Chapter 539: The Middleman's Sense of Crisis

After she cleaned up the tracks and got home, she skinned and gutted the rabbits, placing the offal in a basin. The still-warm offal went to the Broken-Waist Wolf; once the rabbits were roasted, she packed one to take away and left the other for the "cook," Xia Qing — which was also the main reason Xia Qing worked so eagerly.

But unfortunately, today's two rabbits were one green-light and one yellow-light. Knowing the Broken-Waist Wolf's temperament, it would definitely take the green-light one back to present to the Queen, my lord, and leave the yellow-light one for Xia Qing. Xia Qing currently had excess qiang elements in her body and was in the recovery period after taking qiang-reducing medicine, so she needed to eat as little yellow-light food as possible, or none at all.

So she only put the green-light rabbit in the fireplace to roast, and put the yellow-light rabbit straight into the freezer.

After finishing the offal, the Broken-Waist Wolf came inside, rinsed its paws clean, then dried its feet on the hay. It noticed only one rabbit roasting in the fireplace but had no objections.

The Broken-Waist Wolf went straight upstairs, took its laptop out of the cabinet reserved for it, placed it in a small basket, and carried it downstairs, asking Xia Qing, who was roasting meat, to play a video for it.

This clever brain-evolved wolf liked watching science videos about evolved microorganisms. After watching the previous video more than twenty times, it seemed to have mastered the knowledge introduced in it, and asked Xia Qing to find it a new one.

Xia Qing made it a dedicated video folder introducing microorganisms, arranged the videos in order, and let this brain-evolved wolf learn about microorganisms from shallow to deep.

When watching videos, the Broken-Waist Wolf's expression was extremely serious, just like a good student fully focused in class. Xia Qing didn't know how much knowledge it had grasped through the videos, but its diligent eagerness to learn had dragged her into the current.

If even a wolf was studying this hard, then she, as a human with a higher degree of brain evolution, if she didn't work harder, would probably lose the qualification to be a middleman in another year or two.

Why wouldn't she have it?

What if this wolf, after absorbing more knowledge, discovered it could no longer communicate with the "dummy" Xia Qing, and very likely went around Xia Qing to trade directly with the big shot Zhang San in Territory Seven?

That would be a huge loss for Xia Qing.

Xia Qing took out her phone, filmed a short video of the studious Broken-Waist Wolf, turned the rabbit in the fireplace, and brought up a bag of dried Chinese toon seeds from the underground food storage room.

She poured the toon seeds onto a willow-winnowing tray, sat beside the Broken-Waist Wolf, rubbed the seeds by hand to remove the outer skin and impurities, and watched videos with the wolf along the way.

The sound of rubbing the toon seeds wasn't loud, but the Broken-Waist Wolf still turned its head and glanced at Xia Qing.

"Am I disturbing you? I'll move somewhere else." Xia Qing carried the small winnowing tray and went to work nearby, but still listened with her ears to the content being explained in the video.

"Aoo."

Ten-odd minutes later, the Broken-Waist Wolf gave a low call.

Xia Qing looked up and found the Broken-Waist Wolf pointing at the laptop screen with its paw, looking at her with an earnest expression.

Xia Qing knew this gesture all too well: this brain-evolved wolf was asking her for help, because it couldn't understand the content introduced in the video.

Xia Qing set down the winnowing tray, walked over, and pointed at the magnified microorganisms in water shown in the playing video. "This one?"

The Broken-Waist Wolf tilted its head, looking at Xia Qing thoughtfully.

"Not this one." Having lived with this wolf for a long time, Xia Qing could already understand what its movements and expressions meant.

If not this one, then it was something played earlier in the video. Xia Qing had also been listening just now and hadn't felt there was anything profound earlier. Still, she pressed pause, dragged the video back a short stretch, sat beside the Broken-Waist Wolf, and watched the replay with it.

In the video, a researcher took a test tube of water sample from a pond and brought it into the laboratory, then placed a drop of water on a glass slide, put it under a microscope, and began using it to observe the microorganisms in the water.

The Broken-Waist Wolf raised its paw, pointed at the microscope on the screen, and turned to look at Xia Qing.

So it was curious about this instrument used to observe water droplets.

Xia Qing explained with gestures, "This is called a microscope. It can magnify microorganisms that we can't see with our eyes many times over, making them visible. What this screen shows is the microorganisms inside the water droplet, magnified by this thing called a microscope."

The Broken-Waist Wolf stared thoughtfully at the paused screen for a while, then turned its head to look at Xia Qing. Obviously, it still didn't understand.

The principle of this kind of scientific instrument was very complicated; it was perfectly normal for an evolved wolf living in the Evolution Forest to be unable to figure it out. Although Xia Qing didn't have a microscope, she had something similar — a magnifying glass.

So Xia Qing went upstairs, brought down her magnifying glass, and demonstrated the principle of "magnification" to the Broken-Waist Wolf.

"Look, this is a very small toon seed." Xia Qing placed a rubbed-clean seed on the table, let the Broken-Waist Wolf see it clearly, then used the magnifying glass to magnify the seed. "Broken-Waist, look from here — isn't the seed much bigger?"

The Broken-Waist Wolf and Xia Qing pressed their heads together, staring into the magnifying glass. When it saw a big seed actually appear inside this transparent thing, its eyes instantly went wide.

This wolf's expression was just too vivid. Xia Qing couldn't resist rubbing its head, then demonstrated the function of the magnifying glass several more times. The Broken-Waist Wolf squatted in front of the low table, looking at the screen, then the magnifying glass, then the mirror, pondering with a serious expression.

When Xia Qing went to turn the roasting rabbit in the fireplace, the Broken-Waist Wolf stopped looking at the computer screen and only stared at the magnifying glass on the table.

When Xia Qing finished rubbing the toon seeds clean and began winnowing out the broken skin mixed in with the seeds, the Broken-Waist Wolf was still staring at the magnifying glass and the seeds.

Ten-odd minutes later, this wolf extended a brave paw and carefully nudged the magnifying glass on the table. Xia Qing neither stopped it nor disturbed it, letting it explore on its own what a magnifying glass was.

When Xia Qing poured half a small basin of unpolluted spring water and put the cleaned toon seeds into the small basin to soak, the Broken-Waist Wolf stopped studying the magnifying glass and went to study the glass on the window.

Although the unpolluted spring water had stopped flowing, Xia Qing had stored enough in the storage room to last her a month. Even if the water in the storage room ran out and the spring water still didn't flow out again, Xia Qing would have to start drinking filtered hot spring water.

After being filtered, that hot spring did indeed meet the green-light drinking water standard, but the content of qiang and yi elements in this water was still a notch lower than the unpolluted spring water in Xia Qing's territory.

However, after discovering that hot spring, Xia Qing felt much more at ease. Because the existence of such a hot spring would become the best barrier for her to protect the unpolluted spring water in her territory.

After Xia Qing finished soaking the seeds, she found the Broken-Waist Wolf going in and out of the security door. After going out, it looked into the house through the glass on the window; after coming in, it again looked out through the glass.