Chapter 857: The Weather Turns

"Hey, Broken-Back, that's not exactly playing fair, is it?"

According to the principle of resource distribution, Party B—human Xia Qing—discovers resources at Party A—Wolf Big Spender's home, and those resources belong to the Big Spender. Xia Qing had no objection to this, but looking at the small pile of broken stones at her feet, she was still shaken by how shrewd Broken-Back Wolf was.

Broken-Back Wolf, who had just returned from chasing snakes and was sticking out its tongue to cool down, sensed that Xia Qing was unhappy, closed its mouth, and gazed thoughtfully at Xia Qing standing opposite.

Xia Qing pointed at the three intact Yi stones that Broken-Back Wolf had scraped to its own feet with its claws, then pointed at the eleven broken Yi stones at her own feet. "The good ones are yours, and the broken ones are mine?"

Broken-Back Wolf thought for a moment, turned around, ran up the mountain, fetched a dirty little bag that Xia Qing had sewn, scraped all three intact Yi stones into the bag, carried it back up the mountain, then came back and looked at Xia Qing.

Xia Qing...

What I freaking mean isn't that I don't understand which ones are yours and which are mine—what I freaking mean is, why do you get all the good ones and I get all the broken ones?

What do we do now?

The intact Yi stones have all been carried back to its den—what else can we do?

Xia Qing gathered the eleven Yi stone fragments, big and small, back into her bag. This trip wasn't entirely a waste either; although these eleven Yi stones had been broken open, they were all radiating Yi elements. She'd take them back, store them in Yi stone protective casings, and they could still be used in the next Ziqiang Rain.

After packing the Yi stones, Xia Qing held up the bag containing over a dozen Ziqiang snakes she'd brought out of the water, and the bag containing the shed snake skins. "Your Majesty, Broken-Back, these Ziqiang snakes and python skins are mine, right? I need to go back and study Ziqiang snake venom, and use the snake skins as medicine ingredients."

The head wolf lay on a nearby rock, staring at Python Pool and ignoring Xia Qing. Broken-Back Wolf twitched its nose to sniff, then finally opened its mouth to reveal its adorable, snow-white little fang tips, in agreement.

Good grief—who would have thought that the Iron Rooster's brother would grow a coat of fur! Xia Qing set the two bags aside, and through gestures and pantomime explained that there was a cave inside Python Pool, that Ziqiang Wu grass grew inside the cave, and that Ziqiang Wu grass could counteract snake venom. She argued the cave should be preserved, because Ziqiang Wu grass was extremely useful.

Broken-Back Wolf thought seriously for a while, mouth still closed. The head wolf lying nearby, staring at Python Pool, also showed no reaction.

Obviously, both these lords of Mountain Fifty-Five considered that cave should not be preserved.

Xia Qing could understand their concerns, but sixteen stalks of Ziqiang Wu grass were growing in there—filling it in would be such a waste. She adopted a compromise: fill in the python cave, but don't fill in this cave beneath the wolf den where the Ziqiang Wu grass grew.

After Xia Qing explained through gestures and pantomime three times, the two wolves finally agreed. The head wolf expressed agreement by leaving the pool's edge, while Broken-Back Wolf showed its little fang tips.

Xia Qing's phone had been taken away by Broken-Back Wolf—it wanted to learn the value of Ziqiang Wu grass.

Xia Qing? Keep on prying stones and filling the pool!

Working straight through until 11:30 a. m., Xia Qing crawled into her tent to rest and eat. Today, Chang Li had volunteered to enter Territory Three to look after (study) Does Daigua, so Xia Qing didn't need to go back to feed it medicine or give it an IV. She wanted to speed up progress and fill in this Python Pool sooner, so the wolf pack could live in peace, and she could live in peace along with them.

After a one-hour midday rest, Xia Jingwei crawled out of the tent and resumed work.

Without the black loach in the water causing trouble, Xia Jingwei's work efficiency that day was remarkable—the depth of Python Pool shrank from over sixty meters to fifty-three meters.

By four in the afternoon, she decided to knock off early and head home, because large patches of cloud were drifting across the southern sky, and the wind now blowing was a southerly. Based on experience, Xia Qing judged that it would rain soon.

When Xia Qing had packed up her tent and went to Broken-Back Wolf to get her new phone back, Broken-Back Wolf actually pointed at three unknown eggs in a nearby rocky hollow, and grinning, indicated to Xia Qing that it wanted to trade the eggs for the phone.

Where there's demand, there's a market!

