Chapter 867: Sheep's Wool and Monkey Hair

"If she didn't have some brains, she wouldn't have survived to Year Eleven of the Calamity." Yuan Yan of Territory No. 5 speculated about Feng Wen's purpose in getting pregnant. "She doesn't dare return to the Safe Zone now, and among Hui-3's five territories, ours is the safest and best developed."

Tang Huai understood. "What Sister Yan means is, Feng Wen wants to marry Yan Meng?"

Zhao Ze didn't think so. "Just look at the spirit she had when she went to find Sister Qing — doesn't seem like someone who'd settle down and farm in the territory."

Kuang Qingwei guessed, "I think there are two possibilities: one is what Huai-ge said, she wants to marry Yan Meng; the other is she wants to replace Yan Meng and become the lord of Territory No. 14."

Tang Heng felt the second possibility was more likely. "Once Feng Wen's child is born, it'll be the legitimate heir of Territory No. 14. If Yan Meng dies, her child can inherit the territory. Even if life isn't great, it'd definitely be better than now."

Yan Meng had been in the territory two years and never properly farmed.

Zhu Li picked up the thread. "There's another possibility — following Tang Lu's example, renting out the whole territory. So once Feng Wen's child is born, Yan Meng's death won't be far off."

Tan Qi also joined the discussion. "She could also go back to the Safe Zone right now, because she's pregnant and would be protected."

Human reproduction was difficult during the Calamity years. In the Safe Zone, pregnant and nursing women, as well as infants and young children, enjoyed multiple subsidies.

Huo Zhun rubbed his plump earlobes and offered his view. "Yan Meng isn't stupid either."

Shi Du said cheerfully, "Of course he's not. So next we'll see whether the east wind overwhelms the west wind, or the west wind overwhelms the east. Best case, they fight each other to a standstill, both sides badly hurt. Sister Qing letting Feng Wen into Territory No. 14 was really too wise!"

Tang Huai looked enviously at Zhu Li, who was also a hearing-evolution user. "Sister Li, if you hear any movement, let us know in the group chat right away."

"No problem." Zhu Li nodded, full of enthusiasm.

After the melon-eating segment ended, this alliance meeting concluded satisfactorily, and everyone returned to their own territories to keep working.

"Xia Qing, where's that little honey badger?" Passing by the northern isolation belt of Territory No. 3, Tang Huai, carried on Huo Zhun's back, looked around. His toe fracture had kept him from coming to watch Sheep Boss and the little honey badger fight these past few days, and he deeply regretted it.

The little honey badger is a team member now too? Huo Zhun turned his head, saw Xia Qing's expressionless face, and thought of that white-faced monkey living the quiet life in Territory No. 3 — wondered if that monkey was any better.

Xia Qing, expressionless, explained, "That honey badger got hurt fighting two red lynxes and hasn't come out of the Evolution Forest again."

"Hurt?!" Tang Huai's eyeballs darted around.

Tang Heng knew at once what his brother was thinking and reminded him, "Bro, honey badgers eat bugs."

Ah... how could I forget that!

Tang Huai behaved. "Sister Qing, I've got some leads on the sheep. Can your territory's sheep pen fit two sheep?"

"It can."

Her sheep pen could fit not just two sheep, but five wolves even.

Xia Qing scanned her face to return to her own territory, went to the Green-Light Orchard, and checked on the apple and jujube trees that had been battered by the hailstorm. After inspection, she found one apple tree's quality had dropped to Yellow-Light.

Then, the new little leaves sprouting on the jujube tree looked a bit off. This "off" wasn't a change in the magnetic field, but the shape of the leaves — they seemed to grow differently from before.

Xia Qing asked a companion walking over, "Boss, look at the buds sprouting on this jujube tree — don't they seem off?"

Sheep Boss, eyes sparkling, walked over and looked up at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing...

You little glutton, I'm not about to break off leaves for you to eat...

After realizing Xia Qing wasn't going to feed it, Sheep Boss immediately narrowed its eyes and started pawing the ground. Xiao Pingtou hadn't shown up these past few days — Boss's hooves were itchy and it wanted a fight!

Xia Qing happened to have something to ask it too. "Boss, how come I feel your legs are even more muscular? Do you feel like you've gotten stronger? Wanna pull the iron rake? Boss looks the coolest pulling the iron rake — I haven't seen Boss pull the iron rake in days..."

After Xia Qing's bout of flattery, Sheep Boss held its head high, gave her a sidelong glance, signaling her to stop dawdling and hurry back to get the iron rake.

"Coming!"

Xia Qing broke off a handful of Chinese toon leaves and trotted after Sheep Boss down the slope. "Boss pulling the iron rake is just too cool. What would our territory do without you..."

With the big iron rake harnessed on, Sheep Boss ran like the wind with Xia Qing.

When people from Territories No. 15 and No. 17 came to clear the invasive grass, they pulled it out by the roots — no iron rake needed for the roots. So Sheep Boss, with Xia Qing, finished clearing the area Xia Qing had mowed with the harvester in under an hour.

After finishing, Sheep Boss felt it wasn't enough fun, and kept running wildly with the big iron rake and Xia Qing, while Wolf Lao Er lay under the shade of a tree, watching cheerfully.

By dusk, the mud-caked Boss had finally had its fill of fun, and headed home with its underlings, who were equally caked in dirt.

While it was still light, Xia Qing gave Sheep Boss a bath and sheared its wool. Lightened by two blocks of wool, Sheep Boss looked at Xia Qing with increasing favor.

Xia Qing also felt her skills had improved — the cut looked better than last year.

After shearing the sheep's wool, Xia Qing was about to hang an IV drip for Daigua the monkey, but found it had diarrhea again.

Xia Qing simply rinsed it off in water and sheared its fur too. She wasn't after its fur — shearing just made cleanup easier.

The sheared Daigua monkey looked several sizes thinner, hung by Xia Qing on the clothesline pole with its IV drip, its tiny dark hands trembling — looking rather pitiful.

Xia Qing, afraid it'd catch cold and get diarrhea again, grabbed a handful of dry hay and laid it over its belly.

Having harvested over two jin of sheep's wool and two liang of monkey hair, Xia Qing dug out the over two jin of sheep's wool she'd sheared last year from the warehouse, and pondered what to make with all this hair.

After much thought, Xia Qing decided to use the hair as filling to make cushions for winter.

The next morning, Xia Qing put the scoured and cleaned sheep's wool and monkey hair in a breathable bag, hung it next to Daigua the monkey to dry in the sun, then left the house in Wolf Lao Er's care and went to work half a day on Hill No. 55.

In the afternoon, Xia Qing returned to the territory, because it was her turn to thresh and dry the harvested wheat.

The order of using the machinery was decided by drawing lots — Qi Fu was No. 1, Xia Qing was No. 2.

After threshing, the 223 jin of Yellow-Light wheat weighed 196 jin after drying — close to Xia Qing's estimate. Though it wasn't much, when she loaded the two bags of wheat onto the shelves of the underground grain storage room, Xia Qing was still very happy.

With a harvest, the farmer is happy. The chat group was also filled with the joy of a good harvest. Although Wen Nengjie hadn't squeezed into the top ten, he'd drawn the afternoon slot for the dryer the next day, and kept thanking Xia Qing in the group.

When Wen Nengjie finally got to use the dryer and thresher, he kept singing Xia Qing's praises in the group. But Xia Qing couldn't hear — she was sitting in a hidden valley picking spinach seeds.

The several dozen X-2 plants she'd grown in the valley had ripened naturally.