Chapter 887: Territory Three, Employee Number 002

"Want some honey? Right? You make this gesture, then I'll understand." Xia Qing watched Does Daigua the monkey slowly grab her pant leg with its little black hands and climb up, slowing her speech as she tried to communicate with it.

This little monkey's ally—within Wolf Lao Er's territory—had a fuse capable of blowing half of Liehuo Mountain flat—the ice-type red-veined stone called the Sacred Stone. Xia Qing intended to use the last month she had remaining in Territory Three to establish a method of communication with this little monkey, so that it would understand it could trade the ice-type red-veined stone with Xia Qing for honey.

Just now, when she took the honey jar to the kitchen, Does Daigua the monkey slowly turned its head and slowly raised its arm to chase her. Before Does Daigua the monkey could climb into the kitchen, Xia Qing came back out, and Does Daigua the monkey slowly turned around and crawled toward the two large basins filled with honey water.

Before it could crawl over, Wolf Lao Da and Wolf Lao Er had already finished off the pollution-free spring water mixed with a little honey, and carried their food basins back to the kitchen in their mouths.

Does Daigua the monkey slowly turned its head, hesitated between the empty basin in the kitchen and the cup of honey water in Xia Qing's hand, then slowly crawled toward Xia Qing.

Xia Qing gestured as she spoke to it, "I know you were born with a dumb face, and asking you to smile like that shameless wolf would be too much for a monkey, but you can talk, or you can gesture with your paws. This gesture is called 'ok,' it means yes. You do one, like this."

Does Daigua the little monkey didn't even look at Xia Qing's gesturing left hand; its eyes were only on the honey water in her right hand.

Another foodie.

Foodies are great, foodies are easy to coax.

Xia Qing poured some honey water into Does Daigua the monkey's little food basin, then downed her own honey water in one gulp before picking up Does Daigua the monkey and feeding it.

If she didn't feed it, the honey water would most likely all get spilled on its overalls. Xia Qing had indeed installed a water filtration system, and the house now had running water. The fully automatic washing machine and air conditioner she'd ordered from Seeing Xin Yu had also arrived, so she didn't have to hand-wash clothes—but the electricity required Wolf Lao Da to pedal the generator, and the water had to be carried from the river back home by her.

So, if she could avoid washing, it was best not to wash.

The slowpoke Does Daigua the monkey gripped the stainless steel little basin tightly with its two little black hands, and finished the honey water without wasting a single drop.

After drinking, this fellow's eyes were brighter than before; it was obvious it really loved honey. Xia Qing fed it some more pollution-free spring water without honey mixed in, to keep it from getting cavities, and finally force-fed this little monkey the second course of medicine prescribed by her idol, worth thirty thousand credits.

When Wolf Lao Er and the wolf pack dumped Does Daigua the monkey on her, they didn't pay a single cent for medical fees. So as of now, this Does Daigua the monkey owes Xia Qing 70,000 credits in medicine fees, plus three hundred credits a day in nursing and meal fees, totaling more credits than Little Feimao!

Before leaving Territory Three, it must repay part of the credits through labor; the remaining credits, after it leaves Territory Three, will be repaid with supplies!

The next morning, just as the sky was growing light, a strange sound came from the living room.

Xia Qing in the bedroom instantly gripped the wall and got out of bed, tilting her head to listen closely.

"Squeak—"

Hearing-evolution user Xia Qing immediately identified it as the sound of Does Daigua the monkey's toenails sliding across the floor as it crawled.

She relaxed at once, opened the door, and saw Does Daigua the monkey, which should have been sleeping in the hanging chair on the first floor, extending its little black paw toward Xia Qing's refrigerator, which was placed not far from the stairway entrance.

Without a doubt, this fellow's sense of smell was extremely well-developed; it had smelled that Xia Qing had put the honey inside the refrigerator.

The reason Xia Qing put some food that didn't need refrigeration inside the refrigerator was, first, because the refrigerator contained Yishi, which could extend the food's preservation period; second, because the refrigerator could be locked, preventing the food from being stolen and eaten.

She walked over, picked up the bare-faced little black monkey, and scolded it in a stern tone, "Want to eat honey? Go relieve yourself first, then trade for it with labor!"

Xia Qing carried Does Daigua the monkey out of the house and set it down beside the toilet of Wolf Lao Da the sheep and Wolf Lao Er the wolf-dog under the south wall, letting it take care of its needs on its own.

Wolf Lao Da was eating pasture grass, Wolf Lao Er was catching bugs with a basket in its mouth, and Little Feimao was nowhere to be seen—it was probably looking for food somewhere.

