The Deal with the Lou Family

"Me too, it smelled so good back then that my mouth was watering, and it still does now, hehe." Third Cub wiped his mouth and looked at Tao Qiu, who was focused on grilling the meat.

Tao Qiu said, "If you like it, Dad will bake lots of it so my darlings can all eat their fill."

"Okay? Yay, thank you, Dad."

"Dad is the best!"

The kids had eaten a lot tonight, so Tao Qiu led them for a walk at the bottom of the valley to digest their food. After they washed up, they went back to the cave to rest.

After arriving at the base, the kids slept in separate rooms from Tao Qiu. Although they could often sleep with their two dads, it was still different from when they were in the cave.

The three children snuggled into Tao Qiu, listened to his bedtime story, and then fell asleep happily with smiles on their faces.

The next day, after breakfast, Tao Qiu and her children pulled weeds, hoeed the ground, sowed seeds, covered the soil, and watered. They worked all day and finally managed to plant all the crops.

The next day, the sun shone brightly. Tao Qiu channeled his powers into the crops, and the children played on the grass and in the pond, as if they had returned to their lives before going to the base.

Five days later, Lou Yu finally came out to pick up Tao Qiu and the children at the agreed time to go home.

Half a month later, the first batch of crops that Tao Qiu planted in the planting area matured, including staple foods, fruits and vegetables, all of which were supplied to the army canteen.

The second wave will involve planting even more grains, mostly rice and wheat, as these will be mixed with regular grains and sold to the local population.

Besides working in the planting area every week, Tao Qiu would also take two or three days to go back to the territory to patrol and maintain the crops at the bottom of the valley. Sometimes the kids would go back with him and sometimes they wouldn't. In any case, Tao Qiu's life was busy and fulfilling.

Although Tao Qiu was away most of the time, with the Green Python, Black Rabbit, and fox in charge, no reckless mutated monsters dared to steal crops from the valley.

After the crops at the bottom of the valley grew, Tao Qiu distributed most of them to his three mutated monster friends, and only took the remaining small portion back to the base to eat himself.

In June, with the new grain hitting the market, perhaps as a rebound from the bottom, the common crops in the planting areas showed no signs of disease or reduced yield, and all grew normally to harvest time.

The batch of crops used for testing has also matured. The crops grown by Tao Qiu's superpower, without his superpower's involvement, were indeed affected by the soil and water containing mutated energy during their second growth, resulting in reduced yield, taste, and aroma.

The planting area plans to continue testing to see how many generations it will take for the special crop to become a common crop.

After the harvest, Lou Quan will pay off all the grain debts. The Central Base's debt will be fully repaid in one lump sum, while the Yongkang Base's debt, which was still a little short after the previous repayment, will be made up this time.

Of course, what was returned were all ordinary crops.

The remaining rice and wheat, mixed with the special crops grown by Tao Qiu, were sold to the residents of his base.

The residents then discovered that, following flour, rice had also become even more delicious.

People couldn't help but sigh.

"Perhaps this is God's test for our Yong'an Base. Look, we've survived several seasons of reduced grain yields, and now what we're growing is all good stuff."

"That's good? Even the Central Base doesn't have rice and wheat like that, does it?"

"Absolutely not. I've been to the Central Base once before and eaten there. To be honest, the rice and noodles there don't taste even a third as good as ours."

This statement is obviously an exaggeration, but it also proves how popular the rice and noodles were this time.

Previously, the Central Base had been dominating the satellite base in every aspect, and the people at the satellite base were discriminated against and looked down upon, yet they were powerless to do anything about it.

Now that they finally have something that surpasses the Central Base, the residents of Yong'an Base feel a sense of pride and walk with a swagger.

It was early summer, the sun was warm but not scorching. Tao Qiu had just finished a busy period and was on holiday today, leisurely lying on a rocking chair in the shade of a tree, taking a nap.

After spring warmed up, Tao Qiu and his family put the renovation of their courtyard on the agenda.

The straight path leading from the courtyard gate to the house was paved with stone slabs, and grass seeds brought by Tao Qiu from the wild were scattered on both sides of the path. There were also small flower beds and a pond in the middle of the grass, and two evergreen trees were planted near the corner of the courtyard, which were perfect for providing shade.

Because Tao Qiu occasionally transferred some supernatural abilities to them, the flowers, plants, and trees all grew lush and green. The neighbors were pleased to see this and even consulted Tao Qiu and Lou Yu about planting techniques.

Three coolly dressed children were sitting by the small pond, playing with small boats. Tao Qiu had told them beforehand that she was just resting with her eyes closed, not sleeping, and that they could talk and laugh normally. So, every now and then, a few clear, bell-like laughs would drift into Tao Qiu's ears.

Tao Qiu had keen hearing; he could hear both the children's laughter and the approaching footsteps.

He squinted and looked over. Lou Yu walked slowly toward him with his back to the sunlight, his eyebrows and eyes full of smiles.

When the children saw Lou Yu return, they called out "Dad!" and went back to playing. Lou Yu went to the rocking chair, leaned down, and kissed Tao Qiu's lips.

