Chapter 343: Hard Questions and Sweet Potatoes

For ten years since the Calamity, countless oppressed people have asked this same question over and over.

The Lords’ channel fell silent. No one could answer, or perhaps no one was willing to.

Zhao Ze pressed on. “If a Lord gets killed, do they have any family? If not, who gets everything left behind in their territory—all the supplies, the remaining food and vegetables? Does it get confiscated?”

Again, only a long, heavy silence.

Xia Qing hugged her sniper rifle, leaning against a tree. Her gaze was steady as she looked out over her own land—the house, the greenhouse. After a quiet while, she picked up the phone and called Luo Pei.

“Luo, there are three wolves recovering from injuries on my territory. For the next while, wolves will probably come through the north side of Hill Forty-Nine, Section Three, Valley One around four in the morning. Could you tell the guards to let them pass?”

Luo Pei replied warmly, “I’ve already given instructions. For now, don’t leave your territory or Section Three. I’ll have people clean up any wolf tracks or scents along Section Three and the Northern Barrier.”

“Understood. Thanks, Luo.”

“No need to thank me. Wolves are a lot like dogs in temperament, so they’re one of the few evolved forest predators that might work together with humans. Like you said, if we keep their numbers up they can help keep the bears and snakes in check in the Evolved Forest. Our territory will be safer that way.” Luo then asked, “So who won that fight last night?”

Xia Qing quickly outlined what happened, then said, “The wolves took Hill Sixty. With winter coming, the bears and snakes won’t be much trouble till at least next summer.”

Luo agreed. “Makes sense. Three years ago, I led an expedition to look for clean water and went up Hill Sixty. There are a ton of caves—perfect for big wild animals. Now that the wolves have claimed it, they won’t give it up easily.”

After hearing that, Xia Qing suddenly understood why Crippled Wolf wanted to trade for the wooden door. She lowered her voice. “Luo, with all that ruckus last night, do you think any squads will come check things out?”

After all, who wouldn’t want to open a random wooden door standing in the middle of wolf territory just to see what’s inside?

Luo gave a straightforward answer. “The military and the top squads will send scout drones or reconnaissance birds to check. But Hill Sixty doesn’t have any rare resources and now that it’s wolf territory, it’s not worth the risk for any squad to go there.”

But if they spot a wooden door up there, who knows? Xia Qing started thinking up ways to make Crippled Wolf give up on the whole door idea.

By seven in the evening, while there was still a bit of daylight left, Tan Junjie put out a notice in the Lords’ channel:

“All Lords: the raiders who stole food have been captured. To ensure the safety of your territories, today’s extra security teams will stay until your food is safely stored.”

When word got out that the raiders were caught, everyone started talking at once, but Tan Junjie didn’t share any more details.

After doing one last patrol around her land and finding nothing out of place, Xia Qing went to the southern greenhouse by the reservoir to dig up some sweet potatoes. She hesitated, still couldn’t bring herself to harvest a Green Light Sweet Potato, and finally chose a Yellow Lantern instead.

Back in the spring, Xia Qing had traded with Tan Junjie for sixteen Green Light Sweet Potato seedlings and planted them in the farmland south of the reservoir. Two rounds of Devastation Rain left six as evolved potatoes, four with higher Devastation content that changed from green to yellow. That left just six of the green ones now.

Before the second Devastation Rain, Xia Qing had taken 200 sweet potato cuttings and planted them on the terraced slopes. Now, there were 140 left: sixty Green Lanterns and eighty Yellow Lanterns. Because these were planted in summer, the potato bulges at the root weren’t as large as the ones down by the reservoir.

After working straight through for a day and night, Xia Qing figured that since she was going to eat anyway, she might as well go for the biggest one.

She picked the Yellow Lantern sweet potato vine with the fattest bulge, cut it with a bit of ceremony and blew a breath onto her palm before gripping the shovel to start digging.

Once the soil was loose, Xia Qing gently lifted and shook the vine. A whole cluster of sweet potatoes, big and small, tumbled out from the roots.

Altogether, these sweet potatoes weighed fifteen or sixteen pounds—twice as much as what you’d get from one potato plant!

If every sweet potato could grow like this, she’d easily harvest two thousand pounds this year. The only thing in her land that even came close to this yield was her crazy pumpkins.

In high spirits, Xia Qing packed the sweet potatoes into her basket and brought the vines home as well.

She’d enjoy the sweet potatoes, Old Goat would get to eat the tender leaves, and whatever was left—stems and all—the chickens and rabbits would finish off. Nothing wasted, perfect.

Back home, Xia Qing turned on the radio and listened to the news as she washed her three sweet potatoes and sliced them into one-centimeter-thick discs. She pressed them to the side of the wok, slowly pan-frying on low heat.

She’d picked up this recipe from Er Yong of Hu Zifeng’s Squad. Freshly dug sweet potatoes are full of moisture, so they’re not great steamed or boiled. Slow frying in a dry pan, no oil, cooks off the extra water and makes them taste amazing.

While the sweet potatoes sizzled in the big pan, Xia Qing used a smaller pot to make some meat soup. She gave the thicker part to Er Gou, then added some seasoning to the rest and ate that herself.

The smell of sweet potatoes wafted through the house, luring Old Goat right into the room.

Xia Qing lifted the lid and took out the golden sweet potato discs, piling them on a plate. She turned to her companion waiting at the kitchen door. “Want a taste? Let them cool off a bit and I’ll save you a piece.”

Xia Qing got the first bite, naturally. That long-missed sticky sweetness nearly brought her to tears. “This is incredible. Way better than the tiny bit I got during missions.”

While Old Goat gnawed at his special feed, his eyes stayed glued to the steaming plate on Xia Qing’s table.

Xia Qing polished off six big pieces in one go, then leaned back in her chair, totally content, as she listened to the Hui Three Base news broadcast.

Sure enough, the news report painted Hui Three Base as thriving, with not a single mention of the food raid, the Lord who was killed, or the Inspection Team forces who died.

After that came an agricultural segment with an announcement for the Lords:

With autumn harvest in full swing, the Territory Management Department decided not to hold the usual big autumn crop trade fair this year. Instead, trades would be scattered. Lords could list what they wanted to sell with the patrol team, and the patrol would handle the transactions. The base would also deliver the discount seed packages, sold at cost to Lords, straight to them.

When the agri-segment was over, Xia Qing flipped on the walkie-talkie. As she expected, the Lords were already discussing the change.

“Autumn harvest is just an excuse. It’s really about safety. It’s just too risky to leave our land right now,” Kuang Qingwei spoke up first. “I was on the fence this afternoon about going to the trade fair or not, so this saves me the trouble.”

Qi Fu chimed in, “It’s not just dangerous to leave—it’s just as risky to sit on so much food here. I bet when Captain Zhong and his people show up, they’ll try to talk us into handing some over.”

Kuang Qingwei said, “If the price is right, I’m planning to sell off my crops and vegetables, or do what I did with the potatoes and use credits to store them in the Safe Zone food depot. What do you think, Qi?”