Chapter 1112: Keep Tang Huai Away From Me

Seeing Xin Yu frown, Xia Qing knew what she was thinking. "The cases involving Peng Yuancai and the Chonglian Life Sciences Lab both sparked nationwide outrage. Hongcheng will definitely tighten oversight, and neither Hui One nor Hui Two will dare run illegal experiments in the open anymore. So this operation was a success."

The operation Xia Qing referred to was Xin Yu mobilizing personnel to expose the Chonglian Life Sciences Lab's illegal experiments using human embryos.

Xin Yu's expression eased a little. "My people have made contact with Lu Yuhui. She was doing a Down's syndrome screening at Chonglian Hospital. The doctor said her fetus's data showed abnormalities and that an amniocentesis was needed. Lu Yuhui noticed a nurse secretly adding anesthetic to her IV drip. Sensing something was wrong, she used a trip to the bathroom as a pretext to escape through a ventilation shaft and hide."

Xia Qing asked, "What's her plan from here?"

"After the incident was exposed, this batch of pregnant women will be under special protection—in fact, they'll be safest where they are. So she plans to keep working at Chonglian, though she won't go back to Chonglian Hospital for any more checkups." Xin Yu cracked open a chestnut with a forceful pull, her voice low and measured. "A lot of people—especially those with family to care for but not enough combat ability—end up constrained by their circumstances. Lu Yuhui is a Tier-4 Strength Evolver; her living conditions are already far better than most ordinary people's."

In the years of natural disasters, many people gave everything they had and still didn't survive, leaving this cruel world with bellies full of unwillingness and lingering attachment.

Xia Qing picked up the bamboo basket in front of Xin Yu holding the spiky chestnut shells, carried it out together with the one in front of herself, and dumped the shells at the base of the wall to dry in the sun.

Returning inside the insect-proof netting, she said with a smile to Xin Yu, "Lu Yuhui was alert and decisive enough, so both she and her child are safe now. No matter how the other Hui City bases are doing, our base leader is still pretty good, and our base's First Combat Squad is upright enough. That's why Hui Three's situation is much better than Hui One's and Hui Two's."

Feeling her friend's gentle magnetic field and watching her smile along with the flock of birds flying around behind her, busily searching for food among the chestnut shells, Xin Yu's mood lifted as well. "As long as Hui Three's base leader doesn't change and the current policies stay in place, our base's overall strength will soon surpass Hui Two's, and in a few years, Hui One's too. Then we'll be the strongest base in Hui City."

With the combat squads and the official side cooperating closely, Hui Three's pharmaceutical factory was thriving. The vast majority of citizens' physiques had improved and strengthened from eating X-2 spinach leaves, and Hui Three News broadcast every day how many new Evolvers had been detected.

So although Blue Star was beset by storms everywhere, Hui Three's overall situation was trending in a good direction.

Xia Qing picked up a pair of pliers. "Even if Hui Three's base leader changes, as long as Third Brother is here and as long as our alliance holds, no one can touch our territory. The day after tomorrow at noon, Huo Zhun's four comrades will retire and move into Territory Eleven. Territory Eleven will set up a few tables to welcome them. We'll go together."

Xin Yu didn't like crowds, but this particular "crowd" she had to attend. Territory Eleven was an official member of the Territory Alliance, and the four people moving in this time were all retired from Hui One's Jiaolong Special Ops Team—very high combat ability.

If they came with ill intent, they could threaten the stabilizing pillar of the Northern Zone One territories—Zhang San's safety. So they needed to use Class-C Magnetic Sense Evolver Xin Yu's ability to discern these people's good and evil.

Xin Yu nodded, raising only one request: "Keep Tang Huai away from me. His noise gives me a headache."

After the third Harmful Rain, Xia Qing invited Xin Yu, Tang Huai, the Beard-Feng Squad, and Chang Li to Territory Three for a chicken dinner. Tang Huai kept crowding up next to Xin Yu, babbling on and on about going to Territory Eight to see the birds, annoying Xin Yu until she nearly pulled out her gun and shot him.

Xia Qing laughed a few unkind laughs. "Fine, when the time comes you can sit between me and Jiang Ying."

