Chapter 67: Allies, Wolves, and Strawberries

With bright eyes, Xia Qing excitedly shared her experience of growing strawberries with Luo Pei. “At first I planted the strawberries in the terraced fields, but once they bloomed, their sweet scent attracted way too many bugs. So I transplanted them into pots and brought them home. Now I keep them indoors, and whenever there’s good sun I move them out into the courtyard to soak it up.”

“If you don’t keep them inside, those fragrant berries are sure to get gnawed by evolved insects,” Luo Pei warned. “Make sure your doors and windows are sealed tight. Be careful, the scent could draw evolved poisonous bugs right inside.”

Xia Qing nodded seriously. “I’ve been careful all along. Just yesterday I traded for a bucket of deodorizer with the lord from Plot Seven. It works wonders, and now the risk has dropped a lot.”

“If it’s from Zhang San over at Plot Seven, it must be good stuff,” Luo Pei said with a gentle smile. “Glad to hear it.”

After a little more small talk, Luo Pei got down to business. “After the Great Evolution, brain-evolved animals at the top of the food chain—like elephants, wolves, lions, tigers, gorillas, and monkeys—not only stopped preying on brain-evolved herbivores, they even started forming alliances with them for bigger gains. Both you and Jin agree that the wolf is an exceptionally smart brain-evolved creature, so the only way it gets along with your evolved sheep is if your sheep is also a brain-evolved animal.”

“Brain-evolved animals become leaders in their groups. If different types start forming alliances, that’s a whole network of powerhouses. For humans, that’s a disaster. Just how much despair are these disasters meant to push us to?”

The happiness strawberries brought her faded in an instant. Xia Qing’s face turned grave. “Luo Ge, that’s terrifying.”

Luo Pei nodded. “That’s why this hasn’t been made public yet. Xia Qing, how are things between you and your sheep?”

Xia Qing understood what Luo Pei meant. She’d only known Boss Sheep for a bit over two months, but she trusted it. “We share our territory, along with all the edible plants inside. We’ve already come to see each other as companions. Still, if that wolf shows up and my sheep sides with it against me, then it’s not my companion anymore.”

Yang Jin, who’d been quietly munching on cucumber slices, finally spoke up. “You allowed your evolved sheep to take food outside the territory to wait for the wolf—are you trying to test their relationship?”

“Exactly.” Xia Qing didn’t hide her plan from these two heavyweights. “If my sheep is just food being raised by that wolf, then I draw it out and get rid of the threat. If they’re companions, maybe I can benefit from that bond too.”

Luo Pei looked surprised. “You want to befriend the wolf? Wolves that have evolved are incredibly smart and dangerous. All these years, people have tried to tame or work with wolves—with no luck. Right now, just getting along peacefully is impossible. Aren’t you taking quite a risk?”

Xia Qing shook her head. “That’s really just the best-case scenario and honestly not likely at all. I’m thinking, if Boss Sheep can get me in with the wolf pack, maybe I’ll have another way to trade for supplies. That alpha wolf is sharp, and since it lives in Evolver Forest, it must have plenty of good stuff.”

After Xia Qing left, Luo Pei couldn’t help but exclaim, “She actually wants to trade with wolves! No wonder you like her. After ten years of disaster, there are fewer and fewer people with light in their eyes.”

These days, unless they’re heirs protected by big families, most people live numb, hopeless, reckless lives. But looking at Xia Qing, all Luo Pei saw was someone who was low-key, clear-headed, independent, and principled—still brimming with hope for the future.

Whenever Luo Pei saw Xia Qing, he felt humanity still had a future.

Yang Jin kept eating cucumber, saying nothing. His feelings for Xia Qing didn’t need words—nor could he put them into words.

Xia Qing never thought about dating anyone; she only wanted to live well for herself. Before, she poured herself into learning every skill for self-reliance. Now, after leaving the Safe Zone with all that knowledge, she devoted herself to farming and making life better.

All these years, she’d always been on her own. It was pretty clear that would stay true for a long time to come.

