Chapter 1461: Preparing to Take Over Territory Two

After Xia Qing finished pollinating the spinach, she took out a basin of sprouted mung beans. "Tenth Sister, want some mung bean sprouts?"

"Give me a handful. I'm making spring pancakes at noon—want one?" Zhang Shi knew Xia Qing wasn't being polite, so she set down her book, walked over, and held open the bag Xia Qing pulled out, taking a handful of green-light mung bean sprouts.

"Make it a big one!" Zhang Shi was a good cook, so of course Xia Qing wouldn't refuse. "Tenth Sister, is there still meat in the fridge?"

Zhang Shi smiled and nodded. "There's some left. When it's gone I'll get more for you. I see the soybeans in the cultivation room are growing well—next year around this time we can sprout soybean sprouts."

"Thanks to Tenth Sister, otherwise I definitely wouldn't be eating soybeans next year."

Soybeans can be made into soy milk, tofu, bean sprouts, and paste—they're a crop that should have been on the planting list long ago. But after two years of struggling, she still hadn't managed to grow any.

When Xia Qing first moved into the territory, she found a few yellow-light soybean plants on the terraced fields and carefully tended them like treasures for several months. The harvested soybeans were as hard as iron—even squirrels' teeth couldn't bite through them.

Because Hui-Three Research Institute had never managed to breed high-quality seeds suited for local planting, Xia Qing could only trade at a high price with the then Territory Nine lord, Li Si, since she had brought green-light soybeans that could be grown here.

The result was that the soybeans Xia Qing had planted with such high hopes this spring—sent over by Wang Wu—were genetic weapons. All the fertilizer and water poured into that acre of land, plus half a year of hard work, had been wasted!

The thirty-plus green-light soybean plants now growing in the cultivation room were obtained by Xia Qing through trade with Zhang Shi.

Planting a few plants in the cultivation room first was to understand this type of soybean's growing habits, and also to confirm whether they could be grown in the territory, so as not to get her hopes up for nothing again.

The two were chatting when Xia Qing's phone buzzed in her pocket.

Zhang Shi could sense Xia Qing's magnetic field change after reading the message, so she said, "Go handle your business. When the spring pancakes are done I'll leave them in the kitchen."

"I can't help with this one." Xia Qing replied to the message as she spoke. "Di Ming sent word—Tang Lu wants to cooperate with Bai Yi University Medical School to build a laboratory inside Territory Two. To get the Tang family's protection, Tang Lu has long-leased Territory Two to Tang Huai, so she has to get Tang Huai's consent before building the lab. She used the handbag to lure Tang Huai over because she wants him to see Bai Yi University Medical School's strength with his own eyes."

Di Ming sent the message because Tang Huai had asked him to give Xia Qing a heads-up, so she could prepare to take over Territory Two.

Zhang Shi felt the logic didn't hold. "If Bai Yi University Medical School wants to build a lab here, it should be to be closer to Third Brother's lab for easier cooperation. Since Tang Lu wants to convince Tang Huai, she shouldn't provoke him like this."

Tang Huai's hidden evolution ability shouldn't be revealed publicly by Xia Qing. She nodded in agreement. "Tang Lu is doing this to increase her own bargaining chip in this cooperation. Tenth Sister, you go ahead—I'm going to feed the chickens."

At noon, while eating with Yang Jin, Xia Qing brought up the matter.

Yang Jin asked directly, "Sister Qing, Tang Huai is the host of the β-group active evolution protease, right?"

On the very first day the lords got their walkie-talkies, Tang Huai had revealed on the lord channel that he ate termite mushrooms.

Zhang Shi had only moved into Hidden Valley this year, so she didn't know about this. But the Green Dragon Squad had been here all along, so Xia Qing wasn't at all surprised Yang Jin could analyze Tang Huai's hidden evolution ability. "Right. Tang Lu is still too impatient."

Having only been away from Hui-Three for half a year, Tang Lu was already impatient to use Tang Huai's hidden evolution ability to control Tang Zhengpo's family. In Xia Qing's view, this was an extremely irrational choice.

