Chapter 499: A Squirrel’s Appeal and the Ashen Forest

“Beep.”

The warning chirp from the surveillance camera woke Xia Qing. She opened her eyes and listened closely. Turns out, Red Squirrel had climbed onto her windowsill.

Xia Qing pulled on some clothes and got out of bed. She poured some warm spring water into a small bowl on the cabinet, added a drop of Devastation Element Antidote, then opened the window and set the bowl outside along with three Yellow Lantern Peanuts.

Red Squirrel’s fur was dull and its body thin. It was probably still suffering from that Green Lantern peanut injury, and without any protection had just barely survived the Devastation Snow. Now the Devastation Element in its body was eating away at both its health and its evolutionary ability. Xia Qing didn’t want to lose this talented forager of a neighbor, so she decided to share a little of her and Er Gou’s antidote.

Old Goat?

That guy’s as tough as steel. If you sliced him up and sold the meat, there’d be a stampede. He definitely doesn’t need any antidote.

Red Squirrel only hopped onto the windowsill after Xia Qing stepped away. It crouched beside the bowl, drank its fill, and instead of running off, sat down and cracked open all three peanuts right there. It rubbed its tiny paws, shook its patchy tail, and stared longingly at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing felt a little helpless.

“Didn’t get enough to eat?”

Red Squirrel kept shaking its tail.

“Alright, alright.” Xia Qing dug into the pocket of her protective suit and pulled out two chestnuts, setting them on the windowsill.

The squirrel grabbed both in a flash and darted away, but soon it was back outside her window, waving that sorry tail at her again as she folded her quilt.

Xia Qing caught on. “Not enough food in your den, huh? Feeling insecure? Okay, I get it.”

She found a few boards and sawed them to size, then knocked together a wooden box, cut a small door into it, and hung up an emergency blanket for a curtain. She put all of Red Squirrel’s food stash inside and shouldered the box, climbing up the tall tree in the Western Buffer Forest where Red Squirrel lived. After fixing the box beside its nest, she called out, “All done. Your food’s all inside.”

Once Xia Qing left, Red Squirrel slipped down from the branch and squeezed into the box, hauling the food into its tree hole for safekeeping.

Today, Xia Qing’s body didn’t hurt at all and she felt her strength had returned a bit. She took Er Gou for a jog around the territory, checking every corner, then headed home to make breakfast.

Just as Xia Qing set a nutritious breakfast on the table, she noticed Er Gou was baring his fangs at the window, growling low.

She glanced out and saw Red Squirrel again, perched atop the wooden post that held the surveillance camera. It twitched its tail, rubbed its paws, and stared back at her with those pleading eyes.

Xia Qing was speechless. “You little freeloader, planning to eat the rich now?”

Of course, ‘the rich’ meant herself.

Red Squirrel didn’t get what Xia Qing was saying, just kept rubbing its little paws and gazing longingly at her.

“Even with all that food you still feel unsafe?” Xia Qing understood all too well how anxious hunger could make you. If she didn’t resupply Red Squirrel, it would risk scavenging through the Devastation Snow for food.

Oh well—let it eat off the rich, then.

After breakfast, Xia Qing headed to the basement. She scooped out a half-bag each of Yellow-Lamp Chestnuts, corn and mung beans, carried it to Red Squirrel’s place, and dumped them into the wooden box. She told Er Gou and Old Goat to watch the house, then asked Guan Tong and Chen Cheng to help watch the territory. After that, she headed to the eastern gathering point with Zhao Ze and the others, climbed onto the big truck and set off for Hill Fifty.

Today was the first day for clearing the firebreak line. Xia Qing wasn’t part of the task team, but as the manager of Hill Fifty she had to come inspect.

According to the schedule she and Yang Jin set yesterday, today the team would open up the firebreak path to the entrance of Hill Fifty, then start clearing on the mountain.

With bulldozers, explosives and plenty of people, it took just over an hour to widen the valley road all the way to the base of Hill Fifty’s Third Peak.

Zhao Ze split everyone into groups and set them to work. Xia Qing followed Tan Junjie to look over the hazard zone that was roped off with caution tape.

Zhang San had already marked the dangerous area on the map, but standing there in person, the view was far more overwhelming.

Below Third Peak of Hill Fifty, over twenty acres of mountain forest once smothered in toxins—the Devastation Snow here had a rusty red tint and the towering pines inside had clearly lost all life.

Yellow pine needles, red-brown Devastation Snow, and not so much as a birdcall to be heard. Even the air in the woods felt soaked with despair.

“These trees are huge…” Su Ming, following behind Tan Junjie, muttered under his breath. “Is this what a super-evolved microbe can do? Is there any hope left for this land?”

“The only way forward is to burn it all thoroughly and replant seedlings.” The familiar voice belonged to Assistant Xiao Liu from Territory Nine, who walked over in a hazmat suit, peering through the face shield at Xia Qing.

“Best to use this kind of pine, since the local soil is perfect for it. We’ve already run the tests—the chemicals left behind when these needles decompose can suppress other plants from sprouting. It’ll even slow down Devastation Grass.”

The ‘prisoners’ from Territory Nine were assigned to the First and Second Disaster Response Teams by Zhang San, posted here in the danger zone. Xiao Liu was among them.

Xia Qing nodded and asked, “Xiao Liu, do you start these pines from seed?”

Covered in mud and dirty snow, Xiao Liu introduced herself, “Territory Nine’s been reclaimed. I’m not an assistant anymore. Name’s Liu Zongying. Seeds and cuttings can both work—cuttings grow faster but seeded trees are more stable in the long run. Both methods have their merits.”

“Got it, thanks.” Xia Qing gave her a grateful nod.

Xiao Liu sensed Xia Qing’s courtesy and quietly asked, “Miss Xia, could I talk to you alone for a moment?”

“Sure.”

After walking higher up the mountain, Xiao Liu stopped and wiped her gloved hands on her protective suit, then began writing quickly in the Devastation Snow:

Don’t believe a word Fire Phoenix says. She’s a master manipulator. Thanks for helping us break away from Fire Phoenix and start over.

Seeing Xia Qing’s face remain still, Xiao Liu wrote another line:

Fourth Sister traded the antidote for this chance.

Xia Qing nodded to show she understood.

Xiao Liu wiped away the words, straightened up and walked back to the danger zone. Despite the dark circles under her eyes, a bright smile lit up her pale face.

Xia Qing’s gaze trailed from the erased words—start over—toward the slope where the Bear Cave was hidden. In a disaster year, most people had made the wrong choices, and almost none ever got a second chance.

She herself wasn’t one of the lucky few. Without scientific skills, she had no value to trade for a new beginning. Every step forward had to be careful and deliberate, and she’d have to be even more cautious in the future.

Xia Qing made her way toward the Bear Cave, which Yang Jin was using as a disaster-response office. She had another reason for coming today—to fetch spring water from the Hidden Valley to test its quality.

Since her Idol had no interest in the cave, she’d just test it herself.