Chapter 98: Keta Rō’s Tea
Huai Yu eventually brought Boss Tang along and pointed out the place to him.
Through the clear glass doors, the two of them could see Uncle Zaozi pouring water from a kettle. Boss Tang gasped and tried to hold it in, but eventually couldn’t help himself and carefully knocked on the door.
“Um…” he hesitated. “Little Yu said your stuff sells pretty well…”
Uncle Zaozi’s eyes lit up instantly. He clearly saw Huai Yu behind Boss Tang and quickly put the kettle down, rushing out:
“Little Yu! You’re even bringing me customers? Oh, don’t be so polite—come on in! I was just thinking how boring it is to drink tea alone!”
Little Yu firmly refused three times in a row: “No, really, I can’t… Uncle Zaozi, I’m too weak to drink tea!”
“Oh.” Well, that was a decent excuse. She did look quite frail, though better than before, still clearly malnourished.
Uncle Zaozi generously said, “No worries, just come in with your friend and take a look. At least take a look, right? I’ll pour you some water instead.”
He was truly enthusiastic. It was obvious that in the years after the catastrophe, all those little hobbies and gatherings with friends had vanished.
Now that he’d suddenly gotten his hands on what he thought was some fine tea, not having anyone to share it with felt like wearing brocade robes at night—what a waste!
Boss Tang was interested and followed him in, albeit a bit reluctantly. But he wasn’t planning to drink either.
He kept waving his hand: “I can’t drink it either. I… ahem, I’m on medication, and tea interferes with it.”
“Oh…” Uncle Zaozi looked disappointed. He glanced at Boss Tang’s chubby figure—honestly, a little tea shouldn’t affect someone with high blood pressure or diabetes, right?
He shook his head sympathetically: “Diabetes must be tough these days, huh?”
Boss Tang: …
He finally understood why Little Yu had failed so miserably here—everything just got lost in translation.
He didn’t say anything, just silently accepted the misunderstanding.
The shop was a home goods store, selling everything from textiles to small household items. The space was quite spacious.
The checkout counter was a large, long table—perfect for Uncle Zaozi to lay out his tea set.
An old, enamel tray with double-happiness prints from decades ago—Boss Tang suspected it came from the same film studio warehouse in the suburbs as those vintage bikes.
A basic glass cup from a dollar store, nothing special except for its size.
The only real tea utensil was a gaiwan (lidded tea bowl).
But even that was a basic industrial ceramic. In the old days, it’d have cost about ten or twenty yuan.
Huai Yu silently sat down and watched as Uncle Zaozi lifted the kettle and poured a thin stream of hot water into the snow-white gaiwan, raising his hand in proper form.
He pinched the bowl’s edge with thumb and middle finger, pressed the lid with his index, swirled it a couple of times, and poured out the first wash.
To be fair, he looked like a real tea drinker. His technique was practiced.
But Boss Tang couldn’t help glancing at the nearby black sphere labeled Keta Rō’s Ball, remembering how Keta Rō would stand guard at the door with it every day. He struggled not to laugh and had to keep a poker face.
Uncle Zaozi sighed, “Don’t be nervous. Stuff like this is rare these days, huh?”
“But Little Yu, you really do have a lot of good stuff. I don’t even know where this tea came from—it’s quite unique.”
Huai Yu gave a dry laugh and glanced at Boss Tang.
Boss Tang cleared his throat: “This doesn’t really look like tea… are you sure it’s safe to drink? Don’t want it to cause problems…”
“Tsk.” Uncle Zaozi looked offended. “I’ve been drinking tea my whole life—you think I can’t tell if something’s tea? Maybe it’s just a mutated variety, a little different from what I remember… but it’s definitely drinkable!”
“Since you two can’t drink it, just enjoy the aroma. I’ll drink it for you.”
Huai Yu lowered her head. She wasn’t really there to taste the tea—she just wanted to be cautious.
