Chapter 58: Mountains Aren’t Actually Worth Much

Chapter 58: Chapter 58: Mountains Aren’t Actually Worth Much

’It’s finally time for the most critical part!’

Xiaqing surreptitiously wiped her sweaty palms on her legs hidden under the table before using both hands to solemnly accept the usage rights certificate for Mountain No. 49 and the two contracts.

The certificate’s material, size, and seal were identical to her Lord certificate—it was clearly authentic. It was marked with precise longitude, latitude, and area. The differences were that her certificates for the land-use rights to the Third Territory and the High Slope had no expiration date, while the usage rights for Mountain No. 49 were for one hundred years. Her territory’s area was seven thousand five hundred mu, while Mountain No. 49’s planar area was one hundred eighty thousand mu. The name on her two territory certificates was hers, while the one for Mountain No. 49 listed the Green Dragon Team.

According to the precise longitude and latitude, Mountain No. 49 was twelve kilometers long from east to west and ten kilometers wide from north to south, with a planar area of one hundred and twenty square kilometers, which equated to one hundred and eighty thousand mu. The main peak of Mountain No. 49 was nearly two thousand meters high, and its surface area was countless times greater than its planar area.

She was about to become the owner of this mountain for the next hundred years. ’The mountain will be mine until I’m one hundred and twenty-five?’

Even holding the certificate, it didn’t feel real to Xiaqing at all. She handed the usage rights certificate back to Yang Jin and asked, "Captain Yang, buying this mountain must have taken a lot of effort. How many points did it cost?"

Yang Jin smiled. "We traded for it with supplies. Converted to points, it was one million, one hundred thousand."

’How... how much?!!!’

Xiaqing’s eyes instantly went wide.

Yang Jin raised a hand to refill Xiaqing’s tea from across the small table. He waited until the gentle sound of the pouring liquid seemed to coax the soul of the adorable girl opposite him back from its shock before continuing in a calm, unhurried tone, "Of those points, three hundred thousand were just the base giving the Green Dragon Team a hard time. That has nothing to do with you. So, the actual price of Mountain No. 49 is eight hundred thousand."

’Eight hundred thousand... that’s still a lot...’

At this moment, the fact that she was about to own a mountain finally hit Xiaqing with an incredibly heavy sense of reality: just when she was about to achieve a comfortable life, she was now going to be in debt by eight hundred thousand points.

Yang Jin read her expression and helped her analyze the situation. "Eight hundred thousand for a hundred years. That’s eight thousand points a year. It’s already very cheap."

’Cheap?’ Xiaqing, who used to earn only five points a day on a construction crew, nodded numbly. "Thank you for the reminder, Captain Yang. Shall we sign the contract now?"

Yang Jin smiled. "Brother Luo, please record this with your phone."

Recording the contract signing was also Xiaqing’s idea.

As the weaker party in this transaction, she had to have video evidence of the Green Dragon Team selling her the mountain, in addition to the contract itself. Otherwise, if the Green Dragon Team went back on their word later, even if she took them to court with the sales contract, everyone in the base would assume she had forged it.

Having video evidence changed everything. If it came to that, she would only need to release the video to ruin the reputations of the Green Dragon Team’s three leaders.

With the video recording, Xiaqing signed the two copies of the sales contract and the sublease contract, then exchanged them with Yang Jin for their respective signatures. Afterward, she held up the contract to display it for the phone’s camera.

Her side involved signing and adding a thumbprint, while the Green Dragon Team’s side had the signatures of Yang Jin, Xie Yu, and Luo Pei, plus the official seal. After the contracts were signed, Luo Pei saved the video to a USB drive and gave it to Xiaqing.

Once the contracts were signed, Xiaqing got right back to the business of earning points, continuing her negotiations with Yang Jin. "Captain Yang, for the edible food you’ll be purchasing from my territory, can we set the price according to the market rate in the Safe Zone?"

Yang Jin agreed. "That’s fine."