Tao Qiu hooked her arms around his neck, and the two kissed in that position for three minutes.

The kids are all very sensible; they didn't turn around to look this way.

After they parted ways, Lou Yu sat down next to Tao Qiu and explained, "I had nothing to do today, so I left work early."

Tao Qiu gave a lazy "hmm" and asked, "I heard that something unusual has been discovered with the rice and flour at the Central Base. What does Lou Quan plan to do?"

Chapter 103 The Deal with the Lou Family

Lou Yu calmly revealed a bombshell. "We've taken control of all the remaining Lou Family spies in the base."

"Hmm?" Tao Qiu perked up at the question, her eyes opening wide. "Tell me in detail."

Lou Yu said, "Actually, ever since the forces of several families were purged from the base last year, we've been secretly keeping an eye on the remaining spies of the Lou Family, preparing to seize the opportunity to take them down in one fell swoop..."

These informants are all human beings, and human beings have weaknesses. Some are greedy and lustful, some are afraid of death, and some value their family members as their own lives.

During this period, Lou Quan spent a lot of effort to thoroughly investigate the backgrounds of those informants. Those who were greedy and lustful were targeted, so a trap was set for them. They were all in the Yong'an Base, and the bait was laid; the fish would take the bait.

He became increasingly entangled in the casino, eventually accumulating huge gambling debts and becoming entangled with multiple lovers, severely disrupting his informants' ability to carry out their mission.

These problems aren't fatal; he can escape gambling debts and romantic entanglements. But if his superiors find out he's not focusing on his work and has caused so much trouble, he'll definitely be in trouble.

If you don't want to be abandoned by your superiors, then secretly switch allegiance to another master and obediently follow their orders.

Those who are afraid of death are already at the Yong'an Base; they're constantly making decisions based on a single thought between Lou Quan and Lou Yu.

Lou Quan and Lou Yu both Lou Family and are highly regarded by several of the old men. Even if they kill a few spies, the old men won't hold it against them.

These kinds of people are adept at changing their tune depending on the wind, making them the easiest to manipulate.

As for those who have something on their hands, or whose close associates are in the hands of their former masters and have no choice but to obey orders, turning them against their masters is neither easy nor simple.

It's not simple; getting leverage from his former master or rescuing his family might be a complicated process. The simplest solution is to achieve the former, and he'll become obedient.

These informants monitored and hindered each other, so the only way to succeed was to turn them all against their masters, which is why it took Lou Quan a considerable amount of time to complete the task.

Now those informants are his own people, and Lou Quan has gotten a lot of information from them.

In fact, when the first batch of flour hit the market last winter, its unique smell caught the attention of informants, who reported it.

What's funny is that those people up there have an inflated sense of self-importance, believing that the people at the Yong'an Base are just boasting about how delicious the new food is because they've been starving for so long and suddenly received some.

After all, the highest quality things, including grain, are only available at the Central Base. They've seen plenty of shoddy produce grown at the satellite base over the years; these "country bumpkins" are just making a fuss.

Those above completely ignored the fact that their informants also came from the Central Base. This statement was undoubtedly a mockery of these informants, implying that their tastes had deteriorated since arriving at the Yong'an Base. The informants were both ashamed and angry, but dared not refute it, so they did not insist that there was a problem with the flour.

However, the Yong'an Base had promised a reduction in grain production, but then a new batch of grain suddenly appeared, which certainly attracted the attention of those above.

However, after its power dwindled significantly, it became much harder for its spies to gather information. Unable to find the source of the flour, they could only speculate that it was borrowed from other satellite bases by the Yong'an Base.

Until the new year, the grain production at the Yong'an Base increased significantly. Not only was the grain borrowed from the Central Base and the Yongkang Base returned in one go, but the remaining amount was even available for residents to purchase without any limit.

The old men thought the planting area of Yong'an Base would never recover, and they wanted to use the pretext of borrowing grain to squeeze Lou Quan and Lou Yu a few more times, but they didn't expect that the two of them didn't give them that chance at all.

In addition, their informants reported again that the same delicious flour as last year had appeared on the market at the Yong'an Base, and this time rice was also included, which made the higher-ups pay a little more attention.

Lou Quan had already purged the informants who had been planted in various departments of the base; the informants now could only gather superficial information.

The news about grain was almost all related to Tao Qiu.

Last year's delicious flour only appeared after Tao Qiu and her three children came to the base; Tao Qiu works in the planting area and seems to be highly valued by Lou Quan; the aroma of delicious food often wafts from Tao Qiu and Lou Yu's home.

Before their informants could even uncover Tao Qiu's identity and true position in the planting area, and only had time to report the information to their superiors, they were forced to submit to Lou Quan.

Lou Yu told Tao Qiu everything he had seen and heard over the past two days, while reassuring him, "Don't worry, Lou Quan said he has a way to dispel the doubts from above, and we should have results in a few days."

In terms of strategy, Tao Qiu still trusted Lou Quan, and upon hearing this, she was no longer worried.

Three days later, Lou Quan came to Tao Qiu's house in person and told her his plans.