Chapter 968: Sample Comparative Analysis

"Right, that's the one, Broken-Waist, you're really smart." Xia Qing drew a blood sample from this prey and put it into the testing slot. After waiting half a minute, the display showed the qiang element content value, and the red light among the three indicator lights beside the testing slot lit up.

Xia Qing asked, "Broken-Waist, look, what quality is this prey? Green light?"

Broken-Waist Wolf kept his mouth shut.

"Yellow light?"

Broken-Waist Wolf still kept his mouth shut.

"Red light?"

Broken-Waist Wolf opened his mouth, revealing his little sharp fangs.

Xia Qing sincerely gave a thumbs-up. "Right, this bamboo rat has a qiang element content of 22‰, which humans have classified as a red-light prey that cannot be eaten directly. Eating too much of this kind of prey will cause excess qiang element to accumulate in the body, leading to a decline in health."

Broken-Waist Wolf pawed at the bamboo rat, looked at the fish pond, then looked at Xia Qing, deep in thought.

Xia Qing nodded, slowed her speech, and gestured as she explained to this wolf who liked to ponder problems, "You guessed right. If fish eat too much prey with qiang element content over 15‰, their body's qiang element content will also rise. But I have very few green-light prey, so I can only feed the fish red-light prey. However, I also feed the fish green-light vegetables and add high-quality water to the fish pond, which can reduce the qiang element content in their bodies."

After explaining, Xia Qing efficiently tested another bamboo rat and six snakes, keeping one yellow-light snake for herself, and threw the rest of the prey into the fish pond, only bringing home the innards of one red-light bamboo rat to feed the snakes.

Xia Qing also keeps over a dozen green-light and yellow-light snakes. Although snake meat isn't as tasty as chicken, no one can guarantee when the next disaster will come, or what animals will die in it. So Xia Qing wants to raise as many kinds of edible animals as possible, to raise the food-safety level within her territory.

After feeding the snakes, Xia Qing carried the limping Broken-Waist Wolf to the hay shed to call Sheep Boss home for a meal. During these few days of changing the support poles for the big shed, Sheep Boss was afraid Hu Zi Feng and the others would steal its food, and refused to let them near its hay shed.

So the hay shed's support poles were changed by Xia Qing, Sheep Boss, and Broken-Waist Wolf together. After they were done, Sheep Boss was still uneasy and stayed guarding inside the shed.

Lunchtime—cooking and eating—is also the moment when the lords, busy all morning, gather to chat.

Wen Nengjie opened today's topic. "Sister Qing, I noticed the bamboo in your territory is much better in hardness and toughness than the bamboo from Mountain Fifty. Thanks, Sister Qing, for trading such good material with me."

Xia Qing explained, "During the last qiang rain, I harvested six batches of bamboo in total. The later the batch, the better the quality."

The support poles for the big shed in Xia Qing's territory are made from the sixth batch and part of the fifth batch of bamboo. She also kept enough fifth- and fourth-batch bamboo to build three more sheds as backup, and sold the first, second, and third batches.

Wen Nengjie got excited. "No wonder when I went to Sister Qing's territory to learn how to cut bamboo, I found the bamboo there was harder than Mountain Fifty's. In the third qiang rain, I'll cut a few more batches too!"

Xia Qing reminded him, "I cut up to the sixth batch, and the bamboo's danger level rose. Pay attention to safety."

Yuan Yan from Territory Five also came online. "Right, we also had the bamboo roots jump out of the ground when we cut to the sixth batch."

"Understood, thanks for the reminder, Sister Qing and Sister Yan." Wen Nengjie thanked her, and eagerly began calculating how many bamboo poles he could harvest in the third qiang rain.

Tang Huai came online listlessly. "Xia Qing, everyone, Tang Lu built a small hut near the north wasteland grass wall in Territory Two. She has eavesdropping equipment. Be careful."

Xia Qing's neighbor Zhao Ze got angry. "This person has gone too far!"

