Chapter 792: Out-of-Control Wild Boar, Obsessive Flat-Top

Although the buffer forest was large in area, the vegetation was dense, so the noxious grass seeds that fell inside the forest could not get enough growing space and nutrients, which meant there was not much Huanggan-39 here.

She worked through the afternoon until dark, and the next day Xia Qing got up early and worked again until nine in the morning before finishing clearing the Huanggan-39 from the buffer forest.

By that time, Squads Fifteen and Seventeen had already finished clearing the Huanggan-39 in their assigned zones and started clearing other kinds of noxious grass. For relatively flat areas they used the micro-tiller or sickles to cut it down; for uneven pits or ruined areas they simply pulled it out by the roots.

Xia Qing had Wolf Lao Er and Lao Er guard the farmland and the house, while she left the territory and hurried to Mountain Forty-Nine to clear the Huanggan-39 in Zone Three of Mountain Forty-Nine.

The first stop was the valley where the wild boars were kept.

She had just entered the valley when a big wild boar came charging at her, snorting and puffing, wanting to duel her. No need to ask—this boar had definitely lost control. Because Xia Qing often came over to clean up boar dung, the dozen or so big wild boars in the valley had long been beaten into submission by her and didn't dare provoke her at all.

This boar must have just lost control, because when Xia Qing came by to inspect yesterday, the boars had all still seemed perfectly normal.

A boar that has lost control has its brain already destroyed by noxious elements; it has no reason, knows no fear, only knows how to fight, and won't stop until it dies.

If it dies, it won't fetch a good price.

Xia Qing set down the basket for the Huanggan-39 and rushed forward. At the very instant she was about to collide with the boar, she vaulted onto its back, locked her legs tight while grabbing its ear with her left hand to steady herself, and immediately squeezed the oral anesthetic from her right hand into the boar's gaping mouth.

The big boar howled and raged, struggled desperately for no more than ten minutes, then crashed to the ground and lost consciousness.

Xia Qing tied the boar up securely with rope, and when Zhong Tao's patrol car came by tomorrow, she would sell this boar to him.

Out-of-control red-light animals fetch the same price as ordinary red-light animals—25 credits per jin live, 20 credits per jin dead. This boar weighed over 300 jin, and the credits from selling it would be just right for trading with Tang Huai for the Level-3 canine field protective suit that Broken-Waist Wolf wanted.

Xia Qing laid the unconscious big boar on a clean rock and was about to continue clearing the Huanggan-39 in the valley when she heard the sound of movement above the valley.

The honey badger Flat-Top, unseen for days, appeared at the top of the valley, stared at the big boar on the rock with its little black eyes for a while, then actually rolled down from above, mouth full of tiny teeth, wanting to eat pork.

Xia Qing……

Can your damn eyes and brain please be any better?!

She simply picked up the boar, put it inside the wolf den, sprayed it with insect repellent so it could sleep soundly, then left the den, kicked away Flat-Top who was trying to bite her, and went on clearing the Huanggan-39.

Having failed to get its little boar, the honey badger Flat-Top Brother charged after Xia Qing furiously trying to bite her, and even after being kicked away again and again by Xia Qing, it absolutely refused to give up!

After Xia Qing finished clearing Valley One, she began clearing the other zones.

Flat-Top? That thing has short legs and can't climb out of Valley One; she'd fish it out after she finished clearing.

Approaching noon, around twelve, Xia Qing gave up continuing to search for Huanggan-39, hoisted the big boar on her shoulder, and with the Huanggan-39 she'd cleared, headed back to her territory.

With the help of Yu Shou and others, Xia Qing delivered the Huanggan-39 cleared from Territory Three and Zone Three to the south gate of the territory, and with the help of Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui, loaded it into the cargo bed of the big truck.

Zhong Tao and Zheng Kui's eyes were bloodshot. The safe zone had suffered a noxious explosion attack, and they had been run ragged these past few days. Not only that—Xia Qing had also learned from Xu Juan that Zhong Tao's father, Old Zhong, had died in the noxious explosion, and his wife had been injured protecting their child and was now hospitalized.

