Chapter 118: The Past
Zhou Qian spoke calmly.
It had been five years already. There’s no wound that time can’t heal. And if there is—just erase the memory.
Now, he could only rely on the few remaining photos to recall Zhou Ning’s past. Even when talking about the death he had accepted countless times in his dreams, he spoke lightly.
But Huai Yu was stunned.
After a long pause, she muttered, “You don’t even have abilities, yet you managed to control mutated plants for a whole year and even hid her away…”
Her eyes sparkled. “Zhou Qian, I think you’re amazing!”
Zhou Qian forced a smile. “Yeah. I used to think I was amazing too…”
If it hadn’t been for his arrogance and unwillingness to let go, why would he have been so determined to take Zhou Ning’s body to the wastelands?
But thinking back now—
“Thank goodness the Rose Corridor stopped me. Otherwise, with my skills, I probably wouldn’t have made it more than a few miles before ending up dead.”
It wasn’t just the poisonous spiders and mutated banyan trees he encountered on the way; he had already realized the danger during previous missions.
Speaking of the Rose Corridor, Huai Yu beamed with pride, “Of course! It’s incredible!”
Zhou Qian glanced at her and said, annoyed, “You’re even more incredible! You can live right next to it! When I built you that house, that was the closest I’d gotten to it in five years.”
Huai Yu looked genuinely puzzled.
“How would I know…”
She thought for a bit and decided to share her secret with Zhou Qian—well, by now, three people already knew, so it wasn’t really a secret anymore.
“I lost my memory. When I woke up, I didn’t remember anything. That day just happened to be the national registration, and I picked that spot because it was big.”
“Who knew it’d be the Rose Corridor, Sanqing Mountain, and all that mutated stuff…”
“You lost your memory?” Zhou Qian was speechless, then couldn’t help laughing, which tugged at his cheeks painfully. “Well, well! So you were never honest from the start.”
“Tell me, that first time we met during the Rose Corridor mutation warning—did you do something?”
Huai Yu widened her eyes, looking innocent, “What could I have done? Didn’t you say it liked me? I just tested my wood-based ability…”
“I wanted to ask you guys what was going on, but then all of you showed up with guns looking fierce, and I got scared.”
Nonsense!
Zhou Qian didn’t believe her innocence for a second, but…
“You really lost your memory? Where did you wake up? Did your body feel off in any way?”
“Any wounds?”
In troubled times, strict measures were understandable. But it was precisely in times like this that people took desperate risks. If Huai Yu truly lost her memory, it meant she had been in serious danger.
Even the memory loss itself needed careful consideration.
After all, there were many cases where the brain, to protect the psyche from breaking down, automatically suppressed terrifying memories.
He frowned deeply and pressed the intercom, “I’ll have someone take you for a check-up.”
“No, no, no!” Huai Yu quickly stopped him.
“No wounds, I’m perfectly fine. I can eat, drink, sleep, and I’m strong. No need for a check-up.”
She hadn’t figured out her relationship with the Rose Corridor yet. What if they really had some unspeakable connection, and an X-ray revealed she was part plant or something?
Huai Yu had imagined all sorts of scenarios, but since the Rose Corridor didn’t talk, she couldn’t get any answers, so she gave up for now.
Also, seeing a doctor was expensive, not to mention getting tests done. She barely had any money for that.
Most importantly, Zhou Qian would definitely pay for her, and seeing how miserable he already was, she thought it best to save him some points.
Besides…
After thinking it through, Huai Yu didn’t feel like she had any trauma, so she seriously asked, “Is the past that important?”
“If I can’t remember, so what? As long as I’m happy now, isn’t that good enough?”
“What if my old memories were really painful, and I don’t want to face them?”
Zhou Qian was stumped.
“But what if you remember who hurt you? Or if you have important loved ones or friends you can’t afford to forget?”
He looked over at the thin, small-faced girl again. He thought to himself how inconvenient the lack of proper networks was—this girl clearly looked underage, yet her ID said she was 18…
But one thing was certain: she was so young, there’s no way she had a lover or husband before her memory loss… right?
