Chapter 343: Dry-Fried Sweet Potato Slices

This question, over the ten years of the Calamity, countless oppressed weaklings have asked countless times.

The Lord Channel fell silent; no one could answer, or rather, no one was willing to answer this question.

Zhao Ze asked again, "If a lord is killed, does he have family? If not, who do the things in his territory and the remaining grain and vegetables go to—confiscated?"

Then, another long silence.

Xia Qing hugged her sniper rifle, leaned against a large tree, and gazed resolutely at the houses and greenhouses within her territory. After a long while, she picked up the phone and contacted Luo Pei.

"Brother Luo, there are three wolves recuperating from injuries within my territory. For the next stretch of time, around four in the morning every day, wolves should enter Valley One, Zone Three of Mountain Forty-Nine from the north. Please ask the mountain guards to let them pass, Brother Luo."

Luo Pei replied gently, "I've already given the orders. Don't leave your territory or Zone Three during this period. I'll send people to promptly clear away the scent left by the wolves passing through Zone Three and the northern isolation belt."

"Understood, thank you, Brother Luo."

"Don't thank me. Wolves' temperament is close to dogs'; they are the most likely evolved forest beasts to form cooperative relationships with humans. Just as you said before, preserve the wolves' strength and let them check the bear and snake groups within the evolved forest—only then will our territory be safer." Luo Pei asked, "In last night's fight, which group won?"

Xia Qing briefly recounted last night's events, then said, "The wolf pack has occupied Mountain Sixty. Winter cold restricts the bears' and snakes' movements, so there shouldn't be any changes before next summer."

Luo Pei responded, "That should be right. Three years ago, I led a team looking for an uncontaminated water source and went to Mountain Sixty. That mountain has many caves, very suitable for large wild animals to live in. Since the wolf pack has occupied Mountain Sixty, they won't give it up easily."

Hearing Luo Pei say this, Xia Qing felt she understood why the Broken-Waist Wolf wanted to trade for the wooden door. She lowered her voice, "Brother Luo, with such a big commotion last night, could any squads go over to investigate?"

A wooden door standing right there within the wolf pack's territory—whoever it was would want to open the door and go in for a look.

Luo Pei gave an affirmative answer, "The military and powerful squads will all send out reconnaissance aircraft or scout birds to check the situation. However, Mountain Sixty has no scarce resources, and it's the wolf pack's territory—no squad will go risk it."

If they discovered a wooden door on the mountain, then it wouldn't be certain. Xia Qing began considering how to get the Broken-Waist Wolf to give up the wooden door.

At seven in the evening, before the sky had fully darkened, Tan Junjie posted an announcement in the Lord Channel:

"All lords, the invaders who tried to seize grain have all been captured. To ensure territorial security, the reinforcement troops dispatched today will not withdraw until the lords' grain has been stored."

Hearing that the invaders had been caught, everyone started asking questions all at once, but Tan Junjie did not reveal any further information.

Xia Qing patrolled her territory once around, confirmed there were no abnormalities, then went to the greenhouse south of the reservoir to dig up sweet potatoes. After picking and choosing, Xia Qing still couldn't bring herself to touch the green-light sweet potatoes, and decided to dig up a yellow-light one instead.

In spring, Xia Qing had traded with Tan Junjie and obtained sixteen green-light sweet potato seedlings, which she planted in the cultivated land south of the reservoir. During the two Calamity Rains, six underwent Calamity evolution, and four had their elemental content increase, shifting from green-light to yellow-light; now only six green-light ones remain.

The two hundred sweet potatoes Xia Qing had cut and planted from sweet potato vines on the hillside terraces before the second Calamity Rain now number one hundred forty: sixty green-light and eighty yellow-light. Because they were planted in summer, the swollen roots on the terrace sweet potatoes aren't as large as those in the cultivated land south of the reservoir.

Having toiled for a day and a night, since Xia Qing had decided to eat sweet potatoes, of course she would pick the big ones.

She cut the vine of the yellow-light sweet potato with the largest swollen root, blew on her palm with great ceremony, and only then gripped the shovel to start digging.

After loosening the soil, Xia Qing gave it a gentle pull upward, then a light shake, and the pile of sweet potatoes—big and small—growing on the root were revealed.

This whole string of sweet potatoes added up to a full fifteen or sixteen jin, twice as many as the potatoes from a single potato plant!

If all her sweet potatoes could grow like this, she could harvest two thousand jin of sweet potatoes this year—a yield matched only by the territory's Crazy Pumpkins.

Xia Qing happily loaded the sweet potatoes into her back basket and brought them home along with the vines.

She eats the sweet potatoes, Sheep Boss eats the tender leaves of the vines, and the chickens and rabbits eat the remaining stems. Perfect.

Back home, Xia Qing turned on the radio, listened to the news broadcast while washing three sweet potatoes clean, cut them into one-centimeter-thick slices, then placed them against the pot and slow-fried them over low heat.

This method was something Xia Qing learned from Er Yong of Beard Feng's squad. Freshly dug sweet potatoes have too much moisture and aren't suitable for steaming or boiling; slow-frying them in an ungreased dry pot removes the excess moisture and makes them taste better.

The sweet potato slices slow-fried in the big pot, while Xia Qing used the small pot to make a pot of meat soup. Once the meat soup was done, the sick wolves ate the thick part, and after adding seasoning, Xia Qing ate the rest herself.

The aroma of sweet potatoes drifted out from the pot and lured Sheep Boss into the house.

Xia Qing lifted the pot, took out the fried sweet potato slices, placed them on a plate, and asked her companion at the kitchen door, "Want some? I'll give you a small piece to try once they've cooled down a bit."

Of course, the first person to taste the sweet potato was Xia Qing. The long-awaited sweet, glutinous texture nearly brought tears of happiness to her eyes. "It's truly delicious—even better than that small piece of sweet potato we got when we went out on a mission."

Sheep Boss munched on the concentrate in his own food bowl, but his eyes were fixed on the steaming plate on Xia Qing's table.

Xia Qing downed six palm-sized pieces of sweet potato in one go, leaned back contentedly in her chair, and quietly listened to the news broadcast from Hui-Three Base.

Sure enough, the news painted a picture of Hui-Three Base thriving and prosperous; the invaders seizing grain, killing lords, and the casualties among the inspection squad officers and soldiers weren't mentioned at all.

In the subsequent agricultural knowledge broadcast, an announcement related to the lords was made:

Because of the busy autumn harvest, the Territory Management Department has decided that this year's autumn agricultural products trade fair will no longer be held centrally, but will instead be conducted in a dispersed manner. Lords may report the supplies they wish to trade to the patrol convoys, and trade will be conducted through the convoys. Of course, the seeds that the base sells to lords at low prices in limited quantities as a welfare benefit will also be delivered by the patrol convoys.

After the agricultural knowledge broadcast, Xia Qing turned on the walkie-talkie and, sure enough, heard the lords discussing the matter.

"The busy autumn harvest is just an excuse; the main issue is safety—leaving the territory is too dangerous right now." Kuang Qingwei spoke first. "I was hesitating this afternoon about whether to go to the trade fair. Now it's saved me the trouble."

Qi Fu followed up, "It's not just dangerous to leave the territory; having too much grain stored in our territories is also dangerous. I estimate that when Captain Zhong and the others come over, they'll try to persuade us to hand the grain over."

Kuang Qingwei said, "As long as the price is right, I plan to sell the grain and vegetables, or, like with the potatoes, spend points to store them in the safe zone's food storage warehouse. What do you say, Brother Qi?"