Chapter 287: Pine Nut Corn

Chapter 287: Chapter 287: Pine Nut Corn

Xiaqing felt this was important and needed to figure it out as soon as possible. Since she couldn’t figure it out herself, she decided to ask someone who could. So, she sent a message to Ji Li:

Brother Ji, the Green Light Pinecones I got before the insect plague yielded their nuts today, and they taste pretty good. Should I send some over to Brother San?

Ji Li replied quickly: I’ll be there in fifteen minutes to pick them up.

Xiaqing finished pulling out all the weeds under the Green Light Sichuan pepper and passion fruit trees before fetching the two pounds of Green Light Pine Nuts she had prepared for the patrol team to deliver to No. 8 Territory. She then waited by the isolation zone.

It was about to get dark. With an unruly team like the Jiang Bear Squad around, the patrol team needed to keep a constant eye on them and would definitely not have time to help her deliver supplies today. So, Xiaqing sent a message to Xin Yu, explaining the situation and suggesting she would send the supplies tomorrow instead.

After harvesting the Green Light Pinecones, Xiaqing had already planned to send some to Zhang San, and today was the perfect opportunity.

Ji Li arrived at the North Isolation Zone of No.3 Territory right on time. Xiaqing handed the two pounds of Green Light Pine Nuts to him and then humbly asked how the Evolutionary dogs had managed to find her.

Ji Li explained, "Scent is released by volatile compounds produced by living organisms, food, or chemicals. A Deodorant only stops the sprayed area from producing volatile compounds for a period of time, but it can’t prevent scents from unsprayed areas from spreading. You were carrying a scent that doesn’t belong in this Buffer Forest, so you would be discovered by an Evolutionary dog with a keen sense of smell."

Xiaqing understood. ’Although the area sprayed with Deodorant doesn’t release volatile compounds, other areas still do. My Protective Suit picked up a new scent, so the places I passed through or stayed in would still have a scent left behind, just one that was different from the original.’

Xiaqing had sprayed the Deodorant after returning from No. 8 Territory, but she hadn’t sprayed Sheep Leader. Afterward, she had spent all her time with Sheep Leader and had also harvested the pine nuts. ’So, what the Evolutionary dogs smelled was the scent of sheep and pine nuts?’

’No wonder they were so excited...’

After Ji Li left, Xiaqing was picking some Green Light vegetables from her terraced fields to go home and cook when she heard Zhao Ze shouting toward the Third Territory through a loudspeaker.

"Xiaqing, turn on your walkie-talkie! Shi Du is looking for you—"

The Lords with their powerful loudspeakers had unlocked a new method of communication.

Xiaqing turned on her walkie-talkie. "Brother Zhao, I heard you. Thanks. Shi Du, you were looking for me?"

Shi Du immediately replied, "Sister Qing, the quilts are ready. Should I bring them over now?"

When Xiaqing hurried to the road sign, she noticed Tang Huai wasn’t standing under the sign on the opposite side of the passage, and she was surprised by how strange it felt.

Seeing Xiaqing come out, Shi Du, carrying a large bundle on his back, ran quickly up to her, flashing a big, white-toothed grin. "Sister Qing, the cotton you gave me produced a total of twenty-seven pounds of batting. I made two five-pound winter quilts and two three-pound spring-and-autumn quilts. The remaining eleven pounds of batting are in this blue bag, fluffed to a width of one meter."

"Thanks." Xiaqing took the cotton batting and asked in a low voice, "Did you deliver the ones for the Second Territory?"

"No," Shi Du replied, lowering his voice. "Tang Huai was in a bad mood just now and told me to deliver it another day. When I was delivering the quilts to Brother Zhao, I saw Kou Fanming leading a team into the Second Territory. Sister Qing, be careful these next couple of days."

Kou Fanming was an Elasticity Evolver who wore a Protective Suit covered in blades. His combat methods were extremely bloody, and he was a figure in Hui San Base whose very name made people pale. Only then did Xiaqing understand that Shi Du’s main reason for calling her over to pick up the quilts was to pass on this information.

’Tang Huai was in a bad mood; it must be because Kou Fanming gave him a hard time.’

