Chapter 401: Twenty-Five Yishi Stones

The one sheep and one wolf inside the greenhouse might not understand what the human Xia Qing was saying, but they could understand her tone. After watching her lightly scratch at the greenhouse's plastic film with her own claws, then tuck the compressed rations and eggs she had taken out back into her pouch, they understood what those two actions meant.

Which was: damage this plastic film, and your food gets docked.

Sheep Leader, who loved compressed rations, narrowed its eyes and pretended it understood nothing.

Sick Wolf, who absolutely loved boiled eggs, stepped forward, carefully tapped the plastic film with its claws, then retreated two steps.

Having confirmed both companions understood, Xia Qing was just about to ask them to help her lay the ground film when she heard her phone's notification sound.

Yang Jin had arrived at the territory, asking if she was free right now.

Yang Jin looking for her must have to do with the spinach seed trade — this was a deal worth several million, so of course Xia Qing was free.

Inside the greenhouse it was warm and windless; outside, the cold wind howled. Xia Qing casually closed the cabin's wooden door, pressed her protective mask down, crossed the stone-slab bridge, and crunched through fallen leaves to reach the north gate.

When Yang Jin walked out of the evolution forest where leaves were swirling, Xia Qing couldn't help sighing that long legs really were different — even the way he walked was a pleasure to watch.

Yang Jin stepped forward and proactively explained to Xia Qing why he had come so late. "Tang Zhengsu and Xu Pin will be coming over tomorrow morning, and the next few days will be pretty busy, so while I had time tonight I settled the accounts between us first. I heard from Zifeng that your greenhouse is set up — all the steel pipes are usable, right?"

Settling accounts meant Yang Jin was going to transfer points to her, so Xia Qing immediately invited Yang Jin into the territory. By now it was fully dark, and the curtains on the little cabin by the farmland didn't block light well. Xia Qing had originally meant to invite Yang Jin home, but hearing him bring up the greenhouse on his own, she changed direction. "Captain Hu and his team sent over a complete set of greenhouse steel-pipe fittings, and installation was very simple. Captain Hu and his team helped me finish covering one this very afternoon. Would you like to go take a look?"

"Sure." Yang Jin's laugh was cheerful. "If the fittings hadn't come as a complete set, I wouldn't have dared charge ten thousand points per unit."

Because thick cold-proof straw curtains were pressed against the outside of the greenhouse's plastic film, from outside one couldn't see the supplementary lights glowing within.

Xia Qing asked Yang Jin to wait a moment outside the small greenhouse cabin while she went in first to call Sheep Leader and Sick Wolf out and send them home.

When Sheep Leader came out and saw Yang Jin, it immediately let out a "baa," stopped in its tracks, pawed the ground with its hooves, and signaled Xia Qing and Sick Wolf to stand together with it.

Sick Wolf immediately formed a united front, standing beside Sheep Leader and striking an aggressive pose at Yang Jin.

Hmm? Last time this evolution sheep had come by itself, it had only dared to yap from a distance — where had it gotten the confidence to challenge him now?

Yang Jin asked Xia Qing in a low voice, "Among the three of you, whose combat ability has improved?"

Who? Heh.

Say it and you might get jealous — all three of our combat abilities have improved!

Xia Qing felt secretly proud but modest out loud. "It's not a matter of combat ability. It's seen you come by enough times now and realized you won't hurt it, so it dares to provoke you. When Captain Hu and his team come over, it acts the same way."

After explaining her companions' attitude to Yang Jin, Xia Qing quietly soothed Sheep Leader. "Leader, Lao Er, you two head home first. Once I'm back, I'll boil eggs for you and soak some Chinese toon buds."

Hearing there was good food, Sheep Leader immediately abandoned the fight and bolted home.

Watching Sheep Leader's snow-white figure gallop away, the envy in Yang Jin's eyes was almost impossible to hide. He also wanted to go home with Xia Qing and have dinner with her.

