Chapter 857: Bargaining with a Cunning Wolf

“Broken Back, don’t you think you’re being a little unfair here?”

According to the resource allocation agreement, any materials found by Party B—Xia Qing, a human—in the home of Party A—the Wolf Clan—belong to the latter. Xia Qing didn’t mind, but seeing the measly pile of broken stones at her feet left her honestly stunned by Broken Back’s shrewdness.

Having just returned from chasing a snake, Broken Back panted, tongue lolling as he cooled off. Hearing the sour note in Xia Qing’s voice, he shut his mouth and gazed at her thoughtfully from across the way.

Xia Qing pointed at the three intact Yi Stones that Broken Back had dragged behind his own paws, then pointed at the eleven broken Yi Stones at her own feet. “So, you get all the good ones and I’m stuck with the broken pieces?”

Broken Back considered this, turned, and ran back up the mountain. He returned with one of Xia Qing’s hand-sewn, grimy little pouches, shoved the three intact Yi Stones inside, then trotted off to stash them higher up before coming back to stare at her again.

Xia Qing was speechless.

……

……

I’m not confused about which ones are mine or yours, dammit. What I mean is, why do you get all the good stuff and leave me with the scraps?

So what now?

With all the intact Yi Stones carried off to his den, is there anything I can really do?

Xia Qing scooped the eleven broken pieces of Yi Stone into her bag. It wasn’t a total loss—though cracked, they still emitted Evolution Elements. She’d pop them into the Yi Stone Protector and use them in the next Devastation Rain.

Once she’d packed up the Yi Stones, Xia Qing hoisted up two bags from the water—one loaded with a dozen or so Devastation Snakes, the other full of cast-off snake skins. “Queen, Broken Back, these Devastation Snakes and python skins are mine, right? I want to study the venom and see if the skins can be used in medicine.”

Alpha sprawled on a nearby boulder, staring off at Python Pond, ignoring Xia Qing completely. Broken Back sniffed the air, then flashed his charming, snow-white little fangs in a grin—he agreed.

Honestly… who would’ve guessed Iron Rooster’s brother would be covered in fur? Xia Qing set the bags aside, then pantomimed the location of a cave near the pond and explained that the cave held Devastationweed, which could cure snake venom. She argued that they should keep the cave around because the herb was so useful.

Broken Back mulled this over in silence, while Alpha stayed put, gazing out over Python Pond without so much as twitching an ear.

Clearly, the two lords of Hill Fifty-Five didn’t agree the cave was worth keeping.

Xia Qing could understand their worries, but with sixteen Devastationweed plants growing in there, it’d be a crime to just fill it in. She suggested a compromise: fill the python hole, but leave the herb-filled cave under the wolves’ den alone.

After her third round of animated explanation, the two wolves finally agreed. Alpha showed his approval by stalking away from the pond, while Broken Back grinned, baring those little white fangs again.

Broken Back took off with Xia Qing’s phone—he wanted to learn more about Devastationweed.

And Xia Qing? Back to prying up rocks and filling the pond.

She worked straight through to eleven-thirty before ducking into her tent for a meal and a break. Today, Chang Li had volunteered to stay in Section Three to look after (and study) Monkey, so Xia Qing didn’t have to dash back to administer medicine or IVs. She pushed her pace, determined to finish filling the python pond soon, so the wolves could rest easy—and so could she.

After an hour’s break at noon, Xia Jingwei crawled out of the tent and got back to work.

With the evil black loaches out of the water, Xia Jingwei was a force of nature—the pond’s depth dropped from over sixty meters to fifty-three by the end of the day.

Around four in the afternoon, she decided to head home early. Huge banks of cloud were rolling in from the south, and the wind had swung around. From experience, Xia Qing figured rain was coming any minute.

After packing up the tent and hunting down Broken Back for her new phone, she found him pointing at three mystery eggs in a stone nest nearby. He grinned and let Xia Qing know he wanted to trade the eggs for the phone.

