Xia Qing first threw a small pebble into the pond. She found that the sow only raised its head to glance at the water’s surface before lowering it again to continue rooting in the mud. The young wild boars’ chasing and playing weren’t interrupted at all.
What did this show? It showed that there were no natural enemies of wild boars in this valley, which was why their alertness was so low.
Their natural enemy had arrived.
Xia Qing reached out and grabbed an evolved snake that had flown down from a tree trunk to bite her. She deftly stuffed it into her leather bag and continued approaching the wild boars from downwind.
After her hearing evolution, the stealth of Xia Qing’s movements had multiplied. She crawled to within five meters of the wild boars without being noticed by them.
This distance was close enough to strike. Xia Qing pulled out some ropes and wooden sticks to make three simple trip nooses. Then, she quietly circled upwind, picked up a rock weighing over fifty jin, and hurled it fiercely at a young wild boar.
The young wild boar squealed in pain. The sow huffed and puffed as it ran over to investigate. The other young wild boars scattered in panic. Three of them got caught in the trip nooses, squealing and thrashing. The sow rushed over to check on the trapped piglets. Since the three young wild boars were trapped in different directions, the sow could only tend to one at a time.
Xia Qing seized the opportunity to rush forward. She threw the young wild boar that had been crushed to death by the rock into her backpack, cut the snare ropes to carry the other two young wild boars, and bolted back along her original path in one breath to her territory. Only after confirming that the sow hadn’t pursued her did she stop. Three wild boars! Her luck today was absolutely insane!
Xia Qing grinned foolishly as she tested the three young wild boars, only to find that two were red-light and one was green-light. The living one was the green-light one!
The base had always wanted to expand the breeding of green-light livestock, especially domestic pigs or wild boars that reproduced quickly and produced a lot of meat. The value of this edible young wild boar was incomparable to ordinary edible animals.
This was a golden pig.
No, gold wasn’t worth much anymore. This was a points pig!
Xia Qing dotingly clamped the snouts of the two young wild boars to stop them from squealing blindly. She brought them home and put them in a room in the western courtyard that still had its four walls standing. The two striped little piglets were terrified, huddling in the corner and whimpering.
Xia Qing gave the pigs some grass and water, then immediately contacted Zhong Tao to handle the dead red-light wild boar and the evolved snake in her bag.
Humming a little tune, she pulled out her phone and sent a message to Zhong Tao: *Brother Tao, do you have a precision biological detector? I have two red-light wild boars weighing a total of 130 jin, one dead and one alive.*
Xia Qing’s detector could only distinguish between edible and inedible organisms, whereas a high-grade detector could differentiate between safe food, alternative food, and inedible food. Back in the Safe Zone, Xia Qing couldn’t bear to spend eight hundred points to exchange for a high-grade one, but now she could afford it.
To her surprise, just five minutes later, Xia Qing received a reply from Zhong Tao:
*Yes, I’ll be there in an hour.*
An hour. It seemed Zhong Tao wasn’t far from here. Xia Qing sent him another message: *Also, I want to trade for some oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar.*
The broadcast last night had mentioned that to make things convenient for the lords, patrol vehicles would carry daily supplies with them. Lords could exchange points or resources for them. At the same time, to ensure the lords’ safety, the details of their supply exchanges would not be made public.
Xia Qing’s luck today had hit the jackpot, so she could afford to make her life a bit more comfortable.
Soon, a light truck kicked up a cloud of dust and pulled up under the signpost of Territory No. 3.
Seeing that Tan Junjie from the Investigation Team had actually gotten out of the truck along with Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui, Xia Qing, who was holding her backpack, felt her scalp tighten slightly.
Zhong Tao stared at Xia Qing with glowing eyes. “Sister, you’re amazing! Where are the wild boars? Brother Kui and I will weigh them for you.”
“Captain Tan, Brother Kui, over here.” Xia Qing first greeted Tan Junjie, then pulled the tightly bound young wild boars out of her backpack. “And a few snakes.”
As soon as Zhong Tao got his hands on them, his eyes lit up even more. “This is definitely seventy jin! Kui-zi, get the scale!”
Zheng Kui, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, lifted the steelyard scale to weigh them. “The live young wild boar is seventy-three jin, the dead one is seventy-two jin, and the snakes total thirty jin.”
