Chapter 699: Yan Meng's Sudden Improvement in Condition

Returning to her territory through the south gate, Xia Qing thanked Guan Tong for guarding it and hurried home to change into protective gear.

When she went to work at Territory Fifteen, Xia Qing wore her old Grade-Two field protective suit; now that she was going to scout Territory Fourteen, she needed to switch into a special suit that blocked infrared detection and whose face shield didn't reflect light.

Yang Laoda saw Xia Qing leave again right after returning, and butted her irritably a few times before following behind.

"I'm heading to Zone Three, want to come along, boss?" Xia Qing led Yang Laoda through two north gates into Zone Three of Mountain Forty-Nine, stopping beneath a tall pine tree at a suitable spot. "Stay here and play, boss. I'm going up to take a look."

"Baa—"

Watching Xia Qing put on different shoes and vanish up the tree with a rustle, Yang Laoda bleated uneasily.

"I'm right here, don't be scared. We'll definitely head back before dark." Xia Qing called back, then climbed in one go to the top of the tall pine several dozen meters up, gazing out over Territory Fourteen.

Knowing Xia Qing had a past conflict with Yan Meng of Territory Fourteen, the Shi family and Yue Hai Camp, whose territories bordered Territory Fourteen, all kept an eye on Yan Meng's movements for her.

Apart from the two days Xia Qing hired people from Territory Seventeen to work there, Territory Fourteen had been so quiet it seemed uninhabited.

But Xia Qing's keen hearing told her: the speed and force of the grass-cutting inside Territory Fourteen when she had just passed by earlier was beyond what Yan Meng, long injured and not fully healed, could manage. And the cutting was happening not far inside the northern wild-grass wall of Territory Fourteen.

Yan Meng lived in the center of his territory; even if he were clearing land, it should be near the river or his home, not at the territory's edge. Something was off.

Looking out from the top of a tall tree several dozen meters up the slope, the over-two-meter-tall wild-grass wall of Territory Fourteen looked like a yellow-green ribbon laid on the ground. Beyond the ribbon, Territory Fourteen was still mostly wasteland, with a newly cut winding path—north to the grass wall, south to the container house where Yan Meng lived—standing out starkly amid the lush vegetation.

The cut wild grass tossed aside along the path had piled into several stacks taller than a person. Some of the stalks were thick, and clearing them made a lot of noise, which was why Hearing Zhu Li, whose hearing was a bit sharper than an ordinary person's, standing beneath the Territory Six road sign, could clearly hear someone cutting grass inside Territory Fourteen.

Xia Qing's gaze followed this path, swept past the two fields inside Territory Fourteen—still without even a shed erected—surrounded by wild grass, and moved to the container.

Mosquitoes and insects were plentiful this season. From Xia Qing's vantage, she could see no activity outside the container, so she waited quietly.

"Baa—"

She wasn't anxious, but Yang Laoda was.

"Boss, I'm here, don't worry." Xia Qing's eyes stayed fixed on Territory Fourteen as she soothed her companion. She didn't need to raise her voice—Yang Laoda's hearing was excellent.

Hearing Xia Qing's reply, Yang Laoda lowered its head and went back to nibbling tasty grass.

Over a dozen minutes later, Yan Meng came around from the south side of the container to the west side, and Xia Qing immediately noticed his health had improved.

A few months earlier, when Xia Qing had seen Yan Meng from the back of a truck, his frame had been hunched. Now he stood straight, nearly 1.9 meters tall—Yan Meng's normal height.

Xia Qing's visual estimate wouldn't be off, because he was standing next to a container two and a half meters tall, making the comparison instant. Yan Meng had been injured in the Evolution Forest, his protective suit torn and infected with Evolution Bacteria; even spending all his points he couldn't fully cure it, and gradually lost his evolution ability.

After more than a year, how had he recovered? Where did he get the points and medicine?