When she looked up again, Uncle Zaozi had already poured the second steep.
And honestly… it did smell pretty good.
Huai Yu instinctively sniffed, then remembered Keta Rō’s cheerful face holding that black ball—and immediately held her breath.
Boss Tang stared at the “tea leaves” soaking in the bowl, his expression conflicted and hard to describe.
Among the three, only Uncle Zaozi was genuinely happy. He lifted the lid, took a peek, and muttered, “What kind of tea is this? The fermentation process is weird… the leaves are ground to bits, like those old-style teas from ancient times. Am I supposed to stir it like they did back then?”
Boss Tang and Huai Yu exchanged glances and smiled awkwardly.
Uncle Zaozi picked up the gaiwan, looked like he was about to share the tea—then sighed and instead handed each of them a cup of plain water.
Then he pulled out a glass cup for himself, stared at the golden tea inside, and took a deep breath:
“Aiya, what a smell…”
“Um…” Huai Yu finally spoke again, “Uncle Zaozi, this hasn’t been tested… maybe I should get it checked before we do this?”
Uncle Zaozi gave her a look, sighed, and then took a sip of tea.
At that moment, both Huai Yu and Boss Tang held their breath and stared at his face.
He closed his eyes and swallowed the tea, then sighed deeply.
“Good tea!”
Then looked at the two of them and clicked his tongue again.
After finishing the cup, he let out a long sigh: “Not easy… to still taste tea in times like these… Little Yu, did your two older brothers manage to get this stuff?”
“Are you planning to sell it? Tell me the price.”
Huai Yu shook her head immediately: “No way, I’m not selling! There’s barely any of it…”
Before she could finish, Uncle Zaozi suddenly clutched his stomach: “Ow… gotta use the bathroom… Little Yu, you and your friend watch the shop for a bit!”
Huai Yu immediately got nervous: “Does it hurt? Is it bad?”
Uncle Zaozi waved her off and rushed into the restroom, leaving the two of them staring at each other, “Did he get sick from drinking it?”
Boss Tang stared at the black-green tea bits and frowned: “Not sure… but Little Yu, if something does go wrong, I’ll cover the medical fees. Just please—please don’t tell anyone about Keta Rō!”
That guy Gao Ming always makes weird stuff. If someone labeled him a mad scientist, his transformation period might drag on forever!
And besides—he’s been raising Keta Rō for a week now. Sure, it’s a bit too clean-freakish, but Keta Rō’s still a good Keta Rō. If he gets taken away, it won’t even be able to speak for itself!
Huai Yu nodded seriously, now regretting her earlier frustration. She probably shouldn’t have dumped so many of those Keta Rō balls…
Five minutes later, Uncle Zaozi came out looking relaxed. He exclaimed:
“Good tea! Really good tea!”
He patted his now-flat stomach with a satisfied expression: “You don’t know how long I’ve been constipated. Just now—ah! Ah!”
He slapped his thigh and said seriously: “Little Yu, if you don’t like this tea, why not sell it to me? I promise I’ll pay a good price!”
Huai Yu was dumbfounded.
So was Boss Tang.
…
It took them a lot of effort to finally shake off Uncle Zaozi.
Huai Yu looked at the basket of black balls and asked Boss Tang, “Are you going to sell them? If you are, I’ll give them back to you.”
Boss Tang sighed and shook his head: “It’s sinful…”
He just couldn’t bring himself to profit off something like this, so in the end, Huai Yu carried the basket of Keta Rō balls home.
Back home, she stared at the black balls she had originally considered using as compost and hesitated.
She wasn’t thinking of drinking them herself, but seeing how much Uncle Zaozi liked it… would burying it really be a waste?
She packed some into a bag and brought it to the bamboo grove behind the house.
The grove was still a mess—new shoots and broken stalks all over. The mole-fighting chaos seemed to have died down.
The two baby geese spotted her and ran up excitedly, their long legs supporting their round, sea urchin-like bodies. Honestly, it was a little painful to look at.
