“Buzz— Buzz— Buzz—”
The phone vibrated. Lying on the ground, Xia Qing didn’t want to move a single muscle. She weakly called out, “Simpleton, Simpleton, answer the phone.”
“Yes, Master,” a cheerful voice—a rarity after the cataclysm—chimed from the pocket near Xia Qing’s chest.
“Hello?”
Captain Tan’s voice sounded urgent, accompanied by the sound of running. “Xia Qing.”
Her face drenched in sweat, Xia Qing blinked away the droplets on her eyelashes and stared up at the washed-blue sky. “Captain Tan.”
“The evolved trees in the Western Buffer Forest of Territory No. 3 have been cleared, and the entire buffer forest has been swept. I heard sounds of fighting from the village inside your territory. Where are you? How’s the situation?”
“…The fight is over. I’m fine. There’s no need to come check, Captain Tan. Everything is normal.”
“Normal?”
“Yes.”
Only after answering did Xia Qing realize that Captain Tan’s voice didn’t sound like it was coming from the phone! She stiffly turned her head, only to find Captain Tan holding his phone, leading a large group of people standing not far away, all staring at her in unison.
Su Ming slowly took off his protective mask, his eyes wide and round, his mouth agape wide enough to fit a goose egg.
…
…
…
Lying on the ground and panting heavily, Boss Yang also belatedly realized that people had arrived. He immediately leapt up, shook the mud off his head, and stood protectively in front of Xia Qing. He bared his mud-caked horns toward the group of evolved humans who had burst into the territory.
Xia Qing raised her hand to wipe away the mud splatters Boss Yang had shaken onto her goggles. However, because there was even more mud on her gloves, her goggles ended up completely smeared. Now, she really couldn’t show her face.
After silently chanting *as long as I’m not embarrassed, the embarrassment belongs to others* three times, Xia Qing calmly stood up. Standing next to Boss Yang, she naturally wiped the mud from her gloves onto his horns. She hadn’t expected that Boss Yang’s first instinct upon seeing newcomers would actually be to protect her.
He still had a bit of a conscience.
“Hahaha—” Su Ming really couldn’t hold it in anymore. “Haha— Haha—”
Seeing Su Ming doubled over with laughter, someone kicked him into the mud. The rest of the group couldn’t hold back either; they took off their protective masks one by one, laughing so hard they were swaying. Tan Junjie had to turn around and shout a couple of times before he could suppress these unruly rascals.
When Xia Qing peered through the gaps in the mud and spotted Yang Jin—one of the only two people in the crowd who hadn’t doubled over—her brain instantly short-circuited. *Why is he here?*
Tan Junjie turned back to look at Xia Qing and continued with his official business. “What kind of creature was it? Did you resolve it, or did it run away?”
The fight had been so intense that the opponent was clearly not to be underestimated. Tan Junjie scanned the surroundings. But just as he took a step forward, the evolved mud-covered sheep next to Xia Qing scraped a line in the mud with his front hoof, letting out a threatening “moo” at him.
This evolved sheep had a strong territorial awareness and didn’t want him getting close. Tan Junjie withdrew his foot and looked at Xia Qing.
Xia Qing replied stiffly, “There was no dangerous creature. My sheep was being disobedient, so I was teaching him a lesson.”
Tan Junjie’s gaze swept over the entrance door lying flat on the ground, the collapsed shed, the completely flattened courtyard wall, and the courtyard that had turned into a muddy soup. “As long as you’re fine. Be careful with your actions during this period. If you detect any danger again, don’t handle it on your own. Contact me immediately.”
Xia Qing immediately stood straight. “Yes. Thank you, Captain Tan.”
Tan Junjie nodded and turned around. “Retreat!”
“Captain Tan…” Xia Qing called out softly to stop him. “Could we… not spread word about what happened today?”
As she spoke, Xia Qing turned her gaze toward the expressionless captain of the Azure Dragon Team standing next to Tan Junjie—Yang Jin. She felt quite grateful to Yang Jin right now, because other than herself, he was the only one on the scene who hadn’t taken off his protective mask. If he had taken it off too, Xia Qing would have looked even more like a fool.
Xia Qing was able to recognize him because of his calm eyes behind the goggles and his… outstanding physique, which was truly unforgettable.
But gratitude was gratitude. She still didn’t want to draw attention to herself, nor did she want Tang Lu, the owner of Territory No. 2, to know that Yang Jin had come to her territory. Most of all, she didn’t want her embarrassing moment to become the laughingstock of Hui San Base.
