Chapter 182: The Sick Wolf's Condition Turns Critical

The sickly wolf showed no interest in the snake. After finishing the evolved grasshoppers, it fumbled a few sips of spring water, then tottered back to lie down on the dry grass.

Xia Qing was about to go do something else when she saw the wolf totter out again, stumbling toward the lit animal toilet.

Is it going to poop again?

"There's a fire over there, don't go—"

"Urgh…"

Before Xia Qing could finish, the sick wolf stretched its neck and threw up the three grasshoppers it had just eaten; the pale yellow slime also contained thread-like parasites.

Those were Yellow-Light grasshoppers—why did it vomit them up?

Xia Qing stepped forward to support the wolf's frail, tilting body, carried it back to the sheep pen, and said, "Stay here. I'll get you some medicine—you'll feel better after taking it."

The medicine from Territory Seven had already been given. Given the wolf's current state, it needed an energy boost. Xia Qing turned and ran outside at once.

Guan Tong and Liangzi, who were patrolling inside Territory Three, saw Xia Qing running over and quickly asked, "Sister Qing?"

"Nothing's wrong, I'm just going to pick some vegetable leaves."

Watching Xia Qing sprint toward the greenhouse by the reservoir, Liangzi sighed, "Sister Qing seems faster."

Guan Tong nodded. "She is faster. She's not going to pick spinach leaves again, is she?"

Liangzi shook his head. "Probably not, the spinach has been picked bald. Maybe she's getting sweet potato leaves or pumpkin flowers. Didn't Kuang Qingwei's wife say fried pumpkin flowers are pretty tasty?"

Xia Qing really was going to pick spinach leaves.

The spinach leaves in the terraced fields, rich in Yi Element, couldn't be picked anymore. With the situation urgent, Xia Qing had no choice but to go after the spinach seedlings she'd grown to trade with Zhang San.

Xia Qing had planted three hundred spinach seeds here, and only two had sprouted. She'd promised to save half the leaves of this spinach for Zhang San. Since she didn't know when Zhang San would return, she hadn't touched these two hundred plants.

Today, to save the wolf, she only picked leaves from thirty of the plants—not really a violation of their deal.

After picking the spinach leaves, Xia Qing ran home, juiced them right away, added the medicine drops, and used a syringe to feed it to the sick wolf. The wolf was too weak, so Xia Qing only dared give it half Sheep Elder's dose. Then she carefully rubbed its belly. "This is good medicine that quickly restores energy. You're in the parasite-expulsion stage now. Get through these two days, expel all the worms, and you'll be fine."

The sick wolf lay flat on its back, breathing weakly, but at least it didn't vomit up the spinach juice. Half an hour later, Xia Qing confirmed it was asleep, then sprayed insecticide around the sheep pen and went to the fields to check Sheep Elder's irrigation progress.

Sheep Elder was full of drive and had filled two more greenhouses. Guan Tong had already sealed the irrigation channels of the watered fields, and the river water drawn up by the waterwheel was flowing toward the greenhouses that needed watering.

Xia Qing was delighted. She stuffed two small spinach leaves into Sheep Elder, who was pedaling the Crazy Fortune bicycle like mad. "Elder, your wolf friend isn't in great shape. I juiced some spinach for it, but I don't know if it's asleep or unconscious now. It's really worrying."

The one worrying was the human, Xia Qing. Sheep Elder, who got to eat spinach leaves, was in a great mood, pedaling the bicycle like crazy, water gushing along.

After chatting with it for a bit, Xia Qing felt better. She went to inspect the terraced fields and found the seedlings were wilting a bit from lack of water—they had to be watered today.

Xia Qing went to the hut, hauled out the water tank, and drew water from the reservoir to water the terraced fields.

Seeing this, Guan Tong immediately ran over to help. "Sister Qing, your arm isn't healed yet—let me handle this."

"Okay."

Xia Qing's hand really hadn't healed yet, and she didn't stand on false courtesy with Guan Tong. "Besides the spinach terraces, water all the other terraces on Gao Po. I'll give you two jin of Green-Light vegetables as payment."

