Chapter 831: Debts Must Be Repaid — That's Only Right and Proper

After returning to Sector 3 of Mountain 49, Xia Qing had Wolf Lao Er head back to the territory first. She pulled Little Flying Squirrel out of a pine tree hollow, fed it one last dose of medicine, then opened up a picture of an herb and showed it to the animal.

"You owe me a total of points. Debts must be repaid — that's only right and proper. See this?" Xia Qing pointed at the herb in the picture. "Memorize what this herb looks like. When you spot it, dig up three plants for me, and the two of us will be square, principal plus interest."

The weak, pitiful little bald squirrel huddled meekly in Xia Qing's palm, gazing up at her with its shiny black eyes, whiskers trembling.

Xia the Flayer tucked the picture away and stroked its little head. "This patch of Evolution Forest has honey badgers, wildcats, house cats, snakes, owls, evolution rats, and other animals — they're all your natural enemies. Little Flying Squirrel, avoid them and survive. Become the strongest among the squirrels."

After Xia Qing tucked Little Flying Squirrel into the tree hollow she'd punched open and returned to the territory, the albino weasel from Mountain 50 left its den and ran deeper into Evolution Forest.

Xia Qing was washing dishes after dinner when she heard the Beimen pinging her with reminders. The corners of her mouth lifted.

Her luck was good today — the clever wolf from the pack, Broken Back, had brought a big fox and a little fox over for treatment.

Xia Qing handed the territory over to Wolf Number One and Wolf Lao Er, quickly pulled on her protective suit, grabbed her pack, and hurried to the Beimen. She deftly scanned the two wild ducks by the gate, confirmed one was green-tier and one yellow-tier, didn't contact her idol, swiftly packed them into sealed bags, then followed Broken Back into Sector 3 of Mountain 49.

Perhaps because the little fox had clearly improved after Xia Qing treated it yesterday, when the big fox saw Xia Qing following Broken Back over, it still showed fear — but it didn't grab its cub and run.

Broken Back picked up the whimpering little fox in its jaws and carried it to Xia Qing, letting her enter the wolf den to check the little fox's wound and change the dressing.

This time the big fox didn't need Broken Back to snarl it into submission — it simply stood quietly at the den entrance waiting. It was a brain-domain evolver, and the bamboo forest and last night's experience had already taught it that this human, Xia Qing, was different from other humans and wouldn't hurt its cub.

It took only a little over ten minutes this time before Xia Qing came out of the den carrying the little fox. "Broken Back, this little fox will need another dressing change at this same time tomorrow."

Broken Back bared its snow-white little fang tips and smiled.

The red fox confirmed its cub hadn't been harmed, turned its head, and saw the evolution wolf grinning. A thoughtful expression crossed its face — an expression oddly similar to Broken Back's. True to form for brain-domain evolvers of the same family.

After Xia Qing set the little fox on the ground, the red fox immediately picked up its cub in its jaws and ran off fast. Even knowing this human was different, Xia Qing was still a natural enemy it couldn't overcome, and instinct drove it to flee with its cub as quickly as possible.

Xia Qing ignored the big and little foxes and discussed things with Broken Back. "Broken Back, there are too many wild boars in the valley. Can I go kill a few to eat?"

Broken Back closed its mouth and looked up at Xia Qing.

Understood — no. Xia Qing gestured as she communicated with the clever wolf. "There are too many wild boars. There's not enough food in the valley."

Broken Back glanced at the water pool that had been rooted all out of shape, then looked back at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing stressed again, "There are too many wild boars. A few need to be hunted. There's not enough food. Last year at this time, the Queen came over and hunted the wild boars here."

Not long after the second Deadly Rain last year, the Head Wolf entered the wild boar breeding center and hunted down the boars being kept there for research. A few days later, Broken Back came again and finished off the remaining boars. The breeding center lost its research subjects and had to withdraw; then this valley was merged into Mountain 49, ostensibly becoming part of the Azure Dragon — but in reality, Xia Qing's territory.

Has it really only been a year since that happened? Why does it feel like so much longer?

