Chapter 117: Cold Tossed Mixed Noodles

Soon, Xia Qing knew what this squirrel was doing in the bird's nest. Because the little rascal had actually hugged a big bundle of red-light tobacco leaves with its two short little arms, and after a few hops it vanished without a trace.

The red-light tobacco leaves were something she'd traded yellow-light mung beans for, so one trip by this rascal was equivalent to making off with dozens of yellow-light mung beans—worse than the last time it picked up wheat grains.

Catch it? Too fast, can't catch it.

Shoot it? With her current marksmanship she couldn't hit an animal this fast. Even if she could, this rascal isn't worth a single bullet.

Let it steal then, who asked it to be so easy on the eyes. Xia Qing consoled herself, took a bite of tomato, and continued chatting casually with Boss Sheep, "Alfalfa and perilla have both bloomed. They stink right now, but after a while when they set seed, we can plant even more perilla and alfalfa, and let Boss eat his fill."

Boss Sheep was in a good mood and let out a "Baa."

Xia Qing gazed at the cotton field full of blossoms for a while to rest her eyes, then started cursing the pumpkins, "Tended them for four months, the vines crawling everywhere, and damn it they just won't bloom or grow pumpkins. Why are we keeping them?"

Back in June, Xia Qing had sworn an oath that if the pumpkins didn't bloom next month she'd pull them up and feed them to the sheep. Now it's already mid-July, the pumpkins are still growing like crazy without blooming, and Xia Qing still can't bear to pull them up and feed them to the sheep.

Damn it!

Xia Qing, sulking because she couldn't catch the evolved squirrel thief and give it a beating, stood up and marched furiously toward the pumpkin field. Boss Sheep saw Xia Qing's momentum, thought something major had happened, stood up too and followed furiously.

Xia Qing waved at Boss Sheep, "Boss doesn't need to follow, you're the pillar of our territory, you need to save your strength for big things. You go catch bugs for the fish, and after you feed them, I'll make you some good concentrated feed."

After saying that, Xia Qing stuffed a small pack of compressed rations into the little pouch on Boss Sheep's neck, then rubbed its head and cooed softly, "Boss definitely won't stomp all the bugs to mush, right?"

Does that even need asking? Boss Sheep gave Xia Qing a look of contempt, and marched off proudly with the basket to catch bugs.

Such a large buffer forest—one lap around and she'd surely run into a few evolved beetles, crickets, centipedes, grasshoppers, and snakes. Boss Sheep could casually kill a few and toss them into the fish pond, enough for the few yellow-light and green-light fish.

Among the evolved animals of Territory Three, Boss Sheep is the most obedient. Xia Qing's mood improved, and she grabbed a knife and headed straight for the yellow-light pumpkin field.

The potatoes have bloomed, the perilla has bloomed, the alfalfa has bloomed, the peanuts have bloomed—even the bugs have eaten several baskets of them. Damn pumpkins have eaten so much fertilizer, Boss Sheep even broke a water bike trampling around watering them, and they still won't bloom!

If they won't bloom, why keep them—to look at the leaves? She has tens of thousands of acres of territory and mountain forest, is she short on leaves to look at?

Xia Qing crossed the potato field that had passed its flowering season, the sweet potato field where the tubers were already forming, and stopped beside the pumpkin field where every leaf was bigger than Boss Sheep's head. She picked out the tender shoots and tender leaves and chopped them down with a series of snips until she had a whole basketful.

The pumpkin vines were hacked up pitifully, Xia Qing's mood was comfortable now, and she carried the chopped tender shoots and tender leaves home to cook.

Today, Xia Qing decided to eat something different.

She first soaked several jin of wheat and mung beans in spring water, then took out the flour mill she'd traded for from the safe zone and set it up.

The sun had been strong these past few days, and the electricity from her five solar panels was more than enough. The storage battery was fully charged, enough to power a flour mill that could grind five jin of flour at a time.

Once the wheat and mung beans had finished soaking, she scooped them out and put them in the flour mill, set the time and speed according to the manual, and the six blades inside began spinning at high speed. After grinding, Xia Qing used the accompanying fine mesh sieve to sift the flour, and poured the seed husks that came out—that is, the bran—into Boss Sheep's food basin.

