Chapter 984: The Kind That Lets You Run Fifty Li in One Go

Yellow-light rice with a qang-element content of 12–15‰ sells for 40–50 credits per jin; mid-grade yellow-light rice with a qang-element content of 8–12‰ sells for around 80 credits; premium yellow-light rice with a qang-element content of 5–8‰ sells for around 150 credits.

Premium green-light rice has a qang-element content below 4.5‰ and a decent taste; such rice is bound to sell for over 300 credits per jin, and supply falls short of demand.

The other side selling at 250 per jin is indeed suspicious. Either the quality is substandard and they're passing it off as better, or the origin of this batch is shady.

Xia Qing asked, "Brother Qing, did that person say how many jin of rice he has?"

Kuang Qingwei answered, "He didn't give a specific amount, but from the way he talked, there are at least two hundred jin."

Two hundred jin — that's fifty thousand credits' worth of goods. For a middleman of Kuang Qingwei's level, this batch counts as a large transaction; to take it, he'd have to throw in his entire nest egg.

Xia Qing laid things out for Kuang Qingwei: "On the sixth of last month, one of Bai Qi's grain transport planes carrying sixteen tons of green-light grain was hijacked. It's been classified as an especially major, especially vicious case. Right now, a task force led by Red One is searching with all their might for the transport plane and the grain."

Kuang Qingwei broke out in a cold sweat. "Bai Qi produces rice — what got hijacked was probably rice! Sis, I know what's going on now. You've saved my life again this time."

As a middleman, Kuang Qingwei certainly knew that cheap genuine goods mostly came from shady sources. But in these chaotic times, shady goods were everywhere, so everyone just turned a blind eye and pretended not to know.

But that was the usual case. Something classified as an especially major, especially vicious case was a different story entirely. Cases like these were cracked down on hard; if you took stolen goods, you could never wash yourself clean.

Kuang Qingwei was a retailer at the very tail end of the entire sales chain. Once he was found out, there was only one outcome for him: take the fall and the blame for someone else.

Try to defend yourself? Those people would have more than enough ways to shut your mouth for good!

Xia Qing wasn't in charge of the investigation, nor did she press for which line of friends had contacted Kuang Qingwei. She only warned him: "Brother Qing, just keep this to yourself. Don't tell anyone."

"Understood, sis, don't worry." After hanging up the phone, Kuang Qingwei collapsed weakly onto the bamboo mat, and the more he thought about it, the more afraid he became.

Hearing-evolution user Zhu Li asked softly, "Hubby?"

"Mm." Kuang Qingwei nodded. "It's definitely stolen goods. The reason the higher-ups haven't made the case public is that they're waiting for those people to fence the goods, so they can catch them red-handed. Catching the people is the small part — getting all the grain back is what matters most."

Zhu Li was also afraid. "Hubby, do you think Lai Zi knows about this?"

Lai Zi's full name was Lai Zhengzhi. He was the middleman upstream of Kuang Qingwei, and also the person who had just called to ask whether he wanted premium green-light rice.

Kuang Qingwei gave a bitter laugh. "He's been in this line longer than me. If I can sense something's off, how could he not smell it?"

Zhu Li knit her slender brows. "Could it be that after he got the goods, he sensed something was wrong and wants to offload them quickly and run?"

"Possible. This matter ends here. We won't touch it and we won't ask around — the more you know, the more trouble comes your way." After pulling himself together, Kuang Qingwei called Lai Zi. Using the excuse that the Northern District One territory had already produced a batch of yellow-light rice and the lords wouldn't be buying premium rice at high prices anymore, no matter how much Lai Zi tried to persuade him, he refused to take the goods.

After hanging up, Kuang Qingwei's heart went cold. Because he knew clearly that he would never be able to get goods from Lai Zi again. Whether his other channels were still usable was also up in the air.

After hanging up, Lai Zhengzhi called back Zhou Bapi of the Wantong Trading House, then collapsed onto the bed.

His scarred-faced henchman beside him fanned his boss while asking softly, "Brother Lai, what do you think Old Kuang did to offend someone? Zhou Bapi is out to destroy him."

"Don't know, but it's definitely someone we can't afford to offend. Pass it down — from now on, don't sell goods to Old Kuang. The Northern District One territory business, find someone else to handle."

"Understood."

While Kuang Qingwei was worrying about his supply channels, Xia Qing was with the boss hauling water home for the evening medicinal bath.

Old Wolf, much recovered, was carrying a basket in its mouth, scurrying around the territory catching bugs to feed the fish.

Fish ate far more than chickens, but fish meat tasted terrible, so Old Wolf was very displeased with the fish pond and wished it could pull every fish out and bite them to death.

Little Flying Fur was also busy everywhere looking for food. It brought the storable grass seeds it found back to the wooden nest on the wall at home. Only especially high-quality grass seeds were tucked into Xia Qing's pocket.

When dusk fell, the busy people and animals in Territory Three returned home — those who needed to cook cooked, those who needed to rest rested.

Xia Qing first finalized the dinner menu with the boss, then asked Old Wolf, who was lying on a high spot, "Fourth, want boiled eggs tonight?"

Fourth gazed into the distance, silent.

"Want chicken?"

Still silent.

"Want roasted mealworms and freeze-dried bugs?"

Fourth lowered its head and looked at Xia Qing in the yard.

"Alright, I'll go make them." Xia Qing cheerfully took the basket to collect eggs. After eating eggs and chicken for over ten days straight, Fourth was no longer fixated on eating chicken — that was a good sign.

Even if Fourth didn't eat, Xia Qing still had to boil a few eggs in the evening. She herself wanted to eat; Wolf Lao Er and the Broken-Waist Wolf, who had come over to bathe, wanted to eat; and she had to give Handsome Giant Wolf two eggs to persuade it to take her along to harvest soybeans.

Xia Qing finished dinner right on schedule, and the wolf pack for the medicinal bath arrived at Territory Three right on cue.

Besides the Head Wolf, the Broken-Waist Wolf, Handsome Giant Wolf, and Lao Er, there were two wolves Xia Qing hadn't seen before — these were probably today's bodyguards.

The Head Wolf raised its golden eyes and looked at Old Wolf standing tall on the ruins, beginning to size each other up.

Xia Qing had no interest in their contest and enthusiastically called Lao Er into the house to give it boiled eggs and pumpkin.

Once the Head Wolf came in and washed its paws, Xia Qing immediately offered praise: "Did the Queen win? The Queen truly is an evolved wolf standing at the top of Blue Star's pyramid — she must be the king of our Northern Evolution Forest…"

Listening to Xia Qing's praise, the Head Wolf inside was expressionless, while Old Wolf outside lay on the grass atop the ruins, gazing quietly at the vast mountains to the north.

Below the ruins, the two bodyguards the Head Wolf had brought stared fiercely up at the outsider wolf above, letting out low growls.

After praising the Head Wolf, Xia Qing also complimented the Broken-Waist Wolf on its newly grown leg fur being thick and beautiful, then went out and approached Handsome Giant Wolf, handing it a basin of delicious food: "Brother Giant Wolf, want an egg?"

The lying Handsome Giant Wolf turned its head away.

Not hungry? Xia Qing took out the egg and poured in some pollution-free spring water. "Brother Giant Wolf, have some water?"

Handsome Giant Wolf sniffed the water, then turned its head away again.

Not thirsty? Had it come over already full and watered? Xia Qing could only pull out a tube of premium nutrient solution. "Brother Giant Wolf, want some nutrient solution? The kind that lets you run fifty li in one go without getting tired."

Handsome Giant Wolf indeed turned its head back, looking at what was in Xia Qing's hand.