Chapter 197: Which Medicine Is That Expensive?!

The lead wolf had no time to bother with Xia Qing, its eyes fixed on the valley entrance. Xia Qing first heard the rustle of grass and dry twigs being trampled, then saw Yanlong's figure.

With Yanlong's abilities, she shouldn't have made such a loud commotion. She must have been walking deliberately like this, so the wolf pack and Xia Qing would notice her.

"Sister Yan, over here." Xia Qing raised her hand to greet Yanlong, then said to the lead wolf, "Queen, this human is my companion. She's here to help carry the wooden boards."

After Yanlong and the lead wolf sized each other up for a few seconds, the lead wolf moved first, crouching atop the cave entrance. The other three wolves retreated and stood behind the lead wolf.

Only then did Yanlong enter the valley, come up to Xia Qing, and with her back to the wolf pack, calmly briefed Xia Qing on the current situation. "The northern isolation belt is impassable. I've already checked in with Luo Pei. We'll cut through Territory Forty-Nine Mountain."

Yanlong of course didn't know that the Third District of Territory Forty-Nine Mountain was Xia Qing's turf, which was why she'd checked in with Luo Pei.

"Got it." Xia Qing covered the three wolves on the wooden boards with an old grass-green bedsheet, and together with Yanlong carried the three wolves—weighing over five hundred jin in total—out of the valley, cutting through the evolved forest in the Third District of Territory Forty-Nine Mountain.

This patch of evolved forest was Xia Qing's territory; she knew which routes were safe, so she took the lead. Yanlong knew Xia Qing often cleared the evolved forest with Beard Feng's squad, so seeing how familiar she was with the area didn't strike her as odd.

The two carried the wolves to the door of the surgery room in Territory Seven. Two of Zhang San's assistants took the three wolves inside. Xia Qing thanked Yanlong. "Sorry to trouble you, Sister Yan. Go on with your work—I'll just wait here."

"I'm free too." Yanlong dragged over two chairs and sat with Xia Qing in the corridor. Yanlong didn't speak, and Xia Qing wasn't the talkative type either, so the two just sat quietly listening to the sounds coming from inside the surgery room.

Sitting in the monitoring room of Territory Seven, Watching Huo Zhun watched the two short-haired women—one red, one brown—on the surveillance screen and clicked his tongue in wonder. "Sitting next to Yanlong and still this calm—this little girl's got real mental fortitude."

Stroking the tabby kitten, Ji Li reminded him, "Xia Qing's never seen Yanlong in combat. In her eyes, Yanlong is no different from any other woman."

Watching Huo Zhun rubbed his chin. "Do you think she knows our lord's identity?"

Ji Li shook her head. "She doesn't. Otherwise she wouldn't be in the state she's in now."

Watching Huo Zhun chuckled. "Being in the same group chat as Lord Zhang—Territories Three, Four, Five, Six, and Ten really hit the jackpot. I wonder how many people are trying to squeeze in."

Ji Li snorted. "Squeeze in, and end up like Li Si?"

The mention of Li Si put Watching Huo Zhun in high spirits. "Shouldn't we be tagging along with our lord for a spin around Territory Nine by now?"

Ji Li replied, "Blaze Squad paid a hefty fine. Li Si will be back soon. Our lord will definitely wait for Li Si to return before going."

Of course—the lord would never miss a chance to watch someone throw a fit. Watching Huo Zhun leaned back in his chair and shook his head with a sigh. "You can offend anyone, just not Lord Zhang."

His grudge-holding is smaller than a needle's eye.

An hour and a half later, the surgery room door opened and Zhang San walked out, pulling off his gloves and mask.

Xia Qing was shocked to see that her idol's already pale, gaunt face had grown even thinner than when he'd operated on the brain-evolved wolf—there was barely any flesh left on it. Not only was he thin, he had dark circles under his eyes, his weariness obvious. He looked rather frightening.

Fortunately Xia Qing wasn't a looks-first fan—otherwise the moment her idol took off his mask, she definitely would have un-fanned.

