Chapter 181: A Deal Struck and the Scent of Recovery

“Alright Captain Tan, I’ll be there right away.” Tang Huai replied with a good attitude.

Holding the walkie-talkie, Tan Junjie spoke quietly to Xia Qing. “Technically, what Territory Two did was infringing, but that scout bird didn’t actually cause any real loss to your territory. Even if Tang Huai insists it was just ignorance and carelessness, and this goes to the Land Management Department, the worst that happens is a points penalty and a warning.”

Xia Qing understood that, which is why she chose to call out in the Lord’s Channel. “If Territory Two can deliver six brand new solar panels, two adaptive constant voltage controllers, and three 2V600Ah maintenance-free batteries to my territory’s sign within three days, I’ll agree to settle privately.”

Tan Junjie was speechless…

This girl was even bolder than he expected—not afraid of offending the Sufeng Squad at all.

Huzi, the one who could install and repair appliances, spoke up. “Qing-jie, one voltage controller and two big batteries are enough for six panels.”

Xia Qing nodded. “I know, but the set I’m using now is due for replacement too. If Territory Two won’t agree, I’ll report this and take the legal route.”

Tan Junjie picked up the vacuum bags and led his team out of Territory Three to meet Tang Huai.

Huzi muttered under his breath, “Qing-jie is asking for too much. Territory Two will never agree.”

After the hail, the already short supply of solar panels at Hui San Base drove their price up again. Even if the Sufeng Squad isn’t short on supplies, there’s no way they’ll just hand over that many. “Captain, do you think Qing-jie’s asking so much just to leave room for bargaining?”

Yuan Rui, the Scent Evolver, was certain. “Xia Qing doesn’t like to haggle. What she asks for is what she wants. She won’t even settle for one screw less.”

Huzi worried for Xia Qing. “If Territory Two goes the legal route, Qing-jie will come out on the losing end. She’d be better off asking for less.”

Yuan Rui shook his head. “No way. The Sufeng Squad is closely tied to Tang Zhengrong, and the territory policies are strongly pushed by those at the top. If this goes to a public hearing, there’s no upside for Tang Zhengrong. Sufeng Squad isn’t lacking money or resources—they’ll definitely settle privately.”

But who knows if they’ll keep making trouble for Xia Qing after the settlement.

Tan Junjie didn’t say anything as he led the squad, but he was sure Tang Huai would go along with it too. Besides Yuan Rui’s reasoning, there was another point: the scout bird definitely wasn’t Tang Huai’s doing, and Tang Huai wouldn’t be paying out of his own pocket either.

An hour later, just as Xia Qing was eating, Tan Junjie called. “Territory Two agrees to deliver what you asked for the morning after tomorrow.”

“Great, thanks Captain Tan.” Xia Qing hung up, happily took a big bite of her meat-filled steamed bun, then picked up some smashed cucumber salad.

The reason she asked for six solar panels was because winter sunlight was nowhere near as strong as summer’s. She’d originally had five, but hailstorms wrecked three, leaving only two now. She needed more to meet her territory’s power needs.

Eight panels might sound like a lot, but it wasn’t all that much. The day she delivered medicine to Qi Fu’s territory, she’d seen twelve panels installed on top of their building.

With the electricity issue settled, her next priority was temperature- and humidity-controlled equipment—the kind she couldn’t source through Zhong Tao, since that’d give away that Territory Three had a food storage room.

Plus, the equipment you can get from the Safe Zone isn’t nearly as good as what Territory Seven has. She’d sent Greenlight meat to Territory Seven several times now, but they hadn’t traded anything back yet. Once Third Brother returned, they could negotiate.

Xia Qing decided to dig another food cellar beneath her storeroom. The cellar in the ruined village to the southwest, combined with a solar panel, would instantly reveal its exact location.

So, it was still safest to keep the cellar as close to her house as possible.

Of course, she wasn’t about to abandon the already-dug cellar in the southwest ruins either. She’d leave that one without any temperature control, use it as a decoy and maybe test how long food could stay stored in there.

Still, she’d have to put it off a bit. She was supposed to irrigate the farmland today and the terraced plot tomorrow.

Her hand hadn’t healed yet, and digging a cellar was hard work—not something Boss Sheep could help with. She’d need a bit more time to recover first.

After breakfast, Hu Zifeng’s squad arrived at Territory Three to help with defense.

At least today, Territory Two wouldn’t dare send a scout bird over again. Xia Qing coaxed the thoroughly fed Boss Sheep onto the water pedal-bike to keep watering the fields, then headed home to check on the Sick Wolf. The anesthesia had worn off, so it could finally eat.

The moment she stepped into the yard, Xia Qing caught a foul stench—the Sick Wolf had made a mess.

Luckily, since the wolf had been here before, it knew exactly where to go and didn’t dirty up the sheep shed. Xia Qing held her breath, scooped up a shovelful of dirt to cover the droppings, then noticed the wolf’s feces were crawling with fine white worms, a few millimeters long. Some were dead, but others were still wriggling.

As disgusting as it looked, this was actually a good sign.

It meant the dewormer she had given the Sick Wolf after three in the morning had taken effect, and it was finally expelling the parasites in its gut. Xia Qing sprinkled another thin layer of dirt, then burned the pile to destroy the worms before heading into the sheep shed to check its condition.

After getting cleaned up, the Sick Wolf was still weak, but looked much better than before. When it heard movement, it struggled to its feet and looked toward Xia Qing—no baring of teeth or batting with claws.

At this point, the wolf was too sick to be afraid of anything. Xia Qing went into the sheep shed, poured some pure spring water into the basin, and spoke softly to her SSVIP guest. “You had some meat last night, right? Is your stomach empty now? Want something to eat?”

Xia Qing reached into the cage and pulled out a palm-sized evolved locust. She pinched off the legs and wings, then put it in front of the Sick Wolf. “This is a Yellowlight locust. Want to try it?”

The Sick Wolf lowered its head, trembling, and used its mouth to find and eat the locust.

She wondered how the Alpha Wolf managed to bring such a sick wolf through all those obstacles and get it here. Did it carry it on its back? No wonder it was so furious when she refused the deal.

Xia Qing placed another locust by the Sick Wolf. “Eat up. I caught a whole basket of evolved insects this morning—lucky draw, three Yellowlight ones, and you can have them all.”

Listening to Tang Huai talk about bug-catching and eating bugs in the Lord’s Channel every day, Xia Qing had picked up the habit too. Whenever she caught a locust, she’d check if it was edible. Before, she couldn’t justify spending points to deep-fry them, so she just grilled them over a fire.

After grilling, she sprinkled on salt and a bit of spices. The taste wasn’t exactly great, but not bad either. Now, with an SSVIP guest who’d paid a walnut-sized Yi Stone as medical fees, it only made sense to give it the best.

After the Sick Wolf had eaten all three locusts, Xia Qing asked, “Are you full? If not, I can catch you a snake.”

She had quite a few snakes on hand, but hadn’t fed them to the Sick Wolf right away since snake meat was tough and full of bones—she was afraid its teeth couldn’t handle it. That’s why, after consulting Chang Li on the phone, she’d stuck to easy-to-digest, chewable locusts.