Chapter 322 | Chapter 323 | Chapter 324
Chapter 322: Extremely Stingy
Zhou Qian: “……”
Luckily, he had come prepared—wearing combat boots.
But this chestnut tree was truly petty. When it hit Huai Yu, it was just a quick barrage of clatter and it was over. When it hit him, though, it didn’t stop even when he had nowhere left to dodge—he was practically getting bruised all over!
Then he looked at Huai Yu, who was standing by the trunk, clapping happily with a bright smile. He couldn’t help but sigh. In the end, he simply stopped resisting and stood there, letting the chestnuts rain down on him.
Once he gave up struggling, the tree quickly seemed satisfied. At this moment, the ground beneath them was covered in a thick layer of glossy brown-red chestnuts, mixed with a few full, plump burrs. The harvest was indeed quite abundant.
But Zhou Qian didn’t go for the sack immediately. Instead, he walked quickly to the edge of the trunk and asked Huai Yu, “You can communicate with it, right?”
How to put it… the feeling was subtle. She could sense the chestnut tree’s emotions, but for it to fully convey its thoughts—that was still somewhat difficult.
Still, Huai Yu nodded. “It’s in a very good mood.”
Zhou Qian took off his helmet and rubbed his sore arm. “After beating us up like that, of course it’s in a good mood.”
“Let’s go,” he said, reassured. “Since it’s happy, we should quickly pack up the chestnuts.”
But Huai Yu had no intention of leaving!
She glared at Zhou Qian. “Don’t think you can brush this off and change the subject—you still haven’t apologized! What kind of grudge do you have against me, tricking me into getting beaten like that? I was almost smashed open!”
Zhou Qian pointed at the crack on his helmet. “The force of those chestnuts hitting you probably wouldn’t even leave a mark. Look at my helmet!”
“Didn’t I get hit too?”
“That’s different!” Huai Yu was very sharp. “You got hit because you deserved it. I got hit because you tricked me. These are two completely different situations!”
Two completely different situations indeed!
Huai Yu pointed at the chestnut tree. “So what exactly are its habits?”
Zhou Qian would never normally let her suffer for no reason. Since he had done so this time, the issue must lie in the mutated chestnut tree’s characteristics.
“Well…” Zhou Qian looked up at the dense canopy that completely blocked out the sky, and at the large, plump chestnut burrs hidden among the leaves. Still a little shaken, he said, “Like I said, it’s very petty.”
“Petty and stingy.”
“So even in fighting, it sizes people up—if a small animal comes, it throws smaller and fewer chestnuts with less force. If the target is large and strong, it throws faster, harder, and more…”
“And if a whole team comes…” He paused. “Let’s just say, there are over a million chestnuts on this entire tree.”
“The scariest part is, as a mutated plant, we still don’t know if it can regenerate them instantly.”
Huai Yu: …
So the angle and force of the attacks were all controlled by it—if it really wanted to fight to the death, one chestnut could smash a hole in someone’s skull… that was the idea, right?
Even Huai Yu fell silent at this realization. After thinking for a while, she could only summarize:
“Well… it actually has a bit of a gentleman’s demeanor.”
One-on-one or two-on-two—it didn’t just unleash full indiscriminate firepower!
As soon as she said this, the leaves above rustled loudly. Zhou Qian instinctively tensed up, as if facing a great enemy. But Huai Yu simply looked up, clearly in a good mood.
He paused, then silently added another label to the tree:
[Likes flattery]
Huai Yu thought for a moment, then said, “So you thought that after it hit me, it wouldn’t hit you, right? Brother Zhou Qian! You’re so cunning—you actually used me to test the waters!”
Zhou Qian pointed again at the crack in his helmet. “Your helmet doesn’t even have a scratch. Mine was almost smashed through… So tell me—do you want the chestnuts or not?”
Huai Yu huffed, thinking how could a grown man not take responsibility!
But looking at the pile of shiny brown chestnuts on the fallen leaves, she couldn’t help herself. She reached out and touched the trunk again.
