Chapter 853: Red Eleven Special Ops Squad

After planting the sweet potato vines in the morning, human Xia Jingwei finished lunch and ran to Mountain 55, prying stones inside the wolves' core territory to fill the python pool.

Today she brought a chainsaw and could saw down the few large trees blocking the boulder from falling. While Xia Qing buzz-sawed through the trees, the big and small wolves watching from the mountaintop couldn't stand the noise and ran off.

Around two o'clock, Xia Qing saw a medium helicopter fly over from the south and land inside Northern Zone One's territory. No need to ask—this helicopter was here to pick up Yan Long and the special-ops squad she led.

Captain Yan Long, without receiving orders, had privately piloted a helicopter and taken important laboratory researchers out—an act of serious disciplinary violation. So Hui One officially terminated her guard mission and ordered her to lead the team back to Hui One base to accept punishment.

When Yan Long's squad came last spring, they numbered 30; on the return, 29—one had retired.

When Xia Qing sent Huo Zhun to Territory Eleven, the fellow said there was no better outcome than zero casualties.

Less than an hour after Hui One's helicopter flew off, another helicopter passed high overhead over Xia Qing's mountain area and dropped into Northern Zone One's territory.

No need to ask—this was certainly the Red Eleven Special Ops Squad arriving to replace Yan Long's squad and carry out the Territory Seven guard mission.

After the helicopter landed, Xia Qing crawled out from under the rock she'd been hiding beneath and went back to work. Military helicopters all have detection equipment, and she didn't want the people aboard to discover her surrounded by a pack of wolves.

After sawing through five large trees, Xia Qing began clearing the small stones blocking the boulder. When the first small stone rolled down, Xia Qing tilted her head to listen, a little puzzled.

The sound of the stone plunging into the pool was a bit off, but it might also be a problem with her damaged hearing.

Xia Qing, whose ears kept ringing, shook her head and kept digging.

The wolves responsible for guarding the territory and watching over the cubs had already lost interest in what Xia Qing was doing. Only two wolves still paid attention to her movements—one was the little wolf with amber-gold eyes lying on the mountaintop, the other was the broken-legged wolf leaping and darting around Xia Qing.

Not long after Xia Qing pried loose another two-meter-square stone and sent it rolling into the pool, the broken-legged wolf darted to the edge of the python pool, scooped a palm-sized fish from the splashed water in its mouth, and ran over to Xia Qing.

"Broken-leg's really something—this fish is huge!"

After receiving Xia Qing's praise, the broken-legged wolf grew even happier, placed the fish on the rock in front of Xia Qing, and went on leaping about. Xia Qing pulled out a detector, confirmed there was no python-killing venom on the fish, and also confirmed it was a red-lamp fish, but she still tucked the fish away.

Even if it was a red-lamp fish, it was still a kind gesture from the broken-legged wolf—it couldn't be wasted.

Seeing Xia Qing stuff the fish into her backpack, the broken-legged wolf immediately darted over to sniff the pack. Xia Qing took out a small packet of freeze-dried treats and handed them to the broken-legged wolf, treating it as an exchange of freeze-dried treats for its fish.

The little wolf with amber-gold eyes lying on the mountaintop watched this scene and stared thoughtfully at a fish flopping in the grass by the python pool.

Before it could act, a honey badger caught the scent and ran over, pinning the fish down.

The little wolf soon found another fish and was about to dash down to catch it, when its mother pressed it down with a big paw. The lead wolf stared solemnly at the evolved eagle circling overhead.

The evolved eagle, a life-threatening danger to the little wolf, had also been drawn over by the noise Xia Qing made sawing trees and rolling stones. After circling a few times high up, it suddenly began to dive.

"Aoo—woo—"

The guard wolf immediately issued a warning, and all the wolves, along with the honey badger that was eating, hid in rock crevices or thorn thickets. Xia Qing, who was prying at the second boulder, looked up and spotted this evolved eagle with a wingspan over five meters, and obediently shrank down beside the rock. She was here to dig stones, not to hunt eagles, and certainly not to be the eagle's prey.