Xia Qing was lost in thought when she noticed Broken Back was looking at her with an expression much like the one it gave that idiot Broken Leg. In other words, in Broken Back's view, Xia Qing's question just now had been pretty stupid.

Stupid?

Of course not — she was far smarter than the wolf in front of her!

Xia Qing brought Broken Back back home. Before she could even ask where the ducks had been caught, Broken Back ran into the bathroom, took the hair dryer out of the cabinet, and carried it over to Xia Qing in its jaws.

Xia Qing took the hair dryer, and Broken Back raised one of its big paws — which it had just rinsed in the water basin outside the door and which was still damp. The fellow wasn't wearing its protective suit today. Maybe because the weather was warmer, and wearing the suit was uncomfortable for a wolf.

Then, under Xia Qing's gaze, the clever wolf actually spread its paw open. Can a wolf's paw spread open like that? Xia Qing froze for a second. "Blow-dry the fur? Sure."

After she plugged in the hair dryer and dried the fur on all four of Broken Back's paws, before Xia Qing could even speak, Broken Back ran upstairs, opened its refrigerator, ate a cucumber, then carried its laptop down and set it on the small table, flipped it open, and accurately pressed the power button with its big paw. It pawed at the mouse, scraped at the touchpad, studying how to use its big paw to control the tiny cursor on the screen.

Seeing how focused it was, Xia Qing didn't disturb it. But she secretly decided that when Yang Jin came to pick up the native spinach seeds, she'd trade with him for a touchscreen laptop — one with a sturdy, non-slip screen.

That kind of laptop definitely wouldn't be cheap, but compared to the value of the Yi Stones she'd traded with the wolf pack, it was absolutely nothing.

Just as Xia Qing had expected, Broken Back wanted to watch primate videos again today — from the very beginning. When the white-faced saki monkey appeared, the fellow pressed pause again and turned its head to grin toward the kitchen.

Without the Head Wolf keeping it in line today, the fellow grinned for quite a while before continuing the video.

Xia Qing? She was in the kitchen plucking feathers — didn't see a thing.

After finishing the plucking and cleaning up, Xia Qing immediately set the green-tier wild duck up to roast and stuffed the yellow-tier wild duck into Broken Back's big refrigerator.

Xia Qing's small refrigerator held her own food and was locked. Broken Back's big refrigerator had meat sent over by Broken Back in the bottom freezer, and vegetables Xia Qing had stuffed in on the top shelf. Broken Back could take vegetables from the top; Xia Qing could take meat from the bottom.

Very reasonable.

After the roast duck was packed up, Xia Qing noticed Broken Back had no intention of leaving — it was still focused on watching videos.

What it kept replaying were videos about evolution macaques and evolution gibbons.

Broken Back's behavior gave Xia Qing a sense of urgency. Could it be that monkey troops and gibbons might attack the northern Evolution Forest, so the wolf pack was starting to prepare?

Xia Qing still didn't disturb Broken Back. When it finished watching and was about to leave, she held up the packed roast duck and asked, "Broken Back, where did you catch this kind of duck? Can you take me there?"

Broken Back stared at Xia Qing, thoughtful.

Xia Qing immediately pulled out of her pocket the toy ball — about two fists big — that she'd traded with Tang Huai not long ago, and enthusiastically pitched it to Broken Back. "Broken Back, look — this is a toy for exercising cubs. Cubs can bat the ball around like this…"

Xia Qing demonstrated enthusiastically for ages. Wolf Lao Er couldn't take its eyes off the ball, but Broken Back showed zero interest. Xia Qing went upstairs and brought down a half-person-tall throw pillow she'd sewn herself out of pink fabric. Before she could even pitch it, Broken Back's eyes lit up as it stared at the pillow.

Without any surprise, Xia Qing used this pillow to strike a deal with Broken Back.

The toy ball? It went to Wolf Lao Er.

Then, Xia Qing began using her own phone to show Broken Back how to operate a new touchscreen laptop, and struck a deal with this discerning, tasteful clever wolf: one herb in exchange for one new laptop.