“Look, they’ve already fallen, and there are so many. Leaving them here won’t let them sprout anyway. Your canopy blocks so much light that even weeds don’t want to grow… better let people like us, who know how to appreciate them, take them back…”
She muttered softly. After sensing the tree’s emotions, she couldn’t help but say to Zhou Qian, “It’s actually quite easy to talk to!”
Zhou Qian gave her a complicated look.
This was District Eight, just one rest camp away from the still-unexplored District Nine. As the final gatekeeper boss, this chestnut tree would only allow someone like Huai Yu—a girl with no combat ability—to pass through alone…
After all, who would go explore District Nine alone?
Just this trait of growing stronger against stronger opponents was enough to make any large team suffer greatly. If the one in charge back then hadn’t been General Lin, it would have been a long, drawn-out battle—
After all, in the early days of the disaster, not everyone’s abilities were this strong. Back then, General Lin could only control water within a one-meter straight-line distance!
But talking about that now was meaningless. The exploration progress in District D was far ahead of other areas, and the chestnut tree had become even stronger than before.
Zhou Qian glanced around at the now-quiet surroundings, then pulled Huai Yu back to the car.
“Here,” he said, handing her the large sack. “This time, we really might need to fill a whole sack.”
“No problem!”
Huai Yu was full of energy. “Since we’re almost at District Nine, we should take time to rest and recover. Brother Zhou Qian, how about after we reach the rest area tonight, we don’t rush tomorrow and stay an extra night?”
She pointed at the sack in his hand. “With so many chestnuts, if we just leave them overnight, most of them will get worms by tomorrow.”
“If you’re willing to rest one more day, I can boil and dry all of them. That way, whether we stir-fry or roast them later, they won’t spoil or get worms!”
In the end, it all came down to one word—eat.
But after thinking it over, Zhou Qian realized there was no mission schedule to follow, nor any responsibility weighing on him. The suggestion actually sounded pretty good.
Which brought up one question—
He looked up again at the impenetrable canopy of the chestnut tree and asked naturally:
“Now it just depends on whether this chestnut tree will let us leave.”
“Huh?” Huai Yu froze.
She also looked up at the branches and chestnuts overhead, then asked softly, “Brother Zhou Qian… will it stop us?”
“Mm.” Zhou Qian’s expression was blank. “I told you, it’s very stingy. You can leave—but you have to return all the chestnuts you just picked.”
Huai Yu: …
Return them?!!
Chapter 323: Gold Beneath the Knees
Return it?!
Huai Yu would absolutely not agree to that!
“If we return it, wouldn’t I have been beaten for nothing?!” She clutched the sack tightly, refusing to cooperate. “Besides, it’s a chestnut tree. The chestnuts have already fallen out—what’s the point of putting them back? Raise squirrels with them?”
With such a thick trunk, if squirrels didn’t hollow out a whole castle inside, it would practically be a waste of space.
Zhou Qian sighed. “Returning them just means piling them at its base. In winter, they keep it warm and slowly fertilize it, so it can grow bigger again.”
Huai Yu: …
“Can’t you swap out that slow-release fertilizer you brought? If not, just scatter some soybeans around it! Wouldn’t that be more efficient and effective than composting its own chestnuts?”
Zhou Qian shook his head. “I told you, its chestnuts are the best in the world. It only likes its own.”
Faced with such a narcissistic and stingy thing, trying to take some chestnuts from it was like slicing lean meat off a heron’s leg—impossible! Huai Yu dropped the sack, rolled up her sleeves, and strode forward aggressively.
“Watch me!”
Zhou Qian immediately braced himself, instinctively grabbing the sack, ready to drag it and run at the slightest sign of trouble—or just throw it if he couldn’t escape.
The next moment, Huai Yu marched up to the chestnut tree, then without hesitation spread her arms and pressed herself against it.
“Please!”
Silence fell all around.
Just like Zhou Qian’s deadened heart.
