Chapter 848: One for Two

After chatting about the cute little monkey, Yang Jin returned to the topic of the evolved bear. "This brown bear's destination heading south should be Mountain No. 50. Even if it doesn't come in the next few months, it will eventually. You'd best be prepared."

Xiong Qun returned Mountain No. 55 to the wolf pack, but Xia Qing hadn't yet figured out which kind of animal Mountain No. 50 belonged to.

However, because of the poison gas shells, the Third Peak of Mountain No. 50 still had hardly any animals. Bears and wolves probably wouldn't be interested.

But if this little bear was stubborn and insisted on coming back to look, it would discover that the bear cave it had lived in for half a year had been blocked off by humans, and its private bear garden—the Hidden Valley—had been occupied by humans.

When that time came, this "little" bear would very likely howl a few times and call its parents over to back it up. If the two giant bears wanted to take back Mountain No. 50 for their cub to play in, what could Xia Qing do?

Go to war with the bears, or return the Hidden Valley?

She didn't want to choose either. If the wolf pack didn't block the little bear from heading south, Xia Qing would pick the third option: share the valley with this bear.

The valley belongs to the little bear? Wrong! It was opened up by humans, later became the wolf pack's territory, and was only occupied by bears last year.

Whoever has the strength owns this territory. She currently lacked the strength, so she chose to share.

Although Xia Qing kept a straight face and said nothing, Yang Jin could still guess what she was thinking and offered her a piece of valuable information. "This brain-evolved little bear likes eating honey."

Xia Qing's eyes lit up. "Thanks, Captain Yang. Hui?"

Yang Jin smiled. "How many jars of Green Lantern honey?"

Yang Jin was truly a good partner, so quick on the uptake. Xia Qing spoke up. "Six jars of honey, two boxes of Green Lantern bees."

"Sure, I'll add the bees and honey in. However…" Yang Jin shifted the topic and brought up the purpose of his visit. "The transport plane you captured can't stay in the territory because it's military equipment. There are now two exchange options: one is to have Hui-6 trade it for two civilian helicopters, the other is to have them redeem it with points or other supplies."

Can't keep it? Xia Qing felt a pang of regret.

The state strictly controls aircraft—essential tools for long-distance travel and transport after the catastrophe. Private individuals cannot use military aircraft, but when an official base lacks sufficient combat power, the top-ranked squad within that base may apply to be equipped with military aircraft.

Hui-3's official combat power was visibly insufficient, so Xia Qing had originally assumed she could keep this military transport plane under the name of the Azure Dragon Squad.

Since it was impossible, Xia Qing didn't make things difficult for Yang Jin and asked directly, "What kind of civilian helicopters?"

Yang Jin immediately pulled out a stack of printed materials with color photos. "These are all Lan-1's newest models. See which one you want."

The Huaguo leadership had great foresight and exercised macro-level control. Building on the pre-catastrophe local aircraft manufacturing industry, they concentrated superior human, financial, and material resources to develop Bai-1 and Lan-1 into the country's two major aircraft manufacturing bases. Bai-1 focused on fighter jet R&D and production, while Lan-1 focused on civilian aircraft.

Since she was exchanging, of course she had to pick one she liked.

Whether Hui-6 had managed to buy the new helicopters was their problem. If they couldn't buy them, they shouldn't expect to get the military plane back.

They were the ones who broke the law, and they were also the ones afraid of alerting the higher-ups and being severely punished. The longer this military plane stayed here, the more anxious they'd be every day.

Xia Qing took the catalog with an expressionless face, flipping through it as she asked, "Captain Yang, I should pick two, right?"

Yang Jin smiled like a flower in bloom. "Sister Qing's helicopter, once brought back, has to be parked within Territory No. 1, right?"

