Chapter 1723: The Three Evolved Monkeys in the Mountain Sixty-Seven Basin

"Daigua, Ergua!"

Rappelling from a helicopter in the air down into the mist-rolling hot spring lake basin, Xia Qing spotted two white-faced monk monkeys climbing along the branches and running toward her through the fog, and she happily waved in greeting.

"Yi!"

Daigua, who had been waiting since noon yesterday, was overjoyed too. Letting go of the branch, she leaped onto Xia Qing, with Ergua right behind her.

Xia Qing caught her temporary workers No. 002 and No. 003, and with two quick clicks unfastened the GPS collars around their necks. She smoothed out the black and brown fur on their necks that the collars had pressed into a mess, and explained why she hadn't come yesterday. "Yesterday an unexpected incident happened in the northern Sector One human territory. The human experts from the survey team only left at noon today, so I could only come over now to bring you supplies."

Daigua, who had been performing on the tree branch for over half a month, opened her mouth and poured out her winding, twisting grievances at Xia Qing: "Yiii~_~_~"

"I understand, both Daigua and Ergua have gotten thinner, you've worked hard this whole time." Xia Qing immediately pulled out Daigua and Ergua's small backpacks, along with all their supplies, from her big backpack and handed them over. "These are the supplies you stored with me. Check and see if anything's missing."

Daigua immediately opened the lid of her color-blocked little backpack, took out a wet wipe to carefully clean her little black paws, then eagerly pulled out her phone, skillfully entered the lock-screen password to unlock it. Seeing the battery was full, she raised her dirty big white face and bared her teeth at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing laughed too. "Daigua, for every how long you play on the phone, you have to rest for how long?"

Daigua immediately skillfully opened the chat window, tapped in numbers, and showed Xia Qing: 45, 15.

"Right, play for 45 minutes, then you must rest for 15 minutes, otherwise your eyes will go bad and you won't be able to see the dangers around you or find delicious food." After reminding Daigua to take care of her eyes, Xia Qing pulled out a quarter of a steamed bun from her backpack and handed it to Ergua, who had grown a bit. "Ergua's grown really fast this period, you should eat more to build yourself up. Go ahead, eat."

"Yi." Ergua was even more timid than Daigua, and only let out a call when she saw her favorite food. She held the steamed bun in her little brown paws and started eating.

Daigua, meanwhile, grabbed the steamed bun in one paw and used the other to swipe through the screen of her phone, which was placed on a damp rock, checking the hundreds of unread messages in the Blue Star Alliance group.

Xia Qing looked up at the banyan tree faintly veiled in mist and spoke gently, "Blue-face, are you feeling better?"

Hearing Xia Qing call her, the little blue-faced monkey immediately pushed aside the dense branches and leaves, poked out her gleaming golden little head, and looked at Xia Qing with a pair of big eyes. "Yiii…"

Did she learn this from Daigua and Ergua?

Well, yi is yi…

Xia Qing tilted her head back and gently asked the little golden snub-nosed monkey—who looked a bit dirtier but was clearly in much better spirits—"Is Blue-face's tummy better? Has she still had diarrhea these past few days?"

The little blue-faced monkey didn't know how to answer, so she turned around and showed Xia Qing her clean little bottom.

Xia Qing understood. "Very good, Blue-face is very clean, no diarrhea. The medicine I gave you—you finished it all yesterday, right?"

The little blue-faced monkey's head ducked back into the leaves, and two minutes later when she returned, she was holding an empty, dirty little packaging bag in her hand.

The medicine Xia Qing had given her was a recovery formula that Xia Qing had asked Zhang Zhang from Territory Seven to prepare for the little blue-faced monkey after she was frightened by the roar of the Piece Tiger and left Mountain Forty-Nine. The dosage was calculated according to Xia Qing's schedule—Xia Qing was supposed to come yesterday, so the little blue-faced monkey had finished the medicine the day before.

"Very good, Blue-face is amazing, taking her medicine on time every day." Xia Qing took out another packet of medicine to boost gastrointestinal resistance and handed it to the little blue-faced monkey, asking in a soft, gentle voice, "This is 15 days' worth of medicine, also one tablet every day when the sun goes down, 750 credits total. Has Blue-face found any precious supplies or herbs to pay for the medicine yet?"

When the indebted little blue-faced monkey returned to the Evolution Forest, Xia Qing had given her a picture book that could be traded for credits, telling her that if she found the herbs, seeds, or stones in the book, she could use them to pay off her debt and exchange for food and medicine at the listed prices.

The little blue-faced monkey immediately dove into the banyan tree, and after a short while pulled out a small bag full of seeds and handed it to Xia Qing, then gazed at her with eager, hopeful eyes.

The bag that looked fairly big in the little monkey's hands looked quite small once it was in Xia Qing's protective gloves.

Xia Qing opened the mouth of the bag, poured out a few brown or black, flat, long-oval seeds, then took out the picture book and compared them carefully. She broke into a smile. "Right, what Blue-face found is exactly this kind of seed in the book. You really are a brain-domain evolved golden snub-nosed monkey—you're so smart!"

The entire little blue-faced monkey lit up at Xia Qing's praise, leaping and tumbling about on the big banyan tree.

Xia Qing cheerfully counted the seeds, Daigua finished checking the chat history and began browsing the online missions posted on Hui Three Base's official platform, and Ergua held a steamed bun, nibbling it in tiny bites.

After counting the seeds, Xia Qing pulled out the little blue-faced monkey's account ledger, looked up, and called out, "Blue-face, come down for a moment."

A golden figure immediately landed on the branch in front of Xia Qing, looking at her happily.

"Inside are 53 seeds, 30 credits each, totaling 1,590 credits. Subtracting the medicine I just gave you, that leaves 840 credits, which can go toward your debt." Xia Qing put away the small bag of seeds and held up the ledger. "After this deduction, you still owe me credits for medical care and food. Blue-face, see if there's any problem. If not, press your paw print right here."

The little blue-faced monkey happily pressed one little finger into the ink pad, then pressed the bright red paw print onto the ledger.

Xia Qing, the two-way trader who had just settled an account, asked with a smile, "Does Blue-face want to trade for food?"

Hearing that food could be traded for, not only did the little blue-faced monkey immediately nod her fuzzy little golden head, but Daigua and Ergua also jumped over and squatted in front of Xia Qing, waiting to trade.

"Daigua, Ergua, you two wait a moment. I'll finish the trade with Blue-face first, then trade with you two." Xia Qing took the bag of food out of her backpack, first opened it to let the little blue-faced monkey look, so she'd know the bag was full of foods she loved, then closed the bag's mouth. She placed a laminated map on top of the food bag and proposed the trade.

"Blue-face, I want to trade these foods with you for a piece of information. If you know this information, you don't need credits to buy these foods—they're all yours. If you don't know, you'll buy the food with credits. And if you know the information but don't want to tell me, you can also choose to buy the food with credits."

The little blue-faced monkey quickly nodded her little head a few times, indicating she understood.

Xia Qing pointed at Mountain Area Thirty-One on the map. "Here, this is Mountain Area Thirty-One in the Hui Three Evolution Forest—the territory of the evolved tiger that moved to Mountain Fifty to recuperate, the Piece Tiger."

The little blue-faced monkey immediately curled into a ball when she heard Xia Qing mention the evolved tiger.

"Don't be afraid, Blue-face. I won't hurt you, and I won't take you away."

Xia Qing pulled out three printed pictures of the Piece Tiger's core territory, her tone still gentle. "Tell me, in the Piece Tiger's territory, at this location, on this big pine tree—is this resin here something you put there?"