Chapter 537: May I Have Your Phone Number?

"Hahaha." Zhou Qianpeng laughed heartily. "I didn't know the situation, my apologies. Is the inspection done?"

Chai Shuling replied, "The inspection is done. Young Lady Xia, shall we head to the greenhouse next door?"

Xia Qing shook her head. "No need. Nothing is planted in the greenhouse next door."

"Nothing planted?" Zhou Qianpeng asked curiously. "Young Lady Xia built such a fine greenhouse, yet you left it empty?"

Xia Qing explained blandly, "It's not empty. I keep a few small animals in it."

Zhou Qianpeng glanced quickly at Chai Shuling, and after seeing her give a slight nod, asked with a smile, "What kind of small animals? May we go take a look?"

Xia Qing lifted the plastic sheet on the earthen wall and invited them over. "These animals are all rather timid. You may look, but don't get too close."

Last night, she had already moved the chickens delivered from Territory Seven and the mealworms exchanged with Tang Huai back home. Right now the greenhouse only had seven chickens, three rabbits, and a few fish in the water tank — nothing she was afraid of anyone seeing.

She only needed to keep an eye on Chai Shuling and stop her from drawing water from the tank, because the tank had a certain proportion of pollution-free spring water mixed in.

Zhou Qianpeng and Chai Shuling entered the livestock greenhouse, took one look, and lost interest. The younger Li Chang, however, liked small animals very much. She pointed at the rabbit with a bandage on its leg inside the hutch and asked, "Is this rabbit's leg broken?"

Xia Qing explained, "This one — I broke its hind leg a while back to catch it."

Caught in the Evolution Forest? Li Chang grew even more interested. "Is it a red-light one?"

Xia Qing shook her head. "It's a red-light one. Catching a live rabbit isn't easy, so I plan to feed it green-light plants for a while and see if I can bring down the level of qiang elements in its body."

Hearing that Xia Qing was actually feeding green-light plants to a red-light rabbit, all three showed looks of disapproval on their faces.

Li Chang reminded Xia Qing, "This rabbit is already an adult. The chance of the qiang element level dropping is very small. The precious green-light food you put in will be hard to recoup."

The reason she said "hard to recoup" rather than "no return at all" is that red-light prey can also be exchanged for points. The safe-zone food processing plant mashes up red-light meat, then uses a series of methods to reduce the qiang element content down to the yellow-light range, and processes it into food products for sale.

Chai Shuling pointed at the wooden box beside the fish tank and asked, "Are there animals in that wooden box too?

Xia Qing replied, "The box holds a dozen or so snakes — some green-light, some yellow-light."

Hearing there were actually snakes inside, Li Chang and Chai Shuling both retreated several steps in fright, not daring to approach even the fish tank.

After leaving the greenhouse, Zhou Qianpeng pointed at the terraced-field shed inside the low-slope buffer forest and asked, "Young Lady Xia, time to inspect that shed, right?"

Xia Qing replied, "All the crops planted within my territory have already been fully inspected. That shed holds fertilizer that's currently fermenting — no inspection needed."

Chai Shuling glanced at Zhou Qianpeng, and Zhou Qianpeng immediately asked curiously, "Is it fermented using the compost bacterial powder developed by the lord of Territory Seven? I hear this bacterial powder is excellent quality — may we go take a look?"

"Sure."

Xia Qing's tone was flat, and she put on the look of reluctantly agreeing as she led them across the frozen river and into the low-slope planting shed.

This shed's rainproof cloth hadn't been pulled up either, and there were no lights installed inside, so it was pitch black. Xia Qing rolled up the rainproof cloth to create a light-transmitting strip about thirty centimeters wide, so the three of them could see.

Chai Shuling lifted the pieces of plastic sheeting pressing down on the terraced plots one by one, confirmed that they all contained fermenting animal manure and plant stems and leaves, then straightened up and brushed the rotten leaves off her hands. "The temperature is still low — the fertilizer hasn't fully fermented yet."

