Chapter 275: The Fifth Use Yishi

Looking at the bulging pockets on its body, Xia Qing rubbed her hands together excitedly. "What's inside? I'm taking it out, okay?"

"Woof." Broken-Waist Wolf replied in a great mood.

Xia Qing opened the pocket on the left abdomen of Broken-Waist Wolf's protective suit and pulled out several plants with roots. They were caked in mud into a clump, so Xia Qing couldn't tell what species they were at all. But Sheep Boss trotted over, sniffed them, and immediately got excited, staring at Xia Qing with big Kazilan sheep eyes and acting coquettishly.

"Baa~~~"

Want to eat.

Something a brain-domain evolved wolf would make a special trip to bring back, and that Sheep Boss personally verified, had to be good stuff. Xia Qing excitedly set the herbs aside and warned Sheep Boss, "This was brought back by Broken-Waist. It's its supplies. Until we get Broken-Waist's permission, Boss can't touch it."

"Baa~~~" Sheep Boss didn't care, nuzzled Xia Qing's leg, and kept attacking with a pinched voice.

Xia Qing had no choice but to break off a small piece of compressed rations to placate it before opening the pocket on the right abdomen of Broken-Waist Wolf's protective suit. The moment her hand went in and felt around, she got so excited she nearly jumped. This texture, this color, this weight—exactly the same as the raw material Luo Pei had traded her for making the Use Yishi protective shell!

With an excited heart and trembling hands, Xia Qing pulled out two handfuls of gravel and soil, then fished out a walnut-sized raw Use Yishi from inside.

Xia Qing gripped the wet raw stone, her voice trembling with excitement. "B-Broken-Waist handsome wolf bro, is this for me?"

Broken-Waist Wolf didn't make a sound this time. It clip-clopped to the bathroom door, turned its head, and looked calmly at Xia Qing.

"Want a bath? Got it! Coming—" Xia Qing understood immediately, put the Use Yishi and herbs together, scurried over, turned on the shower, adjusted the water temperature, rinsed the mud off Broken-Waist Wolf, and took off its protective suit.

After the protective suit was removed, Broken-Waist Wolf turned to look at its own fur, which had been pressed into a mess by the suit, and actually raised one front paw and placed it on Sheep Boss's dedicated bath tub.

"Want a soak? Got it, handsome wolf bro, just a moment!" Xia Qing moved Sheep Boss's bath tub over without a word and started filling it with water. Forget Sheep Boss's bath tub—even if Broken-Waist Wolf wanted to use Xia Qing's blanket to wipe its fur today, Xia Qing wouldn't dare blink, not with that Use Yishi sitting in the living room.

Broken-Waist Wolf was bigger than Sheep Boss, but it could still fit in the tub. It clearly loved the feeling of soaking—head tilted back, eyes narrowed, face full of bliss.

While it bathed, Xia Qing scrubbed its dirty protective suit and shoes clean, hung them up to dry, then ran to the living room, put the Use Yishi and the raw material for making the Use Yishi protective shell into sealed bags, and began carefully examining Broken-Waist Wolf's clump of herbs.

Comparing them against the photos of evolved herbs saved on her phone, ones that had appeared in the mission board, Xia Qing actually recognized one: High-Grade Evolved Heavenly Mallow.

The mission description said this herb uses its root as medicine. The purchase price listed on the safe-zone mission board was 3,000 credits per plant—not too high, but Xia Qing was quite satisfied.

Hearing movement in the bathroom, Xia Qing went over and opened the bathroom door, finding that Broken-Waist Wolf had already climbed out and was shaking its body to fling the water off its fur.

After it had shaken off enough, Xia Qing eagerly dried it with an old bedsheet and asked, "Handsome wolf bro, are the herbs and Use Yishi you brought back for me? What do you want to trade for?"

Broken-Waist Wolf listened to Xia Qing, shook its fur, and looked up at the protective suit hanging on the wall.

Xia Qing understood. "You want this set of protective suits?"

