Chapter 199: A Wolf Has Gone Crazy

Although ranked second from the bottom, within Territory Three only Xia Qing and Sheep Boss managed to open up eight mu of land and farm it quite well, so Xia Qing was already very satisfied.

As long as she enriched and cultivated those few mu properly, the grain and vegetables produced would be more than enough for Xia Qing to eat. Going forward, Xia Qing would slow down the pace of land reclamation, opening only two new mu of wasteland each year for the next few years. Because the base's reclamation assessment standard for lords in their first five years required an annual increase of no less than two mu in the planting area of edible plants.

Of course, Xia Qing would also continue clearing and patrolling the uncultivated areas every day, absolutely not allowing small animals like gnawing wild rabbits, rats, and weasels to occupy her territory and damage her farmland.

Weeding is delicate work, and also tiring work.

The depth of hoeing must be controlled between two and four centimeters — too shallow won't remove the grass roots, too deep will hurt the seedlings, and if one's strength is weak or hands unsteady, one might chop through or bump into the seedlings.

The seedlings of edible plants are extremely delicate; weeds might not die even after being chopped down, but if a seedling's skin is broken, it might die.

Unlike Zhao Ze and Kuang Qingwei's endless complaints, Xia Qing was growing to like weeding as a farming task more and more. Because weeding could train the precision of her hand strength, and after weeding, looking at the clean and soft farmland, Xia Qing felt an inexplicable sense of comfort.

Strength-evolved people have advantages in farming that ordinary people and other ability-evolvers cannot compare to.

Others weed with one hoe held in two hands, while Xia Qing holds one in each hand; others' flat hoes are between twenty and thirty centimeters wide, while Xia Qing's flat hoe is forty centimeters wide; others can weed at most one mu in a whole busy day, while Xia Qing weeds one mu in half a day.

So, weeding over six mu of land was no pressure at all for Xia Qing, whose Hukou wound had already healed.

The hoe she used was one she had modified herself; the row spacing of the crops planted in the farmland was forty-five centimeters. Xia Qing pulled one hoe in each hand, controlling the depth and direction, walking from one end of the long ridge to the other in the field, and the two long ridges were weeded clean.

The sick wolf's anesthesia had worn off, and it followed Sheep Boss, ambling slowly to the shade of a tree beside the farmland.

After Xia Qing finished weeding the long ridges, she then weeded the grass between adjacent plants in the same row, and one greenhouse was done. After weeding the mung bean greenhouse, Xia Qing went to the shade of the tree to drink water and rest.

It was hot, and working inside a greenhouse covered by insect-proof netting, Xia Qing wore only comfortable, breathable blue long pants and a white long-sleeved T-shirt, along with a self-woven wide-brimmed straw hat.

Arriving at the shade of the tree, Xia Qing took off her gloves and straw hat, grabbed her water bottle and drank. To her left was the snow-white Sheep Boss, and to Sheep Boss's left was the sick wolf lying on the ground, its back fur blackened, brownish-yellow in color.

The sick wolf at this moment was staring at Xia Qing. Unlike the head wolf's pride, the brain-evolved injured wolf's contemplative look, or the broken-legged wolf's ferocity, after the sick wolf's eyes — nearly pierced blind by the evolved grass seed — could see again, its rust-colored eyes actually held a clarity that didn't belong to an evolved carnivorous beast of prey.

Xia Qing guessed it might be because during the time it was blind, she had taken care of it day and night without distinction, pulling it back from the edge of life and death, so its eyes held not a trace of vigilance or defensiveness.

Such a gaze paired with its emaciated face was... inexplicably dog-like. And precisely because of this gaze and temperament, Xia Qing suddenly felt that she might be able to maintain a long-term friendly relationship with this sickly old wolf.

Xia Qing took a few gulps of water, leaned against the tree trunk, and negotiated with the sick wolf, "You still need to recuperate in my territory for three months. Calling you 'wolf' all the time isn't great — how about I give you a name, Wolf Lao Er?"

In Territory Three, she was the lord, Sheep Boss was first, it was second.

The sick wolf tilted its head, looking inexplicably dazed and cute, much more pleasant to look at than Sheep Boss with its punchable face. Xia Qing went to the terraced fields and picked a green-striped cucumber, and discovered that Sheep Boss no longer looked punchable — its big sheep eyes flashing with cuteness — while Wolf Lao Er still wore a solemn expression, appearing far more dignified than Sheep Boss.

After Xia Qing rinsed the cucumber with spring water, she took the larger half, Sheep Boss the smaller half, and Wolf Lao Er a small bite. "Eat up."

Under the blue sky and white clouds in the shade of the tree, one person, one sheep, and one wolf crunched on cucumber together. In the northern buffer forest, a fiery-red figure hid behind a tree branch, staring at the peanut field inside Gao Po's insect-proof net shed while rubbing its little paws together.

Sheep Boss crunched through its share the fastest, and after finishing, turned to look at Xia Qing. Xia Qing, with the last segment held in her mouth, stood up. "Let's go, time to work."

Sheep Boss turned its head to look at its sick wolf friend beside it. Although the sick wolf ate slowly, it had been given the smallest portion of cucumber, and it had also finished by now. Sheep Boss, still not full, got up to eat pasture grass. The sick wolf followed it for two steps, then lay back down in the shade of the tree, watching Xia Qing weeding in the field.

Next up was weeding the cornfield. The corn had already grown to a meter tall, but for Xia Qing, who was over 1.7 meters tall, the corn was only about as high as her legs. She pulled two hoes, walking steadily.

Walking from one end to the other, Xia Qing received a call from Hu Zifeng.

"Xia Qing, hurry to the abandoned cave in Area Three. A wolf has gone crazy. If you can't stop it, we'll have to use weapons."

Gone crazy? Which one?

The people from the Sufeng Squad hadn't withdrawn from this territory yet. If they found out there were wolves inside Mountain Forty-Nine, they would surely seize on this matter to make a big fuss.

"I'm on my way." Xia Qing dropped her hoe and sprinted back to the small hut by the farmland, threw on protective clothing and a protective mask, and rushed north.

"Baa—" Sheep Boss saw Xia Qing running and came over from the pasture, and the sick wolf also stood up and followed.

Xia Qing shouted while running, "Boss, Lao Er, hold down the territory. I'll be back soon."

"Baa—"

Sheep Boss responded once and stopped. The sick wolf, however, continued along the path Xia Qing had run, along the river channel leading from the valley to the reservoir, slowly heading north.

Sheep Boss followed for a stretch, and when it noticed the sick wolf was about to leave Territory Three and enter the northern isolation belt, it stepped forward to block the sick wolf, using its head to drive it back.

Xia Qing sprinted along the river channel all the way into the valley of the wild boar breeding center, and saw a brownish-gray evolved wolf shoot out over twenty meters with a whoosh. The rocks it had crushed tumbled clattering down the slope and fell into the pond at the bottom of the valley, splashing up water.

Xia Qing watched, dumbfounded. Did this thing cover that distance by inertia from running too fast, or had its leaping ability evolved?

Either way, she couldn't let it run wild. Xia Qing growled, "Broken-legs, you behave yourself for me."

That's right, this brownish-gray evolved wolf leaping and bounding around like it had gone crazy was precisely the broken-legged wolf that had been carried into Territory Three by the wolf pack a month ago, both of its hind legs broken.

"Whoosh—" The brownish-gray evolved wolf leaped toward Xia Qing, glaring at her viciously.