Chapter 20: As Long As I'm Not Embarrassed

"Buzz—buzz—buzz—"

The phone buzzed. Xia Qing, lying on the ground, didn't want to move a muscle. She called out weakly, "Idiot, idiot, answer the phone."

"Yes, Master." A rare, cheerful post-catastrophe voice sounded from the pocket over Xia Qing's heart.

"Hello."

Captain Tan's voice was urgent, accompanied by the sound of running. "Xia Qing."

Xia Qing, her face covered in sweat, blinked away the beads of sweat from her eyelashes and gazed at the washed-clean blue sky. "Captain Tan."

"The evolved trees in the western buffer forest of Plot Three have been cleared, and all buffer forests have been fully checked. I heard sounds of fighting inside your territory village. Where are you, and what's the situation?"

"…The fight is over. I'm fine. Captain Tan doesn't need to come check. Everything's normal."

"Normal?"

"Yes."

Only after answering did Xia Qing realize Captain Tan's voice wasn't coming through the phone! She stiffly turned her head and found Captain Tan holding his phone, standing not far away with a large group of people, all staring at her in unison.

Su Ming slowly took off his protective mask, his eyes wide as saucers, his mouth open wide enough to stuff a goose egg in.

……

……

……

Ram Boss, lying on the ground panting heavily, also belatedly noticed people had arrived. He immediately jumped up, shook the mud off his head, and stood in front of Xia Qing, facing the group of evolved creatures charging into the territory, flashing his mud-caked ram horns.

Xia Qing raised her hand to wipe the mud spots Ram Boss had splashed onto her goggles, but because there was even more mud on her gloves, the goggles were now completely a muddy mess. Now there was even less need to face anyone.

After silently reciting three times, "As long as I'm not embarrassed, the embarrassed one is someone else," Xia Qing calmly climbed to her feet, stood beside Ram Boss, and very naturally smeared the mud from her gloves onto his horns. She hadn't expected that upon noticing people arriving, Ram Boss's first reaction would be to protect her.

At least he has some conscience.

"Hahaha—" Su Ming really couldn't hold it in anymore. "Haha—ha ah—"

Seeing Su Ming laughing so hard he was bent over get kicked into the mud, the rest of the group couldn't hold it in either. One by one they took off their protective masks and laughed until they were falling all over the place. Tan Junjie turned back and roared twice before he could rein in this bunch of unruly fools.

When Xia Qing spotted Yang Jin through a crack in the mud—the only other person in the crowd who hadn't bent over laughing—her brain immediately crashed. Why was he here?

Tan Junjie turned back to look at Xia Qing and continued with business. "What kind of creature was it? Was it dealt with or did it run?"

The fight had been so intense that the opponent couldn't be underestimated. Tan Junjie looked around searching. But the moment he took a step forward, the evolved mud-ram beside Xia Qing pawed a line in the mud with its front hoof and let out a threatening "Moo!" at him.

This evolved ram had territorial awareness and didn't want him getting close. Tan Junjie withdrew his foot and looked at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing answered stiffly, "No dangerous creatures. My ram wasn't behaving, so I educated it a little."

Tan Junjie's gaze swept over the fallen front door, the collapsed shed, the completely flattened courtyard wall, and the yard that had become a muddy porridge. "Good that you're fine. Be careful with your actions during this period. If you spot danger again, don't handle it privately—contact me promptly."

Xia Qing immediately stood at attention. "Yes. Thank you, Captain Tan."

Tan Junjie nodded, turned around. "Fall back!"

"Captain Tan…" Xia Qing called out to Tan Junjie in a small voice. "About what happened today… could you… not let it spread?"

As she spoke, Xia Qing's gaze shifted to the expressionless captain of the Azure Dragon Squad standing beside Tan Junjie—Yang Jin. She was very grateful to Yang Jin right now, because apart from Xia Qing herself, he was the only one there who hadn't taken off his protective mask. If he had taken his off too, it would have made Xia Qing look even more like a fool.

Xia Qing could recognize him because of those calm eyes behind his goggles and… his outstanding physique, which was truly unforgettable.

But gratitude aside, she still didn't want to attract attention. She didn't want Tang Lu, the owner of Plot Two, to know Yang Jin had come to her territory, and even less wanted her embarrassing incident to become the joke of Hui-Three Base.

