Chapter 685: Selling Bamboo Shoots

After the task squad entered the east gate, Tan's mother, who had already squeezed to the very front, reached out eagerly to take her granddaughter's backpack.

Tan Qi sidestepped away, her voice firm. "Grandma, the squad hasn't distributed supplies yet. These can't be touched."

Tan's mother explained, "You silly child! You think I don't know the rules? I'm just afraid you'll wear yourself out. I wanted to help you carry it."

Tan Junjie directly blocked his mother's hand, which refused to withdraw. "Mom, before the supplies are settled and distributed, anyone outside the squad touching the supplies—that's the rule."

Xia Qing's gaze pulled back from the hand blocked by Tan's mother's back, and she walked forward gripping her blade.

It wasn't unheard of for supplies to be snatched by crowds near the main gate when a task squad returned to the safe zone. As captain, protecting the supplies her squad had worked so hard to bring back and ensuring they entered the territory safely was Xia Qing's duty.

The supplies the squad members brought back were what the ten of them had risked and toiled enormously to haul in. Xia Qing truly hadn't carried supplies this time, but she bore the lives and safety of seven members on her shoulders, so her exhaustion this time was mental rather than physical.

Anyone who dared to reach for her supplies—come and try. If you're tougher than her, take the supplies; if you're not, leave your life behind!

Xia Qing unleashed the full aura of a high-level Evolver, murderous intent surging. She took her place at the edge of the crowd inside the gate. "Brother Yue leads, Liangzi in the middle, I cover the rear. Move in."

The gathered crowd immediately gave way, hands tucked behind their backs as if afraid that brushing against a squad member by accident would earn them a hand chopped off by the black blade in Xia Qing's grip. Tan's mother was also intimidated by Xia Qing, standing behind her son and not daring to peek out again.

Led by vice-captain Yue Haiying, the squad members passed safely through the east gate and the crowd, entering Territory Fifteen. The wild-grass wall cut off the sight of the onlookers outside and blocked their steps. They were safe here.

The only ones who followed them in were Tan's mother, Kuang Qingwei and his wife from Territory Six, Zhao Ze from Territory Four, and… Territory Twelve's lord and Territory Two's agent, Tang Huai.

The strength-type Evolvers who had returned laden with weight were all exhausted. After taking off their backpacks, they sat on the ground, removed their protective masks, and gasped for breath in great gulps, but every face wore a smile.

Because today, they had returned with a great haul!

Tang Huai was more eager than anyone. "Put the backpacks down quick, let's weigh them and see how many jin!"

Kuang Qingwei had already had the scale brought over. As Yue Haiying, Liangzi, and Xia Qing took out the bundled bamboo shoots from the digging and hauling team members' backpacks to weigh and call out the numbers, everyone in Territory Fifteen was stunned.

"Shi Du, 900 jin; Auntie Shi, 320 jin; Brother Yu, 560 jin; Brother Qi, 420 jin; Sister-in-law, 490 jin; Uncle Huo, 530 jin; Sister Qiqi, 58 jin." After Kuang Qingwei called out the totals, he then reported how many yellow-light and green-light shoots each person had brought back, and finally announced the grand total. "The shoots total 3,278 jin—2,728 jin of yellow-light shoots and 550 jin of green-light shoots."

After Kuang Qingwei finished, he looked at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing spoke. "Per the agreement before we formed the team, each digging member puts up half of the shoots they brought back. Of what's left, I take twenty-five percent, and the rest is split evenly between Brother Yue and Liangzi."

So, the yellow-light shoots belonging to Xia Qing came to 682 jin, and the green-light shoots to 137.5 jin. This haul had already left Xia Qing very, very satisfied.

Watching Xia Qing take away such a huge pile of fresh shoots while her own granddaughter had toiled to bring back just one pack and was left with only three, Tan's mother wished she could snatch the shoots back with the power of her eyeballs alone.

