Chapter 40: The Micro Tiller with Eleven Functions

After some haggling, Xia Qing paid a deposit of thirty spinach leaves for the cat and two pieces of household machinery, and smoothly used the legitimate cover of "bartering" to obtain the tiller and diesel.

Xia Qing took out the spinach for two reasons: first, she wanted to use the green-light spinach seeds to barter for supplies from other territories; second, now that she had a handgun and a powerful security team, her territory's safety had jumped two tiers, so a few spinach plants wouldn't tempt anyone to covet them.

If anyone dared come steal vegetables, it would be the perfect chance to kill the chicken to scare the monkey.

After Xia Qing's trade succeeded, the group chat erupted into fierce争夺 over Zhang San's supplies and the evolution kitten that didn't even exist yet; Xia Qing lay in bed listening to it for amusement.

Over an hour later, Hu Zifeng, who had secured a kitten, switched off his pager still unsatisfied. "Didn't expect farming could be this interesting."

The teammate beside him muttered softly, "Brother Feng, Zhang San of Plot Seven is definitely no simple man."

In a disaster year when most people couldn't even get enough to eat, anyone willing to spend fish and meat to raise a cat was certainly no ordinary person. Hu Zifeng knew who Zhang San was, but he couldn't reveal it, only instructing his teammate, "No matter who he is, as long as he's not on good terms with the Tang family, he won't be our enemy."

"Yes sir." The teammate saluted with a grin. "Brother Feng, what if Zhang San's cat only has one kitten?"

Hu Zifeng glared. "Then you give birth to one for me!"

Inside Territory Two, Tang Heng analyzed the intelligence gathered that evening. "Luo Pei was sent out by Yang Jin for detox; keeping his life isn't a problem, but his abilities are certainly ruined, and staying with the Azure Dragon Squad will make him a target of resentment. Hu Zifeng is Luo Pei's trusted man; him coming out to guard Luo Pei's retreat makes perfect sense. Plot Three only has Xia Qing, a lone woman, and an evolved sheep, so her wanting to trade for a tiller also makes perfect sense. But the discovery of green-light perilla and spinach in Plot Three's newly added buffer forest is truly enough to make anyone jealous."

Tang Huai yawned. "You think the other plots don't have new discoveries? Just wait and see—the first to run into trouble will definitely be Plot Three, strutting around everywhere."

Tang Heng felt things weren't that simple. "Anyone still alive at this point is no fool. I suspect Xia Qing wants to use the two green-light vegetables as bargaining chips to get Zhang San's protection."

Tang Huai's yawn froze halfway. "If her spinach also suits that person's taste, that person really might send people to protect her."

"If that's really the case, we'd best not touch Xia Qing's red-light evolved sheep. Offending Zhang San brings no benefit at all; we need to figure out a way to calm his anger as soon as possible." Thinking of the three taels of lamb meat they had sent over, Tang Heng's suspicion grew heavier. "It must have been the inspection team that spoiled the lamb!"

Tang Huai slumped in his chair. "Even if it was, what can we do? The Tang family keeps stirring up trouble everywhere; when people can't get back at those above, they take it out on small fries like us. Let's sleep."

After Tang Heng lay down, he said softly, "Brother, let's sweep the territory tomorrow. Once we have green-light plants, I refuse to believe Zhang San still won't trade—he's got all kinds of good stuff on him…"

Tang Huai wasn't interested. "I have a mission to carry out. Take people and go yourself."

Early the next morning, Su Ming drove the fiery-red rotary tiller to a sputtering halt at the Plot Three signpost, whooping excitedly. "Sister Qing, this was sent over by Plot One. Two accessory boxes are on the way too."

The main body of the multi-function micro tiller was essentially a small tracked tractor head. Though only 1.6 meters tall, the fiery-red body paired with black tracks, plus the two imposing big headlights on the front of the hood, made it look extremely cool.

Xia Qing recognized it at a glance—this was the kind of machine at the Safe Zone Planting Center's greenhouses, exclusively operated and maintained by dedicated personnel.

When she worked at the Planting Center, she could only gaze at this kind of machine from afar; she never even had a chance to touch one. Now, she owned one herself!

