Chapter 191: Chapter 158: Does It Work?
Kuang Biao had grown a mouth, and it felt like his net worth had instantly plummeted. But Huai Yu had been listening to him for so long that she could now turn a completely deaf ear to it.
At this moment, she just squatted down, carefully examining the blubbering, cowering Fat Ginseng. She immediately prepared to dig out a red string to tie it up. Who cared if it actually worked? Tying it up first was the priority. But awkwardly enough, she didn’t actually have a red string.
She couldn’t be blamed for this. When anyone was scraping their household items together bit by bit, they wouldn’t go out of their way to be picky about colors. She even used neon purple and neon pink pillowcases before! Moreover, ever since the plants mutated, everyone consciously preferred wearing highly saturated clothes. The logic was that if they were ever dragged away by a mutated plant or caught in some other accident, bright clothing wouldn’t be recognized by the plants, but it would make them much more conspicuous to rescue teams.
And when it came to highly saturated colors, it was unquestionable which one was more popular between neon pink and bright red. Add to that the fact that despite the marriage market being sluggish during the years of the apocalypse, people still got married. Given the Chinese custom of using red for any joyous occasion, it was perfectly normal that Huai Yu couldn’t scrounge up a single red string in her home right now.
After some thought, she simply untied her shoelace. When she had washed her purplish-red duvet cover at home, she had tossed the shoelaces in to soak as well. Unexpectedly, the dye bled, and now the shoelaces were white tinged with pink, pink tinged with red, and red tinged with purple... Could this be considered a red string or what?
As Huai Yu tied this makeshift "red string" around the Fat Ginseng, it sniffled a couple of times and stuttered, "I d-don’t, don’t n-need to w-w-wear c-c-clothes."
Huai Yu was speechless. She steadily tied the shoelace into a neat bow, realizing that this ginseng wasn’t exactly right in the head.
But that was fine. Maintaining a calm and matter-of-fact expression, she said, "You can talk now, so you should know how to care about your dignity. When you’re out and about, you’d better wear some clothes."
The leaves on top of the Fat Ginseng’s head drooped as if it were inspecting the red shoelace wrapped halfway around its body. After observing for a moment, it gave a silly, obedient response.
"Oh."
Above them, Kuang Biao’s bamboo leaves shook wildly, causing the entire bamboo grove to tremble. It was both terrifying and comical, making the Fat Ginseng inexplicably nervous. As Huai Yu dug at the soil around the Fat Ginseng, she discreetly punched the bamboo trunk next to her, finally making Kuang Biao’s laughter less obvious.
She then sighed at the Fat Ginseng. "You’re so foolish. If you actually went out there, things definitely wouldn’t end well for you... Never mind, I’ll be kind and keep you.
"Don’t worry. Now that you can talk, I won’t eat you. But your ginseng whiskers and stuff—could you spare a few for me? Giving me a few ginseng whiskers shouldn’t hurt, right?"
The Fat Ginseng was indeed easy to coax. The leaves on its head swayed. "Y-You r-really, won’t e-eat me..."
Huai Yu nodded. "I’m so capable that I even stimulated your growth to the point where you could talk. Do you think I’d be desperate for one single ginseng root like you?"
This sounded very reasonable! Although the Fat Ginseng had a fat body, its brain was rather small. After pondering for a long time and finding no flaws in her logic, it obediently let Huai Yu carry it out of the dirt.
After thinking for another moment, it even added submissively, "T-Then, t-thank you.
"Whiskers... I-If I d-don’t g-give too many, i-it w-w-won’t h-hurt too much.
"B-But, b-b-but i-if t-they all f-fall off, i-it w-will h-hurt, h-hurt to death."
In truth, Huai Yu didn’t know if it still possessed the incredibly nourishing properties of a standard ginseng, but since she had already stimulated its growth, she couldn’t let it go to waste! She would test it out once she got back!
Especially since the Fat Ginseng also stuttered to inform her, "I-In the d-d-dirt, t-there is, I have o-one b-broken, b-broken whisker..."
This pleasantly surprised Huai Yu. Holding the ginseng, she returned to the front of the house and circled the area a few times.
"So, do you want to just run around freely on your own, or should I find a place to plant you?"
She lifted the ginseng up to her chest and turned in a circle to let it see the surrounding environment.
But when that swath of lavish, pink-and-white Rose Corridor entered its field of vision, the Fat Ginseng visibly went stiff all over. It took a long while before it stuttered out, "S-So strong, s-strong Rose. C-C-Can’t beat it."
It burst into tears once again. Ever since last night, it had been completely unable to defeat a single thing it encountered. No wonder that bamboo had warned that running away would just lead to getting eaten by something else... It turned out the outside world was this dangerous!
If it had known earlier, it never would have tried to run away.
Between sobs, it picked a spot for itself. "W-Wisteria."
Huai Yu was speechless. It should have said so earlier! This ginseng weighed nearly ten pounds. She had been holding it up while it made its selection, only for it to end up choosing the wisteria treehouse anyway, right in the area with scattered light.
"Alright then!" Huai Yu agreed decisively. Carrying it, she walked toward the treehouse and instructed, "Your seven siblings are also over there. I won’t stimulate their growth, though; it’s too exhausting.
"As for you, if you have nothing to do, just keep an eye on them while they grow. If they need anything, just let me know."
The Fat Ginseng was a bit bewildered. It was just a ginseng root. Why did it sound like it had already been assigned a job? But it couldn’t defeat her, and the other party was so powerful—she could even make it talk and was willing to let it pick its own resting place according to its mood...
It rustled the leaves on its head. "Okay."
From this, it was evident that nobody was perfect—not even a ginseng. This one was indeed not very smart.
Meanwhile, Huai Yu felt the cluster of red ginseng berries in her pocket and couldn’t help but wonder. If she stimulated their growth, could she plant a small patch of ginseng?
She thought about it and made a mental note of the idea. Then, returning to the dirt pile where she had planted the ginseng yesterday, she did indeed find a long ginseng whisker about the thickness of a toothpick.
This ginseng whisker was simply too thin. When washing it, she had to be exceptionally gentle even when brushing off the dirt, afraid that she might accidentally snap it again.
Huai Yu hesitated between steeping it in water or boiling it in soup, ultimately deciding to brew a pot of ginseng water.
Whether it was effective or not, she would nourish herself first. What if she could grow another two centimeters taller?
Harboring this devout expectation, Huai Yu scooped out a bowl once the water had cooled to a lukewarm temperature and downed it in one gulp!
There was a slight medicinal taste, but not much. She savored the aftertaste a couple of times, finally managing to detect the faintest, most insignificant hint of the astringent sweetness unique to ginseng in her mouth.
And then...
And then nothing happened.
That day, she went and stimulated the growth of every single plant in the vegetable garden again. Watching the flowers wither and tiny fruits emerge in their place, she finally let go in satisfaction.
Following that, she fetched fresh water for the house again, then returned to the pile of junk to continue sorting and hunting for treasure. She had already picked out quite a few useful items recently and decided to properly tidy up the house once she finished sorting through this massive heap of junk.
There was also that pile of peaches. Because they smelled too fragrant, she didn’t really dare to bring them to the hospital anymore. But after sitting out for a few days straight, their skins were starting to wrinkle...
Overall, she felt slightly more energized, but not by much. She couldn’t even be sure if it was because she had slept so well yesterday or if it was the genuine effect of the ginseng water.