Chapter 615: Fig

Do red squirrels eat meat?

Whether it does or not, daring to steal this old lady's food is asking for death!

Having inhaled the new elements volatilized by the big Chinese toon tree, Xia Qing's adrenaline surged and her emotions fluctuated far more intensely than usual; she grabbed her gun, pushed open the door, and chased after it.

Boss Sheep, who had ridden his bicycle all night, lay in the living room without moving. Sick Wolf, who was carrying a basket looking for bugs, saw Xia Qing and the plucked-fur weasel both leave the village, immediately dropped the basket and ran back to the sheep pen to protect Little Bai Mao and its cubs.

The red squirrel vanished in a few bounds; the plucked-fur weasel couldn't catch it at all. But the squirrel could run, its nest couldn't—the plucked-fur weasel stormed furiously into the tree hollow where the red squirrel lived and began tossing out the dried fruits the red squirrel had hidden inside.

These dried fruits were ones Xia Qing had lent the red squirrel for the winter—damn it, hiding so much food and still running off to steal her meat!

Xia Qing, striding over with her gun, felt her fury continue to rise. "Plucked-fur, you're too slow. Move aside, I'll do it."

The plucked-fur weasel was in a rage too and completely ignored Xia Qing, continuously tossing dried fruits out of the tree hollow.

Xia Qing shoved her handgun into the pocket of her protective suit, crossed her hands and squeezed hard, then threw a fierce punch at the trunk, which was thicker than her waist.

Actually, using a gun or a knife would have been less effort and more efficient than using fists, but right now Xia Qing only wanted to use her fists.

Boom!

Boom!

When her hands hurt she switched to her shoulders—boom, boom!!

One strike, two strikes, three or four strikes—the trunk trembled under Xia Qing's blows, branches shook wildly, dead leaves and water droplets pattered down. The plucked-fur weasel was startled too and instantly darted under the tree, keeping its distance.

The red squirrel, clutching the frog meat and hiding among the dawn-redwood leaves nearby, saw this scene and its tail puffed out completely.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom, boom!

The red squirrel couldn't take it anymore, hopped over, and tossed the frog meat down beside Xia Qing.

Xia Qing didn't even glance at it and kept pounding the tree. The plucked-fur weasel figured out Xia Qing's intention, ran over and climbed onto her protective mask, squeaking and chittering encouragement.

Boom!

Boom!

……

Crack—

The hollow trunk was punched through by Xia Qing's fists, but she still hadn't vented her anger. She kept on punching, ramming with her shoulder, kicking with her feet—until the great tree let out a "crack" and crashed down with a rumble. Xia Qing, fists clenched, turned with killing intent and stared at the red squirrel hiding in a nearby large tree.

The plump, round red squirrel was so frightened every hair on its body stood on end; with a whoosh it vanished from sight, apparently fleeing back to Zone 3 of Mountain Forty-Nine. Xia Qing knew her state was unstable right now and didn't keep chasing.

The plucked-fur weasel squatting on Xia Qing's head excitedly jumped down into the broken half of the stump and kept tossing out dried fruits.

This little fellow holds a grudge too.

The walnuts, chestnuts, pine nuts, and grass seeds the red squirrel had hidden were all tossed out by the plucked-fur weasel and scattered across the ground, but the birds lurking nearby didn't dare come peck at them—they too were frightened by Xia Qing's frenzy.

After felling a great tree, Xia Qing's mood improved considerably. She flexed her fingers a few times, picked up a wrinkled dried fruit that looked like a little bun from the ground, broke it open, and confirmed the variety.

A fig—something she didn't have.

Was this fig stolen by the red squirrel from another territory, or picked up from a distant Evolution Forest? Xia Qing called out to the weasel busy in the tree hollow, "Plucked-fur."

The plucked-fur weasel's round little head quickly poked out of the broken half-stump, its shiny black eyes looking at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing held up the fig for it to see and said slowly, "I want this kind of fruit. Are there any more in the tree hollow? This kind of fruit."

The weasel's head withdrew; in a short while it tossed out a few more figs, then clung to the stump and peered at Xia Qing. Seeing its cute little manner, Xia Qing's anger completely vanished. She smiled and said, "No more of this fruit? Alright, play as you like. I'm heading home first."

After Xia Qing walked away, the birds hiding in the trees swarmed down to fight over the dried fruits scattered on the ground. The red squirrel, hiding on a large pine tree in the distance, hopped onto the stump, leaping about and cursing nonstop.

These two rodents were both small animals. The red squirrel was plump and round, with fluffier, coarser fur than the weasel; the weasel, on the other hand, was a bit longer than the red squirrel. Another point: weasels are carnivores, with sharp claws and pointed teeth. If they really fought, the red squirrel would be no match for the weasel.

But when a poison-gas evolved weasel met a speed-evolved red squirrel, neither could do anything to the other.

So the plucked-fur weasel completely ignored the red squirrel, single-mindedly tossing out its stored food, until it had thrown out all the dried fruits and grass seeds from the tree hollow. Only then did the plucked-fur weasel crawl out of the hollow and run back to the sheep pen.

Inside the house, Xia Qing was looking at an analysis report. "Qiang element 9‰, Yi element 2‰—it's a Yellow-Light fig…"

Xia Qing picked up her phone and called Xin Yu, asking crisply, "Xin Yu, do you have any Yellow-Light figs?"

Xin Yu replied, "No. Figs are too big; Molli and the others don't like eating them. What happened just now?"

The commotion in Xia Qing's territory was heard by Tang Huai, who hollered for a long time on the lord channel, but no one paid him any attention.

Xia Qing answered briefly, "A red squirrel stole my food. I broke the tree it lived in and found figs inside the hollow. If the red squirrel didn't steal them from you, they must have been gathered from the Evolution Forest."

Although he already knew that the relationship between Xia Qing and the animals in her territory wasn't that of a human and domesticated beasts—Xia Qing wouldn't feed them—still, hearing that she had actually felled such a thick tree over food left Xin Yu quite astonished. "What food did the red squirrel steal from you?"

"Half a frog!"

Hmm…

Xin Yu was at a loss for words for a moment. He coughed once before asking, "Figs bear fruit twice a year, right? When June comes, shall we go to the Evolution Forest together to look for some?"

Under different varieties and growing environments, figs don't bear the same number of times a year. Within Hui-Three Safe Zone there really are fig trees that bear twice a year.

The two yearly harvests are the spring crop and the summer-autumn crop. The spring crop comes from fruit buds on old branches that didn't bear the previous year; after overwintering, they sprout in the following spring and ripen in June. The summer-autumn crop grows on this year's new branches and only ripens after late summer.

June is exactly when the spring crop ripens.

Xia Qing agreed readily. "Good. I'll spend this period looking for places figs might grow, and we'll go together when the time comes."

After arranging the outing with her ally, Xia Qing carefully extracted the fig's seeds. Then she packaged them in small portions along with Green-Light seeds of cucumber, chili, eggplant, tomato, and date pits, and handed them over to Yue Hai Camp, where she also saw Zhang Hongda, a three-system Evolver from Territory Fifteen.

Today, Yue Hai Camp would take Zhang Hongda into Xiong Dong under the pretext of guarding the high-danger zone of Mountain Fifty, relying on the hot spring water to alleviate Zhang Hongda's poisoning symptoms.

Because Zhang Hongda was wearing a pure-black, single-sided light-transmitting protective mask, Xia Qing couldn't see the damage to his skin, but he was able to stand beside Yue Hai Camp on his own two legs. That state was much better than when Luo Pei had been poisoned.