Chapter 110: From Quail to Golden Rooster

The Mission Hall is the cleanest place accessible to ordinary people and common evolvers living in the outer city of the safe zone.

Usually it gathers many people coming to handle affairs and pick up missions; today the crowd here is several times larger than usual.

Besides those handling affairs as usual, the hall has also gathered the organizers of the agricultural products fair, the lords who came from various territories to trade, and the safe zone residents who came to buy things and watch the excitement.

After Territory Management Department head Jiang Quan delivered another warm and brief welcome, he began to introduce the important figures attending the fair.

To Xia Qing's surprise, Hui City Main Base Territory Management Department head Huang Jie had also come to attend this agricultural products fair, accompanied by Hui-3 Deputy Base Commander Tang Zhengrong.

After Jiang Quan spoke, both Huang Jie and Tang Zhengrong went up to the stage and said a few words briefly, then a lord representative took the stage and delivered a "deeply moving" speech about farming, sharing with everyone the huge contrast in his living conditions before and after farming, and calling on everyone to go out and farm for the sake of the country and themselves.

Few people took such chicken-soup talk seriously, and Xia Qing listened with one ear while quietly observing the people in the hall.

Tang Zhengrong's daughter Tang Zheng stood at the very back in a sharp business suit. Judging by her position, she had probably been demoted because of the dangerous evolution potato seed incident. But looking at Tang Zheng's expression, Xia Qing noticed she was much more composed than before; if Tang Zheng could truly grow from this incident, the Tang family would gain another fierce general.

For Xia Qing, this was not good news.

The staff following Tang Zhengrong and the clerks behind the mission windows had also been replaced several times over; it seemed that during the months she was away from the safe zone, considerable changes had taken place in the base's management.

Hui-3 Base Commander and Lieutenant General Qi Zhongye still did not appear, but the soldiers responsible for security inside the Mission Hall were all equipped with the latest-model weapons, so the safety of the safe zone was beyond doubt.

At last, the lord representative finished speaking, and the fair officially began.

"Quick, quick, let's go sit over there!" Kuang Qingwei immediately called everyone to rush for good seats; Zhao Ze, who had been injured in the second evolution rain, limped along behind Kuang Qingwei, though his speed was not slow.

A ring of display tables was set up around the Mission Hall; Xia Qing walked over and sat down in the seat Shi Du had saved for her, and began pulling things out of her backpack.

The lords had put out pretty much the same things—wheat, mung beans, eggplants, cucumbers, green beans, and so on, all grown from seeds distributed by the safe zone. The produce was all clearly priced, so no one haggled; Xia Qing sat quietly in the back, her hearing fully extended, focusing on the conversation between Huang Jie and Tang Zhengrong.

"Xia Qing, I knew you'd definitely come back."

The voice was all too familiar to Xia Qing; she couldn't even be bothered to lift her head.

Feng Wen looked with disdain at the meager offerings on Xia Qing's table, and pretended to be affectionate. "You can't get anything good to eat in your territory, can you? Look how thin you've gotten. Let's have dinner together tonight, my treat."

"No time." Xia Qing refused very curtly; Huang Jie was talking about the germination rate of grain seeds cultivated at the Hui-1 Base Planting Center, and Xia Qing didn't want to miss a single word.

Feng Wen hadn't expected that even after humbling herself this much, Xia Qing would still give her such a cold shoulder. "Don't be so ungrateful—"

Xia Qing raised a hand and pointed at the base guard beside her who was holding a gun to maintain order on the scene. Feng Wen swallowed her anger, muttered "I'll wait for you after the fair is over," and click-clacked away on her high heels.

Not long after Feng Wen left, someone else stopped in front of Xia Qing's display table. "Have dinner together tonight?"

Xia Qing smiled and handed over a cucumber. "Sure."

"See you at the usual place." Xu Juan took the cucumber and walked away with a smile.

After Tang Zhengrong and Jiang Quan saw Huang Jie off, Xia Qing was listening to the clerks gossip about Huang Jie's background when Tang Huai, who was at the display table one over from hers, suddenly stood up and respectfully called out "Sis."

The former vice president of the Tang Hotel Group, Tang Ning, had arrived. Tang Ning looked at Tang Huai with satisfaction. "A few months and you're tanned and stronger, not bad. Is Dad doing alright?"

Xia Qing silently muttered: squatting in the fields digging out bugs every day—of course he'd get dark.

Tang Huai, who was idle in the lord group and blew up at the slightest thing, and had worn a face of impatience the whole way from the territory, was as meek as a cat in front of Tang Ning. "Doing pretty well. Why has Sis lost weight?"

Tang Ning patted her brother's shoulder. "You go ahead and take part in the fair; we'll talk when you come home tonight."

