Chapter 1282: Harvesting Hickory Nuts

Xia Qing excitedly took a cute photo of the Broken-Waist wolf posing, put down her stick and walked over. "Broken-Waist, look at this one I took. Did yours come out nice? Let me see — if it's good, send it to me."

After seeing the photo, Xia Qing felt deflated, because the fellow had only captured a section of iron pipe, a tree branch, and the sky — not a single hair of hers had made it into the frame.

Xia Qing stopped paying it any attention. After banging all the hickory nuts down from the tree, she shook the rain tarp spread on the ground to pile the hickory nuts together, and began loading them into the large packaging bags.

The Broken-Waist wolf was still lying nearby, fiddling with its pretty phone.

"Wooo—"

The handsome giant wolf let out a low growl, and the squirrels that had poked their little heads out from the rock crevices and tree hollows to stare at the hickory nuts immediately pulled their heads back in.

"Thanks, Big Brother Giant Wolf."

Xia Qing gave the handsome giant wolf a piece of dried roasted meat. After swiftly packing six full bags of hickory nuts, she ran over to the Broken-Waist wolf and found it deleting unsatisfactory photos one by one.

The Broken-Waist wolf's paw couldn't spread its digits apart and couldn't grip the phone, so when it tapped the screen with its nose, the camera would shake.

Taking a clear photo wasn't easy for it, so were all those blurry-looking pictures in its album the ones it considered well-taken?

"Broken-Waist, give me your phone — I'll modify it for you."

Xia Qing sat on the ground, pulled tools and suitable accessories from her backpack, and quickly installed two transparent straps on the transparent phone case to hold the phone in place. Then she taught the Broken-Waist wolf how to take photos: "Stick your paw through these two straps, and the phone will be secured. Right, just like that… then use your nose, or this little toe on that paw, like this…"

Perhaps finding a stylus inconvenient, the Broken-Waist wolf preferred using its nose to operate the phone. Xia Qing taught it the Fourth Brother's method of operation, then gestured and proposed a trade: "Handsome Wolf Brother, I'll give you a new phone-wiping cloth — if you wipe the lens clean, your photos will come out clearer. In exchange, could Handsome Wolf Brother bring two wolves along to help me carry these hickory nuts to the helicopter over there?"

In a great mood, the Broken-Waist wolf bared the little tips of its fangs.

Xia Qing swiftly tied up the bags full of hickory nuts with rope, loaded them onto the Broken-Waist wolf and the two wolves it had called over, and sent them to haul the supplies back.

The handsome giant wolf? That fellow was too high and mighty — Xia Qing couldn't boss it around.

Then Xia Qing crossed over the ridge, hurrying to harvest the fruit from that yellow-light hickory tree the Broken-Waist wolf had shown her last time. The handsome giant wolf stood up and followed along behind, unwillingly.

This yellow-light tree bore even more fruit than the green-light tree from before. Xia Qing spread out the rain tarp and went bang-bang-bang knocking them down, leaving some fruit for the little squirrels there. She harvested seven bags of hickory nuts.

Harvesting is the moment that makes a farmer happiest; the absolute happiest moment for a farmer is an unexpected harvest.

Xia Qing scooted over to the Broken-Waist wolf, which had finished delivering the nuts and come back to take photos for her again. After enthusiastically praising this clever wolf's rapidly improving photography skills, she got down to business: "Are there more edible hickory nuts around here? Could Handsome Wolf Brother take me to pick some?"

If Xia Qing didn't pick them, the walnuts on these two trees at the wolf den's entrance would probably be eaten by animals like squirrels, jays, and woodpeckers. Because while she was harvesting the fruit, these animals had been watching from not too close, not too far — if the handsome giant wolf hadn't been holding them down, they would definitely have rushed in to fight Xia Qing for them.

Xia Qing wasn't clear on the habits of the latter two, but she understood squirrels well — squirrels could be called the "sowers" that helped evolve premium nut-bearing plants in the forest.

