Chapter 368: A Night of Healing and Vigil

Lu Yuhui’s construction crew worked fast—within two days, they’d set up the iron mesh wall on the south side of Section Three. At the same time, the thorn wall bordering Section Four was mostly finished, connecting with Xia Qing’s iron mesh and fully separating Section Three from Territory Two.

After pushing on the wall to test it, Xia Qing felt much more at ease—one or two strength evolvers or even a couple of evolved wild boars wouldn’t be able to do any real damage. She turned to Hu Zifeng. “Captain Hu, there’ll be wolves coming through the valley into Section Three tonight. Can you let everyone know?”

Hu Zifeng looked surprised. “The injured wolves aren’t staying in the den tonight?”

Ever since Xia Qing installed a wooden door on the abandoned cave at the Wild Boar Breeding Center, everyone started calling it the Wolf Den. Xia Qing wasn’t the one to change the name—it was Hu Zifeng’s squad, who were all a little obsessed with the wolves’ behavior.

Xia Qing explained, “The injured-legged wolf will be resting up in the den, but the Alpha might come into the territory tonight.”

Hu Zifeng nodded. “So the Alpha’s leg has healed up?”

“It’s healed.”

That’s exactly why, when Xia Qing brought medicine to the den today, she made a point of telling the Alpha she’d be soaking in a medicinal bath tonight.

Whether the Alpha showed up was its own decision.

With a night shift coming at three a.m., Xia Qing moved both her dinner and bath time earlier.

After heating the water in the bath barrel to forty degrees, Xia Qing took out the medicine packet Da Ya brought her and emptied the third-bath dose of medicine into the tub, stirring until it dissolved completely.

Da Ya had given her four medicine packets in total, each clearly labeled for which bath it should be used. When Xia Qing asked, she found out each batch contained a completely different formula, with the intensity increasing with each subsequent bath.

No wonder the second soak hadn’t felt much more comfortable than the first, and this third one hurt even more than the last.

An hour later, Xia Qing crawled out of the tub, shivering and trembling, the rim jagged from how tightly she’d gripped it. She reached to open the latch at the base.

Hauling water up and down between floors was too much work, so Xia Qing had rigged up a system where the upstairs and downstairs bath barrels were connected with a soft hose. After finishing, the medicinal mixture would flow down into the Old Goat’s barrel in the downstairs bathroom.

When she heard the water flowing below, Xia Qing, still shaking, got dressed and dragged herself down the stairs, where she found the Alpha, Er Gou, and Old Goat all sprawled on the living room tatami.

Xia Qing gave the Alpha a quick greeting, then shuffled into the bathroom. She used the heating rod to warm up the mixture and weakly called out, “Old Goat, come take your medicinal bath.”

The medicine was limited, and the sooner one soaked, the better the effects. Old Goat was Xia Qing’s most trusted companion, so of course he got first dibs before the wolves.

Old Goat knew the benefits of the bath, but even with Xia Qing coaxing him, he couldn’t last a full hour. Forty-five minutes in, he dragged himself out of the tub.

Once Old Goat finished, the Alpha didn’t wait to be told—she walked straight into the bathroom, stepped up on a little wooden stool, and settled into the bath barrel.

In less than thirty minutes, the Alpha’s body started to tremble.

This medicine was for healing skin and bone injuries—Xia Qing had noticed during her first soak that the most damaged part of your body always hurt the most in the bath.

With her legs covered in stitched-up scars, the Queen managed forty minutes before the pain finally broke through her pride. She couldn’t keep up the Alpha act any longer and let out a low, pained howl.

Lounging near the tub, Xia Qing was sore and drowsy herself, and there was no way she’d go near a wolf on the edge of collapse. She tried to comfort it instead. “The medicine is repairing your wounded leg. No matter how much it hurts, Queen, you’ve got to hang in there… make it through this and you’ll come out even stronger.”

Fifty minutes in, the Alpha started to slide under. Xia Qing, barely coherent herself, quickly propped up its head so it wouldn’t swallow any of the mixture and murmured encouragement. “Just hang on a little longer, Queen. The time it takes to eat a rabbit and you can get out.”

The Alpha had been forcing itself, but once Xia Qing was holding it, the big wolf’s head lolled over, utterly still. Normally, Xia Qing could toss around a couple hundred pounds like nothing thanks to her strength evolution, but right now, the wolf’s weight felt overwhelming.

With great effort, she managed to drag the Alpha out of the tub, then reheated the bath for Er Gou.

After the soak, the Alpha was in way worse shape than Old Goat had been. Old Goat shook off the medicine and let Xia Qing give him a quick rubdown before making his exit. The Alpha, though, was only half-conscious and left to Xia Qing to dry off as best she could in her exhausted state.

Once she’d finished, Xia Qing could barely keep her eyes open. She called out, “Old Goat, feeling any better? Come drag your friend out of here, would you? Too damp in here—she’ll catch cold if she stays.”

Old Goat trotted over at a much slower pace than usual. Xia Qing had forgotten to bring a compressed ration or go fetch one, so she just grabbed a sheet and handed it over. “Old Goat, bite here and drag your friend out to the living room.”

Old Goat squinted at her for a few seconds, but sure enough, bent down and bit the edge of the sheet, managing to drag the Alpha out of the bathroom, even if it took a bit of effort.

Once she’d cleaned up after Er Gou’s bath and the pain had finally eased a bit, Xia Qing, eyes barely staying open, crawled back up to the second floor and collapsed just outside her bedroom.

Tap tap tap—

Old Goat, having dragged Er Gou out of the bathroom, made his way upstairs.

With the second-floor lights off and poor night vision, the strength-evolved sheep squinted at the lump on the floor—Xia Qing—before heading into the living room to rest beside his companions.

“Thud.”

Old Goat’s heavy head, with its two big horns, dropped to the wooden floor. Xia Qing cracked open her eyes to see a fluffy patch of white fur at her side, then immediately drifted back to sleep.

At 2:50 a.m., the alarm rang.

Lying sprawled on the floor, Xia Qing silenced the phone alarm in her pocket, then ran her hand through Old Goat’s thick, silky wool.

Truthfully, she was jealous. If she could grow fur like that, she would’ve had a much better shot at surviving winter and finding enough food.

Even though humans had evolved, surviving in the Evolved Forest was still much harder for people than for wild animals who had undergone evolution.

But humans had their intelligent minds. As long as people stuck together—or most of them did—they could fight off disasters and reclaim dominance over Blue Star.

Xia Qing eased herself up, feeling lighter, suited up in her protective gear and waved to the two wolves downstairs before stepping out into the night.

When she reached the south side of Section Three, Xia Qing listened carefully. Territory Two was quiet tonight. Clearly, Tang Huai and Tang Heng had already found places for the refugees; none of the newcomers were raising a ruckus over accommodations, and even the Inspection Team patrols had thinned out.

She greeted Su Ming and Tiger, then continued her rounds.

In Territory Twelve, Tang Huai sat by the bed, his eyes bloodshot as he looked at his father, who was pale from blood loss and lying motionless. Guilt was written all over his face.

He felt utterly useless—thirty years old and still unable to stand on his own, forced to watch as his graying father took risks for the family.