Strictly speaking, she’s not alone now. She finally has a companion—a silly sheep.

To her, he was at best someone pleasant-looking to trade with, nothing more.

In Xia Qing’s eyes, Yang Jin didn’t even compare to a goofy sheep. For someone as proud as him, how could he say anything about that?

Seeing Yang Jin’s silence, Luo Pei grinned knowingly. “Don’t tell me you don’t like her. If Territory Three weren’t Xia Qing’s, you’d have seized it long ago.”

Yang Jin finished off the cucumbers on Luo Pei’s fruit plate before leaning back and asking, “How much have you recovered, Luo Ge?”

Luo Pei didn’t answer, but also didn’t deny it. Seemed like he really did like Xia Qing. Just when did that start? Luo Pei knew there’d be no getting it out of him, so he didn’t bother trying. Instead, he answered, “Seventy percent. Give me another month and I’ll be at ninety. Got something in mind?”

“When you’re nearly recovered, I’m going to track down that wolf,” Yang Jin replied, plotting openly. “That wolf probably knows whether there’s any uncontaminated water in Territory Three, but since it hasn’t taken over, there’s only one explanation: its main territory has another clean water source.”

Luo Pei’s eyes lit up. “Bring along more things wolves like. Xia Qing’s right—if you can trade with them, don’t fight them.”

Trade? Yang Jin would like that. Lighting a cigarette, he took a slow drag and said, “If we weren’t perfectly matched, one of us would have died yesterday.”

Now that Luo Pei felt better, he even had energy for jokes. “A male wolf?”

Yang Jin was silent for a few seconds. “Female.”

Luo Pei chuckled before getting down to business. “The Safe Zone folks are sure to give us trouble over the evolved wolf attacking wild boars. Can Xie Yu handle it alone?”

When it came to deals, stingy Yang Jin never left himself exposed. “No need to handle anything. I signed an official contract—after buying the mountain, from the third month on, we’re required to guard it. Anything dangerous coming down before then isn’t our responsibility.”

Luo Pei was genuinely impressed. “It’s a shame your brilliant brain hasn’t evolved. Otherwise, you’d rule all of Blue Star.”

After heading home, Xia Qing made herself three hot scallion pancakes for lunch, then took a nap. Once rested, she put on her wide-brimmed straw hat, grabbed her water pedal-bike, and took Boss Sheep out to work in the fields.

After a month of feeding them grass and evolved insects, the fry in the fish pond had grown to three centimeters—they were big enough to catch and fry up.

So long as she kept feeding them well, by the end of July those fish would be palm-sized for sure. With all those dried fish prepped, her cat couldn’t be far behind! The thought made Xia Qing practically giddy. After showering Boss Sheep—who pedaled the waterwheel at full speed—with praise, she went off to inspect the fields.

First, Xia Qing headed to the north slope by the reservoir to check the planting area. She pinched off a spinach leaf—carefully—and checked to see if the seeds had matured yet. Not quite. She kept climbing up. The beans, eggplants, tomatoes, and peppers were all in bloom and fruiting. In another couple weeks, her menu would get even bigger.

Passing each seedling and the supports for the cucumbers and beans, Xia Qing gave the plants or bamboo racks a shake—that way, she ensured artificial pollination. With strong winds, there was no need to hand-pollinate, but her peace of mind meant she did every vegetable inside the insect net just in case.

When she reached the cucumber vines, Xia Qing picked a blooming male flower, pressed it to a female bloom for pollination, then tucked the extra male flowers into her straw hat. By the time she left the insect net near the spring, her hat was stuck with a dozen fresh yellow cucumber blossoms.

Straw hat in place, she kept climbing.

Any insect drawn by the cucumber flowers’ scent soon met their end. Xia Qing tossed the dead bugs into her little basket. Passing the spring, she rinsed the spinach leaf and ate it as she moved on.

Zhang San was a picky eater—spinach leaves were his absolute favorite. Xia Qing didn’t think much of them herself, but she never wasted a single green-light vegetable leaf.