Chapter 16: Boss Sheep Loses Control

Before the rain even fell, it could make her irritable—Xia Qing didn't need to test it to know that the qiang element content of this rain was bound to be severely over the limit.

Just to be safe, she put on the protective mask she'd recently swapped back for. Although the mask couldn't filter the qiang elements in the air, it could filter out over ninety-nine percent of toxic gases, preventing humans from being poisoned by the toxic fumes emitted by creatures that suddenly evolved or went berserk during qiang rain.

This was when one of the great advantages of the safe zone became apparent—because the safe zone had undergone repeated deep cleansing, there was no need to worry about large-scale attacks by toxic gases or poisonous insects during qiang rain. Apart from personnel on duty at the perimeter, everyone else could go without a protective mask.

But if the qiang rain's level rose to the highest, there would be another deadly danger within the safe zone: excess qiang elements would cause people with low resistance to lose control of their emotions. If a red-level qiang rain lasted over an hour, low-resistance people who didn't take soothing capsules in time could be injured or even killed by fighting or self-harm. Plenty of others would also take advantage of qiang rain to feign madness and go on a rampage of smashing, looting, and plundering.

In the summer of the eighth year of the Calamity, a sudden red-level qiang rain lasted an hour and a half. At that time, Hui-Three Base, which still had 2.2 million people, lost over eight hundred to fighting and self-harm during that rain.

During that rain, Xia Qing killed two men who tried to take advantage of the chaos to grope her.

Thinking of this, Xia Qing couldn't help feeling irritable again. She took two deep breaths to steady her emotions, collected some rainwater to test, and found that the qiang element content of this rain had indeed reached the highest danger level—red.

The base must be in a state of panic by now, everyone jumping at shadows and fearing their neighbors.

Fortunately, within her territory she didn't have to worry about anyone scheming against her—she only had to deal with attacks from suddenly evolved creatures.

Xia Qing took her umbrella to check on Boss Sheep, and saw it lying comfortably on the dry grass. It seemed the qiang rain didn't affect it much. Boss Sheep's evolution level was no lower than her own, so its resistance to qiang rain was bound to be decent—otherwise it couldn't have survived this long in the perilous Evolution Forest.

Reassured, Xia Qing returned to the building, shut the door tight, and set about making a bamboo chair. Although she was a high-level Evolver with formidable resistance and wouldn't lose control because of qiang rain, finding something to do still helped her relax.

Time ticked by second by second. An hour and a half later, Xia Qing's chair still wasn't finished, and the sky had gone completely dark. A qiang rain lasting an hour and a half must have already turned the safe zone into a living hell.

Xia Qing tossed a ruined stool leg into the fire, remembered the person who'd sent her a message, pulled out her phone and saw no new messages, so she took out her night-vision goggles to check the yard.

In the yard she'd cleaned so carefully, a dense layer of grass sprouts had actually grown! Plants that sprouted explosively during qiang rain all had over-limit qiang element content, and might evolve unexpected dangers. Three days from now, who knew what her yard would turn into.

Xia Qing cursed, put on her protective suit and mask, and went to check on Boss Sheep.

The moment she pushed open the door, she heard Boss Sheep in the sheep pen—heavy breathing and pawing the ground with its hooves.

Was it about to lose control?

Xia Qing immediately turned and went back inside to grab a strip of soothing capsules. When she came out again, she found Boss Sheep already standing on the grass in the rain, its usually half-closed sheep eyes wide open, the rectangular pupils faintly glowing red in the firelight.

Xia Qing soothed Boss Sheep in the steadiest voice she could manage, "Boss, don't get worked up. It's time for our medicine…"

"Moo!"

Before Xia Qing could finish, Boss Sheep bellowed and charged at her—a headbutt from it could absolutely punch a hole through the building. Xia Qing couldn't dodge, so she braced herself and charged to meet it.

"Bam!"

Person and sheep collided, water and mud flying everywhere. Xia Qing seized the moment to grab Boss Sheep's neck and try to trip it, but the berserk sheep's strength had more than doubled. Xia Qing was flung aside and crashed onto the newly sprouted grass.

