Chapter 61: The Evolved Wolves Attack
Kuang Qingwei asked for advice, "Old Qi, I have a main stem of cotton in my field that branched into two main stems at the fourth leaf. What should I do about this?"
Xia Qing immediately pricked up her ears, because she also had several such unconventional, wildly growing cotton plants in her field.
Qi Fu continued to impart his experience, "Then keep both branches. Break off all the 'crazy shoots' below the two branches and on the branches themselves, leaving only the fruiting branches."
Xia Qing felt that the name "crazy shoots" was very appropriate: branches that grow wildly without producing flower buds—weren't they exactly that?
Kuang Qingwei grew even more worried. "No matter how I look at it, it seems like the two branches are covered in nothing but crazy shoots."
Qi Fu smiled. "Then break off the ones at the bottom first. Let the small shoots on top grow for a bit; we'll deal with them once they get bigger. Don't worry, as long as the cotton is healthy, it will grow fruiting branches sooner or later. Don't be afraid of breaking the wrong ones; just leave six to seven fruiting branches on the whole plant. Anything more must be pinched off; if you leave too many, the cotton bolls won't set properly."
Hearing Qi Fu say this, Xia Qing immediately felt relieved. She began briskly tidying up a cotton plant she had been staring at for over ten minutes.
Breaking off the crazy shoots from the main stem downward, giving the cotton plant the appearance of a "bare commander," brought an inexplicable sense of satisfaction.
Xia Qing was all smiles as she squeezed the juice from the broken crazy shoots to test their Qi element content.
Red light.
She was still smiling. It was fine; a red light meant the cotton seeds were inedible, but as long as it grew cotton, it was worth keeping.
Yellow light.
She was still smiling. Yellow was good; yellow meant the cotton seeds could be pressed for oil and eaten, or sold for more points. She tied a straw rope to mark it.
Green light?
She had tested over a hundred plants before finding just one! Naturally, she tied a conspicuous red string around it for special protection; she would use this one for seed saving.
Hearing the *giggle-giggle* sound of evolved locusts flapping their wings, Xia Qing straightened her back. Just as her hand reached for her steel ball bag, she saw two evolved crows swoop down and swallow the locusts, sparing her the trouble.
Xia Qing gave a thumbs up. "Great job!"
"Mee."
The Boss Sheep, who was lying in the shade ten meters away ruminating, thought Xia Qing was praising him and gave a perfunctory response.
Xia Qing chuckled and continued bending over to break the crazy shoots.
Pruning and thinning over eight thousand two hundred cotton plants across two acres was a repetitive and tedious chore, but Xia Qing, having endured ten years of natural disasters and suffering, found joy in it. She absolutely loved this feeling of being immersed in the maintenance of the cotton; even the distant, clattering fighting sounds of two evolved crickets became pleasant to her ears.
It took Xia Qing two days to break all the crazy shoots. On the first morning, she bent over while standing, but for the next few half-days, she switched to sitting. She made a small stool of appropriate height and strapped it to her body, sitting between the two rows of cotton. Once she finished the plants beside her, she would move forward a few steps and continue sitting.
Wearing a large straw hat woven from mosquito-repelling grass, Xia Qing was in her element. The only slight imperfection was the piercing, noisy voice of Tang Lu from Territory No. 2, which drifted in with the wind.
Yang Jin remained in Territory No. 1 to preside over the development of the No. 49 Mountain Training Base. Tang Zheng had flown away after two days of finding nothing at No. 49 Mountain, so it was only natural that Tang Lu stayed in her own territory.
Wherever Yang Jin was, she was there.
It wasn't just Xia Qing who found Tang Lu noisy; the inspection team did too.
Tang Lu couldn't rush into Territory No. 1, and the members of the Azure Dragon Squad on guard wouldn't help her pass messages to Yang Jin, so she resorted to various ways to harass the inspection team, who were the only ones in direct contact with Territory No. 1.
