"BUZZ—BUZZ—BUZZ—"
The phone’s vibration rang out. Lying on the ground, Xiaqing didn’t want to move an inch. She called out wearily, "Dummy, dummy, answer the phone."
"Yes, Master." A cheerful voice, a rarity after the Natural Disasters, sounded from the pocket over Xiaqing’s heart.
"Hello."
Captain Tan’s voice was urgent, mixed with the sound of running. "Xiaqing."
Her face covered in sweat, Xiaqing blinked away the droplets from her eyelashes and gazed at the rain-washed blue sky. "Captain Tan."
"The Evolution Tree in the West Buffer Forest of Territory Three has been cleared, and the entire Buffer Forest has been swept. I heard sounds of battle from inside your territory. Where are you? What’s the situation?"
"...The fight is over. I’m fine. No need to come check, Captain Tan. Everything’s normal."
"Normal?"
"Yes."
As soon as Xiaqing replied, she realized Captain Tan’s voice didn’t sound like it was coming from the phone! She stiffly turned her head and saw Captain Tan, phone in hand, standing not far away with a large group of people, all staring at her in unison.
Su Ming slowly took off his Protective Mask, his eyes as wide as saucers and his mouth hanging open wide enough to fit a goose egg.
...
...
...
The Sheep Leader, who had been lying on the ground panting heavily, belatedly noticed the newcomers. It immediately leaped up, shook the mud from its head, and stood in front of Xiaqing, presenting its mud-caked horns to the group of evolutionary creatures that had charged into the territory.
Xiaqing raised a hand to wipe off the mud splatters the Sheep Leader had flung onto her goggles, but since her gloves were even muddier, the goggles became completely smeared. ’Now I really can’t face anyone.’
After silently chanting ’It’s only awkward if I’m awkward; otherwise, they’re the ones who are awkward’ three times, Xiaqing calmly climbed to her feet. She stood beside the Sheep Leader and nonchalantly wiped the mud from her gloves onto its horns. She hadn’t expected the Sheep Leader’s first instinct upon seeing people to be protecting her.
’It has some conscience after all.’
"BWAHAHA—" Su Ming just couldn’t hold it in. "BWAHA—HA—"
Seeing Su Ming, who was bent over laughing, get kicked into the mud, the rest of the group couldn’t hold back either. One by one, they took off their Protective Masks, staggering with laughter. Tan Junjie had to turn and shout twice to get the unruly bunch under control.
Peeking through a crack in the mud on her goggles, Xiaqing saw Yang Jin, one of the only two people in the crowd who wasn’t doubled over. Her brain immediately shut down. ’What is he doing here?’
Tan Junjie turned back to Xiaqing and got back to business. "What kind of creature was it? Did you take care of it, or did it run off?"
’The fight must have been intense; the opponent shouldn’t be underestimated,’ Tan Junjie thought, scanning the area. But just as he took a step forward, the muddy Evolutionary Sheep beside Xiaqing pawed a line in the mud with its front hoof and let out a threatening "MOO" at him.
The Evolutionary Sheep was territorial and didn’t want him to get any closer. Tan Junjie pulled his foot back and looked at Xiaqing.
Xiaqing answered stiffly, "There was no dangerous creature. My sheep was misbehaving, so I was teaching it a lesson."
Tan Junjie’s gaze swept over the front door lying on the ground, the collapsed shed, the completely flattened courtyard wall, and the yard that had turned into a muddy porridge. "As long as you’re okay. Be careful for the time being. If you find any more danger, don’t handle it on your own. Contact me immediately."
Xiaqing immediately stood at attention. "Yes, thank you, Captain Tan."
Tan Junjie nodded, then turned. "Let’s move out!"
"Captain Tan..." Xiaqing called out to him in a low voice. "About what happened today... can you... not let it get out?"
As she spoke, Xiaqing’s gaze shifted to the expressionless man beside Tan Junjie, the captain of the Azure Dragon Team, Yang Jin. She was actually grateful to him right now because, other than herself, he was the only one on site who hadn’t taken off his Protective Mask. If he had, it would have made Xiaqing look even more like a fool.
Xiaqing could recognize him because of the calm eyes behind his goggles and... his outstanding physique. It was truly unforgettable.
But gratitude was one thing; she still didn’t want to attract attention. She didn’t want Tang Lu, the owner of Territory Two, to know that Yang Jin had come to her territory, and she definitely didn’t want her embarrassing moment to become the laughingstock of Hui San Base.
