Chapter 107: Taking Keta Rō Up the Mountain
A new guest had arrived at the house, and Huai Yu had slept especially soundly that night. The first thing she did in the early morning, stepping into the dewy light, was greet Keta Rō.
“Keta Rō, are you getting used to things here?”
Keta Rō flapped his wings and walked out from behind the curtain. His antennae curled slightly, giving off a very contented vibe.
Although he couldn’t talk or make sounds, for some reason, just looking at him gave off a sense of emotional stability.
Huai Yu felt reassured and asked curiously, “Besides all kinds of flowers and plants, do you need to eat anything else? Still want some dried bamboo shoots?”
She rummaged through her pocket and pulled out half a piece left from yesterday.
Keta Rō accepted it obediently but didn’t immediately eat it—apparently not a big fan.
Still, he didn’t reject it. Wow, the more she looked, the more well-behaved he seemed!
Huai Yu couldn’t resist stroking his shell, then checked the time, “I promised to take you up the mountain today, but it’s only just past 7 a.m. I’ll go check the vegetable patch first.”
It had been half a month since she planted the crops, and now both the yams and sweet potatoes had sprouted fresh green vines.
She was especially hopeful about the cowpeas, which had grown in thick clusters.
Although there hadn’t been much change in the past two days, she couldn’t tell if they were green, white, or red cowpeas. Regardless, the slow growth meant it was time to build a trellis.
Luckily, the two kids had cut down plenty of bamboo recently and left it in a pile behind the house—just needed a bit of trimming, no big deal.
Huai Yu assessed the workload, then checked on the chili peppers, cucumbers, peanuts, soybeans… only then did she feel at ease.
Inspecting the vegetable patch every morning had become an essential task—it was her hard-earned little kingdom!
She skipped back into the house, made herself a pot of bamboo core tea, then carefully prepared a hearty breakfast of wild vegetables, just in time for the 8 a.m. daily broadcast:
[Today is April 27, 2066. Cloudy skies. Air pollution index: 7…]
With the broadcast in the background, Huai Yu opened her notebook, noted the date, and wrote down her to-do list:
- Go to Jinyuan Community to buy some fast-growing vegetable seeds
- Take Keta Rō up the mountain
- Maybe buy some cement and sand…
After thinking for a moment, she crossed out the sand and cement.
Those things were too heavy to carry back, and since they had so much leftover bamboo from the boys, she’d just build a bath hut under the weed tree with that.
Also, the seedlings she had planted were only slightly accelerated, not purified. She’d need to do that when she had time.
But no rush—wasn’t the Labor Day market closing for a whole week? She could do it then, including building the trellis.
And that other weed tree by the pond that hadn’t changed a bit… should she accelerate that too?
Oh, and the lotus she planted earlier—since it was expensive, maybe she should use some acceleration there as well.
She picked up her pen and jotted everything down.
Then came an important thought—
Would those lotus roots behave like the stabilized veggie strains? Or would they suddenly mutate like the weed tree?
That question flashed across her mind, but then she remembered the water-type ability user in Jinyuan Community and relaxed.
If lotus roots were prone to mutations, that person wouldn’t have planted so many!
She closed her notebook, feeling clear about what to do next.
She tidied up and walked to the door. Keta Rō was still obediently lying in his nest. The porcelain bowl in the house had gathered seven or eight rainbow balls overnight again.
Huai Yu put the bowl away and, in front of Keta Rō, placed the balls into her glass jar one by one. She gave it a shake, watching the colorful Keta Rō balls rattle around. The sound made her genuinely happy—
So pretty!
Keta Rō was amazing!
But she was curious, “Why are you called Keta Rō? It sounds like a name from Fusang (Japan).”
But it didn’t seem like something Boss Tang would name. Maybe it was chosen by his previous owner, Gao Ming.
If that were the case, then it wasn’t her place to say. After all, Keta Rō had belonged to someone else.
This made her a little sad, because Keta Rō was really sensible and such a great companion.
Thinking of that, she did what she usually did with the chicken coop—left one ball in the bowl for him.
Keta Rō’s antenna twitched slightly, like he wanted to move. Maybe the nearly empty bowl with just one ball seemed a bit… lazy?
Huai Yu laughed at her own imagination!
“Alright, let’s head to the mountain! But we’re not going far today—let’s try to be back before noon.”
She slung on her basket, placed Keta Rō inside, brought her trap and tools, and pushed her bicycle—off they went again toward Sanqing Mountain.
The journey to Sanqing Mountain was peaceful. The morning mist clung to the ground, and dew sparkled on the leaves like little crystals. Huai Yu pushed her bike along the winding trail while chatting casually with Keta Rō, nestled comfortably in the basket.
“Keta Rō, this part of the mountain is really quiet. Not many people come here. We’ll find a good spot soon.”
They reached a familiar glade where the sunlight slanted through the trees in golden shafts. It was a place she often used for foraging—today, she planned to do a bit of that and maybe try setting a small trap.
She set the basket down, let Keta Rō out, and began scanning the ground for edible mushrooms or wild herbs. The spring rain over the past few days had brought out quite a few sprouts, and she managed to collect a small bundle of edible ferns and two kinds of mushrooms she had identified last year.
As she worked, Keta Rō wandered nearby, antennae swaying gently as if he were scanning the area too. Occasionally, he would stop, tap the ground with one leg, and emit a faint glow from under his shell.
“Wow… you’re scanning for something?” Huai Yu blinked. “Maybe you’re helping me?”
It didn’t take long for her to realize that the spots Keta Rō lingered at often had something useful nearby. By the third time this happened, Huai Yu was grinning ear to ear.
“You little genius!”
She stroked his shell affectionately and made a mental note to bring him every time she came up the mountain from now on.
By mid-morning, her basket was about half full. She set up a simple snare trap using a bent sapling and some twine she brought along. It was more for practice than expectation—though now with Keta Rō, maybe her luck would improve.
They took a break under a tall pine tree. She brought out two sweet potato cakes she’d packed and split one with Keta Rō, though, as usual, he only took a tiny nibble and then politely stopped.
“You’re so polite. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were raised in a noble family,” she teased.
He blinked slowly and returned to his usual motionless serenity.
It was getting close to 11 a.m., and Huai Yu began to pack up. Just as she bent down to grab the trap rope, Keta Rō suddenly darted forward.
“Eh?”
She followed his movement and saw that he had stopped near the base of a small bush. When she looked closely, she found a sprig of a rare herb she hadn’t seen in over a year—”Bitter Rainleaf”!
It was a valuable ingredient for purification.
Huai Yu stared, stunned. “You really are amazing.”
She harvested it carefully, wrapped it in damp cloth, and placed it at the very top of her basket. As she looked up, the sun filtered through the branches, casting a warm glow on Keta Rō’s shell.
“Let’s head home. I’ve got more plans to write down now.”
On their way back down the mountain, she passed by a few old landmarks—an abandoned well, a fallen log she used to rest on—and realized how much more at ease she felt with Keta Rō beside her. His quiet presence, the colorful little balls he made, even his faint bioluminescence at night—it had all become part of her new normal.
When they finally arrived home, Huai Yu stored the mushrooms, boiled water for tea, and gently wiped the dirt off the Bitter Rainleaf.
“Another good day,” she murmured, glancing at the rainbow ball jar. It sparkled in the late morning sun.
Maybe she’d try making rainbow paint with them someday.
Maybe… she could plant some of those lotus seeds next week.
The thought made her smile. With Keta Rō, anything felt possible.
