Chapter 154

Chapter 154

Qin Ying, whose horizons had once again been broadened, propped up her chin. “You’re saying there’s a kind of Monstrous Beast you can grow vegetables on?”

Did this world have to be that convenient? A mobile vegetable patch!

Han Lie nodded. “Yes. Tuocui Beasts are docile by nature, unlike ordinary beasts. Their excretory opening is on their back.”

“As a result, once they reach adulthood, the hollow on their backs usually accumulates fertile manure over many years.”

Qin Ying’s pupils trembled all over again. Put that way, didn’t that mean a Tuocui Beast was born carrying a manure pit on its back?

Curious, she asked, “Then if you plant vegetables there, you don’t need to water them?”

After all, it had to go every day. Wouldn’t the urine happen to irrigate the garden perfectly?

Though… wouldn’t it burn the plants to death?

Sure enough, Han Lie nodded again. “There is no need to water them, but they still require people dedicated to tending and guarding them. From time to time, pests must be killed, and excess filth that has piled up must be cleared away.”

At that point, Qin Ying could guess that among the Fengshan Elite Cavalry, the Gutless People were used to tend the gardens on the Tuocui Beasts.

“A giant beast with a vegetable garden on its back.” She rested her cheek in her hand, her imagination wandering for a moment.

Forget whatever great secret about her origins there might or might not be. Tomorrow, she had to find a way to see this amazing new species first.

Seeing a smile appear on her face, which still bore faint traces of blood, Han Lie hesitated for a moment before saying, “I will be returning to Golden Saddle Mountain with a small squad.”

Driving out a Hanba was no small matter. They could not rely on words alone.

General Chen would send a Merit Officer from the army, someone responsible for recording military achievements, to verify the site. Han Lie would serve as the advance guide.

With the journey there and back, plus confirming the scene, this trip would take at least four days.

Leaving Qin Ying alone in the camp. How could he possibly feel at ease?

After weighing it for a moment, he asked, “Would you be willing to stay in the Kuxi Tribe for now?”

The Kuxi Tribe was the Sand People tribe behind the military stockade. In theory, they were all Qin Ying’s Believers.

With that Old Shaman whose face was covered in studs there, Qin Ying should be safer than she was in this camp.

As they spoke, Qin Ying finished the porridge in the wooden bowl one spoonful at a time. When Han Lie moved to add more meat porridge for her, she set down the bowl and gestured for him to eat it himself.

“When do you leave?”

“The day after tomorrow.”

Qin Ying nodded. “That’s enough time.”

One day was enough for her to look around the Fengshan Elite Cavalry and satisfy her curiosity. After that, she would go stay with the Kuxi Tribe.

By the time Han Lie finished the rest of the porridge, it was already very late.

He stubbornly held his blade and kept watch outside the tent. Qin Ying used the water that had been warmed over the fire to wipe herself down.

Perhaps because she had coughed up blood again earlier, the Wooden Puppet body had grown a little thinner, its cheeks visibly sunken.

But Qin Ying was quite grateful that this body was now a Soul-Container Wooden Puppet. Anything she ate or drank was absorbed by the body, and for the time being, she had no troublesome needs like excretion.

Otherwise, in this military camp, she would not even know where to find a latrine or toilet sticks.

Knowing that Han Lie was outside freezing, she moved quickly, giving herself a simple wipe-down and cleaning the blood from her clothes.

Considering that she was currently the spoils of war Han Lie had brought back from the Sand People tribe, Han Lie did not go elsewhere. Instead, he slept inside the tent.

Seeing him wrap himself in a piece of animal hide, looking as though he intended to make do by the fire for the night, Qin Ying called out, “Come sleep here.”

She shifted over on the small cot, making some room.

Han Lie flushed scarlet. Before he could wave his hand and refuse, Qin Ying said, “I’ll go back.”

She did not say where she was going back to, but Han Lie knew she meant she would leave the Soul-Container Consecration body.

Once she left it, this body would just be a Wooden Puppet.

That way, there was no need to care about distinctions between men and women.

Qin Ying’s thinking was very simple, but Han Lie had to steel himself for a long while before he finally moved over.

Seeing how awkward he was, Qin Ying rolled her eyes and withdrew her consciousness. The Soul-Container Wooden Puppet lay on its back on the cot.

As her consciousness departed, the Wooden Puppet’s facial features gradually dissolved.

Han Lie was the only one left in the tent, but he did not breathe a sigh of relief.

His body rigid, he lay beside the Wooden Puppet for most of the night. It was not until nearly dawn that he finally succumbed to exhaustion and fell asleep.

After Qin Ying’s consciousness left the Box World, she woke up in the bed at home.

Perhaps it was the burden of traveling back and forth between the two worlds, but her body was stiff and cold.

She got up and moved around a little, then drank some Yao Grass Water from her thermos.

That was when she heard the television blaring downstairs at an outrageous volume.

From the music, it was Tom and Jerry.

Qin Ying arched one eyebrow slightly and shuffled downstairs in her slippers.