The chestnut tree didn’t move. It neither asked for its chestnuts back nor refused them. One could only vaguely sense its complicated emotions surging within.
Huai Yu, familiar with the routine, bent her knees—
“Little Yu!”
Zhou Qian hurriedly stopped her. “We have gold beneath our knees! It’s not worth kneeling for something like this!”
Huai Yu looked confused. “Why not? That sack holds at least 300 jin of chestnuts! Before the disaster, chestnuts this glossy, plump, and free of pests would sell for at least eight yuan per jin.”
As she calculated, she even started daydreaming. “Three hundred jin is 2,400 yuan. If kneeling once earns me 2,400, I wouldn’t even ask for compensation if I got a concussion!”
Then she looked at Zhou Qian sincerely. “Brother Zhou Qian, you’re right—there really is gold beneath our knees! Several grams’ worth!”
Zhou Qian: …
Suddenly, the dignity he’d been clinging to felt utterly worthless…
No, wait!
How did he get led astray?!
“Anyway! You can’t just kneel casually! People will look down on you! What if you fight someone in the future and can’t win—will you kneel then too?”
Huai Yu pouted. “Why would I kneel to a person? If they’re going to beat me, kneeling won’t make them spare me! I won’t do that!”
But the chestnut tree wasn’t a person.
She sighed, glanced at Zhou Qian’s strange expression, and said, “Alright, alright! Sister Chenxing said men are all like this—always clinging to some inexplicable sense of dignity… Fine, I won’t kneel!”
She spoke, then pressed herself against the tree again. Threads of her ability flowed from her palms into the trunk, accompanied by her soft question:
“So… can we take the chestnuts with us now?”
The amount of power she gave was minimal—no more than what she used to stimulate that eggplant plant in the garden.
Facing such a massive chestnut tree, Huai Yu had thought it would be like pouring water into the sea. But unexpectedly, the entire tree began to tremble!
From trunk to branches, leaves to the burr-covered chestnuts—everything shook violently. Then, with a series of crackling sounds, they all began to fall.
This time, however, they weren’t being hurled—they simply dropped naturally.
Zhou Qian had already taken off his cracked helmet and was bending down to pick up chestnuts. Suddenly, it felt like wind howled from every direction—there was nowhere to dodge!
He twisted aside to avoid a massive burr, quickly jammed his helmet back on, but another glossy chestnut dropped and smashed into the back of his hand, leaving a bruise.
“Little Yu!” Zhou Qian dodged frantically, shouting, “Didn’t I tell you not to use your ability so casually? Have you forgotten about the ice lamp jade dew?!”
Huai Yu got angry too. She pulled her hands back and put them on her hips. “This isn’t allowed, that isn’t allowed—so do we want the chestnuts or not?!”
Zhou Qian choked on his words.
At that moment, he wished he could go back three minutes and slap himself. If he’d known he’d get beaten twice like this, he might as well have let Little Yu kneel!
He’d kneel too if needed!
……
Ten minutes later.
Zhou Qian sat beneath the chestnut tree, aching all over, completely motionless.
The chestnuts had fallen too quickly—he had nowhere to hide. The crack in his helmet had widened again, and his body was battered by layers of falling chestnuts and burrs.
Through thick clothing, the damage from natural falls wasn’t severe—but there were just too many hits.
Now even his supposedly tough body ached dully.
If he’d known, why bother?
Meanwhile, Huai Yu happily spread the sack wide open on the ground, scooping chestnuts with a basin and nudging them with her foot. Soon she had a full basin—some burrs, but mostly glossy, reddish-brown chestnuts.
One sack definitely wouldn’t be enough now!
“Ah!” She pretended to rub her waist. “There’s so many, I might not even finish collecting them in a whole day. Our car won’t even fit them all!”
Zhou Qian said nothing.
Huai Yu didn’t care. She happily filled another basin, then heard Zhou Qian ask curiously:
“Do you have some kind of extraordinary noble bloodline? So much stuff—if you don’t use your ability, can you just kneel once and get it?”
