Chapter 85: Who Doesn't Want a Chicken That Lays Eggs?

Back home, after disinfecting and stripping off her protective suit, Xia Qing couldn't wait to take out the three pale-blue great bird eggs from the small bag.

After evolving, the white egrets had grown larger, and so had their eggs—each one was about the size of a goose egg from before the Catastrophe.

One egg is enough for a whole plate of scrambled eggs!

Xia Qing first soaked, disinfected, and washed the egg, then cracked it into a bowl. Looking at the transparent egg white and golden yolk, Xia Qing's mouth was practically watering. She took a tiny bit and put it into the Qi-element detector; the red light came on.

Normal.

Xia Qing disinfected and tested the second egg—still the red light.

The third one, thank heavens, yellow light—edible.

Xia Qing figured that at least one of these two birds was a yellow-light bird, meaning her meat reserves had grown by one plump white egret.

Xia Qing happily fed the red-light egg whites to her snake, and dried the yolks to save as treats for her little kitten.

Then Xia Qing washed the yellow-light chives she'd cut, and stir-fried a plate of chives with egret egg—the flavor was so good that Xia Qing even wiped the plate clean with a white flour flatbread and ate that too.

After eating, Xia Qing kept savoring it in her dreams. The next day, while driving the tiller to clear Qi grass, she glanced toward the egret nest several times.

Want to eat some…

She turned off the tiller, pulled out the walkie-talkie. "Brother Qi, Brother Qi, you there?"

"Here." Qi Fu's voice came back quickly. "Is the wound on your body any better?"

"A bit better. Is Brother Qi's arm any better? Does Brother Qi know how many clutches of eggs a white egret lays in a year?"

Qi Fu laughed. "One clutch a year, four or five eggs per clutch. If you want to eat egret eggs, you've got to be careful—after evolving, white egrets are extremely powerful. Someone in my territory went to steal eggs and got pecked once; if he hadn't been wearing a protective suit, his arm would've been pecked clean through."

Only one clutch a year—then she can't wipe them out completely, she has to leave two for the birds. Xia Qing sighed in disappointment, and when she looked toward the dawn redwood forest again, she noticed two more birds had appeared beside the egret pair.

"Brother Qi, have you ever seen a bird a bit smaller and chubbier than the great egret, with a shorter neck, a black pointed beak, black only on the top of its head and its back, white everywhere else, and two ribbon-like long white feathers growing on the top of its head?"

Before Qi Fu could answer, Zhao Ze jumped in. "I know—that's the so-called 'Dark Night Knight'—the Black-crowned Night Heron!"

Night heron? Xia Qing paused for two seconds. "Night herons are active at night?"

Zhao Ze answered immediately. "Right, night herons hide by day and come out at night. Don't let their good looks fool you—their call is really unpleasant, so few gardens use night herons as ornamental birds."

Looking again at the two night herons crouching with retracted necks beside the egret nest, Xia Qing felt something was off. She had just taken three eggs yesterday evening, and this morning the egrets had gained two daytime-hiding, nighttime-active bodyguards.

Is this… to guard against her or against the snake? Have the birds on Blue Star really evolved to be this clever?

Xia Qing stopped looking at the four birds all staring at her in unison, said thanks and was about to turn off the walkie-talkie, when she heard Zhang San's voice come on. "Xia Qing, want to eat bird eggs?"

Xia Qing……

Zhang San dangled more bait. "I have evolved chickens. One is sitting on a clutch—chicks will hatch in mid-June. Want to trade you one?"

Xia Qing gritted her teeth and refused to bite. "Brother San, during that last burst of red Qi rain yesterday, the spinach in my field suddenly exploded, so I no longer have any spinach to trade, and I can't trade spinach seeds with everyone either. I'm really sorry."

Hearing Xia Qing say "exploded," Qi Fu assumed it was a dangerous Qi mutation and quietly regretted it. Kuang Qingwei quickly seized the chance to ask Zhang San, "Brother San, can I use yellow-light chives to reserve a chick?"

Who doesn't want a chicken that lays eggs?

Zhao Ze followed right after. "Brother San, can I use green-light alfalfa to reserve one?"