Because to cope with danger, they hoard far more nuts and grass seeds than they need to eat. After these foods safely pass their dormancy period in the squirrels' tree hollows, mountain caves, or burrows, they'll sprout as long as conditions are right. The native black-skinned green-light peanuts on the terraced fields in the Third Territory's buffer forest came about exactly this way.

The Broken-Waist wolf, which had been happily panting, immediately closed its mouth and looked at Xia Qing seriously.

That meant it had some!

Xia Qing's eyes sparkled as she proposed a trade: "Green-light hickory nuts are premium food for humans. Can I use points to buy the hickory nuts within the wolf pack's territory?"

The Broken-Waist wolf raised its left front paw — the one without the phone case on it — and pointed at a pile of hickory nut bags beside Xia Qing.

Xia Qing nodded. "Right, I need to pay Handsome Wolf Brother points for these seven bags of hickory nuts. Those six bags of green-light hickory nuts from earlier don't need points — those were traded to me by Handsome Wolf Brother."

Over the past half year or so, the Broken-Waist wolf had traded four bags of hickory nuts for two sparkly Yishi protective cases, paid one bag of hickory nuts to compensate for a hair dryer it had broken, traded half a bag of hickory nuts in exchange for Xia Qing calling Zhang San to consult on a problem, and two months ago had also used half a bag of hickory nuts to get Xia Qing to hand over the Yishi snake it had caught to Zhang San, extract the active ingredients to make a potion, and return it to the wolf.

All told, the Broken-Waist wolf owed Xia Qing six bags of hickory nuts.

Actually, the last bag of green-light hickory nuts Xia Qing had harvested today wasn't completely full, but she was on such good terms with Broken-Waist that she could overlook such a trivial amount and consider the debt paid. "Handsome Wolf Brother, these are yellow-light hickory nuts — lower in price and not as nutritious. I need more green-light hickory nuts to make myself stronger…"

Seeing that the Broken-Waist wolf wasn't moving, Xia Qing could only bring out the household item she had commissioned Seeing Xin Yu to make — something that would absolutely appeal to this wolf of taste.

"If Handsome Wolf Brother takes me to pick better-quality green-light hickory nuts, I'll trade you this — a hanging storage bag!! Hang this in your den, and Handsome Wolf Brother can store your little mirror, necklace, phone, and Yishi protective case in these little pouches. How about it? Do you like it? Isn't it pretty?"

Seeing the storage bag Xia Qing had taken out — pink, studded with rhinestones, trimmed with lace, with the Arabic numerals 1-9 embroidered on the little pouches — the Broken-Waist wolf's eyes lit up.

The handsome giant wolf beside them turned its head away and continued staring at the little squirrel in the rock crevice that was wagging its tail at it.

"This is for Handsome Wolf Brother — will Handsome Wolf Brother take me to find green-light hickory nut trees? Deal?"

The Broken-Waist wolf grinned, turned, and gestured for Xia Qing to follow immediately.

"Handsome Wolf Brother, wait a moment." Xia Qing swiftly tied up the bags, had the Broken-Waist wolf call over four wolves to help her transport them to the helicopter, and only then followed the Broken-Waist wolf eastward. Panting, she ran all the way to a hillside, looked down — and fell silent.

Because the valley below contained not only hickory nut trees, but also pine trees, giant bears, and a little monkey wearing a dirty little jacket.

"Rooooar————"

Seeing a human appear, a giant bear in the valley raised its huge paw and slapped a few hickory nuts to pieces with a crack, letting out a furious roar. Does Daigua, who had been stuffing hickory nuts into its little bag, looked up, saw Xia Qing, and came rushing over with an eep-eep cheer.

Both hickory nuts and pine nuts are high-calorie foods that bears love to eat. It wasn't strange at all that there were bears under those four trees in the valley that had lost all their leaves and only bore hickory nuts. Daigua was an omnivore — although it preferred sweet potatoes to hickory nuts, its showing up here wasn't strange either…

Xia Qing caught the enthusiastic Does Daigua and asked, "Broken-Waist, does that valley below belong to the Xiong Qun's territory?"

The Broken-Waist wolf grinned, baring the little tips of its fangs.

Xia Qing…