Chapter 188: Crisis Resolved

Chapter 188: Chapter 188: Crisis Resolved

Xu Juan picked a tomato and took a bite. "Not bad! The last time I had vegetables this fresh was when you went back to the Safe Zone for the trade fair."

That time, Xiaqing had given her a cucumber. The Dongyang Team wasn’t a top-tier team, and besides, Xu Juan spent a lot of her points on her appearance, so she couldn’t bring herself to buy fresh vegetables or fruit.

Besides the patch of spinach she’d traded with Zhang San, everything in this greenhouse was Yellow Light Vegetables. Xiaqing grew this crop specifically for trading with others; the ones she ate herself were from her terraced fields.

Xiaqing handed Xu Juan a basket directly. "Sister Juan, you don’t come by often. Pick whatever you want."

"Then I won’t be shy." Although Xu Juan said she wouldn’t be shy, she only picked one or two of each vegetable, filling her basket just halfway.

Xiaqing then picked another half-basket for Zhang Yong. Xu Juan asked "curiously," "Can I see the wolf you’re raising?"

"Sure, if you don’t mind the smell." Xiaqing led Xu Juan to her house. As she opened the door to the sheep pen, a foul stench hit them. The Sick Wolf had the runs.

It wasn’t the wolf’s fault. Xiaqing had shut the door, and it was too weak to open it. The Sheep Leader was anesthetized and couldn’t help it either.

Lying on the other side, the Sheep Leader gave Xiaqing a weak glance, then squinted at Xu Juan, looking dazed and slow-witted.

Although she could tell the Sheep Leader was unhappy, Xiaqing didn’t explain anything or introduce Xu Juan. She couldn’t let anyone from Su Feng know that the Sheep Leader hadn’t just evolved its Strength, but its brain domain as well.

The sheep pen was too smelly, and the sight of a wolf and a sheep lying in the same room was too shocking. Xu Juan took one look and retreated several steps. She tried to persuade Xiaqing, "This wolf is so sick, it’s probably a goner. Keeping it is just a waste of points and medicine. You should deal with it as soon as possible. If it attracts some super-evolved pathogen, you’ll be in deep trouble."

"It’s infected with parasites. The Green Dragon Team’s doctor said it might be salvageable." Xiaqing told Xu Juan to go rest inside while she cleaned the sheep pen.

Xu Juan didn’t move from the yard. As someone who frequently went on missions in the Evolution Forest, she had seen it all. The smell was awful, but she could bear it. She continued to probe, "How did the sheep get those injuries on its face?"

"It hurt itself during an ultrasound attack. It’s on medication too." Xiaqing expertly moved the Sick Wolf aside, cleaned out the soiled straw, and set it on fire.

Only then did Xu Juan get to the real reason she’d been pressured to visit the Third Territory today. "By the way," she asked, "have you heard about the Su Feng Team’s two escaped Pangolins?"

Xiaqing replied calmly, "They’ve already searched the territory."

Xu Juan sighed. "Su Feng posted a 300,000-point bounty in the mission hall. I wonder who’s going to get that windfall. Everyone on our team is looking high and low during missions."

Xiaqing asked, "So, Sister Juan, are you here to look for the Pangolins?"

Xu Juan shot Xiaqing a flirtatious glance. "Well, you’re here, aren’t you? If there’s a chance to strike it rich, of course I had to come and see. So, any news? If we earn the points, we’ll split them fifty-fifty."

Xiaqing used the wooden stick she was using to rake the straw to point at Mountain No. 49. "The Su Feng Team found some Pangolin scale armor by the swamp on the north side of that mountain. They’re searching around there now."

Xu Juan pressed on, "Isn’t Mountain No. 49 the Green Dragon Team’s training ground? Could the Pangolins’ disappearance have something to do with the Green Dragon Team? You’re close with Hu Zifeng, right? Hasn’t he told you anything?"

Xiaqing said nothing, just watched her quietly.

Despite being prepared for it, Xiaqing’s stare gave Xu Juan the creeps. She explained in a small voice, "Why are you looking at me like that? I was just asking."

Just as Xu Juan finished speaking, Tang Huai’s voice crackled over the Lord channel. "Xiaqing, are you there?"

