Chapter 430: A Black Bag, a Secret Gift, and Sowing Tomorrow

After delivering the Rooting Powder to Territory Eight and picking up her exchanged supplies, Ji Li hopped off the vehicle and headed back toward Section Seven. Meanwhile, Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui kept driving the patrol car south, ready to deliver supplies to the lords of Territories Eleven through Twenty-Six.

Once Ji Li was out of sight, Zhong Tao couldn’t wait any longer. He ripped open the cold black bag Xia Qing had given him, and was stunned by what he found inside—a slip of paper and the supplies.

Zheng Kui glanced over at him from the driver’s seat. “What’s got you so rattled?”

Afraid of being overheard, Zhong Tao stayed silent and just waved the slip of paper beside Zheng Kui.

Screeech—

After reading what was written, Zheng Kui was so shocked he stomped the brake.

The sudden stop hurled Zhong Tao forward, his head nearly smacking into the windshield. But instead of protecting himself, he clung tight to the black bag in his hands.

Zheng Kui quickly grabbed Zhong Tao, saving him from a collision with the bulletproof glass. He scanned the area to make sure nobody was around, then lowered his voice. “How much?”

Zhong Tao flashed two fingers. Eight jin! (approx. 8 pounds!)

Zheng Kui drew a deep breath. He read Xia Qing’s note again and again before finally speaking, “Bring it all home for your kids.”

Meat from advanced Green Lantern animals raised in the Evolved Forest was a whole different league from poultry raised in the Breeding Center. Feeding it to kids could very well awaken their Evolution Abilities.

Zheng Kui’s wife and child had died in the third Devastation Rain this year. Now, he was all alone. Zhong Tao’s kids, on the other hand, were still young and growing fast.

Of course Zhong Tao wanted the meat. But he also knew that, for ordinary people like him and Zheng Kui, they’d probably never get a chance to eat such incredible meat again in their lives.

So even if he was tempted, he couldn’t just take it for himself. “Xia Qing wrote it clearly—’for personal consumption.’ Old Zheng, you should eat it too. Even if you don’t awaken any abilities, it’ll definitely boost your resistance. I’ll wrap the meat in the thermal film. Let’s speed up the deliveries and get back to the Safe Zone before it thaws.”

Zheng Kui nodded and restarted the car, flooring the accelerator.

“Honestly, Old Zheng, back when Xia Qing’s territory started up, I saw she was one of the rare lords with Evolution Abilities and thought I’d cozy up to her for some perks.” Zhong Tao carefully bundled up the meat, stowed it in a box at the back, then stacked two more boxes on top. Only after that did he continue, “I really never expected she’d be this capable.”

Zheng Kui grunted in agreement. He reminded Zhong Tao, “This stays between us. Not a word to the family.”

“You can count on me. Not even under torture,” Zhong Tao muttered, then started calculating. “We can’t just take this meat for nothing. We should send something Xia Qing needs in return. What would be good? Fertilizer?”

Zheng Kui had a different take. “Territory Eight’s already selling Compost Starter. With Xia Qing’s skills, fertilizer isn’t a problem. Insulation material would be a better bet.”

“You’re right. Let’s think it over and decide…”

Back in Section Three, Xia Qing stashed away two thousand jin of Crab Shell Fertilizer in the warehouse. Once inside, she mixed the Rooting Powder with Pure Spring Water, then soaked the two hundred chive roots she’d gotten in exchange.

As she worked, she explained to her two companions, “These are chives. You both don’t care for them, but they’re my food. Great stir-fried with eggs, or mixed into meat filling.”

Old Goat squinted at her from the side, watching with mild interest. Er Gou gave it a sniff and quickly lost interest, wandering off to the food dehydrator and sniffing around there instead.

With the chive roots soaking, Xia Qing headed into the kitchen. “It’ll take another two hours to finish dehydrating the jerky. For lunch, how about we make snake meat congee? Old Goat can have a cabbage core. Sound good?”

Snake meat was tough, hard to chew if stir-fried, so Xia Qing decided to cut it into small cubes and simmer it into a savory congee.

Of course, she and Er Gou would eat well, but she wouldn’t shortchange Old Goat either. Xia Qing grabbed a plump cabbage from the vegetable storage, sliced some off to mix with wheat bran, added a pinch of salt, and whipped up a nutritious, tasty blend for Old Goat.

The cabbage was fresh, and Xia Qing handed a piece to Old Goat, another to Er Gou, and crunched a bit herself. Though the cabbage looked crisp and juicy, it still had that astringent tang common in disaster-era vegetables.

Some folks said the taste came from the Devastation Element, others blamed different pollutants. Either way, it wasn’t pleasant—but it felt satisfying, especially since many could only fill up on ration bars while real food was a luxury.

Only after she started farming did Xia Qing get to eat vegetables and grains daily. Over time, she noticed that the vegetables grown natively on her land tasted less bitter than most.

After the trio had finished sampling the cabbage, Xia Qing gave her verdict. “Lots of moisture, nice texture. Do you like it, Old Goat?”

Old Goat kept a poker face.

“How about you, Er Gou?”

Er Gou, who had been laughing a moment ago, shut up and stared seriously at Xia Qing.

Well, that was clear—neither of them liked it.

Xia Qing broke off half a ration bar and mixed it into Old Goat’s meal, stirring as she spoke. “I noticed the Toon Tree’s seed pods are almost ripe. Let’s harvest them in the next couple of days, collect the toon seeds, and sprout some in the greenhouse. How does toon sprouts sound?”

Toon Pods are the fruit of the Toon Tree, also called spice bells. They’re oval-shaped, hanging like little grapes in clusters. When ripe, they turn from green to yellow to deep brown.

Once fully mature, the pods split into five parts, exposing the white core and seeds inside, making them look like tiny bells—hence the name.

All this toon tree knowledge came from Tan Junjie’s research, which he sent to Xia Qing. When she first saw the material, she couldn’t visualize clusters of green grape-like pods growing on a toon tree.

This year, Xia Qing saw the toon trees bloom in May and June, then watched the green fruit grow week by week. Finally, she understood—their capsules grew upward, banana-like, and clustered together, really looking like grapes.

Just this morning as she was hauling the giant python back to the territory, Xia Qing spotted the toon pods turning from yellow to brown, showing cracks—right at the stage described in the data as ready for harvest.

Once harvested, toon seeds could be used for saplings, sprouts, pressed into oil, even medicinal purposes.

Of course, that was true for pre-disaster toon trees. With this being year ten after the cataclysm, who really knew what the seeds could do now? Each evolved tree could develop so differently in each environment.

After what happened with the Green Lantern Chestnut, Xia Qing wasn’t confident these particular toon seeds would even sprout.

So, after harvesting the seed pods, Xia Qing planned to test their viability first.

“Baa.” Old Goat was a big fan of toon sprouts and immediately voiced approval.