Chapter 702: Territory Fourteen Opens the Beimen

Under Boss Sheep's violent education, the black-feathered rooster that had been moved back to the henhouse no longer dared to crow in the morning, lest it disturb Boss Sheep and Xia Qing's sleep. But today, at five in the morning, Xia Qing was woken nearly an hour early by the red squirrel.

Anything out of the ordinary meant something was up. Xia Qing immediately lifted a corner of the blackout curtain and saw the red squirrel squatting right on the windowsill, gazing at her eagerly.

Its belly had shrunk, and there were a few spots of blood on the windowsill. It seemed it had just given birth to its young and was both exhausted and thirsty, so it had thrown caution to the wind and squatted on the windowsill begging for water.

Xia Qing immediately poured it a can of pollution-free water. After the red squirrel finished drinking, it didn't even beg for food before leaping up onto the roof.

Xia Qing immediately opened the sheep pen's camera and saw the red squirrel cautiously looking left and right for a while before slipping into the haystack. The baby squirrels should be right there.

Xia Qing got dressed and went outside the sheep pen, listening carefully. From the faint suckling sounds inside, there should be three or four baby squirrels nursing.

Having personally witnessed how a mother rabbit killed and ate her newborn young, Xia Qing felt the red squirrel was a very responsible mother.

After giving birth, it must be starving. Xia Qing left the village, and when passing the planting greenhouse, she greeted Boss Sheep, "Boss, I'm heading to Area Three to get food for the red squirrel. I'll be back soon."

Hearing that Xia Qing was about to leave the territory, Boss Sheep immediately ran out of the greenhouse and followed her.

Because she was in a hurry and didn't control her strength well, she pulled up the roots of two evolved perilla plants in the cultivation greenhouse; these two perilla plants could no longer sprout new buds. It had been a long time since she'd made such a low-level mistake.

Xia Qing rubbed its head, "Want to go see if Flat-top is around?"

"Baa!"

Boss Sheep stepped out of the territory first, sniffed at the north gate of North Area One in the middle of the isolation belt, and irritably pawed the ground with its hooves.

What was going on? Xia Qing, following behind, went over and saw the half-meter-deep hole dug outside the gate by a honey badger, and she was furious too.

That bastard actually tried to burrow under the wall into the territory to fight her—there were even angry scratch marks it had left on the cement foundation!

"Next time Flat-top comes over, Boss, teach it a good lesson in how to be a beast!"

"Baa!" Boss Sheep couldn't understand what Xia Qing was saying, but it could tell she was angry, so it was angry too.

Xia Qing made her way familiarly to the red squirrel's tree hollow and pulled out its food stores.

Xia Qing often checked the red squirrel's food stores, so she knew its inventory types and quantities very well.

The mock-strawberry fruits, which clear heat and detoxify, had been picked yesterday and placed on top—this was probably the red squirrel's prepared postpartum fruit.

The pine nuts and various large-grained grass seeds had been gathered by the red squirrel from all over; the crushed corn kernels and mung beans and the like had been obtained from human territory. These were all its usual food types.

After digging through three squirrel nests and carrying a bag weighing over ten jin back to the territory, Xia Qing put the food in the sheep pen, "Freeloader, I've brought your food over, and there's also a basin of water on the ground."

After Xia Qing closed the door and left, the red squirrel emerged from the grass, ran to the food bag and ate its fill, then began hauling food into the haystack where its young were hidden.

The red squirrel couldn't feel at ease unless it slept right next to its food.

After washing the rice and putting on a pot of green-light rice porridge, Xia Qing began a busy day.

First task: feed the chickens.

Over thirty chicks in the cultivation greenhouse saw Xia Qing come in and immediately cheep-cheep, cheep-cheep as they ran toward her.

They were hungry and needed food.

Chickens aren't mammals, so from the moment they hatch, chicks have to find food on their own.

Xia Qing pulled out the four chicks without red dots on their heads and put them in a small basket, then poured chick feed into the trough. A group of fluffy little things immediately crowded together to peck at it.

One chick pecked up a slightly larger alfalfa leaf and couldn't swallow it in one go, so it ran off to the side holding it in its beak. Immediately other chicks swarmed over to steal it. This is competition—even when food is plentiful, chicks still try to snatch food another chick is carrying off.

