Chapter 209: The Third Killing Rain

This morning, the Broken-Leg Wolf delivered a yellow-light prey animal to Xia Qing.

This was the first time Xia Qing had received a yellow-light prey animal from the wolf pack. She guessed it might be that the Broken-Leg Wolf's ability to distinguish green-light from yellow-light animals was inferior to the Head Wolf's, or perhaps the nearby green-light animals had already been caught by the pack, so the Broken-Leg Wolf had no choice but to switch to catching yellow-light ones.

Fortunately, Xia Qing had already paid back the seventy jin of green-light meat she owed Zhang San. Zhang San wouldn't eat yellow-light animals, but Xia Qing and the Sick Wolf weren't picky. Part of the animal's offal was sealed and put into the storage room, part was boiled to feed the wolf, the meat stripped from the bones was set aside for two days' meals, and the rest was sliced and roasted into jerky by Xia Qing.

With the standard storage room, the jerky's shelf life had been extended, so Xia Qing processed any prey the Sick Wolf couldn't finish into jerky for storage. Once the Sick Wolf recovered and left the territory, if she wanted to catch green-light prey again, she could only rely on probability and luck.

If only wolves could talk—Xia Qing really wanted to learn from the Head Wolf the trick of distinguishing green-light prey.

The prey delivered by the Broken-Leg Wolf wasn't large; it was probably a fawn born this summer, looking both like a deer and a goat, and Xia Qing couldn't tell which animal it had evolved from.

Whatever it was, as long as it was edible, that was fine.

Xia Qing had just brought the sealed fresh meat up from the underground storage room and was about to chop it into filling when she heard Zhao Ze's mother from Territory Four talking, "Shi family, you're already eating sesame oil? I can't even bear to put oil in my stir-fries."

Shi's mother explained, "We didn't plant sesame, and we don't have sesame oil. I meant dumplings taste better with sesame oil added."

"Right, and even better with eggs. If our little hen hadn't died, she'd be laying eggs next month." Mentioning the yellow-light pullet killed by the ultrasonic waves still pained Zhao's mother to her core.

In the territory, Zhao's mother had often complained to her son about Zhang San being stingy—keeping so many chickens yet not selling a few to the neighbors so everyone could have eggs. But she only dared grumble privately; in the lord channel, she wouldn't dare say a single word.

Listening to Zhao's mother complain, Xia Qing's heart was secretly delighted. The batch of yellow-light chicks Zhao Ze and Qi Fu received had hatched a month earlier than her green-light chicks, which meant that if nothing went wrong, by late October she'd be able to eat eggs.

Once she had eggs, what could she make?

Steamed eggs, boiled eggs, tomato scrambled eggs, cucumber scrambled eggs, scallion scrambled eggs, egg and pumpkin dumplings, chive and egg dumplings…

The more she thought about it, the more excited Xia Qing became. The sound of her chopping filling carried into the living room, and the Sick Wolf lying on the tatami raised a paw to press down its ears.

Once the filling and yellow-light minced ginger were chopped, she added the moisture-squeezed green-light pumpkin, Sichuan pepper oil, salt, soy sauce, and sesame oil, and stirred it evenly. The aroma of the dumpling filling drew the Sick Wolf to the kitchen doorway.

Xia Qing, who was kneading dough, saw it standing on the floor gazing at her eagerly. She took a small piece of unseasoned roasted jerky from the tin box, tore open the sealed bag, and handed it over. "Hungry? Chew on this to pass the time. Your meat is already on the boil—it'll be ready soon."

Wild wolves in the Evolution Forest ate at most one meal a day; when prey was scarce, going three or four days between meals was normal. While the two injured wolves were recuperating in Xia Qing's territory, the Head Wolf delivering prey to them once a day was already special treatment.

After this Sick Wolf entered Xia Qing's territory, because its stomach and intestines were weak, Xia Qing switched it to smaller, more frequent meals—three a day. It adapted well to this new feeding routine and ate together with Xia Qing and Goat Boss.

The Sick Wolf, having received the jerky, gave its tail a wag and went back to the tatami to gnaw on it. Before Xia Qing's eyes had recovered from being "spiced" by the wolf's actions, Goat Boss was already clip-clopping to the kitchen doorway, staring with its big, captivating eyes, waiting to be fed.

Life isn't easy—Xia Qing sighed.

She took a piece of pumpkin rind she had just peeled and fed it to Goat Boss. "Go chew on that. I'll mix you some concentrate in a bit."

After Goat Boss happily trotted back to the living room with the pumpkin rind in its mouth, Xia Qing began rolling out dumpling wrappers and wrapping dumplings.

Once the dumplings were wrapped, dusk had fallen. Xia Qing first set the cooked offal out to cool in the wolf's food bowl, then went to the terraced fields to pluck a handful of spinach leaves. On her way back, she brought the chicken coop in and placed it inside the goat shed.

After returning to the house, Xia Qing added firewood to boil water for the dumplings and washed the spinach. She divided the spinach leaves into three portions, putting them respectively into Goat Boss's concentrate, the Sick Wolf's boiled meat, and her own dumplings.

After the dumplings were cooked, Xia Qing listened to the news broadcast while eating fragrant meat dumplings, so happy she could burst.

Upon hearing the weather forecast for Hui-Three Base, all of Xia Qing's happy bubbles burst.

This year's third Killing Rain would arrive in three days, lasting approximately 70 hours. Because the Killing Cloud density was high, red-level showers were expected at least three times, each potentially lasting over an hour.

A red-level Killing Rain lasting over an hour constituted a disaster-level event. After three such disasters, would the territories humans had painstakingly opened up and farmed for half a year still remain in human hands?

She couldn't manage others' territories, nor afford to, but Territory Three would definitely be hers!

Xia Qing downed her dumpling soup in one gulp, cleared the table, spread out her notebook, and listened carefully to today's farming knowledge broadcast.

Today's farming knowledge was about how lords should respond to the third Killing Rain. Beyond the basic precautions like drainage and covering with rainproof cloth, broadcaster Wang Chuqi reminded them in her pleasant, hopeful voice, "Cotton has entered its late growth stage. Unless it encounters a red-level Killing Rain lasting over an hour and a half, the likelihood of Killing Evolution occurring is low. However, a Killing Rain lasting over three days may cause a large number of black spades to appear. To cope with the crisis, lords should…"

After the broadcast ended, Xia Qing turned off the radio and switched on the walkie-talkie.

The lord channel was heavy with gloom.

Zhao Ze complained, "Seventy hours?! Isn't this trying to kill us?! There's no way to farm this land at all."

Kuang Qingwei asked, "How many hours did last year's third Killing Rain last?"

Shi Zhong answered, "Last year's wasn't short either. We were in the safe zone back then—when the Killing Rain came, we just shut the door and stayed home. I really didn't pay attention to the exact number of hours."

Luo Pei answered, "Last year's third Killing Rain lasted 67.4 hours, with two red-level Killing Rain showers, the longest lasting 1.6 hours. After the Killing Rain, the casualty count officially reported by Hui-Three Base was 420 people."

The actual casualty count was certainly higher than the official report. How many would this year's three red-level Killing Rain showers kill? The lord channel fell silent.

Tan Junjie issued a stern and calm announcement, "All lords, please follow the key points mentioned in the broadcast and prepare for the Killing Rain. During the Killing Rain, if any unmanageable dangerous situations arise within Territories One through Ten, please contact the inspection team immediately."

"Copy that," Zhao Ze replied, then roused himself to ask everyone how they planned to handle the Killing Rain. "Everyone, how are you planning to guard the corn shed?"