Chapter 1411: Employee No. 002 Who Learned to Weed and Loosen Soil

After finishing a hearty dinner with Dajiang and Chen Cheng, Xia Qing arranged the evening watch and left the conference room to patrol the territory, only to find Wolf Lao Er standing outside the door waiting for her.

Seeing Wolf Lao Er's spirited appearance, Xia Qing, who was wearing three layers of clothing, once again deeply appreciated the benefits of having a thick coat of fur.

Knowing Wolf Lao Er wasn't cold, Xia Qing still couldn't bear to let it walk through the howling wind on thirty centimeters of packed snow, where getting bitten by snow-jumping bugs would also hurt terribly.

Picking up Wolf Lao Er and heading toward the breeding greenhouse, Xia Qing asked, "Who helped Wolf Lao Er take off its protective suit? Was it Does Daigua?"

Being held, Wolf Lao Er sniffed Xia Qing's protective mask and smiled happily at her, the cold air liquefying the water vapor it exhaled into a puff of white mist.

In the basement, little Ye Yiyi, with fewer bandages on her face, gently reached out to touch the fluffy evolved wolf held by Auntie Qing on the screen.

Zhang Shiyi held a straw to her lips and discussed with her, "Yiyi, drink some of the fresh-squeezed dragon fruit juice Auntie Qing brought back. Later I'll take you outside to see the snow, okay?"

Little Ye Yiyi took a sip of juice, and her eyes lit up.

Holding Wolf Lao Er as she walked through the packed snow, Xia Qing wasn't sure whether it understood her meaning, but it was certainly very happy right now, and that was enough. "If Wolf Lao Er doesn't like wearing the protective suit, then don't wear it. Come on, let's go see what Lao Da and the others are doing."

After entering the small room beside the greenhouse, Xia Qing set Wolf Lao Er down. She first cleaned the snowflakes from its fur, then sprayed it with pest-control agent, then sprayed disinfectant all over her own protective suit, and only then took off the suit and hung it on the wall, before lifting the thick straw curtain and plastic sheet curtain to enter the greenhouse protected on three sides by one-meter-thick earthen walls embedded with insulation panels.

"Lao Da, Little Feimao, Does Daigua, Does Ergua, Little Huang Niu, Wolf Lao Er and I are back!"

Hearing how happy Xia Qing was, Wolf Lao Er, following beside her, grinned and wagged its tail once.

"Baa." Sheep Lao Da, lying beside Little Huang Niu chewing its cud, replied casually—it was obvious it was in a good mood.

"Yi." Does Daigua, who was playing on a phone, looked up and greeted Xia Qing. Does Ergua, squeezed beside it, also looked up and stared blankly at Xia Qing.

Little Feimao came straight over carrying a bundle of strong-being fur it had tidied up, and burrowed into Xia Qing's pocket. Compared to the luxurious wooden nest hanging on the greenhouse earthen wall, Little Feimao clearly preferred Xia Qing's clothing pocket.

Xia Qing patted the little bulge on her protective suit pocket, fetched some water to first wash clean the fur around Sheep Lao Da's mouth that had been dyed red by dragon fruit, then took away Does Daigua's phone and made the two Does wash their mouths clean.

Xia Qing checked Does Daigua's phone and found it was watching a video introducing planting knowledge, which made her very gratified.

She checked the status of Little Huang Niu, the chickens, the mealworms, and the spring-water fish, and strolling to the edge of the vegetable beds, she saw a cucumber seedling that had been quite vigorous that morning now wilted. Her heart immediately clenched, and she hurried over to investigate.

Does Daigua, who was washing its mouth, saw Xia Qing go look at the seedlings and guiltily burrowed into the tree nest. Seeing Does Daigua stop playing with water, Does Ergua followed it and burrowed into the tree nest too.

The cut on the main stem of the melon seedling was very neat, as if sliced by a knife. Xia Qing looked at the small patch of loosened soil in the vegetable bed and the little monkey footprints beside it, then turned her head and asked gently, "Does Daigua loosened the soil in the vegetable bed today?"

It took Does Daigua a long time to poke its head out of the tree nest, staring blankly at Xia Qing.

Its face really did look like it deserved a smack, but Xia Qing's voice remained gentle. "Our vegetable beds really do need loosening. It's all my fault for being too busy to take care of it. Good thing Does Daigua noticed—Does Daigua is awesome. What tool did Does Daigua use to loosen the soil?"

Confirming Xia Qing wasn't angry, Does Daigua immediately sprang out of the nest, ran to the earthen wall where the farm tools were neatly arranged, and grabbed the hoe Xia Qing used for loosening soil.