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

As a natural-born wheeler and dealer, Xia Qing bargained with this crafty wolf for over ten minutes. In the end, she traded a clump of Devastationweed from the loach burrow, plus some medicinal herbs growing on the pond’s stone walls, in exchange for a pink phone and a pink laptop.

Last time, the two had agreed to trade medicinal herbs that Zhang San needed for a laptop, but Broken Back never found the right herbs, so the deal fell through.

This time, both sides were more than satisfied.

Xia Qing stuffed the excavated herbs, python skin, broken Yi Stones, and Devastation Snakes into her backpack and praised her trading partner. “Broken Back, you’re the first Evolved Wolf on Blue Star to own a double-door fridge, two laptops, and a smartphone. You’re leaps ahead of your peers, sure to be immortalized in wolf evolution history. Anyway, I’m heading out!”

Broken Back, always more direct than Xia Qing, summoned the gray giant wolf over and had it escort her home.

Not having to go on foot made Xia Qing downright giddy. Riding the wolf, she made it to the foot of Third Peak, Hill Fifty, in just over ten minutes.

After shepherding Qi Fu and the others down the mountain, Xia Qing’s first move back in her territory was to call her Idol and report she’d bagged a sack of Devastation Snakes and scored python skin and medicinal herbs.

She never mentioned the pure spring water, Yi Stones, or Devastationweed on Hill Fifty-Five. These were the Wolf Pack’s secrets, and the Alpha’s stern attitude had made it painfully clear—wolves didn’t want humans knowing.

Xia Qing didn’t hand over all the python skin to Ji Li when she came to collect. She saved a bundle for the Red Squirrel family, since they liked to use snake skins as armor to fool predators.

After watching Ji Li leave, Xia Qing headed into Section Three of Hill Forty-Nine, where—no surprise—she found three Red Foxes, two adults and one kit, sitting right outside the wolf den.

Red Fox puffed up on sight, while Xia Qing just sighed.

You could say that brain-evolved Red Fox isn’t that clever—always dragging his wife and kid here to mooch meds. But on the other hand, he never figures out that the medicine’s only supposed to be used every other day.

Xia Qing slid down into Wolf Valley, held the little fox kit still, treated and dosed it, then went off to track down the Red Squirrel freeloaders and Flathead. She also wanted to check if those two Eurasian Lynxes were still around.

She didn’t find Flathead gnawing a lizard until the sun had set. She let him finish, then pinned him down to clean and treat the three festering wounds on his body.

Those wounds probably came from yesterday’s fight between the Honey Badger and the lynxes. If she didn’t intervene, Little Honey Badger wouldn’t live another few days.

The rest of her squirrel-hunting mission was basically her being chased around by Little Honey Badger. After getting back to Section Three, she asked Er, who’d come to meet her, “Er, have you seen the Red Squirrel family anywhere? The ones who used to live in the Sheep Shed? I can’t find them.”

Little Fei Mao still owes her over fifty thousand credits.

Er gave Xia Qing a blank look, as if he didn’t understand a word she said.

Since Er hated bright phone screens, Xia Qing pulled out a color printout of the Red Squirrel family and held it up to his face. “Er, do you know where they are?”

After staring at the picture a few seconds, Er led Xia Qing to a big tree in the Western Buffer Forest and looked up.

Xia Qing instantly understood.

No wonder she couldn’t find the freeloaders in Section Three—they’d moved right into her territory! In their eyes, those two lynxes last night were a far bigger threat than she or Er.

Xia Qing called Er to go home, only to find him frozen still, staring at the south’s pitch-black sky, looking deadly serious.

A chill ran through Xia Qing. She yanked off her protective mask, felt the air’s humidity and wind, and asked, “Er, is it about to pour?”

Wolfdog Number Two didn’t say a word, still staring at the black southern clouds like they were mortal enemies.

His reaction was all the confirmation Xia Qing needed—it’s about to storm!