Chapter 821: Roast Duck, Evolving Wolves, and Summer Preparations

A wolfdog crouched by the kitchen door in Section Three. In the living room, Old Goat lounged in a hammock chair with a wolf sprawled across it, while another wolf lay comfortably on Xia Qing’s own hammock.

June was almost here, and flames danced once more in the living room’s fireplace as the temperature inside steadily climbed.

Meanwhile, the sheep lord of Section Three did laps around the room, showing off its cycling skills. No one could tell if it was feeling hot yet.

But what about the human lord, plucking feathers from a Green Lantern wild duck in the kitchen—was she hot?

Not at all! Thanks to Crippled Wolf, she’d been gifted two Green Lantern wild ducks.

“Your Majesty, I’m thinking of welding a grill just for roasting meat. It’s really not fit to run the fireplace all summer. What do you think?”

Alpha, stretched out on Old Goat’s hammock chair, shifted his golden eyes from the wagging tail of Wolfdog Number Two by the kitchen door back to the fireplace, gazing steadily at the flickering flames.

“Er, what do you think?” Xia Qing asked the wolfdog by the door, not surprised in the least that Alpha didn’t answer.

Er’s mouth couldn’t seem to close—anything Xia Qing said made it happy.

Crippled Wolf, panting from the heat with his tongue lolling, hopped down from the hammock chair and pawed open a living room window. Then he bolted upstairs, opened the fridge, and grabbed two cucumbers.

One for the Queen, one for himself.

Old Goat wanted one too. Tossing aside the bike, he shuffled over, but Crippled Wolf spun around, flaunting his grand tail and the cucumber in his jaws.

As the crisp crunch of cucumber echoed, Xia Qing poked her head out for a look, then dashed upstairs to grab two more fresh cucumbers—and locked the fridge for good measure.

The new cucumbers: one for Old Goat, one for Er.

As for her? She plucked feathers while thinking fondly of her fellow companions.

Once Xia Qing had finished cleaning the ducks and hung them in the fireplace to roast, Crippled Wolf polished off his icy cucumber, then hurried upstairs, dragging his laptop over to the small table he’d pushed far from the fire, gesturing for Xia Qing to start a video.

“Coming!”

Washing her hands, Xia Qing eagerly pulled five sheets of colored printouts from a drawer, each sealed in a clear bag, and spread them on the table. “Crippled, what do you want to learn today?”

Each of the five pages held color pictures: the first full of microorganisms, the second plants, the third animals, the fourth storms and lightning, and the fifth laboratories.

Hoping to steer Crippled Wolf away from those overplayed old videos, Xia Qing had come up with this simple game to encourage him to try something new.

Crippled Wolf gazed thoughtfully at the pictures, torn—he seemed keen on all of them.

Alpha strolled over from Old Goat’s hammock and glanced at the sheets. With a giant paw, he pressed directly on the picture of a monkey.

“Your Majesty wants to see monkeys? That’s in the primate introduction—alright!” Xia Qing gently wiped away his paw print and pulled up a folder of primate videos on her computer, starting the first one.

“Primates are a crucial order among mammals. Before the evolution, there were roughly 15 families, 66 genera, and 346 species of primates on Blue Star. Afterward, their diversity is unknown. Primates tend to have long limbs, are skilled climbers, have flexible fingers and toes for grasping, and highly evolved brains…”

As Xia Qing scrubbed protective suits for the three wolves, she wondered why Alpha wanted to watch a monkey video. Just listening, her mood grew heavy.

Many of the primate species featured—orangutans, macaques, drills, baboons—brought back bloody memories in Xia Qing’s mind.

As the video explained, post-evolution, primate species were a mystery, but their advanced brain development made them a tremendous threat to human survival.

Fortunately, the portion of Evolved Forest north of Hui Three Base was held by dogs, cats, and bears. Although fierce, their diets were different from humans, and they weren’t about to invade human land to steal precious crops and vegetables.

Sensing Xia Qing’s mood shift, Er rested his big head in her lap, gazing up with warm, rust-colored eyes.

She stroked Er’s head, smoothing her feelings and quietly continued washing their suits.

Before long, Crippled Wolf hit pause and turned, thoughtful, to Xia Qing. When she glanced over, he actually grinned, showing off sharp, white canine teeth.

Xia Qing looked up at the paused screen—a monkey with dense black fur and a strange, pale white face staring blankly—and asked, “Crippled, what’s up with this monkey?”

Crippled Wolf’s grin only widened.

Xia Qing’s mind raced, trying to puzzle out what this clever wolf was thinking:

Was he showing off his new skill, pausing and playing videos? Couldn’t be, he’d already learned that last month while ordering takeout.

Did he spot such a monkey in Evolved Forest? No way—if he’d found an invading monkey, he wouldn’t look so tickled.

Stumped, Xia Qing hazarded a guess: “Do you just think this monkey looks kind of funny? It really does.”

“Woo—” Alpha let out a low growl.

Crippled Wolf sobered up right away, raising his hefty paw to unpause the video on the laptop and focus again.

“…The white-faced saki monkey belongs to the saki family, named for the male’s monk-like facial features…”

As the monkey’s face zoomed up on screen, the resident genius wolf started to zone out again, shooting Xia Qing a cheeky grin. She shook her head. “This monkey really gets you, huh?”

But Crippled Wolf, happily smiling, didn’t understand a word. Shutting his mouth, he turned back to study seriously.

After that little interlude, both wolves sat in front of the table, watching attentively—right up until the aroma of roast duck drifted through the room. Only then did Alpha finally glance at the fireplace.

Xia Qing took out the perfectly roasted ducks to cool, then led the smart wolves to the bathroom door on the first floor to discuss something important. “Your Majesty, Crippled, tomorrow night I’ll start a medicinal bath—like the one last year, painful to soak in but it makes you a lot stronger afterward.”

She handed the medicine packet to both wolves for a sniff, gesturing as she explained, “This one’s improved—a lot of credits went into it. If you want to join, just come by after sunset tomorrow.”

Alpha sniffed the packet and nuzzled against Xia Qing’s leg. Crippled Wolf flashed his adorable, sharp white teeth in understanding.

Xia Qing pointed to Er and continued, “Besides Your Majesty and Crippled, Er should also join the medicinal bath. It’ll be good for him.”

Alpha seemed to get her meaning. After Xia Qing packed up a duck for Crippled Wolf to carry, the two wolves left Section Three.

The duck was probably a snack for their cubs back home.

Er stayed behind on the territory—maybe Alpha figured with another visit tomorrow, there was no sense making him travel twice.

That night, Xia Qing slept better than ever. The next day, energized, she headed out to the Ninth Planting Center and spent all day with the crew laying a foundation for her new house.

Just as she was about to start her medicinal bath that evening, Xiao Jiang called with news. “Sister Qing, four wolves from the Northern Wolf Pack just escorted a red fox carrying a little fox into Section Six of Hill Forty-Nine.”