Chapter 1291: Pressure from the Wolf Pack

"Old Four isn't asleep yet? Why is your den still lit up at night?"

After returning to her territory, Xia Qing immediately called the old wolf of the southern wolf pack to share the good news she had just received.

The old wolf was silent for a few seconds, unsure how to answer such a complicated question, so it raised a paw and tapped the phone propped up in front of it on a phone stand.

After the screen finished rotating, Xia Qing saw five wolves nearby watching a laptop, paused for a moment, then greeted them, "Lord Cui Yan, Broken-Face, are you studying new knowledge?"

The Broken-Face little wolf grinned at Xia Qing on the screen, baring its little sharp fangs. The two wolves beside it, seeing a human appear in this cave, immediately let out fierce snarls and raised their paws to tear the phone apart, but were yelled into submission by the visibly irritated Lord Cui Yan.

Then, Old Four's solemn big head appeared on the phone screen again.

The wolf pack was studying, and Xia Qing didn't want to disturb them too much, so she got straight to the point. "Old Four, thanks to Third Brother and Yang Jin's efforts, the humans at Huiyi Base can no longer openly enter your territory. Stay peacefully within your territory. If you notice anything off, you can call me, or take photos and send them to me. Does Old Four still remember how to send photos?"

Old Four grinned, baring its fangs.

Old Four, who had already learned to nod, baring its fangs conveyed more than just "I remember" to her — it also conveyed its emotions. Xia Qing smiled gently too.

"Watching too many videos at night will hurt your eyes, and once your eyes are hurt you won't be able to see prey in the distance. If Old Four has time in the next couple of days, come over to my territory and we'll swap a lightbulb to install in your cave. That way watching videos at night won't hurt your eyes."

After Old Four hung up, Xia Qing sat quietly in the living room and, for the first time, clearly felt the pressure coming from the evolved wolf pack.

Because among the five wolves studying in the cliff cave on Mountain 22, two were ones Xia Qing hadn't seen before, so they weren't members of the southern wolf pack.

Wolves that can watch videos to learn knowledge must be brain-domain evolved wolves. Which wolf pack did they come from? Why did Old Four want them to study human knowledge? Without her explaining, how much could they actually learn? Could they learn it wrong?

As a disseminator of knowledge, what should she do next?

Xia Qing thought it over for a while, then picked up her phone again and dialed the head wolf of the northern wolf pack.

Somewhat unexpectedly, yet also reasonable — the one who answered wasn't the head wolf, but Broken-Waist Wolf. Behind it, Xia Qing saw the head wolf lazily resting its head on a crystal pillow, Little Wolf Brother squatting in front of a laptop studying hard, Black Wolf Little Four-Eyes looking very serious, and... Little Wolf Sister dozing off.

In front of the laptop were all cubs from the northern wolf pack — that was a relief...

But Little Four-Eyes being a brain-domain evolver too was somewhat beyond Xia Qing's expectations. Because its mother and its uncle didn't look very smart...

Xia Qing gave Broken-Waist Wolf the same instructions, telling it to come to her territory to pick up a lightbulb when it had time, then turned to look at the little monkey squatting on the tree fork in the corner of the wall.

The dazed little monkey obediently squatted on the tree fork, waiting for Xia Qing to speak. Xia Qing, weighed down with worries, looked at the little monkey for over ten seconds, but ultimately asked nothing. Instead, she turned and went to the storeroom, brought back a bundle of rattan, swiftly wove a nest for Daigua, lined it with a soft cotton pad, nailed it to the tree fork, and then placed Daigua inside.

"This is Daigua's nest. From now on, Daigua sleeps in the nest — it's more comfortable than lying on a tree fork." After making the nest, Xia Qing, whose mind had been weighed down with worries, went upstairs and lay on the bed. She ran through what she needed to do tomorrow in her head, and was asleep in less than a minute.

In the living room on the first floor, in the soft glow of the night light, the stunned little monkey slowly climbed out of the nest. Sheep Boss, lying on an ergonomically designed pillow, slept soundly without reacting. Wolf Lao Er, lying beside it with eyes closed, opened its eyes and looked at the little monkey.

The little monkey landed silently, took its little bag from the small cabinet under the tree fork, then fished out an apricot-kernel-sized fluorite stone from inside, crawled into the nest, and wedged the fluorite into the gaps between the rattan strips with its little black paws. Only then did it wrap its big tail around its body, lie comfortably in the nest, and close its eyes.

In the luxurious wooden nest hanging on the wall above it, a little squirrel clutching a walnut was sleeping soundly.

The next morning, Xia Qing opened her eyes and took a moment to gather herself before remembering she had moved the chickens to the breeding greenhouse, which was why their crowing wasn't as loud as the squabbling of the magpies and sparrows.

She sat up and opened the blackout curtains, and saw two red squirrels squatting on a tree fork a dozen or so meters away, wagging their tails at her. Qiang Zai hadn't gone out looking for food today, but had come over with its mother — it must be thirsty.

After quickly scanning her territory with her gaze, Xia Qing got up, got dressed, first put out pollution-free spring water for the two red squirrels, and then went to wash up.

When she came back, she found the water in the stone bowl outside the window had decreased a little, so she placed a yellow-light hickory nut on the outer windowsill.

The big red squirrel squatting on the tree fork got there first and snatched the hickory nut. Qiang Zai, who had lost weight after being knocked out by the plucked chick's toxic fumes, was so angry it squeaked furiously on the tree fork.

Xia Qing had long expected this outcome. She placed a green-light hickory nut on the windowsill. Before she could pull her hand back, Qiang Zai darted over and bit down on the hickory nut with a sharp click of its big front teeth. As it turned to flee, its fluffy big tail brushed against Xia Qing's fingers.

After Xia Qing folded the blankets, she found the big red squirrel had come back again, squatting on the tree fork wagging its tail at her, waiting for a free meal. She looked north, and sure enough saw a little red squirrel emerge from the tree hollow where the big red squirrel stored its food, a hickory nut in its mouth, and scurry away. Then another little red squirrel poked its head out of the tree hollow, grabbed a chestnut in its mouth, and ran toward the west buffer forest.

The whole squirrel family was working hard to stockpile food — she had to work hard too!

Xia Qing first put porridge on to cook, greeted Sheep Boss and Little Yellow Ox who were chewing cud in the sheep pen, and after leaving the village didn't run into Wolf Lao Er, who was out carrying a basket looking for bugs.

At this season, most bugs had burrowed into the soil to hibernate through winter, making them very hard to find, so Wolf Lao Er had left the territory and returned to the Evolution Forest to catch prey for its fish.

It left by climbing over the wall, so Xia Qing didn't hear the notification sound from the north gate.

Xia Qing patrolled to Shed No. 11 and greeted the little monkey squatting inside, "Daigua, did you find any sweet potatoes?"

"Eek!" Daigua immediately took out the sweet potato roots it had dug up from the basket beside it and showed them to Xia Qing.

Because this shed wasn't planted with overwintering wheat, it hadn't been touched after the sweet potatoes were harvested. Daigua had returned to the territory and remembered that Xia Qing had once dug up a lot of sweet potatoes from this plot. Yesterday it had gestured to Xia Qing with squeaks and babbles, indicating it wanted to dig for sweet potatoes.

Seeing over a dozen sweet potato roots in Daigua's basket, Xia Qing encouraged it a few times before heading toward the north buffer forest.

Today, she was going to harvest the thirty-plus Gao Yi Element green-light spinach plants in the terraced fields, to prepare for Zhang Han's entry into her territory.