Her idol looked so haggard—where on earth had he been for the past half month? Xia Qing didn't dare ask, and obediently followed him into the medicine-prep room filled with bottles and jars.

Zhang San was in terrible shape, his voice listless, but his movements preparing the medicine were just as pleasing to watch as last time. "The wolf with the broken leg—its leg bone has already healed. I've removed the splint, no further care needed. The one with the waist injury is recovering well too; I've swapped its brace. Bring it back in twenty days for a follow-up. The wolf infected with parasites has severe internal organ damage and needs medicine to recuperate for at least three months."

Her sharp hearing let Xia Qing clearly catch the lightness in her idol's tone when he said "three months."

Why was her idol happy about three months? Because the wolf needed three months of recuperation, which meant he'd have green-light meat to eat for three months!

Xia Qing was thrilled too, and immediately offered up her boundless admiration. "Third Brother doesn't only do surgery, he can also treat internal injuries—you're amazing!"

How did her idol manage to learn so much in just thirty or forty short years? Could he be a high-level brain-evolved person? High-level evolvers had much better physical conditioning than ordinary people—logically, he shouldn't look this haggard.

Zhang San gave a cold snort. "Flattery won't work. The exam fee and medicine fee—every single point is due, not one less."

Xia Qing immediately sat up straight. "Absolutely. Having Third Brother personally treat the wolves, of course not a single point can be skimped."

Zhang San gave a satisfied snort and placed the twelve medicine bottles of various sizes he'd prepared on the table in front of Xia Qing.

Supplies were scarce during the Calamity years; the containers humans most commonly used for medicine had long been switched to small sealed bags. But Zhang San used glass bottles. His medicine-prep room was filled with transparent, colorless glass bottles of all shapes and sizes, and the medicine he prescribed for Xia Qing came in glass bottles too, each one labeled with a hastily scrawled tag.

So extravagant! But Xia Qing liked it—once the medicine was used up, she could repurpose the glass bottles to hold other things. A feast for the eyes.

Zhang San instructed, "This clear bottle is the potion you asked for. The rest are for the wolves. Use them according to the instructions on the labels."

Xia Qing thanked him sincerely. "Thank you, Third Brother."

Zhang San leaned weakly against the medicine shelf. "Medicine plus exam fee—sixty thousand points."

Six... ty thousand? Which medicine is that expensive?!

Zhang San tilted his awl-like chin toward the bottle in Xia Qing's hand. "Yours is the most expensive—ten thousand points. Then there's the medicine for regulating the wolves' stomachs."

Xia Qing......

Before Xia Qing could say she had no points and would have to pay off the debt with food, Zhang San pulled a stack of papers from the shelf and held them out to her.

Seeing the pictures on the paper, Yanlong, who had been sitting beside Xia Qing with a solemn face, broke into a delighted expression.

Zhang San shot Yanlong a look, then said to Xia Qing, "I know you're broke and can't pay the medical fees in points. Take these photos back and show them to the wolf pack. Find a way to get them to locate the two kinds of herbs in here—roots and all, the fresher the better."

Such a thick stack of paper, but only two kinds of herbs? Xia Qing took them and flipped through, and immediately understood why there were so many pages. Because the herbs' seedling stage, mature stage, flowering stage, and fruiting stage were all clearly shown in the pictures, with each stage broken down into top view, bottom view, side view, and so on. Some pictures even showed the roots in x-ray view, or were paired with the actual environment they grew in, so one could tell their size and where they grew.

One of the herbs actually grew in water, with several snakes and other aquatic evolved creatures swimming around it—none of them looked easy to mess with.

Herbs growing in water—could the wolf pack dig those up?

Was Third Brother overestimating this pack of old, weak, injured wolves who'd had their territory snatched by pythons or Xiong Qun?

Xia Qing began to haggle with her idol. "Third Brother, you've thought this through so thoroughly. With these pictures, as long as this kind of grass is within the wolves' range, they should be able to find it. But whether they can actually harvest it, or how long it'll take to bring it over, I can't guarantee."