Chapter 242: Immunity Evolution

Zhang San's claim of collaborating with the Tang family to develop edible fungi was nonsense Xia Qing didn't believe for a second.

Jili's gesture of slipping her the note convinced Xia Qing that Tang Huai, who had eaten termite mushrooms without ill effect, was definitely hiding something.

This time Tang Huai had only paid the price of five protective suits to get himself and Territory Seven to help him cover it up — already a very cheap bargain.

The biggest crisis humanity now faced was food shortage. Xia Qing didn't know why Tang Huai was fine after eating something poisonous, and had no interest in knowing, but plenty of others would be extremely interested — like Li Si, who had been intercepted by Zhang San.

Zhang San was also a researcher, so he was certainly interested too — that was why he had stepped forward on his own initiative to propose cooperation. What project did he want to collaborate with the Tang family on?

Researching why Tang Huai was fine? How would they even study that?

Would Li Si be fooled that easily?

Within her territory there were unpolluted springs, high-yi-element spinach, an evolved sheep, a pack of evolved wolves, and a multi-system Evolver named Xia Qing — who pulled her cloak tight. She wanted to keep lying low, farm honestly and steadily, live a stable life, and desperately grow stronger. She didn't want to be studied by anyone, Zhang San included.

Inside Territory Twelve, the three Tang men — father and sons — were each more solemn than the last.

On the table before the three of them lay a slip of paper, on which were scrawled five hasty characters:

Immunity Evolution.

If he hadn't heard his father talk about the underground experiments, Tang Huai would have been bouncing off the walls with excitement right now, but at this moment he only wanted to dig a hole and bury himself in it.

Tang Zhengpo took a sip of tea before speaking slowly. "The original goal of the underground experiments at Huiyi Research Institute was to enhance human immunity. With higher immunity, the body could resist the damage caused by excess radiation and harmful elements, and red-light organisms could be brought back into the human diet."

"After the catastrophe began, our family's fortunes declined sharply, but we never resorted to eating red-light plants and animals out of hunger, which is why we never noticed Ah Huai had evolved." Tang Zhengpo sighed.

"Dad, this absolutely cannot leak." Tang Heng was terrified his brother would end up like his cousin — dragged off to a lab and tormented. "The people from Territory Seven probably won't spread it. Brother, did Liu Sheng and the other one see Jili hand you the note? What about Xia Qing?"

Liu Sheng and his partner were Tang Zhengpo's bodyguards. They had followed Tang Zhengpo since before the catastrophe, and after their abilities evolved they hadn't left either. Because whether before or after the catastrophe, Tang Zhengpo paid them extremely well.

Tang Huai recalled everyone's positions at the time. "Those two were behind me, so they probably didn't notice. Xia Qing was beside me, but the cigarette pack was blocking her view — she shouldn't have seen it. But even if she did, it's fine. She's sharp as a tack; even if she saw, she wouldn't say anything."

Tang Zhengpo nodded. "Jili chose to hand you the note right in front of Xia Qing, so he never intended to hide it from her. Now we just wait for Zhang San to contact us and see how this 'project' is supposed to work. Ah Huai, get the mushroom cultivation going as soon as possible — use the fungal soil sent over from Territories Four and Six."

Tang Huai pulled his clothes tighter around himself. "Dad, Zhang San wouldn't…"

"He wouldn't." Tang Zhengpo soothed his son. "He may have a bad temper, but he's not a bad person. If he really wanted to do something, he'd have done it long ago — he wouldn't have waited until now."

Tang Huai slapped himself across the mouth. "It's all my fault for being so greedy!"

With the crisis temporarily resolved, Tang Heng couldn't help laughing. "Next time my brother eats poisonous mushrooms, at least he won't be throwing a fit about pulling them out of his own body."

Tang Huai glared. "That was decades ago! Bring it up again and I'll smack you!"

Tang Zhengpo sipped his tea, waited for his two sons to finish their squabbling, then sighed. "Today Xia Qing successfully made contact with Territory Seven, which made me realize something: within Territories One through Ten, the only person who has established dialogue with every territory is Xia Qing. In other words, Xia Qing holds all the connections in this stretch of territory. If used well, she could earn a massive amount of survival resources."

Tang Huai wanted to argue, but counting them off one by one, his father was right. Xia Qing didn't just hold the human connections — she also held the sheep connections, the wolf connections…

At 4:30 the next morning, Xia Qing — whom Tang Zhengpo believed to be sitting on a mountain of connections — crouched at her own front door holding a wild chicken, ladling flattery at her most important "wolf connection." "This chicken is so plump and beautiful — you must have caught it yourself, my lord! So majestic, truly the leader of the pack, unmatched in style!"

The head wolf turned away disinterestedly and watched its companions eat wild boar. Because the chicken was meant for Xia Qing and the sick wolf, it didn't need plucking, so the weasel hadn't been brought along today.

"Wolf Lao Er, I've got things to do today, so make do with jerky for now. I'll come back tonight and make you chicken breast and pumpkin porridge." Xia Qing stood up, went inside, sealed the feathered chicken airtight, stuffed it into the freezer compartment of the fridge, then brought out the cooked meat and pumpkin and set them outside for the sick wolf.

Don't think there were only a few pumpkin plants left in Xia Qing's field — each plant bore a whole string of pumpkins, and the sick wolf had now been upgraded to eating green-light pumpkins.

Because she had to set out before dawn, the chicken couldn't be let out. So after eating her fill and gathering her gear, Xia Qing first stuffed a compressed ration to Sheep Boss, then handed it the little basket. "Boss, I'm heading out. Watch the territory, catch bugs to feed the chickens and fish. Don't worry about the snake enclosure — I'll feed them when I get back."

Why not give a basket to the skinny wolf-dog?

Isn't that obvious? Xia Qing wouldn't dare boss around the head wolf's companion right in front of her.

Not only that — even in her own home, Xia Qing had to report her movements to the head wolf. "My lord, I'm going out to gather food. Three people will be coming by later to help guard the territory. You rest at home and recover from your injuries."

Red squirrels were too fast — Xia Qing had to reach the abandoned cave at the wild boar breeding center and lie in wait before the red squirrels came out of their nests to be active, then start tracking from partway along the route.

Xia Qing and the wolf pack had traveled the road from Territory Three to the wild boar breeding center so many times they'd almost worn a path into it; walking it in the dark wasn't dangerous, but going any deeper required waiting until after sunrise.

After reaching the cave, Xia Qing used her phone to monitor the red squirrel's location.

At first light, the little creature poked out of its nest, ran a circuit among its several nests — apparently patrolling its territory. Then the red dot entered Territory Three and headed steadily south.

Now was the time the red squirrel came each day to her window to drink and take food. Watching the little red dot pause motionless at her home's location, Xia Qing, hidden in the cave, felt a real sense of accomplishment.

Her plan to tame the red squirrel had met with initial success.

Watching the red dot on her phone begin moving north at speed, Xia Qing immediately reached out and grabbed a stink bug crawling past, giving it a gentle squeeze. The startled stink bug instantly released a smell like ailanthus, preventing her keen-nosed quarry from detecting her.

Once the distance on the phone screen between the green dot marking Xia Qing's position and the red dot marking the red squirrel's had stretched to two hundred meters, Xia Qing judged that the rapidly moving red squirrel could no longer sense any movement here, and immediately entered Valley One to begin the chase.