Chapter 145: Does That Wolf Let You Ride It?

After spending three months swinging a sledgehammer at Huo Family Blade Shop, Xia Qing had watched the shop owner Uncle Huo forge an umbrella blade. She had liked it then — a weapon well-suited to strength-evolvers — but she was poor and had no points to buy one.

A real umbrella blade's canopy is made up of sharp blades, with a mechanism at the top. When fighting an enemy, turning the handle up and down flings the blades out like thrown knives. A single umbrella blade may not pose much danger to an enemy, but a group of people using umbrella blades to form a rain of blades is absolutely a devastating weapon.

Although Xia Qing had watched Uncle Huo's forging process, she had only seen it and hadn't grasped the essence of making an umbrella blade. But based on the basic principles, she could still manage to forge an iron umbrella with a sheet-iron canopy that could open and close.

However, because it was her first time forging, Xia Qing's umbrella still had some flaws. Listening to Beard Feng's team members practically praising her to the skies, Xia Qing honestly pointed out the umbrella's shortcomings. "This is my first time forging an iron umbrella. The canopy I made is too small and too thick, way too heavy. When I have time in a few days, I'll rework the canopy."

The iron umbrella weighed over thirty jin — for an ordinary person that really is heavy, but for a strength-evolver it's nothing at all. Guan Tong was very taken with this umbrella that could open to block attacks and close to serve as an iron rod. "Sister Qing, can I come by and learn next time you forge? I'll pay tuition."

Having someone come over to stoke the fire and swing the sledgehammer for her, Xia Qing was of course happy to have it. "No tuition needed. Come by if you have time. But I only learned for a few months, my skills aren't much good, you won't learn much from me either."

Guan Tong answered sincerely, "If I can learn Sister Qing's skills, that'll be plenty for me."

Beard Feng and the others returned to the cabin one after another, reporting to Xia Qing on the conditions of each greenhouse. The hail and rainstorm had come too suddenly — the rain covers had been closed in haste, and the drainage ditches hadn't been repaired in time, so several greenhouses had taken on water. But what was falling now wasn't blight rain, so a little water in the fields wouldn't cause the crops to blight.

But the apple trees and jujube trees not covered by the rain shelters had all been stripped bare by the hail.

The large green jujubes Beard Feng had picked up were handed to Xia Qing. He felt it was a real shame. "It took so long to grow these few jujubes — another month and they'd have been ripe — but one hailstorm knocked them all off."

The two insect-eating Green Lantern jujube trees Xia Qing had planted in spring had done well this year, bearing over a hundred jujubes. Every time she patrolled her territory, she'd wonder what those jujubes tasted like.

Today, she didn't have to wonder. "They fell but weren't smashed to bits — being able to pick them up is luck. Let's boil a few and see if these jujubes have any flesh to them."

Seeing Xia Qing so open-hearted about it, Beard Feng grinned.

Xia Qing took a clay pot out of a bamboo basket, added some boiling water and set it over the fire, cut up a few potatoes and put them in to cook. "The wolf pack caught a few geese today. I took one and stewed the goose legs. We're having potato-stewed goose for breakfast."

The wolf pack caught the geese, and Xia Qing could just take one? Beard Feng didn't know whether to say he was envious, or envious.

Smell-evolver Chen Cheng immediately came over to tend the fire. "I smelled the meat earlier. Sister Qing, this goose is Green Lantern, right? Smells amazing."

Foods high in blight elements have a strange smell whether you sniff them or eat them. Smell-evolvers' noses are especially sensitive — they can judge a food's grade by its scent.

Xia Qing nodded. "It's Green Lantern. After testing it, I traded the goose meat for insecticide from Territory Seven. Only this goose leg is left, and there's not much meat, so I had to pad it out with potatoes."

Seeing Xia Qing still pulling out more things, Beard Feng hurriedly tried to stop her. "Xia Qing, don't fuss, this is plenty to eat."

Xia Qing casually answered, then pulled out sealed bags of fried noodles from her back-basket. Steam and the aroma of noodles quickly filled the whole cabin.

