Chapter 1117: The Secret of the Wolves’ Hidden Lair

Once the trade time was set, Crippled Wolf sniffed the air, headed straight to the first-floor bathroom and stared sternly at the Handsome Huge Wolf soaking in the bath barrel for a few seconds. Then he turned and went upstairs, flung open the double-door fridge and started counting the bags of medicine stashed in the freezer drawer.

Xia Qing, who’d followed behind, couldn’t help but joke, “No need to count, none of your five bags of medicine are missing. Big Wolf’s soaking in his own batch.”

Crippled Wolf glanced back at Xia Qing, looking thoughtful.

Xia Qing caught on immediately and explained with gestures, “Back in January, Big Wolf gave me a huge bag—eighty pieces of Yi Stone in total. So, he gets to soak in medicine for free. Crippled, if you give me such a big bag of Yi Stone, you’ll get free soaks too.”

Crippled Wolf shot Xia Qing a look, went downstairs, switched on the TV and pulled up the video he wanted to watch. He began studying intently.

Xia Qing felt the pressure mounting. “Crippled, you’re already this far along? You’ve remembered everything from earlier lessons?”

It’s only been a few days, yet you’ve already watched the eighteenth out of twenty medical ethics videos!

Aren’t you supposed to be patrolling your territory, teaching wolf cubs or hunting?!

Crippled Wolf didn’t even turn his head, just curled his lips a bit and kept on learning.

If Third Brother finds out she got a worse score than any of the wolves during the exam, would he just wipe her off the list?

Suddenly anxious, Xia Qing whipped out her laptop, started a video, and took serious notes.

Goofball was perched in the corner atop a tree branch, staring blankly at the TV. After a brief ride on the generator bike, Old Goat trotted off to the sheep shed to find Yellow Calf and chew cud together.

Er? Off on a routine territorial patrol.

An hour later, Handsome Huge Wolf struggled out of the medicinal bath, shook off the leftover liquid, and lazily walked past Xia Qing and Crippled Wolf. He left the house and sprawled under the eaves.

Crippled Wolf hopped off the couch, slipped naturally into the bathroom and climbed into the bath barrel. Noticing the water level was low, he simply unscrewed the showerhead and started filling it up himself.

Xia Qing peeked in but soon headed back to the living room, switched the video to episode eight, and continued her studies.

At two in the morning, under the eaves, Handsome Huge Wolf got up, stretched lazily, gave his fur a hard shake, and ran off into the night.

Inside the first-floor living room, Er, Crippled Wolf, and Goofball, as well as Xia Qing upstairs in the bedroom, all opened their eyes at the same time.

Once Xia Qing realized the noise came from Handsome Huge Wolf, she rolled over and went back to sleep.

Er left the house to patrol, while Crippled Wolf stood in front of the tool shed door, baring his little fangs.

As the rooster in the chicken house crowed, the freeloading Red Squirrel appeared on Xia Qing’s windowsill, wagging its tail, waiting for water.

Xia Qing set out some pure spring water and a few mung beans for the Red Squirrel, then washed up, went downstairs to cook some Green Lantern Rice porridge and started her patrol.

Reaching the northern buffer forest, Xia Qing looked around, confirmed Red Squirrel wasn’t nearby, climbed a tree and turned on her flashlight. She rummaged through the food stored there, and finding nothing new, continued on her route.

Not finding anything new was totally normal since Red Squirrel’s territory overlapped with hers.

Xia Qing checked Red Squirrel’s nest every day because she discovered that these squirrels actually steal from each other. It means that the high-quality food stored by a nearby Red Squirrel could be pilfered by the big Red Squirrel freeloading in her territory.

That’s exactly the kind of food she was searching for inside the tree hollow.

Shortly after Xia Qing left, Little Fei Mao snuck into his mother’s nest, swiped a tasty nut and vanished in a flash.

Xia Qing made a careful sweep of the fields, checked the crops’ growth and dug up over twenty evolving crayfish and beetle larvae making their way from the dirt toward the greenhouse before heading home to eat.

Then she handed over patrol duty to Peng Jian and Liangzi, shouldered the big cardboard box with the automatic door inside, and asked Peng Jian to help carry two bags of cement and a pack of parts. They hitched a ride and finally arrived at Hill Fifty-Five.

