Chapter 689: The Color-Changing Snake

"The old lady was afraid of being overheard by Captain Tan and Tan Qi when she made the call, so she stepped outside. I was pulling weeds on the south side of the territory and caught a few lines."

After finishing the Tan family matter, Zhu Li chatted with Xia Qing about how popular the northern District One territory was now. "The people who came to haul bamboo shoots today said a lot of folks in the safe zone want to come work on our side. Sister Qing, you don't think a bunch of people will move into Territory Nine, do you?"

Xia Qing certainly didn't want Territory Nine to turn chaotic either. "Not for now. Once the poison gas bomb case is concluded, the ownership of Territory Nine can be settled."

"When will it ever be wrapped up? That thing happened over three months ago. The grass in Territory Nine is taller than a person now, full of rats and snakes, and the insecticide the Shi family traded with Third Brother has doubled in price." With no lord managing it, Territory Nine was almost reverting to an evolution forest.

After chatting idly with Xia Qing for a bit, Zhu Li went off to deliver the bamboo shoot points card to Territory Five. Xia Qing was just about to close the main gate when her phone beeped. She pulled it out and saw a message from Tang Huai, the agent for Territory Two across the corridor:

Zhu Li's hearing has evolved.

Xia Qing looked up and, sure enough, saw Tang Huai crouching in the wild-grass wall, waggling his two nimble eyebrows at her in a show-off.

Xia Qing's fists itched at the sight. She looked down and replied: Not necessarily. Maybe it was just because she was close, so she heard clearly.

Tang Huai, with two little caterpillars perched on his protective mask, replied at once: I heard the old lady's call yesterday too. Given where Zhu Li was standing, for her to have caught what the old lady said, her hearing evolution level must have already passed Level Two.

Past Level Two and you're an Evolver. Zhu Li just hadn't realized her hearing had improved. She's only twenty-three this year, with another twelve years to boost her evolution ability. As long as she gets enough nutrition and training, reaching Level Five is only a matter of time.

Level Five ability is the ceiling for ordinary Evolvers. To break past Level Five and reach Level Six—becoming a high-level Evolver—requires not only ample nutrition but also one decisive factor: genes.

The strength of one's genes determines the type of evolution ability and the height an Evolver can reach—this is the view broadly accepted at this stage. Many researchers devoted to stimulating evolution abilities in ordinary people are trying to break through this innate bottleneck.

The difficulty is self-evident.

Still, even if Zhu Li can't become a high-level hearing Evolver because of her genes, a Level Five hearing evolution ability is already plenty useful for a farmer. Tang Huai himself is a Level Five hearing Evolver, and his bug-catching ability is top-notch.

The inspection team's dorm is on the south side of Territory Seven. If Tang Huai was inside Territory Two, the only way he could have heard clearly what Tan's mother said was with the help of a listening device. Tang Huai doesn't like listening devices, so where was he hiding when he heard it?

How does Xia Qing know Tang Huai doesn't like listening devices? Because she's a Level Seven hearing Evolver. When Tang Huai was crouching in the wild-grass wall of Territory Two, eavesdropping on Xia Qing's movements inside Territory Three, his own movements were naturally within Xia Qing's eavesdropping range.

Beep.

Xia Qing's phone received another message: How about we go catch rats and snakes in Territory Nine together, to feed your weasel?

This message cleared up the doubt Xia Qing had just had: Tang Huai had snuck into Territory Nine to catch rats and overheard Tan's mother on the phone while he was at it.

She shook her head at Tang Huai, signaling she wasn't interested, then returned to the territory, locked the main gate, and carefully inspected the wild-grass wall inside.

Xia Qing had also spotted a few of the little caterpillars on Tang Huai's head inside the wild-grass wall of Territory Three, but not many. She listened carefully again and confirmed there was no sound of large numbers of bugs wriggling and gnawing at the grass roots in the soil beneath the wild-grass wall. This few bugs could be handled by the swallows and magpies and other birds in the territory, so there was no need to spray more insecticide right away.

Ever since the bug-catching-pro swallow moved into her home, although she had to clean swallow droppings regularly, the number of times she sprayed insecticide inside her own courtyard had noticeably decreased.