Xiaqing looked away from Xu Juan and pressed the Lord transceiver, replying calmly, "I’m here."

"Is the equipment working properly?"

"No issues."

Tang Huai replied, "Good, we’re even then. The cargo truck is heading back in twenty minutes."

The last part was for Xu Juan. She had hitched a ride on the cargo truck, so naturally, she had to take it back. Xu Juan breathed a sigh of relief. "I’m leaving. I’ll come see you again when I have the chance."

Xiaqing walked Xu Juan to the stop sign for the Third Territory. When Zhang Yong and the others drove up, she handed the half-basket of vegetables to Zhang Yong. After watching them drive away, she ignored Tang Huai, who was standing nearby, and went straight back into the Third Territory.

Tang Huai muttered, "I’ve never seen a woman like her. She’s so stone-faced even with her friends."

Zhou Xun speculated in a low voice, "Boss, do you think she might have facial nerve damage from being poisoned?"

"Could be."

Xiaqing glanced back at the two of them coldly. They immediately shrank back behind the Wild Grass Wall of the Second Territory.

After returning to the Third Territory, Xiaqing greeted Liangzi and the others, then immediately went home to check on the Sheep Leader.

In the Second Territory’s surveillance room, Su Feng’s vice-captain, Xu Pin, politely asked Zhang Tianning, the Brain Domain Evolution Expert he had invited from the Hui San Base Research Institute, "Professor Zhang, based on Xiaqing’s behavior, do you think the Pangolins are in the Third Territory?"

The light overhead reflected off Professor Zhang’s bald head. He pushed up his glasses and answered cautiously, "Based on the Lord of the Third Territory’s behavior in these two surveillance clips, the Pangolins are likely not within the Third Territory."

Xu Pin thought so too. He scrubbed through the video, found the moment when Xu Juan asked Xiaqing if Hu Zifeng had told her anything about the Pangolins and Xiaqing stared at her, then paused it. "Look at Xiaqing’s reaction here," he asked. "Could this mean the Pangolins’ disappearance is related to the Green Dragon Team?"

Professor Zhang shook his head again. "According to the file you gave me beforehand, Xiaqing is reclusive, violent, and extremely private. Therefore, I’m more inclined to believe that Xu Juan’s question made Xiaqing think she was prying into her personal relationship with Hu Zifeng, which is what provoked the emotional reaction."

Xu Pin suppressed his displeasure. "If we didn’t get any useful information, why did you give the order for Tang Huai to call Xu Juan out?"

Professor Zhang explained, "Because Xu Juan sensed Xiaqing’s emotional reaction and began to panic. If she had remained in the Third Territory any longer, Xiaqing might have discovered her true intentions."

This reason struck Xu Pin as even more bizarre. "Xiaqing is just a manual laborer, a construction worker. So what if she figured it out?"

In Xu Pin’s opinion, Xiaqing had been a nobody back in the Safe Zone. The only reason she was acting so arrogant now was because she was riding the coattails of Hu Zifeng from the Green Dragon Team.

Professor Zhang took off his glasses and cleaned them, saying nothing more.

After seeing Professor Zhang off, Xu Pin called Captain Tang Zhengsu to report on the investigation.

Tang Zhengsu’s roar was so loud that even Tang Huai could hear it outside the room. "I told you from the start the Green Dragon Team had to have snatched the Pangolins! But you, dammit, you wouldn’t believe me, insisting on investigating this person and that! Starting right now, send every last man out to look for them! If they can’t find them, they’d better not bother coming back alive!"

Hearing Xu Pin get chewed out by Tang Zhengsu, Tang Huai openly gloated outside. However, when he heard Tang Zhengsu say that none of them could return until the Pangolins were found, he started to get annoyed.

Even though Xu Pin was Su Feng’s vice-captain, he didn’t dare offer an opinion or argue when Tang Zhengsu was angry. Soon, the Su Feng members staking out the Third, Seventh, and Ninth Territories were pulled back and dispatched to the swampy area where the Pangolin scale armor was found.

The crisis, sparked by a wolf picking up a rock and killing a Pangolin, was still brewing. But for the Third Territory, the danger had passed.