Chapter 248 - 215: Rainstorm

Chapter 248: Chapter 215: Rainstorm

How should the ginseng be processed? Neither of the two people present had any experience, so they ultimately opted for a clumsy method—sun-drying. Just straightforward sun-drying.

Under the sweltering heat of thirty to forty degrees Celsius, the tiny ginseng roots were tied to the doorway with a string, spinning in the wind. They soon began to shrivel. After shriveling, they became even tinier. Facing the glaring sunlight, Huai Yu stared at them until she was almost cross-eyed; without looking at the string, she couldn’t find them at all.

"How many days of sun-drying will it take to be effective?"

Zhou Qian thought for a moment and answered cautiously, "Three days, maybe?"

"Alright!" Huai Yu pulled out her notebook to jot down the date. "I’ll put them away after three days. In a month or two, I’ll let you drink them to see if there’s any effect."

As for right now—Huai Yu looked at Zhou Qian. "Brother Zhou Qian, do you want to buy a fan? It’s simply too hot."

Zhou Qian shook his head. "Why buy a fan? Aren’t you saving up for a car? I can just move here to sleep at night."

With both the Rose Corridor and Kuang Biao here, there wasn’t a single mosquito around. Other than working in the early mornings and late evenings, the two of them had essentially rooted themselves here. Looking at the overlapping Rose branches beside him, Zhou Qian never expected he would one day be this bold.

However, it wasn’t completely free of disturbances here. At the very least, it was truly hard for him to endure the mushy, daily courtship drama. Over the past half month, the sunflowers had shot up significantly, and every inch of their growth was observed by Kuang Biao, who was right next to them.

"Little Yu! Oh, Little Yu! Since you’re not working right now, could you help me read her a poem?

"Little Yu! Oh, Little Yu! The poem you chose yesterday wasn’t very good. You should read the original one.

"I like the bright, serene, and gentle sunflower. Read it one more time..."

Every day, it would make all sorts of long-winded requests. Every day, a few of its branches would be snapped off by Big Pup and Second Pup, only for it to repeat the same routine the very next day.

And now...

"Zhou Qian, Zhou Qian, you’re older, so you should read a couple of poems.

"Pick another one to read today? I thought about it carefully, and Little Yu probably fits the general public’s beauty standards. Otherwise, why would Big Pup and Second Pup like her so much?

"You look much safer by comparison. How about you read the poems from now on?

"Otherwise, what if my girlfriend falls in love with someone else before she even grows up? Wouldn’t I be wearing the green hat of a cuckold?"

Zhou Qian was speechless. "...Isn’t your head already green?"

Kuang Biao was very displeased by these words. "Where is it green? Where? This is just my state of existence; it’s my biological manifestation!

"The green head I’m talking about is conceptual. Do you understand concepts?

"Sigh, you’re truly too unrefined. Read more poetry and culture yourself a bit."

Zhou Qian was so exasperated he almost laughed. If it weren’t for the fact that he couldn’t beat it in a fight, coupled with Huai Yu saying Kuang Biao was only six years old, he really would have...

Wait a minute! At this moment, he set down the metal shelving unit he had salvaged from a scrap pile and was currently repairing. He suddenly felt curious.

"You talk about your girlfriend every day, but your girlfriend... has the sunflower even paid any attention to you?"

What a fatal topic! Huai Yu, who was currently slicing eggplants, suddenly perked up.

Kuang Biao instantly began to clamor. "Does love absolutely have to have a response? Can’t we just have a mutual understanding in our hearts?

"You humans are truly so superficial.

"So what if she doesn’t respond to me now? We’re childhood sweethearts. Once she gains consciousness, she will definitely accept my courtship."

Zhou Qian was speechless. He hesitated as he looked at the large patch of sunflowers ahead. Because they were tall, mutated sunflowers that had been purified and their growth accelerated, they had already reached nearly two meters in height. If they grew for another month, by the time they bloomed, they might actually surpass the height of the house. But despite being so tall and robust, they had yet to show any signs of awakening a consciousness. Presumably, Huai Yu had intentionally suppressed it.

In that case...

Zhou Qian suppressed a laugh. "If the sunflowers bloom and bear fruit, and she still doesn’t respond to you, would that count as being brokenhearted?"

Kuang Biao had never once anticipated this scenario! How could she not have her own consciousness? The Rose Corridor had a consciousness; it, Kuang Biao, had a consciousness; the ginseng had a consciousness; and even the two mute barnyard grasses by the pond had their own consciousnesses! How could the sunflowers not have one?

"Impossible!" it said with absolute certainty. "We mutated plants easily give birth to consciousness."

However, most were rather simple-minded, even less developed than the barnyard grasses by the pond. At most, they would feel hunger, thirst, anger, or irritation. Growth and reproduction were their primary instincts. So... it remembered that when they were first planted, the sunflowers’ Mutant Value was among the highest of the plants Huai Yu had brought back. How could they possibly lack consciousness?

But for some reason, the mere thought of this sent the entire bamboo forest into a panic. Shaking the bamboo leaves on its head, it bluffed, "She will develop a consciousness sooner or later!

"When that time comes, she will compose poetry for me to hear. You mere human, you can’t even think about it. Just thinking about it is a sin."

Zhou Qian was left speechless. He set down the shelving unit and fell into deep thought. "Have things become so leisurely that I’m now casually bantering with bamboo?" His near-death experiences in the Wilderness felt like they belonged to a distant past life.

Following this interlude, Kuang Biao stopped demanding that they read poetry to the sunflowers. Instead, every day, it would use the wind to stretch out its branches and bamboo tips, bending down to sneakily touch the sunflower leaves before giving them a gentle poke.

"When exactly will you be able to talk to me?

"Do you need a polluted rain?"

In that moment, it was as if Kuang Biao had jinxed it. The very next morning, the weather forecast warned of an approaching rainstorm. The downpour began in the morning. Almost immediately after the morning broadcast, raindrops the size of beans began to plummet one by one, soon merging into a heavy sheet of rain that poured down with a continuous SPLATTER.

Huai Yu stared at the eggplants she had just hung up to dry yesterday. The moisture hadn’t even evaporated yet. They would definitely rot and turn moldy after a continuous bout of rainy weather. Feeling depressed, she had no choice but to take them all down.

"Let’s just eat eggplants for the next few days."

Zhou Qian sighed. "Eggplant is still best when stewed with meat." However, as he subsequently stared out the door, the faint resistance within his body and the restlessness of the creeper vine on his leg both indicated that this rain was anything but ordinary.

Even Huai Yu stared out the door before suddenly exclaiming, "This rainwater is so dirty!" A moment later, the two fell silent. Having experienced it before, they already realized that following the heavily polluted, continuous rain of the spring, another rainstorm bearing an equally high Mutant Value was now arriving in the middle of summer.

By the time Huai Yu looked outside through the rear window, she saw that amid the fierce wind and torrential rain, fresh bamboo shoots sprang up with a soft RUSTLE from Kuang Biao’s increasingly sparse bamboo forest one after another. Even Big Pup and Second Pup were leading the chicks, huddling tightly together inside their shed. Their steel-needle-like fur lay smooth and flat against their bodies, completely unwilling to touch a single drop of water.