Chapter 432: A Subtle Game of Motives and Secrets

Tiger had no idea that the Toon Tree in Xia Qing’s territory was actually a Green Lantern Plant. He slung his bicycle over his shoulder and entered the territory, spotting Xia Qing snipping off a basket full of toon seeds. With a teasing grin, he asked, “Sister Qing, are you planning to dye these and hang them up around the house as decorations?”

“Dye them? Decorations?”

Of course Xia Qing wasn’t about to reveal her real intentions. She just played along. “They do look pretty nice, don’t they?”

Now that Xia Qing had a boyfriend, Tiger had nipped any lingering feelings in the bud. Their interactions were much more relaxed than before. He genuinely sighed, “People like you, who really know how to enjoy life, are so rare these days, Sister Qing.”

Uh…

Xia Qing had no clue how to respond to that, so she awkwardly changed the subject. “Did any refugees from Territory Two go into the Evolved Forest today?”

“After what happened yesterday, there’s no way they’re sending anyone out.” Tiger lowered his voice as he filled Xia Qing in. “When we drove the patrol car past the south gate of Territory Two, we overheard Tang Zhengsu totally chewing out Xu Pin, Tang Huai, and Zhou Xun for not managing the refugees well enough—said that’s how such a huge mess was made. Tang Zhengsu even threatened Xu Pin that if he couldn’t handle things, he’d lose his deputy squad leader position.”

Xia Qing asked, “At the south gate of Territory Two?”

“Yeah. My guess is, Tang Zhengsu was making sure the people in Territory Twelve could hear him.”

Tang Zhengbo had taken his two sons back to Territory Twelve in the southeast corner of Territory Two to ‘recover.’ If Tang Zhengsu wanted to scold Tang Huai, he naturally had to do it near the south gate.

Experience wins out in the end. Good thing Tang Zhengbo got his sons out in time—otherwise Tang Huai would’ve taken the fall, and Tang Zhengbo would’ve been forced to step up and clean up the mess.

As Xia Qing walked along the hillside, she looked up toward Territory Two. The harder Tang Zhengsu chewed out Xu Pin, the more desperate Xu Pin would be to fix things. And the more desperate he got, the closer he’d be to his own doom.

Xia Qing had already tossed in a hundred pounds of snake meat and a full python-skin jacket. Maybe tonight, she’d hear things start moving.

“Has Captain Dan heard anything about this?”

Tang Zhengsu was on the phone, his brow furrowed so tightly it looked like he could trap an evolved mosquito in it. Still, he could only swallow his anger and try to talk like Tang Zhengbo—measured and steady. “Excuse me, Captain Dan, who’s in charge of this? How do I get in touch with them?”

“I don’t know. I’ll say this one last time—I’m only responsible for the planting project. As for everything else, I don’t know and don’t care.” Over in Territory Nine, Dan Ying put her phone on silent and told Assistant Xiao Liu, “Don’t let anyone else bother me. Get out.”

“Yes ma’am.” Xiao Liu turned to leave, but glanced worriedly at Li Si on the way out.

Dan Ying pushed her glasses up her nose and looked at the report in her hand. “Go on.”

Li Si continued, “In this territory’s soil, levels of selenium, iron, manganese, boron, and molybdenum are all higher than in the other areas of Hui Three Base, which means the crops here are better quality too. However, the zinc content is lower, so the plant leaves show more varied colors…”

Dan Ying cut off his rambling. “Did you find out why the water quality’s better here?”

Li Si pressed his lips together. “It’s in the report, pages 24 to 27.”

Dan Ying flipped through a few pages, scanning quickly, her expression darkening. “Hill Forty-Nine belongs to the Azure Dragon Squad, Section Seven belongs to Zhang San, so I’ll accept that you couldn’t get samples from there. But why couldn’t you sample the river water from Section Three?”

Li Si explained, “Section Three’s lord, Xia Qing, is close friends with Zhang San and doesn’t trust us. She’s an evolver, and her boyfriend Hu Zifeng is one of the Azure Dragon Squad’s top fighters. That territory basically belongs to both Xia Qing and Hu Zifeng—our people couldn’t sneak in for samples.”

“I tested Section Three’s soil samples myself—no significant differences from the others. So the water quality probably isn’t remarkably better either. Plus, both upstream and downstream water tests for Section Seven checked out the same, which means the real reason for the excellent water must be on Hill Forty-Nine.”

“Probably?” Dan Ying shot Li Si a disapproving look. “Guesses without solid data mean nothing to me. Within two weeks, collect water samples from Hill Forty-Nine and Section Three. Zhang Qikun will handle it.”

Li Si objected, “Zhang Qikun’s methods are too extreme—if anyone catches him sneaking into another territory or the Azure Dragon Squad’s training base, I’ll lose my title as lord of Territory Nine, and all resources in my territory will go straight to the Hui Three Territory Management Department.”

Dan Ying didn’t care. “The Hui Three Territory Management Department is under Tang Zhengrong’s control. Tang Zhengrong already wants to work with us. He’ll sort out the paperwork, then we’ll just send someone over ourselves.”

Li Si pushed his glasses up with his index finger, dropping the subject and asking about Dan Ying’s phone call with Fire Phoenix. “Captain, why did you send someone to attack the Evolved Bear with synthetic toxin last night?”

Dan Ying frowned. “That’s not something you need to know.”

Li Si looked right at his superior. “Using synthetic toxin could set off a whole chain of uncontrollable consequences. It’s illegal.”

Dan Ying kept her eyes glued to the report, answering absently, “Laws are there to protect and limit regular people—not us.”

When she didn’t hear Li Si reply, Dan Ying finally glanced up. “Go plant the seeds I brought. Make sure to record every stage of those two bags of first-generation hybrid carrot seeds. I want full growth data in a semi-open environment.”

Li Si stayed rooted to the spot, stubborn. “Why poison the Evolved Bear on Hill Fifty with synthetic toxin, Captain?”

Dan Ying frowned. “Not your business. But if you’re really that curious, fine—I’ll tell you: the ones who poisoned the Evolved Bear were from Territory Two. They wanted to use the bear to collect medicinal herbs that counter Devastation Snake poison, from the areas where the abominations grow.”

Li Si fired back, “And once they collect those herbs, they’ll hand them over to you, right?”

Dan Ying was running out of patience. “Is there anyone in Fire Phoenix more qualified than me to study such a rare herb?”

“That’s Devastation Snake territory. Last time, Yang Jin risked everything to save Luo Pei—Azure Dragon Squad sent in their strongest, and still suffered heavy losses to get the medicine from the riverbed. If we don’t send a bear, what, are we supposed to send people?” Dan Ying motioned for him to leave. “Just say you want to co-research and stop wasting my time. Out.”

Li Si pressed his lips together tightly, turned, and closed the door softly behind him.

“Captain…”

Xu Pin had barely stepped inside when Tang Zhengsu let loose, spitting all over him.

“Cry, cry, cry—are you a banshee or something? It’s been hours and you still haven’t found Yang Jin?”

Xu Pin just ignored Tang Zhengsu’s yelling and reported, “We did find him. The recon team used surveillance birds for an aerial search and tracked Yang Jin down—he’s heading back over Hill Fifty-Five with two others.”