Chapter 806: Dining Together in Territory Eight

Xia Qing knew exactly why Tang Zhengbo was looking for Zhou Zhaoping. “Director Tang just brought some salmon. Uncle Ping’s in for a treat today.”

After Xia Qing stepped into the White Cottage, Xin Yu grinned and teased, “I counted up all the jobs you and Uncle Ping are juggling. Between you two, you’ve almost hit double digits!”

Xia Qing, in the middle of taking off her protective suit, laughed. “With your roles added in, that makes exactly ten.”

If you didn’t count the positions Xin Yu and Zhou Zhaoping held at Chonglian Group and only looked at those within Hui Three: Xin Yu was Lord of Eight and owner of Hui Three Compost Factory; Zhou Zhaoping served as agent for Territory Eight, manager of Hui Three Compost Factory, secretary for the Alliance, and chairman of Hui Three Pharmaceutical; Xia Qing was Lord of Section Three, head of the Alliance, manager of Hill Fifty and proxy for the Ninth Planting Center. All together, that made exactly ten.

Xin Yu quickly washed her hands, handed the kitchen over to Xia Qing, and hurried outside to check the hawk in the cage by the door.

Xia Qing reminded her, “Put on gloves. There’s Evolution Bacteria on it. I sprayed it down with some fungicide just in case.”

“Got it.” Xin Yu suited up in protective gear and gloves, then dashed out to examine the hawk. Through the window, she gave Xia Qing a big thumbs up. “Your aim keeps getting better. The left wing bone isn’t broken, just the tendon and ligament snapped. I’ll fix it up and get it bandaged.”

“Just luck,” Xia Qing said. Truthfully, it was a mistake. If Luo found out she’d missed a moving target within a kilometer, who knows what punishment she’d get.

Tying on her apron, Xia Qing eyed the carrots soaking in the basin. She was sure it wasn’t just luck.

Carrots were especially sensitive to Devastation Element and had to be grown completely isolated from it. That meant supply was scarce and the price was ten times higher than regular vegetables—often, you couldn’t even buy them with enough credits.

Last year, when Xia Qing traded resources with Territory Nine, she’d asked if they had any carrot seeds less susceptible to Devastation Element. Before spring planting this year, she’d asked Xin Yu too, but Xin Yu hadn’t been able to find any high-quality Green Lantern Carrot seeds. So, if carrots showed up today, it had to be because Xin Yu made a special trade for them—just like the Green Lantern Fig trees Xia Qing had in her yard.

Xia Qing carefully washed and peeled the carrots, then placed them on a plate. When Xin Yu returned she asked, “Should I dice the carrots or cut them in chunks?”

“Just cut them into rolling slices and toss them in the mutton bone soup,” Xin Yu said, tying on an apron as she came in. She opened the pot and dropped in the carrot pieces. “This hawk might make a full recovery—unlike the one in the yard. Did you see it earlier? The thing practically rolls around it’s so fat now.”

“I saw it. It’s turning into a ball. If this hawk recovers, will you try to train it?” The one in the yard was the Evolved Hawk Xia Qing had shot last year when it went after the Yellow Weasel’s rabbit. Its right wing never healed, so it lost its ability to fly and ended up walking the grounds of Territory Eight.

“We’ll give it a shot. If not, I’ll let it go.” Watching how Xia Qing got along with the Wolf Pack and the swallows had changed Xin Yu’s perspective a bit. “Do you think there’s any hope for that red squirrel this hawk snatched?”

“There is…”

After Xia Qing recounted the whole rescue story about the baby red squirrel, Xin Yu laughed so hard she nearly fell over and grew even more curious. Once the lamb chops were in the oven, they huddled together to check the Section Three sheep shed camera feed.

The red squirrel family was still nestled inside the cozy den Xia Qing had set up for them. The two healthy pups were playing rambunctiously, while the mother lay on her side as the injured one nursed. The little guy splayed its legs, trying to prop itself up, but its limp tail dragged behind it. With several patches shaved for treatment, it looked a bit like it had alopecia.

Even though the little squirrel looked frail, Xin Yu believed it would pull through—its surgery had been performed by Zhang Song and it was taking Miracle Medicine compounded by the Senior Expert himself.

If only last year’s Evolved Hawk had been sent to Section Seven, maybe…

Maybe she’d have ended up on Zhang San’s blacklist for six months by now!

Xin Yu asked, “Want me to have Little Jade or Owl circle over your territory every day to keep other raptors away?”

Territory Eight’s two trained birds of prey—the White-belted Sea Eagle and the Eagle Owl—could now hunt on their own, but Xin Yu wouldn’t let them catch prey in other lords’ territories. Only Jasmine, the brain-evolved Evolved Raven, would occasionally swoop over to the Toon Tree in Section Three for a few nibbles of tender toon shoots.

Xin Yu could easily have them circle over Section Three daily, letting other raptors know there was already an aerial lord and lowering the risk of local red squirrels, chickens and fish being picked off by birds.

“No need. The red squirrel pups need to learn to dodge all kinds of threats, or they’ll never survive in the Evolved Forest. I’m still counting on those little guys to grow up and find me some quality dried fruits.” Xia Qing hadn’t saved the baby squirrel to turn it into a pampered pet.

It was a wild creature of the Evolved Forest—it needed to learn to avoid danger, defend its territory and find its own food. Hopefully, when that little speedster who owes her forty-six thousand credits grows up it’ll settle near Xia Qing, making debt collection easier.

Xin Yu wasn’t surprised by her answer. “Have the swallows under the eaves left the nest yet?”

Xia Qing hadn’t put up any swallow cameras, but the security cameras in her courtyard did cover the area beneath the eaves. She pulled up the footage and handed her phone to Xin Yu.

Poor Xin Yu—she’d renovated her old roof this spring just to attract a pair of migrating swallows, but not a single one had stopped to stay.

If Xia Qing were a swallow, she wouldn’t build a nest in a place full of land-walking hawks and White-belted Sea Eagles either.

Xin Yu zoomed in to watch the doubled flock of swallows under the eaves and made small talk with Xia Qing. “Yu Dongming called me about the nutrient source.”

The nutrient shake, blended from the nutrient source and x-2 spinach juice, had already been named X Nutrient Shake by Hui Three Pharmaceutical. Even though the nutrient source wasn’t on sale yet, ads for X Nutrient Shake had finished production and were airing across the country.

This ready-to-drink shake cost under 200 credits to make but worked one and a half times better than premium nutrient shakes costing two or three thousand. It didn’t just give the devastated folks in Hui Three new hope—it caught the attention of everyone at bases nationwide, even those on Blue Star.

Representatives from bases across Huaguo scrambled to fly into Hui Three Base to negotiate with Hui Three Pharmaceutical. Overseas bases kept calling, asking Hui Three’s sales staff about the nutrient source in rough Huaguo dialects.

To handle the skyrocketing workload, Hui Three Pharmaceutical’s marketing department had to hire ten more staff.

Chonglian Group in Hui Two—just over 900 miles from Hui Three—was eager to get authorization for the nutrient source, hoping to manufacture this sure-fire, never-lose medicine in their own pharmaceutical factories.

To the Chonglian Group’s chairman, this was as good as done. After all, his niece Xin Yu was a Hui Three Pharmaceutical shareholder, and Hui Three’s current chairman used to be a Chonglian employee.