Chapter 209: A Taste of Anticipation Before the Rain

Early this morning, the Wolf with the Broken Leg brought Xia Qing a yellowlight prey.

It was the first time Xia Qing had received a yellowlight animal from the wolf pack. She guessed it might be because the Wolf with the Broken Leg couldn’t tell greenlight from yellowlight as well as the Alpha Wolf, or maybe all the greenlight animals nearby had already been caught, forcing him to hunt yellowlight ones instead.

Luckily, Xia Qing had already paid Zhang San back with seventy jin of greenlight meat. Zhang San didn’t eat yellowlight animals, but Xia Qing and the Sick Wolf weren’t picky. She vacuum-sealed some of the animal’s innards in the storage room, boiled some to feed the wolves, put aside enough meat for herself for two days, and sliced up the rest to make dried meat.

Now that she had a proper storage room, her dried meat would last even longer, so she started processing any leftovers from the sick wolf into dried meat as well. Once the Sick Wolf recovered and left the territory, catching greenlight prey would be all up to luck.

“If only wolves could talk,” Xia Qing thought, longing to learn the Alpha Wolf’s skill for spotting greenlight prey.

The prey the Wolf with the Broken Leg delivered wasn’t all that big—probably a juvenile born this past summer. It looked like some sort of deer–sheep hybrid, and even Xia Qing couldn’t tell what species it had evolved from.

Not that it mattered. If it was edible, that was good enough.

Xia Qing carried the sealed fresh meat up from the underground storage, ready to mince it, when she overheard Zhao Ze’s mother from Territory Four chatting in the background. “You folks from the Shi family already have sesame oil? I can’t even spare a drop for stir-frying.”

Shi’s mother explained, “We haven’t grown sesame, and we don’t have sesame oil. I just meant that dumplings taste even better if you add some.”

“Yeah, and they’re even better with eggs. If that little chick of ours hadn’t died, she would have started laying next month.” Zhao Ze’s mom couldn’t help but feel bad for the yellowlight pullet that had died from the sonic attack.

In their territory, Zhao Ze’s mom often complained in private to her son about how stingy Zhang San was, keeping so many chickens and not selling any to the neighbors, so everyone could have some eggs. But those complaints stayed private—she’d never dare bring them up in the Lord’s Channel.

Listening to Zhao Ze’s mother complain just made Xia Qing even happier inside. The batch of yellowlight chicks Zhao Ze and Qi Fu received hatched a month before her own greenlight chicks. That meant, barring any surprises, she’d finally get to eat eggs by late October.

What could she make with fresh eggs?

Steamed eggs, boiled eggs, tomato and egg stir-fry, cucumber and egg stir-fry, scallion and egg stir-fry, pumpkin and egg dumplings, chive and egg dumplings…

The more Xia Qing thought about it, the more excited she got. Her knife pounded rhythmically as she chopped the meat, and back in the living room, the Sick Wolf lay sprawled on the tatami, covering its ears with its paw.

She mixed the freshly minced meat with finely chopped yellowlight ginger, squeezed-dry greenlight pumpkin, pepper oil, salt, soy sauce, and sesame oil. The moment she finished, the tempting aroma of dumpling filling had the Sick Wolf sniffing hungrily at the kitchen door.

Xia Qing was busy kneading dough when she noticed the wolf staring hopefully at her. She pulled a small slab of unseasoned dried meat from the metal box, tore open the vacuum bag, and handed it over. “Hungry? Gnaw on this for a while. Your meat’s almost done cooking.”

In the Evolver Forest, wild wolves only ate once a day at most, and when prey was scarce, sometimes just once every three or four days. While the injured wolves were recuperating in her territory, the Alpha Wolf brought them food every day, which was already a huge privilege.

But since the Sick Wolf had weak digestion, Xia Qing fed it smaller meals three times a day, and it adapted quickly to the new routine—eating with her and Boss Sheep.

The Sick Wolf wagged its tail after getting the dried meat and padded back to the tatami to chew on it. Xia Qing was still blinking away the sting in her eyes from the wolf’s earlier antics when Boss Sheep trotted to the kitchen door, big, sparkly eyes begging for a treat.

Life wasn’t easy, Xia Qing sighed.

She grabbed a strip of fresh-cut pumpkin skin and fed it to Boss Sheep. “Chew on this for now, I’ll mix your special feed soon.”

Looking pleased with itself, Boss Sheep trotted back to the living room with its pumpkin skin. Xia Qing started rolling out dumpling dough and wrapping the fillings.

She finished wrapping the dumplings just as dusk settled outside. After boiling the offal for the wolves and setting it out in their food bowls, she went to the terraced plot to pick a handful of spinach leaves. On her way back in, she swung by to grab the chicken cage and brought it inside the sheep shed.

Back in the house, she fed the stove and set a pot boiling for dumplings while washing the spinach. She split the leaves three ways—mixing them into Boss Sheep’s feed, the Sick Wolf’s boiled meat, and her own dumplings.

With the dumplings cooked and steaming, Xia Qing listened to the news broadcast, savoring the first bite of fragrant meat dumpling, happiness bubbling up inside her.

But the weather report from Hui San Base popped her bubble in an instant.

The third Xiang Rain of the year was due in three days. It would last about seventy hours. With heavy Xiang clouds expected, there’d be no less than three waves of red-level downpours, and each could last over an hour.

If a red-level Xiang Rain lasted more than an hour, it was officially disaster-grade. After three waves of that, would the lands that people had worked so hard to reclaim and farm for half a year still be in their hands?

Xia Qing couldn’t worry about everyone else, but she swore Territory Three would stay hers, no matter what.

Draining the last of her dumpling soup in one go, she cleared the table, opened her notebook, and tuned in for today’s agriculture broadcast.

Today’s farming lesson was about how lords should prepare for the third Xiang Rain. In addition to basics like drainage and rainproof tarps, the announcer, Wang Chuqi, offered some hope. “Cotton is now in the late growth phase. Unless you face a red-level Xiang Rain longer than ninety minutes, chances for Xiang Evolution stay low. Still, if the rain goes over three days, you may see a wave of Black Spades. To handle the crisis, lords…”

When the broadcast ended, Xia Qing turned off the radio and switched on the walkie-talkie.

The Lord’s Channel was filled with a heavy gloom.

Zhao Ze groaned, “Seventy hours?! This is killer! There’s no way we’re getting anything done in the fields.”

Kuang Qingwei asked, “How long did last year’s third Xiang Rain last?”

Shi Chong answered, “It wasn’t exactly short either. We were in the Safe Zone back then, so we just shut the door and waited it out. I didn’t keep track of the exact hours.”

Luo Pei replied, “Last year’s third Xiang Rain lasted 67.4 hours. There were two rounds of red-level rain. The longest round lasted 1.6 hours. Afterward, Hui San Base reported 420 casualties.”

Of course, the real number of deaths must have been higher. So with three red-level storms this year, how many people would make it out? The channel went dead quiet.

Tan Junjie broke the silence with a calm but stern announcement: “Lords, please follow the tips from the broadcast and get ready for the Xiang Rain. If any danger comes up during the storm in Territories One through Ten that a lord can’t handle, contact the Inspection Team at once.”

“Got it,” Zhao Ze replied, pulling himself together. “So how’s everyone planning to guard their corn sheds during the storm?”