LRAB Page 20
Page 20
"It's not that special. Goats and rabbits, for example, can diverge year-round as long as their living conditions are good. Oh, and cows too; their dilatations don't have a clear seasonality, so it's practically year-round..."
Payne stopped halfway through his sentence because he noticed that Little Horse had fully opened his eyes and was staring at him with a piercing gaze.
"What...what happened?"
"You hit my hair."
"Oh, I'm sorry..."
"That's just the first thing. The second thing is, how long is the cow's diverging boat mechanism?"
Although he didn't know why she was asking these questions, under the watchful eye of hers, Payne still answered truthfully: "A cycle is 18-25 days, but the splitter only takes up a very short period of time, only 6-36 hours..."
Hearing this, Little Horse revealed a mischievous smile, then flipped over and sat on Payne's stomach. "So, does that mean I'm the better one?"
Payne's lips twitched slightly, and he said somewhat awkwardly, "You can't say that... Although your diverger can last for a week, you only diverge for four months of the year, and only four or five times a year..."
This time, he stopped halfway through his sentence again, because Xiao Ma… said, “…, …”.
"..., ...
……
Payne had to admit that once a girl (including a beast girl) started to become competitive, she could indeed become quite formidable.
Payne didn't even know how he fell asleep last night!
When he woke up the next morning, ... his muscle soreness had only been relieved to a small extent.
The thought of having to work all day long... gave him a headache and muscle pain.
Although... it is indeed very sweet, it's not just him, but also Xiao Ma. After being so tired during the day, he was worried that both he and the beast would be unable to keep up with the extra work at night.
However, before he could finish worrying about this matter, a second problem arose:
A series of increasingly intense scratching sounds came from behind. Payne turned around and saw Xiao En sitting on the bed next to him with a bitter face, scratching his fluffy white hair with both hands as if seeking revenge.
Judging from her posture, Payne was even a little worried that her hair might scatter like a dandelion that had been kicked.
"What's wrong? Do you have lice?" Payne asked.
"Waaah—" Xiao En let out a mournful bleating sound unique to sheep, "It itches so much—it's killing me with itchiness—"
Not fully awake yet, Payne was in a daze for a while before turning to ask the cowgirl who had just gotten up, "Good morning, how was your first night on the front lines?"
"Good morning, this is my first time sleeping in a bed, it feels very comfortable." Grace's face still had a gentle smile. "However... there may be lice here, they bit me really badly last night."
"Oh...that's really bad..."
Payne sat up, rubbing his lower back as he checked himself over, then discovered something miraculous: "I don't have a single pimple on me? No wonder I slept so soundly last night..."
Ruby yawned and sat up, scratching herself all over with her little arms, still chattering: "Are you sure it's not because you were too tired last night that you slept so soundly?"
"That's certainly one of the reasons. However..."
Payne looked down as he spoke, noticing that the little pony lying beside him, still stubbornly refusing to get up, was scratching its leg. Then he looked up at Lacey, who was still sleeping peacefully, and a bold idea popped into his head:
"Everyone, take off your clothes and get a body check."
Each beast girl reacted differently to this:
Little Horse (annoyed): "Haven't you seen enough yet...?"
Xiao En (in a panic): "Huh?!"
Ruby (disdainfully): "You don't need to make up such a lame excuse."
Lacey (drowsily): "Woof, is dinner time?..."
Grace (with four parts wariness, four parts amusement, and two parts panic): "Ah, is it my turn already?"
However, Payne, still in his sage state, had no interest in getting entangled with the beast girls. He simply made them take off their clothes and then check each other to see how many lice bites they had.
The test results came back quickly:
Grace was new to the area, so she didn't have many bags on her.
Xiao En, Xiao Ma, and Ruby have been completely overrun, their bodies covered in bumps as if they had measles.
Only Payne and Lacey were exceptions; neither of them showed any signs of insect bites.
Upon witnessing this scene, Xiao En nearly burst into tears: "Why? Why didn't you get bitten? I was bitten so badly last night that I barely slept a wink, and I still have to work all day today! Are you trying to kill the beasts?! Waaaaah..."
Seeing that the three beasts that had been bitten the most had obvious dark circles under their eyes, Payne casually patted their heads (but Ruby slapped him away when he tried to pat them), and said, "I'll leave you to fend for yourselves today. I'll go and see if there's any way to help."
Lacey immediately guessed what he was thinking: "You mean, the bottle from that day?"
"Yes. Maybe it really does contain some kind of insect repellent that the French have just developed."
Payne chuckled dryly, "The French have to be so technologically advanced. If it were here, we'd probably have to introduce natural enemies of lice to control them."
"Speaking of which, what are the natural enemies of lice again? ... Birds are tolerable, but spiders... just thinking about them gives me goosebumps..."
Chapter 30 XXX. I need to take a shower.
While helping to pull the cannon in the morning, Payne conducted some research within B Company and reported the results to the beast girls at lunchtime:
"No one who came into contact with the bottles left by the French had lice."
"But the others are in a much worse situation; they've basically been completely infested with lice."
