Chapter 285: The Wolf-Seeking Squad Arrives at the North Isolation Belt

When she went to Mountain Fifty to gather pine nuts, the bear's roar she heard was loud, but there wasn't much anger in that call, whereas this bear's roar clearly carried anger, which is why Ram Boss was afraid.

Don't ask how Xia Qing could tell — she had no rigorous theoretical basis, nor any systematic auditory training; she simply sensed the difference in emotion within the roar. Perhaps this is a difference only those with auditory evolution abilities can hear?

Because the bear's roar made Ram Boss uneasy, Xia Qing canceled her afternoon trip to Valley One to inspect the ginger, sent Chen Zheng back to Territory One, and led Ram Boss home herself.

She had to prepare the pine nuts and chestnuts she'd promised Seeing Xin Yu as soon as possible. The chestnuts were ready, but the pine nuts were still in the pine cones, and the pine cones were still drying on the roof.

Pine cones were already hard to begin with, and after hardness evolution they became even harder. The pine cones she'd cut down had been drying on the roof for half a month, only starting to crack yesterday. Xia Qing had planned to collect the pine nuts tomorrow, but plans can't keep up with changes — she switched to collecting pine cones that afternoon.

After getting home, Xia Qing first looked through the chicken coop window at the nesting boxes, found no new eggs, then poured some pollution-free spring water into Ram Boss's basin. Once his emotions settled, she went up to the warehouse roof, gathered the green-light pine cones together, stuffed them into a sack, and carried them down to the yard to beat them open.

Because all the edible pine trees had undergone hardness evolution, Xia Qing didn't dare beat them open directly on the roof, afraid of punching a hole through it.

After a few minutes of beating, most of the pine nuts had fallen out; a small number were still hidden inside the cones and needed to be picked out with a thin screwdriver.

This was delicate work, but luckily Xia Qing had patience to spare.

Listening to the bear's roar and the faint dog barking, Xia Qing picked pine nuts and chatted casually with Ram Boss. "So loud — the wolf pack must have heard it. As long as the Queen and Broken-Waist aren't stupid, they'll lead the pack deeper into the Evolution Forest. Boss, do you know where the wolf pack's territory is?"

Ram Boss, lying beside Xia Qing, half-closed his eyes and chewed his cud, saying nothing.

"If only we had a bird companion who could talk too." Xia Qing picked out a pine nut and looked at the row of swallows perched on the chicken coop roof.

These little ones were cuter than ravens, but none of them were brain-domain evolvers, nor could they speak human language. Most omnivorous migratory birds flew at dusk and at night; the swallows lined up gazing northward, probably waiting for the migratory flock to pass so they could take off and follow.

When Xia Qing placed the empty pine cone into the bamboo basket and picked up another to inspect, she heard the little swallows all take off at once.

She thought the swallows were departing, but when she looked up she saw them circle the yard twice and land on the bamboo pole where she used to dry vegetables.

Where the swallows had been standing on the chicken coop roof, a small head appeared, its color very similar to the synthetic resin tiles, followed by a fluffy big tail wagging and wagging.

Isn't this the little freeloader? It heard the sound of pine cones being beaten and came back for another free meal?

Xia Qing was speechless and lowered her head to continue picking pine nuts.

Seeing that Xia Qing was ignoring it, the red squirrel jumped from the chicken coop to the goat shed roof, then from the goat shed roof into the yard, rubbing its two little paws together and staring longingly at the mountain of pine cones.

Xia Qing grabbed a pine cone, checked that no pine nuts remained, and tossed it to the red squirrel. "Here, play with this."

The red squirrel leaped up with a whoosh to catch it, fussed over it with its little paws like a treasure for a while, then, finding not a single pine nut inside, tossed it aside and continued waving its big tail and rubbing its little paws, trying to trade its looks for food.

Its little act was indeed very pleasing to the eye, but Xia Qing didn't fall for it. She picked out a pine nut and ate it herself. She picked out another and gave it to Ram Boss beside her.

Ram Boss squinted at the red squirrel and chewed his pine nut with great relish.

"Want some?" Xia Qing picked out another pine nut and held it in her left hand, then pulled a peanut from her protective suit pocket, her actions and words together saying: "If you want pine nuts, trade me peanuts. No peanuts, no pine nuts."

