Chapter 1070: Wolf Lao Er Is Back

"Third Brother, although the evolved wolves are clever, the vast majority of wolves, including the alpha of the northern pack, only want to guard their territory and are content once they're full. So essentially, like me, they're also lords of a piece of land. As long as humans don't invade their core territory, they won't attack humans."

The idol's concern had crossed Xia Qing's mind the first time she noticed the wolves' cleverness, and she had already given the pack a preventive inoculation.

"I often show the alpha and Broken-Waist disaster videos, so they clearly understand the terrible consequences of ecological imbalance being disrupted, and they also know how powerful human weapons are."

Hearing that Xia Qing had paid attention to this potential risk, Zhang San's expression softened a bit. "Has it been effective?"

Yes. After watching the disaster videos, Broken-Waist gave up learning to fly a helicopter, and when using the power-generating bicycle in its cave, it even pays attention to the charge level and the battery's health.

But Xia Qing didn't dare tell the idol this. "Yes. After Broken-Waist learned the concept of ecological balance in the evolved forest, it raised quite a few honey badgers in its territory to kill snakes; it can now also identify sick prey, and after discovering them it kills them without eating them, but digs a pit and buries them; when it discovers rapidly reproducing aggressive Calamity-evolved plants, like aggressive wild paulownia, it also figures out ways to deal with them, and when it can't handle them it comes to find me. Of the wild paulownia on Mountain 51 that I reported to the inspection team in the past two months, several were discovered by the wolf pack."

If the wolf pack hadn't patrolled and discovered the wild paulownia in hidden locations, and Xia Qing hadn't promptly reported it to the inspection team, the northern Sector One territory wouldn't have been so peaceful during this Calamity rain.

Zhang San's expression could be called genial. "Compile the videos, images, and written materials you've shown the wolves in chronological order and give me a copy. I need to know what Broken-Waist has learned."

This... was very difficult. Broken-Waist had studied on its own with a notebook...

But since the idol had made a request, Xia Qing agreed without a single stutter. "Okay, Third Brother. Once I finish dealing with the Calamity grass I'll compile it. Since it's all video material, would it be alright if I contact Brother Ya and ask him how to export the records?"

Broken-Waist uses the same video player, so it should be exportable... right?

Zhang San nodded. "That's fine. In the future, if Broken-Waist has questions and asks you, look up what you don't know, and if you can't figure it out, ask me. Don't just assume things or make stuff up. It trusts you very much; whatever you say, it believes."

"... Understood. I'll be more careful from now on."

Xia Qing wanted to say she hadn't made things up in front of Broken-Waist, but Third Brother was a researcher who valued evidence above all in his speech. If Xia Qing answered that way, Third Brother would immediately cite a whole pile of examples proving she had made things up in front of Broken-Waist. Xia Qing parked the car by the river channel and discussed with the idol, "The road is slippery. Shall I carry you up?"

"I can walk myself." Zhang San pushed open the door, carefully got out of the car, and walked north step by step. He did indeed look much steadier than Zhang Song.

Zhang Jingwu, who had endured 134 agonizing minutes at the north gate of Territory Three, saw the big shot emerge covered in mud, and his suspended heart finally settled.

Xia Qing watched the idol climb into the car and drive away, and bumped up the priority of the road-repair task.

Before the idol comes again, she would definitely fix the road!

While patrolling her territory, Xia Qing heard her phone buzz in her pocket. Yang Jin had sent her a picture of a tall wall blown open by a bomb, accompanied by three words: It's started.

Liehuo and Mieshi had finally started fighting!

Xia Qing immediately replied to Yang Jin: If you see someone with the surname Shan escape, finish her off with a shot or a cannon. I'll pay the points.

After Xia Qing killed Shan Xiang, she made an enemy of Shan Ying. This year's red Calamity grass seed spread crisis in the high-risk area of Mountain 50 during the second Calamity rain was Shan Ying's doing.

Shan Ying wanted to kill Xia Qing to avenge her brother. Xia Qing certainly couldn't just defend passively. Now that something had happened at Liehuo Mountain, this was the perfect chance to strike amid the chaos.

Yang Jin quickly replied: We'll settle the points when I'm back.

Xia Qing curved up the corners of her mouth, patrolled one circuit of her territory, and only then went home.

Broken-Waist, who was sitting in the living room watching "Learning to Read Scans with the Big Shot," saw Xia Qing come back and flashed her a glimpse of its little fang tips; Sheep Boss, who was pedaling the bicycle, raised its head and squinted at Xia Qing.

