Chapter 396: A Deal for Worms and Secrets

Xia Qing…

Tang Huai had a truly impressive skill: no matter what mood you were in before meeting him, the moment he opened his mouth, you just wanted to punch him.

“Thirty Green Lantern eggs. Count them.”

“Alright.” Tang Huai carefully took the tray, making sure none were broken before he started rambling again. “I used to have Green Lantern chickens too, but during the third Devastation Rain, someone in the breeding team messed up, and the chickens’ quality dropped. That’s why I came to you for premium eggs…”

Xia Qing asked, “What kind of mistake?”

Tang Huai paused, looking frustrated. “They forgot to close the rain shields and let the chickens get soaked in the red Devastation Rain. My sister felt really guilty about it.”

This kind of slip-up was hard to believe was truly accidental. Xia Qing didn’t press on about Tang’s family business and instead shifted to the real reason she came here. “Are your chickens raised indoors, outdoors, or in cages? And what do you use as feed?”

Now that she had a high-grade evolved Green Lantern chicken, Xia Qing was even more invested in improving the chickens’ quality. The feeding methods used in Territory Seven were no longer useful to her, so she needed to learn how others did it.

Tang Huai answered, “It’s hard to control the chicken’s food quality if they roam or free-range. We raise ours in cages and feed them edible vegetables, wheat bran, insects, or insect meal. What about you? How do you raise yours?”

Me? I give them pure spring water and edible veggies, and they’re kept penned up. Whatever bugs they dig up from the dirt, they get to eat.

Of course Xia Qing couldn’t tell the whole truth, so she just brushed past it. “Pretty much the same as you. Where do you get the insects and insect meal for your chickens?”

Suddenly Tang Huai realized why Xia Qing was asking. “We used to buy edible insect meal from the Safe Zone’s breeding center—same stuff used in Territory One’s ration bars.”

One reason Territory One’s ration bars cost more than the others is because they add edible insect meal to the mix. That extra nutrition puts it above grass, veggies, or regular grain rations.

Chickens need some insects or insect meal in their diet. Not only does it make the meat more flavorful and the eggs richer, but it also boosts disease resistance. After the disaster, high-quality chickens needed to be fed premium Green Lantern insects, or else Devastation Element inside them would build up and their quality would drop.

Xia Qing’s penned chickens could dig up whatever kind of insects from the earth, and neither the meat nor the eggs dropped in quality. That’s because she gave them pure spring water and protected them with Yi Stones during Devastation Rain periods.

Winter was coming and the shallow soil would soon be nearly bug-free, so insect meal or insects would be needed as feed. The first trade partner Xia Qing thought of was Territory Seven, but Zhang San told her the bugs they fed their chickens were lab by-products and not up for trade.

After six months of bug-hunting, Tang Huai became Xia Qing’s next candidate.

Catching Xia Qing’s look, Tang Huai’s expression turned complicated as he continued, “Now, my chickens eat the Green Lantern and Yellow Lantern insects I dig up here in the territory. How did you even know I had top-quality Green Lantern and Yellow Lantern mealworms? Did Third Brother tell you? I never mentioned any of this in the Lords’ channel, and neither the Azure Dragon Squad nor Tang Zhengsu know either.”

Wait, Third Brother knew Tang Huai had Green Lantern insects? Maybe Tang Huai’s ties to Territory Seven ran even deeper than she thought. Was Third Brother’s research into Tang Huai eating mushrooms without getting poisoned finally getting somewhere?

Suddenly, Xia Qing remembered the experimental new medicine Zhang San had just developed—using high Evolution Element Green Lantern veggies to cultivate insect fungus for lowering human Devastation Element levels.

Could this new medicine really have something to do with Tang Huai?

“Cat got your tongue? No way, it really was Third Brother who told you?!” The sky had nearly gone black, and when Xia Qing stayed quiet, Tang Huai came closer, suspicious she was feeling guilty, trying to catch her expression.

Xia Qing took a step back and shot back, “Nope. You dig for bugs every day. It’d be weird if you didn’t have some good ones.”

She clarified why she was asking and made an offer. “Yellow mealworms—are those the same ones people used to call ‘breadworms’? How many do you have? Will you trade?”

After hoarding Green Lantern bugs for half a year, Tang Huai finally got a chance to show off. He smirked, “Exactly. They’re what used to be called breadworms, only now they’re a stable evolved line.”

“You folks keep dousing your crops with pesticides, pounding the bugs into extinction, but I make way more money digging up insects. Right before the second Devastation Rain, I was exploring the ruins here in the territory and found a couple of nests of Green Lantern and Yellow Lantern mealworms in two old cellars.”

Tang Huai held up two fingers with a triumphant grin. “Over five hundred of them, mostly Green Lantern type. I’ve been breeding them ever since, and now it’s the third generation. Next year my family’s restaurant will have a specialty dish: stir-fried Green Lantern bugs. Want to guess how many credits a plate will go for?”

Without waiting for Xia Qing, Tang Huai blurted out the answer, gloating, “At least a thousand credits for one plate!”

“Not bad money at all,” Xia Qing agreed, steering the talk back. “Are they easy to raise, and are you up for trading?”

Tang Huai explained, “Not easy at all. Maintaining insect quality isn’t so simple. You need a breeding room with little or no Devastation Element, the right humidity and temperature. You have to feed them Green Lantern plants and clean out their droppings all the time…”

By the time Tang Huai finished lecturing about the hardships of bug-raising, night had fully fallen and he’d finally quenched his need to talk. He concluded, “Now you see why specialty bugs cost a thousand credits a plate. The costs are sky-high.”

“Our Hui Three breeding center has raised yellow mealworms for dozens of generations. Most have degenerated; they’re small and get sick easily. That’s why the batch of premium Green Lantern and Yellow Lantern mealworms I found in the territory this year is so valuable…”

“Baa!”

Old Goat, who’d come with Xia Qing, had enough of Tang Huai’s endless spiel and bleated, pushing for Xia Qing to wrap it up and head home.

It was dark. Xia Qing wore her night vision goggles, but Old Goat didn’t have any. With so little night vision, it felt uneasy outside after dark.

Tang Huai instantly stopped, craning to look behind Xia Qing in excitement. “Is that Old Goat? Where is it, what’s its name?”

Xia Qing explained, “It just wants to go home since it’s dark. Your yellow mealworms—will you trade them for credits or Green Lantern supplies?”

Tang Huai’s eyes sparkled as he got a better idea. “Forget credits or supplies. How about this—you let me see Old Goat and the wolf from your territory up close, and I’ll give you a whole tray of live bugs for free. Deal?”

……

……

……

Xia Qing, who’d just been running through a long mental list of Green Lantern supplies, went silent for a moment before asking, “Will your family even agree to this?”

Aren’t you worried your dad’s going to tan your hide for being so reckless?

Tang Huai puffed up, proud as ever. “I raise the bugs, so how they get traded is my call. Think about it—you’re getting a huge deal here. Third Brother pays twenty credits a bug!”

Well?

Of course… that sounds perfect!