Chapter 140: There Must Be a Trick
Zhou Qian was left speechless by Huai Yu’s blunt honesty.
If he didn’t still remember how this girl had cried her eyes out when he was on the brink of death, he would seriously doubt whether there were any feelings between them at all.
Facing his skeptical look, Huai Yu nodded firmly again. “It was really hard work!”
“Not to mention anything else—just the framework alone, those wooden beams—I, I, I… I ran so far to drag them back. I was really exhausted!”
Zhou Qian just looked her up and down. “All stammering like that—definitely suspicious.”
Huai Yu: “…” She instantly shut her mouth.
Although she had spilled most of her secrets, she still hadn’t decided whether to tell him about being able to go to Sanqing Mountain via the Rose Corridor!
So she had to shut up, feeling a bit wronged.
But Zhou Qian was already disabled, and if she wasn’t even willing to help build his house, Huai Yu felt a little guilty about that too.
After thinking for a long time, she finally muttered hesitantly, “Actually, my treehouse is really fine now. The wisteria has grown back, and the flowers are blooming beautifully. You’d definitely feel great living in it.”
“It just needs to be secured again and a new waterproof tarp put up…”
“And, and…” She racked her brain, “I’ve planted a lot of vegetables too. You wouldn’t even need to farm—you could just live off my garden…”
However, the more sincerely she spoke, the more Zhou Qian’s resolve hardened.
He simply shook his head. “Forget it. It’s better if we keep some distance.”
Never mind whether the Rose Corridor was actually tolerable—what if one day it got moody and gave him a slap? Who would he even complain to?
The main thing was that Huai Yu had too many secrets. The closer the contact, the more he would sense them.
He knew too many people and too much complicated stuff. Over time, it wouldn’t be good for either of them.
After thinking it over, Zhou Qian made up his mind, “I’ll build my house at the edge of the Rose Corridor’s restricted zone.”
Keeping a distance, but close enough to the outer road, so he could keep an eye on Huai Yu from afar.
As for the house building…
He looked at the nervous person in front of him and finally couldn’t help laughing, “With your skinny arms and legs, who could actually expect much? I’ve got plenty of people on my end. You don’t need to worry.”
Thinking back to how her own house had gone up at lightning speed in just a day and a night, Huai Yu brightened up again.
Her shoulders visibly relaxed, clearly relieved of all pressure. “Well, Brother Zhou Qian, have your friends help out properly. I’ll prepare tea and food for everyone!”
As soon as she said that, Zhou Qian immediately regretted it.
—Maybe he should just live in the treehouse after all. With Huai Yu being so utterly defenseless toward people she trusted, it was only a matter of time before she revealed all her cards.
Zhou Qian felt completely uneasy now.
After she left, he also got out of bed and struggled to the bathroom, taking a good look at his own face—He wasn’t even that old. How had he already ended up with the weary heart of someone raising a daughter?
…
Meanwhile, knowing that she was about to have a neighbor—and that it was Zhou Qian—Huai Yu’s heart was bubbling over with joy like soda pop, one fizzy bubble after another, unstoppable.
Even squeezed onto the bus, she couldn’t help grinning.
She lifted the cover of her basket to peek at the full pile of cowpeas inside and made a decision—once she got home, she’d speed up the growth of all her vegetable seedlings.
Just a little bit of acceleration. After all, her plants were mutated already, so growing a bit faster shouldn’t be a big deal, right?
She’d just minimize the purification ability and purify a little at the time of eating.
That way, she could grow lots and lots of vegetables!
After all, Zhou Qian was so pitiful—now he is retired too. Once he built his house and started saving up like her… he probably wouldn’t even have money left for food.
Now she was working to support two people. She really had to sell more vegetables!
Wasn’t it just like today—early May, and she already couldn’t finish eating all the cowpeas at home? That’s why she was bringing them to Boss Tang?
She was deep in thought when suddenly someone next to her exclaimed, “Wow, young lady, where did you get those cowpeas?”
Huh?
Huai Yu instinctively hugged her basket tightly, then looked at the auntie who’d spoken. “I… uh…”
She didn’t want to be too clear, but the auntie didn’t care about that. She just stared fixedly at the already-covered basket and asked again, “You’re taking them to sell at the trading market, right? How much are you selling them for?”
Huai Yu: “…”
She thought for a moment and replied, “I haven’t tested the mutation value yet. This batch is low-mutation, so the price is pretty high.”
She’d taken the bus many times now. The aunties chatted daily about how to save money or how to make clever use of spare household items.
Nowadays, food prices are all tied to mutation values. She figured if she said that, no one would—
“Low mutation?! How low?”
The auntie’s eyes lit up instantly!
Huai Yu had only thought about how low-mutation stuff was expensive. She didn’t realize that lots of good stuff never even made it to people who squeezed onto buses to buy their groceries.
And since Labor Day had just passed, everyone had been working hard. Just like after busy farming seasons when people always wanted a good meal to recover, the closer something was to normal vegetables, the more everyone craved it.
At that shout, half the bus started crowding around her.
Huai Yu hurriedly clutched the basket lid with both hands and then loudly declared:
“I haven’t tested it yet, don’t know the price, and haven’t decided! I’m not selling this—I’m giving it to someone else…”
Normally, that would’ve made the auntie give up, but those cowpeas had looked so green, fresh, and juicy just now…
It was only early May—even wood-type ability users couldn’t grow mature crops this fast, except for a few super-fast greens!
So the auntie persisted, her face scrunching up into a thousand wrinkles but her tone as friendly as could be, “No worries! You’re getting it tested at the trading market, right? I’m going there to shop too. Once you know the price, just tell me—I’ll buy!”
As soon as she said that, Huai Yu could feel all the nearby gazes silently expressing the same thing.
She was dumbfounded.
This, this… everyone’s reaction was totally different from two months ago!
Little did she know, back when Flower City had just lifted restrictions, everyone was focused on settling down and finding jobs. Naturally, they saved every penny.
But now, two months into Flower City’s reopening, thanks to the city’s efficient governance, everything that needed stabilizing had already stabilized.
Once people were secure, they started thinking about improving their quality of life. After all, they’d really lived that way before the disaster.
And so, even though she kept stressing that someone had already reserved the cowpeas, by the time she got off at the trading market, a whole crowd was still trailing behind her.
They weren’t pushy or rude, just hanging around her cheerfully.
If they hadn’t all been smiling and chatting so expectantly, it would’ve looked exactly like a bunch of thugs surrounding a poor little victim.
If the world weren’t so peaceful now, Huai Yu might have actually panicked!
