Chapter 129: The Bird-Plucking Weasel

Chapter 129: Chapter 129: The Bird-Plucking Weasel

Passing the sheep pen on her way home, Xiaqing noticed Sheep Leader wasn’t inside. He must have gone to the pasture to eat.

The water in the bowl was more than half gone, but the two wolves hadn’t touched the headless snake. Its body was already crawling with ants, and several large flies were buzzing around it.

Seeing the wolves waste the meat didn’t make Xiaqing angry. On the contrary, she was quite pleased.

’What does it mean that the Evolutionary Wolves aren’t eating the food I prepared? It means other wolves will bring it to them! Not having to prepare large amounts of meat for two adult Evolutionary Wolves is definitely something to be happy about.’

Xiaqing brought the spring water inside and poured the river water into the filter bucket. When she came out to clean up the snake meat, which had been contaminated by Evolved Insects, she found the broken leg wolf still baring its teeth and glaring at her. The wolf with the broken spine also slowly raised its head.

’Looks like the anesthetic has worn off. They can eat now.’ After burning and burying the snake, Xiaqing replaced the wolves’ water with fresh spring water, adding a few drops of Anti-inflammatory medicine. She fashioned a rack from iron wire to hold the metal bowl, then used a wooden stick to lift the rack and slowly extend the water bowl into the sheep pen.

When the broken leg wolf saw Xiaqing extend the wooden stick, it bared a mouthful of fangs and swiped with its front paws, ready to bite.

"Grrr—"

The roar from the lying Broken Waist Wolf wasn’t loud and even lacked force, but the broken leg wolf heard it and immediately dropped to the ground, motionless.

From the interaction between the two wolves, Xiaqing determined that this Brain Domain Evolution Wolf with the broken back held a high status within the Wolf Group.

She slowly moved the water bowl next to the Brain Domain Evolution Wolf’s head and, using the same soft, slow tone she used with Sheep Leader, explained, "Go on, drink. There’s medicine in the water, it’s good for your injuries. Don’t pull at the cast on your body. It’s protecting your bones. If you break it, your injury won’t heal."

’As expected of brain domain evolution, it’s much smarter than the one with the broken leg next to it.’ After hearing Xiaqing’s words, the injured wolf, its torso immobilized in a cylindrical cast of plaster-like material, trembled as it used its front legs to laboriously lift its head and plunge it into the bowl to drink.

A wolf should drink by lapping with its tongue like a cat, but this one was too weak; its front legs simply couldn’t support the weight of its head.

After a few mouthfuls of water, the Brain Domain Evolution Wolf lay back down. Water dripped messily from the fur around its mouth, but it gazed calmly at Xiaqing.

Unlike the gray eyes of the broken leg wolf, this Brain Domain Evolution Wolf’s eyes were a beautiful amber.

Xiaqing stood outside the sheep pen, speaking to it in a soft, gentle voice. "The surgery was a success. Your injury can heal, but I’ll have to change your medicine in three days. You need to rest up and not move around. You all get some rest, I’m going to make dinner."

After speaking, Xiaqing turned, but before she could even enter the security door, she heard a noise behind her.

She spun around, her back against the security door, and drew her knife to hold in front of her, only to find three wolves returning with prey in their mouths.

The prey they carried was very familiar to Xiaqing: three White Egrets.

Ever since those two White Egrets had moved away and stopped smearing poop on her windows, Xiaqing hadn’t seen the birds for several days.

The Head Wolf, carrying a White Egret, led the way into the yard and placed it in front of Xiaqing. The other two wolves placed the White Egrets they were carrying a short distance from the sheep pen.

Xiaqing’s eyes widened. ’What’s the meaning of this? Could this White Egret be rent? Is that even possible?’

Soon, Xiaqing knew it was true. The Head Wolf nudged the White Egret toward her with its paw, then left. One Wolf Team member stood guard over the other two White Egrets, while another entered the sheep pen.

The one in front of Xiaqing was left unguarded.

’A gift from a wolf. Can I really take it?’

’It’s a gift from the God of Wealth! It’d be a waste not to take it!’

An evolved White Egret was about the size of a pre-Natural Disaster goose. When Xiaqing lifted it, she found it weighed a full eleven pounds. The bird was freshly killed, its body still warm. It had been dead for no more than half an hour.

The first thing Xiaqing did after bringing the White Egret into the house was to draw some blood and test its Harmful Element content. When the Green Light lit up, she found she wasn’t particularly surprised.