One moment she would say her pet white rabbit had escaped and demand the inspection team negotiate with Territory No. 1 so she could go look for it. The next, she would claim the inspection team was incompetent because Territory No. 2 was full of large, dangerous evolved insects and she wanted to file a complaint.
Su Ming wished he could gag this woman, whose constant noise made his head ache. "It's only because her old man is Tang Zhengsu!"
If it weren't for Tang Zhengsu, a woman without ability who dared to act so unruly during the years of natural disasters would have died countless times over.
Hu Zi complained, "The more she makes a scene, the less likely Brother Jin is to like her. What is she even aiming for? She'd be better off finding someone else; hasn't Xu Pin always liked her?"
Su Ming chuckled. "Haven't you heard that saying? The things you can't have are the ones that keep you restless."
Yuan Rui, an olfactory-evolved team member who rarely participated in major discussions, suddenly spoke up, "Tang Lu is actually quite smart."
Huh?
Hu Zi and Su Ming both widened their eyes. "Brother Rui has a very unique perspective."
Yuan Rui was a few years older than them, had seen more, and thought more deeply. "Tang Lu is just an ordinary person without the ability to evolve. She wants to continue living a decent, worry-free life. To do that, she must either help the Tang family subdue their top competitor, the Azure Dragon Squad, or marry a high-level evolver to give birth to an excellent next generation. Regardless of which path she chooses, Yang Jin is her primary target."
After walking a long way, Su Ming finally broke the silence. "No matter how correct her goal is, it's useless if she can't catch him."
Yuan Rui countered, "How do you know you can't catch him without trying? She's young, and Yang Jin doesn't have a girlfriend. If she succeeds, she won't have to worry for the next hundred years."
*How do you know you can't catch him without trying?* Hu Zi thought pensively.
Su Ming glanced at Captain Tan at the very front and lowered his voice to tell the group, "I heard—just heard, don't go spreading this... I heard Brother Jin doesn't like women."
The group:...
Tan Junjie, without even looking back, said, "Su Ming."
"...Yes?"
"Go back and do fifty weighted laps."
"Zzzzt—"
Before Su Ming could respond, a piercing, despairing howl of a wild boar suddenly erupted from the Wild Boar Breeding Center. The inspection team, which had just passed the center, immediately turned and ran toward it with their guns drawn.
The boar's cry also startled Xia Qing, who was eavesdropping on the high slope in Territory No. 3. The cry was too unusual. Xia Qing immediately rushed north, climbing a large tree near the breeding center within her territory to look out over the valley where the boars were raised.
Not long after this breeding center was built, over a dozen researchers wearing pure white, fully enclosed airtight protective suits had entered, and there had been no activity since. It had been so quiet that Xia Qing had almost forgotten about the people and the pigs. This howl was truly abnormal.
With her excellent vision, Xia Qing saw two people in camouflage protective gear carrying an adult wild boar toward a row of white buildings. Two technicians in pure white, fully enclosed airtight suits rushed out of the house to meet them.
Xia Qing couldn't hear the technicians, but she could hear the shouting from the personnel in camouflage: "The neck was bitten... it's evolved wolves! They're extremely fast! Researchers, return to the safe house immediately!"
Wolves!!!
Xia Qing grew tense as well; the terror of evolved wolf packs was deeply etched in her memory. Hadn't they said they had already cleared all the large, high-risk evolved animals around the territories? Where did these wolves attacking the boars come from?
"Mee—"
Hearing the Boss Sheep's call, Xia Qing immediately climbed down the tree and rushed down the slope to meet him. "Boss, you heard the boar too?"
The Boss Sheep nudged Xia Qing with his head, pushing her toward the bottom of the hill, acting very agitated. Xia Qing was nearly knocked off the slope by the nudge and immediately led the Boss down the hill at a run.
Evolved wolves even hunted thick-skinned wild boars, let alone the plump Boss Sheep!