After petting the sheep to her heart’s content, Xiaqing sprayed disinfectant on the cracks around the door and windows and the drains in the bathroom and kitchen, sealing them up tight. She then laid out her sleeping bag on the other side of the fire to get some sleep.
A Relaxing Capsule’s effects lasted for ten hours on a normal person, but on a weakened Evolutionary Sheep, it would probably only work for six hours at most. Xiaqing was worried it might start smashing holes in her house once the drug wore off, so she felt she had to stand watch.
Xiaqing was sleeping fitfully. As the fire gradually dimmed, the Sheep Leader opposite her opened its eyes. Its limbs twitched slightly, and then it stood up, shook its fluffy, curly wool, and took two steps back, away from the fire.
Xiaqing’s eyes snapped open. She scrambled out of her sleeping bag and stood up, staring at the Sheep Leader.
"BAA."
Although the Sheep Leader’s bleat was weak, it sounded like a normal sheep. Xiaqing breathed a sigh of relief. "Want to go out?"
The Sheep Leader narrowed its eyes, lifted its head, and sniffed the air. Then, its hooves went TAP TAP TAP across the floor tiles as it headed to the kitchen for a meal.
’Well, so much for the vegetables I prepared. The Sheep Leader gets them all.’ Xiaqing followed and leaned against the doorframe, letting out a lazy yawn. "Once you’re full, go back to your pen."
After finishing the vegetables in the basket, the Sheep Leader came back with a TAP TAP TAP, chose a spot a little further from the fire to lie down, and then grew still with its eyes narrowed.
Seeing it had no intention of starting a fight, Xiaqing relented. "You can sleep in here tonight, but if you dare to shit or piss in the house, I’ll slaughter you for meat."
The Sheep Leader kept its eyes narrowed and didn’t move.
"After going berserk like that, your meat’s probably not even edible anymore. And you even made me give you a bath and get rid of your bugs. You’ve really turned a disaster into a blessing." Xiaqing yawned and slowly closed her eyes.
After lying on its side for a while, the Sheep Leader changed its position.
Hearing the movement, Xiaqing immediately opened her eyes. She saw it stretch its two front legs forward, its head and neck slowly sinking to rest upon them. ’Never mind the weight of its head, those two big horns alone must weigh at least ten pounds. Isn’t it worried its slender legs will go numb?’ Xiaqing smiled silently, closed her eyes, and went back to sleep.
The Sheep Leader stared first at Xiaqing, then at the fire. It was a long while before it finally closed its eyes.
The human and the sheep slept until dawn. The Sheep Leader was the first to wake up. As soon as it stood, the noise woke Xiaqing, who got up and opened the door to let it out.
After relieving itself in the yard, the Sheep Leader turned to eat the Evolved Perilla that Xiaqing had placed on the rack in the sheep pen.
The weeds in the yard had grown wildly overnight and were now taller than Xiaqing’s calves. Judging by the Sheep Leader’s reaction, however, the yard was likely safe.
For breakfast, Xiaqing pan-fried two fragrant toon and cornflour flatbreads for herself. They tasted wonderful.
After finishing her flatbreads, Xiaqing thought about the Sheep Leader, which looked robust but was actually just a bony frame with no meat on it. She dug out her book on sheep farming. After comparing it to the illustrations and descriptions, Xiaqing confirmed that the Sheep Leader was a Small-tailed Han sheep. She then carefully read about the breed’s characteristics and couldn’t help but laugh.
The book went on at length about how delicious the meat of Small-tailed Han sheep was, how quickly they reproduced, and the high quality of their pelts. Only at the very end was there a brief mention that the breed was highly adaptable to its environment.
’Highly adaptable, indeed. Otherwise, the Sheep Leader wouldn’t have survived ten years into the apocalypse, growing to one-and-a-half times the height and weight of the adult rams described in the book.’
After the evolution, many organisms grew larger, and humans were no exception.
During Blue Star’s Great Evolution, the dividing line for human evolutionary traits was the age of twenty-five. Those who had already passed twenty-five experienced no significant changes in physique post-evolution. However, those under twenty-five grew noticeably larger. When Xiaqing evolved at sixteen, she was only five-foot-three. Now, at twenty-five, she was already five-foot-ten, and for some reason, she felt she would grow even taller.
