Chapter 445: Cold Wave

It was nearly midnight.

In the office of the inner city of the Hui-3 Base safe zone, Tang Zhengrong rubbed his temples wearily. "Don't be rash. Fierce Fire has no motive to move against us, and they wouldn't sacrifice a tamed evolved eagle owl just to kill Xu Pin."

Tang Zhengsu was like a bundle of dynamite right now, ready to blow up at the slightest touch. "It was Fierce Fire! Our people saw it clearly. While Yang Jin and Xu Pin were negotiating terms, an evolved eagle owl suddenly flew over and dropped a bomb. Yang Jin ran fast and didn't get blown up, so Fierce Fire sent three more people to grab him. If the Green Dragon Squad members hadn't arrived first, Yang Jin would've been taken!"

Tang Zhengrong held the phone a little farther away, frowning. "Who saw it? They weren't bribed by the Green Dragon Squad, were they?"

Tang Zhengsu spoke with absolute certainty. "It was Langzi and Ligen. They followed Xu Pin to intercept Yang Jin, and they both got badly beaten by him. How could they possibly speak up for Yang Jin!"

"Didn't you say that girl from the Number Eight Territory reconnection also has an eagle owl? Could she have teamed up with Yang Jin to do it?"

"No, the one from Number Eight Territory is small, but the one last night was big." Tang Zhengsu really wanted to crack open his brother's skull and see what that Fierce Fire woman had stuffed into it. "Besides, Xin Yu has even less reason to make a move on Xu Pin."

Tang Zhengrong's head was buzzing from his brother's shouting, and he didn't want to argue anymore. "The inspection team has already submitted the video of the Number Two Territory refugees attacking the evolved bear. The Territory Management Department will send people to investigate tomorrow. You get this matter arranged properly first—say it was Xu Pin's idea."

No witness left alive—the dead make the best scapegoats.

"Already arranged." Tang Zhengsu agreed immediately and kept trying to brainwash his brother. "Xu Pin told me before that he had a brother inside Fierce Fire who'd already gotten evidence of their human experiments. Xu Pin last night must have wanted to use this to trade with Yang Jin, to keep Yang Jin from handing the refugee evidence to the inspection team. Fierce Fire's reconnaissance bird noticed something was wrong, so it dropped the bomb."

"Brother, we can't work with Fierce Fire anymore. Even if Xu Pin wasn't killed by them, the evolved bear attack and poisoning was done by their people. When things go wrong, what happens? They push it all onto us! We're number one in Hui-3, but in their eyes we don't even rank."

"Fierce Fire has always wanted to create high-level evolved humans with both strength and speed systems. I think this time they came after me. If we keep cooperating, someday I might end up on an operating table in Fierce Fire's mountain basement."

So that was what his second brother was afraid of. Tang Zhengrong pinched the bridge of his nose. "I understand. But even if we don't cooperate, don't make a complete break with Fierce Fire's people. Offending Fierce Fire won't do us any good. You get the refugee matter handed down first, leave two people to thoroughly investigate the helicopter bombing, and come back as soon as you can."

Tang Zhengsu immediately brightened. "Alright. Brother, ask Qi Zhongye for another helicopter, will you? It's too inconvenient getting around without one."

"We'll talk about that after the cold wave passes."

A strong wind rose in the night, the temperature dropped to minus ten degrees, and dead leaves and withered grass flew wildly.

The next morning, Xia Qing crawled out of her warm bed, got dressed, and pulled open the window to find fallen leaves piled behind the building over a meter deep.

This was... wonderful!

She gathered the fallen leaves, stuffed them into the cold-proof trenches, and sprinkled compost starter powder on top. As the leaves fermented, they would generate heat, better protecting the greenhouses and sheds.

The wild boar droppings in the valley of Zone Three of Mountain Forty-Nine also needed to be brought back and piled into the cold-proof trenches to ferment. That way, when spring plowing came next year, she'd have plenty of organic fertilizer.

Xia Qing went downstairs and found that Sick Wolf and Sheep Boss weren't in the house. She checked the surveillance on her phone and saw Sick Wolf carrying a small basket, catching bugs everywhere for the Green Lantern chickens and the spring water fish, while Sheep Boss was eating leaves under the big Green Lantern Chinese toon tree.

Seeing their condition, she knew the territory was safe and sound. Xia Qing didn't rush out either. She went to the underground grain storage room in the tool shed first and brought up some Green Lantern chestnuts and the Green Lantern rice she'd just traded for.

The temperature and humidity control equipment in the food storage room was running normally. The chestnuts had been stored inside for over two months and were still fresh.

Xia Qing washed the rice clean with pollution-free spring water and soaked it, then peeled and washed the chestnut shells. This morning, she would cook Green Lantern chestnut and rice porridge with pollution-free spring water, and add two Green Lantern eggs.

On this freezing morning, watching the firelight dancing in the stove, Xia Qing felt a sense of peace and happiness. This was the happiness she had waited ten years for.

The enemy's combat power was high and hard to deal with?

No rush.

Tang Zhengsu was already forty-eight; his abilities couldn't possibly evolve any further.

She was twenty-five this year, with another ten years of evolution ahead. Eating high-quality Green Lantern food and training hard, she would grow stronger and stronger. Killing him for revenge was only a matter of time.

She wasn't living just for revenge.

She and her parents had promised each other that even if only one person in the family was left, they would still run toward happiness. Now she had found happiness. The main purpose of growing stronger was to protect that happiness, so every day, she had to live earnestly and fully.

After the porridge in the pot came to a boil, Xia Qing placed the frozen mantou and washed eggs from the refrigerator on the steamer, let the firewood in the stove burn slowly, then put on her protective suit, her patched protective boots, and her protective mask, and went out to patrol the territory.

Today was clearly colder than yesterday. The small grass blades on the ground were wrapped in frost, and stepping on them produced faint crackling sounds. The swallows huddled in their nests under the eaves, their chirping grown small and soft.

The swallows, who should have flown to warmer regions for the winter, were indeed suffering by staying here. But they had already fallen behind the main migrating flock, and migrating alone would surely get them hunted by raptors. Suffering was still better than losing their lives.

Before Xia Qing even took out her phone to check the locator on the red squirrel, she spotted the little creature poking its small head out from the door crack, gazing at her eagerly.

The temperature had been too low last night, and the spring water in the jar on the windowsill had frozen. The little creature hadn't gotten a drink, so it was waiting here.

Xia Qing smiled and didn't make things hard for it. She went back inside, fetched a small basin, placed it by the sheep pen door, and poured in spring water. "It's this cold and you still haven't started hibernating? Here's water for you to drink. When you're hungry, go back and eat the dried fruit in your tree hole. You've stored so much food, more than enough to last the winter."

The red squirrel was afraid of Xia Qing. It waited until she left before darting out, drinking its fill quickly, then running off toward Zone Three of Mountain Forty-Nine—its tree hole.

After the red squirrel left, the little swallows hiding in their nests flew down.

Xia Qing, who hadn't yet left the village, heard the monitor alarm. She took out her phone, saw a circle of swallows perched on the rim of the basin, and smiled.

Even when she wasn't home, the house was quite lively.

The breeding greenhouse was 15°C. At this temperature, the chickens, rabbits, and spring water fish all felt comfortable, but the mealworms felt uncomfortable and refused to even eat the leaves.

"Buzz."

Xia Qing took out her phone and saw it was Tang Huai. This guy really had too much free time:

Xia Qing, did your mealworms freeze to death? If they did, let me know and I'll bring you two more trays. Just let me pet the wolf once, just once.