Chapter 9: Evolved Sheep

Bartering is the main way supplies circulate after currency became worthless. Tan Junjie didn't refuse this time. "What do you want to trade for?"

Xia Qing asked tentatively, "Do you have sweet potato seedlings?"

Tan Junjie nodded. "Hu Zi, do the math."

"Yes."

The young team member called Hu Zi immediately pulled out a detector and a scale, tested and weighed the caught animals, then efficiently gave the points: "Five red-light snakes, five jin, 100 points; one evolved red-light snake, four jin, 120 points; one yellow-light snake, one and a half jin, 75 points; two evolved poisonous centipedes usable for medicine, six jin, 300 points. Total 595 points."

The inspection team carried advanced detectors, far more useful than Xia Qing's ordinary one. The advanced detector was also only palm-sized, and could not only distinguish edible from inedible organisms but also display harmful substance content, marking safe food and optional food with green and yellow lights.

Tan Chunjie asked Xia Qing, who was staring at the detector, "The army's sweet potatoes are safe food. These points can be exchanged for two sweet potatoes or six sweet potato seedlings. Which do you choose?"

One hundred points per safe sweet potato seedling—expensive, but worth the price. Xia Qing had never propagated sweet potato seedlings before, so she chose the safe option. "I'll take the seedlings. Captain Tan, if I hunt more animals, can I still come to you to trade for sweet potato seedlings?"

Tan Junjie nodded and warned, "Don't go beyond the quarantine zone."

"Yes!" Xia Qing answered loudly, clearly not taking it to heart.

"Captain, the lord of Plot Four has been notified. We can enter." The team member who had run off to notify the lord of Plot Four ran back and reported to Tan Junjie.

Tan Junjie led the team east into the Plot Four buffer forest. Xia Qing walked south along the narrow valley separating the two buffer forests, which was also the boundary between the two plots.

Before long, she heard Su Ming ask quietly, "Captain, it's not easy for Xia Qing to farm alone. Let's give her a few more sweet potato seedlings."

Tan Junjie countered, "Use your points to trade?"

Then, no more sound was heard.

Xia Qing smiled, walked out of the buffer forest along the valley, took off her protective mask, and headed straight for the four mu of land she had just turned over.

With six extra sweet potato seedlings, she had to turn over half a mu more!

Six sweet potato seedlings don't take up much space, but after catching that sheep, the seedlings she traded for would multiply. Even if she couldn't catch the sheep, once the six seedlings took root and grew vines, she could use cuttings to have a whole sweet potato field.

The more Xia Qing thought about it, the more energized she became. She turned over a whole mu of land in one go before stopping to go home for a meal. She hadn't heard any loud noises from Plot Four while in the field, meaning the inspection team hadn't found the sheep in the Plot Four buffer forest. She still had hope.

After a simple lunch at home, Xia Qing, like a tireless spinning top, went to clear out the two abandoned courtyards to the west.

She gathered the bones and buried them in a pit, burned the weeds for potash fertilizer, put everything still usable into the eastern neighbor's warehouse, and piled up the construction debris.

This way, she had two vegetable gardens very close to home.

After tidying up, Xia Qing went home and luxuriously bathed in the spring water, washed her clothes with filtered water and hung them out to dry, then changed into protective gear to fetch water from the back mountain.

Because the inspection team had someone with enhanced hearing, Xia Qing was afraid they'd hear the spring, so she deliberately avoided the patch of woods around the mountain spring.

She didn't want anyone to know about the drinkable spring on her territory, so she was very careful every time she fetched water, hiding the water bucket inside her backpack.

After reaching the mountain, Xia Qing regretfully found the stone slab still blocking the cave entrance, and neither the sheep nor the weasel had come back to drink. She filled her containers and went home. While cooking, she listened to the seven o'clock broadcast.

The seven o'clock broadcast, as usual, first relayed inspiring news from all over Hua Country, then news and announcements from Hui-3 Base. Xia Qing listened carefully.

The announcement mentioned that temperatures would rise eight degrees over the next three days, followed by this year's first heavy rainfall. After the rain, it would be suitable to sow spring wheat. Everyone was urged to hurry and not miss the planting season.

