After Xia Qing took a small bite of the compressed rations, the eldest sheep was already eager to try.
So, Xia Qing got off the bike, stood to the side, and held the rations on the bicycle, luring the eldest sheep onto it. "Eldest sheep is stronger than me, and smarter too. You'll definitely be able to pedal the waterwheel, right? Pedaling the waterwheel gets you rations!"
The eldest sheep, its eyes following the rations, climbed onto the bicycle and settled in. The bicycle had been modified to fit the eldest sheep's body; once it sat on, its two front hooves mimicked Xia Qing's hand movements, pressing down on the handlebars, while its hind hooves fit perfectly into the pedals.
Xia Qing immediately launched into a flurry of praise, "Boss is the best! He can even pedal the waterwheel now. Here, have some rations."
After feeding Boss a little ration to calm him down, Xia Qing squatted down, holding his hind legs and demonstrating how to pedal. "This hoof goes down, this hoof comes up, then you pedal down again, and this one comes up again. It looks simple, but only the smartest sheep can learn it."
Boss quickly mastered the technique, pedaling the bicycle at lightning speed. The pedals propelled the rear wheel and the small wheel in the water to spin at high speed, while the levers on the rope drew water into the pipe, which then gushed out from the T-junction.
Xia Qing was truly impressed that a sheep could learn to pedal a bicycle so quickly. "Boss is truly the smartest sheep on Earth, a sheep standing at the top of the pyramid, a sheep that pioneered the history of evolutionary sheep..."
Boss, flattered by the praise, squinted at Xia Qing while pedaling, gesturing for her to say more; he loved to hear it.
Xia Qing talked incessantly, praising the eldest sheep to the skies.
The eldest sheep, full of energy, continued pedaling furiously even after irrigating over three acres of land. After sealing the irrigation ditch, Xia Qing stuffed the last bits of feed into its mouth. "Amazing, eldest! You finished irrigating so quickly! Let's go home, shall we?"
The eldest sheep wouldn't listen, continuing to pedal furiously.
Xia Qing tried to persuade it again, but it kept pedaling.
Xia Qing finally realized that this sheep wasn't doing it for the feed; it genuinely loved pedaling.
The water being drawn up was about to overflow the ditch. Xia Qing couldn't dampen the eldest sheep's enthusiasm, so he grabbed a shovel and quickly built a new, winding ditch below the three-way outlet, leading to the reservoir. This way, the water drawn up by the eldest sheep would flow back into the reservoir through the newly dug ditch.
The eldest sheep squinted, happily doing its futile work.
Xia Qing, without needing to shower the water with compliments, squatted down to rest by the ditch and discovered tiny, one-centimeter-long fish fry swimming rapidly in the water she drew up! This was the first time she'd found fish in the reservoir since killing the catfish.
No wonder the egrets were always circling the riverbank; there were fish!
Could she eat these fish?
Xia Qing began testing the nutrient content of the fish fry, catching one, testing it, and then throwing it away.
She threw one away, and the egrets watching nearby picked it up—a perfect, coordinated effort.
After testing a hundred fish, Xia Qing found five yellow tetra fry. This was a remarkably high ratio, and Xia Qing immediately had a brilliant idea.
She would dig a pond to raise fish. After bringing the kittens back, the kittens would eat the red tetras, she would eat the yellow tetras, and the eldest would operate the waterwheel to replenish the pond—a win-win-win situation!
Xia Qing drove up the mini-tiller, and the eldest sheep immediately stopped pedaling the waterwheel, jumped onto the mini-tiller, and lay down on its special seat, watching Xia Qing dig.
Xia Qing spent a day and a half digging a small fishpond, about two meters deep and a little over two acres in size, about 100 meters away from the reservoir.
After digging the fishpond and filling it with water, Xia Qing took down the double-layered, fine-mesh fishing net that had been blocking the narrowest part of the river channel. Over the past two days, the net had caught quite a few small fish fry, which Xia Qing stuffed into the fishpond.
