Xia Qing didn't expect the sheep, with its simple-mindedness, to remember how to open the door on the first try. She simply left the door open to prop it up, sprayed a lot of insect repellent at the entrance, and then put on a protective mask. "We're out of water. I'll continue clearing the road. Are you coming with me or staying home?"
The sheep remained silent, and Xia Qing didn't expect it to speak. She slung the insect repellent sprayer over her shoulder and set off again. As for the damaged courtyard wall and sheep pen from her fight with the sheep, she'd deal with that later.
After leaving the village, Xia Qing was pleasantly surprised to find that Team Leader Tan and his team had entered the village from the buffer forest on the north slope and had cleared a path more than a meter wide with a handheld lawnmower. Xia Qing admired the army's complete equipment for a while, then sprayed insect repellent along the way up the mountain before finally taking out a sickle to clear the path to the mountain spring cave.
Xia Qing cleared away the two large rocks blocking the cave, collected spring water to test its quality, and found it hadn't been polluted by the rain. Happy, she filled a jug and hung it on her waist. She then began clearing the path to the perilla-growing area. After confirming that the perilla and toon trees hadn't been harmed, Xia Qing happily harvested the perilla and broke off some newly sprouted toon shoots. Returning home, she found her eldest sheep lying by the door, basking in the sun.
Xia Qing placed the perilla in front of it. "Eat up, you're not just the eldest, you're my ancestor."
The eldest sheep didn't hesitate, standing up and continuing to eat.
Xia Qing put the sprayer in the tool shed, slung four water buckets over her shoulder, and carried a large water tank to fetch water. During the three-day rainy season, she and the eldest sheep hadn't been conserving water; the tank and buckets were almost empty.
Unexpectedly, this time, the eldest sheep actually followed her out.
Xia Qing glanced at it sideways. "Thirsty?"
If you ignored its eyes, the snow-white sheep, with purple grass dangling from its mouth, was quite pleasing to the eye. Xia Qing turned and continued walking out of the village.
She first went to the reservoir, where the water level and area had risen considerably. She took a piece of red-light snake meat from her bag, hooked it onto the water's surface, and dangled it for a while. Finding no evolved aquatic creature jumping out to eat the meat, she filled a large box with water and placed it by the reservoir. Then, carrying a bucket, she went up the mountain to fetch spring water.
The sheep was faster than her; it had already drunk its fill and was grazing beside a stone cave.
After filling the bucket in the cave, Xia Qing plucked two palm-sized green leaves that the sheep was munching on and tested them. They were indeed green-light safe food.
Just as Xia Qing was about to praise the sheep for its good appetite, she saw an evolved leech wriggling on the tree trunk above the sheep's head. Being sucked by such a large leech would be troublesome, but Xia Qing didn't move, wanting to see how the sheep boss would handle it.
Sheep are covered in wool, making it difficult to find a place to bite. The leech chose the sheep boss's head and sprang towards it. Just as the leech was about to land on the sheep boss's head, it moved to the side, and then… kicked the leech away with a hoof.
An expected move; having been kicked several times before, Xia Qing knew how powerful a sheep's hoof could be. She stepped forward and killed the leech, which was over thirty centimeters long, with a single cut, then dug a hole and buried it.
Evolved leeches can have green-light edible parts, and even those that aren't green-light can be used in medicine, but Xia Qing disliked these things. She'd rather eat grass than eat them, and she didn't want to put them in her leather bag. Besides, one wasn't worth many points.
Now that Xia Qing had a large and wealthy family, she didn't want to endure such disgust to earn those few points.
After filling all four water buckets, Xia Qing tightened the lids and stuffed them into her large backpack. She said goodbye to Boss Yang before heading down the mountain. She picked up the large water tank from the reservoir, returned home, and put it away before starting to clean the yard.
It wasn't that she didn't want to clear the farmland and plant crops immediately; the ground was simply too wet to enter for the next few days. So, Xia Qing cleaned the house first.
Since she and Boss Yang had knocked down the yard walls, she decided to clear them and enclose a larger area, including the shed on the east side and the vegetable garden on the west. Xia Qing went to the west yard first. Fortunately, although the west yard was also a mess, her small rainproof greenhouse was still intact, and the ginger and garlic sprouts inside were all fine.
