Chapter 296: Sufeng Battalion Commander

Seeing Xia Qing nod, Hu Zi leaned in and pressed, "Company Commander Yan must have caught a big one, right?"

"No." Xia Qing answered with a denial first, and only after taking malicious pleasure in seeing everyone's surprised expressions did she calmly add, "She caught a few old softshell turtles weighing around two hundred jin each, and a few evolved yellow eels."

The eyes of the patrol team members instantly lit up again, but before they could ask for details, the captain called them to continue patrolling.

Xia Qing understood the patrol team's excitement. Because when she watched Yan Long walk up from the pitch-black reservoir at night, she was even more excited than they were. Although Xia Qing couldn't see how Yan Long searched for turtles and caught yellow eels at the bottom of the water, she just inexplicably believed that even without last night's thunder, Yan Long alone could take down the entire reservoir.

That was how impressive Yan Long made her feel.

"Company Commander Yan is awesome!"

Xia Qing stood quietly inside her territory, listening to the patrol team members' hushed discussions as they gradually walked away.

Yuan Rui said softly, "She was the battalion commander of our military district's frogman special ops team before the catastrophe. What do you think the callsign 'Yan Long' comes from?"

In the catastrophe years when evolved fierce beasts roamed, humans instinctively admired the strong. Cao Xianyun added excitedly, "Forget a few hundred-jin old turtles, even if there were sharks in the reservoir, Company Commander Yan could knock all their teeth out. Sending such an awesome person to protect Zhang San is such a waste of talent."

Su Ming muttered softly, "Hu Zi, did you notice Sister Qing got a lot whiter?"

"..."

You don't know until you listen, and when you do, you get a fright. Only then did Xia Qing realize that Yan Long, who had evolved ninth-level olfactory ability, had already been extremely formidable before the catastrophe.

However, Xia Qing didn't think sending Yan Long to protect Zhang San was a waste of talent. Because Zhang San, who could provide the military with potions to heal bodily damage, was absolutely worth being given key protection by the military.

It had already been a month since Xia Qing sent the chestnuts exchanged for healing potions to Territory Seven, and Zhang San, who never owed debts, still hadn't delivered the potions to her, which showed just how difficult the potions were to compound.

The potions that could make her idol spend so long preparing must have amazing effects, and Xia Qing was full of anticipation. Preparing to heal her bodily damage, Xia Qing gradually reduced her use of skin-dyeing potions, and her complexion was slowly returning to normal.

Strictly speaking, Xia Qing hadn't gotten whiter, but had returned to a normal, healthy complexion. Working in the fields every day, how white could she get? Xia Qing didn't care whether she was white or not; as long as she was healthy and strong, she didn't care what complexion she had.

While repairing the drainage ditch of the greenhouse not far south of the reservoir, which had been destroyed by the several-meter-high water waves kicked up by last night's lightning strike, Xia Qing heard the roar of helicopter rotors approaching from afar and landing inside Territory Two. She quickly finished repairing the drainage ditch, grabbed a bamboo basket, hurried to the wild grass wall on the south side of her territory to pick up stones, and pricked up her ears to listen to the movements inside Territory Two.

Territory Two has a total area of 2,300 mu, with the same east-west width as Territory Three, so its north-south depth is only 766 meters. The houses in Territory Two were built in the exact center of the territory, over 300 meters from the south wild grass wall of Xia Qing's territory.

For Xia Qing, a seventh-level hearing-evolved human, this distance meant that as long as there was no interference from noise like strong wind, she could hear people inside the rooms of Territory Two speaking loudly with perfect clarity.

"Half a year in the territory and you still haven't installed a proper lightning rod, you bunch of useless trash!"

Hearing the cursing from inside Territory Two, Xia Qing's pupils trembled, and she forcefully suppressed the killing intent churning in her heart. Her father's murderer Tang Zhengsu had come, and Xu Pin, who could detect emotional changes in humans within a hundred meters, had surely come along too—Xia Qing couldn't expose herself.

