Chapter 27: The Cotton Thieves: Midnight Battle on the Territory

“Sister Xia Qing, this is from Plot Two—they asked us to bring it to you.” As Su Ming approached, he took off his protective mask and flashed a wide grin. He handed Xia Qing a sack containing a set of protective suits.

With Boss Sheep nearby, Su Ming stayed tactfully outside Xia Qing’s territory. He knew better than to risk being knocked over by a headstrong sheep and lose face.

It was uncanny how that brawny, troublemaking sheep could clearly recognize where Xia Qing’s territory began.

Xia Qing soothed Boss Sheep before walking over to accept the protective suits, passing the basket to Su Ming. “Thanks for the trouble.”

“No trouble at all, keeping the lord safe is what we do.” Su Ming noticed there were four different kinds of plants in the basket, each placed on a piece of bark carved with a number, an obvious system for delivery. “Xia Qing, you’re smart as always. I’ll leave the basket for you under the signpost in a bit.”

The Inspection Team made their rounds, patrolling each lord’s territory. They were heading north now, then would swing back from the south.

Xia Qing led Boss Sheep home, picking some newly sprouted Chinese toon shoots along the way. As she passed the spring, she filled her bucket with water and headed back.

Passing through the farmland, Boss Sheep scrunched his nose at the scent of camphor sap from the fields and kept his distance. Xia Qing strolled up, grinning—only for her smile to vanish, replaced by a look of cold fury.

She set down her basket, grabbed her machete and moved in to check, confirming that a patch of cotton—about two square meters—had been dug up.

Judging by the tracks, it had to be mice. Damn it!

Xia Qing closed her eyes and listened intently. Satisfied she could hear scuttling noises more than two meters below ground, she dashed home and grabbed the sharpest, largest iron shovel she had.

Time to wipe out this whole nest. No mercy.

Digging down at a slant along the mouse hole, Xia Qing quickly carved out a pit more than two meters deep—a cinch for a Strength Evolver like her. When she cleared the final shovel of dirt, the sight of a whole mouse family and a pile of chewed-up cotton seeds made her blood boil.

Two freakishly large rats, each twice the usual size, bared their huge yellow teeth and lunged right at her.

One swing of her machete split the two leaping rats into four, their bodies dropping to the dirt. Xia Qing followed up with a shovel, wiping out the nest of baby mice and tossing them all onto the ground.

Above, magpies circling in the sky swooped down the moment the bodies hit the earth, snatching up the fresh kills.

Xia Qing dug out the cotton seeds and was relieved to find three beans unscathed. She filled in the hole, replanted the seeds and hurried to the southern signpost marking the edge of her land.

After she finished clearing a patch of Xiang grass, the Inspection Team arrived on patrol. Su Ming grinned and handed back her basket, but then one of the team sniffed the air. “I smell Evo Rat.”

No doubt—a Smell Evolver. Xia Qing spoke up, “I found a whole mouse nest in my fields just now—eight in total, two adults and six pups. All taken care of.”

Evolved rats were serious trouble. Tan Junjie asked, “Did they have any specific evolution trait?”

Xia Qing shook her head. “Hard to say. They were about twice as big as normal, with very long teeth, but average speed and strength. They’d dug up the cotton seeds to feed their pups.”

“Big teeth, eh? Probably evolved bite force, except they didn’t get the chance to use it before you finished them.” Tan Junjie nodded. “Need a hand?”

The Inspection Team only stepped in when evolved creatures were too much for a lord to handle. Xia Qing wasn’t one to cause trouble if she could help it. “Thanks, Captain Tan. If I run into something I can’t handle, I’ll get in touch.”

“Sixteen sweet potato seedlings will be delivered in three days, so prep your plot in advance.” Tan Junjie added, “And make sure all the rats are wiped out.”

“Yes sir, thank you Captain Tan.” Xia Qing replied without hesitation.

