Chapter 910: The Monkey’s Return and the Wolf’s Bargain

After dinner, Xia Qing sprawled out in the living room under the air conditioner, replying to the long string of messages Yuan Yan had sent.

When Zhou Zhaoping sent people to protect Yuan Yan, she’d just detected a strange magnetic disturbance nearby. Unlike Xia Qing, Yuan Yan thought someone was being parasitized by aggressive Devastation Evolution plants, which was why Xia Qing had sent people to protect her.

The fishing operation in the Safe Zone was a top-secret mission, so Xia Qing couldn’t share any details. She could only offer dry comfort, telling Yuan Yan not to worry—just stay inside the Territory and nothing would happen.

“Ding.”

Right as Xia Qing was reading Yuan Yan’s messages, a notification popped up on her phone.

Crippled Wolf entered Section Three through the Northern Gate at 8:08 PM on July 7.

Xia Qing shot up in an instant. Perfect! Exactly the timing she was hoping for.

This time, Crippled Wolf didn’t mess with the door. He quickly arrived at Xia Qing’s cabin, wiped his paws in the screen door, then rubbed them clean on the straw mat beside it before pushing open the security door.

Seeing Xia Qing standing there with a stormy expression, Crippled Wolf paused with the basket in his mouth. He stepped inside, set it down, and flashed his snowy little fangs in what passed for a cute wolfish smile.

Xia Qing pointed her scissors at Monkey, who was dangling from the basket, and asked, “Broken Back, why did you bring this thing back here?”

Hm?

Crippled Wolf shut his mouth, thought it over, and placed a clean paw on the edge of the basket: not carried, just brought back.

Xia Qing paused. “Same difference. Why did you bring Monkey back at all?”

Crippled Wolf patted the slow-climbing Monkey with one paw and looked at Xia Qing.

“I know it hasn’t healed yet, but today it snuck into my Greenhouse and stole food,” Xia Qing said, flipping out video evidence for Crippled Wolf. Her frustration boiled over. “I’m not letting it stay in my Territory anymore!”

Seriously, she’d helped the Wolf Pack in their showdown with the bears, even shouting herself hoarse, and they took back Hill Fifty-Five—only for her to bring home this Monkey.

After weeks dosing it with medicine and cleaning up its mess, the first thing this Monkey does when it can climb is steal her food!

“The Queen put me in charge of this Monkey. I’ll give it medicine every day, but it stays in the Wolf Den. If you don’t agree, take it back to Hill Fifty-Five.”

Crippled Wolf stared thoughtfully at Xia Qing for a few seconds, then padded over with a heavy paw to flip the slow Monkey onto its back and planted his foot on its face, gazing at Xia Qing with obvious delight.

Xia Qing raised a hand and pointed at the Monkey’s face, slowly asking, “You really think I look like this Monkey?”

That only made Crippled Wolf laugh harder.

Trying to suppress the urge to strip this devious wolf bare, Xia Qing pulled out a picture she’d prepared earlier and held it up in front of Crippled Wolf, who was still mocking her.

On the left was Crippled Wolf, looking majestic. On the right, a filthy, ugly hyena. Xia Qing jabbed her finger at the mangy hyena and teased, “You look just like this hyena! Is it your long-lost cousin? Hahaha!”

Crippled Wolf stared at the photo for a few seconds, then bared his fangs at Xia Qing and growled. Er immediately jumped down from the hammock chair to stand between them, while Old Goat, lying in his hanging chair, pretended not to notice, lazily watching Monkey chew.

Xia Qing stopped laughing. “So you don’t think the hyena looks like you?”

“Awooo—” Crippled Wolf kept growling.

Xia Qing angrily pointed at Monkey on the floor. “You say I look like that ugly monkey, then I get to say you look like this hyena!”

“Awoo—”

Er licked Crippled Wolf, then licked Xia Qing’s hand, trying to get them to stop fighting.

Xia Qing dropped it and glared fiercely at Crippled Wolf, still holding up the photo. Crippled Wolf finally stopped baring his teeth, picked Monkey up in his mouth, hauled it outside, then came back in and flashed Xia Qing another glimpse of his pointy fangs.

“Hmph.”

With a snort, Xia Qing scooped up Er and set him back onto the hammock chair before saying to Crippled Wolf, “Don’t test my patience. Or I’ll shave you bald and turn you into a naked wolf!”

Crippled Wolf finally stopped grinning. He picked up the string attached to the laptop with his teeth, gently set the laptop on the table, and then fished a pigeon egg-sized Yi Stone out of the basket, placing it in front of Xia Qing.

At the sight of the Yi Stone, Xia Qing’s anger popped like a balloon. “Broken Back, is this Yi Stone your way of apologizing to me?”

Crippled Wolf shot Xia Qing a look, then pulled a palm-sized plastic bag from the basket and set it in front of her.

Wait a sec—wasn’t that the bag from last night’s Medicinal Bath, the one Handsome Huge Wolf used for strong body and luxurious fur? So this morning, Crippled Wolf must’ve dug that bag out of the trash and taken it with him in the basket?

What did Handsome Huge Wolf say to this increasingly stingy wolf that made him so interested in the medicine? He was even willing to trade a Yi Stone for it!

Xia Qing understood. “You want to trade for this medicine?”

Crippled Wolf immediately flashed his little fangs in answer.

Xia Qing shook her head and gestured as she explained patiently to the clever wolf, “One Yi Stone isn’t enough. This medicine heals injuries, stops wolves from shedding, and keeps pesky bugs away. You saw—”

Xia Qing didn’t even finish before Crippled Wolf and Er both turned and perked up their ears, staring toward the back window.

A moment later, Handsome Huge Wolf ambled in—didn’t even bother cleaning his paws before pushing through the door. He ignored Xia Qing, Crippled Wolf, Old Goat, and Er completely and went straight to the bathroom door, plopped himself down, and waited.

Xia Qing hurried over, patted the handome wolf’s thick silver-gray fur, and explained to Crippled Wolf, “Big Wolf used the new medicine—no more shedding, no more bug bites, and even stronger! This medicine costs two Yi Stones.”

Handsome Huge Wolf scooted away from Xia Qing’s hand.

Crippled Wolf eyed Handsome Huge Wolf thoughtfully. For once, he actually seemed to hesitate.

Xia Qing let it go and brushed Handsome Huge Wolf’s fur, gave him some water, then started filling up the Bath Barrel.

Once Handsome Huge Wolf jumped into the tub, Xia Qing ran upstairs to grab the laptop power cord to charge Crippled Wolf’s laptop.

Crippled Wolf watched Handsome Huge Wolf soak for a bit, lost interest, then went back to the living room to flip open his shiny new laptop, searching for action videos with an almost alarming focus.

On her way back down with the blue medicine, Xia Qing noticed Crippled Wolf was watching a video about fungi, and remembered the announcement from today’s Safe Zone meeting—Huai Seven Territory had been hit by a devastating Evolution Bacteria spore disaster.

When Crippled Wolf saw Xia Qing coming down with a bag of medicine, he instantly paused his video and followed her into the bathroom.

Xia Qing poured the medicine into the bathwater, then tossed the empty bag into a nearby trash can.

Crippled Wolf sniffed at the medicine by the tub, retrieved the empty bag, and brought it back to the living room for Xia Qing, then finally took another pigeon egg-sized Yi Stone from his basket and set it in front of her.