After petting it to its heart's content, Xia Qing sprayed disinfectant to seal the gaps in the doors and windows, as well as the drains in the bathroom and kitchen. She then laid out her sleeping bag on the other side of the fire, preparing to sleep.
The soothing capsule's effects last for 10 hours on an ordinary person, but on a weakened evolved sheep, it would probably only last six hours at most. Xia Qing was worried that once the effects wore off, it would smash holes in its house, so she couldn't leave it unattended.
As Xia Qing drifted off to sleep, the fire gradually dimmed. The eldest sheep opposite her opened its eyes, its limbs twitched slightly, and it stood up, shaking its fluffy, curly wool before taking two steps back from the fire.
Xia Qing immediately opened her eyes, scrambled out of her sleeping bag, and stood up, staring at the eldest sheep.
"Baa."
The eldest sheep's bleat was weak, but it sounded like a normal sheep, so Xia Qing breathed a sigh of relief. "Want to go out?"
The eldest sheep squinted, tilted its head back, sniffed the ground, and then trotted off to the kitchen to eat.
Well, the food Xia Qing prepared was going to the eldest sheep. Xia Qing followed and leaned against the doorframe, lazily yawning. "Go back to your shed when you're full."
The eldest sheep finished the food in its basket, trotted back, chose a spot a little away from the fire, and lay down, squinting its eyes and remaining still.
Seeing that it wasn't going to fight, Xia Qing agreed. "You can sleep here tonight, but if you dare to poop or pee in the shed, I'll slaughter you for meat."
The eldest sheep squinted its eyes and remained still.
"You went berserk once, so you probably can't eat meat anymore. You even had me give you a bath and get rid of the worms. You've actually turned misfortune into a blessing in disguise," Xia Qing yawned and slowly closed her eyes.
After lying on its side for a while, the eldest sheep changed position.
Xia Qing immediately opened her eyes upon hearing the movement and saw it stretching its two front legs forward, its head and neck slowly sinking down to rest on its front legs. Not counting the weight of its head, its two large horns alone must weigh ten pounds; wasn't it worried about numbing its slender legs? Xia Qing smiled silently, closed her eyes, and went to sleep.
The eldest sheep stared at Xia Qing for a while, then at the fire, before finally closing its eyes.
The two slept until dawn, with the eldest sheep being the first to wake. As soon as it stood up, Xia Qing woke up immediately upon hearing the noise, got up, opened the door, and let it out.
After relieving itself in the yard, the eldest sheep turned to eat the evolved perilla that Xia Qing had placed on the sheep pen shelf.
The weeds in the yard had grown wildly overnight, now taller than Xia Qing's calves, but judging from the sheep's reaction, there seemed to be no danger in the yard.
Xia Qing baked herself two fragrant toon-flavored flatbreads for breakfast; they tasted quite good.
After finishing the flatbreads, thinking about the seemingly plump but actually all-skin skeleton of the sheep, Xia Qing took out her favorite book on sheep farming. Comparing the illustrations and text, Xia Qing confirmed that the sheep was a Small-tailed Han sheep, then carefully read about its habits, and couldn't help but smile.
The book devoted a large portion to describing how delicious the Small-tailed Han sheep meat was, how quickly it reproduced, and how high the quality of its wool, briefly mentioning at the end that this breed was highly adaptable to its environment.
Indeed quite adaptable; otherwise, the sheep wouldn't have survived ten years of the apocalypse, and its height and weight wouldn't be more than 1.5 times that of an adult ram in the mountain.
After evolution, many creatures have become larger, including humans.
During the great evolution of life on Earth, the age of 25 was considered a dividing point for human evolution. Those over 25 didn't experience significant changes in physique after evolution; however, those under 25 experienced a noticeable increase in size. Xia Qing was only 1.61 meters tall when she evolved at sixteen, but now at twenty-five, she had grown to 1.77 meters, and she inexplicably felt she would grow even taller.
