Chapter 497: The Red Squirrel Whose Home Was Stolen

Xia Qing, whose body was still suffering the side effects of the Yi Element Stimulant Solution, circled the large pine tree where the locator was placed many times, but found no sign of the red squirrel coming out to move about.

This was very unusual.

Squirrels, as a rule, will find a spot within their territory to relieve themselves, and that spot is usually quite a distance from the tree hollow they live in. This has nothing whatsoever to do with being clean or hygienic — it's purely a matter of survival.

First, squirrels are territorial animals. They use their droppings to let other squirrels know the area is already occupied — don't enter, or there will be a fight.

Second, goshawks, owls, forest martens, snakes, and the like are all natural enemies of the squirrel, and they mainly rely on sight, smell, or hearing to lock onto a squirrel's location. To evade predators, squirrels not only avoid relieving themselves near their dens, but also try to find things that can mask their own scent and carry them on their bodies or place them inside their dens to avoid being found by predators. For instance, the speed-evolved red squirrel in Zone Three builds its nest with strongly scented tobacco shreds, and sprinkers snake-shed fragments on its fur.

Squirrels do reduce their activity and sleep more in winter, entering a semi-hibernating state. But they still need to eat and relieve themselves, so in theory there should be signs of the red squirrel's activity on the surface of the compacted snow around the tree hollow.

Unable to find it, Xia Qing simply stood under the tree and softly called out to her neighbor in the hollow. She kept her voice low not out of fear of being overheard by people, but out of fear of startling her timid neighbor inside the hollow.

"Red squirrel, are you home? I brought you some peanuts — want some?"

"Freeloader, are you home? Want some water?"

After calling out several times, there was no movement from inside the hollow. Xia Qing took the cat-claw shoes from her backpack, slowly climbed up more than ten meters, and called out twice more at the red squirrel's doorway — still no response.

She switched on her flashlight and looked inside the hollow, and upon seeing that the locator was there but the squirrel was not, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Since she was already there, Xia Qing took the opportunity to rummage through the red squirrel's home with an iron hook, and found that the food in this tree hollow was nearly gone. This little fellow really could eat.

The red squirrel was far better off than Xia Qing — Xia Qing had only one home, while the red squirrel had six tree hollows that could serve as nests within its territory, plus two stone caves used specifically for storing food. This autumn it had been busy from dawn to dusk, storing food in all six hollows. If the red squirrel wasn't here, it had to be in one of the other hollows that still had food.

Xia Qing, whose hearing had not yet fully recovered, listened carefully to the sounds of various animals moving about in the evolved forest, and chose the place she thought most likely. When she arrived, she found the red squirrel was still not in the hollow, but the ground was scattered with gnawed dried-fruit crumbs and plenty of mouse tracks.

The red squirrel's home had been robbed by mice!

Xia Qing immediately quickened her pace and headed for the nearest hollow. Five hundred meters ahead was a stone cave — that was the hollow where the red squirrel had stored the most food this winter.

Xia Qing crunched her way through the compacted snow northeastward for over three hundred meters, and then heard the red squirrel's cooing and hissing.

The red squirrel didn't like to make noise; calling out this loudly now could only mean its hunger, fear, or anger had reached a level it could no longer tolerate.

Xia Qing raised her gun and sped up, shouting loudly, "Freeloader, what's wrong? Freeloader—"

"Coo-coo—" The red squirrel's hissing grew louder, and Xia Qing, who had been matching wits with it for months, heard its anger and urgency. The location the sound was coming from hadn't changed, which meant the red squirrel was probably pinned inside the hollow by mice!

Before Xia Qing could rush over, she heard the sound of an animal moving quickly across the compacted snow — a sound the red squirrel could never have made.

Xia Qing immediately stopped, raised her gun and took aim, and quickly saw an evolved forest marten over half a meter long baring its teeth and charging straight at her. No need to ask — that expression, that line of approach, it was clearly a rabid animal.

An evolved beast of this caliber wasn't worth wasting a bullet on; Xia Qing holstered her gun and drew her blade, and in a few exchanges she killed the marten, then continued on toward the red squirrel's den.

A golden eagle circling overhead dove down, grabbed the marten's corpse, and flapped its wings to fly off quickly, stealing Xia Qing's prey.

"Freeloader, are you in there?" Xia Qing arrived at the den's entrance and softly called out to her neighbor.

"Coo-coo, hiss—"

"Squeak-squeak, squeak-squeak—"

Answering Xia Qing were not only the red squirrel but also the brazen squeaking of mice; from the calls alone she could tell there were at least ten or more mice in the hollow.

The red squirrel was fast, but its attack power wasn't high — facing a swarm of mice it wasn't necessarily the winner, especially since this red squirrel had been attacked by green-light peanuts over half a month ago and lost a great deal of blood.

Before Xia Qing could think of how to call the red squirrel out, the little fellow came out on its own.

"Coo, gah, gah-gah—" The red squirrel howled angrily and urgently on the big pine tree beside Xia Qing, leaping up and down, drops of fresh blood falling onto the dirty compacted snow; the mice in the hollow didn't come out, but Xia Qing could hear them crunching pine nuts and chestnuts.

Even if the food in the tree hollow wasn't hers, Xia Qing couldn't stand idly by; without a word she pulled a handful of dry grass from her backpack, lit it, and tossed it into the stone cave, then quickly used a large beast-hide bag to block the cave entrance.

"Squeak-squeak, squeak—"

All animals fear smoke and fire, and soon they were squealing and fleeing out through other cracks in the stone cave. These were evolved field mice, every bit as big as the red squirrel — no wonder even the red squirrel couldn't beat them.

Seeing the big field mice come out, the red squirrel shot forward like a streak of red and bit hard into a big field mouse's neck. The big field mouse squealed and struggled, and the two — one grey, one red — fought fiercely on the snow.

Some blind evolved field mice charged straight into the beast-hide bag; Xia Qing nimbly pinned it under her foot, killing three, the red squirrel killed one, and the rest all escaped.

Xia Qing put away the beast-hide bag, scooped up some compacted snow and threw it into the stone cave to smother the flames, but the thick smoke inside wouldn't clear for a while, and the red squirrel anxiously leapt up and down around the stone cave.

Once Xia Qing confirmed there was no danger, she cleared a patch of compacted snow, set the peanuts from her pocket on the ground, and called out to her pitiful neighbor, "Don't rush. Come here first and let me see where you're wounded, then I'll dig out the food in the hollow for you."

Seeing the peanuts on the ground, the red squirrel hopped over, snatched them up, and fled — so fast that Xia Qing only saw a streak of red. She was currently in her weakened period, her evolved vision limited, and she couldn't see clearly where the red squirrel was hurt.

So Xia Qing took the water bottle from her backpack again, poured the warm, uncontaminated spring water into the little bowl on the windowsill where the red squirrel usually drank, and said, "Little fellow, come have some water."

In temperatures below minus twenty degrees, the spring water cooled quickly and would freeze in a little while longer. The red squirrel, clutching its peanuts, no longer hesitated and rushed over at once to drink.