Chapter 510: Xia Qing's Friend

When Xia Qing drove the micro-tiller into Territory Eight and handed the high-hardness evolved snakeskin coat, half a jin of green-light chives, four green-light eggs, and a jin of green-light rice to Seeing Xin Yu, then asked how her health was now and whether she'd caught the virus, Seeing Xin Yu answered calmly, "I'm fine. It's a pair of grey parrots I keep that got infected. My medicine doesn't work as well as Third Brother's, so I'm trading for some to keep on hand."

Xia Qing had seen the talking raven and the speed-evolved white-tailed sea eagle in Seeing Xin Yu's territory, and knew she had a very impressive evolved eagle owl, but she hadn't expected her to also have two grey parrots, so she asked curiously, "These two are evolved animals too?"

Seeing Xin Yu nodded. "They're not brain-evolved, but their mimicry is stronger than ordinary parrots, and their pronunciation is very accurate. They can't communicate with people though, so they can't be tamed. If you like them, when the baby parrots hatch next year, I can give you a pair."

Xia Qing shook her head. "The conditions on my side aren't good enough. I can't raise them."

Actually, it wasn't just that she lacked the conditions to keep birds—Xia Qing also had no motivation or interest in raising two grey parrots that couldn't do any work.

In farmer Xia Qing's view, parrots that could mimic speech were far inferior to swallows that couldn't talk but could catch bugs.

If one day she were also as rich and free as Seeing Xin Yu, she wouldn't keep birds—she'd keep cats, soft little kittens like water that she could pet whenever she wanted.

Seeing Xin Yu opened the plastic bag and examined the snakeskin coat, very satisfied. "The craftsmanship is nice. Was this made by someone in the Hui Three Base safe zone?"

"Yes, by Uncle Huo, the owner of the Huo Family Blade Shop. He's skilled at making cold weapons and protective gear." Xia Qing reminded Seeing Xin Yu, "Try it on and see if there are any spots that don't fit. If there are, I'll take it back and ask Uncle Huo to make adjustments."

Seeing Xin Yu nodded. "I'll go try it on. Have some tea first, and try the sunflower seeds I roasted."

"Okay."

Xia Qing looked at the soft snow-white leather sofa in the snow-white living room, then looked at her own not-quite-clean protective suit, and simply carried the tea and dish over to a chair by the wooden dining table nearby.

The craftsmanship of this table and chairs was rough, on par with the wooden table in the gatehouse cabin of Territory Eight. Sitting here, Xia Qing felt more at ease.

She picked up a sunflower seed from the small dish on the table, cracked it open, and popped it into her mouth.

Green-light sunflower seeds, caramel flavor—awesome!

Seeing Xin Yu soon came out wearing a black leather outfit, holding a black bulletproof leather vest in her hand, and looked at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing explained, "This is made by Uncle Huo from the leftover snakeskin. You can wear it when the weather gets too hot in summer."

Seeing Xin Yu showed a rare smile and an excited expression. "Shall we go to the yard and test the bulletproof effect?"

"Okay." After getting the leather outfit, Xia Qing had brought it straight to Seeing Xin Yu and hadn't had time to test the bulletproof effect yet.

Seeing Xin Yu, seeing Xia Qing agree, casually grabbed the protective mask from the table, clamped it over her head, and headed outside. Xia Qing also put on her protective mask and gloves and followed.

Honestly, watching the long-legged, tall and slim Seeing Xin Yu standing in the icy snow in a fitted black leather outfit was quite a feast for the eyes.

Xia Qing felt pleased too. She and Seeing Xin Yu were about the same height, but because she was a strength evolver, she was a bit stockier than Seeing Xin Yu, so the leather outfit would definitely look even cooler on her than on Seeing Xin Yu. She could hardly imagine how flashy it would look when she, the wolf pack, and Boss Sheep all wore leather outfits and went hunting in the Evolution Forest as a team.

Seeing Xin Yu fastened the leather vest to the human-shaped target used for shooting practice, drew her handgun, and fired.

Bang!

Just a few seconds after the gunshot fell, Tang Huai's hoarse, curious voice came over the walkie-talkie. "Territory Eight, Seeing Xin Yu, what's going on? Weren't you two eating dumplings? How did you end up playing with guns?"

Xia Qing walked over, felt the spot on the leather outfit where the bullet had hit, and happily gave Seeing Xin Yu an "OK" gesture.