Then, Xia Qing happily turned on the walkie-talkie, intending to ask Qi Fu for advice on fish farming.
Unexpectedly, as soon as Xia Qing opened the door, she heard Qi Fu complaining, "A few days ago, I found fish fry in the river, so I went to great lengths to dig a fishpond. But after I finished, the fish fry are all gone!"
Xia Qing…
Zhao Ze replied, "Brother Qi is amazing! I haven't even found any fish yet, and your fishpond is already finished. Could it be that the last batch of fish fry has already passed? Just wait a few more days, there will definitely be another batch."
Kuang Qingwei from plot number six chimed in resentfully, "I was wondering why the water level in the river was low today; it turns out you were filling the fishpond. I thought the river was going to dry up, so I urged the workers to frantically carry water to irrigate the wheat."
Xia Qing, who had just filled the fishpond…
Zhao Ze was puzzled, "The water level dropped? I've been by the river all day, how come I didn't notice anything?"
Kuang Qingwei countered, "What kind of work is there by the river?" Zhao Ze chuckled, "I'm picking up some pretty stones to pave the yard. I used to work in landscaping, and now that things aren't so busy on my territory, I'm getting a little itchy."
"What's the point of paving with pebbles? A rainstorm would just ruin it all," Kuang Qingwei scoffed. "Do you know why I care about the water level? Because a few territories have seen people fight to the death over irrigation water."
This topic immediately drew everyone's attention. Zhao Ze was relieved, "Luckily, I was lucky enough to pick a plot that won't lack water."
"You're really lucky," Kuang Qingwei teased. "I had my eye on plot number three with the reservoir a while back, but Xia Qing took it."
Zhao Ze brought up the plot selection, "When I got my plot, I was right after Xia Qing. I figured she was an evolved human and would be well-informed, so I chose a plot next to hers. Thank goodness I chose number four; if I had chosen number one, I would have been poisoned to death in the last rainstorm." Xia Qing pressed the button. "Like Qing-ge, I've got my eye on the reservoir at plot number three. Qi-ge, what do you feed the fish?"
Qi Fu loved it when people asked him about agriculture, so he immediately gave a detailed explanation: "Back in my village, some people raise fish. There are two kinds of fish feed: animal and plant-based. Buying ready-made synthetic feed is the easiest. After the natural disaster, we can forget about ready-made feed; we have to make it ourselves. Animal feed mainly consists of leeches, rotifers, water fleas, tubifex worms, and fly larvae. Plant feed consists of aquatic plants and algae. We can also feed them vegetables, but they have to be blanched and chopped up. I just don't know what the fish fry in our river will like to eat after they evolve, and I also don't know if the animals that used to feed the fish will still be able to feed them after they evolve."
Kuang Qingwei interjected, "Suppose there are small fish, there should be big fish too. Have you caught any big fish? I haven't seen a single one, only a dozen or so evolved giant leeches. Zhao Ze, did you catch all the fish?" "I wanted to, but I couldn't catch anything. I dug up earthworms to fish, but the line broke because something bit it, and I haven't dared to fish since."
There were many people in Zhao Ze's territory, and they were all too idle to fish or collect stones. Xia Qing, who was all alone, was busy farming and cleaning the house for painting; she was practically spinning like a top.
She turned off the walkie-talkie and decided to feed the fish some grass. Having ordered fish feed, she needed to think about fertilizing the farmland.
It was lunchtime for the construction team in the safe zone, and Xia Qing dialed Sun Zhe's number.
Sun Zhe and Xia Qing had worked on the same construction team for five years. Their relationship wasn't particularly close, but they could chat occasionally. Sun Zhe was smart enough to be interested in this.
"Hello?" Sun Zhe's voice was noticeably tired; construction work was all hard and dirty, so his condition was normal.
Xia Qing replied calmly, "Sun Zhe, this is Xia Qing."