Xia Qing shouldered the 300-jin automatic door and carried 200 jin of new cement and other parts on her back, following Crippled Wolf to a narrow cave entrance halfway up Second Peak, hidden behind thick bushes. Inside, the cave was wide and shaped like a jug.

After setting the door down and taking off her protective mask to wipe her sweat, Xia Qing asked, “Crippled, you want the door installed here?”

The cave entrance was pretty small, so installing the door wouldn’t be too tough. The only issue was that after installation, she’d need to camouflage it or else the reflection would give it away.

After a few minutes inside the cave discussing the plan with the very demanding client, Xia Qing honestly wanted to take the door back and forget about selling it.

Going by this tricky client’s requirements: first, she’d have to hack away at the cave entrance to move the door inside, then carve space in the stone wall at the center of the four-meter-long narrow passage so the automatic sliding door could open and close. Only then could she install it.

Lastly, she’d have to make the cave entrance look exactly the way it did before!

Even with her strength evolution and a drill equipped with a diamond bit, it would still take a whole day’s work to install this door.

If she didn’t go through with the sale, she’d have to refund Crippled Wolf two high-grade Yi Stones…

With her only-earning-no-spending policy in shreds, Xia Qing sighed, pulled out her tools and asked, “Crippled, I’m going to use the drill to get through the rock. Is your battery still charged?”

Crippled Wolf grinned, flashing his sharp little fangs.

Xia Qing smiled back. “As long as it’s enough. You bring the battery over. I’ll start by widening the cave entrance, then work on the stone wall.”

Under the watchful gaze of more than forty big and small wolves, Xia Qing worked nonstop from seven in the morning until four in the afternoon—sawing, drilling and hammering away. Finally, she finished installing the operating-room-grade automatic sliding door just as Crippled Wolf wanted.

Once it was finished, even Xia Qing, a human, had to admit Crippled Wolf had excellent taste.

With a metal automatic sliding door fitted to the modest cave entrance, the place looked so high-tech, you might mistake it for the hidden base of some research institute.

Xia Qing asked, “Crippled, which wolves do you want to let inside this cave? Call them over.”

Since it was an automatic door, she needed to scan the approved wolves’ images into the system, so the infrared sensor would trigger and open the door when they approached.

For humans, the system recognizes facial features and outlines to determine who enters. For wolves, besides facial features, their nose prints are crucial.

Just like a human’s fingerprint, a wolf’s nose print is unique and doesn’t change with age, so it works for identification.

Much to Xia Qing’s surprise, Crippled Wolf didn’t bring Little Wolf or his little sister, but instead rounded up seven very strong evolved female wolves.

That’s when Xia Qing realized what the cave was for: it was the breeding ground for the Northern Wolf Pack.

Xia Qing only scanned in the features of those seven wolves, not herself. After the scan, she stood by the door, had Crippled Wolf check, and confirmed that even if she stood in front of it, the door wouldn’t open automatically.

The den where wolves raise their young is the most secretive and hidden spot in the pack.

Maybe it was the tragic killing of cubs in the Western Wolf Pack last spring that unsettled Crippled Wolf, so when he found this perfect door, he traded two pieces of Yi Stone with Xia Qing to protect the Northern Wolf Pack’s cubs next spring.

This operating-room-grade door was built for a sterile, airtight environment, so it was extremely secure and well-sealed. Xia Qing’s installation was top-notch. Without the password, there’s no way to open the door quietly.

As soon as anybody tried to force their way in, the evolved wolves guarding the pups nearby would be instantly alerted.

For the first time, Xia Qing truly felt complete trust radiate from Crippled Wolf.

She couldn’t let the wolves down. Once she got home, she’d pull up all the encryption details about this door and make sure Crippled Wolf learned them well.

But that would have to wait—she was exhausted and needed to rest back at her base.

There was just over an hour of daylight left. That wasn’t enough time to search the pond for her lost Black Blade. She’d have to try again next time.

But just as she was about to leave Hill Fifty-Five, Crippled Wolf suddenly bounded out again, dropped an unconscious honey badger in front of her, and gave her a grave look.