Xia Qing checked the returns in her basket. The Level-1 Detox Agent came in identical packaging to those in the Safe Zone, so Zhang San wasn’t trying to pull a fast one.

Zhao Ze from Plot Four and Qi Fu from Plot Six had sent chive sprouts and Jerusalem artichokes just as promised, both with the original soil still clinging to the roots—nice and healthy. Of course, Xia Qing’s perilla seedlings were given the same care.

She planted all the seedlings in her home garden—just like she had done with her ginger. The Jerusalem artichoke was split up by its sprouts into five healthy plants, watered with mountain spring water and ringed with a spray of camphor leaf juice to keep Boss Sheep away.

With the veggies sorted, Xia Qing scrapped her plan to clear more Xiang grass and instead shouldered her shovel, sweeping through the fields looking for more rats.

With her enhanced vision and hearing, the work went twice as fast. By day’s end, she had covered 500 acres of farmland and uncovered thirteen nests—some with ordinary mice, some with Evos.

There were still more than 1,900 acres of land covered with Xiang grass left to clear, and that had to get done soon.

Even after a whole day rat-hunting, Xia Qing’s appetite never suffered. Honestly, if something as small as this could dampen her meal mood, she’d never have made it this far.

She switched on the radio and shared dinner with Boss Sheep, both of them munching rations while listening to the broadcast.

Surprisingly, the broadcast didn’t mention a mass rat extermination for the lords. Was she the only one dealing with mice stealing seeds?

Xia Qing grabbed her walkie-talkie, curious to hear if nearby lords were having similar problems.

Right away, Kuang Qingwei from Plot Six’s gruff voice blared through: “Damn it, some little bastard swiped enough wheat seed for two plots overnight. My heart aches just thinking about it. All I did today was dig out burrows and chase mice.”

“I lost cotton seeds too—an entire patch gone!” groaned Zhao Ze. “One of my guys even had his protective suit bitten through by a rat.”

Zhang San chimed in, slow as ever, “Lucky me, I haven’t started planting yet.”

“Same here—been too busy to get to it,” Tang Huai added.

Those two…

The channel went quiet for a moment before Kuang Qingwei finally asked, “Old Qi, Xia Qing, how are things on your side?”

“Lost a few cotton seeds,” Xia Qing replied.

Qi Fu from Plot Five answered honestly, “We watched the whole night, didn’t let anything get stolen.”

Listening carefully, Xia Qing caught wind noises and footsteps in Qi Fu’s background—he was still out patrolling his fields.

Night patrols meant you either had a Hearing or Smell Evolver in your territory, or you owned night vision goggles. Xia Qing guessed it was the latter; after all, most Hearing and Smell Evolvers held decent jobs in the Safe Zone and wouldn’t risk farming.

Qi Fu was seriously the most diligent farmer among them.

“Rats stealing seeds, wrecking crops, Evo Rats even attack people and chew power cables—we need to wipe them out completely,” Zhao Ze declared.

“He’s right, but even working together, that’s not easy!” Kuang Qingwei sounded exasperated. “Zhang, you got any rat poison?”

Zhang San was as lazy as ever, but his words dripped menace. “Nope. And if any of you use rat poison that could cause secondary poisoning, I won’t mind using toxins on all of you in return.”

The channel went dead silent. After a long pause, Zhang San suddenly turned friendly. “Xia Qing, I’ve got an evolved cat that’s great at hunting rats. I can bring it over to clear your fields if you’ll pay me with your perilla harvest for the next two weeks.”

Everyone else was left speechless…

The cat’d be fine, but the person—no way. Xia Qing refused right away. “Don’t need it. I’m strong enough to handle the rats myself.”

Kuang Qingwei straightaway jumped in to negotiate with Zhang San. “Bring the cat to my place instead—when my elm tree grows its elm coins, I’ll give you ten pounds.”

“Deal.” Zhang San sounded genuinely pleased.

Tang Huai was curious. “Zhang, what kind of evolved cat is it? What level?”