Watching Xia Qing put the pine nut into the bag, the red squirrel hopped up and down, chirping angrily, vividly expressing its displeasure.

Xia Qing couldn't care less whether the red squirrel was satisfied or not — pine trees were everywhere in the Evolution Forest; she refused to believe the red squirrel couldn't find edible ones on its own.

Not to mention other places — on the yellow-light pine trees in Area Three of Mountain Forty-Nine alone, Xia Qing had left enough pine cones for the red squirrel to last the winter. If you want to eat, go pick them yourself!

After making a fuss and acting cute for a while, the red squirrel finally understood Xia Qing wasn't going to give it anything for free, and left, pine cone clutched in its arms, muttering curses.

Working at an unhurried pace until a little past five in the afternoon, Xia Qing finished collecting the pine nuts.

From the four green-light pine trees in Area Three of Mountain Forty-Nine, the pine cones yielded 43 jin of pine nuts; the yellow-light cones yielded 66 jin; and from Mountain Fifty she harvested 24 jin.

This year, Xia Qing had harvested a total of 133 jin of edible pine nuts — more than enough for her to dry-roast, make congee, and stir-fry with.

She cheerfully weighed out two jin from the pine nuts harvested on Mountain Fifty and put them into a sealed bag.

The pine nuts from Mountain Fifty had a lower Lu Ziqiang element content than those from Mountain Forty-Nine, and a better taste as well. To show her gratitude to Seeing Xin Yu, Xia Qing naturally had to send the good ones.

Then, Xia Qing stored the three bags of pine nuts in the underground grain storage room of the tool shed, and went to the underground vegetable storage room of the garage to bring up ten jin of yellow-light chestnuts.

Xia Qing didn't store chestnuts and pine nuts in the same storage room because these two foods had different temperature and humidity requirements.

Pine nuts had storage requirements similar to wheat, so they went in the grain storage room; chestnuts had storage requirements similar to potatoes and other vegetables, so they went in the vegetable storage room.

After sealing up the nuts, the Mountain Fifty bear had stopped roaring and the dogs had stopped barking too. Xia Qing picked up the trade goods and headed for the North Isolation Belt. Seeing Xia Qing go out, Ram Boss immediately followed.

Before the person and the goat had reached the North Isolation Belt, they heard dog barking nearby. Xia Qing's instinctive reaction was to hold back the pugnacious Ram Boss, but Ram Boss's reaction was to nudge Xia Qing back toward the territory, urging her to run along with him.

From Ram Boss's actions, Xia Qing judged that the two baying evolved dogs were no pushovers in a fight. She immediately sent Ram Boss to the small hut by the field and told him to stay inside, then returned to the Gao Po buffer forest and climbed a big tree to observe the situation.

The wolf-seeking squad with their two evolved dogs had been intercepted by the hazard inspection team led by Tan Junjie at the North Isolation Belt where Territory Three and Territory Four met. From that spot, following the stream northward would lead into the abandoned wild boar breeding center. The cave there was now a wolf den.

Amid the dog barking, one-eyed Jiang Xiazi was negotiating with Tan Junjie: "Captain Tan, our scent-evolution dogs picked up the smell of wolves nearby, which is why they're sounding the alarm."

Tan Junjie warned sternly: "This is a territory isolation belt. Immediately order your tamed beast to stop making noise that could attract evolved bears."

Jiang Xiazi didn't order the evolved dogs to stop, but spread his hands and explained: "There's the smell of wolves here, which is why the evolved dogs are reacting so strongly. I can't stop them."

"This is the second warning: Jiang Xiong Squad, immediately order your tamed beast to stop actions that pose a serious safety hazard to the territory, or the hazard inspection team will shoot the tamed beast on the spot."

After the second warning was issued, the hazard inspection team members raised their guns and aimed at the two evolved dogs of the Jiang Xiong Squad.

Before Tan Junjie could issue the third warning, Jiang Xiazi immediately ordered the two evolved dogs to shut up.

From the big tree, Xia Qing — a Level Nine visual evolver — clearly saw the fury in Jiang Xiazi's single eye.