Chapter 678: New Life and Departure

After returning to the territory and bumping into Sheep Boss, who was pedaling a water-pumping bicycle, the first thing Xia Qing did was run to the breeding greenhouse to check how many chicks had hatched that afternoon.

The first brooding Reed Flower hen had twenty eggs in her nest, and by noon today, eight chicks had already hatched.

When Xia Qing arrived at the breeding greenhouse, eight of the nine brooding hens were squatting in their nests diligently incubating eggs, while one was out strolling. The ten eggs under her care were squeezed together in the nest, looking forlorn and alone.

Xia Qing stared at the wandering hen and said viciously, "Boss, see that one? If she doesn't hatch a single chick in a few days, we'll slaughter her and stew her into soup!"

"Baa." Sheep Boss, who had followed Xia Qing over, replied, but his eyes were fixed on the Reed Flower hen.

Xia Qing's eyes also turned to the Reed Flower hen's wing, where a fluffy little yellow head with a red dot was peeking out. The other chicks were hidden so well they couldn't be seen at all.

Xia Qing turned on the lights to feed the chickens. The Reed Flower hen also left her nest to eat at the trough, and nine little chicks chirped as they followed behind their mother, each one fluffy and utterly adorable. The little Reed Flower chick without a red dot on its head had only just broken out of its shell that afternoon.

The big chickens ate feed from the trough, while the chicks had to squeeze into the fine-toothed cage beside the chicken pen to eat the special chick feed Xia Qing had prepared.

The chick feed was made from dried mealworms, finely crushed corn bits, finely chopped vegetable leaves, and pollution-free spring water.

When the chicks with red dots on their heads squeezed into the cage to peck at the feed, the newly hatched chick also left its mother hen and followed its older siblings into the cage.

Before it could peck at anything, Xia Qing reached in from above the cage, grabbed it, and fed it opening medicine.

Raising chicks isn't a done deal just because there's a mother hen looking after them. From birth to one month old, the chicks need to be given medicine and vaccinated.

The opening medicine comes in drop form and is dripped directly into the mouth—every newly hatched chick must take it. It expels fetal toxins, effectively prevents and treats white diarrhea, chicken enteritis, and other diseases caused by evolution bacteria, activates the immune system, and improves the chicks' disease resistance and survival rate.

After giving the medicine, Xia Qing gently pinched the little Reed Flower chick's beak and dripped a drop of medicine into its tiny nostril. Once it had inhaled the medicine, she used a wooden stick dipped in red dye to paint a big red dot on its head, marking that this chick—with black stripes by its eyes and on its back—had already been given opening medicine and completed its first vaccination.

She gently stroked the chick's soft body and down, and after confirming it had swallowed the medicine, she put the little fellow back into the cage to eat feed and drink water with the others.

Eating is an animal instinct—they know how from the moment they're born.

Watching the little fellows, not even fist-sized, peck at feed and obediently drink water, Xia Qing's eyes turned into stars. She hadn't expected that the first baby animal she'd get to pet after entering the territory wouldn't be a wolf or a weasel, but a little chick.

After eating their fill, the chicks became lively. The satiated Reed Flower hen held her head high, clucked softly a few times, and the chicks squeezed out of the small cage to find their mother.

After leading her chicks around the chicken pen twice, the Reed Flower hen returned to the nest to continue incubating eggs. Some of the chicks burrowed into their mother's feathers to sleep, while others wandered around outside.

After carefully observing the other brooding hens and feeding the rabbits and fish, Xia Qing finally plucked a handful of alfalfa and headed home with three eggs to cook dinner.

Passing by the sheep shed door, Xia Qing stopped and listened carefully, sensing something was very wrong. The sheep shed was too quiet—no squeaking from the baby weasels or rustling of them crawling through the grass!

Xia Qing called out softly, "Plucker, Little Whitey, are you there?"

After calling out three times without hearing any sound from inside, Xia Qing opened the surveillance and found the cardboard box and haystack in the sheep shed completely empty—not a single weasel.

She took out her phone, dragged the surveillance playback bar, and quickly discovered that at 4:30 that afternoon, shortly after she left for Wolf Valley, Plucker the weasel had dragged a big magpie back to the sheep shed.

About half an hour later, it came out carrying half a magpie corpse with its long feathers plucked, placed it on the grass mat in front of Xia Qing's door. Then this weasel, whose face always seemed to be smiling, straightened its long body and stood before her door for a full minute before returning to the sheep shed.

Not long after, Plucker the weasel emerged with three baby weasels on its back, and Little Whitey with two baby weasels on hers, and they walked out of the sheep shed and out of the yard.

Xia Qing rewound, paused, zoomed in, and carefully examined the baby weasels on Little Whitey's back. The two little weasels clinging tightly to their mother's back with their tiny claws had finally opened their eyes after being shut for a month, and gazed wetly toward the camera.

Xia Qing switched cameras and saw the weasel family leave the village from the east side and head north all the way, climbing over the wire mesh wall.

After the babies opened their eyes and passed the most dangerous period, the weasel couple took them and left human territory.

Because Xia Qing had already entered the two weasels into the surveillance system, the cameras captured the weasels without sending her a warning.

They didn't deliberately leave without saying goodbye—it was simply time for them to go, and Xia Qing happened to not be in the territory at that moment.

What about the half-plucked magpie Plucker the weasel left at her door?

Xia Qing opened the home camera and switched to fast-forward. Fifteen minutes after the weasel family left, a red squirrel jumped down from the roof and carried off the magpie.

Xia Qing paused the footage again and carefully observed the red squirrel's elongated body as it leapt, noticing its belly was clearly swollen.

This little fellow must be pregnant too and needed extra nutrition, so Xia Qing decided to let it off the hook this time and not raid its home.

"Boss, Plucker and Little Whitey are gone." Xia Qing went inside and told her companion, who was already lying on the tatami resting, the news. "Looks like they treated our place as a maternity hotel."

Sheep Boss, who was pedaling the generator bicycle, probably didn't understand what Xia Qing was saying, but could see or sense that she was in low spirits.

After Xia Qing took off her protective suit, washed up, changed clothes, and went into the kitchen, Sheep Boss also got off the bicycle, stood at the kitchen doorway, and watched her cook while chewing cud.

When she had no companion before, Xia Qing didn't feel lonely; now that she had one, she realized she needed company too. Sheep Boss certainly wasn't very smart, but he would always stay by her side, which made her feel very grounded.

Hearing him come over, Xia Qing chatted with him half-heartedly, "I accepted a piece of Yishi from the Queen to look after Little Whitey and her babies for just a few days, and now they've left. I didn't even eat the eggs tonight. Boss, do you think when the Queen finds out, she'll come over and demand the Yishi back?"

"Baa." Sheep Boss replied.

"No way?! You really think so?" Xia Qing chopped the washed alfalfa leaves into segments and put them in a bowl, then cracked two eggs into it, added salt, and stirred evenly. "The Queen is, after all, a dignified wolf standing at the top of Jin Zita—she wouldn't do something like that."

"Baa."

"Sizzle—"

The alfalfa and egg mixture was poured into the hot oil pan, making a pleasant sound, and the aroma quickly wafted out.

Xia Qing scooped the fried alfalfa and eggs into a bowl. "They left at the worst possible time. I'm going to dig bamboo shoots tomorrow, and I was planning to bring back a few bamboo rats for them as an extra meal. Boss, shall I dig some bamboo shoots for you tomorrow? Shoots—do you like eating them?"

"Baaa~~~"