Chapter 41: Discovering the Peeping Spy

Chapter 41: Discovering the Peeping Tom

The micro-tiller was essentially a large, multi-functional toy car for children, making it irresistible to the four "grown-up children" in their twenties. After the four of them took turns testing every single attachment, they confirmed that while the machine was incredibly, incredibly useful, it was also a real fuel guzzler.

Given the soil conditions of her plot, using a two-furrow plow to till one mu of land would consume about three to four liters of fuel, which was far higher than the energy consumption of a plowing sheep. Xia Qing happily decided that she would use sheep power for plowing in the future, use the micro-tiller for other large-scale agricultural tasks, and handle the odd jobs herself.

After seeing off Su Ming and the other two, who were practically begging to stay on as her drivers, Xia Qing drove her beloved micro-tiller, using the bulldozer blade to clear a smooth path home, and parked it in front of the frame building in the East Courtyard.

The micro-tiller was currently the most valuable piece of machinery Xia Qing owned. To store it properly, she had converted the room in the southwest corner of the first floor of the East Courtyard frame building into a garage.

After making two trips to bring the attachments back, Xia Qing opened the garage door and neatly stacked the parts at the very back. She then drove the micro-tiller inside, closed the garage door, and took a few steps back, admiring her modified handiwork with great satisfaction.

Using salvaged building materials like red bricks, stones, and steel bars collected from three nearby villages, Xia Qing had repaired this frame building—which had previously only had its main structure poured—into a two-story large warehouse with walls, windows, and doors. Because it had been patched together from limited, mismatched materials, her large warehouse looked like it could give Howl's Moving Castle a run for its money.

Of course, that was only on the outside. The interior decoration of her warehouse was far inferior to Howl's; the inside had only been sprayed with insect repellent and fitted with moisture-absorbing charcoal. There was no loading or unloading equipment whatsoever; it was completely in its original, raw state.

It would be a suffocating place for humans to live, but it was perfect for storing supplies.

As Xia Qing turned off the micro-tiller, the generator on the second floor of the southwest village basement also shut down. Utilizing the ample electricity stored in the accumulators, the lights in the operating room stayed on for another eight hours before finally going out, well into the early hours of the morning.

While Xia Qing was dreaming of driving the micro-tiller, Boss Sheep stood in front of the garage with its head lowered, lost in thought.

At the crack of dawn the next day, Xia Qing was taking a stroll within her territory. Along the way, she caught a dozen evolved larvae, crushed eight evolved golden beetles and moths that tried to attack her, and dug up two small mice from the soil. After her walk and a meal, Xia Qing sent Boss Sheep to patrol the territory and went to open the garage door to drive the micro-tiller out.

Today, she was going to build the road from her house to the reservoir and the farmland.

The micro-tiller was a fuel guzzler? No matter, she had two hundred liters of diesel.

Ran out of diesel? No matter, she could trade supplies for more oil.

Xia Qing happily backed the micro-tiller out of the garage and parked it. As she got out to close the garage door and spray insect repellent, she heard the rapid thumping of Boss Sheep's hooves.

Oh no, Boss Sheep was charging at the machine!

Xia Qing turned around immediately, but she wasn't faster than Boss Sheep. The creature had already climbed onto the micro-tiller, occupied the driver's seat, and was squinting its eyes in a posture of absolute non-negotiation.

Seeing that it wasn't there to fight the machine, Xia Qing's heart settled. She asked jokingly, "So, you were lying on the hillside watching us test drive yesterday, and staying up all night at the garage door instead of sleeping, just to pull this stunt? Your hooves are split into two parts; you can't even grip a steering wheel. How are you going to drive a machine?"

Boss Sheep ignored her, remaining firmly planted in the driver's seat.

Xia Qing changed her tone, switching to food bribery. "Boss, stop making a scene. Come down, and I'll go pick some toona sprouts for you?"

"Baaa."

Boss Sheep immediately jumped off the micro-tiller and stood before Xia Qing.

Xia Qing...

Fine. It seemed this foodie didn't want to hijack the micro-tiller, but rather wanted to use the micro-tiller to manipulate her.

She had already had enough toona sprouts, so she could afford to feed Boss Sheep more. Once spring passed, the nitrate and nitrite content in the sprouts would increase, and they wouldn't taste as good.

