Chapter 188: Chapter 155: Mutated Ginseng
By the time she returned home, the sun had already set in the west. Huai Yu packed the rock sugar into jars and immediately went to the edge of the treehouse.
A lush cluster of wisteria grew here. The blooming season had passed, leaving only green leaves and tangled stems that didn’t stand out among the tall weeds. However, on the cleared patch of dirt next to the treehouse, a row of Square Hole Bricks still sat neatly. Inside were thin green stems of varying heights, topped with a pitiful two or three green leaves.
Huai Yu counted them one by one. There were exactly eight mutated ginseng plants.
Five of them had their stems chopped in half because of Wu Yue back then, and the new growth was still thin and spindly. She picked the sturdiest one of the bunch and carried it straight to the front of her house.
Originally, she was going to move these ginseng plants to her new home. Although she didn’t know how to grow ginseng, she had heard of things like understory ginseng. They probably needed a shaded area under trees to grow well. Therefore, after some hesitation, Huai Yu moved them back under the wisteria treehouse. There was some sunlight here, but not much. It could more or less simulate their natural habitat... probably. Even if it was a very rough simulation.
But at the very least, with the blessing of a little Growth Superpower, they had all managed to survive against the odds.
And now, the mutated ginseng, which looked like a small carrot, was dug out of the Square Hole Brick and planted by Huai Yu in the clearing by her door. Then, using both her Growth Superpower and Purification Ability simultaneously, she could soon sense its roots taking hold in the soil and growing rapidly.
The stem on top grew thicker, clusters of palm-like leaves unfurled, and little bunches of flowers bloomed.
Although it seemed like a small change, it consumed significantly more of her superpowers. Yet, Huai Yu only grew happier. Panting slightly, she turned back into the house to grab a wad of cotton, lightly brushing it against the flowers to pollinate them.
After resting for a while, she used her superpower again.
Some time later, Huai Yu woke up groggily to find her surroundings pitch black. The stars in the sky twinkled brightly, and a refreshing chill hung in the air around her. Something beside her was carefully poking her cheek with its antennae, and something else hopped onto her shoulder. She turned her head, straining to make out the silhouettes in the dark.
It was Ke Taichiro, along with the family’s little chick, which looked an absolute mess and incredibly ugly in the middle of molting.
"Did I fall asleep?"
She pushed herself up off the ground in a daze. After a moment of thought, she finally realized what had happened. She had been continuously using her Growth Superpower on the mutated ginseng. The seeds fell, bloomed, and grew again. After three or five cycles, she had lost consciousness...
The ginseng!
Startled, Huai Yu quickly groped around on the pitch-black ground. Even after a long time, she couldn’t feel that distinct stem. Thinking for a moment, she carefully got to her feet, fumbled her way back into the house, and brought out the solar lamp.
However...
Under the bright illumination of the lamp, the empty Square Hole Brick sat there, as did the hole she had dug nearby to plant the ginseng. Only the soil in the middle of the hole was loose and fluffy, as if something had rooted through it. As for that ginseng plant—the one that had grown exceptionally sturdy before she passed out—there was no trace of it at all.
"..."
Huai Yu stood there blankly, holding the lamp. For the life of her, she couldn’t recall any other memories.
She looked at Ke Taichiro and the chick. The former was still holding its little balls of dung, moving them one by one into the basin in its nest like a diligent porter. The latter followed the rhythm of nature perfectly: going out to scratch the dirt for food during the day, and returning to the house to sleep as soon as it got dark. The only reason it had been hopping on Huai Yu’s shoulder earlier was purely because she happened to have collapsed right next to the chicken coop. It was just passing through.
So... her massive ginseng plant was just gone?
The main issue was that she had no idea how it disappeared. With the Rose Corridor around, it was impossible for anyone to sneak in and steal it! As for her companions, neither Kuang Biao nor Little Tian were the type to do such a thing.
So how on earth did she lose it?
The ginseng couldn’t have grown legs and run away on its own, could it?
At this thought, for some unknown reason, an idea suddenly popped into her head. She wondered, "Ginseng is supposed to be tied with a red string, isn’t it? Otherwise, it’ll burrow into the ground and run away..."
Huai Yu was speechless.
Come to think of it, if bamboo could talk, then a ginseng plant running away was perfectly logical, wasn’t it?
Was it?
Logical, maybe, but she still felt utterly cheated!
Carrying the lamp, she searched back and forth, practically pressing her face to the ground as she combed through every inch. But after more than half an hour, she had almost searched all the way to the back of the house and still hadn’t seen a single trace of it. Instead, her stomach RUMBLED with hunger.
She thought of the height mark she had carved by the door. Feeling glum, she put away the lamp and went back inside. As she reached out a hand to start cooking, she finally realized that her entire body was sore and weak; she couldn’t squeeze out another drop of her superpower.
Well, she would just have to drink nutrient fluid for dinner tonight.
She was rich now—she could chug two packs in one go!
Meanwhile, in the bamboo forest behind the house.
A chubby, white radish-like Fat Ginseng balanced a tall stem on its head, complete with bright green leaves and plump red berries. It wobbled unsteadily, using its fine roots to carefully inch forward while leaning against the bamboo stalks for support. Its top was so tall and heavy that every step it took was incredibly precarious. It would stagger crookedly for a long time before it could steady itself.
Layers of fallen leaves blanketed the bamboo forest. Whenever its delicate roots stepped on them, they would make a crisp RUSTLING sound, causing its already timid heart to shrink even further in fear. It wasn’t until it reached the pitch-black depths of the bamboo forest and saw the faint lights turn on in the house ahead that the Fat Ginseng finally swayed and collapsed completely onto the ground.
The bamboo forest was peaceful, save for the RUSTLING of the wind.
"What the heck are you?"
A voice suddenly spoke up.
The Fat Ginseng on the ground rolled once, twice, three times! It finally sat back up, then immediately tried to burrow into the soil without a second thought. But in the blink of an eye, it was bounced right back up by the dense, hard, and sturdy bamboo roots that had long since claimed this territory.
Dizzy and disoriented, it clutched its swaying stem and stumbled forward again—
"What are you running for? I asked you what you are."
The wind grew louder. A few bamboo leaves fluttered down, and the moment they hit the ground, they stabbed firmly into the earth right in front of the Fat Ginseng like blades of iron. The plant instantly retracted its root tendrils, too terrified to move.
After a long pause, it stammered, "I-I-I’m a person, a person, a person..."
"A person my foot!" Kuang Biao lost his patience. "Just because I’m a bamboo doesn’t mean I don’t have eyes! Look at how fat you are. Do you look like a person?
"A radish spirit is just a radish spirit. You’re even crossing species to stroke your own ego—Tsk! Not that humans are all that great anyway!
"Are you feeling insecure?"
"—A person-shaped ginseng!" the Fat Ginseng finally managed to stammer out the complete phrase.
Kuang Biao was speechless.
His bamboo leaves fell silent for a moment before he said, without much apology, "Oh, you have a stutter."
After a while, he spoke up again. "Is that what a ginseng looks like?"
"M-my... a-appearance i-is..." Before it could finish, Kuang Biao started critiquing it again.
"Hmm, pale and plump like a radish. Eating one of you would fill a whole stomach. You do look quite nutritious."