Chapter 973: The Difference Between Sharing and Freeloading

After dinner, Xia Qing first went to Wolf Valley in Zone 3 of Area 49 to give Little Black Wolf its medicine, stopped on the way to pet the red fox family living in Zone 3, declined Flat-Top's invitation to a fight, and hurried off to attend the Green Dragon Squad's night shooting drill.

She wanted to extend her effective range to 2,100 meters before the large flocks of migratory birds passed through.

This didn't mean the range under pleasant breezes and abundant sunlight, but all-weather range.

In other words, under any external factors, time, or environmental conditions, as long as she could spot a target with her eyes within 2,100 meters, she had to maintain a high sniper hit rate.

A sniper's level, from beginner to intermediate, only required an ordinary person with a bit of shooting talent and willingness to work hard; from intermediate to advanced, it required higher talent and perseverance, plus a great deal of sweat; from advanced to top, it required extremely high talent, perseverance, and effort.

Xia Qing was now a top-tier sniper, but Luo Pei's demand of her was the top of the top. At Xia Qing's level, every tiny improvement demanded enormous effort from her and... points.

After burning through ten thousand points in two hours, Xia Qing trudged heavily back to her territory to make a patrol, greeted the old wolf on the ruins of the building south of the yard, and was called over by Broken-Waist Wolf the moment she stepped inside.

The scholar wolf, who was enjoying the air conditioning in the living room while watching TV videos and studying the CT scanner, beckoned Xia Qing over to teach it how to rotate the 3D CT reconstructed images on the CT scanner's display screen.

Who the hell is the master of this house?

Xia Qing unhurriedly changed clothes, pressed pause on the remote, and stood in front of this guest-turned-host brain-evolved wolf. "Broken-Waist, we need to talk."

Broken-Waist Wolf glanced distractedly at the solemn Xia Qing, wondering what she was trying to stir up.

"This CT scanner," Xia Qing pointed at the portable CT scanner in the living room, then at the TV screen, "these recordings were all exchanged with Third Brother and Zhang Song—that's the human on the screen—using precious supplies, for learning opportunities. If you want to learn this knowledge with me, you should pay me in supplies."

After a year and a half of effort, Xia Qing had finally won her idol's complete trust and gained the opportunity to study alongside her idol, who stood at the pinnacle of Huaguo's medical pyramid, and his core team.

Although her idol hadn't said so outright—the reason he didn't was simply his temperament—Xia Qing was certain that, besides Zhang Song, she would also get very detailed answers if she consulted breeding expert Zhang Tao, or Zhang He, who ran experiments on Mountain Fifty, on professional questions.

This was an opportunity countless people couldn't even dream of.

The opportunity Xia Qing had finally obtained could be shared with this brain-extremely-developed, studious evolved wolf.

Sharing should mean both giving and receiving, not her giving while Broken-Waist Wolf receives. That's not sharing, that's freeloading.

The videos Broken-Waist Wolf had learned from before were ones Xia Qing had exchanged with Yang Jin. At that time Xia Qing didn't mind this wealthy wolf freeloading, because those were popular science videos. But the knowledge it was going to learn next was all scarce, highly valuable, and not available just because one wanted to learn it.

If this guy wanted a share of the learning opportunities she had fought for, it had to put up the wolf pack's supplies and let her have a share too.

After a few seconds of eye contact with Xia Qing, Broken-Waist Wolf limped upstairs, carried down a basket in its mouth, dug out a small, pitch-black walnut from inside, and placed it in front of Xia Qing.

Truly worthy of being Yang Jin's blood brother—too good at doing business!

Xia Qing huffed and pulled out two large packaging bags, then dug out the shiny Use Yishi protective case from Broken-Waist Wolf's treasure basket. "You traded this Use Yishi protective case for two bags of Green Lantern walnuts."

"The Queen also really likes Use Yishi protective cases, and you traded another two bags of walnuts with me for a second Use Yishi protective case." After saying this, Xia Qing put down two more large woven bags. "Although I haven't made it yet, this deal is already done."

"You broke my hair dryer and agreed to compensate me with one bag of Green Lantern walnuts." Xia Qing took another large packaging bag and put it down, starting to count. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Broken-Waist, you already owe me five bags of Green Lantern walnuts. Mountain Sixty only has two walnut trees in total—can they fill all these bags?"

Broken-Waist Wolf, who had already learned to count, stared at the pile of bags for a while, then looked up at Xia Qing and showed its cute little fang tips.

"As long as they can fill five bags." Xia Qing took out the stack of books Zhang Song had given her and the hard drive containing the videos, patted them, and said, "Broken-Waist, learning this knowledge will make you stronger. I can teach you, but..."

Xia Qing took out ten more bags, then went to the kitchen and brought out a cup of unpolluted spring water, placing it in front of Broken-Waist Wolf. "For this knowledge, you can pay with ten bags of walnuts, or let me draw spring water from Mountain Fifty-Five in the future as exchange. Do you want to use the spring water, or ten bags of walnuts?"

The spring water on Territory Three—the wolf pack could drink whenever it wanted, and Xia Qing hadn't charged them; she also wanted to obtain equal rights to the wolf pack's spring water.

If this wasn't discussed clearly, when she went to Mountain Fifty-Five to fetch water in the future, this iron rooster's blood brother might very well trade with her using spring water, just as it clutched its walnuts.

From Xia Qing's understanding of this wolf, it would absolutely do something like that!

The wolf pack, the bear group, and the snake group had all fought over Mountain Fifty-Five, so Broken-Waist Wolf had long known the value of unpolluted spring water.

Now, having watched Xia Qing's videos on Yi Stones, unpolluted spring water, and Qiangwu Grass, Broken-Waist Wolf understood that these precious supplies also attracted human competition.

It stared at the pile of bags and a cup of water for a while, then raised its large paw, which was fixed in a protective brace, and chose the spring water.

After carefully confirming with it, Xia Qing gave a thumbs-up. "Very good, Handsome Wolf Bro made the right choice. You're truly an evolved wolf standing at the top of Blue Star's pyramid! Want to learn the CT scanner? Good, I'll teach you."

Xia Qing taught Broken-Waist Wolf how to operate the CT scanner's two display screens using the keyboard and touch screen. For Broken-Waist Wolf, which had already learned to operate a laptop, learning to control the CT scanner's display screens wasn't all that difficult.

Next, one person and one wolf stayed by the CT scanner, playing the videos Xia Qing had recorded on the TV, seriously studying how to use the thing.

When they encountered professional terms they couldn't figure out, Xia Qing would look them up in the professional books Zhang Song had given her, take careful notes, and then try to explain them to her "student" in plain language.

After watching the videos twice, Xia Qing went upstairs to wash up and sleep. Broken-Waist Wolf stayed by the TV, rewatching the videos Xia Qing had recorded today over and over for more than three hours, until it drained the battery connected to the TV before closing its eyes to rest.

When Xia Qing got up the next morning, the scholar wolf asked her to place it on the scanning bed and scan its lame leg.

Xia Qing was also in the middle of learning the CT scanner, so she happily agreed to Broken-Waist Wolf's request.

Xia Qing carried it onto the scanning bed, covered it with a radiation-protection blanket leaving only its two front legs exposed, and told it not to move.

After scanning Broken-Waist Wolf's two front legs, one person and one wolf huddled together to study the images and unanimously agreed that Broken-Waist Wolf's bone fracture had healed!