Chapter 1090: Who Gets the Class-C Magnetic-Sense Evolver

Xia Qing carried the picked vegetables into the kitchen, smelled the rich aroma of roasting meat, watched Yang Jin's practiced handling of the ingredients, and felt a strong anticipation for the sizzling piece of meat on the oven.

Half an hour later, sitting in the meeting room, Xia Qing took a bite of the tender, juice-bursting beef and gave Yang Jin a thumbs-up.

Yang Jin flashed a row of neat white teeth, picked up a piece of meat near his side that was a little burnt on the back and put it in his own bowl, then introduced the cooking method to Xia Qing: "First, seal the beef with fragrant beeswax for a week. After removing the seal, coat it with honeycomb honey mixed with rice koji and let it infuse for another week. After two weeks, scrape off the honeycomb honey, pan-fry it first to create a caramelized crust, then put the meat in the oven. Add grape wine and honey to the frying pan and place it on the lower rack of the oven, so the steam and heat roast the beef on the upper rack — that's how it gets the most flavor."

Xia Qing served herself a second bowl of rice and picked up another fragrant piece of meat. "This preparation process is way too complicated."

One piece of meat needs to be sealed and smeared with honey and beeswax for two whole weeks, and during roasting you still have to add grape wine and rice koji — it'd be strange if it didn't taste good.

Xia Qing didn't have that kind of patience. If she had a piece of Green Lantern beef, she'd just cut it into chunks, toss it in a pot, add two small chili peppers, cook it through, add a bit of salt, and it would be ready to eat.

Having been in the territory for over a year, Xia Qing had already mastered the secret of cooking: if a dish doesn't taste good, either add some chili or add some vinegar — it'll definitely go with rice.

The chili-and-vinegar stir-fried cucumber on the table was Xia Qing's own creation — a perfect rice-accompaniment dish that could be made in two or three minutes.

"The process of making food is very relaxing and gives a sense of accomplishment. Sister Qing's stir-fried sour-and-spicy cucumber is really delicious." Being able to prepare food for Xia Qing, Yang Jin didn't find the process complicated at all. Seeing Xia Qing start on her third bowl of rice, Yang Jin's sense of accomplishment and happiness instantly overflowed.

Xia Qing nodded — today she had performed above her usual level, and the cucumber really was stir-fried well. Though it might also be that pairing it with the juice-bursting beef today made this cucumber dish especially appetizing.

After two advanced Evolvers finished off three jin of beef, a large plate of vegetables, a pot of soup, and half a pot of rice, Xia Qing told Yang Jin to rest while she went to wash the pots and bowls and tidy up the kitchen.

Yang Jin stood up as well. "Let's do it together. Once we're done cleaning up, we'll divide the supplies you and Xie Yu captured the day before yesterday."

The moment she heard about dividing supplies, Xia Qing instantly perked up. "Captain Yang, tidy the table and brew a pot of tea — I'll wash these bowls in no time."

Ten minutes later, the two sat in the meeting room still fragrant with the smell of meat, and began using the wall-mounted monitoring screen to play the video Xie Yu had recorded of the mission execution and loot clearing in the canyon adjacent to Hui-1 in the No. 26 mountain region of southwestern Hui-3.

Seeing Xie Yu's squad pull a thin, small, blue-skinned child out from inside the stone wall, Xia Qing asked, "This is the magnetic-sense Evolver from the wanderer squad?"

Yang Jin nodded. "Her name is Xiao Jing. Female, Class-C magnetic-sense Evolver. Parents, surname, age, and birthplace unknown."

During the Catastrophe years, population casualties were severe, and many children became orphans for all sorts of reasons. The lucky ones were discovered by the authorities and sent to Fuli Academy, where at least they had food, schooling, and a place to sleep; the unlucky ones became tools for some people to trade for rations or points, or even became someone's rations directly.

Xia Qing didn't press further. She watched as, after Xie Yu's squad finished the capture, the strength-type Evolver on the team pried open the iron door of the wanderers' cave, went inside, and began searching for supplies.

The wanderers' protective suits, boots, protective masks, backpacks, satchels, bedding — these items certainly had to be inspected thoroughly. Then came the bed boards, door panels, shelves, walls, floor…

After a thorough scrape-the-ground-style search, the video ended, and Yang Jin handed the handwritten supply list to Xia Qing.

14 walnut-sized high-grade Yishi, 2 pigeon-egg-sized high-grade Yishi, 32 walnut-sized mid-grade Yishi, 2 high-grade Yishi granules, a 32,000-point card, two pistols, six muskets, four giant lizards, various medicines and herbs…

After reviewing it, Xia Qing had a rough idea in mind. She took a sip of tea and looked expressionlessly at Yang Jin across the table. "Captain Yang wants the Class-C sense Evolver from the wanderer squad?"

Yang Jin nodded without hesitation. "A Class-C magnetic-sense Evolver's ability is extremely useful. This child is still young, her personality and values haven't formed yet — she can be cultivated as a key talent."

Personality and values could indeed be cultivated, but a child this age already remembers things, and of course holds grudges too. Keeping her would involve no small risk.

But this was the Azure Dragon Squad's business, and Xia Qing wouldn't interfere with Yang Jin's decision. She only cared about how to divide the supplies. "Fine. The value of this magnetic-sense Evolver counts as one-tenth of the total supplies."

Huh?!!!

Before he could speak, Xia Qing directly laid out her reasoning: "The condition I set with Captain Yang at the time was that Captain Xie would capture the magnetic-sense Evolver outside the cave and any wanderers who might be there — the supplies on those people all go to you. The remaining supplies inside the cave are split eighty-twenty, you two, me eight."

Yang Jin nodded, also realizing where the problem lay.

Seeing he was willing to acknowledge this, Xia Qing continued stating the facts: "Capturing this magnetic-sense Evolver was inside the wanderers' stone-wall cave, which is part of the wanderers' cave, so she belongs to the remaining supplies inside the cave."

Thinking back now, Xia Qing was still quite shaken. She and the wolf pack had charged into the cave, yet none of them had noticed that a person was hidden in a small cave connected to it.

The wanderers' concealment methods were truly formidable.

Yang Jin gave Xia Qing a thumbs-up. "Sister Qing is right. 0.5 tenths?"

The real negotiation began. Xia Qing's face was expressionless. "One-tenth. If Captain Yang doesn't agree, we'll hand her over for the bounty."

Yang Jin leaned forward, smiling like a flower. "Let's each take a step back — 0.65 tenths?"

In front of Yishi, the beauty trap wouldn't work either! Xia Qing's face remained expressionless. "0.75 tenths. Lowest price."

"Deal."

Yang Jin agreed readily, pulled a calculator from his pocket, and tapped away as he converted the supplies into points. "Besides the magnetic-sense Evolver, the most valuable items in this batch are the high-grade Yishi. According to the Holy Fame Auction House's estimates, a walnut-sized high-grade Yishi is 520,000 each, a pigeon-egg-sized one is 300,000…"

Yang Jin quickly finished the calculation, took out the Yishi and point cards from his backpack and divided them into two portions — the larger one was Xia Qing's, the smaller one his. After the other supplies were converted to cash, he'd transfer the points to Xia Qing according to the split ratio.

Just as Xia Qing was about to put away her share of the supplies, she heard Yang Jin speak with a smile.

"Sister Qing, I noticed your phone screen is cracked. Want to trade for a new one?"

Xia Qing……

"The Red-1 Base Research Institute has released its latest research results, including new-material protective boots. Wearing these boots can increase running speed by at least 8%. Want a pair, Sister Qing?"

Xia Qing……