She had turned her land too early.

Xia Qing, already lying in bed, smiled indifferently and decided to turn another plot after the rain to plant wheat. The land already turned wouldn't go to waste—something would be planted on it sooner or later.

Xia Qing planned to use the three days before the rain to explore the evolved forest north of Plot Three.

Last winter, Hui-3 Base pushed the quarantine zone outward by seventy kilometers beyond the safe zone. The evolved forest beyond this range had not been entered by anyone since the catastrophe.

The evolved forest untrodden by humans was full of danger and full of temptation. Xia Qing was short on food now and could least resist temptation.

The buffer forest and village on her territory had already been swept by humans. All animals had been killed, and plants had been screened and tested. There couldn't possibly be any more surprising discoveries.

No sooner said than done.

Early the next morning, Xia Qing gathered her gear, passed through the buffer forest and quarantine zone, and entered the lush evolved forest.

After the catastrophe, the temperature difference between Blue Star's seasons widened by at least fifteen degrees, but evolved plants had also improved their cold resistance. By mid-February, everything was already lush and green. However, most animals still kept their original habits, hibernating and resting in winter, only coming out to move and breed when temperatures rose and rain was plentiful.

These three days would be much safer than later.

But Xia Qing still turned her vision and hearing to full, gripping her machete as she carefully explored inward.

She discovered that this patch of evolved forest had also been within the range of human activity before the catastrophe. There were terraced fields on the hillside, and collapsed houses on the flat, open mountaintop.

In areas like this, the chance of finding edible plants was higher than in wild forests never cultivated by humans. Eighty percent of the safe food found by exploration teams came from areas like this.

An hour and a half later, Xia Qing had her first harvest.

She found several finger-high little green sprouts that the detector showed as green-light. After carefully clearing the soil around the sprouts, her eyes lit up.

Ginger!

A sprouted piece of ginger!

Take it!

Because evolved plants might mutate when they leave their original growing environment, Xia Qing dug out the ginger along with the soil it grew in, wrapped it up, and put it in her backpack, doing her best to keep its growing environment unchanged.

After climbing over three more terraced fields, catching two snakes, scaring off a group of rats and squirrels, and crushing several insects that tried to bite her, Xia Qing finally had her second harvest.

A clump of green-light garlic sprouts.

Scallions, ginger, and garlic are cooking essentials—she was now only missing one. But for the next hour, Xia Qing searched from the terraced fields to the collapsed courtyard without finding a single scallion sprout.

Could it be that the scallions hadn't sprouted yet?

Xia Qing continued exploring and found a tall Chinese toon tree outside the collapsed courtyard wall, and preliminarily determined it was an edible plant.

Because the sprouts on the Chinese toon saplings growing around the Chinese toon tree had been gnawed away by some unknown animal.

After carefully checking the tree for hidden snakes and insects, Xia Qing climbed up and picked a cluster of deep red Chinese toon buds, squeezed the juice into the detector port. After a dozen seconds, it lit up green as expected.

Such a big edible Chinese toon tree!

What a string of surprises. Xia Qing smiled brilliantly. In just five days on the territory, she had smiled more times than in the past half year.

She had just picked a few clusters of Chinese toon buds when she heard the sound of a large animal moving about thirty meters away.

There was no time to run. Xia Qing pressed her back against the tree trunk and held her breath to observe.

The sound grew closer, and a dirty, white-haired fat sheep walked out of the green grass.

This sheep was very large—it should be an evolved sheep. Xia Qing looked at its hooves and was eighty percent sure this was the fellow who had pried open the stone to drink from her spring.

So the sheep she had been guarding the cave for never showed up — instead it came right under the tree to find her?

Xia Qing gripped her machete tight, ready to attack (ambush).

The sheep that walked out lifted its head, looked straight at Xia Qing hiding in the tree, and narrowed its eyes slightly.

Xia Qing actually saw a blatant flash of contempt in the eyes of a sheep.

Damn it!

Could this sheep be one of those rarest of evolved creatures — a brain-domain evolver?