Xia Qing asked, "Brother Tao, do you want the out-of-control big boar? It's alive—I just caught one."

"I do." Zhong Tao's voice was hoarse and weary. "I heard nothing happened in your area. How's things in your territory, sis?"

"Pretty good." Xia Qing returned to the territory, and in a short while carried out the 300-plus-jin big boar, exchanged it for credits, then handed Zhong Tao a bag of green-light vegetables and half a frozen rabbit. "I heard sis-in-law got hurt. Brother Tao, take these back for her and the kids to build up their bodies."

The dead no longer feel anything; the living must keep on striving.

"Alright." Zhong Tao's voice was hoarse and his eyes were red-rimmed. "Sis, you guys don't know what the safe zone looks like right now… it's too tragic…"

Xia Qing knew, because she had seen plenty of pictures and videos online. Vast residential districts reduced to ruins, mangled corpses, swarms of scavenging birds wheeling through the air, humans bashing each other's heads in fighting over supplies…

A natural disaster looks exactly like this hellish scene.

Zheng Kui? No need to ask, because all his relatives had died in last year's noxious rain.

Under the envious gazes of Lord Wen Nengjie and his bunch, Xia Qing pocketed the credit card, returned to the territory with a calm face, and went back to being busy.

At noon on the third day, Squads Fifteen and Seventeen, who had come to help with the work, finished their tasks, collected their pay, and left Territory Three.

After they left, Xia Qing directly used the micro-tiller to harvest all the noxious grass inside the farmland isolation pen clean, then hauled out a three-meter-wide iron grass rake from the warehouse, hung a bunch of Chinese toon leaves in front of Sheep Boss, and one person and one sheep began raking the grass stubble with the iron rake.

Yesterday afternoon, when Xia Qing went to Territory Eight to deliver meat to her good friend, she learned that the Chonglian Group had just developed and produced a small noxious-grass removal machine suitable for territories.

This small weeding machine was twice the size of a micro-tiller; the cutting blade at the front could uproot the noxious grass, shred it, and then feed it into the incinerator to be burned to ash. The noxious-grass ash could be spread directly on the ground, or collected into bags and stored to be used as fertilizer.

Next month, the helicopter would deliver two units to Xin Yu. If Xia Qing wanted one, Xin Yu could have them ship an extra one.

The machine sounded very convenient. Although the energy consumption was a bit higher, it wasn't unacceptable to Xia Qing. If it weren't for the fact that her territory had a strength-evolved sheep that treated hard physical labor like a game, Xia Qing would definitely purchase one.

But now, she had a sheep.

Sheep Boss pulling the three-meter-wide iron rake, sprinting madly from the east end of the flat wasteland to the west end, could clear over eight mu of grass roots. After Xia Qing pulled the noxious grass roots off the rake teeth and piled them aside, then praised Sheep Boss a bunch and fed it a cucumber or stuffed it a piece of ration, Sheep Boss would happily pull the iron rake from this end to that end again—and another eight-plus mu of land would be clean!

Standing on the big iron rake that Sheep Boss was pulling at top speed was extremely thrilling; Xia Qing enjoyed it a lot too. One person and one sheep worked hard while having fun.

The cleared wasteland was spotlessly clean; looking back, it was full of a sense of accomplishment!

After Sheep Boss had run over a dozen laps and gotten a bit tired, the person and the sheep lay down on the pile of noxious grass that was half-dried by the sun, basking in the sun and enjoying the breeze. Sheep Boss rested while Xia Qing praised it with great enthusiasm.

Once it had rested enough, the person and the sheep kept playing.

Lao Er? After confirming that Lord Wen Nengjie and Yu Shou's squad wouldn't wander around inside Territory Three anymore, it took the more than twenty jin of freeze-dried food Xia Qing had packed for it and returned to Mountain Sixty.

With Lao Er leaving this time, Xia Qing wasn't too sad. Because she knew that when Lao Er had time it would still come back, and when she had time she could also go to Mountain Sixty to visit it.