Chapter 1165: Salted Duck

The broken-waist wolf, having counted twice, raised its big paw and scratched three numbers into the mud by the pond with absolute confidence:

108.

"Right, exactly eighteen. Handsome Wolf Brother truly is a clever wolf standing at the pinnacle of Blue Star's pyramid, the one who pioneered the history of mathematics for evolved wolves on Blue Star. Handsome Wolf Brother, can you give me those ducks?"

The broken-waist wolf, which had just bared the tips of its fangs, immediately closed its mouth, glanced at Xia Qing, then picked up three yellow-light ducks and dropped them in front of her.

Xia Qing asked, "Handsome Wolf Brother, can I have these three ducks too?"

The broken-waist wolf looked at Xia Qing seriously.

No? Xia Qing continued asking, "Broken-Waist, you want to put these three in your freezer?"

The broken-waist wolf bared its lips, revealing two cute, snow-white little fang tips.

Xia Qing decided to tease it a little. "Your freezer still has frozen ducks, rabbits, and chickens you haven't finished eating—no room left. How about I put these three in our lab's sample cabinet?"

The broken-waist wolf immediately closed its mouth and stared at Xia Qing with a solemn expression.

"Alright, I'll freeze them somewhere else for you first, not in the lab." Xia Qing had never taken the broken-waist wolf to the underground food storage room in Territory Three, so this clever fellow had no idea that Xia Qing's food storage warehouse could hold frozen food.

The broken-waist wolf bared its little fang tips again, turned around, and left with the already-fed black wolf and Broken-Leg Girl, each carrying the remaining seven yellow-light ducks and two red-light ducks.

Xia Qing, carrying the three yellow-light ducks, sidled up to the head wolf again and pointed at the red-light ducks on the ground. "Does the Queen my lord still want those red-light ducks?"

"Awoo, woo—" The head wolf called twice, and the broken-leg wolf, currently tussling with Little Flat-Top, immediately ran over with another wolf to the ducks and carried off all six red-light ducks.

"... Got it, Queen my lord, I'm heading back to the territory."

Xia Qing said goodbye to the well-fed Wolf Lao Er, checked on the two injured wolves, then left the valley carrying the ducks. She contacted her idol first. "Third Brother, I got two green-light spot-billed ducks. Should I bring them to you now?"

Zhang San's voice was very kind. "So many ducks, and you only got two?"

Xia Qing answered briefly, "Yes. The wolf pack was guarding the ducks and wouldn't let anyone hunt them. I picked up four ducks that had fallen and died on their own, so I need to give two to the Azure Dragon Squad."

The Azure Dragon captain had personally led his team out, piloting a helicopter to intercept raptors and spot-billed ducks, so Xia Qing needed to give him half of her haul.

Hearing that Xia Qing only had two ducks and was still planning to bring them all to him, Zhang San's voice turned so kind it was crumbling apart. "Just give me one. I'll have Zheng Chen come pick it up."

No matter how formidable a speed-evolution special-ops captain he was, once he entered Territory Seven, he always picked up an extra part-time job: deliveryman.

After hanging up with her idol, Xia Qing contacted Yang Jin. "The head wolf won't let us hunt that flock of spot-billed ducks. Some ducks died from the fall when they hit the water. I got four green-light ones, two are yours."

Xia Qing's voice had returned to normal, and so had Yang Jin's. "Alright. Salted duck, beer duck, braised duck, or roast duck—which do you want to eat?"

With every cooking method Yang Jin mentioned, an image of the dish flashed through Xia Qing's mind. Given their current relationship, and the fact that they'd carried out a mission together that morning, it really did make sense to have lunch together. So Xia Qing picked the one she wanted most. "Salted duck."

"Alright, leave all four ducks in the small kitchen. I'll come by later, clean them up, and salt them. They'll be ready to boil tomorrow. If we can't finish them in one meal, we can store them in the fridge."

Just salting didn't require him to make a trip. "You still have missions to run. I'll do the salting. Is salt the only thing needed?"

"No, the brine needs other seasonings fried in first. I don't need to be here watching it the whole time. Your territory is close to the hunting grounds, so if anything comes up, I'll have plenty of time to get back."

Fine, you're the speed evolver, you're amazing.