The broadcasts claimed that post-evolution humans not only grew taller but also had longer lifespans. Of course, that was just based on research data. In the harsh reality of the Natural Disasters, how many people could actually expect to die of old age?
"Concentrated feed?" Xiaqing flipped to the section on raising Small-tailed Han sheep and found that several concentrated feed formulas listed corn and salt. "Sheep need salt, too?"
Xiaqing’s gaze shifted to her grain box. She had cornmeal, but...
...she couldn’t bear to part with it...
’I’ll think about it again when things get better.’
Xiaqing then flipped to the pages on several types of highly nutritious pasture grasses for sheep, memorizing their names and appearances.
After eating, Xiaqing put on her Protective Suit and pulled up all the weeds in the yard. Weeds that grew rampantly during a Harmful Rain had to be pulled out by the roots and burned; otherwise, the root systems would keep growing and destroy the soil.
After wiping out a nest of highly destructive Evolved Ants, it started to rain again. Xiaqing used half a basin of purified water from under the eaves to rinse the mud off her one-piece Protective Suit. Just as she was about to open the door and go inside, the Sheep Leader came over with a TAP TAP TAP.
Xiaqing didn’t move, her eyes fixed on its dirty hooves.
Only when the Sheep Leader began to paw the ground impatiently did Xiaqing sigh, open the door, and let it inside. ’What choice do I have? Start another fight and get us both covered in mud?’
She didn’t want to waste the energy. Besides, the Sheep Leader didn’t make a mess indoors, nor did it have a strange smell, so letting it in wasn’t a big deal.
The Sheep Leader came inside, lay down by the extinguished fire, and began to chew its cud with narrowed eyes. Xiaqing sprayed some Insect Repellent, shut the door tightly, and took off her Protective Suit and Protective Mask, hanging them on the homemade rack by the door.
She turned around and saw the Sheep Leader chewing the grass it had brought up from its stomach, all while staring at her Protective Suit as if it wanted to take a bite. Xiaqing immediately glared at it threateningly. "What are you looking at? You are absolutely not to bite that, or I’ll stew you."
The Sheep Leader narrowed its eyes, continuing to stare and chew its cud.
Xiaqing swept the wood ash off the stone slab with a broom, then stacked some dry firewood and lit it. The main purpose of the fire inside wasn’t for warmth, but to smoke out the dampness and repel Evolved Insects.
Once the fire was going, Xiaqing noticed the Sheep Leader was still staring at her Protective Suit while working the cud in its mouth. Poking at the fire, she started to ramble, "Don’t mind the patches on this Protective Suit, it’s worth 1,500 points. It’s the best I could buy in the Safe Zone. Without this ’hide’ of mine, I’d have died who knows how many times. Hey, Leader, can you even understand me?"
"Of course you can’t. Your ancestors might have been domesticated, but you’re pure wild. You’ve probably barely seen any people, so how could you understand human language? How old are you, anyway?" Xiaqing warmed her hands by the leaping flames, her monologue continuing. "It’s a shame we don’t have any sweet potatoes, Chestnuts, or peanuts. We could be roasting them right now."
After her father died, Xiaqing rarely wasted words. But today, listening to the rain outside while sharing a fire with the Sheep Leader, she was overcome with a powerful urge to talk. "Have you ever seen sweet potatoes in the Evolution Forest? They’re delicious."
The Sheep Leader narrowed its eyes, watching the dancing flames. Although it didn’t dare get too close, it didn’t seem particularly afraid of fire.
Once she was warm, Xiaqing retrieved the half-finished chair from her tool shed and resumed her work. The Harmful Element content in this rain wasn’t high enough to make her as irritable as she had been yesterday, but she might as well keep busy.
When the chair was finished, Xiaqing sat on it to test it out. It was very sturdy. Perfect. She finally had her first piece of proper furniture.
Noticing the Sheep Leader was now staring at her chair, Xiaqing said cheerfully, "What do you think? Not bad, right? I learned how to make it from a carpenter on a construction team back in the Safe Zone. Doesn’t use a single nail."
Xiaqing got up and walked to the window to check on the yard. She couldn’t stop a curse from escaping her lips. "I just finished pulling them, and they’re already growing back!"