On the newly acquired hillside were five abandoned farmhouses. Xia Qing had only briefly searched them the first time she came; today, she was going to conduct a thorough search.
Collapsed stone walls and houses—moved them all, examined them carefully.
Rusty farm tools with broken handles? She wanted them. Repairing and polishing them might make them usable again.
Dent stainless steel basins? She wanted them. They could be smashed back together and used to hold things. Broken? She'd patch them up.
Broken kitchen utensils? She wanted them. Even if they couldn't be repaired, they could be disassembled for spare parts.
Cloth items that hadn't yet rotted? She wanted them. After washing and disinfecting them, she could use them as mops.
An evolved centipede that bit her? She wanted it! She'd dry it and exchange it for points.
Evolved flesh worms? Burn them!
…
After clearing all five farmhouses, the supplies she was taking were piled higher than her. Xia Qing felt incredibly accomplished.
What excited Xia Qing most was finding three scallion sprouts in a vegetable patch hidden by a collapsed stone wall. There were over thirty sprouts in total, and it looked like even more could sprout!
Scallions, indeed, are a vegetable that every household grows.
Xia Qing cleaned and packed her supplies, then immediately washed her hands and tested the scallion sprouts for toxic element levels. Two were yellow, one was red—that was enough to make her happy.
Xia Qing really wanted to take off her protective mask and taste that long-lost flavor.
However, reason prevailed. Xia Qing protected the two sprouts with fences, watered them with spring water, and sprayed them with insect repellent.
Hopefully, after the temperature rises again, other vegetables will grow on the high slopes and terraced fields.
Xia Qing called over the eldest sheep, who was ruminating under the ailanthus tree, gave it some feed, and had it carry two bags weighing over 100 pounds each.
"Boss is the best! Without Boss, I wouldn't have been able to carry all this back." Xia Qing discovered that Boss Sheep wasn't just greedy, but also loved flattery. To get it to work harder, Xia Qing showered it with sweet words and elaborate praise every day.
Boss Sheep gradually became complacent under Xia Qing's flattery, giving Xia Qing a haughty sidelong glance before carrying the bags back. Its expression seemed to say that without it, the family would fall apart.
Xia Qing suppressed a laugh, shouldered the largest bag, carried toon sprouts and perilla in one hand, and gripped a machete in the other, following behind Boss Sheep, ready to slay any evolved animals that might attack her and Boss.
As the two crossed the buffer zone between their new and old territories, a danger detection team happened to be approaching from the north side of the buffer zone of Plot 4.
Boss Sheep immediately threw down the bags, shielding Xia Qing behind it, and assumed a fighting stance.
Tan Junjie's team...
Xia Qing brandished her machete, greeting the patrol team.
At this distance, shouting through her protective mask would be difficult.
The patrol team leader, Su Ming, a visually evolved human, waved enthusiastically in response. After reaching the boundary between plots four and three, they didn't follow the buffer zone between Xia Qing's two territories, but instead continued patrolling along the barbed wire fence of the wild boar breeding center.
After chasing them away, the Boss Sheep lowered its attack stance and squinted at Xia Qing.
Xia Qing immediately tried to soothe her with sweet words, "Boss, you're amazing! You knew to protect me and our territory when you saw someone coming. What would I do without you?"
The Boss Sheep raised its head and glanced at the bag on the ground.
Xia Qing immediately hoisted the sheep onto her back and continued praising, "Boss, you're amazing! You even remembered our supplies. It's getting dark, let's go home for dinner?"
After the two of them entered the buffer zone, Cao Xianyun, whose hearing had improved, finally spoke, "They've gone far."
Su Ming immediately exclaimed, "Sister Qing is incredible! She can even get a sheep to help her carry things."
"More than that," Tiger said, "She plowed thirty acres of land in her territory, all with sheep pulling the plows."
Everyone...
Impressive!
This sheep is even more useful than their military dogs!
Tan Junjie, who usually doesn't participate in such pointless discussions, asked Cao Xianyun, "What does she call the sheep?"
