Chapter 307: The Homegrown Oil Press

The oil press was the household appliance Xia Qing needed most right now.

She’d grown her own peanuts and sunflowers, and by next May, she expected to harvest several hundred jin of rapeseed. There was no way she’d sell these oil crops only to buy edible oil back at ridiculous prices from the Safe Zone.

And even if she was willing to pay those prices, there was no way to get good quality oil. So, pressing her own was simply the best bet.

Xia Qing wasn’t alone in her thinking; lately, the other Lords had been discussing the same issue.

At the agricultural trade fair, the Territory Management Department had sold sunflower seeds to the Lords for planting. But as harvest time for the sunflower seeds approached, no one could find an oil press anywhere. Not through open markets, and not even for well-connected guys like Kuang Qingwei and Zhong Tao.

What did that mean? It meant the upper management at the Base intended to buy up all the sunflower seeds from the Lords.

Without oil presses, there was no way to turn sunflower seeds into long-lasting edible oil. Even without pressure from the Safe Zone, they’d have to sell off their sunflower seeds as soon as they could.

Desperate for an oil press, Kuang Qingwei even asked Zhang San about it, but got no reply. Xia Qing had figured Zhang San simply didn’t have one, so she planned to wait for Yang Jin to return with herbs, hoping to barter for his. After all, Xia Qing had an underground pantry equipped with Yi Stone and temperature-humidity controls—her sunflower seeds could sit for a year and not spoil.

But Xia Qing hadn’t expected Ji Li to come to her today, offering up an oil press out of the blue, and cautioning her not to mention this trade to anyone. That only confirmed her suspicions.

No matter what the Base’s true motives were, Xia Qing would always keep enough for her own use before selling any excess. She’d risked her neck working this land with just one thing in mind—to eat well and fill her belly. Nothing more, nothing less.

When Xia Qing came back, Chen Zheng, who was clearing weeds, paused his work and waved hello.

Even though she’d only been gone a little over two hours, there were wolves and sheep in the Territory, plus surveillance cameras, Xia Qing had still called in the ‘Security Squad’ to help guard the place. After all, she’d only bartered with them by exchanging Pure Spring Water. By mid-March next year, she’d need to pay credits if she wanted their help again.

Whenever Chen Zheng and his brother came to watch over Xia Qing’s Territory, they’d pitch in with farm work for a bit and take vegetables home. The exchange suited everyone just fine.

When Xia Qing walked up, Chen Zheng, usually the steady one, pointed at the newly installed camera with obvious excitement. “Qing-jie, this camera is amazing!”

She smiled, admitting, “It is, but the price is just as extreme—it’s a hundred times more expensive than a regular camera.”

A hundred times…

That price scared Chen Zheng off the idea of getting one for his own research via a deal with Territory Seven.

Chen Cheng gave Xia Qing a report on the morning’s events: “The Lords were still talking about oil pressing and the autumn harvest this morning. When Tang Huai heard the rotary tiller running here, he asked about it several times, but I stayed quiet. An hour ago, the hens started clucking, probably laid some eggs.”

When Xia Qing left this morning, she’d attached the weeder wheel to the rotary tiller and had Chen Zheng and his brother clear the weeds behind the house. Hu Zifeng’s squad loved running the rotary tiller. By midday, they’d not only cut the weeds but also used the bulldozer blade and backhoe to fill in the huge hole left by Xia Qing’s tree digging yesterday.

After giving Chen Zheng clear instructions for the afternoon, Xia Qing hurried home to check on her Old Goat and Er. They’d soaked in an herbal bath that morning, and she wanted to see how they were holding up.

Before she even made it home, Old Goat sprinted out and tried to pick a fight. Judging by that speed, the discomfort from the herbal soak had already passed.

Last night’s bath had left Xia Qing’s shoulders and ankles feeling much lighter this morning, and she’d been wanting to test things out herself. Not wasting a second, she charged right at Old Goat.

Wham!

One woman and one goat crashed together. Of course, it was Xia Qing who went flying—being much lighter and weaker than her furry rival.

Twisting in midair, Xia Qing used her waist to adjust her posture and, as she fell, kicked out hard at Old Goat. He stood his ground, bracing with his spiraled horns.

The Chen brothers, who’d just walked to the Western Buffer Forest near Section Three, heard the commotion behind them. Even just listening, they felt their own bones ache.

Honestly, the hobbies of these two Section Three Lords were something normal people simply couldn’t understand.

Over in Territory Two, Tang Huai heard the ruckus he recognized all too well and shouted, “Xia Qing! Xia Qing! What are you doing?”

Xia Qing had just gotten back from Section Three and hadn’t yet switched on her walkie-talkie, so she couldn’t hear him.

So Tang Huai picked up his megaphone and aimed it at Section Three, hollering, “Ahem! Xia Qing! What are you up to? Turn on your walkie-talkie!”

Everyone…

Xia Qing knew Tang Huai wouldn’t make a scene like this unless it was no big deal. If it was urgent, he’d have gone straight to the northern border of Section Three and stirred up trouble directly. After duking it out happily with Old Goat, she finally turned on her walkie-talkie. “Looking for me?”

Tang Huai replied instantly, “Yeah! What’ve you been doing? I’ve been looking for you forever. I heard your hens clucking like crazy—mind you, I wasn’t eavesdropping; they’re just really loud. Any chance you’ll trade some eggs?”

Xia Qing didn’t refuse right away. Since chickens crow and make such a racket, it wasn’t like she could hide the fact she had hens on her Territory. So, she figured she might as well barter eggs for high-quality resources. “My hens only started laying two days ago, and production is low. I’m looking to trade for Green Lantern soybean seeds or Green Lantern carrot seeds.”

Zhong Tao had come by several times, each visit with a list of trades from other Lords, but Xia Qing had yet to see either of those seeds.

She’d actually had a shot at the Green Lantern soybeans, but the Lord who originally owned them died in the third Rain of Slaughter, and the Base reclaimed his Territory.

Carrots were highly nutritious and kept well, but unfortunately, they weren’t easy to grow anymore. The plant’s evolution was a flop, so seeds suitable for open-field planting inside the Territory were nearly impossible to find.

Zhang San didn’t have those seeds either—and for a simple reason: he didn’t like eating them, so Territory Seven never grew them.

Tang Huai was empty-handed as well. “Any chance I could just trade you credits for the eggs?”

“Nope.” Xia Qing shot him down quickly. She only had two laying hens, and she’d barely have enough eggs for herself before winter. She wasn’t short on credits, so she’d never trade eggs for them—only for seeds she desperately needed.

Suddenly, Li Si spoke up. “I’ve got Green Lantern carrots. How would you like to trade?”

Who would’ve thought, even Li Si wanted to barter for eggs from Xia Qing’s hens.

Li Si wanted eggs, Xia Qing needed carrots—their needs lined up perfectly. Xia Qing made her offer. “Si-jie, the eggs I’m trading come from Green Lantern chickens and are fertilized for hatching—a male chick is worth a thousand credits, a female two thousand. So these eggs aren’t cheap; 750 credits each. How much for your carrots?”

It was Assistant Xiao Liu who answered. “Miss Xia, you might have heard—carrots are highly sensitive to the Killing Element, so they need to be grown in areas completely free of it. That makes them expensive to produce: five hundred credits per jin.”