Chapter 119: Mystery of the Eighth Lord

As they drew closer Xia Qing noticed Tan Junjie’s inspection team had gained a new member today.

This one was small, and wore camo protective gear just like the others, bringing up the rear and carrying two wooden sticks as if they were submachine guns. Judging by her age, this had to be Tan Junjie’s daughter, Tan Qi. Tan Junjie had mentioned her before, saying his daughter was in elementary school in the Safe Zone, back when they exchanged edible vegetables and Chinese toon shoots.

“She’s not in school—so what’s she doing here on the Territory?” Xia Qing wondered. Then it hit her: it was mid-July. Must be summer break—wait, do schools even have summer vacation these days? When she was in the Safe Zone, she never heard of schools actually getting holidays anymore.

Tan Junjie spotted Xia Qing and paused to ask, “Did you block the entrance to the old barrier at Territory Three?”

Xia Qing explained, “Yeah. Someone accidentally wandered in from the old barrier a little while ago, so I decided it was safer to close it off.”

Tan Junjie immediately pressed, “Who was it?”

Xia Qing described, “A young woman, about five foot three, wearing camo protective gear. She claimed she was the lord of Plot Eight and said she was walking along the barrier to collect firewood. Since she had a protective mask on, all I could see was her pale face and dark eyes. This happened maybe ten minutes ago.”

Tan Junjie glanced at Yuan Rui, the olfactory evolver in his squad. Yuan Rui shook his head. “She was in a protective suit. No obvious scent left behind.”

Tan Junjie explained to Xia Qing, “Based on your description, the height and gender match the lord of Plot Eight. We’ll catch up to her and confirm, then get back to you.”

Xia Qing gave a nod. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

Tan Junjie waved his daughter over. “Qi Qi, this is Aunt Xia from Plot Three. Most of the vegetables you eat were grown by her.”

Auntie? Xia Qing raised an eyebrow.

With her protective mask on, all Xia Qing could really see were her eyes—which looked a lot like her father’s. The little girl gave Xia Qing a textbook salute and greeted her in a crisp, clear voice: “Hello, Sister Xia! The veggies you grow are delicious. Thank you for selling them to my dad.”

Wow, this kid is way more charming than her dad.

Grinning ear to ear, Xia Qing reached into the pocket of her protective suit and pulled out two small packs of roasted snake jerky, holding them out. “I made this myself. Tastes decent, but it’s snake meat—do you dare give it a try, Qi Qi?”

Tan Qi glanced at her father, who nodded just a bit. She only then slipped off her gloves and took the jerky. “Of course! My dad catches snakes for me all the time. Thank you, Sister.”

Xia Qing had heard from Chen Cheng in Hu Zifeng’s squad that Tan Junjie’s wife had also been in the military. Qi Qi was born in the second year of the Cataclysm, and her mother passed away the third year. It wasn’t until the seventh year that Tan Junjie finally found his mother and younger brother’s family and brought them to the Hui San Base. After that, he sent his daughter off to the Safe Zone to study, where she lived with her grandmother.

To manage to raise a daughter safely and raise her right—even during those hungry, dangerous Cataclysm years—made Xia Qing respect Tan Junjie even more.

After watching them leave through the barrier of Plot Three, Xia Qing pretended to head down the mountain, but in reality she just kept a safe distance from the inspection team—close enough to stay within earshot.

Just as expected, Su Ming couldn’t help muttering, “Wow, the lord of Plot Eight actually left her territory. Now that’s rare. Seriously rare.”

Cao Xianyun chimed in, puzzled. “But when we cleared out the evolved rats she still had plenty of trees in her territory. How could she be out of firewood already?”

Huzi spoke up in a low voice, “Maybe she just can’t bear to chop them down. A few days ago she radioed the captain asking about how tobacco plants look. Probably heard other lords talking on the channel about magpies liking to use tobacco leaves for their nests—bet she’s looking to build a nest with some tobacco.”

“Honestly, how’s she even survived on her own all this time…”

“Out of all the female lords from Plot One to Plot Ten, aside from Qing-jie, the other two are even more mysterious.”

To catch up with the lord of Plot Eight on her firewood run, Tan Junjie’s squad picked up the pace. Xia Qing only caught those few snippets before they moved out of range—but even that was enough info.

If even the inspection team thought the lord of Plot Eight was mysterious, she must be a true recluse. What business brought her out today?

Back at the spring cave, Xia Qing tucked the bucket—already filled with spring water—into her basket and covered it with wild grass before hanging it on Boss Sheep’s back and heading down the mountain.

