Chapter 202: A Squirrel’s Bargain and the Tracker Trade
by xennovelTan Junjie led his squad under the signpost for Territory Three and handed Xia Qing a cage draped in cloth.
The squirrel was timid and wary of strangers. The Lord of Plot Eight had really thought of everything.
After lifting the cover and confirming the little red bandit bouncing around inside was indeed the evolved squirrel, Xia Qing handed over the grain to Tan Junjie. “Thanks for your hard work, Captain Tan.”
Tan Junjie nodded and led his squad away. Su Ming slowed his pace, lowering his voice to Xia Qing. “Qing-jie, that red squirrel is really pretty. Once it’s trained, let it help you find pine nuts to eat.”
Xia Qing smiled. “That’s exactly what I was planning.”
Huzi came up to Xia Qing and grinned. “There are two greenlight pine trees on Mountain 50, full of pine cones. How about we all go together to harvest next month, mid-month? This year’s pine nuts are ripening earlier than last year. I checked a few days ago, they’re nearly ready to pick.”
Yuan Rui knew why Huzi invited Xia Qing, so he pitched in. “Come with us. We’ve got plenty of people. Safety’s guaranteed.”
There were four greenlight pine trees bearing pinecones in Zone Three, but Xia Qing would never refuse the chance to pick more greenlight food. “Alright, just let me know the date. I’m strong, I can carry out as many as we pick.”
“Deal.” Huzi could barely contain his excitement. He nearly jumped for joy at getting Xia Qing to join the pinecone hunt.
After heading home and turning on the lights in the sheep shed, Xia Qing closed the door and finally pulled off the cloth covering the cage.
Inside, the red squirrel panicked, darting frantically and rattling the cage with every wild leap.
“Don’t be scared, I’m not going to hurt you.” Xia Qing comforted softly, then shoved the cubic cage into a corner, strapped a heavy wooden board on top, and draped it with a grass mat.
With the cage stabilized like that, it even created a fairly hidden little nook.
When Xia Qing lifted the cloth again, the red squirrel had stopped its frantic thrashing. Now it huddled in the farthest corner, staring at Xia Qing. Its fluffy tail bristled, little black eyes wide, slender whiskers trembling, and its snowy white belly fur heaved up and down with rapid breath.
Honestly, it looked pretty cute like this. Grinning, Xia Qing asked, “Weren’t you supposed to be a lightning-fast little thief? How’d you let the humans from Plot Eight catch you?”
“You really love tobacco leaves, huh? What if I offered you ten pounds of tobacco in exchange for the location of a chestnut tree?”
Judging by the squirrel’s reaction, Xia Qing figured even if it wasn’t brain-evolved, it was definitely one clever animal. She fetched the leftover tobacco from storage and plopped a big wad on top of the cage. Then she fixed a little jar in one corner, filled it with unpolluted spring water, and tossed in a yellowlight cucumber from the greenhouse to make sure the critter wouldn’t starve or die of thirst.
With that done, Xia Qing turned off the sheep shed lights and headed back to her room to contact Luo Pei.
“Luo Ge, do you guys have any small or mini devices you can attach to animals to track their location in real-time?”
Luo Pei didn’t ask what Xia Qing needed a tracker for, just got straight to the specs. “How far do you need to track? And what size is the animal?”
How big was the range of an evolved speed squirrel? Xia Qing thought it over. “Twenty kilometers should suffice.”
Luo Pei explained, “We don’t have any ground-based satellite navigation stations or mobile signal towers here, plus the complex terrain and interference from the Xiang element and radiation. The max range for micro-locators is five kilometers.”
“Five kilometers works too.” Xia Qing asked, “Luo Ge, how many points for one?”
Luo Pei chuckled. “Negotiate with Jin, he actually had something to discuss with you.”
Xia Qing didn’t even finish her workout before receiving a message from Yang Jin: ‘What time are you free tomorrow morning? Let’s talk in person.’
