Chapter 185: Two Green-Light Wild Rabbits

Strictly speaking, the location Xia Qing chose for the third cellar was not directly beneath the storehouse, but to its south; she only built the cellar's entrance and exit inside the storehouse for concealment.

Yes, the third cellar did not go straight down, but sloped downward with a bend. After exchanging views in the lord group chat a few times and weighing the opinions of others, Xia Qing felt this cellar structure would slow the exchange of temperature and humidity between the inside and outside, which was good for climate control.

Of course, Xia Qing planned to install temperature and humidity control equipment in this cellar. But even with equipment installed, one still had to consider energy efficiency, right?

Because her right hand was injured, Xia Qing was in no rush to start construction; over the next two days she would hide away the things in her territory that could not be seen by others.

The location of the spring had always been heavily protected and concealed by Xia Qing; even the squad of Hu Zifeng, who had been wandering around her territory, had not discovered it, and Zhang Yong and Xu Juan could not find it either.

Grain, potatoes, sealed food, jars of pickled cowpeas and cucumbers — all of it was moved by Xia Qing into the cellar beneath the tool room and protected with yi-stone.

The yi-element detector was too bulky to hide, so Xia Qing weighed it down with a pair of unremarkable, worthless, and very heavy supplies.

Once the current crisis had passed and the wound on Xia Qing's Hukou had healed, she would begin digging the third cellar. If Zhang San still had not returned after the cellar was built, Xia Qing would trade with Yang Jin for temperature and humidity control equipment. With Yang Jin's abilities he could certainly get it, but given his shrewdness, the exchange price he demanded would surely be higher than Zhang San's.

Not that Zhang San wasn't shrewd, but Zhang San was greedy for food; as long as Xia Qing could produce green-light food that interested him, the exchange price would be very satisfactory to her.

A little past noon, Xia Qing fed the sick wolf its second dose of medicine for the day.

The sick wolf had been sleeping or unconscious all morning, so Xia Qing simply dissolved the medicine powder in warm spring water and used a syringe to inject it down its throat, to avoid waste. Then she put another dose of anti-inflammatory drops in its eyes.

Xia Qing could not tell how the parasites inside the sick wolf were responding to treatment, but the eye that had been pierced by an evolution grass seed had already begun to swell down.

A little past three in the afternoon, the sick wolf woke, stood up shakily, and walked outside. Xia Qing, who had been keeping an eye on the sheep pen, immediately came out of the house and opened the insect-proof gauze door for it. "Awake? Feeling any better?"

The sick wolf first went to the nearby latrine to relieve itself for a long while before returning weakly to Xia Qing's side and nuzzling her leg with its body. The gesture was exactly the same as Sheep Boss's.

It was Xia Qing's first time being nuzzled by a wolf; she truly felt the creature's goodwill, but she also felt how very thin and weak it really was. "Want some water?"

Fearing it could not see, Xia Qing tapped the water basin; the sick wolf felt its way over, drank a few mouthfuls, and lay down again.

Xia Qing closed the gauze door and resignedly went to cover and burn the wolf's droppings. The parasites excreted this time were fewer than in the morning, and hardly any were still alive.

Past eight in the evening, Xia Qing fed the sick wolf another dose of medicine. Seeing it was in slightly better shape than that afternoon, she gave it some green-light rabbit jerky softened by boiling in spring water.

Xia Qing had asked Chang Li, and wolves, like dogs, could eat cooked meat. Moreover, given the sick wolf's current physical condition, cooked meat was best, because it could prevent parasite infection. This rabbit had been sent over by the alpha wolf; Xia Qing had been too busy to cure it, so she had simply sliced and roasted it and stored it sealed.

The wolf, which had excreted parasites five times that day, was so weak it needed Sheep Boss to prop it up with his body just to stand. After slowly eating the cooked jerky, it graciously did not throw it back up.

Reassured, Xia Qing said goodnight to Hu Zifeng and went to sleep before nine, skipping even the fixed-time lord channel chat.

A little past two in the morning, Xia Qing got up and went to the sheep pen to check on the sick wolf, gave it its first dose of medicine for the day, then told Sheep Boss, who was sleeping in the pen, "I'm going to the back mountain to change the dressing on the wounded wolf. You stay home and look after your friend. Squad Leader Hu and the others are on night watch in the cabin; if there's danger, take your friend and go find them."

"Baa."

Sheep Boss graciously answered once. Xia Qing evaded the surveillance of the Sufeng Squad, left Territory Three, and entered the wild boar breeding center cave in Area Three of Mountain Forty-Nine to change the dressing on the brain-evolution wolf.

The alpha wolf was not there; guarding the cave tonight were two wolves Xia Qing had never seen. They had just bared their fangs at her when a wolf's whine came from inside the cave; the two wolves sheathed their fangs and went inside.

The whine just now had not come from the alpha wolf, nor from the brain-evolution wounded wolf, but from the fierce broken-leg wolf. Xia Qing raised an eyebrow — it seemed this wolf's status in the pack was not low either.

A faint clatter of splint against gravel came from inside the cave, and the broken-leg wolf came out first, glaring viciously at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing had seen that look plenty of times and was unfazed. She took out the iron basin and water bottle from her pack, poured the medicine into the basin, then added half a basin of spring water. "Drink."

This wolf did not need Xia Qing to change its dressing, but every time it would lap up a few mouthfuls of the broken-back wolf's medicine water. Of course, it might also think the medicine belonged partly to it.

While the broken-leg wolf drank the medicine water, the broken-back wolf used its two front legs to crawl out of the cave. Its forelimb strength had increased, and its hind legs could now assist as well.

Xia Qing greeted it in a low voice, "Drink the medicine water first, then I'll change your dressing."

The brain-evolution wolf moved to the basin and drank a few mouthfuls. With a howl, another wolf walked out of the cave and stared at Xia Qing with great wariness.

Xia Qing stepped back a few paces until her back was against the rock, took a defensive stance, and beckoned the broken-back wolf. "Come here, I'll change your dressing."

Once the brain-evolution wolf had crawled over to her, Xia Qing squatted with her back against the mountain stone, loosened the protective gear around its waist and abdomen, and began changing the dressing. The very wary wolf immediately took the chance to drink from the basin.

Xia Qing pretended not to notice and carefully examined the broken-back wolf's wound. The wound was healing very well, and the bone felt properly aligned; by all rights the dressing didn't need changing. But Xia Qing was not a doctor and could not decide whether or what medicine to use.

She took a photo of the wound with her phone before changing the dressing and re-securing the protective gear.

Just as Xia Qing was about to leave, the alpha wolf walked out of the cave carrying two rabbits in its mouth and dropped them in front of her.

Xia Qing now understood the alpha wolf's thought process. "Queen my lord, these two prey — one is for the wolf I'm keeping sick at home, and one is for me, right?"

The alpha wolf's gilded eyes fixed on Xia Qing, with no sign of disagreement.

Xia Qing poured all the remaining spring water from her bottle into the basin and praised it sincerely, "Thank you, Queen my lord, for the rabbits. Queen my lord has worked hard. Queen my lord, please have some water."

While the alpha wolf went to drink, Xia Qing immediately stuffed both rabbits sealed into her pack. Although she had had a quarrel with the wolf pack a couple of days ago and had nearly come to blows, they hadn't actually fallen out, so what she could take, Xia Qing took without the slightest hesitation.

After the water in the basin was finished, Xia Qing picked up the basin and stuffed it into her pack. "I'm heading back. I'll come again the day after tomorrow. Don't worry — the sick wolf looks a bit better; it shouldn't die."