Chapter 356: Settling Old Debts, Striking New Deals

Section Three, at the edge of the fields. In a small cabin, Xia Qing, the lord of Section Three, sat across from Captain Yang Jin of the Azure Dragon Squad. Two ledgers lay open on the table between them.

One ledger recorded the resources that the Azure Dragon Squad had traded for from Section Three. There were four major categories listed.

First up was the amount of pure spring water taken by the Azure Dragon Squad from Section Three after Luo Pei finished the first stage of detox. Only usage from July onward was counted, since before that, Yang Jin had bartered for spring water with weapons, saplings, protective suits, farm equipment, a one-year bodyguard detail and shooting lessons.

Next was the number of premium nutrient shakes and Green Lantern vegetables, plus their credit value, taken out from Section Three between late August and October 15th, when Luo Pei’s condition worsened.

The last two items were the migratory birds Xia Qing shot during the migration season and sold to the Azure Dragon Squad, and the two pangolins the wolf pack dragged into Section Three.

All told, the Azure Dragon Squad owed Xia Qing 0.4 credits.

The other ledger detailed the supplies Xia Qing had taken from the Azure Dragon Squad. These included engine oil, diesel, a generator, a grenade launcher, ammunition, grenades, the tracker that had been on the Red Squirrel, labor and pesticide used to disguise the scent trail of the wolves crossing Hill Forty-Nine, and medical costs for wolf surgery and medicine from Territory One’s team doctor…

Then there was an old debt: the 800,000 credits Xia Qing still owed the Azure Dragon Squad for purchasing Hill Forty-Nine.

Adding the new and old tabs together, Xia Qing now owed the Azure Dragon Squad 0.6 credits.

After reviewing everything with Xia Qing, Yang Jin continued, “Under our last trade deal, you already agreed to pay off 0.4 credits with 2,600 spinach seeds, so right now you still owe the Azure Dragon Squad 0.8 credits.”

That’s owed to the Azure Dragon Squad, not to me personally. Captain Yang made that perfectly clear, though to Xia Qing it all meant the same.

After half a year of back and forth, Xia Qing—the lord who still owed over 370,000 credits to the Azure Dragon Squad—really wanted to smack that long bill right across Yang Jin’s smug smiling face.

“What’s with that smug grin? You expecting me to pay it all back right this second?”

“Keep dreaming! I rushed to invite you here and brewed you the finest chrysanthemum tea. I’m not here to settle debts, I’m here to make a new deal.”

She took a sip of tea and laid out her honesty first. “You’ve missed one thing on your list: the two Devastationweed leaves I cut off to save the Alpha from Devastation Snake venom. That antidote used the juice from those leaves, right?”

Yang Jin hadn’t planned to count the Devastationweed usage, but hearing Xia Qing bring it up, he nodded. “Yeah, that’s right.”

“I counted, that Devastationweed plant has twenty leaves. At a million credits a plant, two leaves would be worth a hundred thousand credits. Our previous agreement was a fifty-fifty split, so I pay you for half—” she caught herself, “So, with that, I owe the Azure Dragon Squad…”

Xia Qing stared at the number Yang Jin wrote out, then added another fifty thousand on top. “So that’s 0.7 credits. But I don’t have that many on hand right now. You saw the Green Lantern spinach growing in the terraces earlier, right? As long as nothing goes wrong, I can harvest the seeds in about half a month. Can I pay you with spinach seeds instead?”

High-elevation spinach is the main ingredient for premium nutrient shakes. These seeds are always in demand and fetch a high price, so Yang Jin quickly agreed. “Sure, just give me 4,271 spinach seeds.”

Over four hundred thousand credits, he waves off the 0.7 like he’s being generous—what a miser.

But it was precisely Yang Jin’s strict accounting that let Xia Qing feel at ease. It meant fairness in their dealings.

The Azure Dragon Squad—no question, they’re top-tier trade partners.

Xia Qing relaxed. “Thank you, Captain Yang. Including the 2,600 spinach seeds for the previous debt, once these are ready, I’ll hand over a total of 6,871 spinach seeds.”

With old tabs settled, Xia Qing brought up a fresh deal. “Captain Yang, do you remember the chestnuts I mentioned on the phone before?”

Seeing Xia Qing so serious, Yang Jin put on his own business face to match. “That’s the batch you want to raise saplings from and sell, right? Territory One has already set aside greenhouses for the seedlings. You said you had over six hundred jin of chestnuts?”

But since a chunk had already gone to Zhang San in trade, Xia Qing’s chestnut inventory wasn’t as big as she’d reported at the conference. Besides, she’d changed her mind. She wasn’t giving all six hundred jin to Yang Jin to plant and resell.

With the refugees arriving soon, the territory felt less and less secure. Unless she absolutely had to, Xia Qing wouldn’t trade away food for supplies. She only felt safe with a stockpile of food in her hands.

“That’s the total, but only twenty-five jin are Green Lantern chestnuts. I think it’s better to use those to grow saplings, since Green Lantern seeds are more reliable and the trees sell for more.” Xia Qing explained her reasoning first before starting the business talk.

“I counted them—there are 750 Green Lantern chestnuts with intact shells, none broken or bruised. If we figure on a fifty percent sprout rate, that gives us 375 saplings. Even if only 300 survive to selling size and we price each at 1,000 credits, that’s 300,000 credits in sales. I’ll provide the seeds, you handle propagation and sales, then we split profits forty-sixty—forty for me, sixty for you. I’ll also buy twenty saplings myself at market price. How does that sound?”

Yang Jin wanted to argue for a fifty-fifty split.

But being too generous would ruin his ironclad miser reputation, making Xia Qing doubt his motives. So instead, Yang Jin hedged: “I’ll need Hu Zifeng to go to the chestnut grove and sample the soil, check the growing conditions and figure out propagation costs, and see if the Green Lantern chestnuts can even sprout.”

No wonder he’s the captain of this base’s second-biggest combat squad—he’s thorough to a fault. Xia Qing, who hadn’t thought of any of that, nodded at once. “Of course. If raising them turns out expensive, I’m fine with a smaller share.”

With a preliminary agreement reached, Xia Qing revealed her real reason for calling Yang Jin the day before. “Captain Yang, I really need credits right now. If you’ve got enough on hand, could you pay upfront for four months’ worth of spring water—from November through February?”

Yang Jin went straight to the numbers. “Our deal is 300 liters a month, at 144 credits per liter. You want the full amount paid upfront?”

Still owing more than 6,000 spinach seeds—over 600,000 in goods—Xia Qing braced herself and nodded. “If you can pay today, I’ll give you a discount on the 1,200 liters.”

She probably needed the credits because the refugee policy and politics over in Territory Two had her feeling uneasy and driven to shore up Section Three’s security.

She was earning up credits, and she already had a buyer—was it Zhang San or Xin Yu?

Yang Jin set his terms. “Forget the discount on the spring water. I want to take some spinach seeds off your hands today, though—the ones ready for planting. How many can you spare right now?”