Xia Qing had just curled up the corner of her mouth when she felt the phone in her pocket vibrating again. Feng Wen was calling her once more. Xia Qing hung up directly and blocked Feng Wen.

What Feng Wen had said just now was half right: Yan Meng alive was no good for Xia Qing; Yan Meng dead, with the territory falling into someone else's hands, was also no good for Xia Qing.

But the other half she hadn't gotten right: helping Feng Wen fabricate evidence and letting the territory fall into her hands would be equivalent to Xia Qing handing her own leverage straight to Feng Wen, which was even worse for Xia Qing.

Feng Wen couldn't possibly have failed to think of this point. She was using negotiation tactics to bargain with her—first offering a price she knew Xia Qing couldn't accept, then lowering it.

It seemed that the people of Territory No. 15 being able to hear her and Yan Meng argue was indeed something Feng Wen had deliberately staged, all to lay the groundwork for today's phone negotiation.

Xia Qing was busy; she had no time to waste negotiating with her.

Xia Qing arrived at the door of the yellow weasel family that watched over the valley for her and found that neither Plucked-fur nor Little White-fur was home. She called out Shi Mu and Yuan Yan, entered the northern isolation belt of the Northern District One territories through the north gate, left Shi Mu and Yuan Yan at the north gate of Territory No. 5, and drove toward Territory No. 7. On the cleared isolation belt north of Territory No. 6, she spotted a hunched, emaciated figure.

As Xia Qing's car approached, the person straightened up, raised a hand to remove a protective mask, and slowly lifted a gaunt head barely supported by a thin neck, revealing a sallow, dark-complexioned face.