Bartering was the primary method of goods circulation after currency became obsolete. This time, Tan Junjie didn't refuse. "What do you want to exchange?"
Xia Qing tentatively asked, "Do you have sweet potato seeds?"
Tan Junjie nodded. "Tiger, calculate it."
"Yes."
The young team member called Tiger immediately pulled out a detector and scale, tested and weighed the captured animals, and promptly gave out the points: "Five red lantern snakes weighing five jin, 100 points; one evolved red lantern snake weighing four jin, 120 points; one yellow lantern snake weighing one and a half jin, 75 points; two evolved poisonous centipedes that can be used in medicine weighing six jin, 300 points, totaling 595 points."
The inspection team used a high-end detector, much better than Xia Qing's ordinary one. The advanced detector, only the size of a palm, could not only distinguish between edible and inedible organisms but also display the content of harmful substances, indicating safe and optional food with green and yellow lights respectively.
Tan Chunjie asked Xia Qing, who was staring at the detector, "The sweet potatoes from the army are safe food. These points can be exchanged for two sweet potatoes or six sweet potato seedlings. Which do you choose?"
One hundred points for each safe sweet potato seedling—expensive, but worth the price. Xia Qing had never handled sweet potato seedling cultivation before, so she opted for the safer option, "I choose sweet potato seedlings. Captain Tan, if I hunt another animal, can I exchange it for sweet potato seedlings with you?"
Tan Chunjie nodded, giving a warning: "Do not enter areas outside the isolation zone."
"Yes, sir!" Xia Qing responded loudly, clearly not paying attention.
"Captain, the lord of Plot Four has already notified us that we can enter." The team member who had gone to inform the lord of Plot Four returned and reported to Tan Chunjie.
After Tan Junjie led the team east into Buffer Forest No. 4, Xia Qing walked south along the narrow valley separating the two buffer forests, which also marked the boundary between the two plots of land.
A short while later, she heard Su Ming whisper, "Captain, it's so hard for Xia Qing to farm all by herself. Let's give her a few more sweet potato seedlings."
Tan Junjie retorted, "Use your points to exchange for them?"
Then, there was silence.
Xia Qing smiled, walked out of the buffer forest along the valley, took off her protective mask, and headed straight for the four mu of land she had just plowed.
With six more sweet potato seedlings, she needed to plow an extra half mu!
Six sweet potato seedlings wouldn't take up much space, but catching that sheep would bring in more seedlings. Even if she couldn't catch the sheep, once the six seedlings took root and started climbing, she could propagate them using the vines and have a sweet potato field.
The more Xia Qing thought about it, the more energetic she felt. She plowed an entire mu of land in one go before stopping to go home for dinner. She didn't hear any loud noises coming from plot number four, meaning the search team hadn't found any sheep in the buffer zone, so she still had hope.
After a quick lunch at home, Xia Qing, like a tireless spinning top, went to tidy up the two abandoned courtyards to the west.
She collected the remains, dug a pit, and buried them; burned the weeds to make potash fertilizer; put everything usable in the neighboring warehouse to the east; and piled up construction waste.
This way, she now had two vegetable gardens very close to her home.
After tidying everything up, Xia Qing went home and luxuriously took a spring bath, then washed her clothes with filtered water and hung them to dry before changing into her protective suit and going to the back mountain to fetch water.
Because the search team included a person with enhanced hearing, Xia Qing was afraid he would hear the sound of the spring, so she deliberately avoided the woods near the spring.
She didn't want anyone to know about the drinking spring in the territory, so she was always very careful when fetching water, hiding the water bucket in her backpack.
Upon reaching the mountain, Xia Qing regretfully discovered that the stone slab still blocked the cave entrance, and the sheep and weasel hadn't come to drink water again. Filling her water tank and returning home, Xia Qing cooked while listening to the 7 PM broadcast.
The 7 PM broadcast, as usual, began with uplifting news from across China, followed by news and announcements from the Hui San Base. Xia Qing listened attentively.
The announcement mentioned that temperatures would rise eight degrees Celsius over the next three days, followed by the first heavy rainfall of the year. The rain would be suitable for sowing spring wheat, and everyone was urged to seize the opportunity and not miss the planting season.