"Boss, Sheep Boss," Cao Xianyun grinned mischievously, "I really want to get Brother Jin over here to hear it."
The members of the Azure Dragon team also called their captain "Boss," "Boss Yang."
Tan Junjie replied cheerfully, "Not just one Yang."
"Right." Cao Xianyun laughed even louder.
Su Ming turned around and asked, "Old Cao, what are you laughing at?"
"None of your business, just lead the way."
"Tch!" Su Ming snorted, walked to the north side of the iron fence's isolation zone, turned east, and entered the buffer forest on the north side of Xia Qing's new territory's isolation zone.
Xia Qing returned home, eagerly plugging her phone into the charger. The screen lit up, and she was overjoyed—finally, she had power!
Equally excited were the lords of plots four, five, and six, who had installed solar panels and received walkie-talkies.
After listening to the base's broadcast while plugged in, Xia Qing turned on her fully charged walkie-talkie, tuned it to the lords' private chat frequency, and sure enough, heard a gruff voice calling out.
"Brothers and sisters of plots three, four, five, and six, are you there? Are you there?"
"Yes, yes."
Xia Qing's keen hearing recognized the voice as Zhao Ze's from plot four.
The person who asked the question immediately perked up, "Oh my god, it's been over half a month, and besides the patrolmen in camouflage, I finally hear voices from outside the territory! I'm Kuang Qingwei from plot number six. Which plot are you guys from?"
Zhao Ze replied, "I'm Zhao Ze from plot four."
"I'm Qi Fu from plot five."
Hearing this voice, Xia Qing raised an eyebrow. Qi Fu was also on the construction team, but not in Xia Qing's squad. Xia Qing knew he also had a plot, but he hadn't expected him to be so close.
Kuang Qingwei from plot six began sharing news, "Brothers, have you heard? Everyone from plot one is dead. Luckily, I have a lot of men and good equipment, otherwise we would have been in trouble."
Xia Qing smiled silently. Kuang Qingwei was sharing news, but also warning those around him not to mess with him. Anyone who could live to the tenth year of the natural disaster was definitely not simple.
"What?" The people from plots four and five exclaimed in unison.
Kuang Qingwei sighed. "I heard it from the soldiers installing solar panels. I was wondering if anyone knew how they died."
The channel was silent for a moment, then Xia Qing heard a familiar voice again, "Biten to death by highly venomous evolved caterpillars."
Kuang Qingwei, hearing someone else had spoken, quickly asked, "Brother, which plot are you from?"
"Plot Two, Tang Huai."
The channel was quiet again for a while before Kuang Qingwei asked, "I remember Plot Two doesn't have a buffer zone. Tang, is this your own walkie-talkie?"
He had just called him "brother," but upon hearing it was Plot Two, Kuang Qingwei immediately changed to "brother."
Tang Huai, quite the Versailles, replied, "Yeah, I wasn't paying attention when I packed my things, so I just grabbed one."
The channel was quiet again for a while, then a strange voice slowly said:
"I also grabbed one, Plot Seven, Zhang San."
Xia Qing…
That name, for real? Kuang Qingwei spoke up again, "Third Brother, how about charging your walkie-talkie? I'm Kuang Qingwei from plot number six, we're next door. I have solar panels, you can come and charge it."
Xia Qing chuckled, poking at the fire, "Boss, did you hear that? Plot number six just installed solar panels and they're already doing business."
The sheep leader remained silent, squinting at the walkie-talkie.
Xia Qing solemnly warned, "You absolutely cannot bite or kick this, or I'll cut off your food and kick you out!"
The sheep leader continued to stare at the walkie-talkie, Xia Qing stared back at the sheep leader, neither willing to back down first.
While the man and the sheep were locked in their struggle, Zhang San's voice slowly came through the walkie-talkie, "I also have solar panels. What kind of seeds did you all get? Want to exchange?"
Upon hearing "seeds," Xia Qing immediately forgot about the sheep leader and pricked up his ears to listen.