For both captains of Sufeng to take a helicopter over here, it seemed Kou Fanming was seriously injured.

Xia Qing heard Tang Huai reply calmly, "There's no problem with the lightning rod inside Territory Two. Kou Fanming was struck because he was wearing metal protective gear by the window..."

"I'm only asking you: was Kou Fanming in the room at the time?!" Tang Zhengsu cut off Tang Huai's words and burst out cursing, "If a person got struck by lightning inside the room, it means you didn't install the lightning rod properly! What the hell are you pulling that long face for..."

The more Tang Zhengsu cursed, the more foul his words became. Xia Qing had no interest in listening further, so she carried the basket full of crushed stones and dumped them by the road on the southwest side of the abandoned village. Turning around, she discovered that one of the large bolls on the catastrophe-evolved cotton plants she had transplanted to the edge of the abandoned village during the third catastrophe rain had actually split open with a crack.

Because she didn't know whether the catastrophe-evolved cotton had evolved any attack ability, Xia Qing didn't dare approach rashly. After observing from afar for a while, she pressed the walkie-talkie button. "Everyone, the catastrophe-evolved cotton here is about to open, but the cotton is a dark yellow with black color, so the smell is definitely not good."

After saying that, Xia Qing immediately pricked up her ears to listen to the movements inside Territory Two.

The walkie-talkie in Territory Two was also on. After hearing Xia Qing speak, Tang Zhengsu, who was currently giving Tang Huai a dressing-down, asked, "Is this the woman from Territory Three who's hooked up with Hu the Madman?"

"Yes," Tang Heng answered. "The lord of Territory Three doesn't just have the best relationship with Territory One, but also with Territory Seven—it's the best relationship in this whole area—because Zhang San, the lord of Territory Seven, really loves eating the spinach from her territory."

Xu Pin added softly, "Last night, Zhang Xi from Jiang Xiong's squad led people into Territory Three to steal wolves and was caught by the patrol team. Jiang Xiazi called me last night, hoping we could give him a hand. He didn't know those two would disobey orders and act on their own."

Xia Qing raised an eyebrow, feeling that Xu Pin's words were meant for the hearing-evolved person eavesdropping outside the territory.

"Useless trash who can't handle a job, what's there to protect? They don't share the Tang surname, so they're not worth me showing mercy over and over." Tang Zhengsu's words were clearly a veiled attack, cursing Tang Huai as useless trash.

The other lords were all ordinary people who couldn't hear the movements inside Territory Two, and they actively responded to Xia Qing's question. Kuang Qingwei inquired, "Xia Qing, are there many cotton bolls opening on yours? I'll go check how the patch in my territory is doing too."

Zhao Ze regretted it. "If I'd known it could really produce cotton, I would've kept some too."

Xia Qing answered Kuang Qingwei's question. "The catastrophe-evolved cotton plants here all have forty or fifty bolls on them. If they all open, we could harvest over a hundred jin of cotton."

Zhang San spoke up lazily. "When catastrophe-evolved cotton blooms, it releases flammable gas, rated C. Remember to wear gas masks and don't use open flames nearby."

Inside Territory Two, Xu Pin immediately reported, "Captain, this is Zhang San from Territory Seven."

Qi Fu immediately inquired, "Third Brother, how big is the range affected by the flammable gas released by catastrophe-evolved cotton?"

"A single bloom affects a radius of two meters; if too many open, the affected diameter is unknown." After Zhang San responded, in quite a good mood he started chatting about last night's big green prawns. "The green prawns tasted great. If they hadn't been killed by lightning, the texture would've definitely been even better. What a pity."

Inside Territory Three, Xia Qing, who was checking for flammables near the catastrophe-evolved cotton plants, immediately pressed the button. "I'll be watching the reservoir. If we find shrimp fry next year, I'll scoop them up and raise them right away."

"Good." Zhang San asked, "What are you planning to trade for those fish and prawns from last night?"