Chapter 1645: Little Little Bai Mao Moves Into Territory Three

In the tenth year of the Calamity, February — after Xia Qing became the human lord of this territory, she built this sheep shed in her courtyard to lure Sheep Boss into living with her.

In the year and a half between the sheep shed's completion and Little Huang Niu's move-in, Sheep Boss never properly stayed inside for more than a few days, but the shed was never empty either — over time, many animals convalescing, recovering from illness, or sitting out their confinement moved in one after another.

Last spring, the brain-domain-evolved yellow weasel Little Bai Mao and the speed-evolved red squirrel raised their litters to adulthood in the sheep shed.

For the young, their birthplace might carry a special sense of security.

The red squirrel kit Qiang, born in the sheep shed, would hide inside whenever it got hurt fighting birds. The pitiful Little Little Bai Mao, driven out of the territory by its parents, also came running here.

Xia Qing locked eyes with the little fellow on the haystack for a few seconds before asking calmly, "Little Little Bai Mao, are you hungry or thirsty?"

Little Little Bai Mao stared at Xia Qing with its shiny black eyes. Its mud-streaked little brown-red nose twitched, and the black whiskers on either side quivered along with it — looking even more pitiful.

Xia Qing pulled a small piece of freeze-dried meat from her pocket and set it in the wooden trough the ox ate from inside the shed. "Eat up, I'll go get you some water."

By the time Xia Qing came back out of the house carrying a small basin of water, the freeze-dried meat she'd placed in the trough was gone, replaced by a palm-sized cockroach with its wings and legs pulled off.

A yellow weasel's main diet is mice, snakes, and frogs — they don't particularly like eating cockroaches. Little Little Bai Mao dug out this hibernating giant cockroach and plucked its "hairs" to bring over because Xia Qing likes them, so it brought it to trade for food with her.

Why would it assume that?

Well, that was because Xia Qing, wanting to clear cockroaches from the territory, had actively guided them to do so. One snake could be traded for an egg; one big cockroach could be traded for a small piece of freeze-dried meat.

Xia Qing set the water basin inside the shed, then stepped back outside the door. When Little Little Bai Mao climbed down to drink, Xia Qing confirmed it wasn't injured, then placed the cockroach in a small basket. Wolf Lao Er happily took the basket in its mouth and left home to feed its fish in the greenhouse.

Xia Qing went back inside to drink some water and rest for a few minutes, washed her face, applied the medicine her idol had given her, and went out to work.

The sun had been decent these past few days, and the oil sunflower heads harvested from the valley were nearly dried. Xia Qing called over two members of the Hu Zifeng Squad to help guard her territory and, while they were at it, help her collect the oil sunflower seeds.

One mu of land, over a thousand oil sunflower heads — if Xia Qing did it alone, she'd be busy for the better part of a day. With two more people helping, they could finish in two hours.

After the oil sunflower seeds were knocked off, the ones kept for seed were brought home to dry in the sun; the edible ones were taken to Ninth Center, dried with a dehydrator, and then pressed into oil with her oil press. The oil sunflower cake left over from pressing could be used to feed sheep, oxen, and chickens; the oil sunflower stalks the oxen and sheep didn't like could be broken up and fermented into organic fertilizer — this was Green Light fertilizer, so of course not a single stalk could be wasted.

When Xia Qing passed the sheep shed carrying a bag, she stopped and looked inside. Little Little Bai Mao, perched on the haystack grooming its fur, poked out its little head and quietly met Xia Qing's gaze.

Xia Qing asked, "Little Little Bai Mao, do you want to live in my territory?"

Little Little Bai Mao stared at Xia Qing without moving.

That seemed to be the meaning of it. Xia Qing sternly laid down her conditions: "You can stay, but you must not steal my chickens, red squirrels, or mealworms. Otherwise I'll charge you triple and kick you out of the territory. Boss, Lao Er — you explain our territory rules to Little Little Bai Mao clearly."

Wolf Lao Er happily nuzzled Xia Qing. Sheep Boss remained lying under the eaves, lazily chewing its cud. Seeing she couldn't count on either of them, Xia Qing wasn't angry and walked out cheerfully.

