Chapter 323: Hidden Deals and the Price of Survival

After the great evolution of life on Blue Star, even the tiniest microbes transformed in ways no one expected. Even if things looked the same as before, desperate humans on the verge of starvation would rather boil grass than touch mushrooms, because… eating edible grass wouldn’t kill you, but one bite of a mutant fungus could be fatal.

Except for one person: Tang Huai.

Last time, when Xia Qing called everyone to the reservoir for a fishing trip, she couldn’t help but notice something odd—Tang Huai and the people from Territory Seven pretended not to know each other, but their attitude and body language were just too familiar.

What did that mean?

It meant Ji Li’s note to Tang Huai had sparked something—Tang Huai had struck a deal of some sort with Territory Seven.

Her idol, Zhang San, was probably studying why the mushrooms hadn’t killed Tang Huai. It wouldn’t be long before a detox or healing remedy appeared in Territory Seven’s list of tradable medicines.

Xia Qing couldn’t wait for that day to come.

When she arrived under the signpost, she wasn’t surprised to see not just Ji Li waiting, but Tang Huai leaning there too.

She handed Ji Li her corn and a small pouch of wild chrysanthemums. “Picked these a few days ago. You can brew them for tea, but they’re the Yellow Lantern kind. Ji, maybe take them back and let Third Brother try them.”

“Sure,” Ji Li replied, and then asked, “What do you want in exchange?”

Xia Qing asked, “Could you check with Third Brother if he has any spare fertilizer? I still haven’t scraped together enough.”

She knew what she’d brought wasn’t nearly enough for fertilizer, but as long as Territory Seven’s fertilizer wasn’t outrageously expensive, she could always add something else Zhang San wanted. If the price was too crazy, Xia Qing would think of another way.

If you want good crops, you can’t skimp on fertilizer.

“I’ll go ask.”

Just as Ji Li turned to leave, Tang Huai called after him. “Ji, is Third Brother busy lately? One of our squad, Kou Fanming, got paralyzed from a lightning strike. I was hoping Third Brother could check on him.”

“I’ll ask when I get back,” Ji Li gave the same reply and headed off.

“Take care, Ji!” Tang Huai waved him off, then immediately turned to Xia Qing with a bright grin. “When will you harvest your late-planted corn? If you get swamped, let me know anytime.”

Xia Qing glanced back, taking in the faded scars on Tang Huai’s face, and answered with a blank expression, “We’ll talk when the time comes.”

The moment Tang Huai brought up Kou Fanming, Xia Qing knew that wasn’t what he really wanted to say. After all, Kou Fanming was Tang Zhengsu’s attack dog and had been hounding Tang Zhengbo’s family for years.

So she guessed Xu Pin had probably sent Tang Huai out here, maybe to look for a way into her territory and lend a hand—or maybe this was just a mission Xu Pin had assigned him. It was possible Xu Pin was even eavesdropping right now, which was exactly why Xia Qing decided not to embarrass Tang Huai.

Just in case Xu Pin thought Tang Huai was useless and replaced him with someone new to guard Territory Two.

Tang Huai’s face lit up at her reply. “Great! Just say the word when you need me. By the way, can your sheep chase off birds? Or should I come guard the corn with you?”

This guy really did soak up any sunshine sent his way. Xia Qing just shut him down, “No need.”

She walked a good distance inside the wild grass wall before she stopped and listened closely for any activity coming from Territory Two.

Tang Huai was still standing under the signpost, hadn’t left yet. From the sounds of it, he was probably having a smoke, but since Xia Qing wasn’t a Scent Evolutionary, she couldn’t catch a whiff at this distance.

Then, she caught a faint command coming from a walkie-talkie: “Head to Territory Twelve. Get a close-up video of the evolved eagle.”

Tang Huai resisted. “That’s Xin Yu’s trained beast.”

Xu Pin’s voice turned even colder. “I don’t care whose beast it is. The only thing I care about is how many more days Tang Ning will survive.”