Judging by his gait and his thinness, although his body had improved somewhat, he still couldn't produce the frequency and force of the grass-cutting she'd heard earlier. There must be someone else in Territory Fourteen. After Yan Meng finished his phone call and returned to the south side of the container, Xia Qing waited until sunset, but no second person appeared.

After she came down from the tree, an irate Yang Laoda lectured her with a few head-butts, and she obediently followed it back.

Just as she stepped out of Zone Three into the buffer zone, Xia Qing heard movement and turned her head—the little honey badger, its flat-top haircut glowing red in the sunset, had come running again.

Hearing the commotion, Yang Laoda squinted for a moment, then immediately turned and looked up at Xia Qing. "Baa!"

Xia Qing...

"Fine, I'll put them on you. Take it easy, boss, don't smash the night-vision goggles, or we'll have to buy new ones. I worked hard all day today and only earned 25 points.

Xia Qing earned fifty points for a day of building houses at Territory Fifteen, and had to pay Guan Tong 25 points to guard her territory, so after a full day's work she had only earned 25 points.

"Moo!" After the night-vision goggles were on, Yang Laoda bellowed and charged at the honey badger a dozen meters away. The flat-topped little honey badger immediately strutted forward with its signature swagger, baring its tiny teeth to meet the challenge.

Then, predictably, it was knocked flat by Yang Laoda again.

After enthusiastically praising her companion, Xia Qing walked over and poked the little honey badger's flat head.

Though the little honey badger had no strength left, it still turned its head irritably to gnaw Xia Qing's fingers. Xia Qing pressed down on its head. "Little Flat-top, you thought our boss's night vision was weak, so you picked this time to challenge us? Pretty clever. But our boss has night-vision goggles—you miscalculated."

"Do you know why you're still alive? Because our boss doesn't eat meat. Don't come back, or you'll get beaten to death on the road. Living is great—once you're dead, other animals will gnaw you until not even bone fragments remain."

The northern Zone One wire walls all had cameras installed; the four cameras on the northern buffer zone of Territory Three belonged to Xia Qing, so the monitoring personnel from the Inspection Team only saw this little honey badger coming over and couldn't see Yang Laoda fighting it.

Honey badgers are small animals; one wandering outside the wire walls of the human buffer zone poses no threat to humans, which is why the Inspection Team sent someone to come check.

After lecturing the little honey badger, Xia Qing led the triumphant Yang Laoda back to Territory Three.

Over a dozen minutes later, the little honey badger, rested enough, irritably got up from the ground and, following the scent, ran into Zone Three of Mountain Forty-Nine.

The suspicious red squirrel, just emerging from its nest to forage, caught the predator's scent and instantly scrambled up the tree with a rustle.

The little honey badger arrived under the tall pine, lifted its nose to sniff, confirmed the two enemies had stopped here, then gnawed off a big chunk of bark—crunch crunch crunch—and peed at the base of the tree before huffily going off to find food.

After it left, the red squirrel poked out of its tree hole to forage. Today, intruders had appeared one after another, disrupting the squirrel's feeding plans. Unless its tree hole was stuffed full, the red squirrel felt no sense of security—it had to hurry and forage.

It had just caught a grasshopper when it heard an enemy approaching, and shot up the tree like lightning again.

A mountain rat that was eating paused and rose cautiously to look around, saw no enemy, then ducked back to continue digging up sweet, moisture-rich grass roots. A venomous snake over two meters long slowly approached, bit the rat, and slowly swallowed it.

Then the black python slowly slithered toward the tall pine where the red squirrel was hiding.

Watching from its tree hole, the red squirrel's fur stood on end all over its body—not just its tail. Without hesitation, it abandoned its nest and food and fled at top speed into Territory Three.

The snake crawled too slowly. After the red squirrel had run off, just as it was about to continue using its sense of smell and heat-sensing organs to hunt, its body suddenly trembled. It whipped around and bit with its venomous fangs at the little honey badger that had seized its tail.

Honey badgers are the natural enemies of small snakes. The flat-topped little fellow pinned the venomous snake's neck with its front paws and began crunching away.