Chapter 36: Terms of the Deal

At the agreed time, Xia Qing confirmed no one was monitoring within two hundred meters, then carried a water tank of over a hundred liters into the western buffer forest. Her mountain spring produced about three hundred liters a day, and over the next four months, Luo Pei would use nearly half of it—this was the biggest trade she'd made since leaving her territory.

Handing the life-saving water tank to Wei Chengdong, Xia Qing lowered her voice. "Same time tomorrow."

"You've worked hard." Wei Chengdong now wished he could enshrine Xia Qing like a Bodhisattva. Taking the tank carefully, he asked, "Our Captain Yang wants to discuss treating Brother Luo's injuries with you. Is that alright?"

Seeing the plane land at Site One after dark, Xia Qing guessed it might be Yang Jin, and guessed he would certainly want to see her. She nodded calmly. "Alright."

Seeing Xia Qing about to head back to Site One with him, Wei Chengdong quickly added, "It's the middle of the night now, how could I let you make another trip? Captain Yang is waiting over there."

After speaking, Wei Chengdong turned back and made a hand gesture, calling softly, "Boss."

Xia Qing had already heard human breathing in the buffer forest at Site One. She'd assumed it was someone coming to carry water, and hadn't expected it to be the leader of the Azure Dragon Squad, Yang Jin.

Watching Yang Jin, the leader of the Azure Dragon Squad—whose superb physique was obvious even in his camouflage protective suit—walk out of the buffer forest under the moonlight, Xia Qing had only one thought:

Their boss and her boss really were two completely different species.

"Our boss doesn't like to talk much, but he's really a good person." Afraid Xia Qing might be scared off by the boss's cold face, Wei Chengdong emphasized this before shouldering the water tank and leaving.

Yang Jin was, of course, a good man. If he hadn't led the Azure Dragon Squad to Hui-3 Base, the monopolistic Sui Feng Squad would have been even more domineering, and Xia Qing's days would have been much harder.

Yang Jin was a standout at Hui-3 Base; Xia Qing was just an unknown nobody. Although she held the initiative in this trade, she had her own goals and wasn't bestowing a favor, so naturally she couldn't put on airs in front of a big shot. So, after Yang Jin walked over, Xia Qing took the initiative to introduce herself. "Captain Yang, I'm a Level Four Strength Evolver, the lord of Territory Three, Xia Qing."

The big shot had led his team into Hui-3 Base for over five years, and this was Xia Qing's first time speaking with him. The last time Yang Jin and Tan Junjie had come to her territory to clear the rampaging evolved trees in the western buffer forest, and had seen her fighting with Old Sheep—that memory had been actively deleted by Xia Qing.

Yang Jin, wearing night-vision goggles, looked at Xia Qing deeply before taking them off. Mimicking her, he introduced himself. "I'm the captain of the Azure Dragon Squad, Yang Jin. May we go into your territory to talk? Brother Luo needs treatment, and there's no private place to speak in Territory One."

She really didn't like people entering her territory, but since she was negotiating a deal with the Azure Dragon Squad, safety had to come first.

"Of course, Captain Yang, this way please. The mountain path is rough, keep your goggles on." Xia Qing couldn't afford high-end gear like night-vision goggles; she only had an ordinary handheld night-vision device. But under the faint moonlight at three in the morning, Xia Qing's excellent evolved vision made walking at night effortless without any aid.

Going home to talk was out of the question. Xia Qing took Yang Jin to a relatively well-preserved room in the abandoned village beneath the western buffer forest.

"Relatively well-preserved" meant the room still had walls and a roof. Xia Qing had sealed the window and used it as one of her hiding spots when danger struck.

She invited Yang Jin inside, then blocked the low, narrow door—only wide enough for one person to duck through—with a wooden board. After lighting a fire to illuminate the room, she was about to ask Yang Jin to sit on the only seat-like thing by the fire, a thick wooden stump, when she turned to find he had already sat on a stone on the other side.

His face was even more pleasing to look at in firelight than sunlight, and what was rarer still was that Xia Qing could sense from him a tranquility like the sky. This sense of tranquility was so rare in the chaotic social order and crises after the Great Evolution of Blue Star's creatures—no wonder the always-proud Tang Lu had shamelessly chased after him.

It wasn't just Tang Lu and many women at Hui-3 Base who liked Yang Jin. Deng Yufeng, the famous female boss of the Blazing Fire Squad at Hui-1 Base, the main Hui City base—known as the Fire Phoenix—had also taken a fancy to him.

When the Fire Phoenix came to Hui-3 Base, Tang Lu had recklessly gone to provoke her and was immediately pinned underfoot and thoroughly berated by the female boss—an incident that everyone at Hui-3 Base took great delight in.

Xia Qing sat on the stump and explained to Yang Jin why she'd brought him here. "I keep an evolved sheep with a very strong territorial instinct. If I'd brought you home to talk, it would have made a huge commotion."

Hearing others respectfully address him as "you" didn't affect Yang Jin, but hearing Xia Qing use that word made him want to grab it, tear it into its component strokes, and make sure she could never pick it up or use it again.

Though his mind wandered through many thoughts, Yang Jin's face remained expressionless as he cut straight to the point. "What weapons do you want?"

Not knowing much about weapons, Xia Qing humbly sought Yang Jin's advice. "My goal is to protect myself and my territory's safety. What weapons do you think would suit me? My territory covers seven thousand five hundred mu in total—three thousand mu are farmland, three villages, and a reservoir; the western and northern hillside buffer forests take up four thousand five hundred mu. There's only me and one evolved sheep in the territory, and I don't plan to add more people in the future."

Hearing she didn't plan to add more people, Yang Jin wasn't surprised. Gazing at her calmly across the fire, he asked, "How is your sheep's combat ability? Can it communicate with people and carry out human commands?"

Xia Qing felt a little guilty. "It's a Strength Evolver, and its evolution level is no weaker than a Level Five Strength Evolver human. It's fairly smart when food is involved—it can understand simple commands, but whether it follows them depends on its mood."

An evolved animal that had to be baited with food to work couldn't stand on its own.

Yang Jin briskly laid out the options. "There are three plans for protecting the territory: one, fence the entire territory with electrified iron mesh; two, I'll send a ten-person medium squad from the Azure Dragon Squad to guard the perimeter of Territory Three and intercept all dangers; three, station a ten-person medium squad at Site One, ready to follow your orders at any time. The equipment and installation for the first plan are our responsibility; the protection period for the latter two plans is one year."

Installing electrified iron mesh was tempting, but the ongoing maintenance costs were too high, and it would be too conspicuous. Xia Qing made her choice immediately. "I'll go with Plan Three."

The expected choice. Yang Jin continued with the plan that suited her best. "To protect your safety, we'll provide you with a handgun, an automatic rifle, and a long-range sniper rifle—three hundred rounds of each type of ammunition. In addition, there are three sets of the best protective gear: two for you, one for an evolved canine—the sheep can use it too."

The protective gear for the sheep was something Yang Jin had added on the spur of the moment, because Xia Qing clearly cared a great deal about her sheep. Regardless of whether the evolved sheep was useful, what she wanted was a companion—one she didn't have to worry about betraying her and turning to kill her.

Yang Jin understood perfectly well why Xia Qing had chosen an evolved animal over a human as her companion. No matter how animals evolved, their brains would never be as complex and inscrutable as humans'.