After that, Xia Qing heard Tang Huai’s heavy footsteps as he stomped through the wild grass wall, clearly venting all his anger and frustration with every step.

Xu Pin had threatened Tang Huai, even using Tang Ning’s safety as leverage. There was no way Tang Zhengbo shouldn’t hear about this.

Xia Qing shot Luo Pei a message right away, then finally went home to clean her corn and start lunch.

In Territory One, Luo Pei received the message while lying in bed. He just smiled. “No wonder she’s an advanced Evolutionary with super hearing—she manages to gather the most complete intel. When I call Director Tang this afternoon, I’ll have even more to report.”

Xie Yu paused mid-bite on some grapes and piped up. “Tang Zhengbo probably already knows, but if you mention it, Luo, it’ll show just how diligent and capable we are. What if we let Tang Zhou and Director Tang pick up the wheat seed from Territory One?”

Yang Jin, sitting up by the windowsill and basking in the sun, shook his head. “I’ll go—I have other business to handle anyway.”

“Going to the military or Fire Mountain?” Xie Yu tossed the rest of his grapes to Yang Jin. “You’re still hurt. Let me go instead.”

Before Yang Jin could answer, Luo Pei agreed. “Let Ah Yu go. I’ll go next time. You both should rest up.”

With the right antidote at hand, Luo Pei’s body was recovering fast—at this rate, he’d be back to his old self within a month.

Yang Jin nodded. “Ah Yu, stay here and wait for news, then in the afternoon I’ll head to the Safe Zone and keep tabs on Qian Lin.”

Xie Yu waggled his brows. “Not going to visit Sister Qing before you leave?”

Yang Jin just smiled. “She’s busy. I’ll wait until I’m done with Qian Lin.”

Xie Yu sighed and handed his leftover grapes to Luo Pei. “Can’t eat another bite. These are so sour they could kill me.”

Over in Section Three, Xia Qing was busy with the glamorous job of skinning a yellow weasel.

Er Gou’s luck hadn’t been great—it caught three birds, all Red Lantern variety. Still, Xia Qing cleaned them up, cooked them in a pot, and just as they were about done, tossed in some cabbage leaves and half an egg yolk. Those were Er Gou’s favorites.

As for Xia Qing, she had stir-fried cucumber and eggs.

She’d been obsessed with eggs lately—scrambled, boiled, steamed, it didn’t matter. Eggs were magical like that—every way she made them turned out delicious. When her hens started laying more, she was determined to pickle a big jar of salted eggs and savor them slowly.

Munching her eggs and listening to the other territory lords chatting away about what to do with corn stalks, Xia Qing was in a good mood.

“One credit a pound? That’s way too cheap. I’d rather keep the corn stalks for fertilizer,” Kuang Qingwei, who was always good with numbers, ran the math for everyone.

“Earthworm castings from Territory Forty-Nine have gone up too—from one credit a pound to three credits for two pounds. Now they’re as pricey as the squad alliance’s animal manure. Looks like fertilizer prices won’t drop next spring either—it’s still smarter to plow the stalks back into the field than to sell them off and buy fertilizer later.”

“How much are crab shell fertilizer bags now?” Zhao Ze’s mother asked.

“Still six credits a pound,” Kuang Qingwei replied.

Qi Fu sighed, “Soon, the crops we harvest won’t even be enough to afford fertilizer for the next sowing.”

Xia Qing just nodded.

The farm knowledge broadcast explained that if you wanted your wheat to thrive, you needed at least 500 pounds of animal or human manure per acre, plus 600 pounds of plant-based compost—a total of 1,100 pounds of fertilizer.

It sounded like a lot, but that was just the bare minimum.

Li Si’s Green Bean Growing Manual said the soil’s fertility was so low now, you’d really need two thousand pounds of fertilizer per acre for your crops to do well.

So, figuring out how to gather enough fertilizer for newly cleared farmland had become every territory lord’s headache.