Yang Jin analyzed the reason Tang Lu was doing this: "Before the disaster, Tang Lu was envious, jealous, and hateful toward Tang Zhengpo's family. In the ten years before the disaster, she ruthlessly trampled them underfoot, humiliating them in every way. She cut them off so completely because she never imagined that a family without an evolver like Tang Zhengpo's would still have a chance to make a comeback."

"At the end of the fifth year of the disaster, after Tang Zhengpo lost contact, Tang Huai revealed his auditory evolution ability. Tang Lu then concentrated all her twisted hatred and jealousy toward Tang Zhengpo's family onto Tang Huai. Most of the suffering Tang Huai endured in the Sufeng Squad was designed by Tang Lu."

Xia Qing nodded. She had been secretly watching Tang Zhengsu's family all along and knew what Tang Lu had done to Tang Huai.

Yang Jin took a few bites of noodles before continuing, "Now, without Tang Zhengrong and Tang Zhengsu's suppression, Tang Zhengpo's three children have grown quickly and become elite again, while Tang Lu has fallen back to where she was before the disaster—she has to rely on Tang Zhengpo's family to live well. For Tang Lu, this is harder to swallow than eating shit. Tang Huai's hidden ability that can't be exposed might be the last chance in her life to control Tang Zhengpo's family, so of course she won't let it go. She's probably been preparing these past few months and thinks she's fully prepared."

"Tang Huai's battle won't be easy either, but with Di Ming and Huo Zhun with him, plus the people Tang Zhengpo planted in advance, the final victory will definitely be Tang Huai's." After saying this, Xia Qing buried her head in the fragrant sauce-covered noodles.

With the same ingredients, the food Yang Jin made always tasted much better than hers. Xia Qing had no talent for cooking. Once Yang Jin left, if she wanted something good to eat she'd have to go to the Territory Seven kitchen or team up with Zhang Shi.

Yang Jin seized this rare opportunity to clarify to Xia Qing the rumors circulating in the Safe Zone about him and Tang Lu. "After Luo-ge, Xie Yu, and I led our teams to join Hui-Three Base, Tang Lu took a liking to my evolution ability and started pursuing me. At first she really did pursue me, even slipped me drugs. After I wiped out her four confidants, she didn't dare bother me anymore. In the years since, she's used pursuing me as a cover to trade for her survival space within the Tang family, and I've used her as a shield. It's all been an act."

"Oh." Xia Qing, who was never very curious, wasn't interested in this. She stood up to get a second bowl of noodles.

Yang Jin handed her the vinegar bottle and continued, "Xu Pin acting as Tang Lu's lapdog isn't because he likes her that much—it's because he wants to become the Tang family's son-in-law. He also secretly planned two assassination attempts on Tang Rui, but unfortunately both failed."

Xia Qing added some vinegar to her noodles and asked, "How did you and Xu Pin become enemies?"

Yang Jin explained, "Xu Pin was also a student at A Military Academy, two years above me and Xie Yu. After the disaster hit, Xie Yu and I both lost our families and had nowhere to go, so we gathered a group of like-minded classmates to form a squad. Xu Pin also formed a squad and wanted to recruit us. Of course we refused. Later we clashed several times over missions and resources, and that became a grudge. It wasn't a fight-to-the-death kind of grudge—I never expected him to collude with Blaze and poison Luo-ge."

Speaking of Blaze reminded Xia Qing that she'd forgotten to tell Yang Jin some news. "During the Harmful Snow Period, one of the Blaze members from the ten-person squad that ran to Mountain Thirty-Six had gone to the python lake north of Hui-Three Mountain Sixty before Luo-ge was poisoned. He stayed there for a day and caught quite a few Harmful Snakes."

This was news Yang Jin truly didn't know. "Sister Qing, did Broken-Waist Wolf tell you that?"

Xia Qing shook her head. "Not Broken-Waist—the Head Wolf. It saw it with its own eyes."

"Too bad the Queen can't step forward to testify." Otherwise, Yang Jin could use its testimony to take another hard swing at Blaze.

Not being able to now doesn't mean not being able to later. But by the day the wolves can testify, Blaze will already have been ground to dust.

After lunch, Xia Qing left the territory and headed for Peak Three of Mountain Forty-Nine to clean up the Gaoshan snow slide. Before she even reached Peak Three, she ran into a scruffy silver-gray giant wolf.