Chapter 170: Lighting Up the Witness Token

After exchanging green-light plant seeds for wheat, Shi Du took out her phone. "Sister Qing, I recorded a video of setting up the rainproof shed. Did you bring your phone? Let me send it to you?"

"I did."

Xia Qing knew Shi Du's main reason for coming over was to send her the rainproof shed technique she had exchanged for water caltrop plants. After the video transferred over via Bluetooth, Xia Qing realized Shi Du had indeed put thought into it. The video was five minutes long, with Shi Du standing by the shed, explaining loudly while demonstrating how to operate it for Xia Qing.

Xia Qing sincerely thanked her. "Sorry for the trouble."

"No trouble at all, it's only right." Behind her protective mask, Shi Du's eyes curved into a smile. She asked softly, "Sister Qing, are your goslings still alive?"

Xia Qing lowered her voice slightly, but made sure Tang Huai could hear. "Don't even mention it. The green-light and yellow-light ones all died. Only one red-light one is still alive."

Shi Du sighed. "At least yours still has one alive. Both of mine died. When she heard about the ultrasonic attack, my mom wrapped the goslings in the blankets and still couldn't save them."

Xia Qing shared her experience. "I planned to store potato seeds, so I dug a cellar. During the ultrasonic attack, I put the goslings in the cellar. Didn't expect it actually worked a bit."

Hearing this, not just Shi Du but Tang Huai's ears perked up too.

Shi Du asked for advice. "Sister Qing, how deep does the cellar need to be to work?"

Xia Qing continued explaining to Shi Du. "I originally dug three meters, but felt it wasn't enough. I figured digging deeper would definitely work, so this morning I dug down almost another two meters. I just hauled the bricks home and plan to brick up the lower part..."

The more Tang Huai listened, the more he felt Xia Qing wasn't human—she was an ox, an old yellow ox that never tired of work.

Shi Du nodded repeatedly as she listened. "Good, I'll go dig one too when I get home. It'll definitely come in handy later."

After the two finished exchanging, Shi Du took the wheat and left. Xia Qing passed through the wild grass wall back to her territory. Good—her first in-territory non-departing witness this morning, Tang Huai of the Sufeng Squad, had been lit up.

"Buzz—"

Before she had walked far, Xia Qing heard her phone vibrate and stopped.

"Captain Xu, mm, I'm currently on monitoring duty.... What? Pangolins? Haven't heard anyone mention it. Okay... okay... understood."

After Tang Huai hung up the phone, he told Zhou Xun beside him, "Xu Pin said our squad lost two pangolins north of Mountain 49. When did our squad ever have pangolins?"

Zhou Xun replied, "I haven't heard either. Did the vice-captain tell us to go look?"

Tang Huai answered, "Not exactly. He said he'd send people over to search, and told us to arrange lodging and prepare food. Damn, how long has it been since the squad gave us supplies? Where would we even get food?"

Zhou Xun reminded Tang Huai, "Then why didn't you ask the vice-captain for some just now?"

Tang Huai paused for a few seconds. "He sounded like he was about to kill someone, so I didn't want to poke the hornet's nest. Let's go, head back and eat. Damn, raining for no good reason when there's nothing to do, but my old man is digging worms..."

After hearing them leave, Xia Qing confirmed the pangolins really were Sufeng Squad's domesticated beasts. She cheerfully tied up the grass she'd just cut and placed it on Big Sheep. "Boss, let's go, we're heading home. Once this grass dries, I'll weave you a new pillow."

"Baa." Big Sheep called out once and ambled along behind Xia Qing.

After getting home, Xia Qing first told Luo Pei the news she'd overheard.

Luo Pei quickly replied: Sufeng Squad has sent twelve search teams out of the city. Until they withdraw, stay inside your territory for training—don't even go to Zone Three. The daily traces of the wolf pack entering and leaving Mountain 49 and along the route will be covered by Hu Zifeng's responsibility.

After Xia Qing replied that she understood, she put away the green-light seeds, finished lunch, and ran to the yard to communicate with the lead wolf sleeping in the sheep shed.