What she was treating Beard Feng's team to today was, as always, the easy and filling tea soup. Besides the tea soup, Xia Qing had also brought plenty of roasted meat jerky and compressed rations. Then she set the stewed goose leg and potato chunks on the small table — and breakfast was complete. "This is rabbit jerky, I just threw it together on the grill. Everyone try it and see how it tastes."

Ten people to one small table, they could only stand, but with delicious food, nobody minded. A sip of hot tea soup, a bite of tender stewed goose — everyone felt they were about to ascend.

This morning's hailstorm was absolutely worth taking.

"This is really good." Chen Cheng drank down more than half a bowl in one go. The day the wolf pack entered Territory Three, Luo Pei had returned from Territory Three to Territory One, and Chen Cheng had smelled this scent on him and wanted to try it then.

After the meal, Xia Qing figured the jujubes boiling in the pot should be done, so she poured them into a small basin and brought it to the table. "When I washed them I tested two — both Green Lantern, just not ripe. I don't know what they taste like."

"I'll go first." Smell-evolver Chen Zheng picked up a jujube that had turned yellow-green after boiling with his chopsticks, blew on it, put it in his mouth and took a bite. His eyes lit up. "Delicious! Sister Qing, try one quick."

Xia Qing called everyone to eat together, and she also picked one up and put it in her mouth — her eyes couldn't help but light up too.

These jujubes didn't just lack a meaty taste — they had an indescribable clean sweetness. The sweetness wasn't as intense as strawberries, but they were better than the ground-berries in the Evolution Forest.

If these jujubes had ripened, they'd surely taste even better. Too bad they wouldn't get to eat them ripe this year.

Two jujubes per person, and in the blink of an eye only the steaming water was left in the basin. Dajiang asked softly, "Sister Qing, are you selling these jujubes? I want to buy two to take home for my girlfriend to try."

Chen Cheng also came over. "Sister Qing, I want to buy two to take home for my mom to try too."

Beard Feng glared. "Territory Three only has so many jujubes in total — you want two, you want two — how many would Xia Qing have left?"

"You each buying two, I'd still have plenty left." Xia Qing didn't say she'd give them free — she just set a very reasonable price. "Fifteen points per jujube, two per person. This is the family-and-friends price. Miss this chance and you won't be able to buy any until next August."

According to the public trading prices on the Lord Channel, Green Lantern seeds are twenty points each. Xia Qing's weren't just Green Lantern seeds — they were delicious Green Lantern food. Fifteen points each was really very low.

But since Xia Qing said it was the family-and-friends price, nobody stood on ceremony any longer. Each person bought two, happily tucking them into their pockets.

Beard Feng was the last to buy. He said quietly, "I don't have a girlfriend. I'll buy two to take home for my cat to try."

Xia Qing……

Damn it, she didn't want to sell!

Chen Cheng quipped, "Captain, cats eat meat."

"Old Five is an evolved cat. With food this good, how would I know it won't eat it without trying?" Beard Feng added, "If it doesn't eat them, I will."

Xia Qing handed the jujubes to Beard Feng. "Captain Hu named his cat Old Five?"

"Mm." Beard Feng's expression when talking about his cat was exactly the same as Iron Man Ji Li's when talking about his cat. "I thought the name you gave your evolved sheep sounded pretty imposing, so I named mine in that style."

"It does sound pretty good." Xia Qing secretly shed tears inside. The moment she first saw that little tabby in white boots, she'd claimed it and named it Little Old Five.

She never expected that after all the twists and turns, the name Little Old Five would stick — but the cat wouldn't be hers.

Beard Feng comforted Xia Qing. "Princess will definitely have kittens next year. Plant more spinach next year, and trade with Third Brother for another one."

Guan Tong cut in. "Sister Qing has a wolf now — why keep a cat? Wolves are way more imposing than cats."

Chen Cheng liked wolves even more. "Exactly. In that huge wind just now, that wolf just leapt and vanished. From what I saw, its speed is no slower than Boss Yang's — it's definitely a speed-evolver."

Xiao Jiang asked quietly, "Sister Qing, does that wolf let you ride it?"

Xia Qing……

Do you think that's possible?