On the tenth year of the natural disaster, I went to farm with me

Chapter 497 The Red Squirrel Whose Home Was Stolen

Xia Qing, whose body was still suffering from the side effects of the Yi element stimulating liquid, walked around the big pine tree where the locator was located for a long time, but did not find any signs of the red squirrel coming out.

This is very abnormal.

Squirrels are animals that usually find a place to poop and pee within their territory, and this place is usually quite a distance away from the tree hole where they live. This has nothing to do with cleanliness or hygiene, it is all about survival.

First of all, squirrels are also territorial animals. They will use their excrement to let their peers know that their territory has been occupied and that they should not enter. If they enter, they will fight.

Secondly, goshawks, owls, martens, snakes, etc. are all natural enemies of squirrels, and they mainly rely on vision, taste or hearing to locate the location of squirrels. In order to avoid natural enemies, squirrels will not only not defecate near caves, but also find ways to find things that can cover their own smell and put them on their bodies or in caves to avoid being found by natural enemies. For example, this fast-evolving red squirrel in Area 3 will use tobacco with a strong smell to make a nest, and will sprinkle snake slough debris on its fur.

Squirrels do reduce their activity and increase their sleep time in winter, entering a semi-hibernation state. But they still need to eat and excrete, so in theory, there should be traces of red squirrel activity on the snowy surface around the tree hole.

Unable to find it, Xia Qing simply stood under the tree and called out to the neighbor in the hole in a low voice. She lowered her voice not because she was afraid of being heard, but because she was afraid of scaring the timid neighbor in the tree hole.

"Red Squirrel, are you home? I brought you some peanuts, do you want to eat them?"

"Freeloaders, are you at home? Do you want to drink water?"

After calling a few times, there was no movement in the tree hole. Xia Qing took out the cat claw shoes from his backpack, slowly climbed up more than ten meters, came to the door of the red squirrel's home and called twice again, but there was still no movement.

She turned on the flashlight and looked inside the cave, and breathed a sigh of relief when she found that the locator was not there and the rat was gone.

Since they were here, Xia Qing used an iron hook to search the red squirrel's home and found that the food in the tree hole was almost gone. This little guy is quite a eater.

The red squirrel is much richer than Xia Qing. Xia Qing has only one home, while the red squirrel has six tree holes in this territory that can be used as nests and two stone holes specifically for hiding food. This autumn, it went out early and came back late, busy, storing food in the six holes. If the red squirrel is not here, it must be in other holes with food.

Xia Qing, whose hearing ability had not yet fully recovered, listened carefully to the sounds of various animals in the Evolution Forest and chose the place she thought was most likely. After arriving at the location, Xia Qing found that the red squirrel was still not in the hole, but there were gnawed dried fruit crumbs and footprints left by many mice scattered on the ground.

The red squirrel's home was stolen by mice!

Xia Qing immediately quickened his pace and walked towards the nearest cave. There was a stone cave 500 meters ahead, which was the cave where the red squirrels stored the most food this winter.

Xia Qing walked more than 300 meters to the northeast on the snow with a crunching sound, and then he heard the cooing and hissing sounds of red squirrels.

Red squirrels don't like to make any noise, and the only reason they are barking so loudly is because they are hungry, scared or angry to a level they can no longer tolerate.

Xia Qing raised his gun and sped up, shouting, "Freeloader, what happened? Freeloader—"

"Gugu--" The squirrel's screams intensified, and Xia Qing, who had been scheming against it for months, could hear its anger and anxiety. The location where the sound came from did not change, which meant that the red squirrel might have been blocked in the hole by the mouse!
Before Xia Qing could rush over, he heard the sound of an animal moving quickly on the snow. This sound was not something a red squirrel could make.

Xia Qing stopped immediately, raised his gun and aimed, and soon saw an evolved forest marten with a body length of more than half a meter, running straight towards him with its teeth bared. Needless to say, this expression and this movement showed that it was an out-of-control animal. It was not worth wasting a bullet on an evolved animal of this level. Xia Qing put away his gun and drew his sword, and killed the forest marten in a few encounters, and continued to rush towards the red squirrel's burrow.

A golden eagle circling in the air swooped down, grabbed the body of the marten, flapped its wings and quickly flew away, snatching away Xia Qing's prey.

"Freeloader, are you in there?" Xia Qing came to the entrance of the cave and called out to his neighbor in a low voice.

"Gugu, hiss——"

“Squeak, squeak—”

Not only the red squirrels answered Xia Qing, but also the arrogant calls of mice. Just from the calls, it can be judged that there are at least 10 mice in the cave.

The red squirrel runs fast, but its attack power is not strong. It may not be the final winner against a group of mice. What's more, this red squirrel was attacked by the green peanut more than half a month ago and lost a lot of blood.

Before Xia Qing could figure out how to call out the red squirrel, the little guy ran out by himself.

"Gu, ga, ga-ga--" the red squirrel howled angrily and anxiously on the big pine tree next to Xia Qing, jumping up and down, and drops of blood fell on the dirty snow. The mice in the hole did not come out, but Xia Qing could hear the crunching sound of them gnawing on pine nuts and chestnuts.

Even if the food in the tree hole was not Xia Qing's, she was anxious after hearing it. Without saying a word, she took out a handful of hay from her backpack, lit it, threw it into the cave, and then quickly blocked the entrance with a large animal skin bag.

"Squeak, squeak—"

Animals are afraid of smoke and fire, and soon they screamed and fled from other cracks in the cave. These are evolved voles, and they are no smaller than red squirrels. No wonder red squirrels can't beat them.

When the red squirrel saw the giant field mouse running out, it rushed over like a flash of red light and bit the giant field mouse's neck fiercely. The giant field mouse squeaked and struggled, and the two mice, one gray and one red, fought fiercely on the snow.

There were also some ignorant evolved voles that broke directly into the animal skin bag. Xia Qing skillfully stepped on them and killed three of them. He also killed one red squirrel, and the rest ran away.

Xia Qing put away the animal skin bag, shoveled some snow and threw it into the cave to put out the flames, but the thick smoke inside would not dissipate for a while, and the red squirrels were so anxious that they jumped up and down around the cave.

Xia Qing confirmed that there was no danger, cleared a piece of snow, put the peanuts in his pocket on the ground, and called to his poor neighbor, "Don't worry. Come here first and let me see where your wound is. I'll dig out the food for you."

Seeing the peanuts on the ground, the red squirrel jumped over, grabbed the peanuts and ran away, so fast that Xia Qing only saw a red light. She was in a weak period now, and her visual evolution ability was limited, so she couldn't see where the red squirrel was injured.

So Xia Qing took out the water bottle from her backpack and poured the warm, unpolluted spring water into the small bowl that the red squirrel often drank from on the windowsill. "Little guy, come here and drink some water."

In the temperature of more than 20 degrees below zero, the spring water cooled rapidly and would soon freeze. The red squirrel holding the peanuts did not hesitate and immediately rushed over to drink the water.

Thanks to book friends 19900808 and Maldini for the tips, and thank you all for your subscriptions and voting support.