They had grown ridiculously fast—in just a day or two, they looked noticeably bigger.
If only the soybeans in the field could grow this fast without stimulation!
She squatted down and opened the bag:
“Hey… do you two want to eat this?”
The goslings poked their long necks in and pecked—
It crumbled, but they didn’t eat it.
Huai Yu breathed a sigh of relief, then poured the powdery remains into the grove and whispered, “Kuang Biao, do you need this?”
After a moment, bamboo roots rustled under the soil, then rolled the powdery remains under the fallen leaves into the dirt.
And then, for the first time in a while, Kuang Biao finally spoke, “It’s okay… not as good as their poop though.”
Huai Yu: …
She knew plants needed fertilizer, but saying it like that sounded so wrong…
“Kuang Biao, when you say it like that, it sounds like you’re eating poop.”
Kuang Biao immediately rustled in protest, a bamboo leaf fluttered down—only for one of the goslings to peck it mid-air—Shattered again.
“Ah Zai! Mama’s precious baby!” Huai Yu was overwhelmed with emotion and hugged the sea-urchin fluffball.
“Mama’s made up her mind—your names will be Big Cub and Second Cub! I can’t really tell you apart anyway, but as long as you both come when I call, that’s good enough!”
She stomped on the bamboo and called, “Kuang Biao, if you don’t behave, I’m telling the Rose Corridor on you!”
Then led the goslings out of the grove, “Come, come! Can you swim yet? Mama’s gonna dig a pond just for you!”
“But don’t touch the lotus or lotus roots—those are expensive.”
Whether they understood or not, the goslings followed her, hopping among the bamboo, until she finally got them to the pond, “Look! Isn’t it big? Swim all you want!”
She looked at them expectantly.
But the little sea-urchin geese stood by the water, hesitated with their feet, barely touched the surface, and pulled back quickly.
Huai Yu: ???
Wait, she hadn’t even had time to read The Lover Out of Reach Who Raises Geese! Do goslings not swim when they’re this young?
She eyed their spiky, hedgehog-like down feathers…
Paused, then relented, “It’s fine, not all geese are born swimmers. Today is just about seeing your territory—this whole place is ours, go explore as you like.”
“Ah ah ah!” the goslings chirped, then pecked up a clump of grass from the pond bank.
Huai Yu sighed, then went to fetch the 15 pounds of barnyard millet seeds she bought the other day.
The mutated version had deep roots—up to 5 meters. She hadn’t planted it yet, afraid it’d take over.
But maybe it’d be okay near the pond? Surely it wouldn’t root underwater?
She chose a patch furthest from the house, took three seeds—then three more.
“Left side gets accelerated growth, right side gets purification… I wonder if there’ll be a difference?”
She buried the seeds in the damp soil, then stretched out her hands and tried to activate both powers at once.
Three minutes later, nothing.
Ten minutes in, she was tired.
Ten more, she was exhausted and finally gave up—
“Ah!”
She yelped and collapsed backward.
Suddenly, on either side of her, thick, spiral-shaped green leaves shot up at lightning speed—
Until she had to tilt her head all the way back to see the tips.
Looking to the right, the ones with purification had only grown to about two meters, and weren’t very thick.
Looking to the left—the accelerated growth side—they were massive. So tall she could barely see the tops.
She stared upward until her neck ached, just barely seeing something translucent forming at the tip of the leaves.
What was it?
She couldn’t quite tell from this angle. Were the millet plants about to flower and produce seeds?
Her thoughts swirled, and only one thing echoed in her mind—
This mutated plant… really knows how to mutate!
Compared to this, the plants on Mount Sanqing were so conservative! They didn’t even dare to mutate boldly!
Then—
Splash! A giant water droplet fell and soaked her completely in the spring evening chill.
—Ah, it was dew from the fast-growing leaves!
Huai Yu dazedly looked up, then sneezed hard in the breeze.”
