Chapter 76: Not Pulling Anymore, Okay?
“It’s poisonous, don’t eat it?”
How do you know it’s poisonous if you don’t eat it? And how much is considered poisonous? Isn’t that something you figure out through trial and error?
Anyway, Huai Yu looked at the large number of bamboo stalks lying on the ground, their roots severed by Kuang Biao, and felt it would be a waste to leave them behind.
It was only early April—prime growing season for bamboo!
Usually you’d need a hoe to dig up bamboo shoots, but now? Easy. Just snap them right off the roots.
With the small basket she brought, Huai Yu couldn’t even fit many of the big, plump shoots.
She snuck a glance at Kuang Biao and put on a respectful smile. “You can talk now, so just lying here for a little break… that shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
Kuang Biao was so silent his leaves didn’t even rustle. Then he suddenly exploded, “Are you stupid? I’m freaking naked right now! Look at my roots! Are those supposed to be exposed to the sun?!”
Huai Yu pointed to her empty basket. “But I came into the mountain looking for food. If I don’t eat, I’ll starve to death. Where would I get the strength to carry you down the mountain and replant you?”
“If it really won’t work, Uncle Kuang Biao, why don’t you just find a spot up here and re-root yourself?”
Kuang Biao fell silent again, then grumbled,
“You don’t get it. These trees have zero tolerance. When I first asked for a plot to grow, they told me to grow all I wanted.
But once I actually grew, they said I was too aggressive. My roots hogged space underground, sucked up all the nutrients, and my falling leaves were full of phenolic acids, making it hard for anything else to grow…”
“I just wanted to grow fast—what’s wrong with that? That’s how grasses like us work! I grow fast like a tree, is that my fault?”
He finished proudly, “Hmph, excuses of the weak!”
Huai Yu got it.
This bamboo, Kuang Biao, might not win in a physical fight with the trees—but boy, was he good at talking! No wonder he was the only one on the whole mountain speaking human language.
Bamboo has its three-step growth plan:
Year one, dig in and take over—claim all the underground space. Growth speed doesn’t matter. Just occupy.
Year two, go nuts—absorb everything. Nutrients, water, whatever. Total madness.
Year three?
What’s there to think about? Time to sprout shoots, grow tall, and block the whole sky!
Aha!
Nothing underneath gets sunlight or nutrients. Want to live? Too bad. That’s just the aggressive way of grasses like him!
Kuang Biao lay there grumbling, and though he didn’t say whether he’d let her stay, Huai Yu took it as a “yes.” She dumped out her freshly collected bamboo shoots.
Then she whipped out the small knife Wu Yue had compensated her with, and started peeling the shoots one by one.
Fresh or old didn’t matter—what mattered was collecting as many as possible. Back home, she’d boil them, dry them, and either store or sell them…
Hey, that even rhymed!
Huai Yu found joy in hardship. She still had to carry this big Kuang Biao down the mountain to replant him, but at least she was alive. Staying optimistic was her only choice.
But… where would she plant him?
If she planted him next to the Rose Corridor, would it beat her up?
Come to think of it, which one was stronger? Probably the Rose Corridor. It was powerful enough to stop the wasteland plants from spreading, after all…
The sound of peeling bamboo echoed through the forest. After processing a whole basket, only a third was usable. Huai Yu gave Kuang Biao a glance and headed back to the fallen bamboo.
As she walked, she eyed the tender bamboo cores—sure, they were “extra,” but with today’s water being far from clean, they’d make decent tea…
And all the bamboo was already down anyway, easy to pick from.
Most bamboo-related work was oddly therapeutic.
She had just pulled a bunch and was really getting into it, when Kuang Biao—who had been lying down—suddenly tried to spring up like a carp flipping out of water. Totally failed.
His upper leaves nearly stood up before flopping back to the ground.
Furious, he shouted,
“You’re addicted to picking now?! What, you wanna use all of me?! Why don’t you just take my poles and steam bamboo rice too!”
His words were harsh, but the bamboo itself was actually quite useful.
Which made Huai Yu even bolder. She beamed,
“Uncle, we really think alike!”
“Steamed bamboo rice? And the leftover poles can be turned into bamboo charcoal—perfect for filtering water! I barely have any peanut shells left, they’re just not cutting it.”
Sigh… it was all Xiao Tian’s fault for being so unreliable!
Kuang Biao had been overbearing his whole life, and now this girl dared to say something so shameless. He was literally shaking with rage!
Huai Yu, remembering his signature “trembling leaf” sound, quickly tried to soothe him:
“Uncle, don’t be mad! I’m really poor, I can’t even afford clean water… Otherwise, why would I be the only person here on such a big mountain?”
“Hmph,” Kuang Biao huffed. “Who said you’re the only one? There are other explorers on the mountain path too!”
But that was two ridges away, across some steep cliffs. He grumbled to himself, then reluctantly allowed her to keep picking:
“One more handful. Then you stop!”
“Okay!” Huai Yu obediently tossed the bamboo cores into her basket, hands empty again.
By now, the sun was setting. She’d pulled five or six handfuls, and her basket was full of pale yellow, plump bamboo shoots. Finally, she realized—
“Ah!”
“You done yet?” Kuang Biao woke from his nap and muttered, “Last bunch. Once you’re done, we really gotta go.”
Huai Yu glanced down at her sleeping bag in the bottom of her basket and frowned,
“I was actually planning to spend the night in the mountain…”
But now…
The bamboo shoots couldn’t be left overnight. Kuang Biao probably couldn’t stay out all night either…
The forest had grown dusky. Huai Yu sighed and stepped toward Kuang Biao to size him up.
“Uncle, I’m gonna grab your feet now, okay?”
She wrapped her arms around his roots and began dragging the thick bamboo down the mountain, while Kuang Biao mocked her:
“Narrow-minded! Just because I speak human language doesn’t mean I’m human! My whole body has no ‘feet’—hey, hurry up! If you plant me by midnight, I can still catch some morning dew!”
Huai Yu was helpless—
“But my basket is so heavy!”
It was stuffed full of bamboo shoots and cores. She’d only managed this much because she’d been eating well and working hard lately—if not, she wouldn’t be able to move at all.
And now she had to drag a talking bamboo too…
Worst of all—
“It’s dark, Uncle! I didn’t bring a flashlight. I can’t even see the road… What if I just drag you to the spot I was gonna sleep at and you stick it out one more night?”