The hoe Xia Qing used was too big and too heavy for Does Daigua.

Xia Qing picked out a small hoe with a blade only 10 centimeters wide from the farm tools, swapped the 1.5-meter-long handle for a short, thin one suited to Does Daigua, and held it out to it. "This one can be used by Does Daigua. Do you like it?"

"Yiaa!" Does Daigua gripped the hoe handle with its little black paws and danced about with joy.

"This hoe belongs to Does Daigua from now on. You can use it to loosen soil and weed around the seedlings. Come here, I'll teach you how to do it." Xia Qing picked up another short-handled small hoe that she herself used, and walked to the vegetable bed.

"When weeding with a hoe, you can't stand inside the vegetable bed—you have to squat on the ridge, like this…"

After Xia Qing squatted beside the chive bed and demonstrated how to weed the vegetable bed, Does Daigua imitated her and used its small hoe to chop down two small weeds, then looked up at Xia Qing with bright, sparkling eyes.

Xia Qing patted its little head and gave affirmation. "Does Daigua did very well—that's exactly how it's done. Chives aren't afraid of root damage, so you don't need to be too careful when weeding. Let's practice on the chive bed first, then learn how to loosen soil for the other vegetables."

Seeing Xia Qing pull out a fairly large weed, Sheep Lao Da, lying beside the vegetable bed, opened its mouth. "Baa~"

"Okay, this tenderest, most delicious weed is for Lao Da to eat. Lao Da worked hard guarding the territory today."

After pinching off the root of the weed and handing it to Sheep Lao Da's mouth, Xia Qing pulled out another weed and handed it to Wolf Lao Er, who was lying nearby. "Wolf Lao Er also worked hard. Take this little weed to feed the fish."

Wolf Lao Er, lying beside the vegetable bed, immediately stood up, took the little weed Xia Qing gave it in its mouth, ran to the fish tank, raised its two front paws and rested them on the tank, and lowered its head to the water's surface.

Seeing the fish in the water swim up to eat the weed, Wolf Lao Er wagged its tail happily.

Having returned from a battle and a world-shattering catastrophe, Xia Qing really loved the peace within her territory. Even the howling wind outside sounded more pleasant to her ears than the sounds in the Evolution Forest.

She and Does Daigua quickly finished weeding the chive bed and loosened the soil, then turned and began weeding the cucumber seedlings.

"Cucumber seedlings are very fragile, and their root systems are shallow. If you use your claws to scrape at them forcefully, or use the sharp edge of the hoe—the blade touching them—they'll snap just like this seedling…"

"Baa~" Sheep Lao Da called out, signaling that Xia Qing could give the broken seedling to it to eat.

Xia Qing handed the seedling to Sheep Lao Da and continued teaching the territory's Employee No. 002 to work. "So, when using the small hoe to weed and loosen soil, you can't get within 10 centimeters of the main stem of the melon seedling. Does Daigua know how long 10 centimeters is?"

"Yi!" Does Daigua, who had attended math class, pointed its little black paw at Xia Qing's hand.

"Right, that's the width of my palm, and also the width of the small hoe Does Daigua is holding." Xia Qing took the small hoe and held it against her palm to show Does Daigua, letting it remember how wide 10 centimeters is. Then she took out her phone and found pictures of cucumber root growth, letting Does Daigua remember that cucumbers are shallow-rooted plants and the soil shouldn't be loosened more than 4 centimeters deep. Then she hand-by-hand taught it how to loosen soil around the cucumbers.

Because there were quite a lot of animals in the breeding greenhouse, Xia Qing only planted vegetables in 10 vegetable beds along the earthen wall near the beekeeping greenhouse. Spinach, perilla, alfalfa, small bok choy, and scallions were broadcast-sown and didn't need loosening.

One person and one monkey squatting beside the vegetable beds quickly finished loosening the soil in the chive, cucumber, sweet pepper, and celery beds. Does Daigua, holding its small hoe with bright, sparkling eyes, looked at Xia Qing with unfinished enthusiasm.

An employee who likes working so much naturally makes the lord very happy. Xia Qing rubbed its little head. "If Does Daigua likes weeding, you can go weed in the fig shed tomorrow when it's light. However, Does Daigua has already learned how to weed, so if you damage any more vegetable seedlings or tree saplings, I'm going to deduct your points."

"Yi!" Does Daigua waved its small hoe and happily agreed.

When Xia Qing finished tidying up the vegetable garden, she heard the wind and snow outside had stopped, and decided to go look for the freeloading big red squirrel.