Chapter 1431: The Rampaging Wolf King

After letting Daigua watch her put the honey back in the fridge and lock it, Xia Qing brought the little fellow into the second-floor bathroom. The water in the tub had already been heated to a comfortable temperature, steam rising off the surface, the whole bathroom thick with mist.

Xia Qing gave careful instructions. "Daigua, your second task is, when this alarm clock goes off, come up and take a look. If I've fallen asleep, Daigua pulls this rope, so the medicine can flow down the tube into the tub downstairs. Once the water has drained, Daigua covers me with this thermal blanket, head and all. Got it?"

Once the medicine had drained, if the thermal blanket wasn't put on, Xia Qing would definitely catch a cold, and if the firewood in the hearth ran short she might even get frostbite. So tonight Daigua's task was extremely important—important enough for Xia Qing to bring out a jar of honey to motivate it.

"Yi!!!"

Daigua immediately bared its mouthful of teeth, afraid Xia Qing wouldn't understand just how fired up it was for the job, how enthusiastic its work attitude.

"Very good! Tomorrow morning I'll inspect the results. Once I confirm Daigua has finished the first task—removing Dai Mu's shackles from the wolf and Sheep Boss—and the second task—pulling the rope and covering me with the thermal blanket—that big jar of Green Light honey in the fridge belongs to Daigua!" Xia Qing stroked the little monkey's big face, lit up by its eager eyes, her voice gentle. "Daigua go look after Ergua now, I'm going to start my bath."

"Yi!!!" Daigua marched out of the bathroom with great spirit, and very reliably closed the bathroom door behind it for Xia Qing.

Xia Qing was amused by the little fellow. After confirming once more that everything was in order, she poured the medicine packet into the already-heated, unpolluted spring water, removed all her clothes, and lowered her whole body into the pale green medicinal bath that gave off a mingled scent of herbs, relaxing and waiting quietly.

Three minutes in, the medicine seeped through her opened pores into her skin all over her body, and the prickling pain grew sharp.

Ten minutes in, hundreds of millions of red-hot steel needles were tearing at the skin all over Xia Qing's body. She began to tremble uncontrollably, wishing she could pop a pill and pass out, but no medicine could be used during the medicinal bath—not a single drop, not even topical medicine—any added agent would interfere with the bath's efficacy. She forced down her body's instinctive resistance with sheer willpower, and tried as hard as she could to relax her body so the medicine could repair her skin and bones faster.

Fifteen minutes in, hundreds of millions of steel needles tore through her muscles and pried open the seams of every bone in her body. Xia Qing lifted her head above the water, grabbed with trembling fingers the cork stopper and the breathing mask that covered nose and mouth she'd set ready on the tub's edge, fitted it over her head, and sank back under, doing her best to relax her body and absorb the medicine better.

This kind of mask, which only covered nose and mouth and connected through a soft tube to a breathing apparatus, let the person taking the medicinal bath expose more of their head to the liquid for repair. Even if the bather passed out completely, they wouldn't drown.

This breathing mask had been entrusted by Yanlong to someone to deliver to Wang Man, and then by Wang Man to Xia Qing.

As the captain of the Flood Dragon special ops team who had taken medicinal baths herself, of course she knew the power of the final bath, knew Xia Qing's determination to get stronger, and understood exactly what she needed most.

When Wang Man handed the breathing mask and breathing apparatus to Xia Qing, she said only one sentence: "When it's over, let's have a fight."

Xia Qing agreed on the spot. She too was looking forward to fighting Wang Man after the bath, to see just how big the gap between her and Wang Man—who had also bathed in the medicine—still was.

Thirty minutes in, a trembling hand reached up from under the water and seized the sheet iron reinforcement on the tub's edge, gripping it until the metal warped.

Xia Qing, biting down on the cork inside the tub, seemed to hear a sharp ringing in her ears. She opened her blood-red eyes, but in the medicinal liquid she couldn't see anything clearly. She could only feel every blood vessel, every nerve, every bone in her body screaming at her to stand up right now, to jump out.

Xia Qing reached up her second hand and gripped the sheet iron on the other side of the tub, desperately suppressing her body's instinct to seek comfort and avoid harm. Only one thought remained in her mind:

She couldn't get out. She had to stay the full hour. She had to get stronger. She had to survive!!!