"Low temperature doesn't matter. It'll definitely be ready by spring plowing next year. With this fertilizer, the crops will grow even better." Zhou Qianpeng walked upward with his hands behind his back, praising Xia Qing. "Young Lady Xia, this shed of yours is well built — very sturdy."

Li Chang's attention was focused on the stone wall at the very top of the low-slope planting shed. She walked over and observed carefully. "Young Lady Xia, why did you cover this section of stone inside the greenhouse too?"

"The shed's support frame connects to the stone wall, so it's more stable."

Watching Li Chang step by step approach the small mountain cave where the pollution-free spring eye was located, Xia Qing's expression remained unchanged, and her heartbeat didn't even quicken. If Li Chang had come a few days earlier, she might have felt nervous, but now there was no need at all — the pollution-free spring water had entered the dry season and had already stopped flowing.

Now, let alone these three merely approaching the stone wall to look, even if they pried away the stones blocking the cave mouth and crawled in to look, Xia Qing wouldn't worry.

Qiang-wither grass?

Two colorless, transparent plants inside the pitch-black cave inside the pitch-black shed — without shining a flashlight and lying down to search carefully, you simply couldn't see them. What was there to fear?

Li Chang gripped the shed's support frame fixed to the rock and gave it a gentle shake. After confirming that this really did make it more stable, her eyes lit up. "With the rock blocking the wind here, can crops grow well?"

Xia Qing explained, "I planted two grapevines here. They're growing all right."

Only then did Li Chang notice the raised earth ridges beneath her feet. She stepped back two paces and asked, "There's so much flat arable land in your territory still lying fallow — why did you open up terraced fields? Growing crops in terraced fields must make irrigation quite a chore, right?"

Xia Qing explained calmly, "After I entered the territory, I found this area was originally terraced fields, with fairly fertile soil, so I cleared them out. Lifting water to irrigate a few terraced plots isn't much of a challenge for me."

This female lord, who looked only a few years older than her, was a high-level strength Evolver. Li Chang's eyes dimmed, and she asked no more.

"Researcher Li, may we go?" Zhou Qianpeng had no interest in this stinking shed where nothing was planted, and urged Li Chang, who kept asking questions.

"Sure." Li Chang quickly packed up her papers and pen and pulled the face shield of her airtight protective suit back into place.

The high-slope shed didn't need to be visited either — nothing was planted there, the rainproof cloth hadn't even been lowered, and everything was plain to see at a glance.

Having completed their task, Zhou Qianpeng and Chai Shuling didn't even want to exchange another word of pleasantries with Xia Qing.

Li Chang, walking at the very back, waited until the others had left Territory Three, then stopped and pulled open her protective face shield, and quietly proposed an exchange. "Young Lady Xia, may I exchange for green-light vegetables from your territory in the future?"

Li Chang's proposal to trade caught Xia Qing somewhat off guard, but she still agreed calmly. "Sure."

Although people who do research are all called "researchers," based on professional knowledge, research experience, and research results, researchers are divided from low to high into four grades: intern researcher, assistant researcher, associate researcher, and researcher.

The credentials Li Chang held stated her occupation as intern researcher at Hui-Three Research Institute. Logically speaking, even though Li Chang was the lowest-grade intern researcher among researchers, it shouldn't be difficult for her to exchange for green-light vegetables from the safe-zone planting center.

If that's the case, why did she still want to exchange for vegetables from a territory 120 kilometers from the safe zone? Vegetables picked here, jostled all the way back, would be far less fresh than those from the planting center.

No matter what reason Li Chang had for proposing the exchange, Xia Qing had no reason to refuse — she was a lord who relied on growing vegetables and grain to exchange for survival resources.

Li Chang was delighted. "May I have your phone number? Mobile communications will be restored here soon."

Xia Qing gave Li Chang the phone number she had used while in the safe zone, and as she watched the seven-person squad enter Territory Four, she noticed four Sufeng team members also standing outside Territory One.

It looked like Territory One had also refused the Sufeng security squad entry.