Chapter 1453: Green Lantern Hickory Nuts by the Jin

No points? That's fine too.

Xia Qing put away the footprint map on the snow and changed her strategy. "Handsome Wolf, I know earning points isn't easy for you, and you still have a lot of supplies you want to exchange for points, so you don't want to compensate me with points, right?"

Broken-Waist Wolf immediately turned its head back and showed Xia Qing its cute, snow-white little fang tips. Little Wolf copied it, baring its teeth at Xia Qing along with its dad.

Xia Qing also smiled. "Handsome Wolf, do you know how many points Third Brother's lab spends on research and development every year?"

Broken-Waist Wolf closed its mouth and looked at Xia Qing seriously.

Xia Qing found a flat patch of snow that hadn't been trampled by animals, drew out a long string of numbers on the snow, then posed a question. "How many points do you think this is?"

Little Wolf, who loved answering questions, immediately rushed over, stretched out a paw and drew a line under the four zeros on the right side of the string of numbers, then drew another line under the eight and three zeros in front, then drew a very standard "ten thousand" character under that front line, and looked at Xia Qing eagerly.

"Right, eighty million! Little Wolf is really so smart, you haven't forgotten any of the knowledge you've learned!"

Xia Qing fished a small bag of freeze-dried food from her pocket, tore open the outer packaging, took out a small piece and stuffed it into the mouth of this studious little wolf, then continued talking to Broken-Waist Wolf. "Third Brother needs to spend eighty million points now, and it might be even more in the future. He must have enough points to research more and better medicines. When we get sick, get hurt, or get poisoned, we can exchange points with Third Brother for medicine to treat our bodies. I just gave Third Brother 5.45 million two days ago, so he could purchase urgently needed research equipment and continue his medicine research..."

After patiently explaining to Broken-Waist Wolf why she had given Third Brother so many points, Xia Qing returned to the main topic. "Handsome Wolf, most of the points I earn from farming and doing missions have to be given to Third Brother for research. What's left I still need to buy bullets, farming fertilizer, and other supplies. I also want to build a sturdy, safe new house, so I'm also very short on points."

"I'm already this short on points, and I still need to use points to exchange for mirrors, glue, and trash cans... Right, the trash can I made myself, I didn't exchange for it, but I still need to exchange for glue to stick the trash can's wooden boards together!"

Xia Qing straightened out Broken-Waist Wolf's derailed train of thought and continued. "If Handsome Wolf doesn't want to compensate me with points, then compensate me with half a bag of Green Lantern Hickory Nuts."

Broken-Waist Wolf thought for a moment, then wrote a number under the eighty million:

7

"Seven jin?" Xia Qing shook her head. "No. Seven jin of hickory nuts is only 2,450 points, and you won't pay me until next November. I have to bear a lot of risk. You have to give me ten jin, or give me 2,500 points right now. No bargaining!"

This shrewd fellow thought seriously for a while, then showed its little fang tips.

Xia Qing also smiled and finalized the deal. "Good. Because Handsome Wolf damaged my supplies, it will compensate me with ten jin of Green Lantern Hickory Nuts. After the Green Lantern Hickory Nuts on Mountain Sixty ripen next year, I'll go pick them."

After the compensation negotiation ended, Xia Qing very seriously praised Broken-Waist Wolf for a while before parting with the two clever wolves, big and small, and reuniting with Yang Jin.

Today's mission was already complete; they could return to the territory.

Yang Jin, who had found a suitable excuse to leave the bickering online meeting early, asked Xia Qing, whose mood was clearly much better, "Sister Qing, did Broken-Waist Wolf compensate you with supplies?"

Xia Qing responded, "Compensated with ten jin of Green Lantern Hickory Nuts."

Hmm? Broken-Waist Wolf was actually this generous? Yang Jin asked, "Doesn't it know the price of Green Lantern Hickory Nuts?"

"It knows the price." Precisely because it knew the price of hickory nuts, it refused to give Xia Qing half a bag and switched to trading by the jin.

