Chapter 122: The Boy Who Cried Wolf

After returning to her territory, Xia Qing first sprayed a round of deodorizer and insecticide along the edges, then checked all the traps she had set up, and still didn't feel at ease.

Just to be safe, she decided not to sleep tonight and to guard her territory well.

At times like this, she especially needed to keep up her nutrition and energy, so Xia Qing decided to dig up a potato and eat her fill.

Of the six jin of seed potatoes Xia Qing had planted in March, a total of one hundred and two pieces had sprouted; after losses from the Qiang Rain and other causes, only sixty plants remained, of which ten were tied with red string.

Within Territory Three, the vast majority of crops tied with red string were green-light, with only these ten yellow-light potato plants as the exception. Although they were yellow-light, they had the lowest Qiang element content among the sixty potato plants, so Xia Qing planned to keep these ten potatoes as seed potatoes and continue planting them next year.

Although potatoes had a high chance of undergoing dangerous aggressive Qiang evolution during the Qiang Rain, Xia Qing still wasn't willing to give up growing them. First, potatoes were delicious; second, her marksmanship had improved now, and if she encountered dancing potato vines again, she was confident she could take care of them with a single shot.

Harvesting potatoes excited Xia Qing as much as digging for treasure; she chose the plant with the most wilted leaves, cut away the potato vine with a knife, and began to dig carefully.

Afraid of damaging the potatoes, Xia Qing placed her shovel thirty centimeters away from the base of the potato vine. After the first shovelful of soil was tossed aside, she switched to a palm-sized seedling transplanting trowel and dug bit by bit.

When she saw the first potato, Xia Qing couldn't help cheering. Sheep Boss outside the shed heard the noise and poked his head in. Xia Qing held up the first, large potato in front of Sheep Boss. "Boss, look quick, a potato!"

Sheep Boss lifted his nose to sniff, then squinted his eyes to show his disdain.

Perfect that Sheep Boss didn't like it—she'd eat it all herself! Xia Qing set the fist-sized potato aside and kept digging, and cheers kept coming from inside the shed. "This one must be half a jin."

"Much bigger than the seed potatoes I planted—this one has to be at least three liang."

One potato plant grew a total of nine potatoes, big and small; Xia Qing didn't know if that yield counted as high or low, but she was already very satisfied.

She carefully placed the potatoes in a basket for Sheep Boss to carry, and when passing the chicken shed, Xia Qing picked up the chicken that had already gone into its coop, and the two of them—one person, one sheep—headed home together.

Back home, Xia Qing put the chicken into the sheep shed originally built for Sheep Boss. The floor and walls of the sheep shed had been hardened with cement, so once the iron door was locked, she didn't have to worry about evolved animals sneaking in to steal the chicken in the middle of the night.

Back inside the house, Xia Qing first weighed the potatoes. Nine potatoes totaled eight and a half jin, which meant her sixty plants might yield five hundred jin of potatoes.

Five hundred jin!

Xia Qing hummed a little tune as she steamed the rice, washed two potatoes and cut them open, first taking the potato juice to test the Qiang element content. Same as the sap from the potato vines that had grown the potatoes: eight parts per thousand, yellow-light, edible.

Xia Qing happily peeled the potatoes and cut them into shreds, added a dried small red chili and stir-fried for a few moments before splashing in some vinegar; the sour-spicy smell filling the kitchen made Xia Qing sneeze uncontrollably.

The smell drifted into the living room, and Sheep Boss was also stimulated into a sneeze: "Maa!!"

Sheep Boss didn't like it, but Xia Qing thoroughly enjoyed this whiff of everyday life. After stir-frying the shredded potatoes and steaming the rice, Xia Qing mixed a basin of concentrate feed for Sheep Boss. "Boss, time to eat!"

One person and one sheep dined at two separate tables; sitting at the dining table, Xia Qing took a bite of shredded potato and blissfully narrowed her eyes. Sour and spicy shredded potatoes were the kind of dish that tasted great even without any cooking skill.

