Chapter 1466: The Cold Wind of Night

Xia Qing felt that this time was different.

Wolf Lao Si and Broken Waist scratched out characters with their claws in front of her because they had run into a problem or Xia Qing had asked something they couldn't express clearly through gestures, so they had to write. But this time, Xia Qing had shared a video with Wolf Lao Si without asking anything, and Wolf Lao Si hadn't asked Xia Qing to do anything either—it was just idle chat—so its reply this time was especially precious.

But as a die-hard, deep-pit fan, what she herself thought didn't matter; the key was what her idol thought. So Xia Qing answered with great enthusiasm, "You're absolutely right."

That tone...

Although Zhang San considered himself already a New Human, fully understanding the brain circuits of that bizarre New Human in Territory Three still posed no small difficulty. Zhang San rubbed the cat Princess's soft belly and simply skipped the question, continuing to ask, "Only sent it to Xiao Si?"

Xia Qing was speechless. "Third Brother, it's mid-December now."

Your little Broken Zheng and its Queen are working hard to make the next generation. If I send your little Broken a video of the handsome Jackal King at a time like this, do you think the Queen, after seeing it, will smack your little Broken, or smack me?

Realizing what Xia Qing meant, Zhang San rubbed the cat Princess again.

"Meow!" The cat Princess got annoyed and gave Zhang San a swipe of her claws. Zhang San also got annoyed and hung up the phone directly.

Hearing the cat Princess's cry, Xia Qing pulled up the clip of the cat Princess carrying a mouse recorded by the surveillance in Area Five of Mountain Forty-Nine and sent it to her idol, then yawned, lay down in her warm nest, and fell asleep not long after.

A gust of swift wind swept through the territory, making this and that kind of noise that reached Xia Qing's ears, but she didn't get up to check. Because Wolf Lao Er was downstairs, Wolf Lao Si and Missing Ear were outside the house, and their early-warning abilities were far stronger than Xia Qing's. As long as they were quiet, the territory was safe.

Sheep Boss? The little ones were all here, so it was even more at ease than Xia Qing.

The gale squeezed through the gap in the door curtain, blew up a few blades of grass that landed on the lit phone screens in front of the two old wolves. Noticing tonight's wind was a bit off, Wolf Lao Si exited the video, tapped Xia Qing's profile, typed a few characters with its little toe pads, thought for a moment, then deleted what it had typed.

It turned off the phone, tucked it into the grass pile, sniffed the companion beside it, stood up, turned off the light, and slipped out of the warm den. It glanced at the pitch-black window of Xia Qing's house, then walked slowly downward.

Xia Qing's surgical-style entry door slid open silently, letting out a faint sliver of light and the silhouette of a wolf-dog. When Wolf Lao Er walked out from inside and met Wolf Lao Si's gaze, the entry door behind it closed silently, hiding that sliver of light.

One wolf and one wolf-dog met up beneath the ruins outside the courtyard gate, sniffed each other, and patrolled the territory one after the other through the snow. Inside the wolf den, the old wolf Missing Ear lay on the straw, ears pricked, alert to every rustle of wind and grass around them.

In the basement, Zhang Shi, who was fully focused on studying Basic Pathology, sensed two powerful magnetic fields approaching. He picked up his phone and opened the surveillance system, only to see a pair of green, gleaming eyes—his heart gave an involuntary lurch.

Wolf Lao Si glanced at the camera above the laboratory, then continued outward with Wolf Lao Er. After reaching the north side of the greenhouse, it nudged Wolf Lao Er, then accelerated, leaping over the frozen river, and vanished from Xia Qing's territory in the blink of an eye.

After confirming the old wolf had gone far away, Wolf Lao Er continued patrolling the territory.

The old Wolf King crossed Mountain Forty-Nine, first went to the eastern Evolution Forest of Hui Three to watch the battle between the jackal pack and the evolved polar bears, then went to look at the tents humans had set up along the eastern mangrove protective belt, and finally returned to the southern wolf pack's territory. Before dawn, it climbed over the wire fence, returned to the wolf den inside Territory Three, drank a few mouthfuls of water from the basin, lay down on the straw, and closed its eyes to rest.

