Chapter 205: Dog-Like Wolf

At 5:15 the next morning, Xia Qing carried the spring water into Zone 3 of Mountain 49. She had waited less than two minutes when Yang Jin appeared.

Yang Jin carried a long wooden box on his shoulder, his protective mask hanging at his waist. The rising sun filtered through the leaves and lit up his thick, jet-black short hair, but the protective suit he wore didn't reflect light at all. The protective suit was a color and style Xia Qing had never seen before — clearly very, very, very high-end.

Is this the research institute's latest research result? She had no idea how many points a set cost, or whether it was even sold to outsiders, but Xia Qing wanted to get one too.

Yang Jin saw Xia Qing, wearing her protective mask, staring at… the protective suit on his body, and amusement lit his eyes. He handed the grenade launcher to Xia Qing. "This is the grenade launcher I traded you last time. I'll have Hu Zifeng deliver the shells to you later."

"Thanks, Captain Yang." He was about to head out on a mission, so Xia Qing didn't pry into the price of his gear at an inappropriate moment. After taking the grenade launcher, she handed the Use Yishi protective case to Yang Jin. "The rope is made from evolved snake skin, so it has some insect-repelling effect."

Yang Jin took off his gloves, took the date-sized Use Yishi protective case, pulled the Use Yishi from his pocket and slotted it into the case, then snapped it shut.

Although the case was a bit of a struggle to open and close, it was solid and weighty, polished to a sheen, and clearly very sturdy. Two hundred points — Xia Qing had sold it cheap. Yang Jin tucked the Use Yishi protective case back into the side pocket at his waist and reminded Xia Qing, "Grenade shell stock isn't much. Use them sparingly."

"Understood." The grenade launcher wasn't normally needed, but it was a layer of insurance for the territory. With this safeguard, the territory's safety rating had climbed another notch. Xia Qing shouldered the grenade launcher, and her confidence rose along with it. "Captain Yang, I wish you a smooth mission and a safe return."

After Yang Jin left, Xia Qing carried the several-dozen-jin wooden box, slipped through the cover of the trees, and hurried back to the territory and home. She shut the doors and windows tight, opened the box, hoisted the grenade launcher onto her shoulder, and looked down at Sheep Boss. "Boss, how about it? Badass, right?"

Sheep Boss was busy checking whether the straw inside the wooden box was edible, not even lifting an eyelid.

Xia Qing turned to ask Sick Wolf, "Lao Er, do I look cool or what?"

The thin, sickly wolf raised its head, and its clear wolf eyes actually held a hint of wariness. Xia Qing understood. "Have you seen humans use a weapon like this before, or has your wolf pack fought humans who used weapons like this?"

Sick Wolf naturally couldn't answer, but Xia Qing's sharp hearing caught the sound of its sharp wolf claws digging into the floor. The grenade launcher had made Sick Wolf sense danger, and it was getting tense.

Xia Qing was afraid that if it got too worked up, its stomach would act up again and it'd be vomiting and having diarrhea. She quickly pushed aside Sheep Boss's pawing hooves, put the launcher barrel back in the wooden box and stowed it away, then soothed it in a gentle voice. "Lao Er, don't be afraid. This is my weapon, used to protect the territory."

Sick Wolf's whole body tensed as it stared at the wooden box, as if it wanted to tear it apart. The heartless Sheep Boss also noticed something off about its friend and went over to nuzzle it with its neck.

Xia Qing took the wooden box upstairs and put it away, then casually grabbed the new pouch she'd made for Sheep Boss, went downstairs and hung it around Sick Wolf's neck, and stuffed a small piece of roasted meat jerky inside. "Lao Er, don't be nervous. I've put the weapon away. Go patrol the territory with Sheep Boss and catch bugs to feed the fish. Once patrol's done, we'll eat."

After getting the pouch and jerky, Sick Wolf wasn't just no longer nervous — it even gave its drooping wolf tail a little wag.