The shredded potatoes she stir-fried were too delicious!

Next year she would plant more potatoes and eat them every day.

To eat potatoes every day, she had to find a way to store fresh potatoes long-term. After the meal, while washing the dishes, Xia Qing kept thinking about the potato storage problem.

Based on the exchanges in the lord group chat, the potatoes preserved within her territory should be the most among Territories Three, Four, Five, Six, and Ten. That was because when the potato vines in the other territories underwent dangerous Qiang evolution, they had all destroyed the rain shelters.

So among these lords, only Xia Qing might have a need to store potatoes.

In this situation, asking in the group how to store potatoes would only invite envy and bring trouble on herself. Xia Qing had two people she could turn to for help: her idol Zhang San and her teacher Luo Pei.

Xia Qing decided to ask Luo Pei this time, because the Azure Dragon Squad had already developed Territory One into a thousand-mu planting zone, so they must have a way to store vegetables.

Xia Qing planned to pay points to store her potatoes in the storage room of Territory One, so she could take some out whenever she wanted to eat.

Just as she made up her mind, Xia Qing received a message from Luo Pei. The survey of Mountain Fifty-Five had yielded results: it had been a large-scale battle between a wolf pack, a snake group, and Xiong Qun, and the fighting was now over and would not spread to Mountain Forty-Nine.

Xia Qing couldn't imagine what a three-way melee between wolves, snakes, and bears would look like, let alone guess why these three species were fighting.

Fighting over territory? Scrambling for resources? Which group won?

Xia Qing naturally hoped the wolf pack had won, because that way no wolves would flee to Territory Three to compete with her for land.

After finishing her nightly routine training, Xia Qing carefully patrolled her territory once more, checked every sound trap in each spot, and only then returned home, put on her protective suit, lay in bed, and rested with her eyes closed.

In the middle of the night, the sound of Sheep Boss moving about downstairs and opening the security door came: "Click, creak—bang."

Although Sheep Boss didn't eat at night, he did ruminate and also needed to relieve himself. His schedule was very regular, and Xia Qing was already used to it.

Just as she was drifting between sleep and waking, she suddenly heard a crisp "ding"—something had tripped the silk thread of the sound trap outside the courtyard!

Xia Qing was instantly wide awake; she grabbed her gun, got up, rushed to the window in the second-floor living room, and pulled back the blackout curtain, and then she heard the low call of a wolf.

"Aooo—"

It had finally come, and Xia Qing felt, strangely, as if a great stone had dropped to the ground inside her.

"Maa!"

Sheep Boss, who had just finished relieving himself in the yard, excitedly answered, fumbled his way over in the dark, and with one hoof pressed down the courtyard gate latch and pushed the wooden door open—Xia Qing couldn't stop him in time.

Not knowing how many wolves had come, Xia Qing brought two guns and over two hundred rounds of ammunition, plus three knives, before going downstairs and out of the house; after seeing the situation outside the courtyard clearly, Xia Qing was stunned.

This… what situation is this?

In the dark of night, the snow-white Sheep Boss was affectionately nuzzling a wolf with a notch on the outer side of its left ear. Xia Qing had already anticipated a scene of sheep-and-wolf affection; although it was even more eye-searing than the sour and spicy shredded potatoes at night, it wasn't enough to shock her.

The four glowing green wolf-eyes behind the lead wolf didn't shock her either, because she had already guessed the lead wolf would bring a pack to contest her territory.

But why were there two more wolves carrying two others on their backs?

What are they carrying—bei? Working together in collusion?

One person facing six glowing green wolf-eyes, Xia Qing gripped her weapons and stepped forward very calmly; once the wolf pack began to attack, she would immediately seize the high ground here and use her guns to seal off and wipe out the wolf pack.

Thanks to readers Dayu'er and 8084 for their tips, and thanks to everyone for your subscriptions, comments, monthly votes, and recommendation ticket support.

Good morning