Chapter 684: Little Bai Mao and the Crowd

"Put down your weapons, it won't attack us." After ordering her teammates to lower their weapons, Xia Qing called out gently, "Little Bai Mao, hunting around here?"

The albino yellow weasel Little Bai Mao lifted its nose to sniff, the black whiskers on either side of its nose quivering, then it pulled its head back behind the rock and ran off with another yellow weasel.

Shi Du asked curiously, "Sister Qing, what kind of animal is that?"

Xia Qing explained, "An albino yellow weasel. It lived in my territory for a while before, then moved away."

Yue Haiying stared in the direction Little Bai Mao had disappeared. "It looks like a brain-domain evolver."

Liangzi added, "It's very fast too, probably a speed evolver as well."

Like the alpha wolf, Little Bai Mao was indeed both a brain-domain and a speed evolver. Xia Qing nodded.

"Having yellow weasels in the territory is nice, they can clean out rats. That really is a yellow weasel? Why does it look like an ermine to me?" Lord Huo Lei had his eye on the snow-white pelt of that little animal just now, but since Xia Qing had raised it, there was no need to keep thinking about it.

Yue Haiying answered, "An ermine's tail tip is black, and in spring and summer its fur isn't this color either."

Lord Huo Lei responded, "Brother Yue really is knowledgeable. I've heard all albino animals are produced by the Divine Herb Rack?"

Yue Haiying looked at Xia Qing. Xia Qing answered, "The Divine Herb Rack is over a thousand kilometers from us. This albino yellow weasel probably didn't come from there."

"Fair enough." Lord Huo Lei, who had just drunk a standard nutrient solution, said no more and closed his eyes to rest while he could.

When the fifteen-minute rest period ended and the squad was preparing to set out, Xia Qing heard movement again. Before long, Liangzi also reported, "More animals coming from the north side, small ones, and there's the sound of something being dragged."

Qi Fu gripped his backpack tightly. "It wouldn't be a badger, would it?"

Yu Shou answered, "Badgers usually eat their prey right where they catch it. Unless it has young to feed, it won't drag prey around."

"It's that albino yellow weasel again, and it dragged a rabbit!" The short Tan Qi was the first to spot the albino yellow weasel slipping through a gap in the shrubs, and also the rabbit it was dragging, much bigger than itself.

When Little Bai Mao's head cautiously poked out from the rock again, Xia Qing asked, "Little Bai Mao, is the rabbit you brought for me?"

Little Bai Mao stared at Xia Qing without moving.

Xia Qing took out a small packet of freeze-dried treats from her protective suit's pocket, opened it, and walked over.

Little Bai Mao immediately ran farther away and hid behind a rock, watching Xia Qing.

Xia Qing, sharp-eyed, noticed another yellow weasel hidden there, but it wasn't an albino — it looked different.

She placed the freeze-dried treats behind the rock. "Little Bai Mao, thanks for the rabbit. This is for you to eat."

Little Bai Mao lifted its nose to sniff, then ran over, quickly snatched the small packet of freeze-dried treats in its mouth, and darted far away.

Xia Qing picked up the rabbit, which weighed over four jin, and reflected that this little fellow was indeed worthy of being a subordinate of the alpha wolf. Not only generous and dignified, its combat ability was also impressively fierce — this rabbit was even bigger than the one the albino caught near the northern isolation belt last year.

As Xia Qing packed up the rabbit under everyone's envious gaze, Little Bai Mao, having finished the freeze-dried treats, set off northward again with a slightly larger yellow weasel.

"Dad!"

A little after five in the afternoon, the gathering squad finally caught sight of the territory's wire-mesh wall. Seeing her father standing outside the wire-mesh wall from afar, Tan Qi could no longer contain her excitement. She raised her arm and waved vigorously, and Tan Junjie raised his arm in response.

At this moment, Tan Junjie was patrolling outside the wire-mesh wall with two team members and happened to be at the valley mouth between Mountains Forty-Nine and Fifty.

