Chapter 225 - 192: Water-Purifying Tree

Chapter 225: Chapter 192: Water-Purifying Tree

This topic hit too close to home.

After chatting for a bit, they decisively changed the subject. Huai Yu watched as Zhou Qian drew a bucket of water from the well, placed all the pots, bowls, and ladles inside the wok, and poured the bucket of water over them.

And that was it.

She hesitated for a moment. "Are you not going to wash them?"

Zhou Qian paused. "I’ll wash them later when we eat dinner."

He rubbed his hands together, looking eager to work. "Let’s go. I’ll help you with your chores first."

Huai Yu looked him up and down, realizing that the current Zhou Qian was completely different from what she had imagined. "Do you just hate washing dishes, or do you not know how?"

Zhou Qian didn’t even look up. "How could I not know how to wash them? The Defense Army has very high standards for domestic duties."

"Oh," Huai Yu understood. "You just hate washing them."

She could completely relate to that. "I don’t like washing dishes either.

"But you should still wash them. This iron wok hasn’t been seasoned properly, so soaking it in water will easily cause it to rust. If you wash it clean now, the residual heat in the stove will evaporate the moisture quickly.

"Later, you can just buy a piece of pork skin to season it.

"Once it’s seasoned properly, cooking in it gives the food that excellent smoky flavor, making everything taste delicious!"

When it came to combat skills, Zhou Qian could run circles around Huai Yu. But when it came to cooking...

He obediently turned and stood in front of the stove. Staring at the messy wok, he reached out his hand, then pulled it back. "I’ll go grab some laundry detergent or something from your place to wash this."

Laundry detergent?!

Huai Yu looked at him in utter exasperation and pointed at the stove chamber. "Aren’t there ashes right here? Just use this!"

But how could someone from the Defense Army not know this?

Huai Yu eyed him suspiciously, then went behind the house, grabbed a handful of grass, and tied it into a simple makeshift brush.

"Wash it. The wok really needs to be properly maintained." She then gave him a wary look. "Don’t count on me. I hate washing dishes too, and you’ve got burnt rice crusted onto this wok. Wash the outer wok first. By the time you’re done, the burnt rice in the inner wok will have soaked soft, and you can wash that one next."

As it turned out, Zhou Qian didn’t lack the skill to wash dishes; he just disliked doing it.

After taking the simple grass brush from Huai Yu, he scooped out a basin of ashes with familiar ease, dipped the brush into them, and began scrubbing the pots and pans. However, his movements were undeniably a bit rusty.

Seeing this, Huai Yu couldn’t help but ask out of curiosity, "Did you never have to do these things back in the Defense Army?"

Zhou Qian immediately looked smug. "I was the strongest fighter in our squad.

"I just had to make one bet with them every month. When they lost, they’d do the chores.

"If I lost, I’d spend my points to buy them things. If they lost, they did the grunt work."

It was a mutual exchange that everyone thoroughly enjoyed.

Huai Yu didn’t quite know what to make of this behavior. But now that Zhou Qian was living alone, she could only sigh sympathetically. "That’s terrible. Since there’s no one to bet with you anymore, you’ll have to wash the dishes three times a day."

If he ate a late-night snack, it would be four times.

Zhou Qian realized he had been a bit too hasty.

A short while later.

Once the tedious chores were finally finished, Huai Yu dug out two large baskets from Zhou Qian’s house. She pushed her bicycle as they walked slowly back to her place.

Along the way, she methodically laid out a plan. "In a bit, you can help move the vats and chop some firewood while you’re at it. I’ll go to the vegetable garden and pick more veggies for you... Zhou Qian, your appetite is huge!"

For lunch, he alone had eaten two bowls of raw rice—once steamed, that amount could last Huai Yu two whole days! Not to mention the massive basin of bullfrog, wild pheasant, and mixed vegetable stew, which he had devoured like a whirlwind, sweeping it completely clean.

Thinking of this, Huai Yu suddenly felt a wave of relief. "It’s a good thing I have a Superpower. Otherwise, how many vegetables would I have to grow just to feed you?"

She then added, "When you’re done, ask Kuang Biao for a few bamboo stalks to build me some drying racks. I’ll dry some extra long beans so you won’t run out of vegetables when the weather gets cold.

"Oh, right! Do you know how to weave bamboo mats? The kind used for drying vegetables?"

In just a few sentences, she had completely booked up his entire afternoon. Zhou Qian looked at her skeptically. "If I hadn’t become your neighbor, who did you plan on getting to do all this work?"

Who indeed?

The question made Huai Yu feel dejected. "When I was planting the vegetables, I wanted to hire someone to till the soil. But people said they’d work anywhere except the Rose Corridor. I couldn’t hire anyone at all.

"I had to do it all by myself, working my fingers to the bone."

She looked up at the tall, reassuring presence beside her and said pitifully, "Brother Zhou Qian, if you hadn’t come, I’d have to do all of this slowly by myself. It’s so exhausting!"

Zhou Qian fell silent for a moment. "Even though you make it sound so pitiful, unfortunately, I don’t know how to weave those bamboo mats." After a moment’s thought, he added, "I didn’t learn everything under the sun in the Defense Army."

"Ah!" Huai Yu gasped softly. "So you don’t know how!

"But Lin Xuefeng does! He even wove a grass mat to serve as my door. It was woven so neatly!"

At that, she shot Zhou Qian a pointed look—that very grass mat had been sliced cleanly in half by him.

Zhou Qian felt a complex whirlwind of emotions.

On the one hand, he felt quite guilty. On the other hand, he couldn’t help but wonder, "How does General Lin know how to do everything? He even has all these tricks to coax a little girl! Where exactly did a combat hero learn to weave grass mats?"

A short while later.

With one living in Zone 37 and the other in Zone 39, their homes weren’t too far apart. However, the vast wilderness was full of undulating terrain and the occasional hill, so pushing the bicycle still took them about ten minutes.

Returning this time, Zhou Qian felt much less wary of the Rose Corridor. But looking at the massive, python-like long beans looming in the vegetable patch, and then at the eerie green bamboo forest behind the house...

For some reason, he still felt like danger was lurking in every direction!

Huai Yu parked the bicycle and pointed out the spots where the vats needed to be placed. "I’ve already washed this vat clean. Can you move it next to the washbasin stand in the house? Oh, and it needs a bamboo lid. Brother Zhou Qian, do you know how to make one?"

Zhou Qian wanted to say no, but as the words reached his lips, he racked his brain trying to picture a bamboo lid. Finally, he replied with difficulty, "I’ll try my best."

"As for this large vat... see that big barnyard grass tree by the pond? A few of its leaves are constantly dripping water. Just pick one of those leaves and place the vat under it."

"Barnyard grass tree?"

Mulling over the unfamiliar plant name, Zhou Qian followed Huai Yu to the edge of the pond. There, he was stunned by the sight of two bizarrely shaped trees—one large, one small—flanking the water. "Where did these mutated plants come from?"

"Oh, they didn’t just appear!" Huai Yu quickly explained. "I bought barnyard grass seeds, but I overused two of my abilities when I planted them, so their mutations ended up a bit weird...

"But even though they have bad tempers and can be a bit mischievous, they’re still good trees.

"The short one is pretty useless so far, but it’s much more obedient than the one next to it that purifies water."

"Oh," Zhou Qian said numbly. "So this barnyard grass tree’s mutation is water purification, right?"