Chapter 1486: Xia Qing and Zhang Ten's Relationship Defined

Accompanying her idol up the mountain to ski—the main activity being watching the wolves ski—Xia Qing felt her idol was in an excellent mood; even when performing the second surgery on Old Four, she remained pleasant and affable.

Xia Qing wanted to seize this rare opportunity to bring up the matter of the earless wolf's name, but she was still a step too late—her idol spoke first.

Zhang San took off his surgical gown and asked Zhang Ten, who was cleaning the operating room, "How is Ye Yiyi doing?"

According to the plan Zhang Ten had previously reported to Zhang San, Ye Yiyi should have been sent away in the next few days. Zhang San wanted to take advantage of the time they still had to conduct a psychological assessment on the child.

Zhang Ten turned around and asked, "Third Brother, how long can you stay here? I'd like to consult you on Ye Yiyi's follow-up treatment plan."

Zhang San looked at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing immediately answered, "If you don't mind, why not have a meal here before you leave? I still have dumplings made by Yang Jin at home. We could have sour-soup dumplings."

Seeing Zhang San say nothing, Zhang Ten quickly followed up, "I'll make a radish and pork-rib soup and stir-fry two vegetable dishes?"

Only then did Zhang San speak, "I can stay for an hour and a half."

One hour to cook, half an hour to eat, then leave.

The new kitchen's temperature was acceptable but the space was too small for chatting, so Xia Qing first invited her idol to her home, brought out her newly made cotton slippers, served good tea and dried fruits, then went back to the lab to send the anesthetized Old Four, now waking up, back to the overgrown ruins and handed him over to the earless wolf to watch over.

Xia Qing didn't mention having Zhang Ten bring Ye Yiyi along; from Zhang Ten's expression she knew that today's discussion between the doctors wasn't suitable for Ye Yiyi to hear.

After Xia Qing returned home, Zhang San, who was drinking tea, asked, "Zhang Ten is keeping Ye Yiyi and not sending her away?"

Xia Qing shook her head, "She hasn't mentioned it to me."

She doesn't mention it and you don't ask either? Zhang San asked the new human in front of him, "How do you define your relationship with Zhang Ten?"

Xia Qing answered, "I hired her at a high salary to be responsible for taking care of Old Four and the others."

Zhang San was silent for two seconds, then asked, "How high?"

"30 points a day, room and board included!" Let alone in her territory—even in Northern Zone One, that compensation was second only to Yue Haiying and Yan Yue of the Ninth Center, a proper high salary.

Zhang San pointed at the wooden nest on the wall and asked coldly, "What's this rat's monthly salary?"

That's not a rat, it's a red squirrel. Xia Qing answered honestly, "It's not paid monthly—25 points per seed-sorting session."

Zhang San asked coldly, "What can it do with its wages?!"

"It's never collected a wage, because the medical fees it owes haven't been paid off yet."

"How many points does it owe you?"

"."

Very well, this bizarre new human's brain is entirely devoted to earning points and farming!

Seeing the dangerous look in her idol's eyes, Xia Qing, whose survival instincts were extremely strong, grinned, "Third Brother, you rest. I'll go cook."

"Take off that protective suit covered in wolf hair before you go into the kitchen!"

Xia Qing immediately answered, "Understood. I always take it off before going in."

Zhang San pressed his forehead, already beginning to regret staying for the meal.

After Zhang Ten arrived, Zhang San moved to the kitchen to tend the fire, Zhang Ten took the ladle, and Xia Qing washed the vegetables.

After Zhang Ten put the pork ribs and radish into the pot to stew, she squatted on the ground with Xia Qing to pick vegetables, and only then began to describe Ye Yiyi's condition in detail.

"I brought Eleven in with me into the Lan Five Base safe zone. When I found Ye Yiyi's home, the door had already been broken by intruders and couldn't be locked—only propped shut with a cabinet. I identified myself as medical personnel, pushed the door open hard, and went in. I saw her father Ye Yuliang lying in bed with only one breath left. He had multiple ulcerated wounds and two fresh external injuries still seeping blood. The bodies of two intruders Ye Yuliang had killed hadn't been cleared yet—pus and fresh blood covered the floor…"

After Zhang Ten examined Ye Yuliang and treated his external wounds, Ye Yuliang begged Zhang Ten to rescue his daughter.

After asking the child's gender and age, Zhang Ten told Ye Yuliang that she had offended people in Lan Five Base and wanted to send the child out under Ye Yiyi's identity to another base, then find a reliable family for Ye Yiyi.

Ye Yuliang immediately brought up Ye Yang, saying Zhang Ten could send her child there.

After being injured, he knew he had only a few days left. When he wanted to find a way out for his daughter, the first person he thought of was Ye Yang, who was still searching everywhere for his relatives.

But his already frail body, after being wounded in killing the intruders, couldn't hold on long enough for him to get the phone call out before he passed out. He had just heard movement outside and woken up, only to find his old phone had been soaked through with blood and pus and could no longer be used.

Ye Yuliang said he could call Ye Yang, but had one request: please have Zhang Ten send Ye Yiyi to Ye Yang as well.

It wasn't that Ye Yuliang trusted Zhang Ten so much, but that he had no way out and could only beg this woman who needed something from him to give his daughter a way to live.

After Zhang Ten agreed, she took Ye Yuliang's SIM card out and inserted it into her own phone, then dialed Ye Yang's number.

Ye Yuliang held on with his last breath, pretending to be Ye Yang's biological brother, and asked him to come take the children away. While making the call, Ye Yuliang played a trick—he told Ye Yang about "his twin daughters," "Ye Yang's twin nieces."

He guessed that Zhang Ten's child must be of similar age and the same gender as his own daughter, so he had the child pretend to be his daughter.

When assuming someone else's identity, of course killing the other person outright is safer.

In years of natural disaster, promises between people weren't worth half a ration of food. Ye Yuliang didn't trust Zhang Ten, so with his last breath he repeatedly told Ye Yang: he had two daughters, twins.

"After the call, Ye Yuliang died. I found Ye Yiyi in the small compartment of the wardrobe in the corner of the wall he had pointed to. She was hiding inside wearing a protective suit, with a bucket of water and a pack of compressed rations beside her. Her body couldn't even stretch out at the time…" Afraid of affecting the big shot's mood, Zhang Ten didn't mention that when she took off Ye Yiyi's protective suit, she found the child was covered in feces and urine. She continued, "Ye Yiyi's mental state was very bad at the time—she was down to her last breath too."

Because she needed to use this child's blood to help cover her daughter's identity, Zhang Ten unhesitatingly gave her her own blood to drink, then took Little Eleven who was hiding outside, had her change into Ye Yiyi's protective suit, and hid her in the compartment of the wall cabinet.

After Zheng Jialin's group, who had business dealings with the Tang family, came and took Little Eleven away, Zhang Ten followed them from a distance with the unconscious Ye Yiyi, mixed her way out of the Lan Five safe zone, and entered the Evolution Forest.

After that, Xia Qing rescued Little Eleven, who had been taken as a hostage by Zheng Jialin's group. Zhang Ten stayed in the Evolution Forest with Ye Yiyi for nearly a month, until the super evolved fungus crisis at Lan Five was resolved, and they took a Green Dragon Squad helicopter back to the hidden valley on Mountain Fifty.

"…Perhaps because after I rescued her, she spent a month in the Evolution Forest and then three months in the valley, this child's fear of the Evolution Forest and evolved animals isn't as deep as other children who grew up in safe zones. She likes being in open spaces, likes watching the stars, likes evolved animals."

Zhang San asked, "Post-traumatic amnesia?"