Broken-Waist Wolf thought for a moment, walked out of the bathroom to the tatami, raised a big paw and pressed down on the sick wolf's paw, then turned to look at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing asked with gestures. "You want to trade the herbs and Use Yishi for the protective suit it wears and the one you wear?"

"Woof." Broken-Waist Wolf replied, praising Xia Qing for being so smart and understanding its meaning so quickly.

Xia Qing suppressed her laughter, nodded solemnly, picked up the herbs and Use Yishi, and said, "The things you brought back can be traded for these two sets of protective suits. From now on, the protective suits are yours, and these herbs and Use Yishi are mine."

Broken-Waist Wolf expressed its approval, and Xia Qing's heart bloomed with joy.

She immediately carefully separated the mud-caked clump of herbs, laid them out on the table covered with sealed bags, and called her companion over. "Boss, come sniff and see which one you want to eat."

Sheep Boss immediately clip-clopped to Xia Qing's side and accurately picked the second one from the left. This herb looked pretty ordinary, but Xia Qing didn't know its name either. After she pinched off a leaf, rinsed it clean, and fed it to Sheep Boss, she took photos of the herbs and sent them to Zhang San. "Boss, Wolf Lao Er, guard the territory well, I'm going to sleep. Handsome Broken-Waist wolf bro, you've worked hard, rest well."

"Baa." Sheep Boss, having eaten a leaf of the herb, gave face by replying.

The sick wolf flicked its tail to show it understood. Broken-Waist Wolf calmly watched Xia Qing climb to the second floor, then lay down on the tatami and closed its eyes to rest.

Xia Qing had just reached the bedroom when she got a call from her idol.

"Xia Qing, I'll take all five plants except the second one. Package price twenty-one thousand credits, deal?"

"Deal." Zhang San's prices were always fair, so Xia Qing didn't haggle. She asked what species the herb was that Sheep Boss liked but her idol rejected.

Zhang San had gotten good herbs, and his voice was full of pleasure. "That's Evolved Flat-Spike Icegrass, an evolved grass planted in arid regions. It used to be used to feed livestock, but now it's one of the main raw materials for making compressed rations at Lan City Base."

After hearing Zhang San's explanation, Xia Qing felt that Broken-Waist Wolf knew she valued Sheep Boss as a companion, which was why it had mixed this grass in with the other herbs. Xia Qing asked, "Third bro, can we grow this grass in our territory?"

When Zhang San was in a good mood, he was very easy to talk to. "Sure, I'll put together a cultivation guide and have Ji Li bring it to you. These herbs and the field frogs you sent over, minus the twenty-three High-Grade Evolved Black Gardenias you traded today, leaves sixteen thousand two hundred credits. What do you want to trade for?"

After Xia Qing picked a few commonly used medicines and an insecticidal, antibacterial shower gel for bathing Sheep Boss, Zhang San reminded her, "Your medicine is almost ready. You can't change skin color while taking it, so you'd better arrange a transition period."

Her red skin disappearing all at once really wouldn't be reasonable. Xia Qing needed to arrange a transition period to gradually "fade."

After handing the herbs to Ji Li and receiving the cultivation guide for Evolved Flat-Spike Icegrass, Xia Qing read it carefully and felt reassured. It was just a kind of pasture grass, not difficult to cultivate. The plant Broken-Waist Wolf had brought back had already headed, but the seeds weren't ripe yet. In a while, Xia Qing could follow Broken-Waist Wolf to look for seeds of this evolved grass, collect them, and plant them in the territory next year to enrich Sheep Boss's table.

Of course, the plant she'd already dug up couldn't be wasted either. Xia Qing planted it in a flower pot, watered it with unpolluted spring water, and put it together with the Green Lantern strawberry seedlings in a sunny spot inside the house.

Strawberries were very tenacious plants. One plant in spring had propagated into eight seedlings through runners. At that rate, by next year there would be over seventy. In other words, if all went well, Xia Qing could achieve strawberry freedom the year after next.

That night, Xia Qing was smiling even in her dreams.