Chapter 119: Auntie or Big Sister

Chapter 119: Chapter 119: Auntie or Big Sister

As they drew closer, Xiaqing noticed an extra person on Tan Junjie’s patrol team today.

It was a small figure, also clad in a camouflage Protective Suit, trailing at the end of the line and carrying two wooden sticks like a submachine gun. Judging by their age, this had to be Tan Junjie’s daughter, Tan Qi. When Tan Junjie had traded edible vegetables and Asparagus Chrysanthemum with Xiaqing, he had mentioned that his daughter attended elementary school in the Safe Zone.

’Why isn’t she at school? What’s she doing out here in the territories?’ Xiaqing remembered it was mid-July. ’Is it summer vacation already? Do schools even have summer vacation anymore?’ While in the Safe Zone, Xiaqing had never heard of schools having a summer break these days.

Tan Junjie spotted Xiaqing and stopped to ask, "Did you block the entrance to the Third Territory’s old isolation belt?"

Xiaqing explained, "Yes. Someone wandered into my territory from the old isolation belt just now. I thought it would be safer to block it off."

Tan Junjie immediately asked, "Who was it?"

Xiaqing described her, "A young woman, about five-foot-seven, wearing a camouflage Protective Suit. She claimed to be the Lord of the Eighth Territory and was heading along the isolation belt to cut firewood. She was wearing a Protective Mask, so all I could see was that her face was pale and her eyes were dark. She just passed by about ten or so minutes ago."

Tan Junjie looked back at Yuan Rui, the Olfactory Evolver on his team. Yuan Rui shook his head. "She’s wearing a Protective Suit, so she didn’t leave a distinct scent."

Tan Junjie explained to Xiaqing, "Based on your description of her height and gender, it’s probably the Lord of the Eighth Territory. We’ll go after her to confirm and get back to you."

Xiaqing nodded. "Thank you for your trouble."

Tan Junjie beckoned his daughter over. "Qiqi, this is Aunt Xia, the Lord of the Third Territory. She’s the one who grows a lot of the vegetables you eat."

’Aunt?’ Xiaqing raised an eyebrow.

Tan Qi was wearing a Protective Mask, so Xiaqing could only see that she had her father’s eyes. The little girl gave Xiaqing a standard military salute and greeted her in a bright, clear voice, "Hello, Sister Xia. The vegetables you grow are delicious. Thank you for being willing to sell them to my dad."

’Wow, this little girl is much smoother with her words than her father.’

Xiaqing’s eyes crinkled with a smile. She pulled two small bags of roasted dried snake meat from her Protective Suit pocket and handed them over. "Here, this is some jerky I made. It tastes pretty good, but it’s snake meat. Are you brave enough to eat it, Qiqi?"

Tan Qi looked at her father, who gave a slight nod. Only then did she take off her gloves and accept the jerky. "I am. My dad often catches snakes for me to eat, too. Thank you, Sister."

Xiaqing had heard from Chen Cheng of Hu Zifeng’s team that Tan Junjie’s wife had also been a soldier. Qiqi was born in the second Disaster Year, and her mother passed away in the third. It wasn’t until the seventh Disaster Year that Tan Junjie found his own mother and his brother’s family and brought them to Hui San Base. After that, Tan Junjie sent his daughter to school in the Safe Zone to live with her grandmother.

For Tan Junjie to have raised his daughter to be so well-behaved and kept her safe through the Disaster Years, a time of scarcity and constant crisis, made Xiaqing’s respect for him grow even deeper.

After watching them leave the Third Territory’s isolation belt, Xiaqing pretended to head down the mountain, but she was actually maintaining a suitable distance from the patrol team—a distance that kept them within her range of hearing.

Sure enough, the talkative Su Ming started muttering under his breath, "The one from the Eighth Territory actually left her land. That’s rare, really rare."

Cao Xianyun found it odd. "Her territory still had plenty of trees when we went to clear out the Evolutionary Rats. How could she be out of firewood?"

Hu Zi replied in a low voice, "She’s probably reluctant to cut them down. A few days ago, she asked the captain about tobacco leaves over the radio. She probably heard on the Lord channel that Magpies like to use tobacco shreds to build nests and wanted to find some to make a bird’s nest."

"I really don’t know how she’s survived on her own all this time..."

"Of the three female Lords in Territories One through Ten, besides Sister Qing, the other two are more mysterious than the last."

In order to catch up to the firewood-cutting Lord No.8, Tan Junjie’s team moved quickly. Xiaqing only heard these few sentences before they were out of range, but it was still a good amount of information.

Even the patrol team found Lord No.8 mysterious; she truly was a recluse. ’What is she doing out here today?’

Xiaqing returned to the Spring Cave, stuffed the buckets, now full of spring water, into a large basket, covered them with green grass, and then hung the basket on Sheep Leader to head down the mountain.

