Chapter 882: Monkey Lessons and Fig Wars in the Morning

Seeing Monkey finally able to climb, Xia Qing felt a surge of happiness. But the fact that it was climbing straight for the fig tree made her mood plummet.

She strode over and scooped up Monkey, who was just three meters from the fig tree. Maybe it was used to being picked up by now—Monkey fell into Xia Qing’s hands without a fight, limbs dangling, looking as clueless as ever.

Staring at it, Xia Qing couldn’t help but think of Tang Huai, laughing so hard he nearly doubled over—just the memory made her blood pressure rise. “You want a fig? Not bad, you’ve got good taste.”

On the east side of her yard, inside the insect net greenhouse, she had two orange trees over two meters tall, two fig trees just under that height, and four young jujube saplings. Only the twelve spring figs were ripening, turning red from green, ready to eat.

Xia Qing couldn’t smell anything herself, but she knew the figs must be putting out some kind of tempting aroma—it drew insects and birds to hover around the netting, and it clearly lured Monkey too. Even after just regaining its strength, it couldn’t resist crawling over for a taste.

She picked a fig, waved it in front of Monkey, and caught its eyes tracking the fruit intently. Much better than yesterday.

With one monkey recovered, destruction was definitely going up—Monkey was bound to make more trouble than Red Squirrel.

Her expression darkened as she pulled out her knife. With a menacing wave at the fig tree she warned, “If you dare pick fruit on your own, I’ll take you out! If you want fruit, you’d better trade for it—materials or labor!”

Any monkey that could be carried by Giant Bear was not ordinary. From today, Xia Qing decided, it was time to increase Monkey’s training so it would finally learn the rules of Section Three.

If it couldn’t learn, this last month of recovery in Section Three was going to be spent in a cage.

After laying out the rules, Xia Qing hung Monkey on the clothesline, washed the fig, and split it with Old Goat—half for each.

The Green Lantern Fig had a puckery, slightly tart-sweet bite. Xia Qing had never tasted fresh figs before the disaster, so she didn’t know if this was what figs always tasted like. Honestly, strawberries were way better.

Old Goat, on the other hand, loved them. After wolfing down its share, it nudged Xia Qing with its horns, pestering her to pick another. She did—half to Old Goat, half to Monkey.

Monkey clearly loved the fruit too. It chewed with way more speed than yesterday. When it wasn’t eating it just stared blankly, but when it chewed it looked sort of goofy—either way, it didn’t seem like the sharpest tool in the shed.

When Er came back with bugs and finished collecting the eggs, Xia Qing gave it half a fig too, and the other half went to Old Goat as usual.

Er didn’t care for it, so Xia Qing passed its half to Employee 001 of Section Three—Little Fei Mao. Little Fei Mao was picky too, not super interested. When Xia Qing reached to take it back, it just bolted with the fig in its mouth.

The little guy dashed to the Northern Buffer Forest and stashed its fig in its tiny tree hollow.

Not long after it hid the fruit, a fat little Red Squirrel squeezed into Fei Mao’s tree hollow, seized the fig, and darted over the wall of Section Three, racing back to Section Three of Hill Forty-Nine.

While the squirrels were busy stealing each other’s treasures, Xia Qing sat in her own territory, eating breakfast and checking last night’s surveillance.

She couldn’t help but laugh aloud watching the Queen’s adorable wolf cub get shoved aside by the Handsome Huge Wolf’s paw.

After the little wolf and Broken Back Wolf finished their bath and fell asleep under the eaves guarded by Alpha, Xia Qing found herself feeling a bit sorry for the big lump of Handsome Huge Wolf alone in the corner.

When Lame Wolf finished his bath and rolled around in the yard getting caked in mud, Xia Qing wasn’t surprised at all—he was a slob to begin with.

Seeing Black Wolf go the whole night without a bath, standing guard duty with total dedication—Xia Qing admired Alpha’s leadership.

Just before dawn, Broken Back Wolf went inside and dragged out two cucumbers. One for Alpha, a few bites for Little Wolf, most of one for itself—and that was it. The other wolves got nothing, even though Lame Wolf circled and begged. Broken Back Wolf, stingy as always.

The Wolf Pack always stuck to the rules. Xia Qing had cucumbers growing in Greenhouse Two and her planting greenhouse, and the wolves definitely sniffed them on their rounds. But they knew the food was hers, so no one ever tried sneaking a bite.

After breakfast, Xia Qing handed her territory over to Chen Zheng and Chen Cheng, tossed them each a fig, and asked them to help weed the corn greenhouse.

Next, Xia Qing drove out to Territory Eight to buy fertilizer.

Just as her car left the south gate of Section Three, Tang Huai sat squatting by the bus stop, watching her drive off, completely dejected. He poked at weed roots with his transplanting trowel, clearly down in the dumps.

Xia Qing had definitely seen him. Ignored him too. Now he’d lose his chance to play with wolves and goats—the thought hit Tang Huai even harder than when Zhang San blacklisted him.

What could he send her to cheer her up?

After spreading fertilizer in the rice field, Xia Qing slung her wetsuit over her back and headed for Hill Fifty-Five to dig for medicinal herbs. In the bamboo grove on the northern slope of Hill Fifty-Two, she ran smack into Lame Wolf hunting voles.

Lame Wolf was overjoyed to see her, hopping about with excitement. As a gift, it presented her with a bamboo rat.

Hauling her bamboo rat, Xia Qing crossed two peaks. By the crocodile pool, she spotted two wolves gnawing on a crocodile. They looked up at her, but made no threatening moves.

Ever since Xia Qing had fought alongside the wolves against the bears and later filled Python Pond on Hill Fifty-Five, the northern wolves had started to accept her as one of their own. Most of them never bared their teeth at her anymore.

Entering Hill Fifty-Five, Xia Qing heard the mountain guard wolves howling. Not much farther in, Alpha appeared right in front of her.

No sign of the little wolf—Xia Qing was disappointed. “Queen, I’m just heading to Python Pond to dig up some medicinal herbs.”

Alpha made no move to stop her, so Xia Qing strolled up to the pond, changed into her wetsuit, and jumped straight in.

There were three kinds of medicinal herbs growing in the pond, but only one of real value. Though it was an aquatic plant, it needed a decent amount of light and warmth, growing only in the zone ten meters below the surface. Any deeper, and you’d just find some useless plant that thrived where it was dark and cold.

That’s why Xia Qing had filled Python Pond until only ten meters of water were left. The water still connected to the underground river through cracks between the rocks, but now the huge black python—over a dozen meters long—couldn’t squeeze through.

Alpha had no objections to keeping the pond. Water flowed into the valley from the heights, so there was never going to be a shortage.

After diving in, Xia Qing didn’t rush to gather herbs. The heat was unbearable, the water was perfect, so she enjoyed several laps. Perched on the mountaintop, the golden-eyed wolf cub watched her intently, tracking the human who swam back and forth like a crocodile.

When she’d gathered three clumps of medicinal herbs requested by her Idol and climbed ashore, Xia Qing changed into her protective suit, whipped out her phone, and had a serious talk with Alpha. “Queen, we’ve got to cull some of the wild boar on Hill Forty-Nine, or else they’ll dig up all my chestnut and Chinese torreya trees.”

Alpha stared at the video of wild boar on her phone for a few seconds, then tipped back its head and howled, “Awoooo—wooo—woooo—”

The moment Alpha called, all six wolf cubs on the mountaintop came racing down together.