Chapter 107: Boss, Your Friend Is Here

Chapter 107: Chapter 107: Boss, Your Friend Is Here

"Hello, I’m returning to the Safe Zone tomorrow for the agricultural trade fair. Do you need vegetables and grain? If so, how much?"

After sending the message, Xiaqing couldn’t focus on anything. Although with her evolved hearing, it was impossible for her to miss her phone’s notification chime, she still couldn’t resist pulling it out to check every few minutes.

But well over half the day had passed. By the time Xiaqing was lying in bed at eleven o’clock that night, the person who had sent her inside information about the territory before she left the Safe Zone still hadn’t replied to her message.

In the Disaster Year, accidents could happen at any moment. ’Could they already be dead?’

Xiaqing stared at the ceiling, wide awake.

CLANG—

The sound of metal pipes colliding came from outside the window. The noise trap she had set up by the spring had been triggered.

’The wolf is here?’

Xiaqing immediately put on her Night Vision Goggles and got out of bed. She lifted a corner of her blackout curtain to check the back slope and saw a flashlight beam flicker at the spring.

Xiaqing’s phone buzzed with a message. She glanced down and saw it was from Wei Chengdong. The message was just a few words: An Evolutionary Animal escaped.

’So it’s here!’ Xiaqing went downstairs, told Sheep Leader to guard the house, and headed straight for the spring on the back slope.

"Brother Dong?"

"It’s me." Wei Chengdong, who had come to collect spring water, replied. Xiaqing emerged and walked over. "What just happened?"

Wei Chengdong explained, "I had just gotten here when I saw a dark figure dart out of this vegetable shed. I tried to catch it and accidentally triggered your trap."

Xiaqing tightened her grip on her gun. "Brother Dong, did you get a clear look? What was it?"

Wei Chengdong replied, "Four legs, taller than Sheep Leader, and extremely fast. It shot over my head with a WHOOSH and headed for the Northern Isolation Zone. Should we notify Hu Zifeng?"

Hearing Wei Chengdong’s description, Xiaqing had a good idea who the visitor was. "Brother Dong, you still have to bring the water back. It’s best not to alert too many people."

Despite discovering a large Evolutionary Animal in the territory, Xiaqing’s first thought was how to get the spring water for Brother Luo’s treatment back safely. This deeply moved Wei Chengdong. He offered a sincere warning, "After I get the water this time, I won’t be coming back. The Third Territory’s defensive measures need to be upgraded as soon as possible. You have too many good things here; you have to guard against both people and animals."

Luo Pei’s treatment for the Qiang Synthesized Poison would conclude between mid-March and mid-July, which would mark the completion of the first deal between Xiaqing and Yang Jin. Afterward, Xiaqing would provide a total of 300 liters of spring water to the Green Dragon Team each month, delivered in two batches. Xiaqing was to bring this water to Mountain No. 49 and hand it over to Luo Pei or Wei Chengdong. That was why Wei Chengdong said this was his last time entering the Third Territory to collect water.

With Wei Chengdong no longer coming to collect water, Xiaqing could now have her own Security Team stand night watch.

After seeing Wei Chengdong off, Xiaqing turned on her flashlight and carefully inspected the vegetable shed in the terraced planting area. With her exceptional eyesight, she spotted a few strands of animal fur on the improperly closed door.

She collected the fur in a small sealed bag before entering the vegetable shed. There, in the soft soil of the terraced plot, she found several clear paw prints from a canine.

From the size and depth of the paw prints and the length of its stride, Xiaqing was about eighty percent certain it was the same wolf Wei Chengdong had encountered—the one she’d spent half a month guarding her sheep for, waiting in vain. This was the wolf that had prevented her from adopting Little Fifth!

’Logically, with that wolf’s skills, Wei Chengdong never would have detected it if it had remained hidden. So why did it startle him and leave such obvious tracks?’

’Was it to announce its presence, or to declare sovereignty over this territory?’

Gun in hand, Xiaqing followed the wolf’s tracks to the Green Light cucumber trellis. There she discovered that a cucumber she had been saving for seed had a chunk bitten out of it.

’This wolf has good taste. Of all the cucumbers on the Green Light vine, it just had to bite the one that was growing the best. Now it’s useless for seed.’

Xiaqing picked the half-eaten cucumber, carried it out of the vegetable shed, and placed it on the large boulder blocking the Spring Cave.

Although she could only hear the rustling of insects, Xiaqing could feel a powerful Evolutionary Creature watching her. It was an instinct honed by ten years of the Natural Disaster—a Sixth Sense, you could call it. Without even that much intuition, she would have died countless times over by now.

"I know you haven’t gone far."

Xiaqing leaned against the rock wall, looking completely unguarded but remaining on high alert. ’How could I not be, when facing the Head Wolf that wiped out an entire team?’

"My name is Xiaqing. I’m the Human Lord of this territory and Sheep Leader’s companion. If you’re willing, you can be this territory’s Wolf Lord. You’re welcome to come for water and cucumbers anytime, but you can’t damage anything, nor can you harm the humans in the surrounding territories."

Having said her piece, Xiaqing went down the slope and returned home. Only after she was inside with the door shut did her frayed nerves begin to settle. She walked over, sat on Sheep Leader’s tatami mat, and rubbed its head. "Leader, your friend is here."

’With its intelligence, Sheep Leader probably didn’t understand the meaning of "friend." After all, in this territory, there was only the two of them. There were no "friends."’

Xiaqing stroked Sheep Leader’s left ear. "The wolf with the chunk missing from its ear, the one that howled after killing the wild boar? It came into our territory and stole a cucumber."

At the mention of food, the dozing Sheep Leader finally stirred. It turned its head to look at Xiaqing, its expression perfectly clear. ’Food? Bring it here.’

Xiaqing rubbed its head again. "I’ll pick one for you in the morning. I’m going to bed. You keep watch over the yard."

With a wolf more powerful than her in the territory, Xiaqing slept poorly. She woke early the next day, and the first stop on her patrol was the back slope.

When she reached the Spring Cave, Xiaqing saw that the large boulder blocking the entrance had been shifted, leaving a gap. Inside, dozens of ants were diligently carving up a finger-sized piece of cucumber. A line of ants carrying pale green fragments marched past her. Next to the cucumber lay two barely-living Evolved Crickets, also swarming with ants.

’It looked like a fierce battle had been fought over this piece of cucumber—cricket against cricket, and cricket against ant. But the ants and crickets couldn’t have moved the boulder blocking the cave. Was the Head Wolf using this gesture to demonstrate its strength and intelligence to me?’

Xiaqing picked up the cucumber, shook off the ants, and tossed it into her basket, then continued her patrol. Outside of the vegetable shed, the wolf had left no tracks anywhere else in the territory. After a careful search, Xiaqing realized it must have leaped over by jumping between trees and rocks.

’This wolf was unnervingly intelligent.’

Xiaqing caught a bag of insects and fed them to the Green Light Peanuts, the snakes, and the fish.

After she tossed the insects in, the churning water in the fishpond died down, leaving just a few small splashes. Xiaqing, however, was in a good mood watching them. The fish making those splashes were the edible Spring Water Fish.

After feeding the fish, Xiaqing went home and fed the snakes in their wooden box. Then, following her composting procedure, she turned the mix of wheat straw, bean stalks, and weeds in the compost shed’s crates before finally returning home for breakfast.

At 7:30, Xiaqing sent a message to Hu Zifeng. Before long, Hu Zifeng arrived at the Third Territory, bringing with him Chen Zheng, an Evolved Person with a heightened sense of smell.