“Don’t worry,” Tan Junjie said. As he led the team out of Territory No. 3 along the straight path Xia Qing had cleared, his shoulders shook just like the other team members’. Only Yang Jin remained perfectly upright.
After watching them leave, Xia Qing fell flat on her back onto the ground once more, staring blankly at the mud-smeared sky.
“Splat, splat, splat, clatter, clatter, clatter, tap, tap, tap…”
Hearing Boss Yang step through the mud, trample over the door, and enter the house, Xia Qing finally rolled over and looked up. Seeing him about to eat the compressed rations she had furiously thrown onto the ground below the steps, she immediately scrambled over on all fours. “Don’t, there’s a vacuum pack—”
Before she could finish her sentence, Boss Yang quickly tossed his head back and swallowed the compressed rations whole, then trotted off toward the bathroom.
After a moment, Boss Yang trotted back out and squinted his eyes at Xia Qing.
Was he… wanting a bath?
Xia Qing laughed in exasperation. She took off her protective mask and laughed louder and louder until Boss Yang lost his temper and started scraping his hooves, gesturing with his spiral horns. Only then did Xia Qing say, “Wait here,” and went to boil some hot water for him.
Once the warm water was brought into the bathroom, before Xia Qing could say anything, Boss Yang stepped into the large aluminum basin and began to wash. Still in her protective suit, Xia Qing rinsed the mud off herself first before bathing Boss Yang. “Today’s matter was my fault in the beginning. I didn’t know you were outside, and I was in such a hurry when I came back that I shut the door behind me. But you shouldn’t have rammed the door down with your head either!”
At the time, Xia Qing’s entire mind had been focused on that Qiang-evolved tree, and she genuinely hadn’t noticed where Boss Yang was. In Xia Qing’s eyes, this house, this courtyard, and this territory belonged to her. But in Boss Yang’s eyes, this place was his. So if he wanted to come inside, he had to come inside.
Door closed? Open it!
But still, “The Qiang Rain just ended. Do you have any idea how many dangerous evolved creatures are out there? How are we supposed to sleep peacefully without a door? Do you want to get covered in parasites again?”
Facing Xia Qing’s barrage of questions, Boss Yang comfortably squinted his eyes and enjoyed his bath.
“You need to fix that short temper of yours… of course, I also need to control my own temper,” Xia Qing muttered to herself, entering a phase of criticism and self-criticism. Thinking back on it, she found the whole thing hard to believe.
Over the years, she had experienced far too many infuriating things, yet she had always been able to handle them with calm indifference. Why had she failed to suppress her anger today and ended up fighting Boss Yang, even forgetting that Captain Tan was leading a team to clear the Qiang-evolved trees?
This was highly abnormal. It had to be that tree influencing her!
After washing the sheep, Xia Qing immediately went to deal with the fallen door. Thanks to the fact that the anti-theft door was sturdy enough and the cracks in the wall, although the door had been knocked down, she could still make do with it after some quick repairs and reinstallation.
Xia Qing took out her tools and hammered, disassembled, and modified the parts. Then, using a small bag of high-quality cement she had brought from the safe zone, she swiftly installed the anti-theft door back in place.
This type of cement had insect-repelling components added to it, and its corrosion resistance was doubled, making it a rare and excellent material. Even Xia Qing, who used to be a squad leader of the safe zone’s construction team, only had this single small bag. She had originally planned to use it for critical repairs, but now it had all been spent on fixing the door.
Once the door was installed, Xia Qing firmly braced it with four wooden sticks just in case. Only then did she call out to Boss Yang, who was drying his fleece and grazing under the front eaves. “Laoda, come here and try it.”
Boss Yang squinted his eyes at Xia Qing and didn’t budge.
Xia Qing pulled out a piece of ration. “Come over and try it.”
“Baa.” The snow-white Boss Yang immediately walked over. Xia Qing broke off a bit of the ration for him, then pulled down the modified door handle and pushed inward. “See, the door opens like this. You only need to open it; don’t worry about closing it, it will close on its own. Give it a try.”
The foodie Boss Yang didn’t look at the door at all, keeping his eyes glued to Xia Qing’s hand.
Xia Qing broke off another small piece of ration and stuffed it into his mouth. Then she grabbed his front hoof and used it to push open the newly closed door. “Just like this. Got it?”
Boss Yang chewed on his ration, squinting his eyes as he stared at the door handle.
Banxia Novel, so much happiness.