Xia Qing scratched her short hair helplessly. "Boss Sheep, eating grass should be your forte, right?"
"Clatter, clatter."
Hearing the sound of Boss Sheep moving, Xia Qing turned around and found it heading straight for the chair she had just made. She quickly ran over and lifted the chair up. "No, this really can't withstand your hoofbeats! I worked so hard to make it."
Seeing Boss Sheep staring at the bamboo chair with its head tilted back, Xia Qing suddenly understood its intention. "You want one too? Sure, there's plenty of bamboo. I'll make one for you right away."
Xia Qing carried the bamboo chair to the tool shed north of the kitchen, rummaging through the materials and tools.
This small building appears to have three rooms on each floor, but it actually has five. The rooms on the east and west sides are separated by north and south partitions. The two north-facing rooms both have back windows, providing good natural light.
The southwest room on the first floor is the kitchen, while the northeast rooms on the first and second floors are the toilet and bathroom. Xia Qing turned the northwest room, the one north of the kitchen, into a tool shed. Inside were various tools she'd brought from the safe zone, along with useful supplies she'd gathered from the territory over the past few days.
She'd chopped a lot of bamboo for her plan to make new furniture.
Xia Qing took out a few bamboo stalks and, after a flurry of sawing and drilling, made a legless bamboo tatami bed for the sheep, placing it where it lay. She sat down to test it out, saying, "This is yours. It's not cold or damp lying on it. Want to try it, Boss?"
The sheep seemed to understand it was for it, squinting at it for a while before climbing onto the tatami and lying down on the side furthest from Xia Qing.
Xia Qing wanted to go over and pet the sheep, but was afraid of angering it and causing it to destroy the house. So she went back to the tool shed and retrieved a large bundle of thin, long, semi-dried hay, and began weaving a cushion. After the natural disaster, with scarce resources, most people were forced to learn how to make these kinds of household items that didn't require points.
Xia Qing quickly wove a round cushion and placed it on the tatami mat. But when she went to retrieve her book on sheep farming, she found the cushion already occupied by the eldest sheep.
It squinted and trod on the cushion with its hooves, as if it was ready to fight to the death if it dared to challenge her.
Xia Qing…
"Such a small cushion, aren't you worried about it being uncomfortable?"
"Fine, I'll make you one too."
Xia Qing put the book back, then took out two bundles of straw and quickly wove a rough straw mat, laying it on the bamboo tatami mat. Sure enough, the eldest sheep occupied the straw mat and stopped trying to take her cushion.
Xia Qing sat on the cushion, listening to the rain and reading for a while. Then her stomach started rumbling; it was time for lunch. Having gained nothing today, Xia Qing couldn't bear to eat rice or noodles, so she only took out two pieces of compressed dry rations and ate them with hot water.
After only two days of real food, Xia Qing found the compressed rations too rough on her throat. However, she didn't waste a drop, stuffing even the crumbs into her mouth and gulping down several mouthfuls of warm spring water. Then she noticed the eldest sheep approaching her, sniffing her.
Standing, its head was taller than Xia Qing sitting on the small bamboo chair. Not wanting a sheep to look down on her, Xia Qing pulled her chair back. "Are you full too?"
The eldest sheep sniffed again, bringing its head close to Xia Qing's hand.
Xia Qing chuckled. "You like the taste of compressed rations?"
Thinking about it, it made sense. The natural disaster had caused the collapse of Earth's agricultural system. Now, anything edible, from leaves to roots, was processed into food by humans. Compressed rations were mostly plant roots, stems, and leaves, plus a little salt, which humans needed. Of course, a sheep would like it.
Xia Qing went to the kitchen and chopped some perilla leaves, then opened a sealed, compressed food ration, crushed it, added it to the hay, and served it to the eldest sheep. "Eat up, this is your feed."
The eldest sheep lowered its head, sniffed it, and then began to eat heartily.
Seeing it eat so deliciously, a brilliant idea suddenly popped into Xia Qing's head. "If you eat my feed, you have to work for me. When the weather clears up, you can pull the plow and till the fields."