She had no idea which one of them had knocked down the sofa cushions and smuggled all the Hou down to the first floor to watch TV.
Thunderbird and Wangcai were fighting over the remote, snatching it back and forth until Qin Ying’s TV remote was covered in tiny peck marks and dog-tooth dents.

She took one step forward and stepped on a snack bag and a pile of sunflower seed shells.

The snack bag had dog teeth marks on it, but the culprit behind the sunflower seed shells scattered all over the floor was probably not the little white-spotted puppy.

A vein throbbed at Qin Ying’s temple. She couldn’t help clenching her fists.

Amid the chorus of chirping and chattering, she leaned against the doorframe and sneered. “You lot are having quite the time, huh?”

Her voice wasn’t loud, but it was as if someone had hit pause on the entire room.

Thunderbird forgot to flap its wings and dropped out of midair, remote still clutched in its talons.

With a clatter, the remote hit the floor, sending two batteries rolling everywhere.

Wangcai jumped down from the coffee table and, pretending nothing had happened, headed toward the backyard.

When it passed Qin Ying, she lifted her foot to block it. “Where do you think you’re hiding?”

With a soft whine, Wangcai tried to squeeze under Qin Ying’s leg.

She grabbed it under the forelegs and hauled it up.

Qin Ying then went over and picked up Thunderbird, who was lying on the floor playing dead, and clutched it in her palm.

She turned her head. The Hou all leaped off the sofa cushions, each showing off its own special skill as they burrowed into every corner they could find.

Only the Shamate Hou chief with a tuft of white fur remained out front, kowtowing with loud thuds.

These little bastards truly had no sense of loyalty. Once again, they had sold out their chief with ease.

“You!” Seeing Little Sha kowtowing so pitifully, Qin Ying’s anger eased a little. “You all, go.”

Given the Hou’s size, they were at most little small fries watching the excitement. The real ringleaders were the other two.

“You two think you’ve become kings of the mountain, is that it?”

Thunderbird chirped and immediately started bawling.

It wriggled like a maggot in Qin Ying’s hand, rubbing its head frantically against her fingers.

Perhaps seeing how quickly Thunderbird had caved, Wangcai finally realized it should be scared. It curled up all four limbs, tucked its tail, and whimpered twice at Qin Ying.

Qin Ying gritted her back teeth, but in the end, it wasn’t as if she could beat them to death, right?

She loosened her grip and told Thunderbird to carry the big snack bags. Then she held Wangcai’s front paws in both hands and made it pick up the trash on the floor and put it in the bin.

“Clean up your own mess.”

The ones with the best survival instincts were the Hou. Seeing Qin Ying’s attitude, their betrayed boss, Little Sha, flicked the tuft of white fur between its brows.

With a cry, it led its clansmen over to carry away the sunflower seed shells.

Like a line of furry little ants, they queued up and carried the sunflower seed shells to the trash can, piling them in front of it.

Wangcai also stuck out its chubby little belly and used its front paws to paw the trash on the floor.

Qin Ying was so overwhelmed by the cuteness that she secretly turned her back and pressed a hand to her chest. Only then did she manage to keep her cold expression intact.

But she also realized she had to plan out the third floor properly. She couldn’t let these little things run all over the place anymore.

Qin Ying picked up her phone and asked Ah Cai when they could come in and start the renovation.

She got a reply very quickly: five days from now.

Qin Ying was about to exit the chat when she discovered Yin Minmin had pulled her into a group.

The group name was: Third Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute Temporary Affairs Group.

The group owner’s profile picture was a very proper ID-style headshot. Just one look at his hairline made her feel sorry for the uncle.

There were about twenty people in the group. Only the group owner’s avatar was proper; everyone else’s was gaudy and all over the place.

Qin Ying’s brainless Patrick Star avatar blended right in.

As soon as she joined the group, a meeting notice was posted: a meeting would be held at nine o’clock the morning after tomorrow.

Location: Third Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute, Yunlan City.

Not a single person in the group said a word, as if they were all dead.

Seeing this, the group owner sent a red packet.

Within three seconds, all ten red packets had been snatched up.

Qin Ying tapped it open and took a look. The luckiest person had gotten nine mao.

Speechless, she put down her phone.

This Cultural Preservation Bureau…

Qin Ying shook her head and laid down the law for the little things at home: keep the volume down, don’t throw trash everywhere,

and don’t fight over the TV.

Then she lay back down on the bed, and her consciousness entered the Box.

It looked like the Cultural Preservation Bureau was planning something big. Qin Ying’s house was a complete mess right now, so she had to ask Han Lie if he could find something that could conceal auras.

If there wasn’t anything, she would have to promptly send all these little things into the Box to hide.

Her consciousness gradually sank back into her body. When she opened her eyes, the light inside the tent was dim. The Migu Flower had gone dark, and the fire in the hearth had gone out as well.

Han Lie wasn’t there, but the blankets beside her had not yet gone cold.

Just then, the tent flap lifted, and Han Lie came in carrying a basin of water.