Chapter 254: Red Squirrels and Cotton Fields

After walking just six minutes further, Xia Qing spotted another red squirrel perched in a tree, its tail swishing as it busily scrubbed its tiny paws.

This time, Xia Qing didn’t find it cute in the slightest.

“Seriously? Is this never going to end!?”

She huffed. “Yang Jin is way better looking than you, and even he had to try flirting just to get a discount. Yet you think being cute gets you free stuff from me over and over? Not a chance!”

“No way!”

Slipping the sapling onto her back, Xia Qing stomped away from beneath the tree, fuming.

She hadn’t gone far before yet another red squirrel on a branch waved its tail and rubbed its paws at her, then another one not much further down.

Xia Qing gave up. “Tomorrow, fine. When you come by my window for water in the morning, I’ll put a yellow lantern chestnut out for you.”

With that, Xia Qing hurried ahead with her sapling, passing more trees each with their hopeful red squirrels. After several attempts, the squirrels finally realized Xia Qing wasn’t giving out any chestnuts and started leaping around the branches in frustration, scattering torn leaves everywhere.

After handing the sapling to Ji Li, Xia Qing heard a loud ‘bang’ from inside the territory. She rushed back and found Guan Tong and Boss Sheep in the middle of a brawl—Boss Sheep was definitely winning.

It wasn’t that Guan Tong couldn’t hold his own; when it came to pure strength, even with his Level 4 power evolution, he couldn’t beat Boss Sheep.

“Qing, we’ve already watered the three fertilized plots,” Da Jiang explained. “We were just weeding when Boss Sheep suddenly stopped working the waterwheel and rushed over to pick a fight with Guan Tong. Now they’re dueling it out.”

Xia Qing took off her protective mask, then explained Boss Sheep’s sudden rampage. “I’ve just been too busy to spar with him lately. His hooves are getting itchy.”

Da Jiang was speechless.

So was Xiao Jiang.

The moment Boss Sheep noticed Xia Qing had returned, he left Guan Tong in the dust and barreled toward her. After a month of running with Xia Qing, Boss Sheep had gotten noticeably quicker.

Xia Qing set down her backpack and protective mask and dashed toward Boss Sheep.

“Bang!”

Man and sheep collided with a mighty crash that made Guan Tong wince just watching. Anyone who’s never sparred with Boss Sheep has no idea—a headbutt from him really hurts.

Even Xia Qing couldn’t match Boss Sheep for sheer strength. The first blow sent her flying, but she twisted midair, landed steadily on both feet, and charged right back at him.

This time she skipped the headbutt, grabbed both of Boss Sheep’s spiraled horns, and flung him sideways with all her might.

“Bang!” Boss Sheep hit the ground, kicking up a thick cloud of dust.

“Moo!”

Boss Sheep leapt to his feet, now caked with dirt, and charged at Xia Qing again. The battle between girl and sheep was nothing short of fierce.

Right on cue, Tang Huai’s voice crackled through the lord’s walkie-talkie. “Xia Qing, what’s going on? Is your sheep losing it again?”

Xia Qing hadn’t even turned the walkie-talkie on, but Tang Zhengbo scolded his son, “Mind your own business. Quit snooping on other people’s territories.”

After one intense showdown, both Xia Qing and Boss Sheep flopped to the ground in a messy heap inside Territory Three.

Crouched in the greenhouse, Xiao Jiang glanced at his big brother. “Hey, Qing’s done fighting—should we go check on her?”

Da Jiang shook his head. “Let’s wait a bit. If we head over now, Boss Sheep might jump up and send us both flying.”

After catching their breath, Xia Qing and Boss Sheep got up. One headed home for a drink, the other brushed off the dust and made for the fields.

Only then did Da Jiang ask, “Qing, could I buy twenty jin of yellow lantern chestnuts from you?”

Xiao Jiang chimed in, “The chestnuts taste amazing. We want some to take home—and my brother wants to bring some to his wife, too.”

“Don’t worry, Qing—we won’t tell anyone where we got the chestnuts,” Da Jiang promised.

Guan Tong didn’t have family, but he did have someone he liked, so he also asked to buy ten jin. The main fighters of the Qinglong Squad were always out on missions, so points were never an issue for them.

After swapping for the chestnuts, the three of them left for Territory One, grinning ear to ear.

Watching their backs, Xia Qing honestly couldn’t say she wasn’t jealous. Anyone who still has family after ten years of disaster is someone to envy. Xia Qing had no relatives anymore, but she had Boss Sheep and a wolf pack, companions she could share her harvest joy with.

She sat by the reservoir, opening the prickly chestnut husks she’d just cut from the trees. More than twenty husks gave her two jin of green lantern chestnuts—worth eight hundred points. Back in the safe zone, Xia Qing would have worked a whole day for just five points, so this haul had her more than satisfied.

She tucked the chestnuts inside her cabin, shed her ‘ghillie suit’, then grabbed a sack to go pick cotton.

After the third Cataclysmic Rain, cotton in its late growth was the most resilient crop in Xia Qing’s territory—aside from the green lantern plants protected by Yi Shi.

Even then, over seven hundred plants had mutated, leaving sixty-four hundred healthy ones. The seven hundred plus mutant cotton plants weren’t thrown away either; just like last time, Xia Qing replanted them in distant fields away from the greenhouse to observe how they’d grow next.

The sun had been good these past days and plenty of cotton bolls had already burst. Cotton with low Cataclysmic Element was pure white, while cotton with high Cataclysmic Element was yellow, its shade depending on the element level—the lower the content, the paler the yellow.

Yellow cotton looked striking but gave off a strong fishy stench. Whenever a plant or flower’s Cataclysmic Element gets too high, the smell always changes, and a fishy stink is the most common result.

Send it back to the safe zone processing center, and they’ll strip out the odor, turning it into clothing for sale. Xia Qing separated the white and yellow cotton, packing them into different sacks.

Once she’d finished picking, Xia Qing checked on the mutant cotton cleared out during the third Cataclysmic Rain. Those plants had shot up over three meters, but their lower fruit branches hadn’t opened yet, so it was impossible to tell what color cotton they’d yield.

After returning home with her cotton and chestnuts, Xia Qing stored the chestnuts in her pantry, put the white cotton to dry on the second-floor balcony, and laid the pale yellow cotton under a bug net on the warehouse roof.

Up on the warehouse roof, along with the solar panels, she laid out over three hundred cotton stalks she’d pulled before the third Cataclysmic Rain. Several bolls were already open on these stalks too—showing both white and pale yellow cotton.

Since there was still a while till noon, Xia Qing just settled in on the roof and kept picking. If she ignored the faint fishy smell, she actually rather enjoyed the work.

Truth be told, she just loved harvest time. No matter what she reaped, it always made her happy and content.

Boss Sheep, tired from sparring, lounged in the courtyard to nap. The sick wolf followed Xia Qing onto the roof and lay quietly beside her, just watching. The sun-heated concrete felt surprisingly comfortable for the wolf with an upset stomach.

Suddenly, the wolf perked up, staring off to the side. Xia Qing followed its gaze and saw the red squirrel with the tracker on its back, way off on a tall tree, paws busy, bushy tail swinging, eyes locked beseechingly on Xia Qing.