Chapter 100: Do You Want a Claron Ball?
When Huai Yu woke up again, the room was dim. No light came through the curtains, and it was pitch dark.
She groggily turned on the solar-powered lamp, wondering if she had slept through the night and into the middle of the night.
Her body felt sticky and clammy, but her spirit was fine, and her mind seemed much clearer… perhaps the illness was finally gone!
She raised her wrist to check the time—was it really 2 AM?
She then touched her stomach, feeling famished, her hunger overwhelming. She had to get up, rummage through the cabinets to find something to eat.
Just as she was about to search, she suddenly heard the sound of chicks calling from outside, “Chirp chirp chirp…”
Huh? They don’t usually chirp at night!
Huai Yu opened the door and found that the sky was dim, as if it was about to rain, but it was still clearly daytime!
She froze.
She checked the time again—so, had she slept all the way until 2 PM the next day?
The downside of not having neighbors—everything was so confusing. And why hadn’t yesterday’s forecast mentioned rain?
She had even managed to drag herself to the fields to water the plants!
Her peanuts, yam, soybeans, chili peppers, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, and the newly sprouted potatoes she had cut up and planted!
So frustrating!
Huai Yu was feeling annoyed now, as she dug out some flour and pickled ferns to make herself a bowl of dumpling soup.
But then…
If it rained, wouldn’t mushrooms, fungi, and wild vegetables sprout up in the mountains again? And would bamboo fungus grow in the bamboo forest?
If so, she could pick some and give them to Zhou Qian—
She suddenly stopped. That was when she remembered the vague, disjointed dream she had last night…
Even Huai Yu, who was usually optimistic, couldn’t help but let out a sigh of frustration.
Everyone she had met since waking up had been kind, but the two people who had been the best to her were now gone, out in the wasteland.
The wasteland… What was it really like?
Could that decayed, dead tree in her dream have been made by Lin Xuefeng?
And why… Why only dream of Lin Xuefeng, but not Zhou Qian? She had known Zhou Qian for much longer.
Huai Yu shook her head and finally concluded it all to her own nature—
She was a face person.
After all, Zhou Qian was dark and stocky. Though he smiled like a reliable older brother, he didn’t have the same charm as Lin Xuefeng!
Lin Xuefeng had crushed someone’s skull right in front of her and taught her how to eliminate problems from the root! In front of Zhou Qian, she always felt like a good little girl, without any sense of danger—how could she do such things?
She couldn’t help but think back to Lin Xuefeng’s movements that night and started mimicking them.
“Water element… really cool!”
But the little chicks at the door kept chirping as though they hadn’t eaten for three days and nights. Huai Yu had no choice but to calm her emotions, grabbed a handful of rice, and tossed it inside.
“I fed you yesterday before I went to sleep, right? Just one night and half a day without food, and you’re already this hungry?”
Huai Yu mumbled as she looked at the bag of yellowed rice. Opening it, she could smell a moldy odor that even her purification abilities couldn’t eliminate.
She glanced at her wristband—who knew when she would finally be able to eat some of the new rice from this year?
She thought for a moment and, feeling a bit extravagant, grabbed another handful of rice and threw it to the chicks.
After a while, the chicks had grown stronger. Their soft yellow fuzz had gradually disappeared, and their wings and tails began to grow feathers, though their looks had taken a hit.
But looks didn’t matter. She squatted by the fence, gazing at them for a while, already imagining what they would look like when fully grown.
She wondered if they were roosters or hens… Should she wait for eggs, or should she stew one?
Should she stew it with mushrooms or bamboo shoots?
Ah, and she still hadn’t bought the spices for cooking!
After mixing the dumplings and quickly cooking them, Huai Yu placed her simple meal on the table. She decided that since she was recovering from illness, she wouldn’t do any work today!
It felt rare to have such leisure time during the day. After eating, she lazily lay back on the bed, lost in thought for a long time.
Then, she looked at the Claron balls she had brought back yesterday. She thought for a moment, poured one into a pot, and carried it to the rose corridor.
…
She wasn’t sure if it was the season or something else, but after just one night, the rose corridor seemed even more vibrant and full of life.
There were layers of pink and white petals scattered on the ground, and small buds were sprouting endlessly from the branches. The jagged edges of the leaves looked sharp, and even the small thorns seemed as though they could pierce through a person.
“Wow…”
Huai Yu was a little stunned.
How could the vitality of a plant be described? Anyway, at first glance, the overwhelming life force was particularly striking.
She hadn’t even given the rose corridor any of her abilities yet! Neither purification nor stimulating growth had been used.
She then offered the pot: “This is a new fermented fertilizer I brought, do you find it useful?”
The Claron balls, black and round, stacked together in the pot. The branches and leaves of the rose corridor cautiously approached, as if inspecting them.
After a while, its tender branches twitched twice, and then—pop—one of the Claron balls was flung off the pot and landed on the ground far away.
It seemed to express clear disdain.
Huai Yu: “…Got it.”
She couldn’t help but frown, staring at the Claron balls: “Why don’t you like them… Could this stuff really only be used as tea?”
The seedlings of the little birds were also rejecting the Claron balls’ fertilizer, and the barnyard grass had no opinion for now, while the geese seemed to scoff at them as well.
Even the rose corridor now seemed to reject them…
Sigh, she wondered how Uncle Zaozi, who had helped with her constipation problems, was doing now.
Huai Yu stared at the swaying rose corridor, then reached out her hand: “Um… Do you need my abilities?”
The branches and leaves of the rose corridor rustled, and its slender branches wrapped around her wrist. Though Huai Yu wasn’t sure exactly what it wanted, it wasn’t a bad idea to offer a bit of her power.
She thought for a moment, then gently gathered a flower branch and channeled purification energy into the plant, slowly spreading it through the stem.
But she looked at the rose corridor, inspecting it—
“It doesn’t seem to have changed.”
She thought again, then switched to her growth stimulation ability.
For some reason, she felt particularly energetic today, and giving her power felt smoother than usual—almost like she had evolved in her dream.
She unconsciously gave it more, and then stood there, feeling as though something was rushing into her mind, leaving her frozen in place.
Everything around her went dark, and she could hear the quiet flow of water in the underground dark river.
Her… No, the rose corridor’s main root and tendrils stretched out, rising and falling, following the mountains upwards, eventually gathering at a point where it formed a…
Tree cocoon?
Huai Yu opened her eyes. Before her, the rose corridor’s branches were thick, the leaves shiny, and pink and white flowers crowded together, filling the air with a fragrant smell.