"Don't worry." As Tan Junjie led the team away from Plot Three along the straight little path Xia Qing had cleared, his shoulders were shaking just like the other team members'. Only Yang Jin remained ramrod straight.

After watching them leave, Xia Qing once again fell flat on her back onto the ground, staring blankly at the mud-caked sky.

"Squish, squish, squish, bang, bang, bang, clop, clop, clop…"

Hearing Ram Boss step through the mud, step over the door, and enter the house, Xia Qing finally rolled over and raised her head, seeing him about to eat the compressed rations she had angrily thrown onto the ground under the steps. She immediately scrambled over. "Don't, they have vacuum packaging…"

Before Xia Qing could finish saying "packaging," Ram Boss had quickly tilted his head back and swallowed the compressed rations whole, then clip-clopped off to the bathroom.

After a while, Ram Boss clip-clopped back out, squinting at Xia Qing.

This is… he wants a bath?

Xia Qing laughed in exasperation. She took off her protective mask and laughed louder and louder, until Ram Boss got temperamental again and started pawing the ground and gesturing with his spiral horns. Only then did Xia Qing say "Wait," and went to heat water for him.

After carrying the warm water into the bathroom, before Xia Qing could say anything, Ram Boss had already stepped into the large aluminum tub and started washing. Xia Qing, still in her protective suit, first rinsed the mud off herself, then gave Ram Boss his bath. "At the start of today's incident, it was my fault. I didn't know you were outside, and when I came back I was in such a hurry that I shut the door. But you shouldn't have butted the door down with your head either!"

At the time, Xia Qing's entire heart had been hanging on that catastrophic evolved tree, and she truly hadn't noticed where Ram Boss was. In Xia Qing's eyes, this house, this yard, this territory was hers, but in Ram Boss's eyes, this place was his. So if he wanted to go inside, he would go in.

Door closed? Open it!

But, "It just finished raining catastrophe. Do you have any idea how many dangerous evolved creatures are out there? How can we sleep peacefully without a door? Do you want to grow a coat of parasites again?"

Faced with Xia Qing's barrage of questions, Ram Boss narrowed his eyes comfortably and kept on bathing.

"That bad temper of yours needs to be fixed… Of course, I also need to control my own temper." Xia Qing muttered to herself, entering the criticism and self-criticism segment. The more she thought about it, the more unbelievable she found it.

Over the years, she had been through far too many infuriating things, and every time she could calmly and coldly deal with them. How come today she couldn't hold back her temper and ended up fighting with Ram Boss, even forgetting that Captain Tan was bringing a team to clear the catastrophic evolved trees?

This is very wrong. That tree must have affected her!

After washing Ram Boss, Xia Qing immediately went to deal with the door that had been knocked down. Thanks to the security door being sturdy enough, and thanks to the cracks in the wall, although the security door had been knocked down, after some tidying up and reinstalling, it could still be made to work in a pinch.

After taking out her tools to hammer, dismantle, and modify, Xia Qing then used a small bag of high-quality cement she had brought out from the safe zone, and very nimbly reinstalled the security door.

This kind of cement had insect-repelling additives added to it, and its corrosion resistance had doubled. It was a hard-to-come-by good material. Even Xia Qing, as the squad leader of the safe zone's construction team, had only this one small bag. She had originally planned to use it where it mattered most, but in the end it all went to patching the door.

After installing the door, just to be safe Xia Qing propped it firmly with two-by-four wooden sticks, then called out to Ram Boss, who was drying his fur and eating grass under the front eave. "Boss, come try it."

Ram Boss squinted at Xia Qing and didn't move.

Xia Qing took out a piece of ration. "Come try it."

"Baa." Ram Boss, his whole body snow-white, immediately walked over. Xia Qing broke off a bit of ration for him, then pulled the modified door handle down and pushed it inward. "Look, this is how the door opens. You only need to open it; closing it you don't have to worry about, the door will close itself. Try it."

The foodie Ram Boss didn't look at the door, only stared at Xia Qing's hand.

Xia Qing broke off another bit of ration and stuffed it in his mouth, then directly grabbed his front hoof and used it to push open the door that had closed again. "Just like that. Got it?"

Ram Boss chewed his ration, squinting at the door handle.