The scruffy, handsome giant wolf that had followed the scent caught up and stopped outside Territory Three. It turned to check on Little Flat Top in the rock crevice, the fox in Shi Dong, and the leopard in the tree, then continued patrolling the territory.

An hour later, the patrol vehicle of the human inspection team drove past from the northern quarantine belt. The chirping of titmice drowned out the wind. Smoke rose from cooking fires inside the human territory. Employee 004 of Territory Three walked out of the basement and went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast and patient meals. A big red squirrel poked out of its warm tree hollow, climbed to a big tree branch not far from Xia Qing's window, and waited for today's first free meal.

Then came the second, and the third.

Xia Qing pulled open the window and set a steaming bowl of water on the windowsill.

Red squirrels surviving in the Evolution Forest come out at the warmest part of a winter midday to find water. The red squirrels inside Territory Three had developed the habit of drinking water in the morning because of Xia Qing's feeding.

After one large and two small red squirrels ran over and drank the water, Xia Qing gave Qiang Zai, who had an antibacterial patch stuck on it, a green-light hickory nut to nourish its brain, then closed the window and began a busy day. The big red squirrel that didn't get any food cursed and grumbled on the tree branch.

After Xia Qing left, the flock of sparrows living under her eaves immediately landed on the rim of the bowl, scrambling to drink a few more mouthfuls before the water inside froze.

When the sun climbed over the eastern mountain, Xia Qing, who had been busy all morning, sat with Zhang Shi and little Ye Yiyi listening to the morning news while eating breakfast in the new kitchen.

Hearing that an earthquake of magnitude 5.5 had occurred deep in the Evolution Forest area of the Divine Herb Rack around ten-thirty at night, Xia Qing looked at Zhang Shi in surprise. Zhang Shi also shook his head. "I didn't feel it either. Wolf Lao Er and Wolf Lao Si should have sensed it—they were patrolling the territory at ten-thirty."

Animals' perception of disasters is far sharper than humans', so it was perfectly normal for Wolf Lao Er and Wolf Lao Si to detect the disturbance. Just as Xia Qing was about to speak, her phone rang. "Xia Qing, a fire broke out at Bai Yi University's medical school last night. Tang Lu was burned to death!"

Tang Lu was a celebrity in the Hui Three Base Safe Zone, and after Tang Zhengsu and Tang Zhengrong fell from power, she was the only surviving member of that branch of the Tang family. Her going to Bai Yi for university had shocked the entire Hui Three Safe Zone, and her death also made Xu Juan especially sigh with emotion.

Xia Qing was surprised. "Sister Juan saw it online?"

Hearing Xia Qing say that, Xu Juan understood Xia Qing had already gotten the news. "Not online. When I went to clean the ward this morning, I heard Cao Faxiang calling Ding Xingye. He wants to take over Plot Two and is looking for connections."

Cao Faxiang was the factory director of the food processing plant in the Hui Three Safe Zone, and Ding Xingye was the deputy director of the Housing and Construction Bureau. Although these two belonged to different departments, they were birds of a feather, with a relationship of mutual benefit exchange, and had plenty of private dealings.

"Thanks, Sister Juan. Please keep asking around and find out who else wants to take over Plot Two." After hanging up the phone, Xia Qing continued drinking her corn-grits and sweet potato porridge.

Xu Juan's voice wasn't quiet, and Zhang Shi had heard it too. But Xia Qing was deep in thought, so Zhang Shi didn't continue the previous topic. He picked up a chopstickful of cold-tossed bean sprouts and placed it in little Ye Yiyi's bowl. The little girl didn't know how to pick up food herself, but whenever someone put food into her bowl, she would immediately wolf it down.

In years of natural disaster, the first instinctive reaction of hungry people upon seeing food is to stuff it into their bellies. Little Ye Yiyi, who had already eaten her fill for half a year following Zhang Shi, still had this instinct, which showed she still lacked a sense of security.