Chapter 114: Salesman Xiao Liu

After several attempts, she found that even Xia Qing's voice couldn't calm down Old Sheep. Hu Zifeng discussed with Xia Qing, "Should we just tie it up? If it runs into the Evolution Forest, that'll be trouble."

Letting things go on like this really wasn't working, but tying Old Sheep up was definitely not a good solution. Xia Qing discussed with Hu Zifeng, "Brother Feng, let Guan Tong control Old Sheep, then you put the protective mask on it and turn on its walkie-talkie so it can hear my voice through the earpiece walkie-talkie."

During the Harmful Rain, Xia Qing contacted Old Sheep through the walkie-talkie in the protective mask for several days running. Since playing it through the phone speaker didn't work, she'd use the walkie-talkie.

"Okay." After a scramble of people flying and sheep leaping, Hu Zifeng and Guan Tong finally got the protective mask onto Old Sheep and turned on its earpiece-style walkie-talkie.

"Boss, can you hear me talking?" Xia Qing's voice was calm and even.

"Baa—" Old Sheep panted heavily, its cry tinged with urgency.

Xia Qing cooed softly, "Boss, I'm fine, I just went farther out this time and can't make it back tonight. You watch the house properly, I'll be back tomorrow. I bought a lot of rations, listen."

Xia Qing grabbed and squeezed the sealed bag of compressed rations with her hand. Old Sheep heard the familiar sound, and its panting grew less frantic.

"Right, these are the tasty rations. I bought a few jin of every flavor, all for you." Xia Qing sat on the bed, cooing softly to Old Sheep, "I also got two saplings. When I get back, we'll plant them on the hillside. Boss, will you carry water to water the trees? Boss is the most capable, the most capable sheep in our territory."

"Baa." Old Sheep let out a cry.

Xia Qing actually heard a note of grievance in the cry. Her heart ached, and her voice grew even gentler. "If Boss is tired and doesn't want to water them, then I'll carry it. Even though I'm not as strong as Boss, I can still shoulder a water tank of two or three hundred jin. When I get back, I'll mix alfalfa with rations for Boss, and fill up the newly made bathtub with water. Boss can soak while eating, okay?"

"Baa." Eating was Old Sheep's greatest love.

Ten minutes later, having coaxed Old Sheep, Xia Qing hung up and sighed under the covers. Her fame and dignity—all ruined by Old Sheep.

Inside Territory Three, the soothed Old Sheep stood up, shook the dirt and grass clippings off its body, and headed home. Following behind it, equally filthy, Guan Tong couldn't hold back. "Brother Feng, Sister Qing she—"

The Xia Qing who had just been coaxing Old Sheep was so different from the usual cold-faced Xia Qing that even the dimmest Guan Tong couldn't find words for his shock.

"Mm." Hu Zifeng, who was carrying Old Sheep's protective mask for it, was equally shaken.

Before hearing how Xia Qing coaxed Old Sheep, Hu Zifeng's "pursuing" Xia Qing had been entirely out of mission necessity. After hearing it, he genuinely wanted to pursue her.

If Xia Qing coaxed him the way she coaxed Old Sheep, Hu Zifeng would slap his chest and swear he'd be far more sensible and capable than this stubborn sheep.

The next morning at eight, Xia Qing left the hotel together with the various lords and gathered at the Mission Hall. Today's main activity was the Territory Management Department selling flour-grinding machines, rice seedlings, and seeds to the lords at preferential prices.

Besides the flour-grinding machine, Xia Qing also purchased four hundred rice seedlings, two jin of corn, two hundred sunflower seeds, one hundred fifty cabbage seeds, and two hundred radish seeds (one hundred each of green and white radish)—all at the maximum allowance the Territory Management Department permitted lords to buy at the preferential price.

Most lords, like Xia Qing, bought up to the maximum allowance. After one planting season, the lords had already tasted the benefits of the safe-evolution seeds cultivated by the Safe Zone Planting Center: the probability of harmful evolution attacks was far lower than that of the edible plants native to their own territories.

Moreover, after the potato-seed incident, these seeds had surely been strictly vetted and would be even safer.

Although these yellow-light seeds and seedlings wiped Xia Qing's points card clean, she didn't feel the slightest pang—only an impatient eagerness to get back to her territory and plant them all.

After collecting two large barrels of the upgraded insecticide and pest repellent for free, and sitting through Jiang Quan's enthusiastically effusive farewell speech, Xia Qing immediately shouldered a heavy pack, hugged a basket of fruit saplings and rice seedlings, and under the "send-off" of Safe Zone staff and residents, left the Safe Zone and boarded the military truck.

"Damn it, just to make them look good, they make us walk all this way out here." After sitting down, Zhao Ze, whose leg hadn't fully healed yet, couldn't help cursing.

"The Safe Zone gave you such a big discount, what's wrong with walking a couple steps for the publicity? It's a long-established procedure—if you don't want to walk, don't come." His sister Tang Ning wasn't here, and Tang Huai had reverted to his nasty habit of being unable to speak without picking a fight. After finishing his tirade against Zhao Ze, his mood smoothed, and he rummaged through the rice seedlings in the basket beside him, humbly asking Assistant Xiao Liu of Territory Nine for advice on planting rice seedlings.

Business had arrived. Assistant Xiao Liu pushed his glasses up, his eyes lighting up.

After the Catastrophe, even ordinary Evolvers' vision had doubled. Add to that the drastic reduction in time spent reading and using electronic devices, so by the tenth year of the Catastrophe, apart from scientific researchers who stared at books and screens for long periods, hardly any young people had vision problems requiring nearsighted glasses.

Xiao Liu's smile was professional, his tone even more so. "Mr. Tang, are you looking to purchase the 'Evolution Rice Cultivation Guide'? This guide contains five proprietary patented techniques exclusive to our lord. The price is one thousand three hundred points, and the transaction conditions are the same as for the 'Mung Bean Cultivation Guide.'"

Tang Huai unhesitatingly pulled out his points card. "Exchange."

The representative of Territory One, Wei Chengdong, also proposed an exchange, followed by Territory Twelve. Neither Luo Pei nor Tang Zhengpo were short on money, so Xia Qing wasn't surprised they bought the guide. What surprised her was that the lord of Territory Fifteen also exchanged for it directly.

Territory Fifteen wasn't on the lords' communication channel for Territories One through Ten, so Xia Qing didn't know his situation. But judging by his posture and gaze, Xia Qing knew for certain this one had served in the military.

The lord of Territory Forty-Four, Sun Zhe, sitting at the back of the truck bed, asked, "May I trouble you to ask—how does your 'Evolution Rice Cultivation Guide' differ from the techniques in the Safe Zone's 'Complete Planting Manual'?"

Assistant Xiao Liu pushed his glasses up with a finger. "There are many differences. The most obvious is the yield per mu. Take the H-12 Evolution Rice you received from the Safe Zone today as an example. Cultivated according to the 'Complete Planting Manual' issued by the Safe Zone, and provided the Evolution Rice doesn't encounter red-level Harmful Rain lasting over an hour during critical growth stages, the yield per mu should be between six hundred and one thousand jin. If cultivated strictly according to our guide, even if the critical growth stage encounters over an hour of red-level Harmful Rain, the yield can still reach one thousand five hundred jin. If it doesn't encounter any, the yield can exceed two thousand five hundred jin per mu."

Wow—

Hearing this numerical comparison, not only did the lords and representatives erupt, but even Tan Junjie and the others responsible for maintaining order on the truck couldn't help turning their gaze toward Assistant Liu in his white protective suit.