Chapter 585: A Basket of Kindness, a Feast of Friendship

“Sixty pounds of premium, hardness-evolved Green Lantern python meat. I got it by trading,” Xia Qing repeated with a smile. “Five hundred credits a pound, Sister Juan, don’t forget to transfer the credits. I’m still short for buying fertilizer for spring planting.”

Last November 19, Alpha brought over a top-grade, evolved Green Lantern python and asked Xia Qing to make snake skin protective suits for him and his trusted subordinates.

Xia Qing skinned the python and kept 560 pounds of meat for herself. She traded 250 pounds to the Azure Dragon Squad, 100 to Xin Yu, 40 to Hu Zifeng’s Squad, 20 to the Inspection Team, 5 to each territory of the Lords’ Alliance, 30 to Huo Lei, 8 to Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui, and gave all the remaining meat and offal to Idol.

Based on Idol’s rationing, Xia Qing was allowed to eat 150 pounds herself. She set aside 100 for Er Gou and still had 310 pounds left.

In the past two months, Xia Qing had traded quite a lot of supplies with her stash of python meat.

She swapped 28 pounds with Yang Jin for a color printer and laptop, paid him 20 more pounds as a commission for leading the squad to seal off Territory Nine when they fought Fire Phoenix’s trapping team, traded 80 pounds to Huo Zhun for a personal flight device, offered 20 pounds as Yan Long’s special training fee, handed 40 pounds to Tan Qi, and received Green Lantern corn, Yellow Lantern wheat, and Greenlight garlic from Tan Junjie.

Later, Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui traded 10 pounds from her, too. After the beast tide, she gifted 10 pounds to the recovering Yuan Rui, another 10 to Zhu Li and Kuang Qingwei, and now, after giving Xu Juan 60 more, she had just 32 pounds left.

Giving Xu Juan these 60 pounds was something Xia Qing had planned all along.

Whenever she went out as an auxiliary support member, she often tagged along with Luo Pei and Xu Juan’s squad—not because they treated her with special care, but because they never used her as a human shield when things got rough. They also split credits fairly with her based on her contributions—something rare in these years of calamity.

If Xia Qing hadn’t earned credits from missions, just relying on the hard labor she did with the Construction Team would have made life even tougher.

So when she found out Luo Pei had been poisoned by synthetic toxin and needed pure spring water for detoxification, Xia Qing didn’t hesitate to risk herself to help. Now, with hundreds of pounds of prime food on hand, she wanted to give Xu Juan a share, too, to aid her in leveling up.

Idol had told her that after three months in the freezer, the meat’s nutrients and evolution elements would swiftly fade. Two months had passed already, so Xia Qing had planned to hand over the meat to Xu Juan at the end of the lunar year anyway.

Xu Juan wiped away her tears and managed a smile. “I’ll have Captain Zhong and the others bring your credits card over next time. No need for a thank you—words are empty right now. Let’s just see how things go in the future.”

Xia Qing never expected anything in return. “Just keep my secret, Sister Juan. You can eat all sixty pounds yourself, or eat forty and use the other twenty for trades. After forty pounds, your body’s absorption of the energy in the snake meat will taper off.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll stay quiet,” Xu Juan promised. “With ten pounds of this meat, I can totally get out of the Dongyang Squad’s mess. The rest, I’ll eat by myself. Who knows, I might even trade up to a gold badge!”

A gold badge was the mark of an Advanced Evolutionary in the Safe Zone.

The more Xu Juan thought about it, the more excited she got. “Too bad I’ve got hearing evolution. If I was a physical-type Advanced Evolutionary, I’d form my own squad, not rely on any man, and wouldn’t need to have kids. I’d just earn my way into the Inner City with my own strength…”

An hour later, with Xu Juan finally regaining her composure and pretending nothing had happened, Xia Qing saw her off to Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui’s patrol vehicle. Returning home, Xia Qing pulled out the pink fabric Xu Juan had bought for her, fetched some quilt batting and old cloth, cut them up, and started sewing a new wolf den.

Just picturing Alpha curled up in that nest, feeding the wolf pups, made Xia Qing feel like she could float away with happiness—she was so motivated she could burst.

But even after five days of finishing the wolf den, Crippled Wolf still hadn’t ordered takeout.

During these five days, all the rice seedlings the Alliance was raising in the Hidden Valley had started sprouting green leaves.

With grow lamps installed, Hidden Valley was perfect for cultivating rice seedlings. Under the care of Madam Shi and Yuan Yan, who had learned the evolved rice cultivation techniques in Section Seven, the seedlings looked different each day. Everybody in the Alliance was buzzing with excitement, lighting up the Lords’ channel daily with lively debates on how to celebrate their very first lunar new year in the territory.

Everyone still chatted in the Lords’ channel and not in the phone group chat, mostly because Zhang San and Xin Yu couldn’t be bothered to join the chat group.

Without Zhang San, no one really felt the energy in the discussions.

Without Xin Yu, things just lacked a sense of excitement and anticipation.

Lately, Tang Huai had been unusually hyped, chiming in on everything. “We’ve gotta set off fireworks. I’ll take care of them. We’ll fire ’em all off together, then have barbecue and drinks! Xia Qing, you want to team up and go hunting in the Evolved Forest tomorrow? I promise once I grill the meat, you’ll be too busy chewing to complain!”

While cleaning her gun, Xia Qing nodded to Old Goat to press the walkie-talkie and calmly turned Tang Huai down. “Already promised Brother Feng I’d spend New Year’s with him.”

Back in Territory Twelve, Tang Huai started cursing up a storm.

Over in Territory One, Hu Zifeng was lounging with the cat and also pressed the button. “Xia Qing, we just caught some Green Lantern bamboo rats. How about a barbecue tonight?”

“Sounds good.”

Everyone else…

Tang Huai kept grumbling. “Hu Fengzi, just you wait! One day I’ll make Xia Qing dump you!”

Tang Heng, busy balancing the accounts, glanced up. “You want to chase after Xia Qing, bro? No wonder you always wanna hang around Section Three.”

“Chase her? Hell no! Ever seen a worse temper? Who could stand it? I just want to rip her eyes open so she can get a good look at what a real man is!”

Tang Heng stayed silent…

“You guys caught bamboo rats?”

The second he heard there was good food, Zhang San popped online.

Hu Zifeng answered respectfully, “Yes. We raised these bamboo rats on Green Lantern and Yellow Lantern feed. The meat’s unbelievably tender and tasty. We’ve saved the six biggest ones just for you. Want us to bring them over now?”

“No need.” Suddenly, Zhang San’s tone turned warm. “I’ll let Ji Li pick them up. You can talk to him directly if you want to trade anything. Where’s Luo Pei?”

Hu Zifeng replied, “Luo went back to the Safe Zone for the New Year’s banquet.”

Every lunar New Year, the Safe Zone would host a banquet. Only people of status in Hui Three’s Safe Zone got invitations. Naturally, all three leaders of the Azure Dragon Squad were among the honored guests.

Luo Pei had never been one for crowds, but this year he’d made the trip from Territory One to attend the banquet for something especially important.

After finishing up with her gun, Xia Qing carried half a basket of eggs, a basket of Green Lantern vegetables, four Green Lantern sweet potatoes, and six bright red strawberries to deliver New Year’s goods to Zhang San.

The sight of such fresh strawberries put Zhang San in an unusually good mood. Seizing the opportunity, Xia Qing held up a line of text she’d written on her phone—a message out of view of the camera.