“Then I definitely shouldn’t remember!” Huai Yu said seriously.
“I’ve actually thought about my past,” she counted on her fingers. “I can cook, farm, identify wild veggies, and even build houses—don’t laugh, my treehouse totally counts as a house!”
“I even built my own toilet!”
“I’m so capable and smart, and my Mandarin is really good, right? I don’t even recall any dialect. Plus, I’m so young… I probably wasn’t some poor mountain girl, right?”
“So here’s the question—what kind of situation would make me both knowledgeable and skilled in all this hard work?”
Following her train of thought, Zhou Qian frowned too, “Agriculture student?”
Huai Yu: “…Huh?”
Zhou Qian sat up straight, mimicking her finger-counting analysis, “That house of yours is basically a greenhouse, right? Agriculture students build greenhouses all the time.”
“Farming—well, I’ve never been an agriculture student, but I guess they need to know how to farm.”
“Cooking is easy. Just cook it until it’s done.”
“As for identifying wild veggies… maybe you just studied a lot?”
His reasoning made so much sense, Huai Yu almost believed it. Then Zhou Qian looked her up and down, puzzled, “Being an agriculture student isn’t something to be embarrassed about. Why did you sound so scared earlier?”
Huai Yu muttered, “I was imagining I might’ve been a pure, smart college student who got trafficked to some poor mountain village to have kids and work and got abused all her life…”
She widened her eyes at Zhou Qian: “Didn’t you say I’m really good at pleasing people? That must mean I’ve been through hard times!”
“Right, Brother Zhou Qian?”
Now it was Zhou Qian’s turn to be dumbfounded.
Because thinking it through, that theory was quite plausible too!
Zhou Qian was at a loss.
He was a patient—this kind of complicated past and future really shouldn’t be his concern. But Huai Yu looked so clueless, like a kid unknowingly walking through a busy street with a ticking time bomb, making him feel on edge too.
Thinking more, he noticed something else—
“You know so much, but why is your skin so good? Your hands don’t even have calluses.”
“No matter if you’re an agriculture student or trafficked, there should be some signs of labor.”
Huai Yu thought for a moment, “Maybe I will heal quickly?”
She held out her soft palms for Zhou Qian to see, flipping them over with no sign of labor at all, “I’ve been busy lately too, but look—no calluses, no wounds.”
Zhou Qian frowned deeply, but couldn’t think of anything else.
They stared at each other until a nurse came in with meds. Huai Yu snapped back, “Ahhh, it’s almost 3 o’clock! I have to hurry or I won’t get home before dark.”
“Zhou Qian, I’ll visit you again tomorrow!”
“Speak sweeter! Don’t just say ‘Zhou Qian’ when things are fine and ‘Brother Zhou Qian’ when you want something—I’m at least ten years older than you!”
“Okay, Brother Zhou Qian.” Huai Yu giggled and ran off.
The nurse, prepping the meds, glanced at Huai Yu and said, “Is that your little sister? She’s adorable. Must be well protected at home, huh?”
Zhou Qian nodded, then fell deep into thought again—
Yeah, Huai Yu’s personality was so contradictory.
She knew how to act weak and sweet, obedient yet innocent.
The first seemed like a survival skill, the second seemed like her natural character.
Six years into this apocalypse, developing survival skills made sense. Staying alive was what mattered.
But the innocence… in today’s world, what kind of girl could be protected so well?
A slight sting on the back of his hand—he looked up at the ceiling while the nurse inserted the needle, slowly thinking about the future.
…
Huai Yu didn’t think that much.
Her little brain only planned as far ahead as building a toilet and a treehouse—oh, and maybe planting veggies too, that counted as long-term planning.
Once she left the hospital, she sized up the place she hadn’t really looked at before and soon found her way to the bus stop.
But today, there were barely any passengers on the buses. Normally one came every 30 minutes, but she waited a full hour.
