Chapter 15: Child of Destiny

Chapter 15: Chapter 15: Child of Destiny

It was a beautiful thought, but when Huai Yu woke up the next day, she found herself staring blankly at her empty hands again.

A craftsman must first sharpen their tools to do good work. Yet right now, she didn’t even have a knife.

With a heavy sigh, her youthful face filled with the melancholy of life’s struggles. But that was fine. One look at the house in front of her was enough to remind her of how capable she truly was. Whatever she wanted, she would eventually get! Huai Yu rallied her spirits.

Listening to the daily morning broadcast that started at 8:00 a.m., she put on her clothes. She had roasted them by the fire until midnight yesterday, leaving them stiff and bone-dry today. Dragging her vine net and hanging a large red bucket over her arm, she set off toward Zone 8 of the Rose Corridor once more.

She thought, "Oh Roses, please cooperate. Don’t make a sound—at worst, I’ll kowtow to you again!"

This being her third time crossing the Rose Corridor, Huai Yu was already somewhat familiar with the route. She carefully navigated through the dense foliage with her few belongings. Standing at the foot of the mountain, she breathed in the rich, earthy scent unique to Sanqing Mountain and strode forward.

After a few days of use, the vine net had become dry and brittle, making it impossible to fold up compactly. Huai Yu awkwardly dragged it through the woods, maneuvering with difficulty, and it took her quite a while to reach the depths of the mountain again.

Only faint beams of light filtered into the forest. With heavy rain on the horizon, the past few days had been gloomy and sunless. Unfortunately, because it was still early in the season, very few buds had sprouted on the trees. Bare trunks stood everywhere...

No! There was food!

On a tree right in front of her, tender little leaves no larger than a centimeter were densely sprouting. Nestled among them were crowded clusters of pearl flowers, looking like tiny, scattered grains of rice! These were edible!

But since it was still early, picking them now might mean they wouldn’t stay fresh. Huai Yu hesitated for a moment before deciding to come back later.

Because she kept thinking about that pearl flower tree, she was afraid of getting lost and didn’t dare venture too far, choosing to wander nearby instead. Unfortunately, this area was filled with tall arbor trees and Korean pines, yet she couldn’t find a single pinecone on the ground. After tossing around for quite a while, her efforts remained fruitless.

During this time, she also spotted a thick, dead tree lying on the ground. Huai Yu stared at it for a long while, feeling more regretful the longer she looked.

She thought, "What a great tree! If I could drag it back to my house, I could peel off the bark for firewood, saw the trunk into stools and tables, and even split the rest into dry kindling! It would be absolutely perfect!"

She couldn’t even fathom how cheerful she would be if she owned this massive trunk. Unfortunately, reality was cruel. The tree trunk was simply too massive; there was no way Huai Yu could move it. Furthermore, because it hadn’t rained, no mushrooms had sprouted on it, despite the numerous signs of rot on its surface.

With a sigh, she gently patted the trunk. "What a beautiful piece of trash."

As soon as the words left her mouth, a faint CLICK echoed.

Huai Yu stood up straight and saw that a pinecone had somehow fallen near the center of the trunk. Her eyes lit up, and she quickly walked over. She found that it was another Pinus armandii pinecone. However, compared to the oversized ones she had begged for last time, this one was clearly half the size.

But when she peeled back the scales, there were still pine nuts inside—small, but plump enough! Holding the pinecone, she stared at the center of the trunk with anticipation. She found a branch and poked at it, unexpectedly opening a hole beneath the rotting bark!

She stuck the stick inside and wiggled it around, distinctly feeling something inside. Reaching her hand in carefully to feel around... she pulled out another pinecone!

She thought, "What is this? This is the squirrel’s treasure trove that I searched the whole mountain for but couldn’t find! As expected of me, the child of destiny!"

Endless energy instantly surged through Huai Yu. Using the stick, she tapped and pried along the rotting bark, quickly opening up a gap on the side of the trunk. As the decayed bark fell away, she discovered a hollow channel running right through the middle of the massive tree, looking like a tunnel dug out by some creature.

Perhaps this poor tree had died precisely because its core had been hollowed out. Then it fell over, ultimately becoming a squirrel’s secret stash. And now, it all belonged to her!

She continuously raked the inside with her thin branch, pushing as much of the contents as possible toward the pried-open hole. Accompanied by continuous rustling sounds, a tiny mound quickly piled up at the entrance of the tree hollow. Acorns, chestnuts, fruit pits, walnuts, hazelnuts... and even peanuts! In addition, there were more and more small pinecones.

These took up more space than the dry nuts. The hollow was full of them, so much so that sweeping them out actually created a miniature mountain! Huai Yu squatted on the ground, an unstoppable smile plastered across her face.

She scooped up the assorted nuts with both hands and dumped them into her red bucket. The large bucket, which was big enough to hold forty liters of water, was filled halfway just with the small nuts! Next were the pinecones, piled so high they were almost spilling over.

She decisively took off her coat and piled the remaining pinecones into her loose, oversized windbreaker. Then, she pulled the heavy elastic band off her hair and wrapped it around the bundle several times, creating another large, makeshift sack!

By the time the last handful of hazelnuts was dropped into the red bucket, struggling to slip through the gaps between the pinecones, there was nothing left to dig out of the tree. Huai Yu withdrew her hand in deep satisfaction. "Oh, giant tree, giant tree... A giant tree with a hollow is the best kind of tree."

She had no idea how much time had passed during all this commotion. Glancing at the sky, she decided to start heading back immediately. Who would have thought that by taking a slight detour on her return trip, she would spot slender wild vegetables poking their heads out from amidst the dead branches and leaves, their tips curled into adorable little spirals... They were bracken ferns!

Huai Yu stood frozen. She looked at her heavy, fully loaded bucket, touched the windbreaker bundle she was struggling to carry, and finally stared at the vine net in her hand—which was virtually useless due to its large gaps.

She thought, "Damn it! Why are there so many good things today? Am I actually the child of destiny?!"

Conflicted, she set her bundle down and carefully inspected the barren slope covered in bracken ferns. Soon after, she discovered lush green shepherd’s purse at the foot of the mountain... Huai Yu was speechless. She looked at herself—there were simply no containers left to hold anything else!

After a moment of thought, she simply took off the thin vines she was carrying and started tying knots on nearby trees to mark her path, leaving a trail all the way back to the pearl flowers. She would head back for now and visit the trading market in the afternoon.

She thought, "Tomorrow, I will definitely come pick wild vegetables! From today onward, Sanqing Mountain is my home!"

Together, these heavy items weighed several times more than the waterproof tarp, not to mention she had to carefully weave her way through the mountain. Huai Yu was exhausted and dripping with sweat by the time she finally managed to bring everything back successfully. She could even proudly declare that she hadn’t dropped a single pinecone!

Looking at the sky now, she didn’t even have time to sort through her haul. She only had enough time to drop off the things she didn’t immediately need before grabbing her bucket, slinging the sack of pinecones onto her back, and setting off for the bus station!