Chapter 11: Food

Xia Qing first tossed a small stone into the pond, and saw that the sow only lifted her head to glance at the water, then lowered it again to keep rooting in the mud; the little wild boars' chasing and tussling weren't interrupted at all.

What does this prove? It proves there are no natural predators of wild boars in this valley, which is why their vigilance is so low.

A natural predator has arrived.

Xia Qing reached up and pinched the evolved snake that had flown off the tree trunk to bite her, swiftly stuffed it into her leather pouch, and continued approaching the wild boars from downwind.

After her hearing evolved, Xia Qing's stealth had multiplied; she crawled to within five meters of the wild boars without being noticed.

This distance was close enough to act. Xia Qing pulled out a rope and a wooden stick, made three simple trip snares, then quietly circled to the upwind side, picked up a rock weighing over fifty jin, and hurled it hard at one of the piglets.

The piglet's shriek rang out; the sow trotted over snorting to check; the piglets panicked and ran; three got caught in the trip snares and squealed wildly; the sow ran over again to check the snared piglets. The three piglets were snared in different directions, so the sow could only tend to one at a time.

Xia Qing seized the chance to rush over, toss the piglet killed by the rock into her back basket, hack through the snare ropes and grab two more piglets, then tear along the original path at full speed back to her territory, confirming the wild boars hadn't given chase. Three wild boars—her luck today was through the roof!

Xia Qing grinned foolishly as she scanned the three piglets, and found two red and one green—the live one was green!

The base had always wanted to expand the breeding of green-light livestock, especially pigs—domestic or wild—that breed fast and yield a lot of meat. The value of this edible piglet was beyond what ordinary edible animals could match.

This was a golden pig.

No, gold isn't worth much anymore either—this was a points pig!

Xia Qing lovingly pinched the mouths of the two piglets shut so they wouldn't squall, brought them home, and put them in a room in the west courtyard whose four walls were still standing. The two little pigs with melon-rind markings were terrified, huddling in a corner and grunting.

Xia Qing set out grass and water for the pigs, then immediately contacted Zhong Tao to handle the dead red-light wild boar and the evolved snakes in her pouch.

Humming a little tune, she pulled out her phone and sent Zhong Tao a message: Bro Tao, do you have a precision bio-scanner? I've got two red-light wild boars totaling a hundred and thirty jin, one dead, one alive.

Xia Qing's scanner could only distinguish edible from inedible organisms; an advanced scanner could distinguish safe food, optional food, and inedible food. Back when she was in the Safe Zone, Xia Qing hadn't been willing to spend eight hundred points on an advanced one, but now she could afford it.

In less than five minutes, Xia Qing got Zhong Tao's reply:

"Yes, I'll be there in an hour."

An hour—seemed Zhong Tao wasn't far. Xia Qing sent him another message: "Bring some oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar too."

Last night's broadcast had said that, to make things easier for the lords, patrol vehicles would carry daily necessities, and lords could exchange them for points or supplies. At the same time, to ensure the lords' safety, information about their supply exchanges would not be made public.

Xia Qing's luck today had pierced the heavens, so she could afford to live a little better.

Soon, a light truck rolled up in a cloud of dust and stopped under the No. 3 Land signpost.

Seeing that Tan Junjie from the inspection team had actually gotten out of the vehicle along with Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui, Xia Qing, clutching her back basket, felt her scalp tighten.

Zhong Tao's eyes lit up as he stared at Xia Qing. "Sis, you're amazing! Where are the wild boars? Brother Kui and I will weigh them for you."

"Captain Tan, Brother Kui, here." Xia Qing greeted Tan Junjie first, then pulled the tightly bound piglets out of her back basket. "And a few snakes too."

The moment Zhong Tao got his hands on them, his eyes shone even brighter. "Has to be seventy jin! Kuizi, get the scale!"

Zheng Kui, a cigarette dangling from his lips, weighed them on a steelyard. "Live piglet seventy-three jin, dead one seventy-two jin, snakes thirty jin total."

