Chapter 1225: Let's Add Each Other as Contacts

The Broken-Waist Wolf pawed at Xia Qing, glanced at Daigua, then glanced at the ore in the bamboo basket.

Xia Qing shook her head. "Daigua won't be able to find it, because this kind of ore doesn't exist within Xiong Qun's territory — only on the Ruins Continent. The Ruins Continent is very far from our territory, and there's an ocean in between. To get there we'd have to take a plane for over ten hours, and even then we might not find the ore. It's too dangerous."

In Evolution Creatures class, Xia Qing had talked about the Ruins Continent. The Broken-Waist Wolf understood that it couldn't let that little monkey who looked so much like Xia Qing go look for ore, so it ran over and squeezed in with the Head Wolf to watch videos.

Once Xia Qing had put away the ore and finished assembling a crate, it came back over and indicated it wanted to trade its points card for a crate.

"Broken-Waist, this kind of fabric is a limited-supply new-material resource — you can't buy it without special channels." Xia Qing didn't want the points. "You don't have many points left. Better to save them for trading other things. Give me all the mountain walnuts from Mountain Sixty, and I'll give you two crates. How about it?"

The Broken-Waist Wolf looked at Xia Qing with a solemn expression, firmly indicating it wanted to trade with its points card.

This wolf was getting more and more shrewd. Xia Qing could only swipe the points card and give it one. Yang Jin's quoted price to Xia Qing was 4000 points for one crate plus one piece of cloth. Xia Qing charged the Broken-Waist Wolf 4400 points.

The extra 400 points was the middleman's commission.

Then, Xia Qing continued assembling crates.

A-jiao has three burrows — she planned to use these crates and the new-material fabric to bury part of the Yishi.

Besides burying the Yishi, this batch of Fiery Fire supplies also gave Xia Qing a new idea for storing food: processing part of the grain into ready-to-eat food.

She would grind part of the Green-Lamp wheat into flour and make it into dry noodles, and grind part of the Green-Lamp rice into flour and make it into dry rice noodles. This kind of food, vacuum-packed to seal out air and Qiang elements, could be preserved for at least two years.

If a serious natural disaster or accident occurred, carrying this kind of convenient ready-to-eat food would let her prepare meals faster and improve her survival odds.

Once Xia Qing had assembled all the crates, the Broken-Waist Wolf came over again, pawed at Xia Qing's phone, and traced a number in the air:

4.

"You want me to call Fourth, and ask about what Yang Jin mentioned?"

The Broken-Waist Wolf opened its mouth, revealing its two cute little white fang tips.

Yang Jin and the idol weren't here, so the Broken-Waist Wolf was much more relaxed. It smiled, looking both handsome and adorable. Xia Qing simply couldn't refuse such a smile, so she immediately picked up her phone and placed a video call to the old wolf of the Southern Wolf Pack.

Hearing that Xia Qing wanted to contact the old wolf, the Head Wolf turned off the TV and came over to watch.

"Buzz——"

"Buzz——"

Hearing the vibration, the old wolf, who was pawing through supplies at the cave entrance, pawed through a pile of grass, found its phone, slipped on a stylus, and tapped the answer button. Seeing that the lit-up screen showed not only Xia Qing but also two wolves from the Hui Three Northern Wolf Pack, the old wolf's expression turned solemn.

"Fourth, what are you busy with?" After cheerfully greeting those yellow-green eyes in the darkness, Xia Qing asked, "Is Fourth in the cave on the cliff?"

The old wolf bared its fangs in a grin.

The cliff was the core territory of the wolf pack, with no humans nearby, so they could communicate freely. Xia Qing asked, "The Queen, Broken-Waist, and I just got the latest news — last night three human squads were in your territory, fighting in that giant-tree grove where we found the crates, and they lost a batch of supplies…"

Xia Qing patiently communicated the same thing to the old wolf twice, and only after confirming it understood did she continue asking, "Did Fourth take the supplies those humans lost?"

The solemn old wolf bared its fangs in a grin. The Head Wolf looked solemn; the Broken-Waist Wolf looked thoughtful.

Xia Qing gave a thumbs-up. "Fourth, you truly are the elder among wolves, truly a brain-domain evolved wolf standing at the top of the pyramid! Fourth, why did you take those people's supplies — do you want to trade them with me?"