After all, even if nobility isn’t inherited among people, maybe plants have their own hierarchy?
Huai Yu looked puzzled. “Brother Zhou Qian, I think your mind is full of outdated nonsense! One moment you’re worried I’ll kneel to bad people, the next you think kneeling to a tree will make me look down on myself…”
She raised her voice. “It’s just the two of us here—if you don’t say anything, who’s going to look down on me?”
“And! I kneel because I’m cute! I’m young! These mutated plants are all so big, so huge—I’m not even as tall as one of their branches! So small and adorable—wouldn’t kneeling look cute?”
“If your doll bowed to you and asked for a cookie, wouldn’t you think it’s adorable?”
Zhou Qian: …To be honest, if he had a doll and it bowed to him, he’d probably smash it to pieces immediately.
What kind of horror was that?!
But he understood her analogy—
If you met a stray cat on the road, rubbing against you, licking you, rolling over and begging for food…
Who could refuse?
As long as the plant or mutated creature wasn’t hostile, it probably couldn’t resist that kind of behavior.
Thinking of this, Zhou Qian felt his body ache even more—
The first time the chestnut tree submitted had been under General Lin’s command. He hadn’t been involved, but both the garrison and defense forces had thick manuals detailing its taboos and how to deal with it.
For years, all they’d done was get beaten—they’d never taken even a single empty shell!
And now…
If he’d known earlier, they might as well have each knelt once and carried away a hundred jin of chestnuts!
Chapter 324: A New Roasting Oven
While mulling things over, Zhou Qian casually picked up a chestnut from the ground and popped it into his mouth.
The chestnut was perfectly ripe. Its glossy reddish-brown shell was spotless—just a quick rub against his clothes and it was ready to eat.
With a bite—crack—the shell split open slightly. It couldn’t really be pried apart by hand, so he had to tug at it with his teeth, gnawing it open to reveal the fuzzy brown inner skin.
That thin layer clung tightly to the golden flesh and couldn’t be peeled off either. But as a man, Zhou Qian wasn’t picky—he just ate it together with the skin.
Though it affected the texture a little, it made the yellow flesh inside even chewier, with a rich sweetness and a refreshing taste when chewed.
And best of all—there wasn’t a single off-flavor!
With a mutation level like this, it was definitely below 5!
The stronger the plant, the better its fruit tasted. Zhou Qian quickly calculated the current market price for food with mutation levels below 5—
Even if chestnuts were heavy, they wouldn’t sell for less than 30 cents per jin. And that was during the abundant autumn and winter seasons. If someone with ice-type abilities stored them properly and sold them closer to New Year, even 80 per jin would have a market!
So Little Yu was right—there really was gold beneath their knees, and plenty of it…
That sense of having missed out on such a treasure was hard for Zhou Qian to accept. Eventually, he asked Huai Yu:
“Little Yu… would it work if ordinary people like us bowed too?”
Huai Yu shook her head. “No idea. But first, you’d have to be as cute and likable as me, right? And your affinity with plants can’t be low!”
Zhou Qian thought of his teammates—even the women walked with force and fought with lethal punches, tearing apart stainless steel basins with ease.
Then he looked at Huai Yu…
And that plant affinity…
Forget it.
He chewed his chestnuts numbly, thinking it was probably for the best that his comrades didn’t have this ability. As long as no one said anything, no one would feel regret or frustration.
At that moment, Huai Yu returned. She brought her hands from behind her back and held them out in front of him.
“Look!”
Zhou Qian startled slightly, then stared at the thin twig in her hand—a slender chestnut branch with two long leaves—and froze.
“You’ve grasped the life vein of the chestnut tree?”
Huai Yu widened her eyes. “Brother Zhou Qian, have you been secretly reading some weird books behind my back? This is just a chestnut branch! A branch with naturally low mutation value! If we take it back and propagate it, it’ll grow into something tasty and valuable without me even needing to purify it!”