"The animals the Queen caught today, those two pangolins, have owners. The owners have sent lots of humans to look around here. The Queen needs to be careful coming and going these next few days—don't let the humans spot her."

The lead wolf, who had drunk spinach juice and was lying in the sheep shed sleeping, slightly turned one ear, with no other reaction. The broken-legged wolf watched Xia Qing's gesturing hands with full wariness. The injured brain-evolved wolf stared at Xia Qing calmly, as if trying hard to understand her meaning.

So Xia Qing shifted her conversation partner and continued speaking to the injured brain-evolved wolf. "That prey you used to trade with me for medicine this morning—it has an owner. The owner has come looking. These next few days, the mountains over there..."

Xia Qing raised her hand pointing north and swept it across. "In that stretch of mountains, there'll be lots of humans. They have weapons, very powerful, looking for prey. Tell your companions to be careful coming and going recently, don't run into the humans."

After speaking, Xia Qing stared at the wolf for a few seconds, unable to figure out whether it had understood. So she called Big Sheep out and explained it all again to her. "Boss, tell your wolf friends to be careful."

After saying that, Xia Qing stuffed a compressed ration into the pouch hanging on Big Sheep's neck. "Go on."

Big Sheep clip-clopped into the sheep shed, lay down beside the lead wolf, half-closed her eyes and chewed her cud, showing absolutely no sign of communicating with the wolf pack.

Xia Qing sighed. She'd done everything she could; from here on she could only adapt as things came. Time to work.

There was no need to ask—Sufeng Squad was going to search for the pangolins around Mountain 49, so Hu Zifeng's squad's plan to catch geese and gather edible water caltrops would definitely be postponed. Xia Qing needed to use these few days to finish the cellar and store food in it.

Xia Qing first changed the dressing on her right hand's wound, then hauled cement out of the warehouse, mixed cement mortar, and bricked the cellar walls.

Animals like rats, mole crickets, ants, and pangolins are all good at digging holes, and evolved microorganisms also breed in moist soil. Without proper protective measures, the cellar couldn't be used to store food.

Because she was alone and her hand was still injured, Xia Qing couldn't finish bricking the six walls of the underground storage room in half a day before dark fell.

Although she was anxious, she didn't work by lamplight. Rest when it's time to rest, train when it's time to train.

Past two in the morning, Xia Qing heard a familiar sound in the yard. She immediately got up to check and found the wolf pack had delivered food two hours earlier than usual.

It seemed the wolf pack had understood what she'd told them. Xia Qing breathed a sigh of relief and immediately told Hu Zifeng the news that the wolf pack had come to deliver prey.

"The cameras on Mountain 49 captured traces of the wolf pack. Sufeng Squad's search teams returned to Territory Two by evening. We'll clean up the traces before dawn. The danger inspection team has also been coordinated—they'll spray agents in the buffer zone this morning to mask the scent. After dawn, have Chang Li come help you inside the territory. Just say the word on the channel."

"Got it, thanks for your hard work." Xia Qing thanked them.

Hu Zifeng laughed happily. "What's there to be tired about? We couldn't be happier."

Seeing their sworn enemy squad lose the domesticated beasts they'd paid a fortune for, frantic as ants on a hot pan, Hu Zifeng was overjoyed. As for the wolf pack that had pulled off this big job, Hu Zifeng now found them pleasing no matter how he looked at them.

Covering traces was nothing—even if you asked him to sweet-talk the "Queen" the way Xia Qing did, he could do it.

After hanging up the phone, Xia Qing looked at the python the lead wolf had placed in front of her and sighed. "Your Majesty, because there are people making trouble in the nearby mountains, the prey all ran far away, so you could only catch a snake to make do? Her Majesty has worked hard."

Otherwise, why would the sick wolf get a wild chicken while she got a python?

Although Xia Qing didn't care for snake meat, green-light meat absolutely couldn't be wasted. She bent down to pick up the python in front of her, but unexpectedly the lead wolf raised one big paw and pinned down the snake's tail.