Chapter 327: The Rainy-Day Intruder

Xia Qing didn't know much about companies or shares, but just based on the three-story villa inside Xin Yu's territory, the equipment she provided for the Evolved Eagle, and the rare Green Lantern plants she offered in trade, Xia Qing was sure the shares in Xin Yu's hands were worth a considerable number of points, and that Xin Yu definitely held a certain position within the Chonglian Group.

No wonder Xin Yu said Tang Huai wasn't qualified to negotiate with her!

Tang Huai simply wasn't on the same level as her.

A notorious tough character? Hah. Of those who've survived until now, how many aren't tough?

Xia Qing hauled the thresher home, set it on the roof of the rack building, connected it to the storage battery, and began threshing.

The thresher's principle and structure are both very simple. Corn cobs are poured into the thresher's feed inlet, then under the friction and impact of the high-speed rotating iron blades, the corn kernels separate from the cob and flow out through different outlets.

This machine makes a tremendous noise when operating, so Sick Wolf and Ram Boss kept especially far away; Xia Qing, with her sensitive hearing, had no choice but to stuff two cotton balls in her ears. After threshing was finished, Xia Qing still felt a buzzing in her ears.

Xia Qing spread the corn kernels out to dry and covered them with a tarp; the cobs she covered directly with a rainproof cloth, planning to deal with them after she delivered the thresher to Territory Ten and returned.

While carrying the thresher downstairs, Xia Qing heard Zhao's Mother inquire over the walkie-talkie, "Xia Qing, does the thresher work well?"

The thresher's noise was so loud that even ordinary people without multiplied hearing evolution within two or three kilometers could hear it.

"It works well," Xia Qing replied. "Very few broken kernels; almost all the kernels came off the cobs. Shi Du, are you there? I'm bringing the thresher to the Territory Ten road sign now."

"Almost all of them came off, meaning there are still some left on the cobs that need to be gone over by hand." Qi Fu responded, "Threshers before the Catastrophe were the same; the drier the corn is dried, the cleaner it threshes."

Xia Qing had carried the thresher only halfway when she met Shi Du, who had come to pick up the machine. She handed the thresher to Shi Du and asked, "Those snakes survived, right?"

"Only one Yellow Lantern died; all the others survived." The dead Qi Snake certainly wouldn't be wasted—it was processed into medicinal ingredients for his father. Shi Du asked cheerfully, "Sister Qing, is that rabbit still alive?"

Xia Qing paused before answering, "It eats and drinks, so it should survive. Where exactly did you catch it? I want to find time to go see if I can get a pair."

If she could get a pair, they could have baby rabbits.

Shi Du immediately told Xia Qing the location where he had dug a pit trap to catch the rabbit, and gave a detailed account of all the dangers present in that area. Xia Qing listened carefully before returning to her own territory.

As expected, she once again didn't find Tang Huai under the Territory Two road sign. Without thinking, Xia Qing knew where Tang Huai was now: by the wild grass wall between Territory Two and Territory Nine.

Tang Huai was eavesdropping on the activity inside Territory Nine. The reason Xia Qing had asked Shi Du about the rabbit earlier was also to have a legitimate reason to stand on the north side of Territory Nine and, with divided attention, eavesdrop on the activity inside Territory Nine.

Inside Territory Nine, Li Si was having a heated argument with a man. Because they weren't shouting, Shi Du couldn't hear it, but Xia Qing heard every word clearly.

This unintentional eavesdropping gave Xia Qing two important pieces of information:

Both price increases of Territory Nine's high-efficiency compost fungal powder were decided by Vice Captain Liao of the Blaze Squad.

The person researching chemical agents inside Territory Nine was not Li Si, but the man arguing with Li Si.

This man's voice was not the first time Xia Qing had heard it. Three months ago, when Zhang San and Tan Junjie led people into Territory Nine to search for dangerous chemicals, this man had loudly and fiercely tried to stop Tan Junjie's search, and afterward had cursed Assistant Xiao Liu at length.

That fit!

As an expert specializing in plant cultivation, Li Si certainly understood the destructive effect chemical synthesis agents would have on the organism balance of flora and fauna after the Great Evolution of Blue Star lifeforms, so she wouldn't spend her energy researching chemical agents.

