Chapter 1177: Unknown Caller

After seeing Xin Yu off the territory of North Area One, Xia Qing went to Center Nine, where she was met by Yang Benming, Director of the Agricultural Department, along with the newly appointed directors of the four planting centers in North Area Two, North Area Three, East Territory, and South Territory.

Today was the day Center Nine delivered grain, and Yang Benming had specifically carved out time to bring the directors and key staff of the four new planting centers over to observe and learn.

After Xia Qing, Yue Haiying, and Yan Yue led them on a tour, the group watched with their own eyes as the harvested corn, still on the cob, was loaded onto two large trucks and transported to the Safe Zone.

Center Nine's eighty mu of farmland yielded a total of over 148,000 jin of wet corn on the cob, of which Green Lantern corn accounted for as much as 45%; after drying, they should obtain that many jin of corn kernels.

The high-quality corn would be dried and stored, then distributed as seed to the various planting centers next spring or sold to private territories, expanding the planted area of Y-3 corn. Yellow Lantern corn and corn cobs would be sent directly to the Safe Zone food processing plant, to be used to produce compressed rations and improve the diet of the residents of Hui Three Safe Zone.

Corn cobs are edible? Of course. Corn cobs are also Green Lantern or Yellow Lantern, and in a year of disasters when even grass and tree leaves can serve as staple food, corn cobs naturally also have to be crushed and made into rations.

Of the corn produced by Center Nine, only 130,000 jin was shipped out; the remaining 18,000 jin of Yellow Lantern corn stayed at Center Nine as reserve grain for its staff.

The reason so much could be kept was that, under Zhao Baolin's harassment, Xia Qing had signed a Production Guarantee Agreement: any portion of the eighty mu of corn's total yield exceeding 130,000 jin would belong to Center Nine for its own use.

Zhao Baolin stood in the crowd with his neck hunched, not daring to even cast an envious glance, afraid that Xia Qing would drag him out and deal with him, and even more afraid that the Director would notice him.

Because he had also signed a Production Guarantee Agreement with Xia Qing for 200 mu of rice paddies—at the rate the rice was growing, Xia Qing could withhold at least 30,000 jin…

Yang Benming praised Xia Qing's working ability highly, and personally promised to coordinate all sides to set up a small general store inside Center Nine before year's end, so that once the daily needs of over five hundred staff were met, he got into the car to escort the grain and left North Area One's territory.

Passing Territory Seven, Yang Benming pressed down the car window glass and saluted the special-ops team members guarding the south gate of Territory Seven.

"Click!" The two special-ops team members gripped their rifles and stood at attention, rendering eyes-front salutes.

After leaving Center Nine, Zhao Baolin came alive again, eagerly seeking the spotlight in front of Yang Benming. "Director, after Zhang Jingwu's squad completes this mission, they should at least be awarded a collective third-class merit, right?"

Yang Benming rolled up the car window and replied with a smile, "I hope Director Zhao can lead your team to win honors even higher than this."

Zhao Baolin…

After seeing the leaders off, Xia Qing also left Center Nine and returned to her own territory. Today she was going to clear out the wheat-planting fields and have Boss Yang draw water to irrigate them once.

"Buzz—"

Sensing the phone in her pocket vibrating, Xia Qing immediately stepped on the brake and stopped on the road. Tang Huai, who had been crouching inside the messy wild-grass wall of Territory Two waiting for Xia Qing, heard the sound and immediately ran out to see what had happened.

Taking out her phone and finding it wasn't Xin Yu but an unfamiliar number, Xia Qing didn't hesitate and answered at once. "Hello?"

The voice that came through the Bluetooth earpiece wasn't Xin Yu's. "Xia Qing, it's me, Deng Yufeng."

Xia Qing had met with Deng Yufeng face-to-face once before, so she could tell that although this voice sounded hoarse and weary, it really was the captain of the Fierce Fire squad.

Of course, it could also be a vocal-cord Evolver in disguise.

Xia Qing replied calmly, "Is there something you need, Captain Deng?"

Deng Yufeng's voice carried a smile as she began a friendly chat. "Last time we met, I felt we really hit it off. I've been wanting to find a chance to go see you, but one thing after another has come up on my end and I haven't been able to make the time. How have you been lately? Are you doing alright?"