Qi Fu also immediately made his offer. "Brother San, I found five green and two yellow Di Pao Zi plants in my territory—they'll definitely bear fruit in September, the fruits are about the size of soybeans, with a dozen or more on a cluster, and they taste pretty good. We call them Di Pao Zi there; some places also call them wild grapes or Black Day-Day. Whatever these seven plants yield, I'll give all of it to you—can I trade for one little hen?"

Zhang San chose to trade with Qi Fu. "I've had Dragon's Bane fruit before. I can give you one yellow-light little hen. If the Dragon's Bane fruit harvest weighs less than fifteen jin, you'll compensate me with twice the missing weight in green-light food—no scallions, ginger, garlic, or chives."

Raise one little hen well, and in four months there'll be eggs to eat. Qi Fu was overjoyed. "Of course, thank you, Brother San."

Tang Huai couldn't hold back either. "Brother San, I've got yellow-light cicada larvae here—deep-fried they're delicious. Can I trade ten jin for two chicks?"

Zhang San's reply to Territory Two was just two words: "No trade."

Tang Huai……

Hu Zifeng spoke up too. "Brother San, can I use forty jin of green-light dried bamboo shoots to trade you for two chicks?"

"No trade." Looks like Zhang San had eaten his fill of green-light dried bamboo shoots and wasn't interested anymore.

After Kuang Qingwei was also flatly refused by Zhang San, Zhao Ze stated his trade terms. "Brother San, can I use green-light alfalfa to trade you for one little hen?"

This time Zhang San didn't refuse outright. "How many jin do you have?"

Zhao Ze, who really wanted a chick, laid out his whole hand. "I can cut six jin today, and a second batch in half a month."

"Thirty jin of green-light alfalfa for one little hen, settled this year."

Zhao Ze was overjoyed. "Deal, thank you, Brother San."

After agreeing to Zhao Ze, Zhang San asked Xia Qing again. "Xia Qing doesn't want a chick?"

A chicken that lays eggs—how could Xia Qing possibly not want one. "Brother San, I don't have any green-light food to put on the table right now, but I do have ten green-light sweet potato plants. Can I use the November harvest to reserve a chick from you?"

Zhang San didn't agree. "I already have sweet potatoes."

Next, Kuang Qingwei and the other two discussed trading for Xia Qing's sweet potatoes with her. Qi Fu said, "No wonder you were asking how to propagate sweet potato seedlings a while back. How did it go—did the cuttings take?"

Mentioning this made Xia Qing angry. "I'd just finished planting the cuttings when the Qi rain came down. Only about twenty-something are left, and they haven't recovered yet. I don't know if they'll survive."

Tang Huai couldn't help speaking up either. "Xia Qing, are you selling green-light sweet potato seedlings? I'll trade cicada larvae for them."

Xia Qing replied coldly. "Pay me back for my losses first, then we'll talk."

Hu Zifeng immediately followed. "And the losses from Territory One—pay those up for me soon too."

Tang Huai burst out cursing. "You lunatics still have the nerve to ask me for losses? The evolved weasels and pangolins that suddenly showed up in Territory Two last night were definitely your doing! I nearly got killed by your shenanigans last night!"

Hu Zifeng sneered. "Got proof? Bring it out, and I'll pay you."

"So what if I don't have proof? The pangolins and weasels definitely came down from Mount Forty-Nine. Just admit it—isn't Mount Forty-Nine part of your Azure Dragon Squad's territory?"

"Did the weasels and pangolins you found have 'Forty-Nine' carved on them? Bring them here and let me have a look."

Xia Qing started up the tiller again, listening to the two of them argue as she went ratta-tat-tat, continuing to cut the Qi grass.

So the gunfight last night was because weasels and pangolins had appeared inside Territory Two. Weasels were one thing, but pangolins were master burrowers—tunneling wildly underground, they could perfectly cover the traces of the tunnel leading from Territory Three to Territory One.

That move was truly brilliant. The Azure Dragon Squad really was formidable—they even had pangolins. Brother Luo should be making his public appearance in the next couple of days, right?

Ratta-tat-tat, ratta-tat-tat.

Squeak—squeak—squeak—

"Ah—"

Tang Huai, who had been arguing fiercely with Mustache Feng, suddenly roared, "Xia Qing, can you turn off that damn thing and let me dig worms in peace for a bit!"