Fortunately, Grace—clever, quick-witted, and well-connected—handled everything perfectly.
That day, Ms. Rachel Zhang entrusted her with a Frostbear.
"This is a Frostbear, a rare tribute from the Northern Kingdom! Empress Wendy Zhu has ordered us to harvest its gallbladder and make a Clarity Pill for the young prince," Ms. Rachel Zhang said. "Take good care of this Frostbear. Tomorrow, I need to extract the gallbladder and refine the pill!"
"Got it, Ms. Zhang!" Grace replied, eyeing the Frostbear with curiosity.
The Frostbear’s gallbladder was renowned for its power to clear the mind and sharpen one’s vision—a priceless medicinal ingredient.
But as far as looks went, it didn’t seem much different from a regular Earthbear.
It just had white fur all over—really, the only difference was the color.
"Frostbears are extremely rare—the Northern Kingdom only sends one every few years. Be extra careful not to let it die," Ms. Rachel Zhang warned. "If it dies, the gallbladder turns poisonous! It’ll be totally useless."
"Don’t worry, Chief," Grace assured her, and had her team haul away the cart with the Frostbear inside.
The Herb Division was in charge of safeguarding all medicinal materials.
Some medicinal materials—like this Frostbear—had to be kept alive so the gallbladder could be harvested fresh.
That’s why the Herb Division had a special area just for raising spirit beasts.
Bobby handed the bear over to the caretaker in charge of feeding the spirit beasts, making sure it was well looked after.
The caretaker nodded eagerly, wheeled the Frostbear into a large room, fed it until it was full, then shut the door—which looked pretty sturdy.
Bobby asked him, "We don’t need to feed the Frostbear again tonight, right?"
"No need," the caretaker replied.
"Then I’ll lock the door," Bobby said, pulling out a padlock.
"Oh? You’re really locking it up?" the caretaker laughed.
"This Frostbear is worth a fortune, of course I’m locking it up. That way we can all rest easy." Bobby locked the door.
The caretaker didn’t object.
But the next morning, when Ms. Rachel Zhang came to collect the gallbladder, the Frostbear was dead!
It lay stiff in the cart, looking especially pitiful.
"What happened?" Ms. Rachel Zhang frowned at Grace. "Didn’t I tell you to watch it closely?"
Grace was about to answer when Mason Fu suddenly popped up, saying, "Chief, she’s so unreliable! You gave her such an important Frostbear, and she just dumped it on a caretaker! Didn’t even bother to supervise! If it were me, I would’ve stayed up all night to watch over it!"
Ms. Rachel Zhang gave Grace a disappointed look. "You’ll have to explain this to the Alliance Master yourself."
"Chief," Grace called out. "Actually, the Frostbear is still alive. This one is just a regular Earthbear."
"What?" Ms. Rachel Zhang was stunned. "This bear has white fur—it’s clearly a Frostbear! Earthbears don’t look like this!"
Grace shot Bobby a look.
He splashed water over the "Frostbear," and—
Its white fur washed off, turning gray. It really was just an Earthbear.
"Recently, the medicinal materials I’ve been in charge of have mysteriously gotten infested with bugs, and the herbs I just finished drying were soaked with water," Grace explained. "It seems someone in the Herb Division keeps sabotaging me. So, just in case, I swapped out the Frostbear for an Earthbear—and wouldn’t you know, the Earthbear actually died."
Ms. Rachel Zhang frowned. "So where’s the real Frostbear?"
"Right here!" Rona Yin came in, pulling a cart from outside.
On the cart behind her was a cage, and inside was the very same Frostbear from yesterday.