’It was almost dark, and the Evolution Forest was full of danger at night. The two squads from Jiang Xiong had split off from the Su Feng Team, which meant they weren’t planning to spend the night in the Second Territory. In that case, their destination for the night must be the Green Dragon Team’s No.1 Territory.’

Xiaqing didn’t go home right away. Carrying the cotton batting, she ambled over to the West Buffer Forest and, sure enough, found a dozen or so people from the Jiang Bear Squad standing at the entrance to Mountain No. 49, negotiating with members of the Green Dragon Team. They wanted to pitch their tents on Mountain No. 49 for the night.

Xiaqing heard Tang Zhou repeatedly mention the rules for entering the mountain and the difficulties involved, but he never explicitly refused them. She knew then that Tang Zhou was planning to screw the Jiang Bear Squad over. As for how he would do it, or whose idea it was, Xiaqing wasn’t interested. She carried her cotton batting and went home to cook.

’She wasn’t worried about the Jiang Bear Squad causing trouble during the night, because Tan Junjie would definitely have people keeping an eye on them. Honestly, Xiaqing felt that with Tan Junjie’s abilities, having him only be responsible for patrolling and clearing dangers in ten territories was a waste of his talent.’

Back home, she saw a row of swallows perched on the bamboo pole under her eaves. It seemed they wouldn’t be continuing their migration tonight. These swallows were good at picking spots; the area around her house was kept very clean, making it safer than other places in the territory.

Once inside, she turned on the light and showed the ear of corn she had picked to Sheep Leader. "This is the biggest one from our patch. We’re having corn with pine nuts tonight."

’She had been looking forward to this dish for a long time.’

Xiaqing took two frozen steamed buns from the refrigerator and placed them in a steamer basket. She peeled back the husk of the corn, revealing dark red kernels inside. Xiaqing wasn’t at all surprised by the color, as she had already seen it earlier.

This ear of corn was from the field planted with the two pounds of corn seeds Luo Pei had given her. Because this field’s corn was planted twenty days earlier than the seeds she had received from the Safe Zone, it tasseled, flowered, and grew ears earlier than the other field. It would be ready for harvest in another ten-plus days.

Before picking it, Xiaqing had peeled back a bit of the husk to confirm the kernels were fully grown and so tender that they released a watery liquid when pinched. Only then did she break the ear off the stalk.

As for why the yellow kernels she planted had produced dark red corn, Xiaqing didn’t know. After the great biological evolution, plants had become weird and wonderful. As long as the Harmful Element content was below fifteen per thousand, and it didn’t contain excessive radiation or toxins, any edible plant was a good plant.

The corn with pine nuts, made from stir-frying dark red kernels with dark yellow pine nuts, was honestly not very appealing in color. But the ingredients were fresh enough that it tasted quite good.

Xiaqing asked Sheep Leader, who was gnawing on the corn husk and stalk on the other side of the table, "What do you think, Leader? This corn is pretty tasty, huh?"

Sheep Leader really did like it and actually looked up to respond, "Baa."

Xiaqing picked up her bowl of porridge, made from rehydrated compressed rations, and took a sip. She hadn’t eaten rations much lately and suddenly found herself missing the taste and coarse texture. "You like it, huh? That’s easy then. Once all the corn is harvested, you can have all the stalks."

Sheep Leader didn’t make another sound and just buried its head in its food.

"We interrupt this broadcast for an urgent weather forecast: According to predictions, there will be a thunderstorm over Hui San Base tonight between 8:30 and 9:00 PM, accompanied by a short period of strong winds. Wind speeds in localized areas may reach Level 7. All Lords are advised to make wind preparations as soon as possible."

After the great biological evolution on Blue Star, weather forecasting had become more difficult due to the rapid changes in cloud formations. In the first few years, they could only forecast sudden catastrophic weather events ten-odd minutes in advance. In the last two years, prediction capabilities had improved, allowing for more than an hour’s notice.

However, small-scale, sudden catastrophic weather was still difficult to predict, like the hailstorm over Xiaqing’s territory back in July.

The fact that the Hui San Base terminal news broadcast had been interrupted for a weather forecast meant this thunderstorm had a wide reach. It was almost 7:30. The storm would arrive in an hour!