Chapter 309: The Second Oil Press

Xia Qing patted the dust off herself and told Wolf Leader, "I'm going to Gao Po to pick some vegetables. You and Wolf Lao Er stay here—there's someone over there."

Tang Huai was furious when Xia Qing finally showed up. "Xia Qing, that's going too far!"

Xia Qing had no time to figure out what the worm-digger was thinking. She asked expressionlessly, "What is it?"

He shook his aching feet and asked smugly, "Want an oil press?"

An oil press? The lord already had one, but more was better. "How do we trade?"

Tang Huai put on a brotherly expression. "This small household oil press I got—I traded 2,900 points for it at Hui Er Base. Four green-light chicken eggs for you. I went through all that trouble just to earn a hundred points. I'm generous, right?"

The area where Hui Er Base was located was rich in minerals; before the catastrophe it had been home to the main production plants of one of Hua Nation's top two home-appliance companies. After recovering from the catastrophe, Hui Er Base's home-appliance production capacity remained first-rate in Hua Nation. The refrigerator Xia Qing had traded with Zhang San, and the large constant-temperature, constant-pressure equipment installed in the basement, were both produced at Hui Er Base.

Xia Qing nodded. "Sure, but I need to save up enough eggs to trade with Territory Nine first, then I can trade with you."

"No problem. Because of some half-baked idea from a brainless manager at our base, household oil presses are currently banned from sale. Just don't go telling anyone." Having completed his initial mission, Tang Huai stepped closer, continuing to fawn over Xia Qing.

Tang Huai stepped closer again, his expression as if he wanted to hand-write the word "sincerity" and stick it right on Xia Qing's forehead, just so she could feel how sincere he was.

"Rarity drives value. Right now in our territories, only you and Third Brother have edible eggs, that's why the hatching eggs are so valuable and expensive. If you can seize this great opportunity this autumn and next spring, your territory fence can go from thorny to iron mesh."

No one curries favor without a motive—this guy definitely has something shady going on. Xia Qing asked expressionlessly, "Your family sells iron mesh?"

Damn, is Xia Qing even a woman? After all this, she still couldn't feel his sincerity?

Tang Huai didn't want to keep fawning anymore. As he left, he warned Xia Qing in a very low voice, "The people who came to catch wolves are still in my territory. Be careful."

Xia Qing had watched Tang Zhengsu's helicopter take off and already knew that the Sufeng Squad, which had come with Jiang Xiong's team, hadn't all left the territory.

Watching Tang Huai stroll eastward along the northern isolation belt, Xia Qing nodded and headed down. She opened the monitoring app on her phone and, through the camera, kept her eyes on the northern isolation belt. Because she had realized Tang Huai's fawning was an act—only his last sentence was sincere. So Xia Qing wanted to use the camera to find the people watching the show.

Half a minute after Tang Huai passed, two people in camouflage protective suits crossed through the surveillance camera's view. One of them stopped in the northern part of her territory and peered inside.

Xia Qing immediately took a screenshot and zoomed in on the person's face.

The twenty-thousand-point camera wasn't bought for nothing. Although the person was wearing a protective mask, Xia Qing still recognized him by the greedy eyes behind the mask.

Qian Lin, a Level Four strength evolver of the Sufeng Squad. A couple of days ago, Xia Qing had overheard his voice when she was eavesdropping on Tang Zhengsu speaking on the south side of the territory.

What was the Sufeng Squad's purpose in leaving Qian Lin in the territory? Or rather, what was Tang Huai warning her to be careful about?

Xia Qing had been pulling weeds in the Gao Po terraces for about twenty minutes when she received a message from Ji Li.

After receiving the camera and oil press Ji Li had delivered, Xia Qing was about to transfer points to him, but Ji Li waved it off. "Our lord says no points needed—green-light meat will do."

Xia Qing understood Zhang San's meaning: he figured the wolves in her territory had returned, so green-light meat would soon be available. However, Xia Qing didn't think the odds were great, because this time only one sick wolf had come back.

Xia Qing installed the camera on a large, hard rock five meters diagonally above the spring-water cave. This position allowed the entire lower-slope terraces to fall within surveillance range—no matter from which angle a person or animal entered the lower-slope terraces or approached the unpolluted spring, none could escape the camera's capture.

Moreover, placing the camera here meant it couldn't monitor the entrance of the spring-water cave. In other words, when Xia Qing fetched water, she wouldn't be caught by the camera, which gave her a strong sense of security.

After installing the fifth camera, Xia Qing stuffed the oil press into her large backpack. Just as she was about to turn on the walkie-talkie to hear what other lords were having for lunch today, she heard Zhao Mother from the neighboring territory holler with full vigor: "Work isn't finished yet, what are you eating!"

Xia Qing raised an eyebrow. Recently, Zhao Mother's shouting and cursing had often been heard from Territory Four, and she spoke more often on the lord channel than Zhao Ze did. It seemed the person in charge of Territory Four had changed.

Territory Four's people couldn't eat until the work was done, but Xia Qing had finished her work and was going to eat. She turned up the walkie-talkie's volume and heard Zhu Li from Territory Six asking, "I'm planning to make purslane porridge and coarse-grain flatbreads for lunch today."

Hearing Zhu Li's voice, Xia Qing checked the time and headed back to the northern isolation belt. It was almost time for the danger-inspection team's scheduled patrol, and Xia Qing wanted to ask them to pass a message to Territory Six.

Zhao Mother, who had just been cursing loudly in the neighboring territory, was now speaking gently on the lord channel. "Zhu Li, do you still have tender purslane?"

Zhu Li answered, "A batch grew in the cornfield. I figured in a few days we'll be harvesting corn anyway—if we don't eat it, it'll just go to waste. Auntie, what are you eating today?"

Zhao Mother sighed. "The people in my territory are lazier than the next one. It's almost noon and they still haven't finished watering the vegetables. No time to make lunch—I'll just eat compressed rations."

Xia Qing, whose territory was next to Territory Four, faintly heard Zhao Ze's wailing.

Mother Shi from Territory Ten also came online. "I've been getting a bit of internal heat these past few days. I'm picking bitter sow-thistle right now, planning to make porridge to clear the heat, and make a few pumpkin flatbreads. I'm really sick of steamed pumpkin."

Bitter sow-thistle is a wild vegetable with small yellow flowers and a bitter taste. Xia Qing didn't like eating it, but many people quite enjoyed its bitterness.

The pumpkin vines that everyone had considered a nuisance in August had now entered a crazy fruiting period, becoming the main vegetable and staple food on every territory's table. It wasn't that people didn't want to sell them for points, but because every territory grew pumpkins, the territory purchase price had dropped from 10 points per jin to 6 points. So everyone prioritized selling other vegetables and kept the pumpkins for themselves.

But just as Mother Shi said, no matter how tasty pumpkins are, eating too many of them gets tiresome. So the lords no longer simply steamed or boiled them, but came up with all sorts of ways to make different dishes from pumpkin.

Yuan Yan from Territory Five shared a new method: "First I peel the pumpkin, slice it, and dry it until it's about eighty percent dry. Then I steam it for five minutes and dry it again. It tastes a lot like sweet potato jerky. After this treatment, I bag it up and suck out the air—it'll definitely keep for two or three months."

For lords who couldn't build food storage rooms, researching new methods of long-term food preservation was extremely important. Everyone eagerly asked Yuan Yan for the detailed method, and Xia Qing carefully noted it down.