Even if Wolf Lao Da and Wolf Lao Er weren't around, Xia Qing still dared to leave Does Daigua the monkey outside while she went to patrol the territory, because she had excellent hearing, vision, and marksmanship. If some fool dared to take advantage of the moment to steal the monkey, Xia Qing could raise her gun and add a big bird to Territory Eight with one shot.

The territory had to be patrolled every morning and evening.

A vegetable snake over four meters long crawled over the western isolation belt and slipped through a hole in the wire-mesh wall into Territory Three, indicating it was time to spray pesticide on the wild-grass wall;

The mung beans sown last month had already sprouted, and the germination rate and growth were decent; the sunflowers' big heads were drooping even lower—in a few more days it would be time to harvest;

The rice seedlings given additional fertilizer were sturdier than two days ago, showing that the planting techniques she'd learned from Zhang Tao were very useful; the green-light cotton plants had increased boll drop beneath them, requiring testing to confirm the cause of the boll drop;

The sweet potato leaves had been chewed up in two large patches by bugs; inspection confirmed it was the larvae of the tobacco cutworm that had done the chewing, requiring pesticide spraying to kill the insects; the buds on the strawberry runners had already taken root, so the runners could be cut and the little strawberry seedlings transplanted;

Quite a few mealworms in the wooden pallet had turned into pupae again; the pupae needed to be picked out and placed on a pallet with a cover; the chicken manure in the chicken coop also needed to be cleaned out…

Xia Qing didn't get irritable because of the heavy workload; she quickly arranged the order of the farm tasks, and she could finish all of them in one morning.

Xia Qing liked being busy, liked harvesting food and putting it into the storage room—it increased her sense of security. The unease accumulated from nine years of resource scarcity and hunger before the natural disaster could only be eased by having large quantities of food.

Walking into the yard, Xia Qing discovered that Does Daigua the monkey, having already finished its business, was trying hard to crawl toward the house door. Honey's attraction to it was greater than that of the fig tree on the east side of the yard.

"Stop crawling, it's time to eat!" Xia Qing picked up Does Daigua the monkey, brushed the dirt and grass off its body, and set the little basket she'd brought back under the eaves.

This basket contained pumpkin flowers, Chinese toon sprouts, sweet potato leaves chewed up by bugs, and over a dozen mealworms—all foods the monk-faced monkey liked. If it still wasn't full after eating these, Does Daigua the monkey would go dig through the wheat straw in the sheep shed on its own, looking for leftover wheat grains to eat.

In the afternoon, when the weather was hottest, Xia Qing sat under the shade of a tree, teaching Does Daigua the monkey, temporary employee number 002, how to pick sunflower seeds off the sunflower heads. This was a detail-oriented task with no technical content, suitable for Does Daigua the monkey to do.

Just as Xia Qing had finished teaching Does Daigua the monkey, she heard the growing roar of a helicopter coming from the south.

Wolf Lao Da and Wolf Lao Er were very familiar with this sound and went on doing whatever they were doing; Little Feimao, who had been searching for food everywhere, quickly ran back and burrowed into the side pocket of Xia Qing's protective suit; Does Daigua the monkey, who had been working hard at picking out sunflower seeds, widened its already round, dull eyes in terror and slowly crawled toward Xia Qing seeking shelter.

Xia Qing, however, excitedly stood up. "Lao Da, Lao Er, Feimao, Does Daigua, look! That's my helicopter! Listen to how nice that sound is—it's much quieter than other helicopters' noise!"

Wolf Lao Da the sheep, chewing cud with half-closed eyes, didn't react; Wolf Lao Er smiled happily along; Little Feimao, hiding in Xia Qing's pocket, didn't show its head; Does Daigua the monkey was still working hard to climb up Xia Qing's leg.

This little monkey was an animal that normally stayed up in trees, so when it encountered danger it treated Xia Qing as a tree to climb. Xia Qing simply picked it up and set it on her shoulder.

The helicopter arrived above this stretch of territory, and looking down at the neatly arranged farm plots reclaimed by human effort within the Evolution Forest, Luo Pei's mood lifted.

When the helicopter descended to a little over 500 meters, he took a look at Territory Three, which had only a few farm plots, and got a fright.

After making out that what was sitting on Xia Qing's shoulder wasn't a child but a little monkey wearing clothes, Luo Pei couldn't help laughing.

So this was the little monkey Xia Qing had rescued from the Hui-6 poaching team, the one that had been injected with an overdose of anesthetic? She had already tamed it this well?