Chapter 79: Just Grow a Little
The bamboo shoots had been out of their shells for five or six hours, and now they didn’t look as fresh to the naked eye.
But…
Huai Yu picked one up with a puzzled expression: Kuang Biao’s mutation value is over 50, so why don’t these bamboo shoots seem “contaminated”?
She curiously took a bite.
It had that distinct green taste of bamboo shoots, mixed with the flavors of grass and tender twigs. Not delicious, but… not nearly as bad as Uncle Date’s stuff…
In fact, it was surprisingly fresh and fragrant!
Huai Yu dumped all the shoots into a basin to rinse them, poured the boiled water from the pot into a thermos, then refilled the pot with cool water and began adding the shoots one by one.
As she added them, she pondered: Could it be that after a certain threshold, the more highly mutated and powerful a plant is, the less mutated its edible parts become?
Very possible!
Otherwise, when she brought those low-mutation things before, why did Boss Tang and the others assume she had some powerful backer?
She grabbed the salt bag and sprinkled some into the pot, covered it, and stoked the fire again.
The door was left open.
Kuang Biao’s glowing green light outside still pulsed softly on the ground.
Fresh bamboo shoots couldn’t wait, and since he was still so energetic, he could hold out a bit longer.
There were too many bamboo shoots, and Huai Yu’s pot wasn’t very big. After boiling them in three batches, she finally finished. Then she soaked them in cold water and looked at the small basin of bamboo hearts…
Forget it, she’d deal with them tomorrow!
She grabbed her hoe and shovel and headed out—
“Kuang Biao, let’s go! I’ll take you to see your new territory.”
With the Rose Corridor guarding her, even if the Mutated Plant Defense Army showed up and questioned why a bamboo plant was growing behind her house, she could feign complete ignorance—
No idea.
Not a clue.
Woke up and it was just there.
Feeling heroic, she pointed to the large spacious land behind her house:
“Go ahead, pick your spot!”
Kuang Biao immediately shook his leaves excitedly. “Let me take a spot about five meters behind the house, then I can grow all around to repel mosquitoes and provide shade.”
“And when it snows in winter, I won’t lean toward the house.”
Huai Yu: …
Well, that’s… overly thoughtful.
“Fine.”
With the Rose Corridor around, Huai Yu felt more relaxed. She picked a reasonably good spot and pressed her foot onto the shovel:
“This is it! But hey, don’t grow too wildly. I don’t raise pandas, I don’t need a huge bamboo forest.”
Though… bamboo rats might be an option…
Thinking of that, she softened her tone slightly: “Alright then, go ahead and grow a little however you like.”
Kuang Biao responded tactfully, “Got it! Don’t worry, Xiao Yu, I know my limits!”
Since it was just a single bamboo stalk—and a mutated one at that—planting it wasn’t too hard.
She dug a deep hole, stuck in his short roots, filled it with soil, packed it tight, watered it… done.
By the time Huai Yu finished, cleaned up, took a quick shower, and collapsed into bed, it was already 4 a.m.
She stretched out with a big yawn, and quickly drifted into deep sleep.
In her dreams, braised bamboo rat with bamboo shoots smelled amazing…
She had been so exhausted the night before that she didn’t wake up until past 10 a.m.
She sat up in a daze, spaced out a bit, then jolted awake when she saw the basin full of bamboo shoots soaking by the bed.
She opened the door—clear skies, bright sun!
After soaking overnight, the blanched bamboo shoots were now soft. She took them out one by one, gently squeezed out the water, then hung them on the clothes rack outside.
Fresh bamboo shoots were delicious, sure—but these weren’t exactly fresh anymore, so might as well wait for Kuang Biao to grow a new batch…
“?!!”
She turned around and looked—bamboo leaves were already poking out from behind the roof. And it wasn’t just a few—it was a lot.
“Kuang Biao!”
She rushed to the back of the house and was too stunned to say anything beyond his name.
Earlier, she’d only seen a small section due to the angle and the house blocking her view. But now, up close…
Hiss—
An entire bamboo forest stretched out before her, thick and lush, forming a perfect straight line behind her house. It was at least 40–50 meters long!
She stepped back toward the edge and saw it continued far, far into the distance…
This wasn’t two mu of land—more like five mu!
And as she stood there stunned, she saw a bamboo shoot breaking through the soil at the edge. It slowly, slowly grew taller, shedding its husk, forming branches, spreading its leaves… until it became a tall, straight bamboo stalk.
“Xiao Yu, you’re here! Want some bamboo shoots? Just grew them, super fresh!”
“Need bamboo poles? They’re pretty sturdy too. Make great bamboo tube rice!”
Kuang Biao swayed his branches in a show of effort, sounding tired and weak—probably from pushing himself so hard to grow all this overnight.
No wonder he wanted into the safe zone.
If he went to the wilds in this condition, without establishing roots or a territory, any slightly bigger plant could wipe him out. But if he stayed to grow roots, he’d become weak and vulnerable to predators. Both options were dangerous.
Still, his weakness and flattery didn’t make Huai Yu feel any sympathy. Instead, she just felt foolish.
All that effort dragging back a huge basket of bamboo shoots yesterday, the sweet-talking, and collecting bamboo hearts—and Kuang Biao could just grow a whole forest overnight?!
All her hard work felt so… cheap.
“You said you’d just grow a little!”
“I did…” Kuang Biao’s voice was small. “This area is so spacious, but I still held myself back and just grew a little.”
“It’s just… I went through a tough battle, had to sacrifice some limbs to survive, and I’m still recovering.”
“This land is really fertile, so I just let my roots spread a little bit farther… not a big deal, right?”
“Just a little! Really, just grew a little!”
He swayed his branches again, saying softly, “Xiao Yu, want some fresh bamboo shoots? They’re not as power-packed in flavor as the ones from the mountain, but they should still be pretty good.”
Trees communicated with each other and passed on information. Sometimes, he even caught snippets of what human explorers said.
Like how bamboo shoots from someone as powerful as him usually had mutation values below 12—very desirable.
Huai Yu: …
She was actually a bit comforted by that.
Because she couldn’t possibly farm all 600+ mu of land on her own.
Whether the bamboo grew on two mu or five, it didn’t really make a difference to her.
But now, her efforts from yesterday just seemed silly.
Although… if there was a quality difference…
Ah well! That’s just human nature.
At least she wasn’t mad anymore.
“Alright then!” she nodded. “You grow as you like. I’ll go dry those bamboo hearts I collected yesterday.”
Then she’d compare them—mountain-grown vs. last night’s batch—and see which was better!