Xia Qing quickly gave the four chicks that had just hatched last night their opening medicine and vaccinations, then dotted red marks on their fluffy little heads before putting them in to eat.

After taking care of the chicks, Xia Qing went to prepare food for the hens.

The hens that had been incubating eggs and caring for chicks had worked hard, so Xia Qing grabbed a few mealworms as a reward. The last big-bellied spring-water fish and two green-light male fish in the water tank were also fed a few mealworms by Xia Qing.

The big fish that had already finished spawning had been released by Xia Qing into a large cage made of fine iron mesh in the reservoir; once this last big fish finished spawning, it would be released too.

The reservoir had microorganisms, small shrimp, and small fish, so once the big fish were released, Xia Qing and Boss Sheep wouldn't need to catch bugs to feed them. When the next scourge rain came, Xia Qing would scoop the spring-water fish out of the cage and put them in the water tank for protection.

This method was something Xia Qing learned from Qi Fu. The fine iron mesh for the fish cage was military surplus she had traded with Yue Haiying—this is the benefit of having allies.

After finishing the work with the living things in the territory, Xia Qing began patrolling the territory and farmland, checking and repairing damaged insect nets, and catching insects that had burrowed into the greenhouses.

After finishing a round, Xia Qing went home and ate a hearty breakfast. Just as she was about to continue building the house at Territory Fifteen, she received a call from Kuang Qingwei.

"Sis, I found out Yan Meng sold 100 spinach seeds at 300 points each. Just this morning, I saw someone cut a section of grass from the north wasteland grass wall of Territory Fourteen and opened a north gate. That person was short and stocky, about my build—definitely not Yan Meng."

Short and stocky? Xia Qing immediately thought of Liao Chen, the strength evolver from the former Fengyun Squad. He was on good terms with Yan Meng. "Does Brother Qing know who the buyer is?"

X-2 spinach seeds are the hope of Hui-3 Base. The spinach seeds given free to lords and safe-zone residents are strictly forbidden from being bought or sold.

But many people still chose to secretly trade the X-2 they received for more urgently needed medicine, food, clothing, and shelter.

For Yan Meng, what he urgently needed was medicine to treat his body, otherwise he might not survive the next scourge rain.

Kuang Qingwei lowered his voice, "That guy's called Zhou Mingli, nicknamed Zhou Flayskin, he's from Wantong Company at Hui-1 Base. The boss of Wantong Company is Wan Ji, known as Old Wan—he's ruthless and has plenty of tricks up his sleeve. Sis, you absolutely must not say I told you this. If they found out, my freight route would be cut off."

Xia Qing didn't know Zhou Flayskin, but she had heard of Wan Ji from Hui-1 Base. On the surface, Wan Ji, like Kuang Qingwei, was a middleman—except his business was far bigger than Kuang Qingwei's, and he was also the biggest underground arms dealer at Hui-1 Base.

Someone like that, of course Kuang Qingwei couldn't afford to offend.

Xia Qing accepted Kuang Qingwei's favor, "Understood. Thanks a lot, Brother Qing. Stay safe."

Kuang Qingwei, squatting in the northern buffer forest shrubbery of his own territory, beamed, "What's there to thank? We're neighbors farming together—of course we have to help each other out. Oh, one more thing—my wife's hearing should have evolved, we just don't know if it's reached evolver standard. We discussed it and decided not to tell anyone. After two crops of spinach, I'll take her to Territory One to get it tested."

Xia Qing offered congratulations, "Even if she hasn't reached it yet, eating more high-Yi-element spinach and green-light food, by autumn she'll definitely hit Level Two. Congrats, Brother Qing."

Kuang Qingwei said modestly, "She thinks the hearing ability is useless, but I think it's pretty good—even if she can't do other things, she can still de-bug the fields."

Xia Qing understood what Kuang Qingwei meant and gave them hope, "Hearing evolution is one of the abilities a mission squad must have. Tell your sister-in-law to train hard—build up her stamina and strengthen her ability to judge the location of moving creatures by sound. When we team up to go out in the future, she'll have to play a bigger role and take on heavier responsibilities."

Taking on more important responsibilities meant being allocated more points.

Kuang Qingwei grinned from ear to ear, the pits on his face burned by acid rain even more obvious, "Great, I'll tell her right away. Sis, don't take the passage today—go around via the north isolation belt, it's safer."