Xiaqing slit the White Egret’s throat to bleed it out. Since the bird had been dead for less than half an hour, its blood hadn’t coagulated yet. Not draining the blood would affect the texture and taste of the meat.

The White Egret yielded about five hundred milliliters of blood. The blood was still bright red and edible. Xiaqing mixed half a bowl of salt water into the egret blood, stirred it evenly, then covered it with plastic wrap to let it set.

She had learned how to do this when she went on missions with her team. She had seen her teammates process poultry and had even lent a hand.

After dealing with the egret blood, Xiaqing placed the White Egret in a large basin, scalded it several times with hot water, and while it was still hot, plucked its feathers clean. Then, she opened it up to clean out the innards.

Once it was cleaned, Xiaqing picked up the basin containing the entrails and stood up. As she was about to go outside to feed the snake, she was stunned by a scene in the yard.

A Weasel was squatting in her yard under the "supervision" of the Head Wolf, plucking the feathers from the two White Egrets.

The Head Wolf glanced at Xiaqing, then went back to watching the Weasel pluck feathers. Xiaqing couldn’t help but rub her eyes with the back of her hand.

’Is this fucking normal? Could these evolved animals get any crazier?’

Xiaqing washed her hands, took out her phone, opened the camera, and recorded the shocking scene.

The Weasel was "working" in the yard, and it didn’t seem right to disturb it. Xiaqing decided she should process her White Egret into food first.

Xiaqing sharpened her kitchen knife, sliced the parts of the White Egret suitable for drying, and put them in the dehydrator. The rest she chopped into chunks for a stew.

She didn’t look up, so she didn’t see that as she was chopping the meat with a THWACK-THWACK sound, the feather-plucking weasel in the yard was trembling in fear.

After putting the meat slices in the dehydrator, Xiaqing blanched the chunks of meat. She heated oil in a pot, added scallions, ginger, bay leaves, and the meat for a quick stir-fry, then added boiling spring water and left it to stew.

The aroma of the stewing meat soon wafted out into the yard. The Weasel had finished plucking the feathers and run off, and the two injured wolves were dragged into the yard to eat.

The wolf with the broken leg was ravenous and devoured an entire White Egret, leaving not even the bones behind. The wolf with the broken spine only ate half a White Egret; the other half was finished off by another wolf.

Through the window, Xiaqing watched as the two injured wolves were dragged by the scruff of their necks to Sheep Leader’s "restroom" area to relieve themselves, and then dragged back to the sheep pen. Only then did she take the basin of entrails out of the house to feed her snake.

The White Egrets were gone from the yard, leaving only a pool of blood on the ground and white feathers dancing in the air. For the foreseeable future, this was likely to be the state of her yard.

Xiaqing shoveled up the two pools of blood in the yard, poured them over the sheep and wolf manure pile, sprayed some Deodorant, and then covered it with dirt. Then, she gathered the bird feathers from the yard and burned them.

She had just finished cleaning the yard when Sheep Leader came strolling back. Xiaqing griped, "Leader, your timing is perfect. I just finished cleaning the yard."

Sheep Leader let out a bleat, walked to the water basin by the door to rinse its hooves, then stamped a few times on the soft hay mat and tilted its large head up to look at Xiaqing with narrowed eyes.

Xiaqing immediately started praising him. "Leader, you’re the best! You know to wash your feet before coming inside without me even having to remind you. It’s because you and I both love being clean that our home can stay so neat and tidy. Are you full, Leader? Would you like some of the good feed?"

"Baa~" Sheep Leader responded in a cutesy tone, indicating that he did want to eat.

"Alright, I’ll get it for you. Your friends gave me a Green Light Egret today, so you can have something good to eat too," Xiaqing said as she opened the screen door and walked inside with Sheep Leader.

The weather was hot now, so during the day, Xiaqing no longer kept the security door closed. Instead, she had installed a screen door outside of it. The screen door was split into two panels connected by magnetic strips, making it easy to pass through while keeping insects out.

After half a year of continuous cleanup, the number of Evolved Insects near Xiaqing’s home was much lower than when she first moved in. Keeping the screen door closed was now enough to keep them out.

After Sheep Leader followed Xiaqing into the house, the Brain Domain Evolution Wolf in the sheep pen opened its amber eyes, staring thoughtfully in the direction of the security door.