Chapter 253 | Chapter 254 | Chapter 255
Chapter 253: Entering the Mountain
What should one bring for an overnight stay on Sanqing Mountain?
A large water canteen, a few freshly griddled flatbreads, and a small packet of seasonings—even though Zhou Qian had repeatedly emphasized that she wasn’t allowed to forage everywhere, he hadn’t said she couldn’t bring seasoning, right? Towels, tissues, sleeping bags… and a few plastic bags tucked in.
That seemed to be it.
After a moment’s thought, Huai Yu still strapped on her back basket. This wasn’t for foraging, but because there were too many things and the basket was convenient.
Thus, early in the morning, just as the sky was beginning to brighten, Zhou Qian, looking heroic and agile in his gear, had no choice but to shoulder the large, colorful back basket. He followed Huai Yu to Area 8 of the Rose Corridor.
This was Huai Yu’s shortcut up the mountain.
It was also his first time coming into contact with the Rose Corridor at such close range.
One had to know that even when he was in the bamboo grove tunnel, he always rested close to the bamboo side. Standing before the Rose Corridor now, with the faint fragrance of roses drifting around him, he gathered all his focus. His muscles tensed, ready to grab Huai Yu and dodge at the slightest movement.
Huai Yu, however, merely stepped close to pat a rose leaf, coaxing softly, “Rose, please open a door for us!”
She lowered her voice and rambled on, “I brought Brother Zhou Qian up the mountain with me today, so you absolutely mustn’t refuse to open up. Otherwise, I’ll lose a lot of face…”
Zhou Qian listened in silence, completely unsure of what face to pull.
But what was even more absurd was that the rose vines actually rustled and trembled. Very quickly, the branches pulled back, leaving a path wide enough for one person to pass through.
It was Zhou Qian’s first time witnessing such a scene, and his breath hitched for a moment.
Huai Yu had already squeezed inside with joy, turning back to wave at him. “Hurry, hurry!”
Zhou Qian hesitated for a fraction of a second, then followed her through the Rose Corridor that everyone else regarded with extreme vigilance.
On the other side of this safety boundary line separating the city, rolling mountain ridges met the eye. Before them lay lush, dripping green trees, and beneath their feet was an open wild field connecting smoothly to the massive mountains. Their shoes stepped on unknown flowers of various colors, and even the sky felt free.
The surrounding plants grew with wild abandonment, far more reckless and unconstrained than the safety-vetted species found within the city.
He exhaled a breath, gave Huai Yu a deep look, and then strode forward in the hazy morning light. “Let’s go.”
Having not entered the mountain all summer, the old tourist paths that used to be faintly discernible were now completely overtaken by overgrown shrubs and tree branches. Huai Yu stood at the crossroads hesitating for a long time before finally confirming the direction by a patch of wild shepherd’s purse that had grown old enough to burst into a vigorous display of white flowers.
Zhou Qian held a long wooden staff in his hand, walking in front to clear away the branches blocking their path. Huai Yu watched his figure from behind as he carried the basket, suddenly feeling the joy of going on a picnic.
“See, I told you the mountain is very safe.”
Zhou Qian remained calm as ever. “The outer perimeter is an area we have cleared before. There are no mutated creatures here, so naturally, it is safe.”
“The interior is very safe too—this used to be a scenic area, so there weren’t any dangerous animals to begin with.”
Zhou Qian didn’t speak.
However, his silence didn’t deter Huai Yu from chattering away at all. In the past, she had been all alone when going up the mountain, but now that she had a companion, she rambled non-stop the entire way. She pointed out where she had once dug up victory onion, where a patch of tender white mugwort used to be, and how turning a corner further ahead would reveal wild black locust flowers on the left—
“Do you still remember? One time I brought those black locust flowers to the hospital to steam with rice. Wasn’t it sweet and fragrant?”
Zhou Qian nodded. “Mm.”
“I picked a lot of victory onion, chopped it up, and dried it to keep for several months. In the end, I used it to make scallion pancakes—it tasted like a mix of scallions and garlic. You should have been able to taste it, right?”
Zhou Qian: “…Mm.”
“Look at this, look at this! This is buttercup! That colorful medicine you used before was extracted from this. Ketaro is very good at extracting medicinal properties!”
Many steps along the tourist path had long been forced out of alignment by the roots of mutated plants. Zhou Qian strode forward in silence the entire way, his heart filled with nothing but vigilance. He completely lacked Huai Yu’s joy of seeing a treasure in everything.
But having someone listen was enough to satisfy Huai Yu!
