Chapter 84: The Egret Laid Eggs

After cleaning her gun and finishing accuracy training, Xia Qing began reaction-speed drills. She trained until ten-thirty at night, washed up on schedule, said goodnight to Boss Sheep, who was lying on his special spot in the first-floor living room, then went to rest in the room at the back-right of the second floor—the northwest corner room.

Xia Qing's small house sits in the center-north of the farmland at the foot of the mountain. Through the north-facing window of this back-right second-floor bedroom, one can see all the fields, planting zones, and springs within Territory Three.

Although Luo Pei had led his people out of Territory Three, people from Territory Two were still monitoring her territory, so Xia Qing decided to move into this bedroom so she could guard her most important resources at night—the springs and the crops.

Xia Qing had set up a dozen or so simple, hard-to-spot traps near the fields and springs. If a person or large animal passed by, the sounds made by the wood and stones would be picked up by her highly evolved ears, and she could then shoot the intruder directly.

Xia Qing put on her night-vision goggles and, after confirming through the glass window that nothing was amiss in her territory, had just spread out her sun-warmed thin blanket when she heard Boss Sheep's clip-clop clip-clop coming up the stairs.

Sheep, even after evolving, still have very poor night vision. To make it easier for Boss Sheep to open the door and relieve himself in the yard, the small night-light on the first floor had been left on.

Borrowing that faint light, Boss Sheep climbed up to the second floor, appeared in front of Xia Qing, and squinted at her.

Xia Qing explained reasonably, "Boss, didn't I just tell you? I have to sleep in this room to guard our water and food. You have to sleep on the first floor and guard our door and yard."

Boss Sheep stood still. Xia Qing sighed, both happy and helpless. "If you absolutely have to sleep in the same room as me, come on in."

Xia Qing spread a bamboo mat on the bedroom floor, and laid a flat grass cushion on top of it. "Sleep. Tomorrow we have to take down the rain cloth and clear out the Calamity Grass. The third Calamity Rain won't come for at least another two months, so within those two months we can harvest our wheat, mung beans, and potatoes. Once we harvest them, I eat the grain, you eat the seedlings."

After saying that, Xia Qing yawned, pulled the blanket over herself, and closed her eyes.

Boss Sheep lay on the grass cushion for a while and decided it wasn't as comfortable as the one in the first-floor living room. He stared unhappily at Xia Qing for a moment, then stood up, clip-clop clip-clop across the wooden floor, and went back downstairs.

Lying in bed, Xia Qing's mouth curved up into a wide smile.

The next day, the stinging pain from the dancing potato vines on Xia Qing's body had lessened and no longer affected her normal movement.

After breakfast, Xia Qing turned on the radio to listen to broadcasts while wandering around and killing a whole big bag of various evolved pests, as usual feeding half to the fish and half to the snakes.

When the fish fry, already grown to five centimeters long, surged to the surface for food, the egret wading in the shallow water swiftly snatched up a fry and tossed its head back to swallow it.

Why was there only one egret coming down to eat fish today?

Xia Qing looked toward the nest in the dawn-redwood tree by the water and saw the other egret crouching in the nest.

Could it be—she's started laying eggs and incubating them?

After eating her fish for so long, the time had finally come for the egret to give back. Xia Qing had been eyeing those eggs for more than a day or two.

Are egret eggs edible? Bring them back and test them, and we'll know.

Steal? No such thing.

All resources within Territory Three belong to her. Taking her own things can't be called stealing.

Xia Qing hehe'd.

Back home, Xia Qing hitched a cart to the micro-tiller and drove it clip-clop clip-clop to the edge of the fields. In no time at all she took down all the rain cloth from the rain shelters, directed Boss Sheep to help fold it up, and loaded it into the cart.

Then Xia Qing took out the insect netting, cut it to the right size, and fixed it over the rain-shelter frames. The base's agricultural broadcasts strongly promoted this kind of covered cultivation technique that kept out pests while letting in light, air, and a moderate amount of shade.

As for why the base would promote this technique, Kuang Qingwei of Plot Six had asked Qi Fu of Plot Five.

Qi Fu gave an affirmative answer: it was because he had bought large quantities of the insect netting used in the safe zone for window screens. After Zhong Tao learned of the use, he took video and photos of Qi Fu's insect-net vegetable shed and reported it to the base. Qi Fu even received some very substantial rewards for it.

As for what those rewards were, Qi Fu didn't say, and everyone tactfully didn't ask.

Xia Qing had also tasted the benefits of insect-net covered cultivation in her vegetable growing, and had long planned to cover-cultivate all her crops, so she had traded with Zhong Tao for enough insect netting.

Fortunately she'd traded early—Kuang Qingwei said insect netting had already gone up in price.

Earlier, Xia Qing had been busy fixing up the house and hadn't had time to cover all the crops. Now that the rain shelters were up, it was the perfect time to remove the rain cloth and replace it with insect netting.

After switching to insect netting, the various insects blocked outside the net were cleared away by her and her bird helpers.

Now Xia Qing's territory had many kinds of birds—magpies, crows, sparrows, tits, and red-billed blue magpies, among others. These fellows had once plotted to steal fruits and vegetables, but after Xia Qing beat a batch of them to death as a lesson, they reformed and became standard beneficial birds.

Only the egrets that stole fish were not beneficial birds.

Removing the rain cloth and replacing it with insect netting took Xia Qing a whole day. After finishing, she naturally had to treat herself to something good.

Xia Qing carried the dozen or so live snakes she'd caught today and strolled over to the reservoir, only to find both egrets crouching in the nest being affectionate.

Damn—she and Boss Sheep worked themselves to the bone and were both single, while these two thieving birds were paired up showing off their love. They had to be taught a lesson.

With one more reason added to teach the egrets a lesson, Xia Qing first drove the micro-tiller loaded with rain cloth back home, tested the snakes for edibility and stuffed them into the snake box, then fed the snakes some evolved insects for food. She waited until dusk, when the egrets' vision declined, before returning to the dawn-redwood grove. Avoiding the egrets' line of sight, she pulled the snakes out of the bag and tossed them near the egret nest.

Egrets have poor eyesight and hunt during the day. Most snakes hunt at dawn, dusk, and at night. Once the egrets and snakes got into it, she could step out and reap the fisherman's profit.

Xia Qing crouched in a corner and soon got to watch the great battle between egrets and snakes. After both egrets flew off the nest, Xia Qing quickly scrambled over and found, sure enough, five pale blue-green eggs inside.

Xia Qing grabbed only three and stuffed them into her bag. As she fled the scene, she heard the sound of egret wings beating. She immediately pulled out a fierce evolved snake over a meter long and pressed it against the side of the nest, shouting, "Egrets, come back quick, there's a snake stealing your eggs!"

The egret that landed on the nest shielded the eggs and savagely pecked the evolved snake with its long, golden-yellow beak.

With a "thunk," both the snake's head and the tree trunk were pecked through.

She hadn't expected that the egrets, who strolled by the water like dandies every day stealing fish, would be such fierce fighters. No wonder once they arrived, they became the top birds in the territory.

Xia Qing helped the egrets finish off the remaining evolved snakes before heading home with her spoils.