Payne was somewhat gloating, not only because he didn't have lice, but also because after listening to the research report, Xiao En immediately came over with a pained expression, hugging his arm and rubbing against him, "Ugh...can I have some of the insect repellent...?"
"However, the physical and chemical properties of this thing are also very strange. Not only does it stick to the human body for a long time, but it is also very difficult to get it on other people."
Payne muttered to himself, noticing that Pony also looked unhappy and hugged his other arm.
Putting aside the others, even though he interacted with Xiao Ma for so long and slept with her for two nights, the lice still bit her all over.
Then, free from the lice, Lacey rested her head on his lap, and Grace, saying, "Let me try to get some~" sat down back-to-back with him. He then looked at the last beast with a blissful expression: "Ruby~ you're the only one left~ come here~~"
"No." But Ruby remained unmoved, squatting down beside him and cracking nuts.
After thinking for a moment, the squirrel leaned closer and whispered in Payne's ear, "So, do you think the physicochemical properties of this 'insect repellent' are... normal?"
Payne glanced at her and gave her a comical smile. "See, there are benefits to reading, aren't there? Other beasts wouldn't think of that, only you could ask such a question."
“I saw you talking to Miller for a while,” Ruby said casually. “What was he thinking?”
Paine shrugged, surrounded by beast girls. "With our level of knowledge, we really can't think of any chemical substance that would have this property."
Ruby turned her head away, seemingly looking at something, and after a while, she turned back and said, "Besides, this stuff is probably quite volatile."
"How to say?"
"Haven't you noticed that we haven't seen any small flying insects for a long time?"
Payne looked thoughtfully at the tails of the three beasts—dog, horse, and ox—which had different shapes, and then nodded. "It seems that's indeed the case."
These past two days, Mother Nature has been pouring rain almost every day. Not only are the flowers, plants, and trees growing well, but they should also be teeming with wild insects. Those beast girls with long tails are frantically shaking their tails to scare away the insects.
But the tails of Lacey, Little Pony, and Grace's three beasts were all hanging quietly, making them seem perfect for a prank—like tying their tails together in a knot or something...
Of course, he wouldn't do something so despicable (mainly because both his arms were being held and he couldn't move them), and turned to Ruby, saying, "See, this is one of the benefits of reading."
"What does this have to do with reading? You went to university, but you still didn't notice the problem with the insects."
"Uh... but at least you can say the word 'volatile'."
Both the man and the squirrel fell silent, then both became somewhat worried.
“I have a feeling that something’s not right,” Ruby said.
“I also felt something was off,” Pine said. “Carter said from the beginning that it might be a trap, and his intuition is always very accurate…”
"What about those bottles? Were they all transported away?"
"No. The company commander said there wasn't enough transport capacity, and the higher-ups didn't have time to move all the bottles away, so he led his men to bury them all again."
"So, what should we do?"
"Hmm... I think we should take a shower first."
"……what?"
Ruby was about to say, "Your excuse is so illogical," when she suddenly realized something and gave a thoughtful look.
"See, I told you reading is useful."
"Is that all you know how to say?"
……
After exchanging information with other units stationed there about the new discovery, they also expressed their concerns, noting that there was a small river near a village not far from here.
Although they were exhausted after a day's work, for safety reasons, Payne still led the beast girls on a trek of more than ten minutes after dark to a stream that was only a few meters wide.
"Oh dear, do we need to take our clothes off?"
Grace smiled, her face flushed. I always felt her proactive attitude was feigned.
Paine rolled her eyes at her and said, "Not for now. You'd better jump in before the lice realize what's happening."
Ruby casually remarked, "What's the point? The lice have probably taken over the entire trench by now."
Payne didn't waste any words with her. He grabbed her shoulders with both hands, twisted her around, and threw her away.
“Waaaa Pain, I’ll talk to you…” “Thump!!” “…It’s not over yet!!”
The splashing water landed on the faces of people and animals, which immediately aroused the interest of the dogs, horses, and sheep who loved water. Lacey happily shouted, "Me too!" and jumped into the water. In comparison, the pony and Shawn were a little more quiet. They just bent down and slowly slid into the water.
Although the light wasn't great, even so, Payne could still see a large patch of small black dots floating on the water's surface, centered around Shawn...
After glancing at the unmoved Grace and then at her height, which was almost the same as his own, Payne gestured for her to get down. "Get down, I can't lift you."
Grace paused for a moment, then chuckled twice before stepping into the river.
It seems she is not a water buffalo.
"Wow...it feels so cool..."
The little horse rested its head on a rock on the bank. After a long day of work in the sweltering heat of a sauna-like day, with the sun coming out after the rain, being able to lie down and rest in the cool river was simply the most pleasant thing I had ever experienced.
The sounds of Lacey's playful antics and splashing water, along with Ruby's cries, came from nearby. Pony felt even the restlessness caused by the splitter gradually subside.
But soon, she felt someone starting to unbutton her clothes. "Don't sleep. We brought you here to take a bath to get rid of the lice and to wash off the 'insect repellent.' Get up quickly."