Chapter 209: The Third Harmful Rain

Chapter 209: Chapter 209: The Third Harmful Rain

This morning, the broken-leg wolf brought Xiaqing a Yellow Light prey animal.

This was the first time Xiaqing had received Yellow Light prey from the Wolf Group. She guessed that either the broken-leg wolf wasn’t as good as the Head Wolf at distinguishing between Green Light and Yellow Light animals, or the Wolf Group had already hunted all the Green Light animals nearby, forcing the broken-leg wolf to go after Yellow Light ones.

Fortunately, Xiaqing had already paid back the seventy catties of Green Light meat she owed Zhang San. Zhang San wouldn’t eat Yellow Light animals, but Xiaqing and the Sick Wolf weren’t picky. She sealed some of the animal’s organs and put them in the storage room, boiled another part to feed the wolf, set aside two days’ worth of the deboned meat, and sliced the rest to be roasted into jerky.

With a standard storage room, the jerky’s shelf life was extended, so Xiaqing processed any prey the Sick Wolf couldn’t finish into jerky for storage. Once the Sick Wolf recovered and left her territory, catching Green Light prey would come down to chance and pure luck.

’If only wolves could talk,’ Xiaqing thought. ’I’d love to learn the Head Wolf’s trick for telling Green Light prey apart.’

The prey the broken-leg wolf brought wasn’t very large—probably a young animal born this summer. It looked like a cross between a deer and a sheep, and Xiaqing couldn’t tell what kind of animal it had evolved from.

’Doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it’s edible.’

Xiaqing had just brought the sealed fresh meat up from the underground storage room and was about to mince it when she heard the mother of Zhao Ze from Territory No. 4 speaking. "Hey, Shi family, you’re using sesame oil now? I can’t even bear to use regular oil for stir-frying."

Mother Shi explained, "We didn’t grow any sesame, and we don’t have any sesame oil. I was just saying that dumplings taste better with it."

"Right? And they’d be even better with eggs. If our chick hadn’t died, it would have started laying next month." Mentioning the Yellow Light pullet that had been killed by the ultrasound still made Mrs. Zhao’s heart ache.

In her territory, Mrs. Zhao often complained to her son about how stingy Zhang San was. He was raising so many chickens, yet he wouldn’t sell a few to his neighbors so everyone could have some eggs. But she only dared to grumble about this in private; she wouldn’t say a single word about it on the Lord channel.

Listening to Mrs. Zhao’s complaints, Xiaqing felt a secret delight. The batch of Yellow Light chicks Zhao Ze and Qi Fu had received hatched a month earlier than her Green Light ones. This meant that, if all went well, she would have eggs by late October.

’With eggs, what could she make?’

’Steamed eggs, boiled eggs, scrambled eggs with tomato, scrambled eggs with cucumber, scrambled eggs with scallions, dumplings with egg and pumpkin filling, dumplings with egg and chive filling...’

The more Xiaqing thought about it, the more excited she became. The sound of her furious chopping reached the living room, where the Sick Wolf, lying on the tatami mat, lifted a paw to cover its ears.

After mincing the meat and some Yellow Light ginger, she mixed in the squeezed-dry Green Light Pumpkin, Sichuan peppercorn oil, salt, soy sauce, and sesame oil. The aroma of the dumpling filling soon lured the Sick Wolf to the kitchen doorway.

Xiaqing, who was kneading dough, saw it standing there, staring at her with pleading eyes. She took a small, unseasoned piece of roasted jerky from a tin box, tore open the sealed bag, and offered it. "Hungry? Gnaw on this for a bit. Your meat is already cooking; it’ll be ready soon."

Wild wolves in the Evolution Forest ate once a day at most. When prey was scarce, eating once every three or four days was normal. When the two injured wolves were recovering in Xiaqing’s territory, the Head Wolf bringing them prey once a day was already special treatment.