Xia Qing never answered nonsense; she pressed the gas and continued on her way.

Deng Yufeng on the other end waited a few seconds without a response, then slowly laughed. "A top-tier sniper really is different. Then I'll get straight to the point—you know about Blue Blood, right?"

Blue Blood is short for the "Blue Star New Bloodline Alliance," a radical transnational underground alliance whose members are all Evolvers and who have already infiltrated every level of human society.

The Blue Blood Alliance holds that ordinary humans have been abandoned by Blue Star in the course of evolution, and that Evolvers are humanity's hope for survival and reproduction. Humanity should concentrate its strength to support Evolvers, rapidly enhance their abilities, and let them produce even more outstanding next generations. Only in this way can humanity return to the top of Blue Star's food chain.

Many bloody cases in Huaguo and across all of Blue Star are connected to this organization—this was mentioned in the materials Yang Jin had given her.

When she saw the first blue-skinned wanderer in the Evolution Forest, Xia Qing had thought of the Blue Blood Alliance. Later, her idol and Yang Jin also brought this up, suspecting the blue-skinned wanderers were connected to the Blue Star Alliance, though the captured wanderers vehemently denied it.

Xia Qing kept driving, still not answering Deng Yufeng's nonsense.

Although Xia Qing said nothing, Deng Yufeng wasn't anxious at all. Holding a goblet, her voice sincere, she said, "The blue-skinned wanderers in the Hui One and Hui Three Evolution Forests are members of the Blue Blood Alliance. If you still want your boyfriend Yang Jin to go cook for you with all his limbs intact, you'd better tell him soon to know when to stop."

It seemed Yang Jin had poked Fierce Fire in a sore spot this time. Xia Qing replied calmly, "Yang Jin and I don't interfere in each other's work. Is there anything else, Captain Deng?"

Deng Yufeng leaned back in the leather sofa, swirled the blood-red Green Lantern wine in her glass, and gave a wry laugh. "Not interfering with each other and keeping a certain distance is right. When I went to your side in May and met you for the first time, I noticed you were different from everyone else, but I didn't expect you were hiding so deep. Clearly a dual-system high-level Evolver, yet you managed to keep your abilities tightly under wraps, bent your back to endure hardship and toil, took abuse and scolding while carrying rocks for so many years, and once the chance came, decisively left the Safe Zone to live out your own brilliance."

"If I had half your willpower and endurance, and could have held back from using my blood to save people, I wouldn't have been strapped to an operating table for 155 days by a pack of animals, my belly slit open, my skin peeled and flesh cut away."

Xia Qing parked the car outside the south gate, pressed down the window, and handed the key to the grinning Tang Huai. She pointed at her Bluetooth earpiece, then held her index finger in front of her tightly closed lips, signaling him to stay quiet.

Tang Huai froze for a moment, then immediately nodded. He quietly opened the big gate to let Xia Qing drive in, locked the gate behind her, tossed her the key through the iron-mesh wall, and quietly retreated into Territory Two.

Deng Yufeng on the other end of the line raised a bright-red leg and quietly looked at her left foot. "You know what? To figure out the limits of a regeneration Evolver's ability, those animals pulled out two of my teeth and cut off one of my toes. Heh…"

"I'm really lucky this ability isn't overpowered enough, so my toe and teeth couldn't grow back."

"Thud." Xia Qing jumped out of the car and shut the door.

Deng Yufeng was startled by the sound, and the wine glass slipped from her hand.

Xia Qing asked calmly, "Is there anything else, Captain Deng?"

Deng Yufeng calmly looked at the snow-white carpet stained bright red, then calmly spoke. "Yes, one last thing: if you want to live out your days in peace, don't trust anyone—not Zhang San, not Yang Jin, not Luo Pei—and of course I'm even less worthy of your trust. Trusting humans is no better than trusting the beasts of northern Hui Three. Sorry to bother you. Goodbye."

Deng Yufeng decisively hung up the phone and stepped on the glass with one foot. The shattered glass pierced into the sole of her foot, and the blood-red slowly spread across the snow-white carpet. The smell molecules of the venom overpowered the wine and the smell of blood, running wild in the air, and the room was soon filled with a pungent toxic gas.