Although she had never sensed any dangerous species, Zhou Qian remaining vigilant was for the good of both of them, so she naturally wouldn’t drag him down.
Only, the large patch of wild raspberries hanging down from the mountain wall up ahead had already turned completely red…
Huai Yu’s feet couldn’t move anymore.
She stopped walking, but Zhou Qian was moving very fast. With his tall stature and long legs, his strides were large, and Huai Yu had to jog a couple of steps to keep up.
Walking ahead, he suddenly realized she was lagging behind. He turned around to stare at her. “Why aren’t you keeping up?”
Huai Yu pointed at the mountain wall. “That…”
Zhou Qian felt helpless. He had spotted the raspberries long ago, but they were quite high up and hung from the mountain wall, completely blanketed by a dense layer of vines.
Based on his experience, this was the exact type of place where mutated creatures loved to stage ambushes.
But Huai Yu was staring with wide, eager eyes, clearly unwilling to give up anytime soon.
He had no choice but to use a delaying tactic: “It’s not convenient to pick them now. Let’s do it on our way back.”
Huai Yu clearly sensed his perfunctoriness. She hesitated and said, “But there aren’t that many. Wouldn’t it feel wonderful to pick them and eat them while we climb the mountain?”
Zhou Qian: “…I don’t think so. Moreover, doing this wastes a lot of time, and mutated creatures like insects or snakes are easily hidden underneath. It’s very troublesome.”
He waved his hand. “Let’s go.”
Huai Yu had no choice but to follow reluctantly, constantly looking back as she walked.
Seeing this when he turned around, Zhou Qian felt utterly helpless.
After a pause, he retraced his steps. “Forget it. We’re spending the night in the mountain anyway, so a little delay won’t hurt anything—stand to the side first. Let me check it over before you come over to pick them.”
Fruit was rare nowadays. Since they had managed to find something edible, he might as well let her taste it.
Huai Yu cheered, nodding heavily. “Be careful! Once we pick them, I’ll definitely purify them until they’re perfectly clean so we can eat them together!”
With that, she reached out to pluck a few leaves from a nearby branch, folding and rolling them into a cone shape, then secured them with a thinner twig. Very quickly, she rolled out two adorable leaf cups— With so many ripe red raspberries, they could definitely fill two cups!
One cup for her, one cup for Zhou Qian. It really felt like going on a mountain picnic!
Over by the mountain wall, Zhou Qian had already swiftly extended his long staff to lift the dense patch of raspberries. A long gray line suddenly darted out from within. Before Huai Yu could see anything clearly, he had already swung his staff and pinned it, slicing the “line” in two.
It was an extremely slender snake.
Huai Yu’s heart gave a thump, and she instinctively grew tense. Zhou Qian, however, flipped through the vines once more and poked out a centipede as large as a human foot.
“Ah!” Huai Yu cried out!
“Scared?” Zhou Qian looked at her, but she shook her head, her face filled with complete regret. “If we scald this centipede to death with boiling water and use a stick to pin it straight, the pharmacy should buy it, right?”
At this size, it might be worth quite a few points.
Chapter 254: Affinity Mutation
Zhou Qian was left completely speechless.
He had fully prepared himself for Huai Yu to shriek in terror, but it turned out her head was filled with nothing but points, points, points… As expected of someone who could live all by herself right next to the Rose Corridor!
At this, he asked, “Then do you still want this centipede?”
Huai Yu let out a sigh. “It died such a pitiful death… Let’s take it. What if Ketaro eats meat, too?”
Zhou Qian: “…To be honest, I’m not entirely sure if a centipede actually has meat inside its body. Does it even count as meat?”
That was a good question, and Huai Yu didn’t know either.
She watched as Zhou Qian poked the centipede into the back basket, feeling quite smug: And you said we weren’t going to do any foraging!
So now—
Armed with a leaf cone each, they targeted the bright red raspberries, their fingers gently plucking away! Zhou Qian’s movements were lightning-fast. When he turned his head, a raspberry was already pressed against his lips, and Huai Yu was looking at him expectantly.
Zhou Qian opened his mouth.
Zhou Qian chewed.
Zhou Qian let out a sharp pfft and spat it out, his facial features contorting.
While he was frantically rinsing his mouth, Huai Yu let out an “ah”: “I knew it looked dirty and would taste terrible… My instincts really didn’t fail me!”
Then she offered him another one. Faced with Zhou Qian’s glare, her face remained perfectly innocent. “This one is purified. Aren’t you going to taste it?”
