Chapter 861: Early Morning Troubles in the Greenhouse

Xia Qing was happily picking spinach seeds when she saw Er slip into Greenhouse One and stop at the edge of the next tier of terraces, looking up at her with an unhappy face. She immediately called out, “What’s wrong, Er?”

Wolfdog Number Two turned around, then glanced back at Xia Qing.

“Is something going on outside? Alright, let’s go have a look.” It was just after five in the morning and the sky was already bright, so Xia Qing didn’t bother with the night vision goggles. She just put on her protective mask, stuffed the small pouch of spinach seeds into her pocket, covered the unfinished spinach with a ground cover sheet, and stood to follow Er down the slope.

Old Goat, who had been lounging with half-closed eyes, watched his little brother leave the greenhouse. The moment Er was gone, Old Goat jumped up, strode into the spinach terraces, and quickly gobbled up two rotten spinach leaves that stuck out from under the ground cover.

Human and wolf stepped out of Greenhouse One and stood atop the high slope. From afar, Xia Qing could see the commotion near Greenhouse Twelve.

The rain cover on Greenhouse Twelve had blown away and the insect net was torn to shreds by hail. The mature wheat inside had attracted a family of red squirrels and flocks of birds, all pecking away at the grain that hadn’t been gathered.

There were just too many freeloaders for Er to chase away on his own, so he’d come looking for Xia Qing.

“Good job, Er. You spotted the red squirrel family and the birds stealing our greenhouse’s wheat and came to tell me right away.” Xia Qing praised her furry partner first, then came up with a solution. “After all our hard work, we can’t let them eat all our wheat for nothing. Let’s grab a couple of chickens from home and let them peck at the grains too, alright?”

Er absolutely loved when Xia Qing spoke to him in that gentle voice. Whatever she said, he was always happy.

Human and wolf made their way back home and fetched three cages full of big chickens, then returned to Greenhouse Twelve.

Xia Qing had caged up those chickens around three in the morning, planning for them to eat the fallen wheat grains in Greenhouse Twelve. She’d just gotten so wrapped up in work in Greenhouse One that she lost track of time, and day had already broken.

There were more than fifty chickens, but that wasn’t even enough to pick through the wheat heads covering an entire acre. Xia Qing gestured to Er not to worry about the birds and squirrels and just focus on guarding the chickens.

All the territories in Section One of the North had suffered losses, attracting flocks of omnivorous birds. At Xia Qing’s request, Territory Eight released the imperial-banded sea eagle to patrol overhead. The Inspection Team was busy shooting and driving off large birds, so there were no big predatory birds in the sky above the territories.

Section Three was fenced in by iron mesh walls. Xia Qing brought over the leader of her flock—a highly evolved black-feathered rooster and the white-feathered hen—along with their dozen or so chicks. These chickens ran like the wind and had great fighting spirits, perfectly fearless of little birds and squirrels. That’s why she was at ease leaving the flock in Er’s care.

Wolfdog Number Two got the message and skipped his usual early morning routine of catching bugs and feeding fish. He stayed by Greenhouse Twelve to guard the chickens.

“Good boy, Er.” Xia Qing pulled a piece of jerky from her pocket and handed it to him as a reward, then returned to work near the spinach terraces by Greenhouse One.

Old Goat’s chin fur was streaked with green from spinach juice, but he pretended nothing happened, lying there with closed eyes and pulling off the perfect act of ‘nothing to see here.’

Xia Qing glanced at the sheep hoof prints on the ground cover and pretended not to notice. She sat down to work, knowing full well that if she called Old Goat out on his sneaky eating, he’d probably start a fight right then and there. This wasn’t the spot for a showdown and Xia Qing didn’t have time for that.

She was way too busy already.

Old Goat saw his little brother hadn’t caught on, so he kept chewing away.

Suppressing a laugh, Xia Qing picked up a spinach leaf riddled with holes from the seeds. “Want a bite, Old Goat?”

“Baa~”

Old Goat immediately opened his big, shiny eyes and trotted over to snatch the tasty spinach leaf from Xia Qing’s hand.

While picking seeds, Xia Qing chatted idly with Old Goat at her side. “You glutton. Tang Huai said recently he wants to find a ewe of your breed to bring over. Honestly, even if she comes, I bet she won’t look twice at you.”

“Baa~~”

Old Goat didn’t care a bit about Xia Qing’s teasing. Eyes only for the fragrant spinach leaves, he begged for another.

Xia Qing plucked another and handed it over. “Go easy, Old Goat. We’ve already sold these leaves to Third Brother—they’re worth 280 credits a pound!”

Old Goat couldn’t care less how valuable the spinach was—he bleated in all sorts of crazy pitches, begging for more.

Meanwhile, over by Greenhouse Twelve, Er seized his chance. Springing five meters high using the greenhouse frame as a launchpad, he snatched the magpie that had dared poop on him midair. The rest of the birds and squirrels scattered in fright, and the chickens scampered away to hide.

Red Squirrel mom and her two kids stashed wheat seeds in their tree hollow, then darted back to poke around for more under the thickest wheat stalks, far from the evolved wolf.

A puny red squirrel with a tuft of fur growing from one ear nervously poked its little head out of the hollow, sniffing for the sweet scent in the air.

A few minutes later, temptation got the better of the little guy. Braving danger, it crept out, slipping from bush to rock, inching forward with utmost caution, until it reached the edge of Greenhouse One, hidden in the devastation grass at the border of the Northern Buffer Forest, peeking in.

While Xia Qing was bagging up spinach stalks, she spotted the scraggly red squirrel outside the greenhouse, missing tufts of fur. She worried for it. “Little Fei Mao, what are you doing out here? Hungry? Isn’t your mom busy hauling wheat grains to the nest? She won’t let you eat any?”

It was possible.

Survival was brutal in the Evolved Forest. Most little animals risked their lives for food every day. A two-month-old red squirrel needed to start fending for itself, or else it would just become someone else’s meal.

In this respect, most humans were ‘gentler’ than evolved animals—or maybe just better at looking out for their own. People would feed and care for relatives and weak members of the group who couldn’t manage on their own.

Hearing Xia Qing’s voice, Little Fei Mao immediately bit a hole in the insect net and darted inside to her side.

Xia Qing was speechless. “You little troublemaker! I never said you could come in!”

As Xia Qing got up to patch the hole, Old Goat sneakily grabbed another spinach leaf, and Little Fei Mao nabbed a spinach seed.

“Crunch—crack.”

While repairing the net, Xia Qing heard that tiny crunch and quickly taped over the hole. She rushed back and grabbed Little Fei Mao. “You ruined the insect net and swiped two spinach seeds. You owe me even more credits now. How are you going to pay, huh?”

Little Fei Mao, scrunched up in Xia Qing’s hand, chewed fast and gulped down the seed. Old Goat took the chance to wolf down another spinach leaf.

With a scrawny squirrel cub like this, Xia Qing didn’t have the heart to scold him. She just popped him into her pocket and kept picking seeds—she had to hurry before it got too hot, and before Old Goat ate all the spinach.

“Old Goat, go help Er watch over Greenhouse Twelve and make sure the birds don’t bully our chickens.”

Old Goat squinted, pretending he didn’t understand.

Xia Qing snorted. “Just you wait, let’s see how I deal with you later.”

Old Goat squinted again and stole another tiny spinach leaf by Xia Qing’s foot.