Reseller Xia Qing negotiated with this shrewd wolf for over ten minutes, and reached a deal: trading the Ziqiang Wu grass from the loach cave, plus the medicinal herbs growing on the rock walls in the shallows of Python Pool, in exchange for one pink phone and one pink notebook.

Last time, the human and wolf had reached an agreement to trade herbs that Zhang San urgently needed for a notebook, but Broken-Back Wolf hadn't found the herbs Xia Qing needed, so that agreement was called off.

Both human and wolf expressed great satisfaction with this agreement.

Xia Qing stuffed the few herbs she'd dug up, the python skin, the broken Yi stone fragments, and the Ziqiang snakes into her backpack, and praised her trading partner. "Broken-Back, you are the first evolved wolf on Blue Star to own a French-door refrigerator, two notebooks, and a smartphone. You're at the very forefront of the times—you're definitely going to be recorded in the annals of evolved wolf history. I'm off, then?"

Broken-Back Wolf's way of expressing satisfaction was more direct than Xia Qing's—it called the Grey Giant Wolf over and had the Grey Giant Wolf escort Xia Qing back.

Xia Qing, who didn't have to walk herself, was of course delighted. She rode the wolf, and in just over ten minutes it delivered Xia Qing to the foot of Peak Three of Mountain Fifty.

After bringing Qi Fu and the others down the mountain, the first thing Xia Qing did upon returning to her territory was call her idol and report that she'd caught a bag of Ziqiang snakes, and gotten python skin and herbs.

She said nothing about Mountain Fifty-Five having pollution-free spring water, Yi stones, and Ziqiang Wu grass. Because these were the wolf pack's secrets, and the head wolf's stern attitude made Xia Qing understand that the wolves didn't want other humans to know these secrets.

Xia Qing didn't hand over all the python skin to Ji Li, who came to collect the goods, but set aside one bundle for the red squirrel family—red squirrels liked to arm themselves with snake skin to confuse predators.

After seeing Ji Li off, Xia Qing entered Section Three of Mountain Forty-Nine, and, unsurprisingly, saw two big red foxes and one small one at the entrance of the wolf den.

The red foxes bristled at the sight of Xia Qing; Xia Qing looked at the red foxes and sighed.

You say that brain-evolved red fox isn't smart, but it knows to bring its wife and kids every day to mooch medicine; you say it is smart, but it can't figure out that the medicine is used once every other day.

Xia Qing jumped down into the wolf valley, pinned down the little fox cub, applied medicine and force-fed it medicine, then continued searching for the freeloading red squirrel family and Little Flat-Top, and checked along the way whether the two red lynxes were still around.

After the sun went down, Xia Qing finally found Little Flat-Top gnawing on a lizard. After it finished the meat strip, Xia Qing went over and pinned it down to treat the three wounds on its body that had already festered.

These wounds had probably been left when the honey badger fought the red lynx yesterday; if she didn't intervene, this little honey badger wouldn't last more than a few days.

The rest of the squirrel-searching journey, Xia Qing finished while being chased by the little honey badger. After returning to Territory Three, Xia Qing asked Wolf Lao Er, who had come to greet her, "Lao Er, have you seen the red squirrel family? The red squirrels that used to live in the sheep shed—I can't find them."

Little Feimao still owed her over fifty thousand points.

Wolf Lao Er gazed at Xia Qing with clear eyes, as if it hadn't understood what she was saying.

Because Wolf Lao Er didn't like Liangliang's bright phone screen, Xia Qing pulled out a color-printed picture of the red squirrel family from her backpack and held it up to it. "Lao Er, do you know where they are?"

Wolf Lao Er stared at the picture for a few seconds, then led Xia Qing to a large tree in the western buffer forest, and looked up.

Xia Qing...

No wonder she couldn't find them in Section Three—the freeloading family had moved into her territory. Apparently, in the freeloaders' eyes, those two red lynxes last night were a bigger threat than she and Lao Er.

Xia Qing called Wolf Lao Er to head home, only to find it staring motionlessly at the dark, heavy sky to the south, its face deadly serious.

Xia Qing's heart skipped a beat. She immediately took off her protective mask, felt the humidity and wind speed in the air, and asked, "Lao Er, is a heavy rain coming?"

Wolf-dog Lao Er said nothing, still staring with a deadly serious expression at the black clouds to the south that were blotting out the stars, as if facing a formidable enemy.

Lao Er's attitude confirmed it for Xia Qing—the weather was about to change!