Chapter 1412: Snagging a Photo Op

One person and one wolf, holding an iron umbrella, trudged through several tens of centimeters of accumulated snow across a large stretch of buffer forest and stopped beneath a tall birch tree.

Xia Qing asked, "Lao Er, is the freeloader inside?"

Lao Er raised his head and grinned at Xia Qing.

"Lao Er, good boy." Xia Qing rubbed his head, then tilted hers back and called out, "Freeloader, are you in there? Freeloader, are you in there…"

Xia Qing shouted for a full minute, but no squirrel poked its head out of the tree hollow above. She could only pull the little red squirrel from her pocket. "Little Feimao, go up into that tree hollow and check if your mom's hurt."

She hadn't expected that the moment she let go, Little Feimao would scurry right back into her pocket. Xia Qing had to pull the little fellow out again, press him high up against the trunk, point at the hollow above, and say sternly, "Go up into that tree hollow and look!"

Little Feimao paused on the trunk for a few seconds, then scrambled up with a whoosh and disappeared into the hollow more than five meters up.

The wind was strong now, and Xia Qing's tinnitus hadn't faded, so she couldn't hear any movement inside the hollow. But in a moment Little Feimao emerged carrying something that glinted under her night-vision goggles, and darted back into her pocket.

Xia Qing pulled it out and looked—and laughed in spite of herself.

No wonder she couldn't find it anywhere: the key to her freezer had been stolen by the freeloader. Good, very good!

"Bang!"

"Freeloader, get your ass out here!" Xia Qing slammed her fist hard into the trunk. Snow on the birch branches was shaken loose and came pattering down onto the iron umbrella.

"Bang!"

"Get out here!"

"Wooo—"

Seeing Xia Qing angry, Lao Er dropped his voice to a growl, raised his sharp claws, and raked at the birch to make the big squirrel come out.

A small head quickly poked out of the hollow in the trunk and tossed something down.

Xia Qing picked it up and looked, and got even angrier.

Oh! So all that cursing and ranting Tang Huai had been doing on the lord channel a while back—he'd been cursing her!

She'd only gone half a month without raiding the squirrel's den, and already this freeloader had gotten cocky. Not only did it steal her things, it even dared steal from other territories. Wasn't it afraid the cats from Territory One and Territory Seven, or the eagle from Territory Eight, would catch it and rip it apart?!

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Xia Qing landed several more heavy punches, and the big squirrel kept tossing things out one after another. Only when it threw out a clump of brown-black fur and stood on a branch cursing and ranting did Xia Qing finally stop. It had started throwing out warming supplies, which meant there were no other supplies left in the hollow.

Xia Qing pulled a chestnut from her pocket and gently asked the other little red squirrel clinging to the trunk, "Qiang Zai, are you sheltering from the disaster at your mom's place?"

Qiang Zai had been born in Xia Qing's sheep shed and had been taking food from her hand from the moment he opened his eyes. So when he saw her produce food, he immediately scurried over, snatched the chestnut, and raced back to his mom's nest.

"Freeloader, behave yourself from now on. Stop stealing things everywhere."

Curse as she might, hit as she might. This morning, after putting a bullet into the speed-evolved red squirrel charging through the beast tide, Xia Qing's first thought had been that she didn't want this red squirrel—which had lived here before she moved into the territory—to evolve into a calamity-evolved creature. If not for this red squirrel, she never would have discovered the unpolluted spring in the stone cave of the North Buffer Forest, or the hidden valley on Mountain Fifty, and she never would have recruited her Employee No. 001, Little Feimao.

After speaking, Xia Qing pulled out a Yishi necklace, wound it around a yellow-lamp walnut, and tossed it high into the air. The cursing big red squirrel immediately snatched the flying food and darted back into its nest.

When Xia Qing left with Lao Er, Little Feimao leapt from her pocket, picked up the tuft of strong-one fur that belonged to it, hid it in its own tree hollow, then ran back into Xia Qing's pocket.

After Xia Qing left the West Buffer Forest, the big red squirrel ran into Little Feimao's tree hollow, carried out two even bigger tufts of strong-one fur, and returned to its own hollow.