The Azure Dragon Unit’s boss had this much free time? Xia Qing replied: ‘9:45. Meet at the farm shed in Territory Three.’
Why be so precise? Because Xia Qing figured a specific time would make her seem busy, like she was squeezing this in between other tasks.
Back to the farm shed again?
After a few seconds of silence, Yang Jin answered with a single “Okay.”
The next morning, after dealing with the wild rabbits the alpha wolf had delivered, Xia Qing swung by the sheep shed—and couldn’t help but laugh.
The little guy had built a huge nest out of tobacco leaves and the grass mat, tucked away tight. If not for the twitching blades of grass, Xia Qing would’ve wondered if it had escaped.
She crept over to check. Turns out the red squirrel hadn’t touched the cucumber but had drank plenty of spring water. That eased her worries. “Hang in there a bit longer. Once I get the tracker installed, you can go free.”
At 9:45 on the dot, Xia Qing, Lord of Territory Three, met with Yang Jin, commander of the Azure Dragon Unit, at the little shed by the farmland to finalize their deal.
“Try one of these fresh greenlight tomatoes, Captain Yang.” Xia Qing brought out bright red tomatoes and tea steeped in pure spring water for her guest.
“Thanks.” Yang Jin glanced at the scar on Xia Qing’s right palm before tasting a tomato slice. “Have you ever measured the other elemental properties in your territory’s vegetables?”
The Yi Element Tester didn’t just check for the vitality element, it could scan for trace minerals, too.
“I have.” Xia Qing replied, “The yellowlight tomatoes and cucumbers from my farmland are almost identical in Xiang, Yi, and trace element content to those grown in Territories Four, Five, and Six. The greenlight vegetables from my terraced plots have slightly lower radioactive element content compared with those here or in other territories.”
The lower the radioactivity, the less harm to the body. Yang Jin guessed, “Maybe it’s thanks to the unpolluted spring beneath the terraces. Xie Yu dug up some data—back before the disaster, local villages even brought in agricultural experts to examine the soil. They found it was rich in selenium, but before anyone could report the good news, the calamity struck.”
With selenium-rich soil, you could grow selenium-rich crops. Xia Qing beamed. “No wonder Third Brother chose to farm here there had to be a reason.”
She really was sharp, always honing in on the crucial point. This was also the first time Yang Jin had seen her smile this openly. He picked up another tomato slice; this one tasted even sweeter than before.
After finishing the tomatoes and another cup of tea, Yang Jin produced a tiny round chip, about the size of a fingernail, and handed it to Xia Qing.
“Luo Ge told me your requirements. This blue-flash smart tracker matches them best. The max range is four kilometers. Just install the app on your phone, and you can check the location from anywhere.”
Four kilometers? Xia Qing frowned slightly.
Yang Jin smiled. “That evolved speed squirrel really that fast?”
His close-cropped hair and wild energy gave him a rugged charm, but when Yang Jin smiled, Xia Qing felt both warm and off-balance. She sipped her tea before answering, “Crazy fast. I can’t even hit it with a gun.”
Yang Jin set a bag of medicine on the table and pushed it toward Xia Qing. “You’re using the tracker to find nuts in the Evolver Forest, right? Even if you had a device with a longer range, the price wouldn’t be worth it. This tracker, plus a vial of scent-tracking medicine, and a Level Four or higher scent-evolver teamed up with your visual-evolver ability—that combo can’t be beat.”
If you’re heading into the Evolver Forest looking for edible plants, you really should bring a team.
In this area, Xia Qing knew four scent evolvers: Chang Li, the healer from Plot One, at Level Nine; Yan Long, the ‘bodyguard’ from Territory Seven, also Level Nine; and Chen Zheng plus Chen Cheng from Hu Zifeng’s squad, both at Level Five.
“That actually makes sense.” Xia Qing agreed. “Captain Yang, how many points for this setup?”