"Boss, how come you look even more handsome pedaling the bicycle? Your leg muscles look absolutely full of power—ten Little Flatheads couldn't beat you..." Xia Qing immediately offered sincere praise to her power-generating companion, then took Little Feimao out of her pocket and put it into its sand bath, before telling Broken-Waist, "Broken-Waist, we'll discuss building the laboratory in a bit."

The laboratory's CT machine and microscope both belonged to Broken-Waist, so it had to bear at least two-thirds of the laboratory construction costs.

Xia Qing went upstairs to clean the laboratory first, did a disinfection pass, and was about to go down to settle accounts with Broken-Waist when she heard Sheep Boss clip-clop a few steps, and then with a "clang," her entryway security door had fallen down again!!!

Damn it!

Xia Qing, fury surging, rushed downstairs and saw that Broken-Waist was no longer in the living room. Standing by the fallen security door, Sheep Boss was happily rubbing against the bewildered wolf-dog Wolf Lao Er.

The security door—this time it had fallen outward.

No need to ask. Boss must have caught Wolf Lao Er's scent coming back, so it charged over and didn't gauge its strength properly, knocking the door down.

Broken-Waist? That guy must have seen Wolf Lao Er come back and run off to find the alpha.

Xia Qing soothed her startled companion. "Lao Er, don't be scared. This door was already broken. I'll fix it right away."

The soaking-wet Wolf Lao Er opened its mouth and showed a happy smile.

Xia Qing propped up the security door while calling to her companions. "Lao Er, come in quick. Your fur is all wet; I'll run hot water for you to soak in. Boss, you wash your hooves and come back too!"

Damn it, can't you let me worry a little less? The door's all warped!

It had rained for three days, and the solar water heater had long run out of hot water. Xia Qing herself only took cold showers, but she couldn't bear to let Wolf Lao Er soak in cold water, so she immediately added firewood to heat water.

Wolf Lao Er, who had shaken off the water droplets on its body outside and washed the mud off its paws, walked in and lay down by the stove, its big head resting gently on Xia Qing's foot. In a pair of clear rust-colored eyes, apart from the still-dancing flames, there was nothing but Xia Qing's reflection.

Xia Qing parted its fur and indeed found several evolved ticks that had already buried their heads into Wolf Lao Er's skin, as well as several evolved slugs, and several creatures like red threads—she couldn't tell if they were animals or Calamity-evolved plants.

After a Calamity rain was precisely when the small insects in the evolved forest were most active. The alpha and Broken-Waist had both come wearing protective suits. Wolf Lao Er hadn't worn a protective suit when it ran over from Mountain 60, and it had also gone with the alpha and Old Wolf to the western evolved forest, so it having bugs on it was perfectly normal.

Xia Qing immediately took Wolf Lao Er into the first-floor bathroom, applied special insecticide to kill and remove the bugs visible to the naked eye, then ladled the hot water from the pot into the bath tub, poured in medication, and let Wolf Lao Er soak in the medicated water to kill germs and insects.

After changing the water once, Xia Qing lifted Sheep Boss into the tub too. While she disinfected the two of them together, Wolf Lao Er, now relaxed, rested its head on Sheep Boss's spiral horn and closed its eyes to rest.

The bad-tempered Sheep Boss merely squinted its eyes and stayed perfectly still.

Xia Qing pulled out her phone and took a photo of her two companions, then walked into the yard, looked up, and asked, "Old Four, did you and the Queen deliver the medicine to the western evolved forest and get the evolved tigers to drink it?"

The soaking-wet Old Wolf opened its eyes but didn't move from its spot.

Xia Qing was long used to Old Wolf's attitude of never responding to anything, and continued asking, "Where's the Queen? Why didn't she come back with you?"

She waited and waited, until Xia Qing opened the bag under the eaves, and Old Wolf, which had been on top of the house ruins, jumped down into the yard and came over beside the body bag.

Xia Qing asked softly, "What do you want to do with your companion's body? Dig a pit and bury it, or burn it?"

When food was scarce, wolves would gnaw on their companions' corpses to satisfy their hunger, but when food was plentiful, they wouldn't eat the bodies of their own kind.

Last month, after Xia Qing and the alpha went to Mountain 59 to snipe the giant eagle, she personally saw the wolf pack carry their companion's body to a ravine and weigh it down with rocks of various sizes.

The wolf pack did this because they didn't want vultures, marabou storks, hyenas, wolverines, and other scavengers to gnaw on their companion's body.

Old Wolf, who had been recuperating in Territory Three, picked up its companion's body in its mouth and returned to its territory.