Chapter 1452: The Cut-Off River

Xia Qing took a folding hard-bamboo-and-wood shovel from her backpack and dug away the snow at the first suspicious spot Broken-Waist Wolf had found. Yang Jin finished speaking in his video conference, walked over, and praised Broken-Waist Wolf first. "Brother Duan, finding this area in the snow-covered forest is really impressive."

Broken-Waist Wolf pretended not to hear, raised a paw with a solemn face, and gestured to Xia Qing: that side still needs some clearing.

After praising Broken-Waist Wolf, Yang Jin cleared the area it had pointed to and began giving Xia Qing a detailed explanation. "These irregular stone steps are river terrace landforms carved out by flowing water. Look, the edges of these stone platforms are all very smooth, which means there was once a water flow here with considerable volume and not-slow speed. Under the long-term erosion of the running water, the stones took on this shape. But these stone steps are already overgrown with shrubs. Judging by the height of the shrubs, this water flow has been cut off for at least four years."

Broken-Waist Wolf looked at Yang Jin, thoughtful.

After carefully observing and explaining the river terrace landform, Yang Jin walked a few meters forward and began examining a stone over a meter tall. "This stone is clearly different from the others—its edges are very sharp."

After saying that, Yang Jin tried to use Xia Qing's pry bar to flip the stone over, but one pry wasn't enough to move it. Xia Qing took the pry bar, circled the stone once, found the right spot, and flipped this stone—which was frozen to the ground—in one go.

Yang Jin gave Xia Qing a thumbs-up and continued, "Here, this is a mark left by water erosion. The mark isn't very obvious, which means it hasn't been here long. Based on the stone's shape, it can be determined that it is…"

Yang Jin looked up, trying to find where on the high ground this stone had rolled down from.

Before he could find it, Xia Qing had already spotted it. "That slope over there, about twenty-five meters up, to the left of those three large pines in a row."

After finding the spot Xia Qing had pointed to and looking for a few seconds, Broken-Waist Wolf let out two "aowu" calls at Xia Qing, in exactly the same tone as when it saw Little Wolf Bro successfully catch a rabbit.

Yang Jin asked, "Sister Qing, what did Brother Duan just say?"

Xia Qing's face was expressionless. "It also thinks I'm right."

Yang Jin nodded and continued his explanation. "If this stone wasn't moved by humans or wild beasts fighting, it should have broken off the slope during the great earthquake in late autumn of the second year of the Catastrophe and rolled down here. From the end of the second year of the Catastrophe to when these shrubs grew up should be about five years. This stone has only been eroded to this extent, which means the water flow wasn't fast at that time…"

Listening to Yang Jin's explanation, what Xia Qing was thinking about was Zhang Shiyi's older sister—Shi Jiayi's family's survival timeline after the Catastrophe.

In the autumn of the second year of the Catastrophe, their family moved into a quarry not far from here; after the great earthquake in late autumn of the second year of the Catastrophe, several cracks appeared in this mountain, and the flow speed of this surface river slowed; after the great earthquake, Shi Jiayi's family and the people from the quarry moved into Xiong Dong, then opened up a passage from Xiong Dong to the Hidden Valley, began widening the valley and filling the cracks at the bottom, and survived inside the valley.

Judging by the flow direction, this river is part of the water system flowing out of the Hidden Valley. As human activity inside the valley increased, the water flow of this river gradually decreased.

Yang Jin said the shrubs on the riverbed grew up around the seventh year of the Catastrophe, and Zhang Shiyi's older sister Shi Jiayi died in the seventh year of the Catastrophe…

"…If the water here was once unpolluted, then the sediment at the bottom of the watercourse should have a higher yi content than the surrounding area." After finishing his explanation, Yang Jin picked up the pry bar resting beside him, forcefully broke open the cold, hard ground, and began digging downward. "Right here, this coarse sand is the most direct evidence that a river once flowed through here. Further down there's mud. If this was unpolluted water, the yi element content in the soil should be higher than in the surrounding area."

Before Xia Qing could even raise her hand to unzip her backpack, Broken-Waist Wolf had already taken a bag of sampling tubes from its protective suit pocket in its mouth.

"Broken-Waist, you're really so thoughtful, truly worthy of being the Queen my lord's favorite evolved wolf!" Xia Qing tossed off a quick compliment and began sampling.

Seeing Broken-Waist Wolf grin like an idiot, Yang Jin felt he'd gained a lot.

After sampling was complete, the two people and two wolves restored the terrain of this area to its original state, then went to survey and sample the other three spots Broken-Waist Wolf had found, and after that it was time to take the samples back for testing.

Xia Qing asked, "Broken-Waist, Little Wolf Bro, I drove here. Want to come to my territory? We just need to cross those two ridges over there and we can take the car back."

Broken-Waist Wolf pressed its mouth shut and, with a solemn face, indicated it didn't want to go.

After excitedly nodding its fuzzy head once, Little Wolf Bro saw its dad hadn't moved, immediately shut its mouth, and with a solemn face indicated it didn't want to go at all.

"Not going? Okay." Xia Qing turned to discuss with Yang Jin, "Captain Yang, why don't you go to that wind-sheltered spot over there for your meeting? I have something to discuss with Broken-Waist."

Yang Jin nodded and quickly withdrew.

Seeing that human run off so fast, Little Wolf Bro sensed danger, the fur on its neck bristled, and it let out a low growl from its throat. Broken-Waist Wolf nuzzled its pup and stepped between it and Yang Jin.

After confirming Yang Jin had gone far enough, Xia Qing finally pulled out a printed sheet and slapped it on the snow. "Broken-Waist! Did you do this?"

Broken-Waist Wolf admired its own handiwork for a moment, tilted its head slightly, and bared four cute little white fang tips at the angry Xia Qing.

Acting cute won't work!

Xia Qing's face went cold as she began settling accounts. "Little Wolf Bro, trying to stop Sheep Boss from running out of the bathroom, accidentally broke the mirror in my first-floor bathroom. This isn't all Little Wolf Bro's fault, so Little Wolf Bro only needs to bear half the compensation responsibility. But you wasted three tubes of my all-purpose wood glue, one bedsheet, and one trash can—you must compensate me double. Little Wolf Bro has no points, so you have to pay for it. That's 2,500 points total. Broken-Waist, did you bring your card?"

Xia Qing really wanted yi stones, but the things Broken-Waist Wolf and its son had damaged weren't within the scope she'd specified before her medicinal bath—that damaged items must be compensated with yi stones—so Broken-Waist Wolf definitely wouldn't give any.

Not only would it not give yi stones, Broken-Waist Wolf didn't even want to give the 2,500 points, and it even looked toward the snow-covered area.

Xia Qing shook her head. "One thing at a time. Finding the water system is to protect the water resources in our territory—that's a task you agreed to long ago. You damaged my supplies on December 8th, so you must compensate me 2,500 points."

Broken-Waist Wolf pressed its mouth shut and wouldn't look at Xia Qing—clearly intending to default.

So stingy, way too stingy! This guy clearly has points, but won't even pay a fraction of its balance in compensation!

Why does Xia Qing know so precisely how many points Broken-Waist Wolf has?

Broken-Waist Wolf is different from the Fourth. As soon as it got its pretty points card, it immediately had Xia Qing transfer all its points to this new card, so Xia Qing remembers very clearly.