Chapter 190: Chapter 157: You Gave Birth to Them
Early the next morning, Huai Yu picked up her hoe and went back to huffing and puffing as she tilled the soil. She had carefully inspected and counted that large handful of seeds the night before; there were exactly 81 of them.
They only seemed like a lot because each one was exceptionally large and plump. Considering the sheer size of the seeds, the mature plants would likely be enormous as well. Therefore, Huai Yu still needed to clear a large patch of land for them to grow.
However, her land-clearing was a bit perfunctory. She simply dug out small holes spaced far apart, dropped the seeds in, covered them with soil, watered them, and followed up with a slight boost from her superpower.
Watching a tender, fuzzy, green sunflower seedling poke its way out of the damp soil, Huai Yu couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride. She thought proudly, "I might not be running ten kilometers a day, but I’ve certainly gotten plenty of practice with my superpower!"
She planted the sunflowers on the side of the house near the Rose Corridor. She was worried that if she accidentally over-stimulated them, they would grow too tall and burly. They needed the house for a bit of camouflage. After all, the vegetable garden was surrounded by tall weeds, and so far, the only excessively mutated plant was that sprawling cowpea vine. Just as Chen Xing and the others had completely failed to notice anything unusual when they visited, as long as the plants were a fair distance from the house, they wouldn’t stand out to people who were too afraid to wander around.
Sunflowers were a different story. Heaven knew what variety these were or how tall they could get. If a towering sunflower tree blooming with a giant, golden disc of a flower could be seen from afar, it would be far too conspicuous!
In that romance novel she read last night, *Towards the Sun*, the female lead’s sunflower grew to seven meters tall even before it mutated! That was taller than her roof! She wondered, "But I only used my superpower to sprout the seedlings. Surely they won’t grow to such an outrageous degree, right?"
Huai Yu went to the vegetable garden and selected one plant of each variety to stimulate. She watched them rapidly mature and bloom before finally stopping in satisfaction.
She wondered, "Do I still need to artificially pollinate them?" After a moment of hesitation, she recalled that she hadn’t seen a single butterfly or bee out in the wilderness recently. Resigned, she went back into the house, pulled out a wad of cotton, and haphazardly dabbed it against the flowers.
By the time she finished, the sun was already high in the sky. Remembering the ginseng from yesterday, Huai Yu decided to go to the backyard and have a word with Kuang Biao.
"Kuang Biao, did you happen to see a mutated ginseng yesterday? If you do, make sure to intercept it."
Kuang Biao shook his bamboo leaves, his voice sounding somewhat listless. "That ginseng you’re talking about... is it the stuttering fat radish with a cluster of palm-shaped leaves on its head and a bunch of red berries?"
Huai Yu was speechless.
"Probably, but I don’t think it needs that many adjectives." Her eyes sparkled as she looked at him. "You saw it?"
Kuang Biao scoffed. "You mean that little stutterer? Not only did I see it, but those precious Pups of yours might have already eaten it whole!"
"Huh?" Huai Yu froze. "Eaten? It ran into the bamboo forest last night? If I had known, I would have come over and asked."
Huai Yu thought philosophically, "If they ate it, there’s nothing I can do. Big Pup and Second Pup are so well-behaved. If they ate it... well, I’ll just use my superpower to grow another one."
Just as she was speaking, one of the Pups—she could never tell Big Pup and Second Pup apart—ran over on its two long spindly legs, its sharp "feathers" sticking up. It honked happily. "AACK! AACK!"
Huai Yu quickly crouched down and patted its head. Whenever she stroked it, its sharp quills would smoothly fold back. As long as she didn’t rub against the grain, they didn’t prick her at all.
She thought, "They are so sweet. What does it matter if they ate a ginseng?" She rarely had time to play with them during the day, yet the kids were always so well-behaved!
At that thought, her heart melted into a soft puddle. She quickly added, "Are you getting tired of eating bamboo shoots and wild grass lately? In a few days, when the cucumbers start fruiting, I’ll give them a boost. Then Big and Second Pups will have some fresh ingredients to eat."
"AACK AACK AACK!" The creature craned its neck, responding joyfully.
At that moment, the other Pup in the bamboo forest also let out a call of "AACK! AACK!" Huai Yu hurried toward their nest. "Coming, coming—huh?!"
Next to Big and Second Pups’ nest, the top half of a pale, plump radish was sticking out of the ground. A thick stem sprouted from its head, topped with a cluster of glossy green, palm-shaped leaves. Half-hidden in the center was a cluster of bright red berries, looking plump and oily. The red color was exceptionally vibrant.
She thought, "Could this be..." But before she could confirm her suspicions, a flat beak struck out like lightning, pecking right at that cluster—or rather, half-cluster—of chubby red berries. It immediately carried the whole bunch over and presented it to Huai Yu.
Huai Yu was speechless.
She hesitantly reached out to accept the gift from Big and Second Pups. Before she could even examine whether the red berries belonged to the ginseng, she suddenly heard a faint, high-pitched wailing. It was soft and thin, yet undeniably a bawl. Whoever it was, they were clearly crying their heart out.
"WAAAH... I-I... BOOHOO... I, I d-d-don’t... WAAAH... want to be eaten..."
Huai Yu’s heart instantly softened. "You’ve already escaped, there’s no need to be so terrified... You can’t even speak clearly anymore."
RUSTLE RUSTLE! The bamboo leaves overhead shook vigorously, accompanied by Kuang Biao’s laughter. "Hahahaha! I told you it was a little stutterer!
"Huai Yu, if you eat this thing, will you end up stuttering too?"
Huai Yu clenched her fist and punched the bamboo stalk next to her. "Say one more word, and I’ll beat you into a stutterer first."
However, she was visibly hesitating. After all, this ginseng really did look just like a radish. Setting aside whether its medicinal properties were actually nourishing, it could literally talk. How could she possibly stew it in a soup?
Once again, she reflected on her actions. Being overly eager for quick results was truly a bad habit!
Kuang Biao instantly quieted down. A moment later, he complained aggrievedly, "Why are you only fierce with me? Look at me, completely battered and covered in scars, with broken roots all over the ground—all because I tried to intercept this Da Pang radish!
"And after all that, it cries twice and your heart softens. Anyone who didn’t know better would think you gave birth to it!"
Sometimes, Huai Yu truly couldn’t understand why the heavens had given Kuang Biao a mouth. But it didn’t matter. She was young, her blood pressure was stable, and she could handle it. Glancing at the peck marks all over the ground, she simply reached out and stroked the Pups again. "Actually, it was our Big and Second Pups who stopped the ginseng, wasn’t it?"
"AACK! AACK!"
Big and Second Pups proudly raised their heads and gave two happy honks, but they also flapped their short wings at the bamboo beside them.
Huai Yu couldn’t help but laugh. She looked up at the completely still bamboo leaves above her. A moment later, Kuang Biao’s voice drifted down.
"Since you guys aren’t claiming the credit, I guess I’ll reluctantly take it.
"It’s true that I was the one who kept this radish here in the first place.
"It doesn’t have any real skills, and it can’t run very far on its own anyway. If it ran off, it would either be eaten by mutated animals or absorbed by mutated plants. It’s better off staying with us.
"There’s just one thing. It’s truly too watery. Make sure you don’t use your superpower and accidentally turn its ginseng properties into those of a regular radish."