When Hu Zi and Cao Xianyun carried over the two huge accessory boxes and assembled everything according to the manual, Xia Qing was astonished all over again.

Because the micro tiller's "multi-function" went far beyond what Yang Jin had mentioned—plough, furrowing blade, rotary tiller, ridge-forming machine, backfill blade, weeding wheel, and wind-powered pesticide sprayer—it also included a bulldozing blade for leveling roads, an excavating blade for digging pits, a harvester for root crops, and a seeder!

Eleven functions, more than the one she'd seen at the Planting Center. As long as there was enough diesel, this machine was worth ten strong laborers. Xia Qing's eyes lit up; she could hardly wait to test-drive it.

Xia Qing wasn't the only one with shining eyes—Su Ming and the other two were the same. Su Ming grinned and discussed with Xia Qing, "Sister Qing, how about we let Hu Zi attach the accessories and we test each one in turn?"

"Good, then thanks for your hard work." Xia Qing only knew how to drive a car, and even that was unlicensed and reckless. Though the micro tiller came with a manual, she didn't think she could master the driving essentials just by reading it.

"Not hard work at all, not even a little." Su Ming抢占 the driver's seat and called out impatiently, "Hu Zi, get the excavating blade on!"

Driving an excavator is practically every person's childhood dream.

"Since we've already attached the bulldozing blade and rotary tiller blades, let's test those two first." Cao Xianyun reminded Xia Qing, "Sister Qing, your sheep is charging over."

Xia Qing had already heard the commotion, but since the location and sounds of Boss Sheep were beyond normal human hearing range, she had pretended not to notice. After Cao Xianyun's reminder, Xia Qing turned and rushed toward Boss Sheep, and then the two of them—person and sheep—had a cordial and friendly exchange regarding the new machines in the territory and the three intruders.

Su Ming saw that the hot-tempered Boss Sheep actually didn't fight Xia Qing, turned and strutted away, and was very surprised. "Old Cao, what did Sister Qing say? How come that stubborn sheep is so obedient?"

Cao Xianyun couldn't bring himself to repeat what Xia Qing had said, so he simply coldly urged Su Ming, "Stop dawdling. If you can't drive, get down—I'll go."

"Forget who drove it here? I could do it with my eyes closed and still beat you." Su Ming couldn't be bothered to keep watching the bizarre pair of Xia Qing and Boss Sheep, and immediately turned the key to start the micro tiller.

After the putt-putt of the micro tiller rang out inside Territory Three, Zhou Xun, the five-times-vision evolver monitoring from inside Territory Two, quietly reported to Tang Huai beside him, "The inspection team delivered a micro tiller and two big boxes into Plot Three. I can't see what's going on inside through the grass wall."

Between Territory Two and Territory Three ran a straight east-west dirt road ten meters wide, with dense grass walls over a person's height and more than three meters wide on both sides of the southern road, used to block outsiders from peeking in.

Therefore, Xia Qing, holding the geographic advantage, could look out from the northern buffer forest slope to observe the situation inside Territory Two, but Tang Huai and the others, positioned lower down, couldn't see through the grass wall to check what was happening inside Territory Three.

Reconnaissance relies on more than just sight.

Tang Huai, the five-times-hearing evolver, heard the conversation inside Plot Three clearly, including exactly how Xia Qing had coaxed Boss Sheep. "Nothing unusual. Stand down."

Hu Zifeng, the vision evolver hiding in a big tree in Territory One's buffer forest and watching Tang Huai and Zhou Xun, took out his phone and sent a message to Wei Chengdong.

Wei Chengdong put away his phone. "Brother Luo, Tang Huai and the others left the territory heading east—should be going to the evolved forest to the east to hunt."

Luo Pei, lying on the operating table, gave a calm order. "Begin."

Inside Territory Three, the generator in the second-floor basement of the abandoned village on the southwest side started running, but the generator's noise was completely drowned out by the putt-putt of the micro tiller; the four people gathered around the micro tiller didn't hear it at all.

After the operating room's lighting reached standard intensity, the team doctor began the key step of Luo Pei's treatment for the Synthetic Organ Poison—the organ Synthetic Poison剥离 surgery.