Chapter 89: What a Big Appetite!
The two rookie breeders stared at the chubby goslings, both feeling a little overwhelmed.
The goslings, however, were completely unfazed. They remained calm, didn’t even make a peep, and slowly preened the few strands of fluff on their bodies. Then they turned to poke at their eggshells with their flat beaks.
Boss Tang watched for a moment, then couldn’t help but smile with a hint of fatherly affection. “They’re kinda cute…”
Before he could finish his sentence, there was a CRACK—one of the goslings lost control while pecking the shell and struck the counter instead.
The glass shattered.
Boss Tang: “!!!”
Huai Yu’s eyes went wide too. “Did… did they break the glass?”
Of course they did.
There was a big hole! The edges were littered with shards, and the smooth glass counter now looked like it had been hit by a bullet.
Awkward.
Huai Yu sheepishly asked, “Is glass… expensive?”
Seeing the two goslings still pecking everywhere, she hurriedly reached out to grab them—they were heavy!
So she switched to scooping them up with both hands and put them back into the cardboard box.
Boss Tang had meant to say something to stop her, but seeing how fierce yet oddly docile the goslings were, he just swallowed his words.
“Forget it,” he said generously. “We’ll just slap a sticker on it for now. No need to replace it yet.”
“But these goslings are something else… Why are they still pecking at the eggshells? Are they hungry?”
No wonder raising mutated pets was such a trend in the capital city now. Who wouldn’t want a strong, obedient, and calm pet by their side?
No, he needed to get one too!
He rushed to the storeroom. “Let me get them a veggie.”
Huai Yu felt pretty guilty.
She suspected that their powerful little beaks were a result of the growth-boosting energy she’d given them.
Seeing them peck the shells out of the box again, she reached out to pinch one—but instantly got a sharp cut on her finger, a drop of blood welling up.
She froze.
—That was just an eggshell, not glass! And she hadn’t even used much force!
She looked back at the goslings, still dumbly trying to peck their way through the shells, yet not even making a dent.
Huai Yu: “…”
Now she seriously started to reflect—maybe she’d gone too hard with the energy boost. Those cracks were definitely caused by her power, right?
The guilt deepened. She silently promised: Never again.
After the oath, she glanced at the hole in the glass again…
Huai Yu quietly picked up some tissues, carefully collecting the shards of eggshell.
With nothing left to peck, the two goslings finally got a bit restless and let out high-pitched sounds.
Kind of like a chicken… or a duck… or a goose.
More like—
“Ahhh ahhh ahhh…”
She was speechless. Do baby geese really sound like that?
Just then, Boss Tang came out of the storeroom, carefully carrying half a cabbage:
“Here we go. This was leftover from yesterday. Nowadays we don’t cut up whole cabbages anymore, we peel the leaves layer by layer—see? Still looks fresh, right?”
“Mutation value’s only 15… Hmm! They’re so small, should I chop it up for them?”
Silence fell over the two again.
After a while, Huai Yu mumbled awkwardly, “Probably doesn’t need chopping… Let’s just try first.”
Next time, she definitely had to bring something good for Boss Tang!
Like maybe some of her family’s ginseng?
Though last time the ginseng growing in the vented bricks outside her door had all been neatly trimmed down to stubs. She had since used her powers to help them regrow, and now they had stems and leaves again…
But didn’t ginseng take years to mature?
Huai Yu spiraled into a mini existential crisis.
Meanwhile, the goslings didn’t care at all.
Their grey fluff was almost dry now, and a faint downiness was visible. When they saw the cabbage, they didn’t hesitate a second before waddling right up to it.
Despite their dark flat beaks, they made adorable crunch munch noises while eating.
Their beaks were like electric drills, boring straight through the cabbage. The hole got deeper and deeper…
Until finally, their entire heads were inside it.
But their bodies were so round that their chests and bellies couldn’t fit in. Their little wings and feet flailed outside, twitching and kicking—It was hilarious.
Boss Tang quickly ducked under the counter to rummage around, eventually pulling out an old camera.
“C’mon, c’mon, I gotta get a picture of this!”
Oh wow!
If he hadn’t brought that out, Huai Yu would’ve kept thinking technology hadn’t advanced here. Only now did she realize that smartphones still existed.
They were just crazy expensive—more than 5,000 points, with no internet, limited functions, and terrible battery life. Compared to that, basic communicator phones around 2,000 points were more practical.
Oddly enough, cameras were cheaper. You could get a used one for 2–3k points.
But the real problem was the film—hard to come by. And the card readers and memory cards were super pricey!
So… all things considered, Boss Tang’s gaming consoles probably sold better than the camera.
…
The goslings never managed to pull their heads back out, but the outer cabbage leaves had started to collapse, and the constant crunching noises inside…
Yeah, they’d pretty much hollowed it out.
Boss Tang was gleefully snapping photos and recording video.
Mumbling as he went: “That 100 points was so worth it! So worth it! I knew Gao Ming couldn’t be that dumb—maybe the dung beetles were a fluke, but these geese, now this is the real deal…”
“Lucky us it landed in our laps, or I’d be regretting it forever…”
He babbled on happily.
Meanwhile, Huai Yu stared at the cabbage… then at the two goslings.
“Is it just me, or are they eating… a bit too much?”
At her words, Boss Tang finally put the camera down.
That cabbage was leftover, sure, but for a human, even one meal wouldn’t finish more than a few leaves. It was still pretty big.
But these two baby geese hadn’t stopped eating the whole time. Now there were only the outer two leaves left.
And their bellies were still just as round. Where did it all go? Geese should have some idea of fullness, right?
They had just hatched! If they grow bigger, how much will they eat in one sitting? Most people couldn’t afford that kind of feed.
Huai Yu sighed. “Whatever. We’ve already fed them. At least they’re vegetarian… Worst case, I’ll figure something out.”
Like maybe releasing them into the other side of the rose corridor to forage for wild greens. Let them eat their fill and come back.
Boss Tang thought it over too. Sure, they had a huge appetite, but with Huai Yu’s family background, they probably wouldn’t go hungry. He felt reassured and went back to rummaging again:
“Let me find a proper cardboard box for you.”
