Chapter 609: The Spring Flows Again

The sick wolf lying by the cardboard box stood up and left the sheep pen—probably because the plucked weasel had come back, so it no longer needed to guard the place and went out to roam.

The albino weasel had eaten quite a lot earlier; it got full before it could finish a field chicken, and began grooming its mate. Little Bai Mao's belly wound must still be hurting, so it moved with great care.

Watching this scene, three idioms suddenly flashed through Xia Qing's mind: surviving a calamity, helping each other through hardship, and quiet, beautiful years.

Honestly, kind of envious.

After finishing the grooming, the plucked weasel picked up the half-eaten field chicken its mate had left, hopped out of the cardboard box, ate the half a small snake in the little basin, and started nibbling on vegetable leaves.

Xia Qing couldn't quite figure out what it was doing.

Field chicken is tastier and more energy-rich than vegetable leaves—could the plucked one be saving the field chicken for its mate to eat later when it's hungry?

Logically that shouldn't be the case. A weasel living in the Evolution Forest would surely know that meat exposed to air above zero degrees, which contains Qiang elements, would spoil quickly and become inedible.

Xia Qing wanted to figure out the plucked weasel's intention, so she kept drinking her tea and watching.

After nibbling some vegetable leaves, the plucked weasel picked up the half field chicken and walked out of the sheep pen. Xia Qing immediately turned on the yard camera and saw the plucked weasel actually place the half field chicken in front of her security door, then prop up its long body and stare at the security door.

Xia Qing……

So that half field chicken was meant for her.

Xia Qing……

You plucked bastard, I really goddamn thank you!

Last time, Xia Qing shot down an evolved hawk and helped this weasel keep its food, and the creature gave her two green-light field chickens.

This time, Xia Qing saved its mate and children's lives, and the creature gave her half a field chicken.

Xia Qing admits food is hard to find these days, but damn, this is just too stingy. Compared to it, the head wolf and the broken-waist wolf are charitable good wolves, and Handsome Giant Wolf is the absolute best wolf on Blue Star. When Handsome Giant Wolf was building the Blue Star pyramid, using this stinky weasel to fill the cracks would probably still feel too shabby…

She couldn't refuse this half field chicken, because in the plucked weasel's eyes, this was already a very fine food.

If Xia Qing didn't accept it, the weasel family probably wouldn't feel secure living here.

Xia Qing downed her tea in one gulp, put on her protective suit, pushed open the security door, picked up the half field chicken on the ground that weighed less than three liang, and in a soft, gentle voice expressed her attitude to the half little brown-yellow head peeking out at the sheep pen entrance, "Plucked one, thank you for the half field chicken. But this half field chicken isn't enough to cover Little Bai Mao's medical bills—you have to help me find herbs."

After saying that, Xia Qing opened her laptop and showed the plucked weasel pictures and video. "These are the two kinds of herbs. If you know where they are, dig them up like this in the video and bring them to me."

The plucked weasel's little whiskers trembled as it stared at Xia Qing with its shiny black eyes, uninterested in the laptop.

Not interested? That won't do.

Xia Qing simply set the laptop on the sheep pen rack, set it to loop playback, then gestured and mimed her intention to both weasels before leaving.

Hearing Xia Qing walk away, the plucked weasel inside the cardboard box licked its nervous mate, then closed its eyes to rest. Laptop? Can't eat it, not interested.

The albino weasel relaxed its body, poked its snow-white little head with round little ears out of the cardboard box, stared at the laptop, watched carefully for a while, finally mustered the courage to climb out of the box, circled the laptop a few times, then climbed back into the box, curled up with its mate around their five children in the middle, and closed its eyes to sleep.

After leaving the village, Xia Qing found the sick wolf sunbathing on a big rock at the village entrance. The temperature was fifteen degrees now, the weather was clear and fine—perfect for sunbathing.

Seeing Xia Qing come out, the sick wolf jumped off the rock, stepped on the soft damp earth, and followed her into the breeding greenhouse.

Xia Qing fed the two frog legs to the black-feathered rooster and the white-feathered hen in the chicken coop.

Once the weather warms up, the hen will go broody and hatch chicks. Xia Qing had saved up quite a lot of eggs, waiting for the hen to sit on them. If all goes well, she'd soon have several dozen green-light chickens.

Both the white-feathered hen and the black-feathered rooster were evolved species, so their offspring would surely be better than other chickens—tastier, more delicious, and containing more energy.

Xia Qing happily tossed the remaining frog meat into the water tank, and together with the sick wolf watched the fierce spring-water fish tear at it and feed, daydreaming about the good life. "Once the weather warms up a bit more, these fish should be spawning. In a few days we'll dig two fish ponds. After the fish spawn, we'll put the big fish into the fish ponds, and we'll hatch the fish eggs with the unpolluted spring water, raise them for a while, then put them in the small fish pond. In a few months, we'll have plenty of fish to eat."

The reason she needed to dig new fish ponds was that last year, lacking experience, she had picked a site too close to the river channel. When it rained heavily, the embankment was washed away, and the fish pond had merged with the river channel.

The sick wolf, its two front legs propped on the edge of the water tank, raised its head to look at Xia Qing and smiled.

It could tell Xia Qing was happy, so it was happy too.

Xia Qing rubbed its head and said softly, "Although we have good-quality water, our fish still aren't raised as well as the ones in Territory Five. Lao Er, this year we need to give the fish better-tasting feed."

Whether the sick wolf understood or not, it nuzzled Xia Qing's hand with its head, then kept happily staring at the fish swimming back and forth.

Taking advantage of the good weather, Xia Qing also changed the water in the fish tank and disinfected it. After finishing the work, the sick wolf went home to the sheep pen to check on the weasels, and Xia Qing went to Gao Po to check on Sheep Boss.

After the snow melted, the river channel's water level had risen a lot, and the iron-plate bridge Xia Qing had built had been washed away by the water. Xia Qing didn't bother rebuilding it right away, and simply jumped across the water.

For Xia Qing, whose stamina had improved, and for Sheep Boss, this was no problem at all—and for the sick wolf it was even more of a trivial matter.

After jumping across the water, Xia Qing entered the low-slope greenhouse to check on the unpolluted spring water. Just as she expected, the unpolluted spring water that had been cut off for a month had begun flowing outward again.

Xia Qing took the Qiang-element detector from her backpack. Confirming that the spring water's Qiang-element content was still so low it could be ignored and still qualified as unpolluted spring water, the heart she'd been holding suspended finally settled back into her stomach.

Counting Xia Qing's spring, there were three springs in Hui-3 Base that could still flow with unpolluted spring water. The other two's output would decrease in winter, but they wouldn't cut off.

The spring in Xia Qing's territory had middling water quality and would cut off for a month in winter, but Xia Qing was already very content. Because if this spring hadn't cut off during the month when the Evolution Forest's danger level was lowest and human activity most frequent, it would have been discovered by humans long ago, and there would have been nothing left for Xia Qing.

With the spring water flowing again, the entire cave became lively once more. Xia Qing scooped out a cup of spring water, poured half on the Qiang-withered grass and drank the other half, feeling her five viscera and six bowels soothed and refreshed by the fresh spring water.

She filled another bottle, trudged up the muddy mountain path to Gao Po, and came to Sheep Boss guarding the big camphor tree. "Boss, have some fresh water."