Chapter 815: Rescue in the Bamboo Grove

Xia Qing followed behind the wolfdog and the red fox, muttering under her breath, “Er, after this favor, I have to bring back a few more Green Lantern shoots.”

Just in case the Red Fox cub’s injuries need the Idol’s attention, if she brings a couple extra Green Lantern shoots along, maybe she won’t get scolded as much.

Wolfdog Number Two heard Xia Qing call its name, turned back and grinned wide.

Xia Qing chuckled, too. Since Er already decided to help, how could she just walk away? If she gets chewed out, so be it. As long as she doesn’t end up on the blacklist, it’s fine.

They reached the heart of the bamboo grove, and once Xia Qing realized what Er wanted her to do, she was speechless. Wolfdog Number Two, seeing her just stand there, nudged her with its body, hoping she’d step up to help.

With a sigh, Xia Qing pulled a Medicinal Herb Photo from her backpack and showed it to the red fox glaring and baring its teeth by a large boulder. She spoke firmly, “I’ll help, but did you see this herb? If I save your cub, you have to pay me with this in return, got it?”

After confirming whatever Xia Qing held was harmless, the Brain-Evolved Red Fox bared its teeth and stared warily into her eyes.

Even though brain-evolved creatures are smart, animals with little contact with people can’t really follow human speech and have no clue what an ‘exchange’ even is.

Xia Qing mimed and gestured through the rules three whole times. Then, she had Er dig up a piece of grass with its paw and deliver it, showing it to the striking red-brown fox with lively amber eyes and the other fox lurking behind the rock, before she finally put away the picture and stepped in to help.

But what exactly was she helping with?

Turns out, a tiny, clueless fox cub somehow managed to get itself wedged in a deep, narrow crevice—and couldn’t get out!

“Eee-eee—ee-eee—”

The cub, coat much darker than its father’s, saw the human appear and let out a thin, weak cry from inside the crevice.

“Owooo—”

The adult fox stood guard at the crack, fur puffed up, pressing as close toward its cub as possible and blocking Xia Qing’s way. Er ambled over and soothed the frazzled red fox with a comforting lick.

Thanks to her sharp eyesight, Xia Qing could tell the little fox had been stuck for some time. Its fur was filthy and matted, there was waste around its feet, and a bamboo rat the adult fox had tried to feed it sat nearby.

The bamboo rat had already been torn apart and scattered by ants.

The cub’s head was jammed so thoroughly it couldn’t even eat. At this rate, even if starvation didn’t get it, the ferocious evolved ants would. No wonder the foxes turned to the evolved wolves for help—and Er brought her along as backup.

The adult fox couldn’t fit into the crevice, and there was no way Xia Qing could squeeze in either. So just how was she supposed to help?

Circling the little knoll, Xia Qing pulled a shovel from her backpack, lengthened its handle, and tightened it. Then she kept digging along the spot the red fox parents had already broken open.

Even as an advanced strength-based evolved human, she didn’t have enough raw power to pry open the mountain fissure and yank the cub out by force.

With the cub jammed inside and explosives off the table, she could only use the same method as the red fox parents. That confirmed it—these foxes were highly brain-evolved, smart enough to analyze the situation and pick the correct approach.

But a fox’s paws and strength were just too small. Even after finding the right spot, they hadn’t been able to free the cub.

Honestly, Xia Qing’s hands and strength weren’t much better for this than theirs. This was really a job for the evolved brown bears from Hill Sixty-One—but too bad, the wolves and bears here were rivals.

Seeing Xia Qing dig, Er padded over and pitched in with its massive paws.

The red fox at the crevice and another lurking in the shadows came closer, while the trapped cub whimpered constantly out of fear.

After clearing out enough space, Xia Qing praised Er for helping and told it to go drink from the spring and eat some freeze-dried meat. She then examined the two huge boulders—each over three meters tall—that pinned the little fox in, focusing on their support points.

This was work you couldn’t just tackle blindly—one wrong move and the trapped cub would be flattened.

With her experience in construction, Xia Qing quickly settled on a plan. She dug out a one-meter-square stone to the lower left, then used a wrench to loosen two screws on her shovel’s handle, rotating the shovel head ninety degrees and re-tightening it. Just like that, her digging shovel became a crowbar.

Multi-purpose tools like this—combining shovel, pickaxe, hatchet, saw, and crowbar—were a must-have whenever she went on assignment. They’d been her most-used gear in her years working as an off-the-books logistics officer.

“Owooo—”

“Eee-eee—”

Seeing Xia Qing head for the stuck cub with a weapon in hand, both the adult and baby fox made a lot of noise—clearly distressed.

“Er, get over here and keep this fox away from me.” Xia Qing called her companion, hauling her weapon. She had zero desire to be clawed or bitten while prying rocks.

Er, done with its snack, hopped over and stood guard right at Xia Qing’s side.

“Er, after I pry this rock open, you head in and pull the little cub out. Be quick about it.” She made sure Er understood, then jammed the crowbar between the two massive stones.

With the rocks’ support points already loosened, all Xia Qing had to do was find the leverage. She could just about pry loose these two boulders—each three meters square and weighing dozens of tons.

Gripping the crowbar, Xia Qing braced herself, tongue pressed against her palate, and slowly started to apply force.

“Eee…eee!” The cub felt the rock shift and tried to squirm backward, away from Xia Qing, only to get itself stuck even tighter.

Xia Qing struggled to tamp down her irritation. “Er, stop that cub from backing up! One more inch and it’ll get crushed for real!”

Before Er could react, the red fox hiding in the dark leaped into the gap Xia Qing had opened. The space was too tight for it to reach the cub, but seeing its mother scramble in, the little fox immediately inched closer to her.

Xia Qing gritted her teeth and kept working the crowbar.

Finally, the red fox mom managed to grab her cub and, with a single bound, darted out of the crevice—gone in a flash.

Xia Qing carefully let go of the crowbar as the two giant stones slammed back together. When she got to her feet, she realized both red foxes were already gone!

Xia Qing shook her head. “Er, your fox friends have zero manners. They’re a lot worse than the plucked one’s family.”

Now that the cub was safe, Wolfdog Number Two grinned from ear to ear.

“As long as you’re happy. Wasn’t even that much work.” Xia Qing rubbed Er’s head, called Xin Yu, then slung her tools over her shoulder and headed for the Green Lantern bamboo deeper in the grove.

Since the red foxes were gone, these bamboos were free for the taking.

There were eleven Green Lantern bamboo stalks in this grove. Back in spring, Xia Qing’s team had already marked the bamboo, so she didn’t have to search one by one.

She quickly dug up eight Green Lantern shoots. She was about to go check how tall the aggressive devastation-evolved bamboo had gotten here when a rustling of creatures slithering through the grove grew suddenly louder.

Wolfdog Number Two, who’d been on the lookout just outside the Green Lantern bamboo’s attack range, rushed to Xia Qing’s side, ignoring the risk of being hit by a bamboo-leaf dart. Fangs bared, it growled low and fierce at the danger ahead.