"Captain Yang, watch your step — the ground here hasn't been cleaned up yet." Xia Qing pushed open the cabin door and invited Yang Jin into the greenhouse.

Inside the greenhouse it was bright and warm. Yang Jin casually took off his protective mask and hung it at his waist, spotted two rolls of black plastic sheeting set to the side, recognized them as ground film, and asked, "This greenhouse has decent heat retention — the humidity will rise along with it, won't it?"

Xia Qing quickly wiped the dirt off the long bench, carried it over in front of Yang Jin and asked him to sit and talk, then explained, "I picked up a few practical dehumidifying tricks from other lords. Tonight I'll first cover the ground with plastic film to reduce moisture evaporation from the soil and see how it works."

Yang Jin nodded. "There are no plants growing here, so covering the ground with film should definitely work well. Lay it horizontally or vertically?"

"Either works." Xia Qing answered reflexively, then saw Yang Jin actually hang his backpack on the steel frame, bend down, and pick up the ground film.

Xia Qing was about to stop him when she saw Yang Jin had already skillfully unrolled the ground film, signaled her to hold down one end, and began laying it while talking about the spinach seeds. "Over at the Death Sea spring, I've already had people set things up. Today I went to talk to the base commander about promoting spinach cultivation, and the final price for the spinach seeds was set at 60 points per seed."

A price of 60 points per seed was far lower than the 300 points Yang Jin had mentioned before. Xia Qing asked, "The reduced portion — was it exchanged for supplies?"

"Right." Yang Jin, who had already pulled the ground-film roll to the east end, drew the dagger from his waist and neatly cut the film off, beaming. "Besides two sets of high-grade protective suits and upgrading the weapons and gear of the patrol members for this territory, I also traded seeds for two pieces of new-material ore and twenty-five high-grade Yishi stones."

Yishi stones?!!!

Twenty-five of them?!!!

The brightness in Xia Qing's eyes was almost brighter than the supplementary lights hanging in the greenhouse. "How big?"

Yang Jin knew she'd be thrilled. "The same kind you traded with the wolf pack — pigeon-egg-sized small ones. Each one is valued at 200,000; that's the starting price. If your spinach seeds hadn't been genuinely top quality, the base commander wouldn't have been willing to part with so many Yishi stones in trade."

After the two of them quickly finished laying the ground film, Yang Jin dusted the dirt off his hands, opened his backpack, took out a small box, and handed it to Xia Qing. "The Yishi stones are all in here. Open one later and see how the quality looks."

When Xia Qing's eyes were full of Yishi stones, Yang Jin noticed two spots on the ground film that hadn't been laid flat, so he went back, pulled them taut, and covered them.

Xia Qing thanked him, then asked seriously, "If these Yishi stones really are high-grade, the effective period is three months, and each one protects a diameter of twenty meters. How should we split the supplies from this trade?"

Seeing her clutching the Yishi-stone box without letting go, Yang Jin gestured for Xia Qing to sit, then took another box out of his pack and handed her an itemized list. "This is the value of the supplies from the trade. Take a look first?"

Xia Qing took it and looked — and was stunned.

The spinach seeds put up for trade totaled 【number】 seeds. Xia Qing held 75% and Yang Jin held 25%, but because Yang Jin was the one who stepped forward to trade with the base commander, Xia Qing had agreed to pay him a ten-percent intermediary fee, so of the supplies and points from the trade, Xia Qing got 65% and Yang Jin got 35%.

The points totaled a little over 1.62 million, of which Xia Qing's share was a little over 1.09 million.

Two sets of special-grade protective suits — one for Xia Qing and one for Luo Pei — valued at 600,000; two pieces of rare ore valued at 800,000; twenty-five Yishi stones valued at 5,000,000; totaling 6,400,000, of which Xia Qing's share was 4,160,000.

After figuring it out, Xia Qing handed the list back to Yang Jin and asked, "Captain Yang, what can these two pieces of ore be used for?"