That little tail-wag looked so dog-like it completely stunned Xia Qing.

"Baa—"

"Thump!"

Boss got angry, let out a bleat and pawed the floor with its hooves, ready to fight Xia Qing.

Xia Qing immediately pulled out a compressed ration, stuffed it into the pouch around its neck, and crooned to it while rubbing its wool. "This one's for Boss. Boss is the most capable, so your ration is bigger than Lao Er's, and your basket is bigger too. Without Boss working hard every day, our fish would've starved to death long ago. Boss truly is the sheep standing at the top of the pyramid, the sheep who opened a new era in Blue Star's evolved sheep history…"

Having gotten food, Sheep Boss stopped pawing the floor and looked up at Xia Qing with a sidelong glance.

"Got it, I'll go get it for Boss right now." Xia Qing held back laughter, immediately trotted over and handed Sheep Boss its basket. "Boss, you've worked hard. Our whole territory depends on you."

Sheep Boss took the basket in its mouth, turned and trotted to the door, kicked the security door open with one hoof, and went out to catch bugs and feed the fish.

Xia Qing didn't make a sound, but her shoulders were shaking with laughter.

Seeing Sick Wolf crouching beside her without moving, Xia Qing handed it its little basket too, and coaxed it in a gentle voice. "Lao Er, go catch bugs too. Let Boss handle the tough, fast evolved bugs. You catch the dumb, slow ones. Be careful not to get hurt by the bugs. After feeding the fish, come back and I'll cook spinach and meat jerky for you."

Because Sick Wolf was weak, it wasn't as agile as Sheep Boss, but it worked very conscientiously. When Sheep Boss fed the fish, it would just toss the basket by the fish pond — most of the evolved bugs fell into the pond, the rest were left on the bank, a free meal for the crows and big magpies perched in the trees by the pond.

Once Xia Qing noticed, she'd time it right, come sweep the evolved bugs into the pond to feed the fish, or scoop them back into the basket to bring home and feed the snakes. After watching Xia Qing do this a few times, Sick Wolf took on the task itself. It threw some of the bugs into the pond, carried the rest back in the basket, and waited there for Xia Qing to come.

The birds perched in the trees discovered there were no more free meals, and cursed and squawked as they dumped a load of bird droppings on Sick Wolf's head.

A tiger fallen on the plain is bullied by dogs. A wolf weakened by illness gets bullied even by birds the size of a palm.

Is this an ordinary sick wolf? Of course not — it's the SSVIP honored guest of Territory Three!

After using a slingshot and pebbles to teach those deserving birds a lesson, Xia Qing chopped down the big tree by the fish pond with a few swings of her machete, dried the trunk and made it into charcoal-grilling planks, and widened the tatami so Sheep Boss and Sick Wolf could sleep more comfortably. Then Xia Qing noticed that Sick Wolf's gaze at her had grown even clearer.

At this moment, the sick wolf that had been ready to fight at the sight of a fearsome human weapon had calmed down after being soothed and given a "gift," and now headed out to work with the basket in its mouth, pushing open the security door.

Xia Qing put meat and bones into the big iron pot to simmer over a low flame, then shouldered her medicine bag and set off to deliver medicine to the injured wolf in the abandoned mountain cave in Zone 3's valley.

On the way, Xia Qing opened her phone app to check the red squirrel's location. The screen showed only a green dot representing the phone's position and a red arrow pointing outward, meaning the red squirrel, carrying the tracker, was more than four kilometers from the phone. Early morning is when squirrels are most active, so the red squirrel had probably gone out to forage.

The direction this arrow pointed was the location where the tracker had lost its link with the phone. Xia Qing rotated the phone, and the small arrow's direction moved with her movement, always pointing east-northeast. This large swath of mountains to the east-northeast all belonged to Mountain 49, so the danger level wasn't high.

Xia Qing put her phone away. After she finished delivering medicine to the wolf, she planned to run a loop to the east-northeast, then head home for breakfast.