Unexpectedly, the eagle's locked-on hunting target turned out to be the honey badger hiding in the thorn thicket—its sharp talons grabbed both the honey badger and the thorns together, and with a beat of its massive wings it took flight again.

The honey badger, clamped in the eagle's grip, dropped its fish and screeched in fury, twisting its body to bite at the eagle's legs.

Seeing the honey badger caught, the lead wolf landed beside Xia Qing and lifted a paw to pat the sniper rifle on her back.

Xia Qing understood, quickly unslung the sniper rifle, and took aim.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Whoosh—"

The two bullets fired in succession grazed the giant eagle's two legs, knocking down a shower of feathers, a clump of thorns, and a honey badger. The old eagle, having lost its prey, screeched in fury and beat its wings to soar high, circling without leaving.

Judging from the eagle's behavior, this was an eagle from deep in the evolved forest, unfamiliar with humanity's long-range attack weapons. Xia Qing didn't want to kill it, because an evolved eagle hunting honey badgers was its nature.

The lead wolf had Xia Qing save the honey badger because the honey badgers here were captured by the wolves to kill snakes, so honey badgers were under the wolves' protection.

On this point, Xia Qing felt the northern wolves did a much better job than Hui Six base.

Hui Six base captured bears to fight the monkey hordes—the method was the same as the wolves catching honey badgers to kill snakes. The difference was that the wolves captured by force, without drugs, and the captured honey badgers lived inside wolf territory under wolf protection; Hui Six's beast-catching team used anesthetic on a bear cub, which very likely crippled the cub, and once that bear arrived, it had to face the ferocious evolved monkey hordes alone—its chance of death was very high.

After landing, the honey badger grumpily picked up its fish, moved to another spot, and kept gnawing; Xia Qing put away the sniper rifle and went back to digging stones; the little wolf on the mountaintop stared at the sniper rifle on Xia Qing's back, itching to try it.

Working until five, Xia Jingwei was escorted back to Zone Three of Mountain 49 by the broken-legged wolf. After the broken-legged wolf left, Xia Qing, rifle in hand, searched Zone Three for the two red lynxes that had dared to invade her territory.

Last night really was quite a coincidence.

The spot where the two red lynxes invaded Territory Three and crossed the two wire-mesh walls happened to be near the north gate of Northern Zone One's wire-mesh wall.

Wolves and Sheep Boss frequently passed in and out through this spot, so to keep the patrol teams from spotting them, the camera at this location wasn't within the patrol teams' surveillance range.

If Xia Qing's hearing hadn't been damaged, and if her newly replaced phone hadn't had its volume misadjusted, she would have heard the camera's warning when those two red lynxes climbed in.

These three "coincidences" coming together caused the accident. Fortunately, Lao Er was in the territory last night—otherwise the Does Daigua monkey would have been dragged off and eaten by them.

The chickens?

They couldn't steal them, because the chicken coop Xia Qing built was very sturdy.

Following the tracks on the ground, Xia Qing found the spot where the red lynxes had fought the little honey badger, confirming the two were still plotting against the wild boar.

After circling around, Xia Qing found neither Little Flat-Top nor the red lynxes. As she was about to head back to the territory, she discovered that two red foxes had actually brought their cubs and appeared at the wolf den's entrance.

Seeing this family of three so startled by her that their fur stood on end, yet stubbornly holding their ground instead of fleeing, Xia Qing sighed and said softly, "Red-hairs, didn't I tell you yesterday? You don't need a dressing change today—come back tomorrow."

The wolves that often dealt with Xia Qing had understood, so they hadn't brought the red foxes along. But the red foxes couldn't understand Xia Qing's words, so they still came with their cubs.

Seeing them huddled at the wolf den's entrance, waiting for her to change the little fox's dressing—what was Xia Qing to do?

The little fox cub was nothing like the Does Daigua monkey—it was a distinguished VIP patient. They'd come all this way, what else could she do? Change the dressing, of course. The medicine wasn't expensive anyway, and she could take the chance to pet the red fox cubs.