Seeing Xin Yu turned and went back inside, and in a moment came out with a submachine gun. Xia Qing hurriedly gestured. "A single layer of snakeskin definitely can't stop submachine gun bullets. Shoot at the double-layer snakeskin section."

To enhance bulletproof performance, the key areas of both the bulletproof vest and the bulletproof leather outfit used double-layer snakeskin.

Seeing Xin Yu handed the gun to Xia Qing. "My shooting isn't great. You do it."

Xia Qing took Seeing Xin Yu's submachine gun, aimed at the center-back position of the bulletproof vest, and fired one shot.

Tang Huai started clamoring again. "Why'd you switch to a submachine gun? What are you two doing? Hunting rabbits?"

Seeing Xin Yu walked over to check the bulletproof vest and was delighted too. "It didn't penetrate!"

Truly worthy of high-hardness evolved snakeskin!

Neither of them paid any attention to Tang Huai squawking away on the lord channel. They went back into the warm room to prepare to wrap dumplings. The chives were washed and chopped, the eggs were scrambled, then dried shrimp were added along with seasonings, and the aroma of the dumpling filling filled the whole house.

Seeing Xin Yu's seasonings were much better than hers. Xia Qing only had to smell it to feel hungry. As she rolled out a dumpling wrapper, she chatted casually with Seeing Xin Yu, who was wrapping dumplings. "If my green-light sweet potato harvest is good next year, I'll make some sweet potato vermicelli. I remember adding some vermicelli to this filling makes it taste great too."

Seeing Xin Yu nodded. "We could also make hot and sour noodles. I remember the vermicelli for hot and sour noodles is made from a blend of sweet potato and pea starch. I have sweet potatoes too, but no green-light peas."

Just hearing the name "hot and sour noodles" made Xia Qing's mouth water uncontrollably. "I just traded for 300 yellow-light peas. If I'm lucky, there might be two or three green-light ones among them."

The green-light ones would be saved as seeds, planted in the terraced fields and irrigated with spring water. If nothing unexpected happened, she'd be eating green-light peas this time next year.

But the prerequisite was being lucky enough.

The dumplings were quickly wrapped, boiled, and brought to the dining table. Xia Qing ate one and felt so happy she could bubble over.

Seeing Xin Yu's vinegar was also much better than hers.

After eating her fill, Xia Qing sipped dumpling soup and asked, "Do you have a lot of vinegar? I'd like to trade for a bottle. I'll use green-light pecans. Third Brother says my pecans are good quality and can boost the brain, but you can't eat too many. For high-level evolvers, three or four a day is the limit."

Seeing Xin Yu kept a brain-evolved raven, so of course she very much wanted green-light dried nuts. "I'll bring you a bottle in a bit. Do you need soy sauce? Brewed from green-light soybeans. You can trade for it with green-light pecans too."

"Yes!"

After the two agreed on trade terms, Seeing Xin Yu asked about the swallows living under Xia Qing's eaves.

Xia Qing had long known she would ask about the swallows, so she took out her phone and showed her the videos and photos she'd specifically taken of the swallows.

Seeing the swallows living in the "little house" Xia Qing had wrapped tightly with rainproof cloth, with not a single one dead, Seeing Xin Yu felt Xia Qing had a real talent for raising birds and asked her for advice on how to feed them.

Learning that the swallows didn't need to be fed because they could hunt evolved snow springtails themselves, Seeing Xin Yu was silent for a few seconds, then asked, "Aren't you afraid they'll freeze?"

Xia Qing answered quite frankly, "That's the swallows' own choice. But during the three days of the Deadly Snow Period when they couldn't hunt, I put out a small dish of feed mixed with cooked egg white, vegetable leaves, and wheat bran for them."

Staying in her territory for the winter was this group of swallows' choice.

Because they were beneficial birds that could hunt insects, Xia Qing allowed them to live under her eaves and built them a warm little house wrapped in rainproof cloth. During the Deadly Snow Period when they couldn't come out to hunt, Xia Qing also hung a piece of Yishi on their little house. In Xia Qing's view, she had already done everything she possibly could.

Seeing Xin Yu seemed to have gotten some kind of inspiration from Xia Qing's answer. She held the white porcelain bowl of dumpling soup and stared blankly into space.

Xia Qing didn't disturb her either, quietly drinking her dumpling soup.

That she and Seeing Xin Yu could eat together and chat casually meant they were already true friends.