Chapter 828: A Lunch Invitation at Territory Nine

What happened to Deng Yufeng in the underground lab was pretty miserable, but wasn’t it all on her?

I never laid a hand on her, but she let her underlings go after me more than once. If Xia Qing hadn’t been quick-witted, we’d have already been picked clean by mutated creatures, bones and all.

Zhang San stepped in and bailed me out. Now here she comes, supposedly to apologize, sitting down in front of me, crossing her legs so casually, acting like a few words are enough to settle everything.

Why should I accept that?

Because Fire Phoenix is powerful.

She’s polite enough, and her face barely gives anything away. But that air of arrogance slips out now and then, especially the moment she caught sight of Yue Haiying and Yan Yue—there’s no hiding that from the sharp eyes of a ninth-level Vision Evolutionary.

Right then, Xia Qing finally understood the long speech her idol once gave her.

After surviving endless hardship and awakening Recovery Evolution, Deng Yufeng had become something almost godlike. She was here, apparently to admit fault, but not for a second did she really think she’d done anything wrong. To her, the ones at fault are those bold enough to stand in her way, to block her path to vengeance.

Lunchtime was coming up. Xia Qing noticed she still hadn’t left, so she asked politely, “Lunch is almost ready. Captain Deng, do you have any dietary preferences?”

Deng Yufeng didn’t bother with courtesy, shaking her head. “No, anything edible is fine.”

Just as she expected Xia Qing to invite her to dine in Section Three, Xia Qing instead got up, headed to the door, and called out to the woman outside in the wheelchair. “Yue Jie, let Territory Fifteen know we need three extra lunch boxes today. Captain Deng’s staying for lunch. Do we have any meat dishes today?”

Ninth Planting Center had over a hundred staff already. The first batch stayed in Territory Two and Territory Six. The newcomers set up tents right inside Territory Nine.

Yue Haiying had asked Huo Lei to make three massive iron pots, and they’d been set up, but supplies hadn’t fully arrived yet. So, the makeshift ‘canteen’ in Territory Nine was serving only porridge and hot water. Simple as it was. Breakfast and dinner meant coarse porridge and hard biscuits, and lunch was delivered over from the canteen in Territory Fifteen.

Of course, meal fees came out of the Ninth Planting Center’s daily operating budget.

Yan Yue replied, “People from Territory Fifteen came to lend a hand today. No one went hunting, so there’s no meat, but we do have steamed pumpkin for lunch.”

Pumpkin yields were high, tasted good, and were cheap. You could eat it as a staple food or as a side—it was easily the most popular food in the territories.

Hearing there was no meat, Xia Qing picked up her walkie-talkie and called Hu Zifeng. “Brother Feng, is Er Yong around?… Out on a task? Then please go to the breeding greenhouse, get fifty breadworms, six eggs, and six Greenlight tomatoes, and bring them to the canteen at Territory Fifteen. Tell them we need two quick stir-fry dishes delivered to Territory Nine. Oh—and Captain Deng is staying for lunch, so go easy. Don’t let Old Goat butting in cause trouble.”

Fifty worms barely make half a plate.

Deng Yufeng crushed a little black bug crawling across the floor, but when Xia Qing came back inside she’d already put on a teasing smile. “Miss Xia, you went to all this trouble. Were you calling your boyfriend just now?”

Xia Qing nodded. “Things are busy here, so I asked Captain Hu to keep an eye on the territory. Gets some weeding done, too.”

Hu Zifeng and the cooks from Territory Fifteen worked fast. In less than half an hour, the stir-fried worms and tomato scrambled eggs were delivered.

On her way out with her lunchbox in hand, Deng Yufeng chatted with Xia Qing:

“Miss Xia, you’d rather keep a mutant sheep than hire workers who actually live here. Your sense of caution is impressive.”

Xia Qing was upfront. “People are way too complicated. The Evolved Sheep may have a temper, but it just eats grass and plows the land. That’s good enough for me.”

“Exactly, you hit the nail on the head. People—so complicated. If we humans had less internal strife, life wouldn’t be this tough. After you took charge, you agreed to hire someone who can’t even walk to take an important job. Gave her the chance to get by through work, not just on her body. In that, you’re way better than most who have any authority.”

Xia Qing pointed out, “Yan Yue is highly capable and meets the requirements for an office director.”

Deng Yufeng laughed, “You know, I think the two of us have more in common than we thought.”

Xia Qing answered sincerely, “You’re giving me too much credit, Captain Deng. If I was even a tenth as talented as you, I wouldn’t be scrabbling for food after eleven years of disasters. I only got this job at the Ninth Planting Center because Third Brother’s team is busy with real work and has no time for errand jobs like this.”