After licking its food bowl clean, the eldest sheep ran to the sheep pen to drink some water, then returned and lay down on the straw mat, a little closer to Xia Qing than before it ate its feed.
Xia Qing found the tatami mat quite comfortable, so she simply turned over and continued reading about sheep raising. After flipping through the book, Xia Qing turned her head and found that the eldest sheep had already closed its eyes and fallen asleep.
She felt an urge to pet the sheep, but as soon as her hand reached out and touched the wool, the eldest sheep jumped up, startling Xia Qing. The two stared at each other for a moment. Xia Qing, not wanting to argue with the sheep, softened her stance first, "The rain has stopped, shall we go out and take a look?"
After saying that, Xia Qing put on her protective suit and went outside. She found that the grass in the yard was only ankle-high, growing much slower than last night. This was because the harmful element content of this morning's rain was lower than last night's.
This was a good thing.
Xia Qing went to the west yard to check on the transplanted ginger and garlic. Fearing that some weeds might be thorny, poisonous, or have evolved animalistic characteristics that would entangle or bite her, she cleared the weeds as she walked, taking more than ten minutes to cover a distance of several dozen steps.
Although they weren't directly drenched by the rain, the surge in harmful element content in the air during last night's red-level harmful rain could still cause biological evolution. Xia Qing pulled back the rainproof cloth and indeed found that one ginger plant and two garlic plants had changed; they had not only grown much taller, but the color and shape of their leaves had also changed. Xia Qing pulled out the seedlings of the "evolving" plants, not disappointed but rather quite happy, because after two bouts of "evolving" rain, most of the ginger and garlic had survived.
After covering the plants with a rainproof tarp, she also cleared the "evolving" grass in the west yard, preventing them from evolving into powerful attackers. But before she could finish, the rain started again, forcing Xia Qing to return home and continue her seclusion.
The rain fell intermittently for three days: one red (highest danger level), two orange, one yellow, and the rest blue. After three days of "evolving" rain, Xia Qing's territory was completely covered by vegetation. The best situation was in the yard and paths she had repeatedly cleared, where the grass only reached her calves; in the uncleared areas, the grass had grown to over two meters, completely engulfing Xia Qing.
After the sun came out, the concentration of "evolving" elements in the air decreased, while the concentration of "nourishing" elements increased. Correspondingly, the growth of "evolving" organisms slowed down, which was beneficial for the growth and activity of "nourishing" organisms.
Bathed in the warm sunlight, Xia Qing, stroking the only white spot among the endless expanse of colorful, mutated plants—Sheep Boss—was invigorated. "Boss, let's get to work!" she exclaimed.
Using compressed rations as bait, Xia Qing was finally able to touch some wool. This was the most gratifying thing for her during the three days of rain. "Let's go! First, clear a path. We need to fetch water, and get perilla and toon sprouts."
Mushrooms after the rain? Xia Qing didn't want to be poisoned.
Sheep Boss clearly had no interest in putting its dry hooves into the soft, damp grass, standing motionless under the front porch. Wearing protective gear, Xia Qing didn't force it—she didn't have the ability. "When I have enough points, I'll redeem a set of protective gear for you as an evolved dog; when I'm even richer, I'll have a custom-made sheep-themed one made for you."
Xia Qing slung a sprayer over her shoulder, and set off with a sickle and machete.
The yard had already been cleared six or seven times; there was no danger, but after leaving the yard, it was hard to say. Because the tall grass obstructed her vision, Xia Qing relied entirely on her evolved, superior hearing to detect the slightest sounds within a 200-meter radius. She was spraying insecticide while pulling weeds when she received a call from Zhong Tao before even leaving the village.
Before Xia Qing could hear Zhong Tao speak, a sharp cry rang out.
Xia Qing recognized the voice all too well; it was Feng Wen, her roommate of over four years.
Why was Feng Wen crying like this? Had something happened to her brother, Feng Teng, or to Yang Jin, the captain of the Azure Dragon team she admired?