Zhou Qian: “…”
Trust between human beings had completely vanished. He plucked one himself, placed it in his palm, and tilted his chin up at Huai Yu. “Go on, purify it.”
This time, it was Huai Yu’s turn to be left speechless.
After a moment, she reached out her hand and gently tapped the raspberry. Zhou Qian stared at it for a long while before cautiously popping it into his mouth.
Tart.
Three parts tart and seven parts sweet, the fruit was tender and succulent. With a slight squeeze in his mouth, a rich explosion of juice burst forth, filling his entire mouth with a intoxicating aroma.
He didn’t say a word, but the speed of his hands picked up instantly. The bright red raspberries on the massive patch of vines were rapidly plucked away, and both leaf cones were soon piled high.
Yet Zhou Qian still didn’t give up. He fished a clean plastic bag out of the back basket, dumped them inside, and turned right back to plucking more.
Huai Yu checked her communicator; the display showed that more than ten minutes had passed just plucking raspberries.
Who was it that said this was a waste of time again?
The rest of the journey felt more and more like a mountain picnic.
Huai Yu followed behind, cradling the leaf cone in her hands. It was piled to a peak with raspberries, and she ate as she walked, looking thoroughly content.
Zhou Qian walked ahead. He had abandoned the leaf cone and instead hung the plastic bag from his waist. With one hand holding the long staff, his other hand would occasionally pinch a raspberry out of the bag to eat slowly…
In the end, it was Huai Yu who reminded him, “Don’t eat too many, or the sourness will set your teeth on edge!”
Zhou Qian remained perfectly stoic, pausing his hands for the moment and putting the plastic bag back into the basket.
Presently, the two of them were walking along a section of a tourist path that hadn’t been completely destroyed. Huai Yu looked down at a tung tree growing below the path and couldn’t help but steal a few extra glances.
Zhou Qian stopped in his tracks, staring at the dense clusters of green, unripe fruit on the tung tree. “Is it edible?”
Huai Yu nodded. “The oil pressed from this tung tree can be mixed with rice. Tung oil mixed with rice, plus a bit of soy sauce… If it’s just one meal, it won’t kill you.”
Zhou Qian turned around immediately and walked away. “Too dangerous. Stop looking.”
Huai Yu watched his retreating figure, strongly suspecting that if she hadn’t added that last sentence, he might have started plucking them.
By this point, they had been climbing the mountain for nearly an hour.
Because many of the paths in between were no longer visible, it took quite a bit of effort to make detours. Huai Yu had walked for so long that she was slightly out of breath. “How about we find a place to rest for a bit?”
Climbing mountains really was exhausting.
Zhou Qian turned around to stare at her, utterly incredulous. “It’s only been an hour!”
Huai Yu: “…In the past, it wouldn’t even take me an hour to find food and head back.”
But now, following Zhou Qian, even though the plant species were far more abundant than in the spring, she wasn’t allowed to forage anything. Aside from plucking the raspberries, she spent the entire time just walking and walking. It was so tedious!
Zhou Qian paused, then pointed ahead. “I hear the sound of running water. There should be suitable shade for a break ahead. But be careful, we need to keep a slight distance from it.”
Huai Yu quickly nodded. However, as she turned her head, she spotted the high canopy of a tree and instantly grew excited:
“Look, look! We really did make a massive detour! That’s the giant pine tree! The giant pine tree that’s so nice to me!”
Zhou Qian instinctively tensed his entire body.
But Huai Yu had already started slipping into the woods. “Let’s go, let’s go! If the giant pine tree wanted to hurt people, it would have done so long ago. It wouldn’t be so nice to me—this entire forest is very well-behaved, just walk with peace of mind!”
After all, the giant pine tree was well up in years. For the other smaller trees of different species to be well-behaved around it was simply the plant kingdom’s version of filial piety!
She quickly took the lead, with Zhou Qian following closely behind, only to realize that something was not quite right with Huai Yu ahead—
Branches of all sizes grew wild and haphazardly, and the shrubs underneath were a crisscrossing tangle of limbs. Yet as Huai Yu walked through, not only did she have no need to use a long staff to clear obstacles like he did, but her movements were inexplicably smooth. It was as if an invisible force field surrounded her body, pushing all the obstacles aside…
No, it wasn’t pushing them aside.
It was these plants consciously pulling away to either side, striving not to interfere with her path of advance.
No wonder she had said she walked faster when she was alone. It probably wasn’t that they had made a detour, but rather that she was unconsciously guided by the plants along the shortest possible route.
Was this the affinity mutation of a wood-type ability?