Xia Qing……

"The helipad within Territory No. 1 is built and maintained by the Azure Dragon Squad. The helicopter's guarding and daily upkeep are also our responsibility, including protection during the Slash Rain season. The fuel the helicopter needs, I can also sell to you at a twenty percent discount. So…"

Yang Jin stood up, leaned forward, and tapped the page Xia Qing had just flipped to—the medium helicopter worth 8.6 million—and asked seriously, "Could Sister Qing sell this helicopter to us at half price?"

Xia Qing looked down at the helicopter Yang Jin's clean finger was pointing at and raised an eyebrow. Good, he'd picked the same model she had.

Half price? Heh.

"The helicopter Captain Yang wants is a limited-purchase model—only one per base can be bought—and it happens to be the one I want too. I heard Captain Xie went to Lan-9 before the Slash Rain and hasn't come back yet, right?"

Lan-9 has the largest oil field within Huaguo territory. This base survives by selling oil in exchange for food and other daily necessities. Azure Dragon's second-in-command Xie Yu went to Lan-9, definitely to negotiate fuel procurement.

Everyone knew how absurdly inflated energy prices were during the catastrophe years. Twenty percent off? The Iron Rooster truly lives up to being the Broken-Back Wolf's own brother—truly shrewd!

Xia Qing's intelligence channels were already set up and no longer relied solely on his side for information—impressive! Yang Jin's smile didn't fade as he proactively offered a discount. "Not yet. He said the scenery there is beautiful and wanted to stay a few more days. I'll give you fuel at twenty-five percent off. Can't go any lower."

Twenty-five percent off? Xia Qing leaned back in her chair, looked up at the standing Great Beauty Yang, and said, "To capture this helicopter, I was chased and bombarded with eighteen cannon rounds. I barely escaped with my life, and my hearing was damaged. So I can only transfer the helicopter to you at fifteen percent off."

Yang Jin pressed all her heartache deep into her eyes, not letting a bit show. If Xia Qing was playing the victim card, she'd play the poverty card. "At Sister Qing's combat level, fifteen percent off is fair. But you also know what a mess Su Feng left behind…"

After seeing off the Iron Rooster, Xia Qing took out her new phone, humming a little tune as she showed off to Wolf Lao Er, who had walked out from the bushes. "Lao Er, look how pretty this notebook is!"

Lao Er wasn't interested in the glowing thing in Xia Qing's hand, but sensing that Xia Qing was in a great mood, it smiled happily along with her.

"This color is called Smoked Pink. I got it for free. Broken-Back would definitely love it." Xia Qing noticed Lao Er didn't like bright things, so she put the phone in her pocket and took it on a patrol of the territory. When they reached the courtyard gate, Xia Qing gazed at the pitch-black window and at Sheep Boss, lying snow-white under the eastern eaves, silent for a long time.

Lao Er looked up at Xia Qing, not understanding why she was unhappy again.

"It's nothing, just tired and wanting to sleep." Xia Qing reached out and patted Lao Er's head, took it home, and mustered her energy to greet Sheep Boss. "Boss, we're back!"

Sheep Boss bleated once, in a bad mood. The weather was stuffy today—uncomfortable indoors and uncomfortable outside.

If Boss was this hot, Does Daigua, the monkey with a thick coat of long hair in the sheep shed, must be even more miserable.

Xia Qing entered the sheep shed and spotted Does Daigua through the night-vision goggles. Its big white face at night was still a bit creepy.

What Yang Jin said earlier was right—this was just a small monkey, barely bigger than a house cat. She shouldn't harbor too much fear of this little thing just because large monkeys were all very powerful.

It had been eleven years since the catastrophe, and Xia Qing hadn't heard of any base or squad being attacked by mandrills.

So this little thing was no different from the other animals staying in the sheep shed to recover from injuries.

Xia Qing walked over and found that the little thing's posture was still the same as when she'd fed it nutrient solution earlier. The only difference was that it was slowly blinking now.

Then it had diarrhea again.

Boss was lying as far away as possible, which meant it was very smelly here—only Xia Qing, wearing her protective mask, couldn't smell it.