Chapter 291: Selling Fish

During the disaster years, nothing was more thrilling than harvesting food.

Those who received the notification couldn't wait for the rain to stop before grabbing their tools and heading to Territory Three, passing through the North Isolation Belt to reach the reservoir.

When the group arrived at the reservoir and saw the countless fish floating on the surface, they were all stunned.

This isn't divine punishment by lightning—this is Heaven opening its eyes, dumping points on Xia Qing!

Xia Qing, who was nailing together a raft with bamboo poles alongside Ji Li, saw over twenty people arrive from Territories Five, Six, and Ten, and hurried over to greet them.

Shi Zhong, who had fishing experience, took over from Xia Qing and made rafts with his son; Qi Fu led people in casting nets along the reservoir shore to scoop up fish; Xia Qing, Yuan Yan, and Zhu Li led people in testing the harmful element content and sorting the catch.

Ten minutes later, Tang Huai and the squads of Chang Li and Hu Zi Feng arrived; fifteen minutes later, people from Territory Seven also came with their tools, and exclamations and laughter rang out continuously by the reservoir.

Fish, crabs, shrimp, loaches, frogs, leeches, and other evolved aquatic creatures of unidentifiable species were hauled up net after net.

There were far too many aquatic creatures shorter than a finger to test one by one, so they were sealed directly and treated as red-light.

Anything longer than a finger was tested and sorted into three categories by harmful element content, then quickly sealed; the edible ones went straight into the large freezer.

Where did the freezer come from? Of course it was the extravagant Third Brother who had Daya and the others haul it over—Zhang San spared no expense to get his hands on delicious food!

Tang Huai didn't compete with Zhang San for the edible fish, and sidled up to Xia Qing to ask quietly, "What are you planning to do with all these red-light fish?"

Xia Qing had already figured out how to handle the fish the moment she saw them. "Could you ask if Tang Dong wants to buy them?"

"Alright, I'll ask." Tang Huai put on a show of stepping aside to call his dad, then trotted back to Xia Qing. "My dad says whatever quantity you offer, we'll take it. These fish and shrimp are dead, but very fresh. Regardless of species, 26 points per jin—does that work for you?"

"Deal."

Because Territory One still had a large batch of captured migratory birds that hadn't been dealt with yet, Xia Qing had made Tang Zhengpo her top choice for this transaction.

Fish and shrimp spoil quickly after death, so they had to be processed and frozen as soon as possible—these steps required labor and electricity costs, so Xia Qing's original plan was to sell to Tang Zhengpo at two points per jin below the safe zone's public trading price. Since he was willing to pay one point more, Xia Qing naturally agreed.

One extra point per jin meant that for all the fish in this reservoir, she could earn several thousand more points!

"Great, I'll have someone come over to carry the fish right away." Tang Huai cheerfully sent another message to his dad, and seeing Shi Zhong haul up another net of fish, his eyes lit up and he rushed over to help with testing.

"There's a green-light one here!" After testing nearly a hundred fish, they finally found one edible one. Shi Du was so excited he whooped, and handed the fish to Ji Li.

Ji Li swiftly sealed it and put it in the freezer.

Workers paddled the bamboo rafts loaded with fish to the shore; Shi Du and Guan Tong lifted the rafts directly and dumped the fish onto the rainproof tarp spread out on the bank, where others tested them.

Hu Zi Feng and Jing Kuan stood on either side of the reservoir with shotguns, constantly shooting down birds that came sniffing around to steal the fish. The division of labor was reasonable and the order orderly.

Qi Fu held up a yellow eel over half a meter long and announced the good news. "Ji-ge, green-light yellow eel!"

Good stuff! Another green-light one—the group cheered and picked up the pace.

Zhu Li tested out a yellow-light evolved crab and held it up excitedly, shouting, "This is an evolved hairy crab, right? I've been in the territory half a year and didn't even know we had hairy crabs in our river!"

"Let me see!" Chang Li, who loved eating crabs, ran over and took a look by the light. "It really is!"

Kuang Qingwei beside her held up a dark, mottled fish for Tang Huai to see. "Huai-ge, look—is this a sleeper goby? It's green-light."

Tang Huai took it and looked it over. "It's a sleeper goby. That's a good one—live ones can fetch 280 points per jin. Our shop has them. Xia Qing's made a killing this time."

Hearing the constant good news from everyone, Xia Qing shouted, "All edible fish, shrimp, and crabs harvested today are twenty percent off—take as much as you want!"

Chang Li immediately chimed in, "I won't fight Third Brother for the green-light ones, but I want all the yellow-light hairy crabs! Thank you!"

Zhu Li followed up, "I want four jin of yellow eel. I've been foraging around the territory for half a year and haven't caught a single edible one."

Xia Qing heard her phone buzz twice in her pocket and then the call ended. She took it out and saw it was Xin Yu. She immediately picked up the two large bags of sealed red-light fish she had prepared, hurried to the North Isolation Belt, and handed them to Xin Yu. "All red-light, a hundred and fifty jin. I didn't have time to go home for the chestnuts and pine nuts—I'll bring them over tomorrow."

"Thanks." Xin Yu took the bags and gave Xia Qing six heads of green-light garlic. "Are there still plenty of fish? If so, I want another 150 jin, still trading with green-light garlic."

Xia Qing naturally agreed. "Can you carry it all back in one trip? I'll go down and get it now."

Xin Yu shook her head—she wasn't a strength evolver, and carrying a hundred and fifty jin at once was already quite a lot.

"Do you want edible fish and shrimp? I'll sell them to you at twenty percent off the safe zone price." Xia Qing asked.

"I don't eat aquatic food." Xin Yu refused, and walked off carrying the two large bags of fish.

Xia Qing called out, "Next time just bring four heads of garlic—I'll give you the twenty percent off even on red-light."

"No need." Xin Yu replied with two words and walked away.

Another one who wasn't short on cash. Xia Qing was about to head back to the territory when she heard footsteps from the east. She immediately hid behind a tree to observe, and recognized the person approaching. "Yan-jie?"

Yan Long, wearing a diving suit, responded, "I came to relieve Ji Li."

"Oh, oh!" Xia Qing brought her into the territory and to the reservoir. Ji Li clearly knew Yan Long was coming, gave her a nod, and then looked at Xia Qing.

Without waiting for Ji Li to ask, Xia Qing answered directly, "Anything in the freezer that Third Brother likes to eat, Ji-ge can take it all back."

"Thanks." Ji Li weighed all the tested green-light fish, shrimp, and crabs, and carried them back to Territory Seven.

Zhu Li whispered gossip to Yuan Yan beside her, "The one who just arrived—isn't she that Level Nine olfactory evolver from Territory Seven? Do you remember her? We saw her last time when she went with Third Brother to Territory Nine to search for contraband."

From their last meeting, Zhu Li knew she was a high-level evolver and had been incredibly envious, but Zhu Li didn't know her name.

Yuan Yan nodded lightly—she had recognized her too. She used to envy Yan Long as well, but now she felt much better about it. Because she herself was an evolver now, and a dual-system evolver extremely, extremely useful for farming.

Yan Long discussed quietly with Xia Qing, "Should I go down to check the bottom?"

Seeing Yan Long arrive in a diving suit, Xia Qing knew she was planning to go into the water to look for goods. She nodded and reminded her quietly, "The deep parts of the reservoir are over ten meters. Be careful, Yan-jie."

Yan Long nodded and jumped straight into the water—everyone who saw it was shocked.

Although the reservoir had just been cleared by lightning, this was evolved Blue Star after all—who could guarantee there weren't evolved species in the water immune to electric shock? Going into the water was far too dangerous.