Territory Nine's "Mung Bean Cultivation Guide" was written by Li Si, and the high-efficiency compost fungal powder was researched by Li Si, but the chemical bird-repellent agent and the deadly poison that "can shut up everything that breathes" were both issued under Li Si's name, yet were not her research results—they were the work of the man arguing with Li Si.

The Blaze Squad sent two groups of people to Territory Nine, and there was a significant disagreement between the two factions.

Li Si and Assistant Xiao Liu had very likely deliberately exposed the presence of dangerous chemicals in Territory Nine before, so that Zhang San and the inspection team would enter Territory Nine and take the dangerous materials away.

That was why Xia Qing, with her sensitive hearing, had felt that Li Si's fierce verbal resistance on the day the dangerous chemicals were confiscated carried a deliberate quality.

So what about this time?

Was Zhang San's interference in the fungal powder production also related to Territory Nine, or to the Blaze Squad behind Territory Nine?

The more she thought about it, the more complicated things became.

Xia Qing shook her head. No matter how complicated it was, her counter-strategy remained unchanged: stay away from Territory Nine, keep her little vest tightly covered, and develop sneakily.

Xia Qing hurried home, went up to the roof to clean the cobs, and twisted off the kernels that hadn't been stripped from them.

Most of these remaining kernels were broken kernels or small kernels at the tip of the cob. Xia Qing twisted them off and put them in a separate small bag to feed the chickens.

Yes, that's how extravagant she was—the good Yellow Lantern corn she harvested she ate herself, the not-so-good stuff she used to feed the chickens!

Before she finished dealing with the cobs, Xia Qing heard the thresher noise inside Territory Ten stop. Based on how long Territory Ten had used the thresher, Xia Qing could judge that Territory Ten's early-planted corn yield was about the same as hers.

Then over the next two days, Xia Qing used the sound of the thresher to figure out the early-planted corn yields of the nearby territories. The seed planted was also the two jin of corn kernels given by Luo Pei. Territory Five had the highest yield, followed by Xia Qing and Territory Ten, then Territory Six and Territory Four, and finally the unprofessionally-run Territory Two.

Territory Twelve and Territory One were in a different weight class from their territories; Territory Eight and Territory Nine didn't use a thresher, so it couldn't be judged.

It wasn't only Xia Qing who figured it out; the other lords all heard it too. Xia Qing heard Zhao's Mother raise her voice by several dozen decibels while scolding her son in the neighboring territory.

After everyone finished threshing, the weather turned from clear to rainy. According to the forecast, this rain would drizzle on and off for three days; because it wasn't a thunderstorm, the chance of it turning into a killing rain was very low.

This rain made the lords both happy and frustrated.

Happy, because under three days of normal rain, the fields would be thoroughly soaked, and after harvesting the crops in the fields, they could directly spread fertilizer, plow, and plant the next crop without having to laboriously channel river water to irrigate the fields.

Frustrated, because the early-planted corn they had harvested hadn't yet been dried or stored.

For Xia Qing, whose corn was already eighty percent dried, there was only frustration and no happiness. Because for her, irrigating the fields wasn't the least bit tiring—it was farm work that Ram Boss loved.

Xia Qing put down the rainproof cloth so the rain wouldn't beat on the crops in her fields that were already in late growth stage. The undried corn kernels were put into the grain storage room, to be taken out and continue drying once the weather cleared.

She couldn't be idle on a rainy day either. Xia Qing picked the already-blackened mung bean pods in the field. The rain wasn't heavy at the moment, but inside the shed, the sound of raindrops hitting the rainproof cloth was still quite clear.

This kind of sound didn't feel irritating to people, nor to wolves or sheep. With a bundle tied at her waist, Xia Qing moved through the mung bean field picking pods. Ram Boss and Sick Wolf lay in the big shed, one narrowing its eyes to rest, the other closing its eyes to chew its cud.

Suddenly, Sick Wolf's eyes opened, and it raised its head to look toward the buffer forest.

A few seconds later, Xia Qing heard the camera's warning sound.

There was an intruder, captured by Gao Po's camera.