Chapter 1567: Find a Companion to Draw Off Yanlong's Firepower

"Yi!" This was medicine for bears, and it didn't cost Daigua any points. The little fellow answered brightly, stuffing the ointment into its grubby little backpack.

After learning in Territory Three about the importance of cleanliness and hygiene, Daigua paid great attention to its personal hygiene. When it was at Mountain 67, it would regularly wash the small towel it used to wipe its hands. After moving into Xiong Dong, it couldn't stand the small towel getting grubby either, so it washed it with cold water—and that's how its paw got frostbitten and swollen.

After discovering its paw had swollen up, Daigua first sent Ergua back to Mountain 67 to live with the monkey troop, while it stayed on at Xiong Dong to carry out its mission. After waiting two days and finding its paw still swollen and painful, Daigua finally video-called Xia Qing, pitifully showing her its little paw.

After receiving the call, Xia Qing immediately ran to Territory Seven to trade with her idol for a special frostbite ointment, then flew a helicopter over to deliver the medicine to Daigua.

Daigua was a tropical monkey; during the cold winter it should have been living in the warm, humid basin of Mountain 67. Xia Qing had let it come look after Xiong Wang because she figured the bear's cave was warm and it had protective cold-weather gear, so there shouldn't be a problem. Now that Daigua was injured, she was very worried.

After Daigua packed away the bear ointment, Xia Qing took its chilly little paw and examined it carefully. Confirming the frostbite wasn't too serious, she was still very worried. Because among all of Xia Qing's animal companions, Daigua had the most dexterous paws, and many big and small tasks depended on those little paws—they absolutely could not be ruined by frostbite.

In the winters a few years before the Catastrophe, Xia Qing had lacked cold-weather gear, and her fingers often got so frozen they looked like radishes, barely able to bend. Even so, she couldn't bear to spend the points she'd finally managed to save on medicine, so instead she took advantage of missions that took her outside to gather some herbs, boil them, and soak her hands.

The winter her father died, Xia Qing joined a construction crew. While hauling heavy building materials once, the skin on her frostbitten fingers split and bled from the strain. At the time Xia Qing was still in her probationary period and hadn't been formally hired, so she couldn't stop to treat the wound. By the time the break came, her protective glove had already stuck to the wound at her finger joints.

Xia Qing only had that one pair of gloves and couldn't cut them open to treat the wound, so she could only yank the glove off by force, plug the bleeding wound with her homemade salve, wrap it with bandages to stop the bleeding, then clean and disinfect the glove and keep wearing it to work.

Compared to her frostbite that year, Daigua's frostbitten little paw wasn't serious. But now Xia Qing's living conditions had improved, and she had enough points to trade with her idol for medicine—of course she wouldn't let her companions suffer along with her.

She pulled out the thermal gloves she'd recently made for Daigua and Ergua. "Does Daigua like these paw covers? They're very warm once you put them on—give them a try."

Xin Yu was too busy to do handicrafts, so Xia Qing had made these gloves herself. During the Catastrophe years everyone learned to sew and mend, and Xia Qing's handiwork was passable. Because Daigua's paws were so small, the gloves she made were also very simple—just the thumb separated, with the other four fingers joined together.

"Yi!" Daigua was delighted. It immediately pulled its little towel out of its backpack, wiped its paws clean, and after putting on the pinky-soft gloves, flexed its little paws, its eyes shining with satisfaction.

Xia Qing smiled too. "As long as Daigua likes them. I made them from a new thermal fabric Lanyi developed. Materials plus labor, a pair with two gloves is only 200 points. Does Daigua want to trade for two pairs, one for itself and one for Ergua?"

Xia Qing had originally intended to give these two pairs of gloves to Daigua as a New Year's gift, but it had just sold that chunk of raw crystal to Xia Qing and earned over two hundred thousand points. Of course Xia Qing had to read her little monkey's mind and let those points be put to use.

"Yi!" Daigua liked these warm gloves that carried Xia Qing's scent, and agreed to the trade.

"Alright, these two pairs of gloves belong to Daigua now." Xia Qing pulled out a small tube of ointment. "This I specially asked Third Brother to trade for Daigua—the best frostbite cream Blue Star humans can make. Daigua should wash its paws clean and apply it every night before bed; it'll heal in three days. One tube is 2,750 points. Does Daigua, who now has 220,000 points, want to trade for one tube?"

"... Yi." The ointment was a bit pricey. Daigua hesitated for a moment, flexed its not-very-flexible little black paw, and still agreed to the trade.

"Alright, this tube of ointment belongs to Daigua now. Then deducting the 4,000 points for that jar of honey and the 400 points for the two pairs of gloves, I'll give Daigua a points card with 217,850 points... What else does Daigua want? Disinfecting wipes? Sure, one pack has 50 sheets, 220 points total. This is premium supplies I traded for from Territory Seven—the disinfecting effect is excellent. What else does Daigua want?"

After confirming Daigua had no other needs, Xia Qing cheerfully pulled a pack of disinfecting wipes from her backpack, handed them to Daigua, and carefully instructed, "When Daigua trades for specialties from my territory, I don't charge a middleman fee; for supplies I don't have, I add a 10% middleman fee. If Daigua wants to buy more supplies, just give me a call. Once the total reaches 2,000 points, I'll deliver them to you free of charge."

Currently the fuel for Xia Qing's helicopter patrols over the Evolution Forest was subsidized by the base, and Daigua was an employee in her territory, so the conscientious middleman Xia Qing not only gave it employee-purchase benefits, she also delivered without charging a fuel fee.

By the end of this year, before the aircraft went in for its annual inspection, she was definitely going to have a serious talk with Fourth Brother—who was worth nearly a hundred million—and Broken-Waist—who was worth nearly 15 million—about who should pay for the inspection.

Xia Qing took out her card reader and five points cards, let the little fellow whose net worth had just crossed two hundred thousand confirm the points balance on the cards, and asked, "Daigua is fine now, right? I'm leaving?"

"... Yia..." Daigua, who was in the middle of stuffing the points cards into its backpack, stretched out a paw wearing a warm glove and grabbed Xia Qing's protective suit.

Xia Qing understood Daigua wanted to go back to her territory with her, but in a few days a fanatical primate researcher would be entering the Northern Zone One territory, and it would be too dangerous for Daigua to go back now. Xia Qing patiently explained the situation to Daigua, then instructed it.

"Daigua doesn't have to stay in Xiong Dong to look after the mother giant bear. You can go back to the Mountain 67 basin—it's warm there. When it's time to apply medicine to the mother giant bear, just have the greedy little bear come get you, or have the mother giant bear come find you. If your clothes get dirty, wash them in the hot spring water. Don't freeze your paws again—three months of your wages can only trade for one tube... Once the bad humans are gone, I'll call Daigua. If you want to come to my territory to keep working, I'll come pick you up."

After saying goodbye to the reluctant, adorable little Daigua and the sneaky, greedy little bear, Xia Qing stuffed the thousand-plus-jin raw crystal into a bag, slung it over her shoulder, and turned to walk toward where the helicopter was parked.

The next stop, she was going to Mountain 60 to find Handsome Giant Wolf and persuade it to go with her to Mountain 49 to take part in Yanlong's special training.

Yanlong was way too brutal this time—Xia Qing really couldn't hold up anymore, and urgently needed a companion to draw off some of Yanlong's firepower.