Something this fitting wasn't a coincidence — it was because Tan Junjie, worried about his daughter on her first mission, had come here specifically to wait.

Squad leader Xia Qing told Tan Qi, "This stretch is very safe. Tan Qi, full speed ahead."

"Yes!" Speed evolver Tan Qi immediately sprinted toward the patrol vehicle. The bamboo shoot bag weighing over fifty jin bounced on her back like she was carrying a rabbit.

Infected by Tan Qi's energy and joy, everyone's steps became much lighter. After reaching the patrol vehicle, Tan Junjie asked Lord Huo Lei and Shi Mu to put their backpacks in the patrol vehicle's rear cargo bed. Although they were evolvers, they were getting on in years, and after a day out carrying several hundred jin of supplies back, they really were exhausted.

Tan Qi's backpack, she insisted on carrying back to the territory herself.

Tan Junjie asked Xia Qing, "Everything go smoothly?"

"We only ran into one golden leopard and a few small animals on the way, no Slaughter Snakes, and no large numbers of evolved bamboo rats in the bamboo forest. Pretty smooth." After briefly reporting the situation, Xia Qing praised Tan Qi to Tan Junjie. "Tan Qi didn't fall behind the whole time, dug shoots very fast, performed excellently."

Hearing Sister Qing praise her to her father, Tan Qi's sweaty little face flushed red, her eyes sparkling.

His daughter being praised made the taciturn Tan Junjie very happy. He raised his hand and patted his daughter's shoulder, then touched her protective mask. Tan Qi lifted her little head, her eyes crinkling into slits with her smile.

"Sister Qing!"

On the other side of the wire-mesh wall, Zhu Li waiting inside the isolation zone greeted everyone cheerfully. "Auntie, Sister Yan! You're finally back!"

Tang Huai also called out loudly, "Xia Qing, did you dig up any Green-Light shoots?"

Xia Qing nodded. "We did."

Hearing they had dug up Green-Light bamboo shoots, a wave of envious chatter rose from the crowd.

After the sturdy perimeter wall was built, the lords of Northern Zone One felt their sense of security greatly increase. Hearing that Lord Three Xia Qing had organized a team to dig bamboo shoots, many people ran to the east gate to wait for them to return.

Tang Huai immediately proposed a trade. "I want one Green-Light!"

Wen Nengjie also joined in the fun. "I want a Yellow-Light one. I haven't eaten fresh shoots in eleven years, I've forgotten what they taste like."

Not everyone who came wanted to buy bamboo shoots — it was just that life in the territory was too lonely and dull, and with a rare bit of excitement, everyone came over to join in the fun.

An old woman's voice rang out from the back of the crowd, especially loud and urgent. "Ajie, how much did Qiqi dig, any Green-Light ones?"

That voice pinned Tan Qi to the spot on the spot. Tall Xia Qing glanced toward the back of the crowd and knew that anxious old woman wearing a tattered protective mask with wrinkles piled at the corners of her eyes was Tan Junjie's mother. Although the three generations of the Tan family differed greatly in bearing and expression, their eye shape was identical.

"We dug some." After answering his mother, Tan Junjie said quietly to his daughter, "Your grandma came over with the transport vehicle this morning."

He had originally planned to tell his daughter about this after they got back, but he hadn't expected his mother to come out to watch the excitement too.

"Mm." Tan Qi responded glumly, not daring to look up at her dad, and even her steps grew heavy.

Yue Haiying watched and felt anxious for his old comrade, the taciturn one. He spoke up to ask, "Old Tan, are you sending Qiqi back to the Safe Zone?"

Tan Junjie held the backpack on his daughter's back to lighten her load and answered firmly, "Not sending her."

Tan Qi's grip on the backpack strap visibly relaxed, but she still walked with her head lowered.

Sharp-eared Xia Qing heard the little girl's sniffling.