Chapter 17: Companion

After petting it to her heart's content, Xia Qing sprayed disinfectant once more over the door and window seams, the bathroom, and the kitchen drain, sealing them tight, then spread out her sleeping bag on the other side of the fire to sleep.

The soothing capsule's effect lasts ten hours on an ordinary person, but on a weakened evolved sheep it would probably last at most six hours. Xia Qing was afraid that once the drug wore off it would bash a few huge holes in her house, so she didn't feel at ease leaving it unwatched.

Xia Qing was sleeping in a daze when the fire gradually shifted from bright to dim. Across from her, Sheep Boss opened its eyes, its limbs twitched slightly a few times, it stood up and shook its fluffy, curled fleece all over, then backed two steps away from the fire.

Xia Qing immediately opened her eyes, scrambled out of her sleeping bag and stood up, staring at Sheep Boss.

"Baa."

Sheep Boss's bleat was feeble, but it sounded like a normal sheep. Xia Qing breathed a sigh of relief. "Want to go out?"

Sheep Boss squinted, lifted its head, sniffed with its nose, then its hooves clicked across the floor tiles—clip-clop, clip-clop—as it headed to the kitchen to eat.

Well, the vegetables she'd prepared were a bargain for Sheep Boss. Xia Qing followed, leaned against the doorframe, and lazily yawned. "Once you've eaten your fill, go back to your shed."

After Sheep Boss finished the vegetables in the basket, it clip-clopped back, chose a spot a little farther from the fire to lie down, squinted its eyes, and stayed still.

Seeing it had no intention of fighting, Xia Qing agreed. "Sleeping here tonight is fine too, but if you dare to poop or pee in the house, I'll slaughter you and eat the meat."

Sheep Boss squinted its eyes and stayed still.

"You went berserk once, so the meat probably isn't edible anymore, and you even had big sister here give you a bath and deworm you—talk about turning misfortune into blessing." Xia Qing yawned and slowly closed her eyes.

Sheep Boss lay half on its side for a while, then changed its posture.

Xia Qing heard the movement and immediately opened her eyes. She saw it stretch its two front legs forward, its head and neck slowly sinking down to rest on its front legs. Setting aside the weight of its head, those two big horns alone must weigh ten jin. It wasn't afraid of numbing its two slender legs. Xia Qing smiled soundlessly and closed her eyes to sleep.

Sheep Boss stared at Xia Qing for a while, then at the fire, and only closed its eyes after a long time.

The person and the sheep slept until dawn; Sheep Boss woke first. The moment it stood up, Xia Qing, hearing the movement, woke immediately, got up, and opened the door to let it out.

After Sheep Boss relieved itself in the yard, it turned around and went to eat the evolved perilla Xia Qing had placed on the rack in the sheep shed.

The weeds in the yard had grown wildly overnight and were now taller than Xia Qing's calves, but judging by Sheep Boss's reaction, there probably wasn't much danger in the yard.

Xia Qing baked herself two fragrant Chinese-toon cornmeal flatbreads for breakfast; they tasted excellent.

After finishing the flatbread, thinking of Sheep Boss, which looked plump and sturdy but was actually all bone and no meat, Xia Qing dug out the sheep-raising book from her collection. Comparing the illustrations and text, she confirmed Sheep Boss was a Small-Tailed Han sheep, then carefully read up on the breed's habits and couldn't help laughing.

The book devoted long passages to how delicious Small-Tailed Han sheep meat was, how fast they reproduced, how fine their pelts were, and so on, only mentioning in passing at the very end that this breed had strong environmental adaptability.

Indeed quite strong—otherwise Sheep Boss wouldn't have survived ten years into the apocalypse, and its height and weight exceeded the book's adult ram by 1.5 times.

After evolution, many creatures grew larger in size; humans too.

During Blue Star's Great Biological Evolution, the evolutionary traits of humans were divided at the age of twenty-five as a watershed. Those past twenty-five showed no obvious change in body size after evolution, but those under twenty-five grew noticeably taller. When Xia Qing evolved at sixteen, she was only 1.61 meters tall; now at twenty-five she had grown to 1.77 meters, and she had a vague feeling she might still grow taller.

