Chapter 92: Agricultural Products Trade Fair

After confirming that only one evolved wolf had attacked the wild boar breeding center this time, Xia Qing first had Chen Cheng and Chen Zheng return to Territory One, then called Luo Pei. "Brother Luo, I'm in the evolved forest north of the breeding center, and I ran into the wolf that attacked the boars. The one that came this time isn't the same one as last time—both of its ears are intact, but it's also very strong, smart, and fast."

"Got it. Don't leave your territory these next few days; the evolved wolf might come back." After hanging up with Xia Qing, Luo Pei called Yang Jin directly. "A-Jin, pull back. We can't push forward with the plan to find the spring."

Yang Jin, who had already led his team to Mountain Fifty-Five, asked, "What's the situation?"

Luo Pei explained, "An evolved wolf just attacked the wild boar breeding center and killed two boars. The wolf pack probably thinks you went looking for revenge, so they came to kill the pigs as a warning."

In the evolved wolves' eyes, humans living in groups form a single clan. If humans push deeper, the wolf pack will definitely attack the breeding center again. If the boars are all killed and the humans still don't pull out, the range of their attacks might expand to humans in the surrounding territories.

Yang Jin looked at the dense evolved forest that blotted out the sky and quickly made the most advantageous choice. "Brother Luo, report this upward. Make the situation sound as serious as possible, so the people at the wild boar breeding center move out as soon as possible. Then tell Xie Yu to find a way to get the Safe Zone to 'force' that piece of land at the breeding center onto us."

Times change. Earlier, when Yang Jin proposed encircling a valley to build the breeding center, it was to improve the safety of nearby territories. Now that Mountain Forty-Nine belongs to the Azure Dragon Squad, and the breeding center's boars have been nearly all killed, the value of the breeding center's existence has disappeared.

The wild boar breeding center was attacked by evolved wolves again. The military sent people to strengthen protection of the territories near the breeding center, and every lord was told not to leave their territory.

Inside the territories, everything went on as usual. After ten years of living through the Heavenly Calamity, let alone a wolf biting a pig to death—even a wolf killing someone nearby was nothing unusual. The lucky humans who survived still had to keep working hard to stay alive.

The next day, Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui drove a pickup truck and delivered the eight hundred jin of worm castings Xia Qing had ordered to the signpost at Territory Three.

Zhong Tao accepted the twenty green-light spinach seeds Xia Qing had traded with Sun Zhe, and sincerely envied her. "Xia Qing really is capable. It's only been a few months, and she's already trading green-light vegetable seeds for supplies."

Those twenty seeds were, of course, ordinary green-light spinach seeds given by Zhang San. Xia Qing complained, "I only found a dozen or so green-light spinach plants in my territory. I served them like ancestors for over two months, and just when I finally got the seeds almost ripe, I had the rotten luck of running into the Calamity Rain and lost more than half. I've got just over two hundred left. If I weren't in desperate need of worm castings for farming, I couldn't bear to part with them."

Over two hundred spinach seeds sounds like a lot, but considering the germination rate, it's really not that many. Zhong Tao didn't press further about the spinach seeds, and asked about Xia Qing's losses during the Calamity Rain. "You prepared so much rainproof cloth, your losses this time shouldn't have been big, right?"

"Other crops only lost about a third, but the potatoes lost way too much." Xia Qing's face showed lingering fear. "Four potato plants in my field underwent dangerous aggressive mutation, knocked over my rain shelter, and I got whipped over a dozen times by the potato vines. If I hadn't evolved physically, whether I'd have survived is anyone's guess. Brother Tao, did you guys run into evolved beasts?"

Through her protective mask, Xia Qing saw that both Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui had several fresh wounds on their faces that had just been treated with antiseptic—clearly from a fight that had just ended.

Zhao Tao cursed. "Not evolved beasts. We ran into bandits coming from North Zone One. If Kui-zi and I hadn't had guns, we'd have died on the road today too."

The fifty territories in the northern part of Hui San Base are divided into two large sections: one is Territories One through Twenty-Eight, near the old regiment headquarters, and the other is Territories Twenty-Nine through Fifty, near the Safe Zone. Between the two sections lie nearly a hundred li of ruined towns and mountain forests. Although the gap area has been cleared, it remains full of all kinds of dangers.

Humans robbing human transport vehicles for supplies—low risk, high reward—is the top method of acquiring supplies for quite a few groups.