Broken-Waist was incredibly shrewd. After it followed her and Fourth to the eastern jackal territory to pick hickory nuts, it specifically brought two very good-looking Green Lantern Hickory Nuts to Territory Three and asked how many points such nuts could be exchanged for.

Xia Qing told it that if it picked them itself and delivered them to the Human Safe Zone Administrative Hall, it was 400 points per jin; if it had her come pick them, the purchase price was 350 points per jin.

Today, when Xia Qing asked Broken-Waist Wolf for 2,500 points in compensation, it refused. Then when Xia Qing proposed using hickory nuts to offset the debt, this fellow must have done some calculating in its head, figured out that those points equaled a little over seven jin of hickory nuts, and only then wrote a "7" on the snow with its paw.

Now that Broken-Waist Wolf had become shrewd, if Xia Qing wanted to exchange for Mountain Sixty's hickory nuts next year, she would definitely have to pay more supplies. Saying she didn't feel the pinch would be a lie. But this also meant that when Broken-Waist Wolf dealt with other humans in the future, it would be less easily cheated.

The Northern Wolf Pack was her ironclad ally. When Xia Qing exchanged supplies with the Northern Wolf Pack, she couldn't only focus on immediate gains. Calculated over the long term, this price was completely worth paying.

After learning that Broken-Waist Wolf knew the price of Green Lantern Hickory Nuts, Yang Jin continued chatting casually with Xia Qing. "Did it damage other things at home too?"

The trading price of dried Green Lantern Hickory Nuts in the Human Safe Zone was 400 points per jin. Ten jin of hickory nuts was 4,000 points. Xia Qing's bedsheet definitely wasn't worth that much.

"Mm." Xia Qing responded, then changed the subject. "We need to hurry back, or it'll be dark before we even reach the territory."

Hurrying on the road? He was best at that! Yang Jin asked, "Sister Qing, are we going back the way we came?"

"Going back the way we came is safest." From here back to the parking lot, there was indeed a closer wolf path, but it required crossing four mountain fissures three or four meters wide and several dozen meters deep.

Xia Qing would rather take the long way around than take the risk.

Yang Jin discussed with Xia Qing, "Let me carry you for a bit? If we get back to the territory earlier, the time we save can be used to make sour soup dumplings. Let's wrap a lot of pork and cabbage, pork and chive, and pork and pumpkin filling dumplings and freeze them, so we can just boil them up when we're busy."

Hearing Yang Jin mention the sour-and-spicy, appetite-whetting sour soup dumplings that warmed her belly after drinking, Xia Qing, who loved sour and spicy flavors, couldn't help but drool, and immediately agreed to Yang Jin's suggestion. "Stop if you get tired."

Xia Qing plus her pack weighed close to three hundred jin. Yang Jin wasn't a strength evolver, his carrying capacity was poor, and he'd be tired after running for ten-plus minutes.

Xia Qing would rather tire herself out than tire out the cook.

"Okay." Yang Jin steadily picked Xia Qing up on his back, and following the footprints they'd made on the way there, ran back at the speed of a Level Five speed evolver.

This speed wasn't fast for him, and the energy expenditure wasn't high either. Not only could he carry Xia Qing all the way back to the parking lot, he could also chat with her while running.

"Sister Qing, the wolf pack doesn't trust Seeing Xin Yu either?"

Xia Qing stared at a leopard in the distance and answered, "Seeing Xin Yu's combat power is low and she has little contact with the wolf pack. The wolf pack's trust in her is a notch lower than for Er Yong and Watching Huo Zhun."

Er Yong and Watching Huo Zhun wouldn't do.

Yang Jin leaped over a rock, landed steadily on a footprint he'd stepped on before, and tried to discuss with Xia Qing as calmly as possible. "If Seeing Xin Yu won't do either, has the time for your next medicinal bath been decided, Sister Qing? I'll arrange it in advance and clear my schedule to guard the territory for you."