Fifty-five minutes in, the pain peaked. Xia Qing finally lost consciousness, and her two hands, which had warped the sheet iron, dropped and hit the water's surface.

In the first-floor living room, three wolves and one monkey all looked up at the bathroom upstairs at the same time. Only Sheep Boss was still energetically pedaling its bicycle.

The lead wolf jumped down from the hanging chair, went up the stairs to the second floor, opened the bathroom door, and found Xia Qing had already passed out.

Looking at the alarm clock and breathing apparatus beside her, the lead wolf extended a paw to nudge Xia Qing's bare shoulders and neck. Confirming it had no way to pull its companion out of the tub, the lead wolf left the bathroom, went downstairs to exchange a signal with Broken-Waist Wolf, and left Xia Qing's home.

It paused for a few seconds outside the lab, then turned and kept walking outward. Zhang Shi, in the basement holding his phone and watching the surveillance, saw this wolf—radiating a powerful magnetic field—leave, and let out a long, relieved breath.

Yang Jin, who was handling team business, got a surveillance alert. He looked up and saw a wolf racing past each monitored zone toward him. He immediately closed his laptop, opened the door, and asked the Northern Wolf King who had already appeared outside, "Does Her Majesty need me for something?"

The lead wolf stared at the fur on Yang Jin's head for a few seconds, then turned its head to signal him to follow.

Was it Xia Qing who had sent the lead wolf to find him?

Yang Jin didn't even bother to put on his protective mask before sprinting after the lead wolf. When they reached a point two hundred meters from the edge of the abandoned village, Yang Jin stopped and confirmed with the lead wolf ahead, "Your Majesty, the area ahead isn't my assigned defense sector for tonight—it's the wolves' and Xia Qing's. Do you need me to go in?"

The lead wolf, which had run ahead, came back and gave Yang Jin a solemn nod.

Something had definitely happened to Xia Qing! Yang Jin immediately followed.

Seeing that wolf bring Yang Jin into East Zone 1, Zhang Shi's taut nerves relaxed a little.

With the lead wolf leading, the Northern wolf pack members on the rooftops and in the yard didn't stop Yang Jin. The old wolf in the ruined house poked its head out of its den, saw Yang Jin enter Xia Qing's door, then ducked back in.

Broken-Waist Wolf father and son inside the house saw the lead wolf bring Yang Jin in and didn't react much either. Daigua and Ergua in the tree hollow were so scared they huddled together in a ball.

"Baa!" Sheep Boss jumped off its bicycle and bellowed at Yang Jin, starting to paw the ground, ready to attack.

"Woo—"

The lead wolf planted itself in front of Yang Jin, bared its fangs at Sheep Boss and let out a low growl. Once it had Sheep Boss cowed, the lead wolf led Yang Jin upstairs.

Entering the second-floor bathroom and seeing Xia Qing lying on her back unconscious in the green medicinal liquid in the tub, her little face under the breathing mask pale as paper, a trickle of blood running down from a row of bite marks on her lip, Yang Jin's heart stopped. He reached out to lift her out.

The lead wolf growled low to stop him, not letting Yang Jin touch her.

"Click!"

The alarm clock beside her let out a beep, then played Xia Qing's cheerful recorded voice:

"One hour's up! Daigua who wants Green Light honey, come up and do the second task—pull the rope and cover me with the blanket. Daigua who wants Green Light honey, come up and do the second task—pull the rope and cover me with the blanket…"

Yang Jin understood Xia Qing had already made arrangements. He stepped back and quietly let out a small breath of relief.

Daigua in the tree nest on the first floor sprinted up to the second floor and burst into the bathroom at top speed. With its little black paw it stopped the alarm clock, then nimbly pulled the rope connected to the stopper at the bottom of the tub, grabbed the thermal blanket beside it, and crouched on the warped rim of the tub, waiting for the water to drain so it could cover Xia Qing.

Yang Jin turned and waited quietly, waiting for this reliable little honey-loving monkey to finish covering Xia Qing with the blanket before carrying her back to the bedroom.

The bathroom wasn't cold, so covering her with the thermal blanket really wouldn't cause frostbite, but she might get damp and catch a cold. Since he was already here, there was no way he'd let Xia Qing keep lying in the cold, wet tub.