The first morning of the fair was for safe zone residents to visit and shop; the afternoon was for the inter-lord trade fair. What was shown and sold to residents in the morning was basically agricultural produce grown from seeds distributed by the safe zone; the afternoon was when the territories' good stuff came out.

To ensure the lords' safety, the trading method was changed: the lords would hand over the supplies they wished to trade to the Management Department, and the Management Department would send people up to the stage to display them and state the trade terms.

The host chosen by the safe zone for the lord trade fair was a pretty young woman in her early twenties; the moment she opened her mouth, the lords recognized her identity: Wang Chuqi, the host of Hui-3 Base's farming knowledge program.

"Thank you, everyone." Though she didn't use a megaphone, the moment Wang Chuqi, wearing a green badge, opened her mouth, her voice drowned out the lords' cheers. Xia Qing immediately understood her ability—evolved vocal cords.

"If only we could recruit her for Territory Nine." Hearing Assistant Liu beside her mutter this, Xia Qing smiled; this Assistant Liu from the territory was quite amusing.

The first trade item Wang Chuqi displayed was dried green-light horse-ear vegetable, to be traded for green-light vegetable seeds.

"Dried horse-ear vegetable can be used as filling for buns in winter, but it needs meat to taste good—who's short of that in their territory? Surely—" Before Zhao Ze could finish, Ji Li's hand shot up.

"Three jin for green-light garlic seeds."

Zhao Ze……

The second agricultural product was green-light bay laurel leaves, also known as bay leaves. Bay leaves were one of the common household seasonings before the catastrophe, used to remove fishy smell and add fragrance; this lord wanted to trade for grain.

The moment Wang Chuqi finished introducing it, Ji Li raised his hand. "One jin for yellow-light mung beans."

Xia Qing also raised her hand. "One jin for yellow-light mung beans."

Zhao Ze……

The third item was green-light cilantro seeds, also to be traded for green-light plant seeds.

After Wang Chuqi finished introducing it, everyone from Territories One through Ten looked at Ji Li. Seeing that Ji Li didn't raise his hand, everyone understood and noted it: Third Brother doesn't like cilantro.

Things Third Brother doesn't like to eat don't need to be planted in large quantities.

Qi Fu, who liked cilantro, raised his hand and traded some green-light green onion seeds for the seeds.

The fourth exhibit was a red-light plant; Wang Chuqi walked around the stage dragging the tobacco leaves so everyone could see them clearly. "Although this is red-light tobacco leaf, according to the lord who provided it, it can absorb moisture and repel insects, and is the favorite nesting material for birds. This lord used red-light tobacco strands to attract over thirty evolved magpies to settle in, which killed off quite a few harmful evolved insects. One jin of yellow-light mung beans or wheat can be exchanged for six jin of red-light tobacco strands. Does any lord want to trade?"

Tang Huai, who loved digging out bugs, hated all kinds of noise. "Makes it sound like without tobacco strands for birds to nest, there'd be fewer birds in the territory—screeching and chattering, so annoying."

Xia Qing raised her hand. "Six jin for yellow-light mung beans."

Tang Huai……

Qi Fu also raised his hand. "Six jin for yellow-light wheat."

Shi Du asked softly, "Does little brother Qi also want to raise birds?"

Qi Fu explained quietly, "I want to attract a few more evolved cuckoos to nest in the buffer forest; evolved cuckoos are the natural enemy of poisonous caterpillars."

The first wave of people from Territory One had been killed by evolved poisonous caterpillars; after hearing Qi Fu's words, Kuang Qingwei and Zhao Ze also traded for tobacco strands, and even Wei Chengdong joined in the fun and bought a few jin, leaving Tang Huai so angry his nose was crooked.

Xia Qing wanted to remind Wei Chengdong that Territory One would soon have cats, so even if bird nests were built, no birds would go live in them. But then she thought of the look on soon-to-be-cat-slave Hu Zifeng's face—trying not to show off but unable to help it—and shut her mouth.

At the afternoon lord trade fair, Xia Qing traded for and purchased one jin of green-light bay leaves, six jin of red-light tobacco strands, a small packet of yellow-light onion seeds, one green-light Sichuan pepper tree, and one green-light passionfruit seedling.

The climax of the afternoon came when Wang Chuqi brought out a pair of green-light quails; the lords scrambled to bid, driving up the price of a pair of drab little quails to that of golden roosters.

The lords of Territories One through Ten did not join the scramble, because they had a wealthy neighbor—Zhang San. As long as something suited Zhang San's taste, a few wild fruits could get you a laying hen in exchange.

Although it was yellow-light, it was a real chicken.

Qi Fu wanted to wait until Third Brother was in a good mood, then trade for a young rooster. One male and one female chicken could hatch chicks; by next year he could bring a whole brood of chicks to the agricultural products fair.

Xia Qing, who was about to have seventeen green-light chickens, also thanked her idol Third Brother over and over in her heart.