“Miss Xia, you’re too modest. Thanks for lunch. Let’s catch up again someday.” Clearly bored with small talk, Deng Yufeng stopped there and left Territory Nine with her bodyguard.

Xia Qing stood beneath the Ninth Planting Center’s signpost, watching them go. She had just turned around when she saw Tang Huai climbing out from the wild grass wall, two little caterpillars on his head, giving her a big thumbs up.

“Sister Qing, you’re awesome! You really have a way with words!”

Xia Qing took a closer look at the wild grass wall. “It’s about time we sprayed some pesticide on this thing.”

The wild grass walls of the two territories touched—if only Territory Nine sprayed theirs and not Territory Two, there’d be no point.

“I’ll spray it when I get back,” Tang Huai chirped, still buzzing with excitement. He kept following Xia Qing around, chatting endlessly. “Fire Phoenix built up a whole scene, set up a ladder for you—hoping you’d climb and say where you two see eye to eye. And you just yanked the ladder away!”

Xia Qing stayed as calm as ever. “I seriously didn’t pick up on her meaning.”

Tang Huai was undeterred. “That’s exactly why you’re a natural at driving people up the wall! Unbeatable! Honestly, watching you take on Fire Phoenix cured all the ailments I got from you last year!”

Xia Qing just…

She walked back in silence for several kilometers before reaching the helicopter. Fire Phoenix tossed away her protective mask, grabbed a pale blue bottle from the thermal box, and downed the medicine in one gulp.

Huo Ting stuffed the boxed lunch into a sample preservation case to take back for analysis. Then, he sat quietly in a corner with Huo Zhen, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.

The Fire Phoenix helicopter roared off toward the Hui Three Safe Zone, just as disinfection finished in the office at Territory Nine.

Yue Haiying and Yan Yue urged Xia Qing to go to Territory Seven for a checkup. She hadn’t worn a protective mask and had shared a room with Fire Phoenix for over an hour.

Fire Phoenix really was a walking chemical hazard.

Xia Qing promised she’d go and returned to her own territory.

Deng Yufeng only came to make peace with Zhang San. Even if she wanted Xia Qing dead, there was no chance she’d make a move this time, which was the only reason Xia Qing dared remove her protective mask in her presence. Still, even understanding all this, Xia Qing couldn’t help but feel uneasy. But since her idol hadn’t called her over, there was no way she’d risk disturbing the senior expert’s afternoon nap.

So after returning home, Xia Qing disinfected herself again, checked her protective suit with the Element Detector, and, only after making sure it was safe, changed into a fresh suit before making lunch for Old Goat. Then she left for Section Three of Hill Forty-Nine to fetch Er back for a meal.

Er was sprawled out on a big sun-warmed rock in the shade, guarding the wild boars. When he saw Xia Qing, he wagged his tail and practically beamed. Down by the pond, a bunch of freeloading birds and a little honey badger were fighting over a half-eaten piglet.

Er didn’t need Xia Qing to feed him—if he got hungry, he’d just catch a pig himself.

Xia Qing felt a rush of affection. She jumped into the valley and sat beside Er, the two of them quietly watching as big and little wild boars foraged by the pond.

The piglets born this spring were already over forty pounds. The striped patterns on their backs had faded, not as cute as before, but they looked even more delicious now.

Xia Qing asked, “Er, what should we do with these wild boars? Are we just going to raise them forever? They’re about to eat the valley bare.”

Last winter, the Wolf Pack drove over eight big wild boars and twenty-something young ones, paying Xia Qing a Yi Stone to keep them.

Now, only three big wild boars were left, along with nine of the young ones that had grown up. Over February and March, these wild boars had six litters—now there were over forty piglets.

Wild boars will eat anything, but there are just too many. If they weren’t culled soon, they’d break right through Xia Qing’s thorn fence and risk getting stung by mutated bees, just to raid the Green Lantern Chestnut Trees.

That was the only place in Valley One untouched by the wild boars. Xia Qing suspected that in past years, any chestnuts that fell and weren’t snatched up by squirrels or other critters got eaten by the boars.

Of course Er didn’t answer—this was a cozy spot and he just wanted to nap.

Xia Qing sprawled lazily on the sun-warmed boulder, just about to join Er for a nap, when a glint of light from the pond caught her eye.

No way!

That crow with the black metal leg band fighting for piglet meat among the birds—wasn’t that Jasmine from Territory Eight?!