Hu Zi Feng came online. "This is Territory Two's usual style. We've been monitored for a year."

Everyone...

Zhu Li asked, "Sister Qing, will what she's doing affect you?"

"No." Xia Qing answered calmly. "Both my territory and the Ninth Center have jamming equipment installed."

"Only Sister Qing, protection really thorough, everything considered." After brushing for attention again, Wen Nengjie asked, "Brother Huai, can't we report her to the Inspection Team?"

"She's not stupid—how could she let me get evidence?" Tang Huai snorted. "Besides, without a lord's permission, the Inspection Team can't enter a territory to search. By the time the Inspection Team gets permission, do you think they'll still find evidence?"

Huo Zhun spotted the key point. "I noticed Tang Lu is very good at exploiting legal loopholes."

"In the ten years before the disaster, in our safe zone, she and Tang Rui were the most restless. If she weren't good at exploiting loopholes, she'd have been locked up long ago." Wen Nengjie sighed. "A lot of people used to say Tang Lu had no brains, but now it looks like she might be the smartest one in her whole family."

Zhu Li, who was kneading dough, chatted with her husband. "Tang Lu's eye for men isn't bad either. Yang Jin and Zheng Chen—ability, character, looks, all flawless."

Kuang Qingwei, who was picking beans, shook his head. "Yang Jin and Zheng Chen wouldn't look at her."

"Buzz—"

Xia Qing, who was kneading dough, heard her phone ring. She walked into the living room and saw it was Third Brother's alt account, so she told Broken-Waist Wolf, who was playing with the phone, "Broken-Waist, tap the green button on the right."

Broken-Waist Wolf was too lazy to find the stylus, so he tapped the answer button on the screen with his nose, and heard a familiar voice from the phone:

"Xia Qing, after lunch go collect soil and air samples from that cave of yours, bring them over and I'll do a comparative analysis."

Xia Qing replied, "Okay, Third Brother, I'll be there in an hour."

After hanging up, Xia Qing went back to the kitchen to work. Broken-Waist Wolf stared at the phone, deep in thought.

After eating noodles at noon, Xia Qing put ear drops and oral medicine into Old Wolf's ears in the sheep shed, fed him, told Broken-Waist Wolf and Sheep Boss to watch the house, went to the cave to take samples, then drove to Territory Seven.

Tang Lu, inside Territory Two, walked out from the wasteland grass wall, watched Xia Qing's off-road vehicle drive away, called Tang Huai, and asked carefully, "Big Brother, can I borrow your car to go out for a bit? I have something to handle, and it's too hot outside."

Before the disaster, Tang Zhengrong, to draw closer to his cousin's family, had the children of the two families ranked together.

Among the boys, the oldest, Tang Huai, was the eldest; Tang Heng was the second; Tang Rui was the third. Among the girls, Tang Ning was the eldest; Tang Feng was the second; Tang Lu was the third; Tang Zheng was the fourth.

But this "Big Brother"—after the disaster, Tang Huai had never heard it again. He answered coldly, "No. If you want to go to college safely, don't cause trouble. A lot of people in this territory are not someone you can afford to provoke."

After hanging up, Tang Lu really couldn't hold back the fury in her heart. She clenched her fists and screamed silently.

Xia Qing parked the car outside the south gate of Territory Seven, passed the security check smoothly, and followed Ji Li to Zhang San's laboratory.

Although her idol was still skinny as skin wrapped around bone, his dark circles had noticeably faded, and he didn't look so much like a zombie anymore, which made Xia Qing feel much more at ease.

Zhang San stood up and opened the door to the testing room, then looked back at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing immediately followed her idol into the testing room, watching him use precision instruments to analyze the soil and air samples she had brought.

After the detailed data for the two samples came out, Zhang San's long, pale fingers tapped rapidly on the keyboard, then handed the two printed comparison results to Xia Qing. "Take a look."