Chapter 217: Nightfall, Strange Sunflowers, and Midnight Visitors

After Qi Fu and his wife left, the sun dipped behind the western hills and dusk settled in.

Xia Qing gathered the four sunflowers Yuan Yan pointed out, added four more she’d found earlier, and tucked them all into her basket. On her way past the chicken enclosure, she grabbed the chicken cage too.

“Cluck, cluck! Cluck, cluck!”

The Black-feathered Rooster inside the cage squawked in protest and pecked at the bamboo bars.

Was it complaining she’d come too late?

Xia Qing explained, “I was off making an alliance, so I got held up. I’m bringing you all home tonight. After this it’ll be four days before you’re out again. Let’s go, time to head home.”

Every bird in the cage—except for the Greenlight Goose—was a treasure to her. If she wanted to try all 128 ways to eat eggs this winter, she needed to keep them safe above all else.

Once home, Xia Qing carried the chicken cage into the sheep shed and placed it inside the big chicken enclosure she’d been working on these past few days. This cage took up a quarter of the shed, had a layer of soil at the bottom, and feeding and water troughs set up outside.

After checking the stability, Xia Qing pushed a small piece of Yi Stone into an opening at the top of the cage.

She had four Yi Stones in total: three about the size of pigeon eggs and one the size of a walnut. To store food and prepare for the coming Xiang Rain, she’d already cut the three smaller stones into pieces for use.

In other words, Xia Qing had used over 600,000 points’ worth of Yi Stones just to prepare for the rain.

But Xia Qing didn’t mind in the least.

Every resource should serve its purpose, and those three stones were used exactly where they’d do the most good. Plus, after the Xiang Rain, she could collect the stones from the greenhouse and the chicken cage, seal them in protective shells, and use them again next time.

Yi Stones last as long as three months, after all.

After a simple but filling meal, Xia Qing laid out all eight sunflower plants on the table and examined them closely.

If there was one thing these sunflowers had in common, it was the clusters of big and small ‘nodules’ on their short, dense roots. But Xia Qing didn’t dig up any other sunflowers to compare, so she couldn’t be sure if this was normal.

She put on gloves and her protective mask, then used a knife to carefully slice open a root nodule of the green-light sunflower. To her surprise, it was hollow inside.

She cut open the largest nodules on the roots of the remaining seven sunflowers. Without exception, every one was hollow. Xia Qing wasn’t sure if that was normal for sunflowers, but peanuts and pumpkins always had solid root nodules.

She snapped a few photos of the nodules, jotted down the details in her notebook, and called out to Boss Sheep, “Boss, this one’s a green-light plant. Want a taste?”

Boss Sheep trotted over, sniffed, then turned and flopped back down on the tatami.

Apparently not.

Next, Xia Qing called to the sick wolf, “Hey, Number Two, do you think there’s something wrong with these sunflowers?”

The sick wolf lay on the tatami, gazing at Xia Qing with clear, bright eyes, quietly refusing to move.

Hmm…

Xia Qing thought its look was exactly the same as when Boss Sheep lost its mind. She didn’t feel like digging deeper and just sealed up the sunflower plants to store in the cellar.

If all eight sunflowers had the same problem, then she and Yuan Yan probably had the same ‘ability’, though Yuan Yan’s seemed stronger.

That’s pretty likely, since Yuan Yan noticed something off before the potato underwent a dangerous, aggressive Xiang Evolution, while Xia Qing didn’t sense a thing. Then again, maybe Xia Qing just hadn’t been paying close enough attention to the potato vines at the time.

Ever since the dancing potato vine incident, Xia Qing had been extra cautious with every batch of seeds she brought out of the Safe Zone, which is why she caught this sunflower quirk so quickly.

Still, maybe she and Yuan Yan have different abilities. That would be even better. If allies each had their own strengths, their patrols of the farmland would be much more effective.

Forming an alliance with Plot Five honestly made Xia Qing really happy. Now she had an ally plus three powerful trading partners—Territory One, Territory Seven, and the Wolf Pack—so her odds of living well were looking better all the time.

After checking in with the sick wolf and Boss Sheep, Xia Qing hummed a little tune and headed upstairs to sleep. She’d need to get up by 12:30 tonight, fully armed to face the third Xiang Rain.

But before midnight, the sound trap woke her up. The one that got triggered was near the creek in the northeast of her territory.

Xia Qing put on her night vision goggles, got up and carefully lifted the blackout curtains to peer north. That’s when she locked eyes with a pair of glowing green eyes.

She knew those eyes too well. Xia Qing slid her gun back into its holster, then went downstairs, fully geared up.

Only Boss Sheep was left on the tatami; the sick wolf must’ve already gone out to investigate. Xia Qing said a word to Boss Sheep and quickly caught up to her slow-moving friend outside the village. “Number Two, I just took a look—it’s your companions out there.”

The sick wolf rubbed its skinny body against Xia Qing’s leg, just like Boss Sheep would, showing a bit of affection.

Side by side, girl and wolf arrived at the creek, where three wolves were making their way over.

The brain-evolved wolf with a wounded back led the way, while the Wolf with the Broken Leg and the Black Wolf trailed behind. All three wolves looked well-fed, their bellies round. The two at the back each carried prey in their mouths.

The brain-evolved wolf moved slowly, still nursing its injured spine. The Black Wolf stayed obediently behind, while the Wolf with the Broken Leg, always restless, shook its head and occasionally darted back and forth.

As soon as the wolves spotted Xia Qing, the Wolf with the Broken Leg bounded over, showing off its catch.

Yet another animal she didn’t recognize. Xia Qing asked gently, “Hey, Broken Leg, where’d you get this thing in the middle of the night? Carrying it all this way, doesn’t your jaw or teeth hurt?”

Pleased by her praise, the Wolf with the Broken Leg dropped its prize in front of Xia Qing, then hurried back to the brain-evolved wolf. The sick wolf followed with a slow stride, and the four wolves greeted each other with sniffs.

The Wolf with the Spinal Injury stopped two meters from Xia Qing, raised its head and looked at her in silence. Xia Qing took off her protective mask and met the gaze of this wolf, strong yet vulnerable.

The Xiang Rain was coming. The air felt damp, but with her Yi Stone mask, she couldn’t judge the rising level of Xiang Elements in the air by scent anymore. Everything was so still—even with wind blowing, the creek gurgling, and insects rustling all around, even hearing the wolf’s heavy breaths, there was still a deep, quiet calm.

It was an oddly peaceful feeling.

Xia Qing asked calmly, “Spinal Injury, you planning to wait out the Xiang Rain in my and Boss Sheep’s territory?”

The brain-evolved wolf gave a low whine and the Black Wolf placed its prey at Xia Qing’s feet. This one didn’t need praise—it was just doing its part.

Lifting both animals—a combined weight of more than a hundred jin—Xia Qing nodded. “Alright. The rain’s coming fast. Come back home with me. Walk slow, I’ll head back first and get the prey stored away.”

Back at home, Xia Qing dismantled the chicken cage from the sheep shed, dragged it to the tool shed and rebuilt it, then laid out two rolls of grass mat in the sheep shed before heading in to clean the yellowlight prey.

By the time she’d finished, she found three wolves and one sheep curled up in the sheep shed, all looking up at her. The wolves wore serious expressions, while Boss Sheep still had its eternally smug face, chewing cud.

The Black Wolf, though—who knows when—had already slipped away.