Zhong Tao mashed the calculator for a while and was stunned. "Three thousand eight hundred sixty-five points total! Good lord, that's more than a whole year of your work back in the Safe Zone. How much oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar do you want?"

Although she'd just earned a huge haul of points, Xia Qing didn't want to show off too much. "Four bags of salt, one jug each of the others, all the best quality."

Even with Xia Qing already holding back on her order, Zhong Tao was green with envy. "Right. These condiments are fresh stock straight from the processing plant—plus the advanced scanner, that's three thousand seven hundred ninety. You've got seventy-five points left. Want me to transfer them to your card, or take some more supplies?"

Hearing that Zhong Tao had brought only the best goods, Xia Qing pressed, "What else did you bring, Bro Tao?"

Zhong Tao quoted prices. "Compressed rations, twenty points a jin; soothing capsules, one hundred a box; and some common medicines. Also, there's staple grain the troops are putting up for exchange—wheat flour twenty points a jin, corn flour thirteen, rice thirty-seven."

Evolved soldiers in the military were treated very well; those without family would trade their surplus supplies, and those usually got snapped up internally. Xia Qing hadn't expected to catch this batch, and she quickly asked, "Bro Tao, grain exchanges aren't recorded, right?"

Zhong Tao knew what Xia Qing was worried about and cheerfully explained, "Not recorded—it's a private deal. And we're not using the Safe Zone mission hall's card reader either. Relax, sis."

With grain on the table, Xia Qing couldn't be bothered with staying low-key. She immediately pulled out her points card. "Twenty jin of each—is that enough?"

That much?

Zhong Tao glanced at Tan Junjie on the sly; seeing he stayed silent, he nodded. "Sure. That'll cost you another thirteen hundred twenty-five points."

With less than two thousand points left on her card, Xia Qing pretended to wince as she handed it over. "I've only got a little over fifteen hundred points—I'm about to be cleaned out."

Zhong Tao first used the public handheld card reader to transfer seventy-five points onto Xia Qing's card, then pulled out his own reader, deducted fourteen hundred points, and called to Zheng Kui, "Kuizi, haul the stuff!"

After Xia Qing took the two heavy bags, Tan Junjie, who had been silent all this time, spoke up. "Where did you catch the wild boars?"

Tan Junjie's presence was on par with Xia Qing's middle-school homeroom teacher—Xia Qing felt pressure just looking at him.

She had brought out the piglets hoping the inspection team would go clear out the big boar; otherwise, if it barged into her territory and wrecked the place, that would be a real headache. So Xia Qing answered honestly, "From No. 4 Land, straight north over a hill, there's a valley with a pond in it—I caught them there. At the time there was one big boar with a litter of piglets; the big one should be an ordinary evolution."

There's still a big boar out there? Even if it was red-light meat, once you brought it back and purified it, it was still edible! Never mind the usually outgoing Zhong Tao—even the quiet Zheng Kui couldn't help being tempted. "Captain Tan, the boar's so close—if it charges through the isolation belt and hurts someone or tramples the crops, that'll be trouble."

Tan Junjie didn't pick up the thread, only sternly warned Xia Qing, "Trespassing into the Evolution Forest on your own could provoke large animals or insect swarms into attacking your territory. If only your own territory gets hit, that's one thing, but if it drags other lords down with you, that's not something you can bear the consequences of."

Xia Qing immediately stood at attention. "Please rest assured, Captain Tan. I often go into the Evolution Forest with the team to hunt, so I know the limits. I won't provoke any evolved creatures I can't handle."

After Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui drove off, Xia Qing was left alone facing the stern Tan Junjie.

After waiting a few seconds and hearing no question from Tan Junjie, Xia Qing brought up the evolved sheep first. "Captain Tan, I have a strength-evolved sheep wearing a collar; it ranges around my territory and on the slopes to the north. When you go catch the boar, could you show it some leniency if you run into it? It's a herbivorous evolved creature—as long as no one provokes it, it won't hurt people."