Zhong Tao tapped away furiously on his calculator and gasped in surprise. “A total of 3,865 points! Good heavens, sister, that’s equivalent to a whole year of hard work in the Safe Zone. How much oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar do you want?”
Although she had earned a massive sum of points, Xia Qing didn’t want to seem too ostentatious. “I’ll take four bags of salt, and a bottle each of the rest. I want the best quality for all of them.”
Even though Xia Qing had scaled back her purchase, it was still enough to make Zhong Tao’s mouth water with envy. “Sure. These condiments are all fresh, quality goods straight from the processing plant. Together with the high-grade detector, it comes to 3,790 points. You have 75 points left. Should I transfer them to your card, or do you want more supplies?”
Hearing that Zhong Tao brought the best goods, Xia Qing pressed further, “Brother Tao, what else did you bring?”
Zhong Tao quoted the prices, “Compressed rations are 20 points per jin, soothing capsules are 100 per box, and we have some common medicines. There are also staple grains brought out from the military for exchange: wheat flour is 20 points per jin, cornmeal is 13, and rice is 37.”
Evolved warriors in the military enjoyed excellent treatment. Those without family members would often exchange their excess supplies, which were usually consumed internally. She hadn’t expected to get lucky this time. Xia Qing quickly asked, “Brother Tao, exchanging for grain isn’t recorded, right?”
Zhong Tao knew what Xia Qing was worried about and explained with a chuckle, “No records. This is a private transaction. We aren’t using the Safe Zone’s Mission Hall card reader for this transaction either. Rest assured, sister.”
With food available, Xia Qing couldn’t care less about keeping a low profile. She immediately pulled out her points card. “I’ll take twenty jin of each. Is there enough?”
So much?
Zhong Tao stole a glance at Tan Junjie. Seeing that he remained silent, he nodded. “Sure. That will be another 1,325 points.”
Xia Qing, who actually had less than two thousand points left on her card, handed it over with a look of feigned heartache. “I only have a bit over fifteen hundred points. It’s going to be completely wiped out this time.”
Zhong Tao first used the public handheld card reader to credit the 75 points to Xia Qing’s card. Then, he pulled out his own card reader, charged 1,400 points, and called out to Zheng Kui, “Kui-zi, move the stuff!”
After Xia Qing took the two heavy bags, the silent Tan Junjie finally spoke up. “Where did you catch the wild boars?”
Tan Junjie’s aura was on par with Xia Qing’s junior high school class teacher, and Xia Qing felt pressured whenever she saw him.
She had brought out the young wild boars partly in the hope that the Investigation Team would clear out the adult wild boars. Otherwise, if the big wild boars broke into her territory and caused havoc, it would be a huge hassle. So, Xia Qing answered honestly, “If you go straight north from Territory No. 4 and cross a hill, there’s a valley with a pond in it. I caught them there. At the time, a large wild boar was leading a pack of piglets. The big one seems to be a general evolution.”
There was still a large wild boar? Even if it was red-light meat, it could be eaten after purification processing! Not to mention the always-outgoing Zhong Tao, even the quiet Zheng Kui couldn’t help but be tempted. “Captain Tan, the wild boars are so close. If they cross the isolation belt, injure people, or ruin the crops, it’ll be a disaster.”
Tan Junjie didn’t take the bait. He only warned Xia Qing sternly, “Trespassing into the evolution forest might anger large animals or trigger an insect tide to attack the territories. If only your own territory is attacked, that’s one thing, but if you drag other lords into it, it’s not something you can afford to bear.”
Xia Qing immediately stood up straight. “Please rest assured, Captain Tan. I often go in and out of the evolution forest with teams to hunt, so I know my limits. I will absolutely not provoke any evolved creatures I can’t handle.”
After Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui drove off, Xia Qing was left alone to face the stern Tan Junjie.
After waiting a few seconds without Tan Junjie speaking, Xia Qing took the initiative to bring up the evolved sheep. “Captain Tan, I have a collared, strength-evolved sheep that roams around my territory and the hillside to the north. If you encounter it while hunting the wild boars, could you show some leniency? It’s a herbivorous evolved creature. As long as people don’t provoke it, it won’t harm anyone.”
Banxia Novel, a lot of happiness.