Xin Yu hadn't expected this gathering to be so large-scale. "Jiang Ying is going too?"

Xia Qing nodded. "Jiang Ying is an important member of the Territory Alliance Research Institute. She's currently learning blacksmithing from Uncle Huo, so the Huo family will definitely invite her. Jiang Ying has a good temper and doesn't talk much."

Not just in looks—Jiang Ying's temper was also a lot like her brother Hu Zi's. The siblings both had very… hands-on ability.

After Jiang Ying strongly insisted on joining the Alliance Research Institute, the points she earned from inventing and improving farm tools exceeded what she'd earned doing farm work back in Territory Fifteen. But she didn't slack off on farm work just because she was making money. She still stayed busy and grounded every day, and had an excellent reputation within the Territory Alliance.

People with good tempers and few words don't necessarily have few thoughts. But Xin Yu accepted her friend's goodwill. When the day came for Huo Zhun's comrades to enter Territory Eleven, she coldly refused Tang Huai's invitation and sat down between Xia Qing and Jiang Ying.

They were welcoming not just Huo Zhun's four comrades, but also four family members.

Besides the two comrades Huo Zhun had invited—Tier-6 Speed and Intermediate Brain Domain Evolver Di Ming, and Tier-5 Speed and Tier-7 Olfactory Evolver Wu Lianmin—the other two moving into Territory Eleven were Jiaolong Special Ops Team members Zhang Yi and Wang Man.

Zhang Yi, thirty-three, a Tier-6 Explosive Power Evolver. He hadn't followed Yanlong into Territory Seven for the mission, so to Xia Qing he was the only unfamiliar face among the four. The reason he retired and moved into Territory Eleven was that his abilities had been damaged and his combat power had declined.

After learning that Di Ming and Wu Lianmin were coming to Huo Zhun's place, Zhang Yi took the initiative to call Huo Zhun and ask to join Territory Eleven. Although this territory's safety rating wasn't as high as the Safe Zone's, the big shot Professor Fu Tianfeng was here. Zhang Yi wanted to ask the big shot to treat his injuries. Plus there was a school here, so his two kids could study.

Huo Zhun had mentioned to Xia Qing that when he first enlisted, Zhang Yi was the one who trained him. Without Zhang Yi's teaching, he wouldn't have survived until now.

Wang Man, thirty-five. Her abilities were rather special—Flexibility and Lung Function Evolution. Back in Territory Seven, she often appeared alongside Yanlong, so Xia Qing knew her callsign was Viper.

Before the natural disasters, Wang Man had already joined the Marines thanks to her outstanding physical flexibility and diving ability. After Blue Star's Great Biological Evolution, she was tested to have dual-system Evolutionary abilities, making her the only one on the entire Jiaolong Special Ops Team whose diving duration exceeded Yanlong's.

Logically, such a special talent—even retired—should have joined a coastal or near-water base Safe Zone to keep shining. The reason Wang Man took the initiative to find Huo Zhun and apply to join Territory Eleven was that her abilities were so special that during her time on the Special Ops Team she was constantly being dragged off for blood draws and testing, which made her feel very insecure. So apart from the Northern Zone One territories in Hui Three that were under the wing of the big shot Fu Tianfeng, she didn't want to go anywhere else.

Moving into Territory Eleven with her was her father, ordinary person Wang Dashan. The Wang family had been farmers before the natural disasters. After the disasters, Wang Dashan leveraged his daughter's connections to get work on a military farm. Now moving into Territory Eleven was also a case of the right person for the right job.

The one whose skills didn't match was Zhang Yi's wife, Tier-5 Auditory Evolver Li Ziyan. She didn't know how to farm. Back in the Hui One Safe Zone, she'd worked at the Evolutionary Ability Testing Center. After joining Territory Eleven, she didn't want to scratch a living from the dirt either.

Halfway through the meal, Li Ziyan—who had been trying to get close to Xia Qing the whole time—spoke up. "Director Xia, I heard the Ninth Planting Center here has been expanded and is hiring. I didn't finish college, but I can handle all the routine office administrative work. Do you think I'd qualify to apply for a position at the Ninth Center?"

"If I could work at the Ninth Center, I could take our two kids to school and back every day, and let their dad stay put in the territory and work without worrying."