Because the broadcast said that after human evolution, not only did height increase, but lifespan extended too—of course, that was only research data; under harsh disaster conditions, how many people could actually live to a natural death?

"Concentrated feed?" Xia Qing flipped to the Small-Tailed Han sheep feeding section and found that several concentrate formulas all included corn and salt. "Sheep need salt too?"

Xia Qing's gaze turned to her grain chest. She had cornmeal, but...

... she couldn't bear to part with it...

She'd think about it once her life got better.

Xia Qing flipped again to the several forage grasses that were highly nutritious for sheep, memorizing their names and appearances.

After eating, Xia Qing put on her protective suit and pulled up all the weeds in the yard. Weeds that grew wildly in Calamity Rain had to be uprooted completely and burned, otherwise the root systems would keep growing and damage the environment.

After wiping out another nest of highly destructive evolved ants, it started raining again. Xia Qing used the half basin of purified water under the eaves to rinse the mud off her one-piece protective suit. Just as she was about to open the door and go inside, Sheep Boss came clip-clopping over.

Xia Qing didn't move, staring at its dirty hooves.

When Sheep Boss began impatiently pawing the ground with its front hooves, Xia Qing finally sighed and opened the door to let it in. What else could she do—fight another round and get covered in mud again?

She didn't want to waste the effort. Besides, Sheep Boss didn't relieve itself wherever it pleased, and it didn't have any strange smell, so letting it inside was fine.

Seeing Sheep Boss come in and lie down by the extinguished fire, squinting its eyes as it chewed its cud, Xia Qing sprayed some insecticide, shut the door tight, took off her protective suit and mask, and hung them on the homemade clothes rack by the door.

Turning around, she found Sheep Boss staring at her protective suit while chewing the grass it had brought up from its stomach, looking as if it wanted to take a bite. Xia Qing immediately glared to scare it. "What are you looking at? You absolutely cannot chew this, or I'll stew you, old lady style."

Sheep Boss squinted its eyes, kept staring, kept chewing its cud.

Xia Qing picked up the broom and swept the plant ash off the stone slabs, then stacked dry firewood and lit it. The main purpose of lighting a fire indoors wasn't for warmth, but to use the smoke to drive out the dampness and repel evolved insects.

After the fire was lit, Xia Qing noticed Sheep Boss was still staring at the protective suit while fiddling with the grass in its mouth, so she poked at the fire as she rambled, "Don't be fooled by this protective suit having several patches—it's worth 1,500 points, the best one I could buy in the Safe Zone. Without this skin, I don't know how many times I'd have died. Boss, can you understand what I'm saying?"

"You definitely can't. Even though your ancestors were domesticated, you're purely wild—you've barely seen a few humans in your life, so how could you possibly understand human speech? How old are you?" Xia Qing warmed her hands by the leaping flames, continuing to ramble. "Too bad there's no sweet potatoes, chestnuts, or peanuts, otherwise we could roast some up."

After her father died, Xia Qing rarely talked nonsense. Today, listening to the rain outside and sitting by the fire with Sheep Boss, she was suddenly overcome by a strong urge to unburden herself. "Have you ever seen sweet potatoes in the Evolution Forest? They're delicious."

Sheep Boss squinted at the dancing flames. Although it didn't dare approach, it didn't seem very afraid of the fire.

After warming up, Xia Qing took the half-finished chair out from the tool room and continued working. Although this rain's Calamity Element content wasn't high and hadn't made her as irritable as yesterday, idle hands were idle hands.

After the chair was finished, Xia Qing sat on it to test it—very sturdy, excellent. She finally had her first piece of proper furniture.

Seeing Sheep Boss staring at her chair again, Xia Qing grinned. "How about it? Not bad, right? I learned from a carpenter in the construction crew back in the Safe Zone—not a single nail used."

Xia Qing stood up, went to the window to check the yard, and couldn't help cursing. "Just pulled them all, and they've grown back already!"