Chapter 194: Truly Impressive
Since Zhou Qian’s arrival, Huai Yu’s life seemed to have entered a new phase.
Before having neighbors, every day when she woke up, she would think about what to do, what to eat, and what to store.
But after having neighbors, her thoughts changed. Now she thought about — what work can I assign to the neighbor today? Or, have the potatoes sprouted successfully? Can they be planted in the neighbor’s vegetable garden? Should the sweet potatoes that were forced to sprout be dug up? The neighbor has a big appetite, so maybe it’s time to start drying sweet potatoes.
She even enthusiastically attempted to dig out a few wisteria plants from the treehouse to plant beside Zhou Qian’s small yard, just waiting for spring to come and the vines to climb, creating a cascade of purple flowers.
But—
“Don’t dig.”
Zhou Qian stood in the field with a hoe. As the temperature gradually increased, his face was tanned, and his clothes were soaked in sweat.
He pointed at his leg. “They’re not obedient. Plus, climbing vines can climb too, and wisteria can climb too. If we plant them, I’m afraid at night it might pull on my leg and break it.”
The disadvantage of biological materials was exactly this.
Because they were taken from mutated plants, they had some rudimentary thoughts of their own, and they wouldn’t always be fully controlled in daily life.
Huai Yu looked at the green tendrils still moving on his leg and nodded reluctantly.
Zhou Qian was wearing loose shorts, and instead of seeing muscular strength like on his left leg, green, vine-like tendrils with a few leaves had spread across his leg.
They clumsily mimicked the shape of his right leg and foot, but the newly sprouted branches wouldn’t calm down. They would often wriggle when he was working in the vegetable garden, and the vines that curled around his foot carefully pressed into the soil, attempting to add a little more mud into the creases of his leg.
The previous day, when Zhou Qian worked in the vegetable garden, he didn’t pay attention. After all, he was wearing long pants, and no matter how the biological material connected with his nerves, it didn’t transmit the itching or friction sensation.
But when he went to shower that night, he realized—
He wasn’t afraid of the cold. For convenience, he was standing by the well and pouring water over himself bucket by bucket.
But after one or two buckets of water, his legs kept getting muddy.
After thinking for a while, he finally figured out that the mud was being slowly squeezed out from the gaps in the climbing vine, which made him laugh. It took him an hour just to wash off the mud.
The next day, Zhou Qian took out his shorts.
Now he was glad he had chosen to live in the Rose Pavilion to take care of Huai Yu. At least his leg was exposed, and he didn’t have to worry about scaring anyone.
No need to worry about others coming to see him.
The Rose Corridor was too close, and his old comrades would rarely dare to come over.
Originally, he had worked the land barefoot for convenience.
But the climbing vines were disobedient. Several times they wrapped themselves in mud, and every time he showered, there was a trail of mud on the floor.
Helpless, Zhou Qian wore rubber boots this morning.
With plastic between him and the soil, the vines were obedient while he worked the land. But as soon as he heard Huai Yu talk about wisteria, the plants instinctively understood the nature of wisteria, and they began wriggling inside the boots.
Thus, Zhou Qian had no choice but to refuse.
Huai Yu squatted on the grass and looked at his leg, suddenly curious. “If they’re so disobedient, why do you still bother researching and promoting them?”
Zhou Qian thought for a moment. “Because they’re closer to a normal leg when walking or exercising, and their disobedience only shows in small habits like this. It doesn’t affect their power.”
“For example, if I had a typical prosthetic limb, it would still be in the adjustment phase, and walking smoothly would be very difficult.”
“But look at now. Walking, running, lifting heavy objects, even stepping into the dirt — it’s no problem.”
“So, although it was really tough at the time, it was worth it.”
He said this, then complexly touched his leg.
“Now, if I go back to the wilderness, my abilities might be stronger than before.”
Upon hearing this, Huai Yu suddenly became happy. “Then, if that’s the case, will there come a day when many people use this kind of material, their combat abilities improve significantly, and they can just flatten the wilderness?”
Also, because mutated plants now have uses, places like the Rose Corridor won’t be seen as a threat by the gradually peaceful society…
Humans and plants truly have a symbiotic relationship now, improving each other’s benefits!
Zhou Qian thought for a moment. “That’s really a possibility.”
“But all of this will require time to build a foundation. As people progress, the plants in the wilderness will also get stronger.”
“Eventually, when we can easily wipe them out, we probably won’t even need to do so. Because by then, the entire wilderness will be a never-ending treasure trove for us.”
He was just casually imagining the future. After all, from his experience with integration, the pain had exceeded the threshold by too much. Few people could withstand it.
Currently, the mainstream combat strength was still with the guardian soldiers who had special abilities, most of whom had trained in military academies and could follow orders and work in coordination.
But when he said this, Huai Yu’s smile was unusually bright.
Zhou Qian didn’t understand why, but smiled along with her.
Huai Yu seemed curious again. “We have dangerous wilderness near Flower City, but is it dangerous in other cities too?”
“Yes.” Zhou Qian nodded. “In the cities with a hot, humid climate in the south, the mutated plants are even more severe and widespread.”
“But because of the climate, those mutated plants don’t need to undergo vernalization, and they’re also more afraid of low temperatures.”
“So when we carried out the purging operation back then, the main force was General Lin Xuefeng.”
Huai Yu instantly became interested. “I knew he was amazing! Is it because of his water-type ability?”
As soon as Lin Xuefeng was mentioned, Huai Yu became animated. Zhou Qian looked at her and then reluctantly said, “Yes.”
“There are many people with water-type abilities across the country, but no one else can use their abilities as skillfully as he can, turning water into ice, summoning snowstorms at will. He’s the only one.”
He paused, remembering that Lin Xuefeng had already gone to the wilderness. This person who was the only one…
But seeing Huai Yu’s eager expression, he didn’t finish the sentence.
“After summoning snowstorms, he would guide the other ability users in his team to utilize temperature differences—essentially a physical technique to temporarily alter the local environment.”
Zhou Qian’s education wasn’t very extensive, so this was the best he could do to explain it.
“So, when he was there, the purging of the southern cities went smoothly.”
“Now, most of the mutated creatures available for research were brought back from there.”
Huai Yu imagined that scene longingly, but she had experience with farming, not summoning snowstorms, and couldn’t imagine it at all.
She could only sigh. “Lin Xuefeng is really amazing!”