Seeing Boss Sheep charging, Xia Qing rolled on the spot to dodge, then realized Boss Sheep wasn't charging at her. It smashed through the newly built yard wall and charged outside, slamming into things wildly—bang, bang, bang.

If she let it keep crashing like this, even if it was fine, every wall in the whole village would be knocked down.

Xia Qing went back inside, grabbed a thick rope, rushed out, and tied the crashing, bashing Boss Sheep into a knot. Then, while it was bellowing and struggling with its mouth wide open, she popped a soothing capsule inside and poured half a pot of spring water down its throat.

Soothing capsules were a specialized medicine for relieving emotional loss of control caused by qiang elements. Their effect was similar to a powerful neural sedative—after taking them, one would quickly become drowsy and weak all over, which could ease depression and agitation and reduce harm. But if misused or taken in excess, they caused all sorts of adverse reactions, poisoning, and addiction. If it weren't absolutely necessary, Xia Qing didn't want to use them on Boss Sheep.

Five minutes later, Boss Sheep went limp and collapsed in the mud, motionless. Xia Qing hauled it back to the front eave of the building, untied the rope as she went, and muttered, "I don't know how you survived all those qiang rains before you met me. Those houses and walls on Locust Tree Hill all wrecked like that—don't tell me you did that crashing around when you lost control?"

Boss Sheep kept its eyes closed, giving no response.

Xia Qing felt every bone on its body, confirmed nothing was broken, and finally relaxed. She first hauled a bucket of purified water to wash the mud off her protective suit, then set a big pot of water to boil.

Boss Sheep, already so dirty its coat color was barely visible, was now thoroughly a mud-ball. This was the perfect chance, while it couldn't move, to give it a wash.

What Xia Qing didn't notice was that Boss Sheep, lying on the ground, had already slightly opened its eyes, its gaze following her as she moved.

After mixing water in the big aluminum basin and adding disinfectant and insecticide, Xia Qing hauled the limp Boss Sheep into the bathroom and gently lowered it into the basin.

The moment it touched the water, Boss Sheep opened its eyes, opened its mouth but couldn't make a sound, and its limbs twitched slightly—pitiful.

Seeing its eyes were quite bright, Xia Qing felt much more at ease. She let its head rest on the edge of the basin and began washing the sheep. "Don't worry. I'm not cooking you—I'm washing the qiang rain off you and killing some parasites while I'm at it."

Perhaps sensing Xia Qing's goodwill, or perhaps because the bath felt comfortable, Boss Sheep's wide-round eyes slowly returned to their normal shape, and finally closed gently.

Boss Sheep wasn't just dirty—Xia Qing also pulled eight evolved soft-shell ticks and two other common animal surface parasites off it. Evolved ticks didn't just suck blood; the neurotoxins they secreted could paralyze the host's muscles, eventually causing death from respiratory failure. It looked like these ticks had been on Boss Sheep for some time, which was why it had grown so weak it couldn't even withstand a qiang rain.

It was also fortunate that Boss Sheep had this outburst today—otherwise Xia Qing wouldn't have discovered these parasites on it.

It took a full four large pots of hot water before Xia Qing finally washed Boss Sheep thoroughly clean and brought it back to the living room to towel it off. "This bath towel was found at the little shop—I hadn't even been willing to use it myself. Lucky you."

Even a big bath towel could only get the sheep half-dry. Xia Qing gave it a deworming pill, tossed two logs into the fire, and let it slowly dry by the fire.

After all that fuss, it was already eight in the evening. The rain outside had stopped at some unknown time. Xia Qing put on her protective gear, took her night-vision goggles, and went out to do a sweep. After confirming there were no lurking major dangers around the building, she took out a pot to cook.

She made a pot of fragrant perilla dough-drop soup with white flour and perilla. The steaming soup drove away the cold and damp. Sitting by the fire, petting Boss Sheep whose whole-body fleece was soft and springy, Xia Qing felt so happy she could cry.