Chapter 576: Looks Like He's Decent to You

"Xia Qing, did you sweep this road, or did Madman Hu?"

Xia Qing couldn't be bothered to answer such a boring question. She scanned her face and returned to the territory.

Tang Huai, who had tagged along into Territory Three, couldn't help cursing. "No way? You really swept it?! Haven't you heard the saying that a man's mouth is a lying ghost? What kind of 'road home' bullshit is that? Madman Hu just didn't want to dirty his shoes, that's why he sweet-talked you like this. You—"

Tang Huai swallowed back the words calling Xia Qing stupid, because he was afraid Xia Qing would beat him up and chase him out. Still, he pressed on with the question that puzzled him greatly:

"Tell me, what exactly do you see in Madman Hu?"

Xia Qing couldn't be bothered with him and kept walking down.

Tang Huai followed behind, earnestly advising, "You're a high-level ability evolver, you're not ugly, you're not missing any limbs—why would you shortchange yourself? If you really want a man, you should find Yang Jin or Luo Pei. They're top evolvers—they've got ability, looks, and character…"

If it weren't for wanting to maintain a long-term friendly trading relationship with Tang Huai, Xia Qing would really have kicked this guy, noisier than a crow, out. "Did you bring the purple sweet potatoes?"

"Brought them!"

Tang Huai caught up to Xia Qing and asked with a grin, "Besides the purple sweet potatoes, I also brought a pack of green-light mealworms. Let's snip some yellow chives or chives from your greenhouse, and I'll stir-fry the mealworms for us at noon. How do you want to eat the purple sweet potatoes?"

……

He actually planned to stay for lunch before leaving…

And he even brought green-light mealworms…

Supposedly mealworms tasted pretty good, but Xia Qing didn't have time to eat. "I might leave the territory later to take the survey team to Mountain Fifty. I'm trading the purple sweet potatoes for seedling cultivation, not eating."

Tang Huai was surprised. "You're going to build a standardized greenhouse inside the territory?"

Xia Qing explained, "No, I'll use other methods to shield against Qiang elements."

Tang Huai fell silent. He followed Xia Qing into the small hut beside the farmland, took off his protective mask, and then muttered very awkwardly in a low voice, "The Yishi was given to you by Hu Zifeng? Looks like he's decent to you. To make you happy, he's even willing to do such a losing business—doesn't seem like someone who hangs around with Yang Jin, the Iron Rooster."

Losing business?

Xia Qing sensed something was off. "Do your purple sweet potatoes need to be shielded from Qiang elements throughout their entire growth process?"

Tang Huai was also a bit baffled. "Of course. These are Qiang-susceptible plants—they definitely need to be shielded from Qiang elements!"

Xia Qing……

She had assumed—no, the lords of the Lord Alliance had all assumed—that the purple sweet potatoes Tang Zhengpo mentioned were the improved variety introduced in the territory broadcast.

Qiang-susceptible plants have no resistance to Qiang elements. Exposed to an atmosphere containing Qiang elements, the Qiang element content within the plant rises, turning it into a red-light or Qiang-evolved plant. Therefore, they can only be grown in standardized greenhouses shielded from Qiang elements.

However, last autumn, Hui Three Base's agricultural knowledge broadcast introduced that domestic researchers had bred a purple sweet potato that could be grown outdoors and had a certain resistance to Qiang elements.

Apart from a 30–40% probability of aggressive Qiang evolution during Qiang-rain periods, this improved purple sweet potato had no obvious differences from ordinary crops in other growing conditions and requirements.

So, when they heard Tang Zhengpo at the end of November last year say that the purple sweet potatoes he had carried a 35% dangerous Qiang evolution rate, the lords all assumed Tang Zhengpo was talking about the improved purple sweet potato. They hadn't expected it was merely an ordinary Qiang-susceptible variety with a reduced dangerous Qiang evolution rate.

She had to notify the Alliance members as soon as possible, to stop proposing purple sweet potato trades with Territory Twelve. Evolved purple sweet potatoes have a growth cycle of 4–6 months, and using Yishi to isolate Qiang elements throughout the entire process really is a losing business.

However, she could still plant a few of these purple sweet potatoes, because she had promised her idol to cultivate better-quality spinach. There was bound to be a patch of spinach on the terraces that needed to be protected by Yishi throughout, so she could plant a few purple sweet potato seedlings at the edge of that terrace.

While Xia Qing was considering the purple sweet potato planting, Tang Huai wandered around, sizing up the small hut with the "Reception Room" sign. "This hut doesn't look like much from the outside, but it's quite warm once you're in. Oh, there's cookware too? We're cooking here for lunch today? When Madman Hu brought people over, they stayed here? By the way, where are Big Brother Sheep and Wolf Lao Er? I brought them gifts."

Before Xia Qing could speak, Tang Huai excitedly pulled a set of animal grooming combs from his backpack, his face eager to try. "Look, this is a small flea comb, a wide-tooth comb, and long-and-short-tooth combs—anti-static and won't hurt the skin. Call them over to try it out?"

Seeing Xia Qing say nothing, Tang Huai added with great survival instinct, "Of course, you groom them, and I'll just… watch from a distance over here."

This guy came to Territory Three just to see the sheep and the wolf. Xia Qing nodded. "Don't leave this room. I'll go call them out."

Because the survey team was entering the territory today to survey the explosion site, both animal companions had been kept at home by Xia Qing and were not allowed to wander around the territory. After Xia Qing brought Big Brother Sheep and the sick wolf from the village, she groomed them with the combs Tang Huai had brought, at a spot over thirty meters from the hut.

The combs Tang Huai had chosen were far better than the ones Xia Qing had made from wild boar bristles. Big Brother and Lao Er both liked them very much, but neither of them liked the person in the distant hut.

Because Xia Qing had instructed them, Big Brother Sheep, on his way to the planting greenhouse to eat, completely ignored Tang Huai inside when passing the hut by the farmland. The sick wolf, who always obeyed Xia Qing, however, bared its ghastly white fangs at Tang Huai as it passed the hut, its gaze fierce and menacing.

Xia Qing could understand why the sick wolf acted this way, because the way Tang Huai stared at the sick wolf was so intense that it made the wolf uneasy. If anyone dared stare at her like that, Xia Qing would be angry too.

Once the two animals had gone to the greenhouse, Tang Huai was so excited he was howling. "This evolved wolf's combat power has already recovered—look at its eyes and movements, it's just so cool! This is the only tamed wolf beast in our entire Hui Three Base!"

Xia Qing corrected him. "It's not a tamed beast."

"Right, right, it's an evolved wolf from the Evolution Forest, it has its own pack." That was even cooler! Tang Huai was so envious he was practically drooling. If only he had been the one to pick up this sick wolf back then.

While waiting for Zhang San to wake up and agree or disagree to the survey team going to Mountain Fifty, Xia Qing also had things to do. She first took Tang Huai to the breeding greenhouse to check on the growth of the green-light yellow mealworms, then took her tools to the Gao Po planting greenhouse to continue repairing the damaged greenhouse. Tang Huai, of course, trotted along behind her.

Xia Qing took the opportunity to gather information. "Do you know which squad took the wolf-extermination mission posted by the Mission Center?"

Tang Huai's information channels were still quite well-connected. "Got it figured out last night. No one took that mission. The base took it down at the request of the Red One investigation team—supposedly it didn't follow proper procedure."

Xia Qing, who was using wire to tie the greenhouse frame, paused and asked Tang Huai, who was squatting in the greenhouse, using a small hoe to poke at the frozen soil looking for bugs, "What procedure?"