By all rights, Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui, who spend a lot of time out in the field, should have decent alertness and combat ability. They shouldn't have taken a loss like this.

Before Xia Qing could ask, Zhong Tao continued, "Today I ran into a woman holding a child being chased by evolved rats, so I got out of the car to help. Ten years into the Heavenly Calamity, and there are still people using kids as bait—damn it—I almost died at that woman's hands!"

Xia Qing was also surprised. Starting in the seventh year of the Heavenly Calamity, Hua Country issued a series of measures to protect women and children. Women of childbearing age and children under twelve in the Safe Zone can receive a free ration of food, ensuring they won't starve to death. Children with multiple-fold evolution abilities get even better benefits.

Under policies like these, a woman with a child, choosing not to live the stable life in the Safe Zone but instead robbing out in the field, really is rare.

Xia Qing asked which direction the woman had fled, then opened the lid of her back basket. "When I was patrolling my territory, I got lucky and caught a red-light porcupine. Brother Tao, please help me trade it for salt—the good kind. These two yellow-light snakes, Brother Tao and Brother Kui take them back to nourish yourselves."

After trading so many times, Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui both knew Xia Qing didn't eat snake, so they didn't stand on ceremony with her and accepted with thanks.

After taking the items, Zhong Tao became more talkative. "Good thing you're an Evolved, sis. Ordinary people, forget getting whipped a dozen times by potato vines—even four or five hits would kill them. You probably haven't heard yet…"

Zhong Tao looked around, then lowered his voice.

Xia Qing leaned forward slightly, her eyes fixed on Zhong Tao, striking a posture of attentive listening.

"In the second Calamity Rain, the various territories lost… because of potatoes undergoing dangerous mutation…" Zhong Tao first held up one finger, then two more, then three.

One hundred twenty-three people? Xia Qing sucked in a sharp breath. "That many?"

"The injured are definitely more. The base didn't dare release a number. Our convoy people compared notes privately—over a hundred of us in the North Zone got whipped and injured. There are only a handful of people in a territory." Zhong Tao sighed.

Xia Qing pretended not to know this matter was connected to the Tang family, and put on an indignant face. "How could the Safe Zone release such dangerous seeds!"

"Ain't that the truth." Zhong Tao sighed. "I heard people saying this thing is connected to the Tang family. By rights, it shouldn't be."

Tang Huai, who was eavesdropping while lying on the grass in Territory Two, had a very ugly expression.

Xia Qing, hearing the direction of Zhong Tao's words, knew she wouldn't get anything more out of him on this, and asked about something else. "Has the base said anything about compensating the lords for losses caused by the potato seed issue?"

"There'll definitely be compensation, they just haven't worked out the details yet. I heard they're going to compensate with seeds. Once it's decided, I'll let you know." After finishing the gossip, Zhong Tao asked Xia Qing with a smile, "Sis, do you have plenty of vegetables in your field? Kui-zi and I want to trade for some."

Out of caution, Xia Qing didn't agree right away. "I lost quite a bit in this Calamity Rain too. These past few days I've been trading with other lords for vegetables. The vegetable seedlings that survived the Calamity Rain need some time to recover. By the time you come next time they should have grown. What do you want to trade for?"

Xia Qing also placed another order with Sun Zhe for eight hundred jin of worm castings, with the trade date still set for twenty days later. When the next batch of worm castings arrived, Xia Qing would be harvesting her wheat and preparing to plant corn, mung beans, and rice, which would require a large amount of organic fertilizer. By then she could trade some vegetables to Zhong Tao and the others.

Zhong Tao quickly answered, "I want tomatoes and cucumbers. The Safe Zone's good stuff never makes it to us. Your nephew at home is craving them something fierce."

Zheng Kui was even more eager. "Green beans, eggplant, pumpkin—any of them works. However many you can put out, sis, I'll take that many."

By rights, Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui have direct access to fifty territories, so they shouldn't be short on vegetables. Xia Qing didn't ask further and nodded in agreement. "The pumpkins haven't started growing yet, but the others are fine. If they ripen before you get here, I'll dry them first…"

"Sis, just give me a shout when they're almost ripe. The two of us are out running around every day, so coming over is no trouble." Zhong Tao was all smiles.

Before leaving, Zheng Kui shared an important piece of news with Xia Qing. "I heard the base is planning to hold a lord agricultural products trade fair next month."

"Agricultural products trade fair?" This was fresh news. Xia Qing pressed, "What's it for, and where will it be held?"