Su Ming was right; the Lords of the Ninth and Eighth Territories were each more mysterious than the last. Li Si at least spoke honestly in the group chat, but this Lord No.8 probably listened to the other Lords’ conversations on the radio every day without ever making a sound.

Although they had only met once and exchanged a few words, Xiaqing felt that Lord No.8 was a formidable and capable person of few words. Whether she was talkative or ruthless had nothing to do with Xiaqing. But if she dared to have designs on the Third Territory, Xiaqing would show her that there was always someone more ruthless.

After putting the spring water away at home, Xiaqing used her new electric kettle to boil water for tea before going upstairs to check on the Yellow Light Corn seeds that had been soaking in spring water for nearly twenty-four hours.

The corn seeds hadn’t sprouted yet, but they had swollen. Following the method taught on the radio, Xiaqing poured in some edible vinegar to sterilize them, then carried the basin to the cornfield.

The cornfield was the same plot where she had planted the first batch of wheat and mung beans. After fertilizing and tilling the soil, Xiaqing had planted the one kilogram of Yellow Light Corn seeds Luo Pei had given her.

The corn, planted more than half a month ago, had already grown three leaves. Although it was a Yellow Light variety, its color was a normal, tender green, which was very reassuring to see.

The mung bean and wheat field was over two mu in total, leaving enough space for the one kilogram of corn seeds.

After planting the corn, the only seeds Xiaqing had left from her trade in the Safe Zone were the cabbage seeds, which had to wait until August to be planted. Over the next two days, Xiaqing planned to fence off an area to raise chickens.

Her seventeen Green Light chickens were already a month old; it was about time for Brother San to have Ji Li deliver them.

Xiaqing pulled out her phone, just about to message Brother San to ask about techniques for raising Green Light Chickens, when she received a call from Tan Junjie. He said he was bringing Tan Qi over to give her some water snowflake flowers.

Xiaqing hurried to the road sign at the southern edge of her territory and saw the tender yellow flowers in Tan Qi’s small basket, recognizing them at once. Weren’t these the aquatic plants growing in vast patches in the shallows along the river inside her territory? Their leaves were shaped like lotus leaves but weren’t even as big as her palm.

At first, Xiaqing had thought they were evolutionary lotuses, but after digging around, she found no lotus roots underneath. Although testing revealed some Yellow Light plants among them, the leaves of this weed tasted bad when cooked, and even Sheep Leader wouldn’t eat them raw. That’s why Xiaqing hadn’t added it to her diet.

’So, this plant is called water snowflake, and you eat the flowers.’

Xiaqing thanked the Tan father and daughter and humbly asked how to eat the flowers.

Tan Qi shared the method in her bright, clear voice, "Sister, after the rice porridge is cooked, right before you take it off the heat, put the washed flower petals into the porridge, then add some white sugar, and it’s ready to eat."

"That sounds delicious. Thank you, Qiqi." Xiaqing thanked her. Then Tan Junjie told her about the firewood-cutting woman. "That person was indeed the Lord of the Eighth Territory, and she was really going to cut firewood. She only recently got a radio, so she isn’t familiar with the surrounding area and didn’t know your territory had expanded."

Xiaqing thanked Tan Junjie and watched the father and daughter walk eastward hand-in-hand for a while before she returned to her territory, carrying the water snowflake flowers.

She hadn’t gone far when she heard Tang Huai from the Second Territory talking in a low voice with his Visual Evolver, Zhou Xun.

"Xin Yu from the Eighth Territory actually left her land? Why would Tan Junjie be giving vegetables to Xiaqing?"

Tang Huai’s voice was as punchable as ever. "He’s definitely trying to get on Xiaqing’s good side so he can let his daughter play in the Third Territory. Even though Xiaqing is always so grim-faced, she’s still a woman. She wouldn’t do anything to a little girl."

Zhou Xun was skeptical. "No way. That sheep in the Third Territory is a Strength-type Evolutionary Animal. Isn’t Tan Junjie afraid his daughter will get hurt by it? He’d be better off sending her to the Eighth Territory."

"Idiot. Tan Junjie’s daughter is a Speed Evolver. You think that dumb sheep can catch her? Let’s go. The sun’s about to set. We need to hurry up and dig for cicada nymphs."

’So Lord No. 8 is named Xin Yu. I never heard that name back in the Safe Zone,’ Xiaqing thought. ’And fine, I can let it slide that Tang Huai and his crony called me grim-faced, but how dare they call my sheep dumb?’

’Digging for cicada nymphs? Great.’

Xiaqing went home, fired up her micro-tiller, and started weeding. CHUGGA-CHUGGA-CHUGGA! WHIRRRRRR!

Soon, Tang Huai’s furious roar came over the Lord channel. "Xiaqing, turn that damn piece of junk off!"