There were already five types of edible vegetables in her territory—toona sprouts, spinach leaves, perilla, chives, and green onions. Having eaten coarse grains for ten years, Xia Qing was starting to become a picky eater.

Fearing that evolved rodents might chew up the micro-tiller, Xia Qing drove the machine back into the warehouse. Only after taking Boss Sheep to pick toona sprouts did she return home to drive the micro-tiller out again to build the road.

Hearing the sound of machinery coming from Territory No. 3, Su Ming and his companions, who were passing by on patrol, looked on with envy. Wei Chengdong, in the first floor of the abandoned village basement, said with a smile, "Turn on the generator and charge the accumulators for a while longer."

The distance from Xia Qing's small building to the stone bridge crossing the small river to the north was 470 meters. Xia Qing used the digging shovel to level the path she had trodden and then compacted it. The process was incredibly therapeutic, leaving her feeling refreshed in both body and mind.

However, her peace lasted less than half an hour. A well-fed Boss Sheep returned, lifting its head to block the micro-tiller with an expression that said, "If you don't let me on the machine, I'm going to fight."

Xia Qing wasn't angry when she saw it, because she was looking for someone to share the joy of driving. Since she was alone in her territory, sharing it with a sheep would suffice. Thus, Xia Qing turned off the micro-tiller and let Boss Sheep sit in the driver's seat first. While she rambled on, she dismantled the small iron box for wrenches and pliers on the right side of the driver's seat and deftly installed a large wooden reclining chair onto the iron cover—which was strong enough to support Boss Sheep's weight—and padded it with dry hay.

Once the reclining chair was installed, Boss Sheep didn't even need Xia Qing to persuade it; it moved directly to its new, more comfortable seat. Xia Qing happily started the engine and continued driving the micro-tiller to build the road. Boss Sheep lay on its exclusive seat, chewing its cud. Both human and sheep were very satisfied.

The people in Territory No. 2 were no longer interested in the faint sound of the micro-tiller, but the people in Territory No. 4 to the east were highly intrigued. Someone had actually climbed the tallest pine tree in the buffer forest north of Territory No. 4 to peer into Territory No. 3.

Discovering a cat-sized machine moving slowly about 1.5 kilometers away, Zhao Chong, perched in the tree, took out his binoculars and adjusted the focus. He first saw the micro-tiller's digging shovel, but as he moved the binoculars slightly backward, he let out a terrified scream and fell straight down from the tree, which was over ten meters high. His screams reached Territory No. 3.

This wasn't Zhao Ze's voice. Xia Qing lowered her gun and pulled out her walkie-talkie to contact Tan Junjie. "Captain Tan, this is Xia Qing from Territory No. 3. Someone was just using binoculars to spy on my territory from a large tree in the buffer forest of Territory No. 4. When I discovered them, they were so startled they fell from the tree."

Tan Junjie replied immediately and seriously, "Received. We will investigate at once."

"Thank you for your hard work, Captain Tan." Xia Qing put away the walkie-talkie and continued building the road.

Why use a walkie-talkie? Walkie-talkie communications could be heard by anyone on the same channel, and Xia Qing wanted to make a scene of this. Besides, satellite phone rates were not cheap; Xia Qing saved money whenever she could.

After finishing the road from her house to the stone bridge she had laid herself, she was in the middle of building a straight road from there to the farmland and the reservoir when she received a call back from Tan Junjie. "We have apprehended Zhao Chong from Territory No. 4. He will be dealt with according to the *Territory Law*. How did you discover him spying?"

According to the *Territory Law*, if a Lord is caught spying on another territory, they are fined 500 points, their Lord's supply discount privileges are revoked, and their tax-exempt period is reduced from five years to three. If an employee within a Lord's territory is caught spying, in addition to the punishments for the Lord, the employee is expelled from the territory and fined 500 points. If they lack sufficient points, they must make up the difference through forced labor, and they are permanently barred from applying for Grade A or B positions within the Safety Zone.

In chaotic times, heavy punishments were necessary. Five hundred points was equivalent to two years of income for an ordinary person who didn't dare risk leaving the Safety Zone. In years of natural disasters where people couldn't even afford to eat, ordinary people had no savings. Forced labor projects for those unable to pay points, such as repairing defensive walls or clearing evolved forests, were essentially a death sentence for ordinary people.

Xia Qing was very satisfied with Tan Junjie's efficiency and replied calmly, "The reflection from his binoculars caught my eye."