She beamed. “I only gave it a tiny bit of growth energy just now, but the plants out here in the wilderness seem like they’ve never had anything good before—they got so excited from just that little bit. So asking for a branch or two isn’t too much, right?”
Looking at the lively twig in her hand, she quickly told Zhou Qian to find a container and dig up some soil—she was going to plant it immediately!
One advantage of mutated plants was that this chestnut tree didn’t even need grafting—it would grow excellently on its own.
At this rate, she might even open a chestnut pastry shop someday!
So rich!
Zhou Qian couldn’t share Huai Yu’s joy.
After all, newly reinstated as the sack-carrying laborer Zhou, he wasn’t qualified to feel happy just yet.
Three huge sacks were stuffed to the brim, their corners barely holding together. That was already after leaving the burr shells behind—otherwise they’d need a fourth sack.
Ahead lay unexplored territory. Their car was parked at the last rest stop. Zhou Qian rubbed his sore arms and decided to take a full day to rest tomorrow.
Huai Yu, however, muttered beside him, “One day’s not enough! Two days—two days!”
Even two might not be enough! They hadn’t brought a pot big enough.
A thousand jin of chestnuts!
Boiling and roasting them would take forever, and without proper processing they wouldn’t keep. If such good stuff went to waste, Huai Yu would feel like her kowtows had been in vain!
“…Didn’t you not kneel?” Zhou Qian asked, puzzled.
Huai Yu thought for a moment. “Well, you stopped me, but I knelt in my heart—anyway, we can’t finish it in one day. Two days!”
Zhou Qian glanced at the three massive sacks in the car and could only nod.
Fortunately, the new rest area was beside a large pond, with a flat shore where they could settle safely.
Beyond the pond, through the forest ahead, lay an entirely new stretch of wilderness.
Thinking of this, both of them felt a mix of anticipation and unease.
Early the next morning, Huai Yu hastily cooked a pot of chestnut porridge, then urged Zhou Qian to dig mud by the pond.
“Hurry! We only have two days—time is tight!”
The pot they brought was too small. Processing a thousand jin of chestnuts would take forever, so Huai Yu had built a crude stone roasting oven overnight. She planned to seal the gaps with pond mud, dry it with fire, and then roast the chestnuts inside.
Would it work? No idea.
Would the chestnuts cook properly? Also no idea.
But they’d just have to try boldly.
Zhou Qian had wanted to say he hadn’t even finished his porridge, but seeing the stone oven Huai Yu had already built at dawn, he swallowed his words. Fine—if they’d worked so hard to get these chestnuts, they couldn’t waste them.
He grabbed a large basin, rolled up his pants, stepped into the pond’s edge, and began scooping up mud by the handful.
He had thought maybe they could catch some fish while they were at it, but seeing Huai Yu busy processing the chestnuts, he didn’t bring it up.
Given the safety of this rest area, the pond had likely been cleared multiple times. Any fish left were either bad-tasting or downright awful…
But Huai Yu could purify things.
As that thought crossed his mind, Zhou Qian paused.
He realized he had already grown accustomed to relying on this new life—on his new “little sister” and her abilities.
And honestly, it didn’t feel bad at all.
While Zhou Qian got lost in his thoughts, Huai Yu noticed none of it. She was busy stuffing small stones into the gaps of the oven, eager to finish it as quickly as possible.
Fortunately, despite its crude construction, the test fire didn’t produce smoke everywhere—it was safe!
Zhou Qian let out a sigh of relief. Digging mud was no easy job—he’d already trudged halfway around the pond in icy water just to gather enough.
If he kept going, he really wouldn’t be able to resist catching fish—he’d just seen two, each over ten centimeters long!
But with success so close, he simply asked, “How long will it take to dry?”
Huai Yu frowned. “Not sure. It’s mostly stone, just with mud in the gaps. Once we light a fire and bake it properly, it should dry quickly.”
Even if it didn’t dry completely, it didn’t matter—as long as it could roast her chestnuts thoroughly.
