Chapter 17: Rainy Night, Fireside Vigil

After giving the sheep a thorough rubdown, Xia Qing carefully sealed every door and window gap, then sprayed disinfectant down the bathroom and kitchen drains to block anything from coming through. On the far side of the fire she rolled out her sleeping bag and got ready to sleep.

The calming capsule lasts about ten hours for regular people, but only about six for a weakened Evolver Sheep. Xia Qing worried if the medicine wore off, Boss Sheep might punch holes through her house again. She couldn’t relax without keeping watch.

Xia Qing dozed off as the firelight faded. Across from her, Boss Sheep finally opened its eyes, limbs twitching slightly before it stood and gave its curly fleece a good shake. It backed away from the fire a couple steps.

Xia Qing’s eyes flew open. She shot out of her sleeping bag in one quick motion and fixed her gaze on Boss Sheep.

“Baa.”

Boss Sheep’s call was weak but sounded normal—like a real sheep. Xia Qing let out a sigh of relief. “You wanna go out?”

Boss Sheep squinted, lifted its chin and sniffed the air, then clacked its hooves across the floor straight into the kitchen, heading for food.

“Figures. The food I prepped just ended up feeding Boss Sheep.” Xia Qing followed, leaning lazily against the kitchen doorframe with a yawn. “Once you’re done, go back to your own shed.”

Boss Sheep finished off everything in the basket, then trotted back and settled on the floor a good distance from the fire, curling up and closing its eyes.

Seeing it wasn’t looking for trouble, Xia Qing relented. “Fine, you can sleep here tonight, but if you dare poop or pee in my house, I’ll turn you into lamb stew.”

Boss Sheep stayed motionless, eyes half closed.

“After one crazy rampage, your meat’s probably ruined anyway. I even had to give you a bath and get rid of your parasites—talk about turning misfortune into luck.” Xia Qing yawned and slowly closed her eyes.

Boss Sheep rested on its side for a while, then shifted positions.

The noise made Xia Qing open her eyes again. She watched as Boss Sheep stretched its front legs out, lowering its head and neck to rest on them. With those huge horns, just their weight had to be at least ten pounds. How didn’t it get its skinny legs all numb? Xia Qing smirked silently and let herself drift to sleep.

Boss Sheep spent a while watching Xia Qing, then the fire, before finally closing its eyes.

One human and one sheep slept through till dawn. Boss Sheep woke up first, and as soon as it got up, Xia Qing heard the sound and immediately got up too, opening the door to let it out.

After doing its business in the yard, Boss Sheep headed straight to the sheep pen shelf to munch on the Evolved Perilla Xia Qing had laid out.

Grass in the yard had exploded overnight, already taller than Xia Qing’s calves, but judging by Boss Sheep’s relaxed manner, nothing dangerous seemed to be lurking there.

Xia Qing made herself a couple of fragrant, savory Chinese toon omelet pancakes for breakfast. They tasted incredible.

While finishing up breakfast, Xia Qing glanced at Boss Sheep—big and sturdy at a glance, yet underneath it was mostly bones with hardly any meat. She pulled out her sheep-raising book from her collection. Comparing the descriptions and illustrations, she confirmed Boss Sheep was a Small-Tailed Han Sheep, then read up on its habits and couldn’t help but laugh.

Most pages raved about how delicious the mutton was, how quickly these sheep breed, and the great quality of their fleece. Only at the end did it mention these sheep adapt to almost any environment.

“Pretty resilient, that’s for sure. Otherwise, Boss Sheep wouldn’t have survived a whole decade after the apocalypse—and even grown to one and a half times the size and weight of an adult ram.”

After evolving, most creatures had gotten bigger—humans included.

On Blue Star, human evolutionary traits change drastically at twenty-five. After twenty-five, your body doesn’t really get taller, but if you’re under twenty-five, you get a decent growth spurt. When Xia Qing evolved at sixteen, she was only about five-foot-three. Now at twenty-five, she’d shot up to nearly five-foot-ten. She had a feeling she might not be done growing yet.

The radio said evolution extended human lifespans as well as height—even though in this disaster-ridden world, how many people actually died of old age?

“Feed mix?” Xia Qing flipped to the feeding page for Small-Tailed Han Sheep and found every recipe included corn and salt. “Sheep need salt too?”

Xia Qing glanced at her food stores. She had some cornmeal, but…

…she just couldn’t bring herself to use it…

Maybe someday, if things got better.

She skimmed through more pages, memorizing names and appearances of high-nutrition grasses for sheep.

After breakfast, Xia Qing put on her protective suit and yanked up all the grass in the yard. Grass fed by Xiang Rain spreads like wildfire and has to be uprooted and burned, or its roots will keep growing and wrecking the environment.

She wiped out another nest of destructive Evolved Ants just as rain started up again. Xia Qing rinsed the muddy protective suit using half a basin of purified water she’d left under the eaves. She was just about to head in when Boss Sheep trotted over.

Xia Qing didn’t move, eyeing its filthy hooves.

Boss Sheep started pawing the ground impatiently. Xia Qing sighed and opened the door for it. Not letting it in would just mean another messy fight in the mud—and she didn’t have the patience for that. Besides, Boss Sheep never did its business indoors and didn’t have a strange odor, so it was fine.

Sure enough, once inside, Boss Sheep curled up by the cold ashes of the fire and began chewing cud with half-closed eyes. Xia Qing sprayed some bug repellent and shut the door tight, then hung her suit and mask on her homemade rack.

Turning around, she saw Boss Sheep watching her protective suit while munching its regurgitated grass—like it wanted a taste. Xia Qing glared. “Don’t even think about it! Bite that and you’re stew.”

Boss Sheep just kept staring, still chewing away.

Xia Qing grabbed her broom, swept up the ash on the floor, then stacked some dry wood and lit the fire. The main reason for lighting a fire in the house wasn’t warmth but to drive off damp air and keep Evolved Bugs away.

When the fire was going, she saw Boss Sheep still eyeing her repaired protective suit while chewing its grass. Xia Qing threw a stick on the flames and grumbled, “You see all those patches on my suit? That thing cost me fifteen hundred credits in the Safe Zone. It’s the best gear you can buy around there. If I didn’t have it, I’d have died who knows how many times already. Can you even understand what I’m saying, Boss?”

“No way you understand. Your ancestors might have been domesticated, but you’re pure wild—you’ve barely even seen any humans. How old are you, Boss?” Xia Qing warmed her hands by the rising flames, mumbling to herself. “If only I had some sweet potatoes, chestnuts, or peanuts—then we could roast them right now.”

After her dad passed, Xia Qing barely ever talked to herself. But tonight, with rain pounding outside and a sheep for company beside the fire, she suddenly felt a powerful urge to share her thoughts. “You ever see a sweet potato in Evolver Forest? They’re delicious.”

Boss Sheep watched the flickering fire, squinting. It didn’t come close, but it didn’t seem afraid of the flames either.

Once her hands were warm, Xia Qing grabbed a half-finished chair from her workroom and got back to building. This rain didn’t have much Xiang energy, so she wasn’t as anxious as yesterday. Still, anything’s better than being idle.

When the chair was done, Xia Qing sat down to test it. Nice and sturdy—her very first piece of real furniture.

Noticing Boss Sheep staring at her new chair, Xia Qing grinned. “What do you think? Not bad, right? I learned from a carpenter in the Safe Zone’s construction crew—didn’t use a single nail.”

She got up and checked the yard from the window, then burst out cursing. “I just pulled those weeds and they’re already back!”