Little Little Bai Mao's brain-domain evolution was more advanced than its father's, and it had learned to trade. Over the past year it had never stolen chickens, eggs, or mealworms from Territory Three, nor had it clashed with the red squirrel family. Living in the territory, it could also help her clear out snakes, insects, mice, and ants — so Xia Qing was happy to see it happen.

To be honest, although Xia Qing was closer to the plucked-hair kit, she actually welcomed Little Little Bai Mao moving into Territory Three more, because… Little Little Bai Mao wasn't a toxic-gas evolver, so its stench attack wouldn't be as terrifying as the plucked-hair kit's.

When Xia Qing walked out of the courtyard gate, Sheep Boss stood up and headed out, quickly catching up with Xia Qing, who was leading Little Huang Niu. Not long after, Wolf Lao Er also trotted up carrying the small basket in its mouth.

Seeing Xia Qing walking over leading an ox, with a sheep and a wolf-dog at her side, Chen Cheng, who was standing outside Shed 12, suspected Xia Qing had evolved some special ability.

Otherwise, everyone was human and moved into territories at the same time — why was she the only one who'd gone from a normal person to mingling with a pile of evolved animals?

He… envied her!

"Sister Qing, Boss." When Xia Qing and Sheep Boss led Little Huang Niu closer, Chen Cheng greeted them first.

Wolf Lao Er? It had taken the basket in its mouth and gone off to catch bugs to feed the fish and the chickens.

"Mm, put the rain cover down — let's collect the oil sunflower seeds." If they didn't put the rain cover down to block sight and scent, when they knocked or rubbed the seeds off, the hundreds of birds in the trees outside would very likely attack the greenhouse.

"Got it, Sister Qing and Boss go on in first, I'll put it down." Chen Cheng answered briskly. After countless painful lessons of being chased and beaten by the sheep, the Hu Zifeng Squad had gradually figured out how to get along with Sheep Boss — and that was: treat it the same way you treat Xia Qing.

Besides Xia Qing, this fellow didn't like hearing anyone else's flattery, and it wouldn't eat food handed to it by anyone else.

"Baa."

Xia Qing was strong. With a wooden stick about the size of a rolling pin, she tapped an oil sunflower head twice, then swept it with her hand, and the seeds from one head fell onto the rain cover spread below. Seeing the head in her hand was empty, Sheep Boss opened its mouth to signal that it wanted a taste.

Xia Qing handed the first head to Sheep Boss, then quickly cleaned off a few more and set them in front of Little Huang Niu, before instructing the Chen brothers: "Tomorrow the experts will be coming to tour the territory. I need to go to Ninth Center first to keep an eye on things, so I'll leave the territory to you. If all goes well, I'll be back before the experts enter Territory Three. If I can't make it back in time, you can let the experts in anyway. Apart from the abandoned village where I live and the lab, they can look wherever they want. As long as it doesn't involve the wolf pack members or Sheep Boss, answer whatever they ask."

The more steady of the two brothers, Chen Zheng, asked, "Sister Qing, how many of us should come over tomorrow?"

When this batch of ill-intentioned experts entered Territory Three, they had to be strictly guarded — especially the two greenhouses in the northern buffer forest, because the high-yi element terraced fields inside those two greenhouses were Hui Three's signature crop — the origin of X-2 spinach!

Xia Qing was quite calm. "Two people will do. The Territory Seven guards and the inspection team will be watching these experts — they're only touring, not collecting samples."

Chen Zheng understood. "Then tomorrow I'll come over with Captain Hu, Peng Jian, and Liangzi, just in case."

Hu Zifeng and Peng Jian were Level-5 visual evolvers; Liangzi was a Level-6 auditory evolver; Chen Zheng was a Level-5 olfactory evolver. When the time came, one visual evolver would stay in the monitoring room to oversee the whole picture, and the remaining three would keep an eye on the inspection team. Anyone who dared violate the Territory Law — take them down on the spot!

Xia Qing nodded. "Fine."