Hearing familiar sounds outside, Qiang Zai—who had finished his chestnut—quickly scrambled to the hollow's entrance and peered out. Only after seeing a beam of strong light moving farther and farther away did he return to the hollow, squeeze in next to his mom, and continue weathering the disaster.

In the meeting room beside the farmland, a well-fed Dajiang smiled as he watched the three squirrels bustling about on the monitor. Once Xia Qing's off-road vehicle entered the East 1 monitoring zone, little Ye Yiyi skillfully switched the camera back to West Zone 12 and found that the glittering things on the snow were already gone.

The little fellow with her face wrapped in bandages lowered her head and stared in a daze at the pretty buttons on her clothes. Beside her, Territory Three's Employee No. 004, dentist Zhang Shi, was lying at the edge of the table, fully focused on studying professional materials.

Xia Qing parked the off-road vehicle at her front door, slung a ball bag over her shoulder and hopped out, then walked around to the passenger side, opened the door, hoisted out Sheep Boss and wolfdog Lao Er, swiped open the entry door, and returned to the warm room.

She was staying overnight in the territory tonight, so she'd brought all her companions back. Not that home was warmer than the greenhouse—it's just that since she was back, these guys would definitely follow.

After setting down her two companions that weighed several hundred jin each, Xia Qing pulled out the cold-fearing Daigua and Ergua from the ball bag and placed them on the warm cushion in front of the fireplace. She then brought in the two melons' tree nest and Little Feimao's deluxe wooden nest from the car and put them back in their spots.

Once the little ones were settled, Xia Qing enthusiastically praised Sheep Boss: "Boss, you're definitely at your coolest on a bicycle. The muscles on your legs are getting stronger and stronger—you must be the strongest evolved sheep on Blue Star. Every evolved sheep on the whole planet will be proud of you…"

After praising Sheep Boss to his heart's content, Xia Qing finally turned on the walkie-talkie to listen to her allies chatting.

Calamity snow had been falling on and off for forty hours. Although Territory One in the north hadn't been hit by an extreme disaster this time, some greenhouses had still been crushed by snow and houses had been flattened, causing a number of casualties. Even territories without casualties were on edge because of the calamity-evolved wheat and vegetable seedlings that kept popping up.

Hearing Tang Huai come online to grumble about his bugs, Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie button. "Tang Huai, I just found the sunglasses you lost last week in a squirrel den on my territory. Sorry. Do you want three pairs of the same new sunglasses, or points?"

According to the rules they'd set earlier, any damage caused by animals tamed by a lord that ran to other territories to cause trouble should be compensated threefold by the lord.

Tang Huai replied immediately, "I've still got sunglasses, and I'm not short on points either. Qing-jie, how about a different condition? I want to pose with your sniper rifle for a photo and post it online, so everyone knows what a badass neighbor I've got."

Xia Qing, who didn't have to pay points, of course agreed. "Sure."

Wen Nengjie came online right away. "Qing-jie, finished dinner? A great teacher produces great students—the news that you took out three high-level evolved beasts with eight shots today has already blown up online."

He also wanted to pose with a sniper rifle for a photo, but he wasn't close enough to Xia Qing for that yet, so he had to lay some groundwork first.

Hearing Zhu Li was far more direct than Wen Nengjie. "Qing-jie, when Huai-ge takes his photo, can I stand next to him and get a picture with your sniper rifle?"

Zhu Li knew Xia Qing didn't like taking photos. If she couldn't get a photo with a top sniper, getting one with her rifle would do.

Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie button. "Sure."

"Qing-jie…"

"Qing-jie…"

Hearing that Zhu Li had managed to snag a photo, the other allies got excited and came online one after another. Xia Qing didn't play favorites and agreed to all of them.

The more they chatted, the more excited they got. Tang Huai, who'd come up with this brilliant idea, got cocky again. "Luo-ge, you there?"

Luo Pei, soaking in a medicinal bath, lifted his hand and pressed it against a dry towel before pressing the walkie-talkie button, steadying his voice as much as he could to reply, "I'm here."

Tang Huai howled, "Luo-ge, can I pose with your sniper rifle and Qing-jie's sniper rifle for a master-and-disciple rifle photo?"

Everyone…

Luo Pei replied mildly, "Sure."

Everyone!!!