Chapter 183: A Bit Familiar
Huai Yu was anxious. At this moment, she placed the fat ginseng on the ground and said, “Go, find a place to grow by yourself.”
She then blocked the tense Zhou Qian and said, “There can’t be any mutated plants in my garden! I was just in there picking yesterday—”
Oh.
She slowly released her grip.
Because there was, in fact, a slightly mutated plant.
But…
She smiled sweetly and said, “Brother Zhou Qian, I know you’re worried, but please don’t rush.”
“There is a plant in my garden that grows a little differently, but it’s a good plant. It doesn’t talk, doesn’t run, and it certainly doesn’t attack anyone.”
“It just grows a little more robustly. Would you like me to show you?”
Zhou Qian was skeptical.
A moment later—
“You call this—slightly more robust?”
She pushed aside the tall wild grass, and in the middle of the garden, she saw a bean vine about 60 cm in diameter winding and twisting like a giant python, covering the entire garden.
It was at least 40 meters long.
Although its branches were thick, the leaves and pale purple flowers on it looked identical to those of regular beans, both in color and size.
It was as if the mutation only amplified its yield—one bean would last for an entire year.
Zhou Qian took a deep breath and turned to look at Huai Yu again. “So, the beans you’ve been feeding me lately are from this plant?”
Huai Yu nodded earnestly. “Yes, those beans passed the testing equipment. I even sold some, they’re perfectly normal.”
This “normal” was the most abnormal thing of all.
Zhou Qian had just been discharged from the hospital, and the biological material fusion in his leg was going well. He should have been full of energy.
But right now, he felt drained.
He sighed deeply, instinctively wanting to lean on something to support his wobbly faith. However, the texture under his hand didn’t feel right.
Turning his head, he saw a chili plant, about chest-high, standing beside him. The stem was at least two to three centimeters thick.
It bore thick, green peppers that looked strong and lively.
But… could a normal chili plant grow like this in May?
And there was also an eggplant, which had grown to the size of a small tree.
He looked back at Huai Yu. She didn’t seem to think anything of it, despite the fact that there was an exceptionally strong plant in every part of the garden.
Instead, she proudly showed him the beans. “Look, this one’s just growing a bit more vigorously. Everything else is fine.”
“Didn’t you say my wood-type ability might have a mutation that promotes growth? This is the result of that promotion. Isn’t that how other wood-type abilities grow plants?”
She spoke as if it were the most natural thing, and the last shred of hesitation she had disappeared when Zhou Qian gave up on questioning the giant bean-vine.
At this moment, she was leading him through the garden, speaking with an oddly proud tone—
“I also planted yam, sweet potatoes, peanuts, soybeans… Brother Zhou Qian, if you need some seedlings, you can dig them up from my garden.”
Zhou Qian pinched the bridge of his nose and raised his hand in a stopping gesture.
“Thank you for the offer, but I’ll buy some seedlings from the market.”
Compared to Huai Yu’s home and garden, his house—if it could be built—would certainly be used to host friends in the future.
He certainly didn’t want to find himself picking vegetables from a two-meter-high chili tree to entertain guests.
He glanced at Huai Yu again. Although she swore that her vegetables were normal and wouldn’t grow to over a meter tall…
He had already decided not to trust her.
After seeing Huai Yu dig out fifteen or sixteen sweet potato-sized yellow potatoes from under the soil, his whole body wobbled.
“Forget it,” he thought. He had just recovered from a serious illness and wasn’t mentally prepared for such shocks. It would be better to go back and rest.
He turned to leave, but Huai Yu called out to him, “Brother Zhou Qian, if you’re not busy, could you… help me with something?”
She still hadn’t moved her jars into the designated spots.
Zhou Qian reluctantly nodded. “Alright, I’ll move them for you.”
Unlike the Guard Army, the Defense Army didn’t have abilities, but their physical capabilities were far beyond normal people. Moving a few clay jars was no problem.
But Zhou Qian swore that their strength only applied to physical tasks—it certainly didn’t work on his mental state.
Now, after dealing with the stuttering, mutated ginseng that resembled a radish, and the giant snake-like bean vine, and all these plant-animal hybrids…
He looked at the bizarre beetle, shining with iridescent black and standing about 40-50 cm tall, and wondered—was it really not a hallucination?
He turned his gaze to the most suspicious place—the Rose Corridor—and felt his mental state rapidly deteriorating.
He even saw the beetle shakily holding a red ball with its front claws, slowly moving toward the shelter by Huai Yu’s door.
Has the world mutated again after the disaster?
Zhou Qian stayed silent as an odd feeling surged in his mind, almost as if he had seen the quail egg-sized ball before.
But his memory was of one with mixed colors, not like the bright red ball the beetle was holding.
Huai Yu suddenly said, “Ketara, you’re out early today?”
Usually, Ketara would find a spot, gather balls throughout the day, and only take them back at night.
But it was still morning.
After asking, she saw Ketara flap its wings and twitch its antennae.
While it couldn’t speak, Huai Yu understood it well. She looked at the dim sky and felt the growing chill in the wind—
“Right, it looks like it’s going to rain today.”
She then turned to Zhou Qian. “Sorry, Brother Zhou Qian, I didn’t expect Ketara to come back so early. Were you scared?”
They stood there for a while, and after a moment, Zhou Qian took a deep breath and asked, “Is this one of your pets too?”
Huai Yu nodded—well, temporarily, but a pet is a pet.
“What’s the matter? Ketara has a good temperament, don’t worry.”
Zhou Qian looked at Huai Yu, unsure if she was feigning ignorance.
Because the key point wasn’t whether the plants or animals had mutated, nor was it about whether the beetles could gather balls.
It was Huai Yu herself!
She was the one who needed to protect herself the most!
Everyone knew her wood-type ability was weak, and the mutation was likely to involve plant affinity. It was clear that her ability had something to do with why she could live peacefully in the Rose Corridor.
A young girl with no background, living alone here, and not hiding any of these secrets…
Zhou Qian sighed deeply.
At the same time…
“That red ball looks a bit familiar—is it from the mutated beetle?”
Zhou Qian instinctively started to think.