Su Ming was right. Of all the lords, those for Plot Nine and Plot Eight were the most enigmatic. Li Si at least occasionally spoke up in the group. As for the lord of Plot Eight, maybe she listened to walkie-talkie chatter from the other lords every day, but she’d never said a word herself.

Even though Xia Qing had met the lord of Plot Eight just once and exchanged only a few words, she had a feeling this woman was the quiet yet ruthless type—good at what she did, even if she didn’t talk about it. But whether she’s chatty or a cold-blooded operator was none of Xia Qing’s business. If she ever tried to set her sights on Plot Three, Xia Qing was ready to show her what “being ruthless” truly meant.

After putting away the spring water at home, Xia Qing used her newly bought electric kettle to boil some tea before heading up to check on the yellow-glow corn seeds she’d been soaking in spring water for almost twenty-four hours.

The corn seeds hadn’t sprouted yet, but they’d swollen up nicely. Following an old tips broadcast, Xia Qing added a little edible vinegar for disinfection, then carried the basin out to the cornfield.

The cornfield was the same plot where she’d originally planted wheat and mung beans. After fertilizing and turning the soil, she’d sown there the two catty sacks of yellow-glow corn seeds Luo Pei had given her.

It’d been a little over two weeks since planting, and already the corn had sent out three leaves. Even though it was labeled “yellow-glow,” its color was a healthy, tender green—reassuring to see.

Between the mung bean and wheat fields, she had a little over two acres. There was plenty of room left to plant the two catties of corn seed.

With the corn sown, all Xia Qing had left from her Safe Zone seed trade were Chinese cabbage seeds, which would have to wait for August. Her next plan was to fence off part of the field for raising chickens.

Her seventeen Greenlight chicks were now a month old. Third Brother should be asking Ji Li to send them over soon.

Xia Qing fished out her phone, just about to message Third Brother for some tips on raising Greenlight chickens, when she got a call from Tan Junjie. He said he and Tan Qi were coming to deliver some floating-heart flower.

Hurrying to the south road sign, Xia Qing saw that Tan Qi’s little basket was packed with pale yellow flowers. She recognized them at once. They looked just like the patches of aquatic greenery along both sides of her territory’s river—shaped like tiny lotus leaves, but not even as big as a hand.

At first, Xia Qing thought they might be evolved lotus, but digging around revealed there were no lotus roots. Even though the tests showed some yellow-glow plants among them, cooking the leaves tasted bad, and when served raw even Boss Sheep wouldn’t eat them, so she’d never bothered adding them to her recipes.

Turns out, this plant was called floating-heart, and it’s the flower that’s edible.

Xia Qing thanked the Tan father and daughter, and humbly asked how best to cook the flowers.

Tan Qi cheerfully explained, “Just cook some rice porridge, and right before it’s done, toss in the washed flower petals with some sugar. It’s really good!”

“Sounds delicious. Thank you, Qi Qi.” Xia Qing thanked her sincerely. Tan Junjie went on to tell her about the woman gathering firewood, “She really was the lord of Plot Eight, out for firewood. She only just got her walkie-talkie, so she doesn’t know the area that well, and didn’t realize your territory had expanded.”

Xia Qing thanked Tan Junjie and watched the father and daughter walk off hand in hand toward the east, before picking up the floating-heart flowers and heading back to her territory.

She hadn’t gone far before she overheard Tang Huai and his vision evolver, Zhou Xun, having a hushed conversation inside Territory Two.

“Xin Yu from Plot Eight actually left her territory? Since when does Tan Junjie deliver food to Xia Qing?”

Tang Huai’s tone was the same as ever—snarky to the core. “Easy. He’s cozying up to Xia Qing so his kid can play at Plot Three. Xia Qing may wear that grumpy face every day, but she’s still a woman. She’s not going to hurt a little girl.”

Zhou Xun wasn’t convinced. “Really? That sheep in Plot Three is a strength-evolved animal. Isn’t Tan Junjie worried it might hurt his girl? Wouldn’t she be safer at Plot Eight?”

“Idiot. Tan Junjie’s daughter is a speed evolver. You think that dumb sheep can ever catch her? Now come on, sun’s setting—we better hurry and dig for cicada larvae.”

So the lord of Plot Eight was named Xin Yu. Xia Qing had never heard the name back in the Safe Zone. And as for Tang Huai calling her grumpy-faced, whatever. But calling her sheep dumb? Now that was crossing a line.

Digging up cicada larvae, huh? Well, two can play at that game.

Once home, Xia Qing rolled out the rotary tiller and started up the engine—its rumble and clatter cutting through the weeds.

It wasn’t long before Tang Huai’s rant echoed across the Lord’s Channel: “Xia Qing, would you shut that noisy thing off already!”