Green-Light vegetables start at fifty points per jin. Xia Qing's Green-Light vegetables may not be pretty, but they taste genuinely good. If traded at the Safe Zone, a jin could easily fetch eighty points—two jin would be a hundred and sixty points.

Carrying water up the slope to irrigate eleven small terraces, for a hundred and sixty points—it's a fantastic deal for a Strength Evolver!

Guan Tong immediately puffed out his chest and agreed. "Thanks, Sister Qing! I'll water the low-slope terraces too!"

"Okay." Xia Qing beamed, loving his sharp eye. "Don't water the third and fourth terraces on the low slope. Once you're done, three and a half jin of Green-Light vegetables—pick whatever you like to eat."

The Beard Feng Squad was often in Xia Qing's territory, so they knew exactly how much she'd grown. Yang Jin had given an order: any food the Beard Feng Squad took out of Xia Qing's territory could only be eaten by themselves or their families—no trading with anyone. Violation meant expulsion from the Green Dragon Squad.

So Xia Qing could trade with the Beard Feng Squad without worry.

After Xia Qing left, Guan Tong, grinning ear to ear while carrying the water tank, discussed with Visual Evolver Peng Jian. "Brother Jian, help me keep an eye on my airspace. If anything happens, give me a shout. I'll give you a Green-Light cucumber—how about it?"

Watching one more airspace was nothing to a Visual Evolver, but Peng Jian just couldn't stand the sight of this idiot. He held up two fingers. "Two tomatoes."

Xia Qing's Green-Light tomatoes tasted especially good, and Guan Tong really couldn't bear to part with them. He gritted his teeth and haggled. "One and a half!"

Peng Jian agreed at once. "Deal!"

……

Why does it feel like I just got fleeced…? Guan Tong was confused for a few seconds, then dismissed the one-and-a-half tomatoes—because besides those, he still had over three jin!

Green-Light vegetables!

The Green Dragon Squad ranked second among Hui-Three Base squads, so its members naturally didn't lack food—but they only just had enough to eat. Delicious, fresh Green-Light food, like what Guan Tong and Peng Jian got as main squad members, they might not eat more than a few times a month.

Peng Jian watched Guan Tong run off with envy and resentment—envying that Guan Tong was a Strength Evolver, resenting that he wasn't.

Before taking on the mission to protect Territory Three, Strength Evolver Guan Tong had been the weakest in the Beard Feng Squad. But in Xia Qing's territory, Strength Evolvers were the most in demand. Other types of Evolvers wanted to help Xia Qing work for food, but they couldn't.

Why couldn't they?

Could they carry the four-hundred-jin water tank in Territory Three?

The hoe Xia Qing used for weeding weighed ten jin. They could lift it, sure, but wielding a ten-plus-jin hoe, how many patches of weeds could they clear in half a day?

Even if they hauled a non-Strength-Evolver hoe from Territory One, the two of them combined still couldn't work as fast as Xia Qing alone. How could they have the nerve to offer help?

Level-Six Auditory Evolver Liangzi muttered quietly into the walkie-talkie, "Sister Qing's fields don't even have bugs underground, otherwise I could dig for bugs and trade them for vegetables just like Tang Huai."

Peng Jian chuckled. "We can trade for soil insecticide in Territory One—do you think Sister Qing can't?"

Zhang San loved the Green-Light spinach from Territory Three most. Even though Xia Qing's Green-Light spinach hadn't grown yet, the Green-Light game she'd sent to Territory Seven a few days ago was enough to trade for who knows how much soil insecticide with Zhang San.

Sheep Elder watered the fields, Guan Tong watered the terraces, Peng Jian and the others guarded the airspace against birds. With nothing to do, Xia Qing simply went home to rest and heal.

When she got home, she found a few buzzing evolved flies had entered the sheep pen, circling the sick wolf, with some landing on its body. The wolf was so weak it didn't even have the strength to swish its tail to shoo them away.