Chapter 47: Green Light Bamboo Shoots

Chapter 47: Chapter 47: Green Light Bamboo Shoots

When Tan Junjie led his team on patrol to the isolation zone outside the Buffer Forest west of the Third Territory, Xiaqing took the initiative to greet him. "Captain Tan, could I trouble you to pass a message to Zhang San of Land No. 7? I want to trade some goods with him."

Tan Junjie glanced at the backpack on Xiaqing’s back, which was almost as tall as she was. "You want to trade now?"

Xiaqing nodded. "I’ve harvested some Green Light Bamboo Shoots. If he agrees to the trade, could you please give him my phone number?"

Zhang San was a well-stocked foodie, a potential long-term trading partner, which was why Xiaqing wanted to exchange phone numbers with him. Xiaqing was certain that even though there were no ground-based cell towers here, Zhang San definitely had a satellite phone.

"I’ll ask him." Tan Junjie pulled out his phone and called Zhang San.

When the call connected, Xiaqing, with her Auditory Evolution, clearly picked up on Zhang San’s anger: "You’d better..."

Tan Junjie calmly interrupted him, "Someone in the Third Territory found Green Light Bamboo Shoots. They’re asking if you want to trade."

"Yes!" Zhang San’s voice instantly went from a thunderstorm to a rainbow. "Where’s my Sister Xiaqing?"

Tan Junjie shuddered. Xiaqing, suppressing a shiver of disgust, moved closer to the phone and stated her terms directly. "Brother San, it’s Xiaqing. I got some evolved Green Light Bamboo Shoots today, but I haven’t tasted them yet, so I’m not sure if they’re any good. I’d like to trade for a food dehydrator, a packaging machine, and two hundred sealing bags. How many pounds of fresh shoots do you think that would require?"

Xiaqing’s emphasis on "Green Light" and "fresh" was more than enough to entice Zhang San. "Ten pounds will do. Can we trade now? Do you want Tan Junjie to bring them, or should I send someone over to get them?"

"Captain Tan will bring them. Please give the trade items to him as well, Brother San." After speaking, Xiaqing stepped back two paces and handed over ten pounds of sealed Green Light Bamboo Shoots. Hu Zifeng had given her two bags of Green Light Bamboo Shoots, each weighing exactly ten pounds, so there was no need to weigh them.

Tan Junjie patrolled along the isolation zone, passing the north side of the Third Territory, the wire mesh fence of the Wild Boar Breeding Center, and the northern sides of territories four, five, and six. Before he even entered the Northern Isolation Zone of Land No. 7, a scruffy-bearded Zhang San rushed over, roaring, "Where are my shoots?"

Tan Junjie retorted, "Where are the machines and sealing bags?"

"Give them to him, quickly, give them to him!" Zhang San urged the two burly bodyguards behind him.

The bodyguards handed the machines, still in their packing boxes, to Tan Junjie. After Tan Junjie confirmed everything was in order, he signaled for Cao Xianyun to give the bamboo shoots to Zhang San.

The pale yellow, fresh shoots inside the thickened sealing bags were as enticing as could be. Zhang San grabbed them without so much as a word of greeting and turned to run back to his territory.

Tan Junjie just smiled and led his team to continue the patrol. Su Ming muttered under his breath, "That guy is really..."

"I’d advise you not to talk about him, or you won’t even know what hit you." Cao Xianyun shoved the large box containing the dehydrator at Su Ming and took large strides to catch up with the captain.

When they passed by the Third Territory, Tan Junjie gave the machines to Xiaqing. "Zhang San’s phone number is inside. He has a bad temper, but he’s not a bad person."

After the great biological evolution, humanity’s living conditions deteriorated drastically. Every human who had survived until now had a few lives on their hands; to stay alive, who hadn’t done something selfish at another’s expense?

Therefore, to still be described as "not a bad person" in the tenth year of the Natural Disaster was truly a rare compliment.

After watching the patrol team walk away, Xiaqing turned and took a couple of steps back into her territory, and sure enough, she heard the familiar muttering again. "Captain, what’s Zhang San’s deal, anyway? ... Why didn’t the captain ask Sister Qing where she dug up the bamboo shoots? We could go dig some up and give her a share..."

Tan Junjie, of course, didn’t respond. Cao Xianyun snorted. "She goes out for a day and comes back with bamboo. How many places like that do you think there are within a radius of dozens of miles?"

Twenty-year-old Su Ming answered honestly, "I don’t know. Where is it?"