He took a deep breath, only to see a branch that had just avoided Huai Yu snap back violently, nearly whipping him right in the face! He deftly intercepted it with his long staff and smoothly brushed it aside.
He couldn’t help but think that this mutation direction was far too accommodating.
Huai Yu, however, was completely oblivious. Walking ahead, she quickly crossed this patch of woods and arrived at another familiar grove. Then she turned around to say to Zhou Qian in delight, “See? These are all the giant pine tree’s kin. I collected pine pollen here before and earned a massive fortune of contribution points!”
Particularly since those points had been provided by Wu Yue’s mother—hehe, for some reason, the thought just made her feel wonderful. It was a pity she had set her price too low; next time she would have to be bolder when opening her mouth.
Zhou Qian stared at the massive, seemingly endless forest of vibrant green pine trees before his eyes, and for some reason, a sudden chill rose within him.
Before he could raise his guard, he saw Huai Yu casually snap off a section of a pine branch. It bore a cluster of fluffy, outward-stretching emerald needles. “See? They are all very nice. I plan to find some time to pluck some of these needles to take back and make pine needle tea. Will you join me then?”
Thinking of this, Huai Yu felt a slight pang of regret—there were no larger bags in the back basket besides the plastic ones.
If Zhou Qian had agreed to let her bring a burlap sack, they could absolutely gather a whole sackful right now, leave it here, and pick it up on their way down the mountain.
After all, no one else would ever come up this mountain anyway.
Chapter 255: The Mutated Red Pine
Zhou Qian stared at the pine branch in Huai Yu’s hand, temporarily at a complete loss for words.
He surveyed their surroundings; it was deathly quiet. The newly sprouted trees in this pine forest varied in height—some were two or three meters tall, some four or five, and others stretched over ten meters into the air.
The pine needles closest to them were a tender, freshly budded green, looking so soft it made one instinctively want to reach out and run a hand through them.
This… was still considered safe, right?
He thought hesitantly, yet his heart hammered uncontrollably against his ribs, as though they were already being stared down by a fatal hazard.
This was a sixth sense forged through years of survival during the cataclysm. Zhou Qian instinctively reached out, grabbing Huai Yu’s arm. “Let’s go. We’re getting out of here first!”
The words had barely left his mouth when he sensed something rapidly hurtling toward them. He only had time to hastily wrench his body aside before a massive pinecone crashed down right in front of him.
It looked remarkably familiar.
“Wow!” Huai Yu, however, had already scooped up the pinecone in sheer delight. “Look, look! The giant pine tree must have sent this to me. It knows I’m here!”
She stood on her tiptoes to peer up at the sky, searching for a long time through the gaps in the canopy before catching a tiny glimpse of the giant pine tree. She quickly tugged at Zhou Qian, eager to pull him along.
“Come on, let me introduce you to it! That way, if I’m ever too busy to come up the mountain, you can just look for the giant pine tree directly.”
Huai Yu was working out her own little calculations in her head: when autumn and winter arrived, there would surely be a massive harvest of pinecones. Packing them all into bags would make them incredibly heavy, and she wouldn’t be able to haul them back alone.
Naturally, she would have to rely on Zhou, her long-term hired hand.
Getting him acquainted with it now was just like introducing family members to the Rose Corridor; she had to introduce him to the giant pine tree on the mountain too.
Zhou Qian’s entire body, however, remained tightly strung. “It knew you were here from such a distance—this level of mutation is clearly exceptionally high! Furthermore…”
He scanned their surroundings. The dense, crowded pines trapped him within like a cage, to the point where he couldn’t even discern a clear direction out if they had to run. Kuang Biao’s words echoed in his mind once again:
…Mutated red pine… pine pollen drifting across the entire mountain… completely silent and invisible… a massive pine forest sharing a single, unified consciousness…
Every single phrase had sounded deeply alarming when he first heard them, and seeing them validated one by one at this exact moment made his heart thunk with dread.
Huai Yu couldn’t budge him. Feeling the muscles beneath her hand tensed as hard as stone, she couldn’t help but wonder, “What’s wrong?”
Then she snapped out of it. “The giant pine tree isn’t the tree Kuang Biao was talking about at all. It’s very, very nice! It has a wonderful temper, and it even has a squirrel hole in its trunk.”
“If it were really that vicious, why would it be so good to me?”
But Zhou Qian clearly didn’t believe her right now.
Because he had suddenly realized something—Huai Yu’s affinity was seemingly entirely devoid of reason. Just take the Rose Corridor, a presence that caused everyone’s faces to pale with terror and that ordinary people couldn’t even approach; Huai Yu could easily live right next to it, and she could even constantly introduce new members of the household to it.