Fourth bared its fangs in a grin again. The Head Wolf walked away; the Broken-Waist Wolf stared at the screen, still thoughtful.

Xia Qing smiled. "Good, I'll come by when I have time to trade supplies with you. Humans fighting in Fourth's territory damaged the forest, so it's only right that Fourth took their supplies. But Fourth must be careful — some human supplies explode, some are poisonous, and some, like phones, send out signals that can reveal Fourth's location…"

Having studied with Xia Qing for some time, the old wolf understood what signals and surveillance were, and swiped one more time at the already-broken walkie-talkie beside it.

Xia Qing keenly caught the sound of an electrical device being destroyed, and reassured the cautious old wolf. "This time it probably wasn't exposed. Fourth should be more careful in the future…"

The Broken-Waist Wolf brought its phone over in its mouth and pawed at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing glanced at it and asked, "Fourth, Broken-Waist wants to add your contact info, so you and Broken-Waist can reach each other by phone in the future. Do you think that's okay?"

Fourth stared solemnly at the young wolf on the screen, giving no reaction.

"Aowu ao-aowu, aowuu——"

The Broken-Waist Wolf let out a fairly complex howl with a lot of information packed into it, then stared intently at the screen, motionless.

After a dozen or so seconds, the old wolf on the screen finally slowly bared its fangs.

"Okay, Fourth, hang up. I'll give your contact info to Broken-Waist. When I come by to trade supplies with you, I'll teach you how to add a friend, and then you and Broken-Waist will be able to video-call each other."

Xia Qing hung up, added a new friend for the Broken-Waist Wolf, then asked, "Broken-Waist, which one is Fourth?"

For easy identification, the contact avatars in its address book were photos of the actual wolves, and the names were their names.

Before, the Broken-Waist Wolf had only one contact. Now it still had one contact — the new addition was a contact wolf.

The Broken-Waist Wolf skillfully tapped Fourth's avatar with its nose.

"Right, Broken-Waist, you truly are an evolved wolf standing at the top of the pyramid! Now you can voice-call Fourth. As for video calls, we'll have to wait until I go trade supplies with Fourth and add you as a friend on its phone."

After adding the friend, the Broken-Waist Wolf left Xia Qing's home together with the Head Wolf.

Yang Jin, who was sitting in the reception room by the farmland handling work and incidentally guarding Xia Qing's territory, looked up and caught a glimpse of two evolved wolves flashing past on the surveillance screen — one of them carrying a square crate on its back.

After the two wolves left, Xia Qing went on her nightly run.

Yang Jin stood up, packed away his laptop, went outside to patrol the territory, "happened to run into" Xia Qing, and jogged two slow laps with her. Only when she stopped and began strength training did he ask, "Sister Qing, the crate door you traded to Brother Duan — was it modified?"

"Mm, I fitted it with a spring clasp." The crate was one Xia Qing had fished out of a tree hollow, and it had no key, so it needed modifying.

Yang Jin did strength training while chatting casually with Xia Qing. When Xia Qing went home to rest, he also returned to the small cabin by the farmland and quietly gazed at the surveillance screen on the wall.

Xia Qing's expression just now had been too calm, so the words Yang Jin had on the tip of his tongue, he hadn't dared ask.

It wasn't just the Broken-Waist Wolf's crate that Xia Qing had modified — its phone charm had also been braided by Sister Qing.

The gold chain used to braid the phone charm was one Yang Jin had carefully selected, then traded to Xia Qing under the pretext of exchanging for a Yishi protective case.

Before seeing the chain, Yang Jin had assumed that Xia Qing now had at least some degree of goodwill toward him, and had even tacitly accepted the romantic relationship between them.

But after seeing the chain dangling from the Broken-Waist Wolf's mouth, he wasn't so sure anymore.

Xia Qing wasn't the type to be wishy-washy — if he asked, he'd definitely get an answer.

Either it would confirm a formal romantic relationship, or it would confirm a highly trusted alliance relationship, like the one between Xia Qing and Zhang San.

He judged the former more likely than the latter. Reason told him he should boldly take the gamble, but when it came to decisions involving Xia Qing, Yang Jin didn't dare gamble.

Xia Qing seemed to really like the Broken-Waist Wolf type. He decided to observe more of how the Broken-Waist Wolf and the Head Wolf interacted, and pick up some pointers — to become a lover Xia Qing could truly trust to the highest degree.