"Even if you knew where, you couldn’t go."

"Why not?"

’That’s right, why not? The place where the bamboo grows isn’t far from the team’s station, so why don’t they go?’ Xiaqing stopped dwelling on it. She carried the surprisingly light large box back home, unboxed it to confirm both machines were fine, and only then entered Zhang San’s phone number into her phone’s contact list.

After being out all day, Xiaqing was famished. Smelling the aroma of rice wafting from the pot, her stomach began to GROWL. She quickly stir-fried some pork with bamboo shoots, prepared a cold dish of Perilla, and then used more Perilla, Asparagus Chrysanthemum, and her rations to make the most sumptuous concentrate feed ever for Sheep Leader, placing it on its dinner table.

Her own meal was also the most lavish one she’d had since moving into the territory... no, the most lavish in the five years since her father’s death.

The bamboo shoots tasted absolutely incredible. After the human and sheep had licked their plates (and bowl) clean, Xiaqing leaned back in her chair, savoring the lingering aroma in the air, and chatted idly with Sheep Leader.

"Going to that bamboo forest was the right call, wasn’t it? If I hadn’t gone, would you be eating such amazing shoots, Leader?" Xiaqing shot Sheep Leader a triumphant, sidelong glance, only to find the creature squinting at the metal chest in the kitchen.

’It wants more?’

’In its dreams!’

Xiaqing briskly cleared away the dishes, plates, and bowls, and brought the dehydrator and vacuum sealer into the kitchen. This vacuum sealer was the same as the one from Guantong Belt, so Xiaqing knew how to use it, but she had never used a food dehydrator before and needed to study it.

Zhang San really wasn’t a bad person. Not only were the machines brand new, but they also came with instruction manuals. Xiaqing opened one and began to read it carefully.

This food dehydrator was 48 centimeters long, 41 centimeters wide, and 51 centimeters high, and weighed about 28 pounds. It could hold twelve stainless steel mesh trays at a time, the temperature could be set between 30 and 90 degrees Celsius, and it could be timed for 0-24 hours. It was capable of drying fruit, meat, seafood, and vegetables.

The oceans were now contaminated by nuclear wastewater, making seafood inedible, but the other three were exactly what Xiaqing needed to dry and preserve. She didn’t have any fruit at the moment, but the two strawberry plants on her terraced planting area had already produced little white flowers—six of them!

Xiaqing was delighted, but as she continued reading and saw the drying times for each type of food, she fell silent.

Although the drying time reference chart didn’t mention bamboo rats, they were also known as bamboo pigs or bamboo badgers, so she could use the time for pork slices as a reference. Therefore, even if she cut the bamboo rat meat into 0.5-centimeter-thin slices, it would still need to be dried at 60 degrees for eight hours. Bamboo shoots, using the drying time for ginger as a reference, would need to be dried at 60 degrees for seven hours.

Slicing wasn’t a problem, and the dehydrator’s capacity wasn’t a problem either. The real issue was that the electricity generated by the two solar panels on her roof wasn’t enough.

Xiaqing picked up her phone to contact Zhong Tao. After confirming he could come pick up the goods tomorrow morning, she gave up on processing the Red Light Bamboo Rat and opened the sealed bag containing the Yellow Light Bamboo Rat.

Xiaqing didn’t know how big bamboo rats grew before the Natural Disaster, but this evolved Yellow Light Bamboo Rat weighed twenty-four pounds, definitely bigger than before the Disaster. This rat should yield about eighteen pounds of meat, which would become nine pounds of jerky when dried.

’Nine pounds...’

’Even though I’ve never eaten bamboo rat and don’t know what it tastes like, any meat that can advance my evolution is good meat.’

Ten years ago, during Blue Star’s great biological evolution, human evolution had a dividing line at age twenty-five. Those under twenty-five had a higher probability of achieving High Level Evolution, and for those who evolved before turning twenty-five, their Evolution Level could still increase.

In the tenth year of the Natural Disaster, scientists from Hua Country discovered through in-depth research that the current dividing line for human evolution was age thirty-five. If a person could consume sufficient energy before turning thirty-five, it was possible to trigger evolution and raise their Evolution Level.

The energy humans acquired came from edible food, and it required a balanced nutritional intake.

Xiaqing was only twenty-five this year; she could still raise her Evolution Level. That was why, back in the Safe Zone, she had spent almost all the points she earned on food. Now that she was out of the Safe Zone and had her own territory, she certainly wouldn’t deprive herself.