"Sister Xia Qing, this is something the people from Area Two asked us to bring for you." Approaching, Su Ming removed his protective mask, revealing his large teeth, and handed the bag from his protective suit to Xia Qing.
With the sheep leader present, Su Ming wisely avoided entering Xia Qing's territory, afraid of being knocked down by a sheep and losing face.
It was strange; that smug-looking, brute sheep actually recognized Xia Qing's territory.
Xia Qing calmed the sheep leader down, took the protective suit, and handed over the basket. "Thank you for your trouble."
"No trouble at all. Protecting the lord's safety is our mission." Su Ming noticed four portions of plants in the basket, all placed on tree bark with numbers carved into them, clearly indicating who they were for. "Sister Xia Qing is so clever. I'll take this basket to the road sign later."
The patrol team was patrolling the territories of each lord, currently heading north and returning from the south.
Xia Qing led the eldest sheep back to their territory, picked some newly sprouted toon shoots, and carried a bucket full of water back past the spring.
Passing the farmland, the eldest sheep, disgusted by the camphor tree sap, kept its distance. Xia Qing walked over cheerfully, but her smile instantly turned murderous.
She put down her basket, grabbed a machete, and went forward, confirming that a two-square-meter patch of cotton had been dug up.
Judging from the marks, it was the work of rats. Damn it!
Xia Qing closed her eyes and listened intently. After confirming a rustling sound more than two meters deep, she ran home to get her sharpest, largest shovel.
Raid the house, wipe them out!
Digging a small pit more than two meters deep along the rat hole was a matter of two or three minutes for Xia Qing, a person with evolved strength. When she shoveled away the last shovelful of soil and saw the entire rat family and a pile of chewed cotton seeds in their hole, she was furious.
Two rats, twice the size of normal mice, were enraged and lunged at Xia Qing, baring their two-centimeter-long teeth.
Xia Qing swiftly cut the two leaping rats into four pieces, which fell to the ground. Then, with a backhand swipe of her shovel, she wiped out the entire nest of baby rats, scooping them up and tossing them to the ground.
The magpies circling overhead immediately swooped down and carried away the rat carcasses.
Xia Qing dug out the cotton seeds, checking to find three that hadn't been chewed up. She filled in the rat holes and replanted them before heading to the southernmost road sign in her territory.
She cleared a small patch of weeds when the patrol team arrived. After Su Ming cheerfully handed the basket to Xia Qing, one of the team members suddenly spoke up, "I smell evolved rats."
No need to ask, this person was an evolved olfactory user. Xia Qing proactively explained, "I found a nest of rats in the farmland, eight in total, two large and six small. I've already eliminated them."
Evolved rats are a significant threat. Tan Junjie inquired, "What type of evolution was it?"
Xia Qing shook her head. "I'm not sure. They were twice the size of normal rats, with very long teeth, but their strength and speed were average. They would dig up cotton seeds to feed their young."
With such large teeth, it was probably an evolution in bite force, but they were wiped out before they could utilize it. Tan Junjie asked, "Do you need any help?"
Eliminating evolved creatures that even the lord couldn't handle was the responsibility of the investigation team. Xia Qing didn't want to trouble them with what she could do herself. "Thank you, Captain Tan. I'll contact you again if I can't handle it."
"Sixteen sweet potato seedlings will be delivered in three days. Prepare the land in advance, and make sure all the rats are exterminated."
Xia Qing immediately straightened up. "Yes, thank you, Captain Tan."
Xia Qing checked the items she had exchanged in the basket. The Level 1 antidote packaging was the same as in the safe zone; Zhang San hadn't lied.
Zhao Ze from plot number four and Qi Fu from plot number six were both very honest; they delivered their leek seedlings and Jerusalem artichokes with their original soil intact, without damaging the roots. Of course, the perilla seedlings Xia Qing delivered were the same.
Xia Qing planted all the seedlings in her own garden. Like the ginger, she separated a whole Jerusalem artichoke into five plants by buds, watered them with spring water, and then sprayed camphor leaf juice around them to repel sheep.
After planting the vegetables, Xia Qing abandoned her plan to clear the weeds and instead carried a shovel to conduct a thorough search for rats.
With her enhanced vision and hearing, she was much more efficient. In one day, she surveyed 500 acres of farmland and dug up thirteen nests of rats, some normal and some evolved.
The clearing of the remaining 1,900 acres of weed-covered land had to begin immediately.
Although she had spent the whole day hunting rats, Xia Qing's appetite for dinner remained unaffected. If this little thing could affect her appetite, she wouldn't be alive now.
Xia Qing and Boss Yang listened to the radio while eating their rations.
Unexpectedly, the broadcast didn't mention anything about exterminating rats. Could it be that only their territory was experiencing rat-stealing problems?
Xia Qing turned on the walkie-talkie, wanting to hear about the situation in the nearby territories.
As soon as the call was turned on, Kuang Qingwei's rough cursing came through plot number six: "Damn it, they stole two-tenths of my wheat seeds in one night! It breaks my heart! I didn't do anything all day, just dug in the dirt and caught rats."
"My cotton seeds were stolen too, a huge patch of them," Zhao Ze complained. "One of my brothers even had his protective suit gnawed by rats."
Zhang San said slowly, "Luckily, I haven't planted them yet."
Tang Huai chimed in, "Me too, too busy to think about it."
These two…
The channel was quiet for a moment before Kuang Qingwei asked, "Old Qi, Xia Qing, how's it going over there?"
Xia Qing replied, "We lost some cotton seeds."
Qi Fu from plot number five answered honestly, "We kept a close watch all night, and we managed to stop it."
Listening carefully, Xia Qing could hear the sound of wind and footsteps in the background of Qi Fu's reply, meaning he was still patrolling the field.
During night patrols, they either encountered people with enhanced hearing or smell within the territory, or those with night vision goggles; Xia Qing judged it to be the latter. This was because people with enhanced hearing and smell could find good jobs within the safe zone and wouldn't risk venturing out to farm.
Qi Fu was the most diligent farmer among them.
Zhao Ze suggested, "The rats steal seeds and ruin crops. The evolved rats also injure people and damage the solar panel wires. We have to eradicate them completely."
"Right. We have to eradicate them all. But even if we do, it won't be easy to completely eliminate them." Kuang Qingwei was somewhat irritated. "Brother Zhang, do you have any rat poison?"
Zhang San remained lazy, but his expression was menacing. "No. If any of you dare use poison that causes secondary poisoning to kill the rats, I don't mind wiping you all out with poison."
The channel fell silent for a long while. Zhang Sanhao suddenly approached Xia Qing with a seemingly conciliatory tone, "Xia Qing, I have an evolved cat that's a natural rat catcher. I can take it to your territory to exterminate the rats; you can pay me with the perilla leaves you've harvested for the next two weeks."
Everyone…
A cat is fine, but not a person. Xia Qing refused, "I'm strong; dealing with rats won't be a problem for me."
Kuang Qingwei quickly negotiated with Zhang Sanhao, "Brother Zhang, bring your cat over. When my elm trees are full of elm seeds, I'll give you ten jin."
"Deal," Zhang Sanhao said cheerfully.
Tang Huai was also curious about Zhang Sanhao's evolved cat, "Brother Zhang, what evolution is your cat, and what level is it?"