"Don’t worry." As Tan Junjie led the team away from Territory Three along the straight path Xiaqing had cleared, his shoulders were shaking just like the other team members’. Only Yang Jin remained perfectly straight-backed.
After watching them leave, Xiaqing fell back onto the ground, stiff as a board, and stared blankly at the mud-smeared sky.
"SQUISH, SQUISH, SQUISH, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, TAP, TAP, TAP..."
Hearing the Sheep Leader squish through the mud, clang over the door, and enter the house, Xiaqing rolled over and looked up. She saw it was about to eat the compressed rations she had angrily thrown on the ground by the steps. She immediately scrambled over. "Don’t, it’s still in the vacuum-sea..."
Xiaqing didn’t even get to finish the word "sealed bag" before the Sheep Leader quickly tilted its head back and swallowed the compressed rations whole. Then, it went TAP, TAP, TAP into the bathroom.
A moment later, the Sheep Leader came tapping out again and squinted at Xiaqing.
’Is it... wanting a bath?’
Xiaqing laughed in exasperation. She took off her Protective Mask and her laughter grew louder and louder, until the Sheep Leader got annoyed and started pawing the ground, gesturing with its spiral horns. Only then did Xiaqing say, "Just wait," and went to heat up some water for it.
After she brought the warm water into the bathroom, before Xiaqing could say anything, the Sheep Leader stepped into the large aluminum basin and started washing itself. Still in her Protective Suit, Xiaqing first rinsed the mud off her own body before starting to wash the Sheep Leader. "What happened today was my fault at first. I didn’t know you were outside, and I shut the door in a hurry when I got back. But you shouldn’t have just knocked the door down with your head!"
At the time, Xiaqing’s entire focus had been on that massive Injury Evolution Tree, so she truly hadn’t noticed where the Sheep Leader was. In Xiaqing’s eyes, this house, this yard, this territory was hers. But in the Sheep Leader’s eyes, this place was its own. So if it wanted to come inside, it was going to come inside.
’The door’s closed? Open it!’
"But," she continued, "it just finished raining the Harmful Rain. Do you have any idea how many dangerous evolutionary creatures are out there? How are we supposed to sleep peacefully without a door? Do you want to get infested with parasites again?"
Faced with Xiaqing’s barrage of questions, the Sheep Leader just squinted its eyes comfortably and bathed.
"You need to fix this temper of yours... Of course, I need to control my temper too," Xiaqing muttered to herself, entering a phase of criticism and self-criticism. The thought alone felt incredible to her.
In all these years, she had experienced far too many infuriating things, and every time, she had managed to handle them with calm indifference. How had she lost her cool today and gotten into a fight with the Sheep Leader, even forgetting that Captain Tan was bringing a team to clear the Injury Evolution Tree?
’This is very wrong. That tree must have affected me!’
After washing the sheep, Xiaqing immediately went to deal with the knocked-down front door. Thankfully, the security door was sturdy enough, and thanks to the cracks in the wall, although it had been knocked down, it could still be fixed up, reinstalled, and be usable.
Xiaqing took out her tools. After some hammering, dismantling, and modifying, she used a small bag of high-quality cement she had brought from the Safe Zone to deftly reinstall the security door.
This type of cement had insect-repellent ingredients and double the corrosion resistance, making it a rare and valuable material. Even Xiaqing, a team leader in the Safe Zone’s construction crew, had only this one small bag. She had planned to save it for a critical moment, but now it was all being used to patch up the door.
After reinstalling the door, Xiaqing propped it up firmly with four wooden poles just in case. Only then did she call out to the Sheep Leader, who was drying its fleece and grazing under the eaves, "Leader, come over and try it."
The Sheep Leader squinted at Xiaqing, not moving.
Xiaqing pulled out a piece of rations. "Come try it."
"Baa." The snow-white Sheep Leader immediately walked over. Xiaqing broke off a small piece of the rations for it, then pulled down the modified doorknob and pushed inward. "See? This is how you open the door. You only need to open it; don’t worry about closing it. The door will close by itself. You try."
The gluttonous Sheep Leader didn’t look at the door, only staring at Xiaqing’s hand.
Xiaqing broke off another small piece and stuffed it into its mouth. Then she grabbed its front hoof and used it to open the re-closed door. "Just like that. Got it?"
The Sheep Leader, chewing on the rations, squinted at the doorknob.