After this Sick Wolf arrived in her territory, Xiaqing had switched it to smaller, more frequent meals—three a day—because of its weak stomach. It had adapted well to the new feeding schedule, eating at the same time as Xiaqing and the Sheep Leader.

The Sick Wolf wagged its tail once upon receiving the jerky and returned to the tatami mat to gnaw on it. Xiaqing was still reeling from the cringey-cute sight when the Sheep Leader came clattering to the kitchen doorway, its big "KAZILAN" eyes waiting to be fed.

’Life isn’t easy,’ Xiaqing sighed.

She grabbed a freshly cut piece of pumpkin peel and gave it to the Sheep Leader. "Go on, gnaw on this. I’ll mix your feed in a bit."

After the Sheep Leader happily trotted back to the living room with the pumpkin peel, Xiaqing started rolling out dumpling wrappers and filling the dumplings.

By the time the dumplings were all made, the sky was darkening. Xiaqing first set the cooked organs in the wolf’s food bowl to cool, then went to the terraces to pick a handful of spinach. On her way back, she brought the chicken coop inside and placed it in the sheep pen.

Back inside, Xiaqing added firewood to boil water for the dumplings and washed the spinach. She divided the spinach leaves into three portions: one for the Sheep Leader’s feed, one for the Sick Wolf’s boiled meat, and one for her own dumplings.

Once the dumplings were cooked, Xiaqing listened to the news broadcast while eating the fragrant meat dumplings, bubbling with happiness.

But when she heard the weather forecast for Hui San Base, all her happy bubbles burst.

The third Harmful Rain of the year would arrive in three days and was expected to last for about 70 hours. Due to the high density of the Qiang clouds, at least three red-level downpours were predicted, each potentially lasting more than an hour.

A red-level Harmful Rain lasting more than an hour was considered a disaster-level event. After three such disasters, would the territories that humans had painstakingly cleared and cultivated for half a year still be in human hands?

She couldn’t control or worry about anyone else’s territory, but the Third Territory would definitely remain hers!

Xiaqing gulped down the rest of her dumpling soup, cleared the table, and opened her notebook, listening intently to today’s agricultural knowledge broadcast.

Today’s agricultural segment was about how Lords should deal with the third Harmful Rain. Besides basic precautions like ensuring proper drainage and securing rainproof cloths, the announcer, Wang Chuki, used her comforting and hopeful voice to advise, "Cotton has entered its late growth stage. Unless it encounters a red-level Harmful Rain lasting over an hour and a half, the possibility of Qiang Evolution is low. However, a Harmful Rain lasting more than three days may cause a large number of black spades to appear. To cope with this crisis, Lords should..."

After the broadcast ended, Xiaqing turned off the radio and switched on her walkie-talkie. ℯℯ𝑙.

The mood on the Lord channel was somber.

Zhao Ze complained, "Seventy hours? Are they trying to kill us?! We can’t farm this land for even a single day in peace."

Kuang Qingwei asked, "How many hours did the third Harmful Rain last year?"

Shi Zhong replied, "Last year’s wasn’t short either. We were in the Safe Zone back then. When the Harmful Rain came, we just shut our doors and hid at home, so I didn’t really pay attention to the exact number of hours."

Luo Pei answered, "Last year’s third Harmful Rain lasted 67.4 hours. There were two red-level downpours, with the longest one lasting 1.6 hours. After the rain, Hui San Base officially reported 420 casualties."

The actual number of casualties was certainly higher than the official report. How many would die from this year’s three red-level downpours? The Lord channel fell silent.

Tan Junjie issued a notice in a serious and calm voice, "All Lords, please follow the key points mentioned in the broadcast and prepare for the Harmful Rain. If a dangerous situation arises within Territories One through Ten that a Lord cannot handle, please contact the inspection team immediately."

"Roger that," Zhao Ze responded, then seemed to rally his spirits and asked the group how they would deal with the Harmful Rain. "Everyone, how are you planning to guard your corn sheds?"