After handing one duck to Zheng Chen, Xia Qing swiped open the gate in the iron-mesh wall and returned to her own territory. She put the three green-light ducks in the small kitchen, brought the three yellow-light ducks home to store, and while leading the little yellow calf to the forage shed with Sheep Boss to graze, Yang Jin swiped open the north gate and entered Territory Three.

Xia Qing went over to greet him, then headed off to guard the farmland. Flocks of migratory birds were passing overhead, and an accident could happen at any moment. Xia Qing wouldn't feel at ease unless she was right by the fields.

After Yang Jin cleaned and salted the ducks in the small kitchen, tossed the inedible innards into the fish pond for the fish, he finally came over to Xia Qing. "You'll take the salted ducks home to refrigerate?"

"Sure."

Xia Qing, who was weeding, agreed, and then heard Yang Jin ask again, "I picked out some duck bones to make soup. How about duck blood vermicelli soup for lunch today?"

"Gurgle gurgle—"

"Sure." Xia Qing could only be grateful that the migratory birds above were loud enough and Tang Huai on the walkie-talkie was noisy enough to drown out the embarrassing sound her stomach had made.

Yang Jin pretended he hadn't heard a thing, took the hoe from Xia Qing's hands very naturally, and only after she stepped out of the greenhouse did a brilliant smile spread across his face.

By the time Xia Qing had put the duck meat in the fridge's cold storage, eaten a few dried fruits to quiet her uncooperative stomach, and returned to the fields, she found that top-tier speed evolver Yang Jin had already finished weeding the entire fig sapling plot.

A speed evolver really is a whiz at farming!

Yang Jin picked up the small weeds he'd hoed while chatting casually with Xia Qing. "Out of the 115 branches here, 86 have sprouted—about the same sprouting rate as in Territory One. The rate in Greenhouse One should be even higher, right?"

These green-light fig branches had been brought back by Xia Qing and Yang Jin working as a team, so quite a few had also been cuttings planted in Territory One. Xia Qing answered, "Ten cuttings were planted in the terraced field of Greenhouse One, eight sprouted. The qiang element content is a bit lower than here."

After sprouting, the qiang element content of the fig branches in this greenhouse south of the reservoir ranged between 3.6-5.5‰, while in the sprouted branches in the breeding Greenhouse One it was between 2.3-2.5‰—the latter almost identical to the mother plant in Shi Lin on Mountain Eight.

That was because Xia Qing had used yi stone to isolate the qiang element from the cuttings in Greenhouse One, while she hadn't used any here in Greenhouse Three. She planned to trade out all eighty-plus fig saplings here, so as long as they maintained green-light quality, there was no need to waste yi stone.

"Gao Yi-element soil really is better suited to cultivating premium crops than ordinary soil." Yang Jin loaded all the weeds he'd hoed into a basket. "The planting group on our team says you can control the height of fig trees by pruning. How are you planning to prune them?"

She hadn't expected that Yang Jin, as a captain, would still have the time to care about crop cultivation techniques. Xia Qing squatted beside a fig cutting that had already grown over ten centimeters tall and pointed at the base of the sapling as she explained, "Sister Tao says you can prune once every two to three years. Just cut it off right here, leave two or three bud nodes, and let the roots force out new buds. But after pruning, the plant is in an unstable state, and if management isn't careful, the qiang element content will rise quickly."

The crops in Xia Qing's territory didn't need to worry about this problem, because she had over two hundred pieces of yi stone that could isolate qiang element.

Seeing the happy expression on Xia Qing's face, Yang Jin knew what she was thinking. He leaned in and whispered, "Sister Qing, when are we heading to Mountain Nineteen?"

The more yi stone they brought back, the more and better crops she could grow.

Having already agreed to team up with Yang Jin, Xia Qing spoke frankly. "I'm waiting for the base leader's call. If he doesn't contact me by tomorrow, we'll head over the day after."

Yang Jin was a little surprised. "I thought we'd wait until migratory bird season was over before going."

"The sooner we get them back, the sooner we can rest easy." Xia Qing did want to wait until migratory bird season ended, but the broken-waist wolf couldn't wait—it demanded Xia Qing go reexamine the scarred-face wolf as soon as possible. But there was no need to tell Yang Jin about that.

Yang Jin had no opinion on when to go. "Do we pick day or night? Mountain Nineteen is guarded by a mission squad. I need to make arrangements in advance and swap them out for our own people."

"Night." The main force searching for the wanderers' supply cache was Lao Si, and night was more convenient for the evolved wolves to operate than day.