Her land had been tilled too early.
Already in bed, Xia Qing smiled indifferently, deciding to till another plot of land and plant wheat after the rain. The already tilled land wouldn't go to waste; it would be planted sooner or later anyway.
Xia Qing planned to explore the Evolution Forest north of Area 3 during these three days before the rain.
Last winter, the Hui San Base had extended the isolation zone outside the safe zone by seventy kilometers. No one had entered the Evolution Forest outside this area since the natural disaster. The untouched evolutionary forest, teeming with both danger and allure, was a tempting place for Xia Qing, who was currently starving and most susceptible to temptation.
Her buffer forest and village had already been thoroughly searched by humans; all the animals had been exterminated, and the plants had been thoroughly inspected, making any further discoveries impossible.
She decided to act immediately.
Early the next morning, Xia Qing, fully equipped, traversed the buffer forest and isolation zone, entering the densely forested evolutionary forest.
After the catastrophe, the temperature difference between seasons on Blue Star had increased by at least fifteen degrees Celsius, but the cold resistance of the evolutionary plants had also improved, and by mid-February, everything was lush and green. However, most animals maintained their original habits, hibernating and resting during the winter. They would emerge to reproduce when temperatures rose and rainfall increased.
These three days were much safer than later.
But Xia Qing still kept her sight and hearing sharp, cautiously exploring deeper into the forest with her machete.
She discovered that this evolutionary forest had also been within human activity range before the catastrophe. Terraced fields lined the hillsides, and collapsed houses dotted the flat, open mountaintops.
In such areas, the likelihood of finding edible plants is much higher than in uncultivated wild forests. Eighty percent of the safe food found by the exploration team comes from these types of areas.
An hour and a half later, Xia Qing had a haul.
She found several small green shoots, about the height of a finger, that showed a green light on their indicator. Xia Qing carefully removed the soil around the shoots, and her eyes lit up.
Ginger!
A piece of ginger that had sprouted!
Take it!
Because evolved plants may mutate when removed from their original growing environment, Xia Qing dug it up along with the soil from which it grew, wrapped it up, and put it in her basket to preserve its growing environment as much as possible.
After climbing three more terraced fields, catching two snakes, scaring away a group of mice and squirrels, and crushing several insects that tried to bite her, Xia Qing finally had her second find.
A clump of garlic sprouts that showed a green light.
Onions, ginger, and garlic are essential for cooking; now she only needed one. But for the next hour, Xia Qing searched from the terraced fields to the collapsed yard, but didn't find a single garlic sprout.
Could it be that the scallions haven't sprouted yet?
Xia Qing continued exploring and discovered a tall Chinese toon tree outside the collapsed courtyard wall, which she initially determined to be an edible plant.
Because the buds on the Chinese toon seedlings sprouting around the tree had been gnawed away by some animal.
After carefully checking the tree for snakes and insects, Xia Qing climbed up and picked a cluster of deep red Chinese toon buds. She squeezed the juice into the detector port, and sure enough, a green light lit up after a dozen seconds.
Such a large, edible Chinese toon tree!
What a series of surprises! Xia Qing smiled brightly; in only five days since entering the territory, she had smiled more often than in the previous six months.
She had just picked a few clusters of Chinese toon buds when she heard the sound of a large animal moving about thirty meters away.
It was too late to escape. Xia Qing leaned against the tree trunk, holding her breath and observing.
The sound grew closer, and a dirty, white-haired, fat sheep emerged from the green grass.
This sheep was very large; it was probably an evolved sheep. Xia Qing examined its hooves and was pretty sure this was the same sheep that had come to her territory to dig up rocks and drink from the spring.
So, the sheep she hadn't seen while guarding the burrow had come looking for her under the tree?
Xia Qing gripped her machete, preparing to attack (ambush).
The sheep that had emerged raised its head, its gaze fixed precisely on Xia Qing hiding in the tree, its eyes slightly narrowed.
Xia Qing actually saw blatant contempt in the sheep's eyes.
Damn!
Could this sheep be one of the rarest brain-evolving creatures?