Because the broadcast said that human evolution not only increased height but also lifespan. Of course, this was just research data; under harsh conditions like natural disasters, how many people could live to a ripe old age?
"Concentrated feed?" Xia Qing flipped to the page on raising small-tailed sheep and found that several concentrated feed recipes included corn and salt. "Sheep need salt too?"
Xia Qing's gaze turned to her feed bin. She had cornmeal, but…
…she couldn't bear to part with it…
She'd think about it later when her life was better.
Xia Qing then flipped to several types of pasture grasses that were highly nutritious for sheep and memorized their names and appearances.
After finishing her meal, Xia Qing put on her protective suit and pulled all the grass in the yard. The rampant weeds growing in the rain had to be uprooted and stir-fried, otherwise the roots would continue to grow and damage the environment.
After eliminating another colony of highly destructive evolved ants, it started raining again. Xia Qing used a half-basin of purified water placed under the eaves to wash the mud off her protective suit. Just as she was about to open the door to go inside, the eldest sheep came trotting over.
Xia Qing didn't move, staring at its dirty hooves.
When the eldest sheep started impatiently pawing the ground with its front hooves, Xia Qing sighed and opened the door to let it in. What if she didn't let it in? Would it fight again and get covered in mud?
She didn't want to waste that effort. Besides, the eldest sheep didn't defecate or urinate indiscriminately, and it didn't smell bad. It wouldn't hurt to let it in.
Seeing the eldest sheep come inside and lie down by the extinguished fire, ruminating with its eyes half-closed, Xia Qing sprayed some insect repellent, closed the door tightly, took off her protective suit and mask, and hung them on the homemade clothes rack by the door.
Turning around, Xia Qing noticed the eldest sheep chewing on grass regurgitated from its stomach, staring intently at her protective suit as if it wanted to take a bite. Xia Qing immediately glared at it, trying to scare it away, "What are you looking at? You absolutely can't bite this, or I'll stew you!"
The eldest sheep squinted, continuing to stare and continue regurgitating.
Xia Qing swept the ashes off the stone slab with a broom, then added dry firewood and lit it. The main purpose of lighting a fire inside wasn't for warmth, but to use the smoke to dispel dampness and repel insects.
After the fire was lit, Xia Qing noticed that the eldest sheep was still staring at the protective suit, fiddling with the grass in its mouth. So, while poking at the fire, she muttered, "Don't let the patches fool you, this protective suit is worth 1500 points! It's the best I could buy in the safe zone. Without this, I don't know how many times I would have died. Eldest, can you understand what I'm saying?"
"Of course not. Even though your ancestors were domesticated, you're purely wild. You've hardly ever seen a human. How could you possibly understand human language? How old are you?" Xia Qing warmed her hands by the rising flames and continued, "It's a pity we don't have sweet potatoes, chestnuts, or peanuts, otherwise we could roast them and eat them."
Since her father's death, Xia Qing rarely spoke nonsense. Today, listening to the rain outside, and sitting by the fire with the eldest sheep, she suddenly felt a strong urge to confide, "Have you ever seen sweet potatoes in the Evolution Forest? They're so delicious."
The eldest sheep squinted at the dancing flames. Although it dared not approach, it didn't seem very afraid of fire.
After warming up, Xia Qing took out the half-finished chair from the tool shed and continued working. Although the rain hadn't been particularly damaging, and hadn't made her as irritable as yesterday, she had nothing better to do.
After finishing the chair, Xia Qing sat down to test it. It was very sturdy and excellent; she finally had her first decent piece of furniture.
Seeing Yang Laoda staring at her chair again, Xia Qing chuckled, "How is it? Not bad, right? I learned how to make it from the carpenter on the construction team when I was in the safe zone. Not a single nail needed."
Xia Qing got up and went to the window to look at the yard, unable to resist swearing, "Just pulled it out, and it's already grown back!"