“Driver, I’m getting off at Hongsheng Trade Market.”
The driver glanced at her, “Hongsheng? Isn’t the street closed for Labor Day?”
Huai Yu: …
She forgot! Every time she came to the city, it was a habit.
She changed her destination, “Then to the administrative hall.” She figured she could transfer there and still get home before dark.
The bus swayed along. Huai Yu zoned out—
The Rose Corridor, Zhou Qian, her past… one question after another tangled in her mind until it all became a knotted mess she gave up trying to untangle.
Better to eat something good!
Sigh! With Hongsheng closed, she couldn’t even buy flour to make dumplings!
Zhou Qian was so badly injured, she needed to make lots of dumplings to help him recover!
She made plans in her head to buy flour, meat, dig up a shepherd’s purse—hadn’t even decided on the fillings yet when the bus stopped at the administrative hall.
Just as she got off, ready to wait again, she saw some staff coming out to post a notice on the bulletin board.
Curious, she peeked over—
“Schools are officially resuming. Registered teachers can return with certification…”
Oh, jobs!
Huai Yu perked up but calmed down fast. She had zero hope for that—just look at her handwriting in her notebook, like chicken scratch. No way she could be a teacher.
Not to mention her ID was newly issued.
“2066 Military Recruitment…”
Nope, nope! Whether it was escaped convicts or deadly mutant plants, she couldn’t fight any of them. Gotta know your limits.
The last one—
“Huh, the City Guard selection has begun? You can apply through military academies or ability-training institutions, or apply individually…”
Huai Yu was tempted.
It wasn’t that she wanted to be a City Guard, but her ability was weird, and so far only Lin Xuefeng had taught her a bit. She was still mostly winging it.
That felt unsettling.
But her interest lasted only a moment before she remembered her other secrets and sighed.
Because of Labor Day, by the time she got home, it was dark. She grabbed her lamp to check on the chicks one by one, then lifted the curtain and squatted outside Keta’s room, “Keta Rōu, you’re so smart. Don’t you feel wronged sleeping out here?”
“Sorry, I really didn’t know you were this smart—do you want to come sleep inside now? I can make you a little bed with a basin.”
She laughed, “If you don’t like it simple, I even have a folding bed.”
Thanks to Keta’s pills, Zhou Qian was doing so well now. Looking at Keta, Huai Yu felt like it was glowing with a golden aura of “World’s Best Keta Rōu” and wanted to treat it well.
But Keta, diligent and tireless, was still chewing bamboo leaves even in the dark.
Hearing her questions, whether it understood or not, it spread its wings as if to say—
Working! Don’t bother me.
It wasn’t verbal, but somehow Huai Yu got the message and laughed, “Alright. Tomorrow I’ll take you farther to look for new plants.”
Keta Rōu was so hardworking and asked for nothing in return. Supporting its hobby was the least she could do! If nothing else, maybe she’d take it to Sanqing Mountain again.
She still hadn’t found that tree cocoon—felt like it must be important.
But for now, there was something more urgent—
The market trip fell through, and she didn’t buy anything. She couldn’t make bean sprout porridge again tomorrow, right?
That’d be too lame.
Even though she was tired, she grabbed the lamp and went to the veggie patch.
She’d watered the plants hastily that morning, just enough to keep them alive.
The cowpea vines had grown long, but she hadn’t built a trellis yet…
Huai Yu silently noted that down for tomorrow and cupped a cowpea seedling, slowly channeling her power.
In the dark, only that single lamp glowed, drawing swarms of insects desperate for the light.
And as she used her ability, she curiously recalled today’s chat with Zhou Qian—
“Little Yu, your personality isn’t like a child from a happy family—you don’t notice? Whenever someone is nice to you, you want to repay them a thousandfold.”
“Only kids who lacked support and love growing up cherish kindness so much.”
She looked at her stats backstage—someone named Wei Daor Bookfriend had just gifted her a leadership title…