Then, she sealed half the flour, and to the other half added mountain spring water, stirred and kneaded it evenly, used her homemade rolling pin and cutting board to roll it into noodles, then lit a fire and blanched a handful of green beans, sliced a cucumber into shreds, and added a little oil and a few Sichuan peppercorns to a wok; once the oil was hot, she poured it over the salt water.

When the noodles were cooked through, she scooped them out, added the blanched green beans and raw cucumber shreds, then poured on the Sichuan peppercorn salt water, sesame oil, and vinegar. A bowl of cold tossed mixed noodles was ready.

The recipe for mixed noodles was shared today in the lord group chat by Qi Fu's wife Yuan Yan. Who knew that mixing mung beans with white flour to make noodles, then pairing them with fresh green beans and cucumber shreds, would be this delicious.

Xia Qing wasn't the only one eating mixed noodles for lunch today. Kuang Qingwei kept saying it was delicious, and Shi Zhong also shared in the group, "Too bad we don't have peanuts—otherwise we could first roast the peanuts, then use the flour mill to grind them into sesame paste, mix it into sesame paste noodles, and the flavor would be even better."

Tang Huai was also eating noodles for lunch today, "Add some white sesame seeds to the peanuts and grind them together, the flavor is more authentic. Is Crazy here? I remember you said Territory One has peanuts, can they be eaten soon?"

Before Hu Zifeng could respond, Zhang San lazily spoke up, "I've already reserved the peanuts from Territory One."

Tang Huai quickly explained, "I remember Third Brother reserved the peanuts from Territory One, I was just reminding on your behalf, so Hu Zifeng doesn't spend all his attention on the kittens and forget Third Brother's instructions."

Everyone...

Hu Zifeng wasn't around, Xia Qing guessed he was probably petting cats, heartache.

Luo Pei picked up the thread, "The peanuts in Territory One have already bloomed, once they're mature we'll send them over to Third Brother."

Third Brother came online, is Fourth Sister far behind? Xia Qing, eating her noodles, silently counted to three, and Li Si came online, "How many peanuts did Third Brother order, can the rest be traded to me?"

Zhang San was unhappy, "I've already ordered all of them."

"Okay." Li Si replied calmly.

Luo Pei gently explained, "Third Brother really did reserve the peanuts in Territory One long ago. The Green Dragon Squad also grew some peanuts, they can trade with Fourth Sister—how many do you need?"

Li Si declined as expected, "I'll trade with you when I need to."

What Li Si wanted were crops native to the surrounding territories, and she didn't hide her purpose at all. After all this time, no one knew what she'd detected through these crops.

Xia Qing heard the clopping sound, immediately set down the noodle basin, and carried Boss Sheep's food basin to its little table, "Concentrated feed made from pumpkin leaves, wheat, and mung bean husks—just missing Boss's rations."

Boss Sheep outside the door put down the little basket in its mouth, first rinsed its hooves in the water basin Xia Qing had prepared, then stepped on the grass mat beside it a few times to dry its hooves. While doing this, it kept squinting at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing immediately launched into a tidal wave of praise, "Boss is too amazing—not only does Boss catch bugs to feed the fish, Boss also cares about hygiene and loves being clean. Coming home, Boss knows to wash and dry its hooves without being told. The history of hygiene-conscious evolved sheep on Blue Star was pioneered by Boss..."

Boss Sheep was satisfied, nudged the screen door open with its head and came in. Xia Qing immediately took the rations out of the pouch on its body, tore them open, crumbled them, and mixed them into the grass feed in the food basin, "Boss has worked hard, please eat."

The grass today was different. Boss Sheep lowered its head to sniff, its eyes narrowed dangerously, and it started pawing the ground.

"Pumpkin vines not to your taste? Looks like Boss has eaten so much green-light grass that you look down on yellow-light now." Xia Qing immediately went to the kitchen and chopped up a yellow-light cucumber and a few green beans, put them in Boss Sheep's food basin, and started making a fuss, "The pumpkin vines grew too much and still won't bloom, so I chopped some back to teach them the consequences of only growing leaves and not blooming. Boss must eat them all clean, to let the ill-behaved pumpkins know who is the real boss of our Territory Three—if you don't bloom, you only get eaten!"

Boss Sheep squinted and sniffed, then started eating. But the cucumber and green beans were eaten clean, while the ill-behaved pumpkin vines—only the tenderest tips were picked out and eaten a few bites.