Zhao Ze noticed that Watching Huo Zhun had brought back the most green-light shoots, and he was planning to trade him for a small one later to take home for a taste. He didn't want any yellow-light shoots—he and his mother were now trying to eat as many green-light vegetables as possible, hoping to gain an evolution ability and become Evolvers so they could go with Xia Qing into the Evolution Forest to gather supplies.

Watching every team member happily guarding their pile of shoots, captain Xia Qing felt a deep sense of satisfaction. She brought up the squad's other gains from this gathering mission. "Besides bamboo shoots, we also hunted 56 snakes and 8 bamboo rats."

After saying that, Xia Qing took a large bundle of snakes from her backpack and let everyone weigh and test their quality. Many hands make light work—in a short while they had tallied it all up. The snakes totaled 156 jin, including 2 long-nosed pit vipers, 133 other species of venomous snakes; red-light made up seventy percent, yellow-light twenty percent, green-light ten percent. All 8 bamboo rats were red-light, totaling 73 jin.

Once the tally was out, Xia Qing announced the price and asked, "These snakes are distributed by the rules: forty percent to me, ten percent to Brother Yue, ten percent to Liangzi, and the remaining forty percent split evenly among the seven of you. I want two green-light vegetable snakes. Anyone else want snakes?"

"I'll take two green-light and one yellow-light." Lord Huo Lei decided to make a snake meat meal to reward himself.

Qi Fu spoke up too. "I'll take two smaller green-light snakes."

Yue Haiying had a lot of people in his territory. "I'll take six yellow-light ones."

Shi Du spoke. "I'll take those two long-nosed pit vipers. I want to use them as medicine for my dad."

Seeing everyone else claiming their share of meat while her own granddaughter just stood there dumbly without a word, Tan's mother was so anxious she poked her in the small of the back.

Tan Qi turned back to explain, "Grandma, my dad's protective mask has a crack in it. I want to use today's mission points to trade for a new mask for my dad."

Hearing her granddaughter say that, Tan's mother immediately went still. Tan Junjie was the pillar of the family—his safety was more important than anything.

Yue Haiying took out the snakes everyone wanted and divided them up. The snakes each person took were converted into points at the safe zone mission hall's meat purchase price—refund the excess, make up the shortfall.

Lord Huo Lei asked again, "Any hardness-evolution snakes? I want the snake skin."

Yue Haiying had already checked. "No."

"There's a hardness-evolution bamboo I cut down in the bamboo forest." Xia Qing took a bamboo segment she had chopped off from her backpack and handed it to Lord Huo Lei. "If Uncle Huo thinks it's still usable, I'll bring the whole bamboo back next time I go over, and split it with you half and half."

This time, Xia Qing had taken on the defense role; carrying too much weight would affect her agility, so she hadn't brought the bamboo pole back.

That bamboo was excellent material for building greenhouse support frames. Xia Qing was definitely going to make a trip over in the next few days to haul the bamboo back.

Lord Huo Lei took it and tested the hardness, very pleased. "I don't need half. Just cut me off a piece long enough to make a carrying pole."

Seeing that no one wanted the remaining snake meat and bamboo rat meat, Kuang Qingwei spoke up. "If nobody wants it, can I take all this meat?"

Kuang Qingwei and his wife were both ordinary people, unable to go on missions with Xia Qing, so he had gotten advance approval from Xia Qing and his allies to take the priority purchase rights for the squad's supplies.

The allies had no objections, because the surplus supplies they harvested would have to be sold to someone else if not to Kuang Qingwei.

Kuang Qingwei bought the red-light snakes at the mission hall's price, smiling so hard the scar on his face trembled. "Anyone selling bamboo shoots? Yellow-light at 17 a jin, green-light at 85 a jin."

The safe zone's current price for yellow-light shoots was 15 points a jin, and green-light was 80 points. The price Kuang Qingwei offered was very attractive—and very fair.

Xia Qing spoke first. "I'll sell 300 jin of yellow-light shoots."

The green-light shoots she had already arranged a destination for. She would keep a few hundred jin of yellow-light shoots for Boss Yang to eat, give some to the rabbits and chickens at home for a taste, and sell the rest.