Could the exact same thing be happening with this giant pine tree right now?
By the time he came out of his thoughts, Huai Yu had already spread open her palm in front of him. “Look, this is the pine pollen I just plucked from the tree. It’s a perfectly ordinary material. I sold it before so people could use it for face masks.”
“How could it possibly be inhaled into the lungs, or pass through the mouth and nose into the stomach!”
The description just sounded entirely abnormal.
Zhou Qian stared at the pale yellow pine pollen in her palm, completely holding his breath.
But a moment later, he relaxed again—regardless of whether the giant pine tree was the mutated red pine Kuang Biao had described, he was already deep within the pine forest. Rather than remaining completely guarded when escaping was impossible anyway, he might as well just place his trust in Huai Yu.
After all, just as she had said, if the giant pine tree truly wanted to kill them, why would it go to all this trouble?
Huai Yu knew nothing of his complex internal conflict; she only saw that his attitude had softened, appearing to trust her judgment, so she happily pulled him along further into the forest.
The emerald pine needles parted seamlessly to either side, leaving their path of advance completely smooth and unimpeded. Huai Yu led Zhou Qian all the way forward, and before long, they stood before a giant pine tree so massive it would take several people linking arms just to encircle it.
This time, Huai Yu deftly let go of his hand and pressed her body directly against the giant pine tree, wrapping her arms around it in a big hug.
“Thank you so much!”
From the pinecones early on, to the pine pollen later, and now to the way it still remembered her and greeted her.
After a brief embrace, Huai Yu picked up the massive pinecone. “You clearly had a stockpile. Why did you only give me eleven back then? I was so incredibly poor back then, you know.”
The pine needles overhead rustled slightly, as if giving an answer. Zhou Qian stared at the pinecone in her hand, thinking about the speed and force with which it had been hurled down, and couldn’t help but form a bold theory—
Perhaps the giant pine tree hadn’t given her the pinecone out of the goodness of its heart at all; it had purely intended to crack open her skull. After all, his own vigilance toward the pine tree formed a sharp, discordant contrast with Huai Yu’s absolute trust.
Spurred by this theory, the moment he saw Huai Yu let go, he experimentally pressed his own palm against the trunk of the giant pine tree, his entire body on high alert—
Shhhk!
Hearing a sudden rush of wind, Zhou Qian whipped his hand back instantly, his movement so fast that Huai Yu couldn’t see it clearly at all. Zhou Qian stared at the ground; a emerald pine needle, as rigid as a steel pin, was impaled directly into the earth, with only half of it visible.
It wasn’t hard to imagine that a split second ago, it had genuinely intended to pierce straight through his palm.
He stared for quite a long time, and the pine needle quickly reverted to its normal state, no longer rigid and unyielding. Huai Yu, however, leaned over. “What are you looking at?”
The fallen leaves on the ground were soft, so the needle hadn’t made any sound when it struck. Huai Yu hadn’t seen a thing; she only knew that Zhou Qian had snapped his hand back before he even touched the tree.
She let out a helpless sigh. “Brother Zhou Qian, you are such a coward.”
With that, she took hold of his wrist and pressed his palm flat against the trunk of the giant pine tree. “Look, if you want a hug, just do it openly! The giant pine tree won’t yell at you.”
The rough bark lay directly beneath his palm; the edges of the reddish-brown pine scales seemed to glint with a cold, metallic sheen, yet not a single rough edge dared to scratch him.
Zhou Qian let out a smile. Looking at the completely oblivious Huai Yu, he suddenly reached out and ruffled her hair, making her squawk in protest, before breaking into a laugh:
“I suppose people really are happier when they’re a bit foolish.”
“Hey!!!” Huai Yu flailed her limbs wildly as her head was held down, but she didn’t forget to scold him: “Don’t think I don’t know what you mean! You just think the giant pine tree is that terrifying red pine Kuang Biao talked about!”
But how could that be possible!
The only blame lay in the fact that Zhou Qian had been through too much, and no longer believed in the moving friendship between humans and nature.
Huai Yu yanked his hand away, then grew proud again. “They all like me and treat me well. Do you feel left out? Are you jealous?”
The young girl, who was gradually growing up, patted his arm. “Don’t worry, Brother Zhou Qian! In my heart, you are just as worthy of trust. You are my real brother!”
She thought about it and added another line: “I won’t forget exactly whose land you got so dark plowing for!”