"And if you need to use my spring water, how should we price it?" The spring water was highly sought after, with no public trading price on the market. Xiaqing knew that to treat Luo Pei, Yang Jin had once traded for two crates of Pollution-free Spring Water from Fire Phoenix at Hui Yi Base One.

’Since it can be traded, it must have a price that can be used as a reference.’

"We can reference the public sale price of the spring water from the Fiery Fire Team at Hui Yi Base. What do you think?"

Yang Jin’s answer was just as Xiaqing had expected. She nodded and continued, "Captain Yang, is my spring water better quality or is the Fiery Fire Team’s?"

Yang Jin answered directly, "Yours is."

The quality of spring water was primarily determined by two factors: first, its content of Harmful Element and radioactive elements, and second, its content of Yi Element and other elements beneficial to the human body. The lower the former and the higher the latter, the more superior the spring water’s performance in cultivating plants and treating Qiang Synthesized Poison.

Xiaqing stated a price she could accept. "My spring water is better quality, so it should be priced higher than Fiery Fire’s. But I don’t have the Fiery Fire Team’s strength, and I need the Green Dragon Team’s help to protect the secret of my spring. Therefore, I’ll price my water twenty percent lower than the Fiery Fire Team’s, and for now, I’ll only trade with the Green Dragon Team. Is that acceptable?"

Seeing Yang Jin staring at her with those handsome, soul-stirring eyes, Xiaqing tensed her face and firmly resisted the temptation. "This is the price. I can’t go any lower!"

’Any lower, and it would take forever to pay off the eight hundred thousand points she owed the Green Dragon Team.’

’Good looks were certainly tempting, but they couldn’t earn her a single point or a single grain of food. Between good looks and points, Xiaqing would of course choose the latter without hesitation.’

Yang Jin, who had originally planned to propose trading at the Fiery Fire Team’s price, broke into a wide grin. "The Fiery Fire Team’s current price for spring water is 180 points per liter. So you’re setting yours at 144?"

"Yes." Xiaqing lowered her eyelids, her head feeling a bit dizzy from his good looks, unable to figure out what 800,000 divided by 144 was.

Yang Jin cleared up her confusion. "If the full eight hundred thousand is paid in spring water, at the current price, that would be five thousand, five hundred and fifty-five liters of spring water."

’Five thousand, five hundred and fifty-five liters?’ Xiaqing quickly did the math in her head.

’Five thousand, five hundred and fifty-five liters was about twenty-eight days of output from my spring, one-third of the amount of water used to save Luo Pei, and the price of a mountain...’

’So, curing the poison in Luo Pei’s body would take the equivalent of three Mountain No. 49s!’

’So, the three guns, nine hundred bullets, eight Green Light saplings, and ten security guards that Yang Jin had traded me last time were worth three mountains!’

With that comparison, Xiaqing suddenly felt that mountains weren’t actually that valuable, and eight hundred thousand... wasn’t such a huge debt after all...

Her back straightened, her shoulders relaxed, and a relieved expression appeared on her face.

The smile in Yang Jin’s eyes deepened as he continued the negotiations. "After Brother Luo leaves the Third Territory, can the Green Dragon Team exchange for three hundred liters of spring water from you on the first of every month? If someone else in the team gets hit with Qiang Synthesized Poison, we can discuss the amount of water needed then."

Xiaqing’s spring could produce three hundred liters of water in a single day. Yang Jin asking for three hundred liters a month was a quantity Xiaqing could easily accept. "Okay. But if it’s for detoxification, the maximum amount of water used cannot exceed what Brother Luo used this time."

Not everyone was important enough for an enemy to go to such lengths to poison them so severely. Yang Jin nodded. "Of course. It definitely won’t exceed Brother Luo’s usage. Also, for the vegetables, grains, vegetable seeds, and grain seeds you grow in your territory, if you decide to trade them, I hope you’ll consider the Green Dragon Team as a potential partner."

"Okay." Xiaqing agreed. For now, she wanted to keep her identity under wraps, and trading with the Green Dragon Team was the best option.