Xia Qing removed the tarpaulin, cleared away the small weeds sprouting under the ginger and garlic sprouts, and then pulled up all the overgrown weeds and saplings in both the east and west yards.
The five toon seedlings she transplanted from her new territory? Sorry, they were all destroyed. Later, in the heat of the moment, Xia Qing couldn't remember if it was her or Sheep Boss who smashed it.
The two toon seedlings transplanted next to the spring? She forgot earlier; she'd check again this afternoon.
After a flurry of activity until past noon, Xia Qing finally had her large yard sparkling clean, and even paved a red brick path—it looked incredibly pleasing. A perfect morning's work; time for lunch.
Xia Qing washed the mud off her protective suit, then took off all her soaked clothes and showered before heading to the kitchen to cook. A small pot of rice porridge, a side of cold perilla leaf salad, and her staple food was compressed rations—all set.
Just as Xia Qing finished cooking and placed the food on the newly made table, Sheep Boss stepped onto the newly paved path and entered the yard.
"Stop!" Xia Qing stopped Sheep Boss, who was about to enter the house, and gestured for it to rinse its dirty hooves in the basin of water by the door. The eldest sheep stared at the dining table, obediently letting Xia Qing brush its hooves before heading straight for it inside.
Xia Qing was already used to its voracious appetite. She placed a bowl of perilla mixed with a small piece of compressed rations on the ground. "This is yours. Too much compressed rations will make you bloated, so eat less."
The eldest sheep, who had eaten its fill outside, ate heartily. By the time Xia Qing finished, the sheep had licked its plate clean and was resting on its tatami mat with its eyes closed.
Xia Qing, lying on the newly made bamboo bed opposite the fire, was also exhausted from the morning.
Meanwhile, in the barracks of the military camp ten kilometers northwest of Territory Three, Su Ming, lying on his bed, laughed so hard it looked like he was having an epileptic seizure, making the bed tremble.
Tiger, in the lower bunk, kicked the bed board high into the air. "When are you going to stop this madness?"
Su Ming bounced up and down with the bed board before peeking out and grinning at Tiger. "Hehe, hehehe... I can't help it just thinking about it. I haven't encountered anything this funny in ten years."
Tiger, imagining Xia Qing and Yang lying in the completely destroyed yard, was also struggling to suppress his laughter, but still pretended to be serious as he lectured Su Ming, "The captain said we can't tell anyone, Mingzi, you better keep your mouth shut. Xia Qing is a girl, she has her pride."
Cao Xianyun in the next bunk squinted. "Mingzi, did you see Xia Qing's face clearly today? Her face was white, wasn't it?"
The visually evolved Su Ming laughed as he recalled, "At first it was white, then Yang dug mud all over her goggles, and she wiped it off, turning it muddy... Hahaha—"
Tiger sensed something was wrong. "White, not purplish-red?" Ten years of natural disasters have left many disabled or disfigured due to acid rain, poisoning, and combat. Therefore, upon seeing Xia Qing's purplish-red skin, Cao Xianyun initially assumed it was a poisoning sequela. But now, it seems, "She's very intelligent."
The evolved human, Hu Zi, agreed, "Evolutionary power is the least valuable of all evolutions. The fact that she's survived this long without relying on men shows she must be very intelligent and has endured a lot of hardship."
Cao Xianyun responded, "I remember Zhong Tao saying she worked on a construction team in the safe zone."
An evolved human, a woman, doing the hardest and dirtiest manual labor. Su Ming stopped laughing. "She came out to farm all by herself; she must be the only one left in her family."
Cao Xianyun concluded, "She doesn't want to attract attention; she just wants to live a good life on her own."
"Old Cao is right," Su Ming nodded immediately. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."
"She's not alone now. She's raising a rather interesting evolved sheep. This morning, that sheep stood in front of Xia Qing, wary of us, mistaking Xia Qing for one of them." Tiger, who had spent the morning searching the buffer zone, yawned widely and closed his eyes to sleep.