Chapter 55: The Smartest Sheep on Blue Star

After Xia Qing took a small bite of her compressed rations, Boss Sheep was already itching to give it a try.

So, Xia Qing hopped off the tricycle and stood aside, holding the rations up over the bike to lure Boss Sheep. “Boss, you’re stronger than me and way smarter too. Bet you can pedal that waterwheel, right? And if you pedal, there’s food in it for you.”

Boss Sheep, eyes tracking the rations, climbed onto the tricycle and got settled in. The tricycle had already been refitted for his size—he could rest his two front hooves on the handlebars, imitating Xia Qing’s hands, while his back hooves fit perfectly into the pedal straps.

Xia Qing wasted no time, hyping him up. “Boss, you’re amazing! You even know how to pedal the waterwheel now. Come on, have some rations.”

After feeding him a little to keep him steady, Xia Qing crouched down, grabbed his hind legs and taught him how to pedal. “Push down with this hoof and that one comes up. Then push it down and this one pops up. Looks simple but, really, only the smartest sheep can figure this out.”

Boss Sheep caught on quick and started pedaling like crazy. The pedals spun, turning the back wheel and the little waterwheel in the canal, sending paddles attached to a rope to scoop water into the pipe and out through the three-way spout in a gushing stream.

Xia Qing hadn’t expected a sheep to learn pedaling so fast. She was honestly impressed. “Boss, you really are the smartest sheep on Blue Star—the one at the top of the pyramid, the pioneer of Evolved Sheep history…”

Boss Sheep, basking in the praise, pedaled away with eyes half-shut, glancing at Xia Qing as if to say, ‘Keep going—I like hearing it.’

With Xia Qing going on and on, she practically sang Boss Sheep’s praises all the way to the clouds.

Boss Sheep had endless energy. Even after finishing watering three acres, he was still pedaling full speed. After sealing the irrigation channel, Xia Qing stuffed the last crumbs of rations into his mouth. “Boss, you’re incredible! The field’s done so fast. Ready to head home?”

Boss Sheep ignored her and just kept pedaling.

Even after another round of persuasion, he kept right on going.

It finally dawned on Xia Qing that it wasn’t really about the food. He just genuinely loved pedaling this thing.

With the water rising and about to overflow the canal, Xia Qing didn’t want to kill Boss Sheep’s enthusiasm. So she grabbed a shovel and quickly dug a new channel at the three-way spout, hooking it around to lead the water back to the reservoir.

Boss Sheep, eyes half-shut and pleased as can be, kept doing his pointless work.

With no need to keep up the compliments, Xia Qing sat by the canal to rest, only to realize there were tiny, fast-swimming fry—just a centimeter long—in the water. Since clubbing that catfish, this was the first time she’d seen any fish in the water again.

No wonder the egrets had been hanging out by the river—turns out there really were fish.

But now she wondered—could she eat these fish?

Xia Qing started testing the fry for Xiang element. She’d catch one, test it, then toss it aside.

Every time she threw one, the egret waiting nearby would snatch it up—perfect teamwork.

After a hundred tests, Xia Qing found five fry giving off a yellow indicator. That was a pretty high ratio. She immediately came up with a great idea.

She’d dig a fish pond. Once she brought back the little kitten, the kitten could eat the red-lit fish while Xia Qing enjoyed the yellow ones. Boss Sheep could pedal to keep the pond filled—everyone wins!

Xia Qing drove over in the rotary tiller, and Boss Sheep immediately bailed on pedaling, hopping onto his custom seat on the tiller to watch her dig.

Xia Qing spent a day and a half digging out a fish pond two meters deep and over two acres wide, about a hundred meters from the reservoir.

Once the pond was filled, she pulled up the double-layered fine mesh fishing net blocking the narrowest part of the river channel. Over the past two days, that net had caught plenty of fry, all of which were relocated to the new pond.

After that, Xia Qing cheerfully switched on her walkie-talkie, planning to consult Qi Fu for fish-raising tips.

But as soon as she turned it on, she overheard Qi Fu complaining, “A few days ago, I spotted fry in the river, went through all the trouble to dig a fish pond, and the moment it’s done, the fry are gone!”

Xia Qing stayed silent.

Zhao Ze replied, “You’re something else, Qi—I’ve yet to see any fish at all and you’ve already finished your pond. Maybe the last batch of fry already moved on? Give it a few days—another batch will come for sure.”

Kuang Qingwei from Plot Six chimed in, sounding aggrieved. “So that’s why the river’s water level dropped today! Turns out you were filling your pond, had me thinking the river was drying up, so I drove the workers to irrigate the wheat like maniacs.”

Xia Qing, who’d just filled her own pond, was at a loss.

Zhao Ze was puzzled. “Water level dropped? I’ve been near the river all day and didn’t notice a thing.”

Kuang Qingwei shot back, “And what work do you even have by the river?”

Zhao Ze chuckled, “Picking out nice-patterned stones for my courtyard. I used to be in landscaping. Now that my territory’s quiet, I got itchy hands.”

“What’s the point in paving stones? One Xiang Rain and the whole lot’ll be ruined,” Kuang Qingwei scoffed. “You know why I care about the water level? Because there’ve been deaths in fights over water rights for farmland in a few territories.”

That caught everyone’s attention right away. Zhao Ze sounded relieved. “Lucky I picked a plot that never runs out of water.”

“You really are lucky,” Kuang Qingwei said with a laugh. “I always had my eye on Plot Three’s reservoir, but Xia Qing beat me to it.”

Zhao Ze brought up the plot selection, “I picked right after Xia Qing—figured, as an Evolver, she’d have the inside scoop, so I chose a plot right next to hers. Lucky for me I picked Plot Four; if I’d gone with Plot One, I’d have been poisoned by the last Xiang Rain.”

Xia Qing pressed the button. “I was like Qingwei—I wanted the reservoir on Plot Three. Qi, what do you feed fish?”

Qi Fu, always ready to share his agri-knowledge, jumped in. “Folks from my hometown raise fish. There’s animal-based and plant-based feed. Store-bought is easiest, but after the calamity, forget about getting it—we’ve got to make our own. Animal feed usually means oligochaetes, rotifers, daphnia, aquatic worms and maggots. Plant-based is water plants and algae, sometimes vegetables, but you need to cook and chop those first. Thing is, we don’t know what evolved fry eat, or if their old feed still works now they’ve evolved.”

Kuang Qingwei added, “If there are small fish, there should be big fish. Have you caught any? I’ve only seen a dozen evolved giant leeches. Zhao Ze, don’t tell me you fished up all the big ones?”

“I wish! I tried—used earthworms as bait, but something always bit my line off. After that, I gave up.”

Zhao Ze’s territory had plenty of people—enough free to fish and pick stones for fun. Xia Qing, on the other hand, was on her own, planting, fixing up the house and getting ready to paint. She barely had a second to breathe.

She switched off the walkie-talkie, deciding to feed the fish grass. With the feed sorted, it was time to think about fertilizing the fields.

The construction crew was on lunch break, so Xia Qing rang up Sun Zhe.

She and Sun Zhe had worked on the same construction crew for five years. Not quite close, but friendly enough to chat. Sun Zhe was smart—he’d definitely be interested.

“Hello?” Sun Zhe sounded tired, but that’s normal after a morning of tough, dirty work.

Xia Qing replied calmly, “Sun Zhe, it’s Xia Qing.”