All in all, a good thing.

After inspecting the wild-grass wall, Xia Qing toured the fields, confirmed the crops were all growing well, that there was no crunching of crop roots by grubs or other pests in the field soil, and that the insect nets had no tears. Then she asked Hu Zifeng to send someone over to watch the territory while she went out on business.

Xia Qing's first stop today was Territory Seven.

Zhang San, still sporting two panda eyes after eating fresh bamboo shoots, said listlessly, "I've talked to the base leader about the pharmaceutical factory. He's very interested and has no objections to the profit split."

Xia Qing held back the urge to praise her idol and went on, "Yang Jin and Xin Yu are also interested, but Yang Jin has some issues with the profit split. Leave the rest to me."

Xia Qing had a very clear sense of her own role. She didn't understand drug R&D or manufacturing, and she didn't understand—or rather wasn't willing to put in the effort to learn—how to run a pharmaceutical factory. She just wanted to farm her fields well. So to get the factory up and running, she needed to cooperate with others.

The Hui-Three Base officials, Yang Jin, and Xin Yu were the three partner forces Xia Qing had chosen.

Hui-Three Base had acquired the high-yi-element spinach seeds and gained national-level support, so it would next invest heavily in industries related to high-yi-element spinach, with pharmaceuticals being one link in the chain. Yang Jin was the captain of the Green Dragon Squad, shrewd and principled. Xin Yu was a major shareholder of Chonglian. Although she had been pushed out of Chonglian's decision-making layer, she could procure precision instruments, and she had a very capable business manager on hand—Zhou Zhaoping.

Zhou Zhaoping was a key member of Xin Yu's parents' founding team and one of the founding contributors to Chonglian's growth. Having such a figure run a small mushroom-powder factory with barely a hundred workers inside Territory Eight was a real waste of talent—he had to be put to use.

The base's people, the Green Dragon Squad's people, plus Zhou Zhaoping—the three parties could supervise and check each other, ensuring the pharmaceutical factory's sustainable development, so Zhang San and Xia Qing wouldn't have to spend too much energy keeping an eye on it.

Zhang San's job was to research new drugs. Xia Qing's job was to represent Zhang San, negotiate with the other three parties, grow the medicinal herbs, and have the wolf pack search for scarce medicinal materials.

That's what they call "each master their own trade"!

Zhang San had chewed through the toughest nut—the officials. Next it was Xia Qing's turn. On behalf of Zhang San, she would sit down with the three parties, hammer out each side's investment amount, investment form, division of labor, and profit split, and then everyone could get on with their own jobs and build the factory.

Relieved he didn't have to handle the trivial matters, Zhang San was very satisfied. "The R&D of the new fungicide for killing high-level evolved Aspergillus has already entered the late stage. If you're fast enough, this will be the first new drug our pharmaceutical factory produces."

The antibiotic for this new drug was extracted from three sick wolves. Her idol had said that once the new drug was successfully developed, he'd give her a twenty-percent share of the profits—and that was what had prompted Xia Qing to consider building the pharmaceutical factory in the first place.

"Don't worry, we'll definitely make it in time." After wrapping up the pharmaceutical factory talk, Xia Qing asked about the Qiang snake and was pointed by Zhang San to Zhang Song.

Xia Qing first had Zhang Song fetch her a twenty-liter bucket of distilled water, then asked, "Song Ge, any progress on the Qiang snake research? Third Brother told me to ask you directly."

Since Third Brother had given permission, Zhang Song told her straight. "We've now confirmed that the green Qiang snake and the red Qiang snake are the same species at different age stages. After the green Qiang snake mates, its color begins to change. The rest is still under study."

Color change after mating? Xia Qing once again marveled at how crazy post-evolution Blue Star had become.

"Brother Huo, no need to see me off, I can walk on my own." Xia Qing, carrying the distilled water on her back, headed for her second stop of the day: Mountain Fifty.

Huo Zhun still hadn't figured out how to get closer to Xia Qing. He watched her walk away helplessly, so worried he kept scratching his head.

Yan Long glanced at this fool and strode off.