Chapter 446: Who Says You Can Just Pet a Wolf?

Pet a wolf?

Heh. Do you really think anyone can just stroll up and pet one of those fierce, carnivorous Evolved Wolves that grew up in the Evolved Forest?

Forget Tang Huai—even Hu Zifeng’s Squad, who are in her territory all the time, haven’t earned the wolves’ trust. They can’t even get close.

“Creak—”

The wooden door connecting the greenhouse to the little house squeaked open, and before long, Er Gou came in, carrying a basket in his mouth. He nudged aside the curtain hanging on the greenhouse wall, tail wagging excitedly at Xia Qing as he trotted over.

“Why are you so happy, Er Gou? Did you bring something back today?” Xia Qing greeted him, taking the basket and on impulse gave his head a good rub.

Er Gou was about the same size as the Alpha, with his shoulder nearly reaching 1.2 meters high. Sitting down, he was actually taller than when he stood. With sharp eyes, five-clawed forepaws and powerful, hooked hind claws—not to mention those lethal fangs—he was every bit the true apex predator of the Evolved Forest.

Yet here was this formidable beast, now sitting in front of Xia Qing and lifting his head, waiting for her to scratch his neck.

With practiced ease, Xia Qing reached down and petted the wolf.

Her easy relationship with the Wolf Pack mostly came down to her sharing both territory and home with Old Goat. Since Old Goat recognized her as a companion, and the wolves were Old Goat’s companions, it made her one by association.

The Brain-Evolved Wolves knew that humans could heal even grave wounds. That’s why, when Crippled Wolf and Lame Wolf were injured, the Alpha took the risk and led them out of the Evolved Forest, across to Old Goat’s territory, bringing Yi Stone and medicinal herbs as payment to ask Old Goat’s friend—the human, Xia Qing—for help.

Early on, Xia Qing and the wolves didn’t trust each other. But after over four months of frequent interaction, a bond of trust slowly formed.

Of all the Wolf Pack, the one on best terms with Xia Qing was this one right in front of her.

He’d been tormented nearly to death by parasites and the seeds of Evolved Weeds until the Alpha brought him to Xia Qing. She bartered medicine, asked another for a delicate eye surgery, and nursed him patiently, pulling him back from the brink.

Judging by everything he’d done, Xia Qing was sure that Er Gou now saw her as a companion—second only in importance to the Alpha and Crippled Wolf, and as important as Old Goat.

After a few moments of petting, Xia Qing, absolutely glowing with happiness, took a good look at what he’d caught and was surprised.

With the harsh winter, nearly all the bugs had burrowed underground or hidden in heaps of dried leaves. It was nothing like hunting insects in warm weather, so Xia Qing had already told her companions there was no need to try anymore.

Old Goat had happily agreed, but Er Gou still made his rounds every morning, basket clenched in his jaws, hunting for insects.

He’d come up empty the last couple days, so she didn’t expect much—yet here he was, bringing back a giant Evolved Cockroach.

No matter how much Blue Star changes, cockroaches always find a way to survive.

After its evolution, this beast of a cockroach was longer than an adult’s index finger raised in anger. On top of that, its razor-sharp upper and lower mandibles could bite right through a human finger.

Back in the early days of the Cataclysm, plenty of people died at the jaws of Evolved Cockroaches.

Every insect swarm over the ten Cataclysm years had hordes of these monsters throwing themselves into the fray.

Before the Cataclysm, Xia Qing would’ve shrieked and hopped around just seeing a big cockroach. Now, she smiled as she studied the evolved insect, so much fatter and longer than the average bug she’d once feared.

“Not bad, not bad! Er Gou, you actually managed to find a beast this size. The fish are in for a feast!”

Wagging his tail, Er Gou deftly grabbed the basket, trotted to the fish tank, hung it up, and with a swipe of his paw sent the massive cockroach tumbling in.

The Pure Spring Fish had been waiting for this moment. The whole tank erupted in chaos as they fought for a bite, water splashing everywhere. Er Gou watched with great satisfaction, only tossing in the next bug once they’d finished the first.

Raising fish was truly Er Gou’s passion.

Xia Qing left him to his hobby. After feeding the chickens and rabbits, she headed to the planting greenhouse to check on the temperature, humidity, and seed germination.

There were twenty-five planting beds inside, with Xia Qing’s favorite Green Lantern vegetables—alfalfa, perilla, spinach, green onion, chives, and pumpkin—taking up thirteen of them. In the other beds, there were two types of Yellow tag vegetables she’d traded from the Territory Management Department: 100 celery seeds and 100 celtuce seeds, each in its own bed.

One bed was set aside for fifteen strawberry plants—two exchanged with Yang Jin, and the other thirteen sprouted from runners of those larger plants. Xia Qing treated these strawberries like precious treasure.

Besides strawberries, she also had a pair of Greenlight Mint plants in the greenhouse.

Even though the strawberries and mint were kept inside the greenhouse, they were potted and watered with pure spring water.

The seeds and chive roots had only been planted yesterday, so it was too soon to see any changes. But the sixty-three transplants of Green Lantern green onions, mint, and strawberry—moved from the terraces—breathed new life into the greenhouse, standing in stark contrast to the desolation outside.

With the constant warmth inside, some overwintering pests lurking in the soil had already begun to wake.

She’d used soil pesticide from Section Seven, which killed off most insect eggs but couldn’t guarantee every pest was gone. Chemical pesticides from Territory Nine were said to be quick and deadly against adults, but Xia Qing avoided them.

She worried that kind of pesticide might harm the plants themselves.

Squatting by a row, Xia Qing put her keen hearing to use, searching for pests that might gnaw on her seeds beneath the soil.

“Gulu, gulu…”

She wasn’t quite as skilled as Tang Huai at bug hunting, but a year of farming had taught Xia Qing to recognize a pest just by its sound.

That drawn-out bubbling was the telltale noise of a long earthworm flexing its muscles and sliding its slick body through damp dirt.

Even for a Level-Seven Auditory Evolutionary like Xia Qing, that sound was whisper-quiet. Earthworms were harmless, feeding only on decaying matter—no need to catch them.

“Crunch—crunch—”

That was the unmistakable sound of cutworms or white grubs chewing through plant roots—those needed to go.

Zeroing in, Xia Qing grabbed her trusty hand hoe and dug straight down under the chive roots, pulling up a wriggling Evolved Cutworm and tossing it in the little basket. Then she bent her head and listened again.

Half an hour of bug hunting later, certain the soil held no mole crickets or other threats, Xia Qing dusted off her hands and brought the basket next door to feed the Green Lantern Chickens kept in cages.

Each chicken coop in the greenhouse had mesh on all sides and the top. That way, the flock couldn’t damage the plastic sheet but still had direct access to the ground, where they could peck for bugs and grass seeds.

The swiftest hens, the White-Feathered Hen and the Black-Feathered Rooster, snagged up the treats but didn’t gulp them down right away. They raced around the big cage with the bugs in their beaks while the other chickens chased close behind, turning the whole scene into a lively, feathered scramble.

“Er Gou, come on! Let’s go find Old Goat and head home for some grub.” Xia Qing called to the wolf, who was still watching the fish, and left the greenhouse to find Old Goat.

Old Goat was never hard to find. For one, his coloring stood out like a beacon, and for another, he always went to the same spots to munch grass.

Of course, Xia Qing found him under the Toon Tree, blissfully feasting on fallen leaves.