Chapter 251 - 218: Niche Painting Techniques

Chapter 251: Chapter 218: Niche Painting Techniques

It was another unpleasant dream, but this time, Huai Yu was much more mature about it than before.

At the very least, she didn’t punch her pillow in resentment after waking up. Instead, she stared at the empty water bucket by the door before placing it directly out into the rain.

The rain fell into the bucket with a rhythmic SPLATTER SPLAT. In the time it took her to quickly wash up and prepare breakfast, it was already full.

The sky was still gloomy. With the rain this heavy, Zhou Qian probably wouldn’t come over today. Huai Yu didn’t mind. Grunting with effort, she carried the heavy bucket into the house. She stared at the bucket of "dirty water" and slowly hovered her palm over it.

Even if it was for a scumbag, walking ten kilometers was out of the question. However, there was no harm in improving her own abilities. Sooner or later, she was going to have the Rose Corridor whip his face to a pulp!

Bastard! That romance before her memory loss really inflated his ego way too much!

That evening.

The rain stopped briefly. When Zhou Qian came over wearing a raincoat, he noticed scattered water trails tracking from the steps all the way into the house. Meanwhile, Huai Yu was fast asleep by the door, hugging a water bucket. He was taken aback, then felt exasperated.

"How old are you, and you’re still playing with water?"

Fortunately, although it was raining, the temperature hadn’t dropped. The surroundings felt like a giant, steamy bamboo steamer, so he wasn’t worried about her catching a cold sleeping like this.

Zhou Qian gently nudged her knee with the tip of his boot. "Little Yu, why are you sleeping here?"

Huai Yu swayed, then collapsed onto the ground with a soft THUD. She simply rolled over and settled in, her breathing even and steady.

Zhou Qian was speechless.

The heavy sleep of a teenager in a growth spurt was truly unshakeable. He sighed helplessly, bent down to scoop her up, and tucked her directly into bed. Only after he set her down did he realize that she was covered in dust.

But whatever, she was already in bed anyway.

He turned to leave, but his biological prosthetic limb seemed rooted to the spot. When he tried to lift it, he could hear the faint sound of the suction claws sticking to the floor and being forced apart. Even worse, vines shot out from his pant leg with a quiet RUSTLE, carefully squeezing their way toward the water bucket.

Zhou Qian’s face darkened. Hiding mud while he was digging in the fields was already at the limit of his tolerance. If it tried to sneak a puddle of water back home today, he really wouldn’t be able to stand it. He forcefully lifted his leg and quickly left the room.

He pulled the door partially shut, then went to the utility shed to cook a pot of rice. After the lingering heat from the fire died down, he put his raincoat back on and returned to his own home.

Because of this, he didn’t notice that Huai Yu was curled up in her sleep, a faint layer of frost seemingly coating the tips of her eyebrows and hair. Unconsciously, she pulled the blanket beside the bed into her arms.

"It’s cold..."

In her dream.

She was surrounded by a boundless jungle. Beneath her feet lay a vast expanse of strange, withered, yellow land. Something alive was pulsating deep underground, yet it also felt as though it had long been dead.

Ahead was a massive, hideous tree. Scattered, shredded strips of cloth and clothing hung from its branches, and a set of grayish-white ribs was wedged between the limbs, swaying gently in the wind.

Underneath the tree, a ferocious, sharp branch pierced diagonally upward through a figure’s abdomen. Dark red blood spiraled down the withered bark. The familiar figure stood there, head bowed, completely motionless.

The next moment, a sky-blotting blizzard enveloped the surroundings, forcing the faint, pulsating life beneath her feet to fall silent once more. An overwhelming, bone-chilling cold swept through her body. Everything around her seemed frozen in ice and snow, and even life itself gradually fell into a deep slumber...

This was...

This was Lin Xuefeng!

Huai Yu jolted awake from her dream. The room was pitch black. Clutching her chest, she gasped for air. Never before had she remembered a dream’s scenery so vividly.

Terrified she would forget, she tried to get out of bed to quickly write it down. However, the moment her feet touched the ground, her body felt completely hollowed out, and she collapsed.

Having taken a solid fall, Huai Yu sighed helplessly and simply stayed sprawled on the floor. Lying there was actually quite nice. The floor was cool, much more comfortable than the bed.

She wondered if the effects of her Superpower training were truly this pronounced this time. Her arms and legs were still completely weak and wobbly. Still, she assumed that the bucket of rainwater must have been thoroughly purified by now. Completely, without a single trace of pollution remaining.

She remembered the circle she had drawn at the edge of the field last time. This time, she pulled out her notebook and drew it again.

A large circle. Outside the circle were densely packed dots, representing an endless forest of trees. A spiky, branching thing in the middle of the circle was that tree. A small dot not far in front of the tree represented Lin Xuefeng!

Huai Yu picked up the notebook and examined it from every angle. Finding her depiction highly detailed, she put it away in satisfaction.

But didn’t she need to enter the Wilderness sooner rather than later? She still hadn’t saved up enough points for that. That didn’t matter, though. Once the rain stopped, the price of vegetables would go up again.

She stared at the vegetable patch outside and decided to add to Zhou Qian’s workload once the weather cleared. After all, when autumn arrived, there would be a whole bunch of new crops to plant.

And then there was the fish pond. She needed to find time to buy another fishing net. She didn’t know if that snakehead fish had gotten in, but she hadn’t seen any of the fish and shrimp she previously bought for a long time. They might have all been eaten clean by it. Taking advantage of the hot weather, she could start raising fish again!

Slowly formulating a plan revolving around her house, Huai Yu snapped back to reality, realizing her point-earning schedule was already booked until the end of the year. Didn’t they say that plant activity would decrease once it got cold? By then, she should have saved up enough for a car and could set off for the Wilderness.

As expected of herself! Her former life as a pastoral lifestyle blogger was a perfect match for this. Just look at her planning—what a high level of expertise!

When the rain finally stopped and Zhou Qian came over again, Huai Yu immediately dragged him over to look at her plan.

"What is this?" he asked, staring at the strange ’drawing’ and turning it over and over for a long time. "Are you craving a sesame flatbread?

"No, that’s not right. This doesn’t look like a flatbread either. The sesame seeds are all scattered on the outside.

"With a flatbread this big, why is there so little filling? What exactly is this?"

Huai Yu was speechless. She said resentfully, "This is a map—ah, no, it’s a scene diagram!

"Look, the sesame seeds on this side... Bah, bah, bah! I mean, the dots, represent all those trees.

"Lots and lots of trees, like it’s in the center of a forest.

"There’s a clearing in the middle, and a tree growing right in the center of it, which is this thing."

She pointed at the abstract, crisscrossing lines, explaining with immense emotion. Zhou Qian was stunned by this incredibly niche art style and didn’t dare speak up recklessly for a moment.

But it was fine, Huai Yu would fill in the blanks. "Here, this right here is Lin Xuefeng. I’ve dreamed of this place several times!"

Zhou Qian’s expression grew even more complex. "You only met him once in passing, yet you’ve dreamed about him multiple times?" He found this to be way too absurd.

Huai Yu said in frustration, "Don’t worry about that. First, tell me, is there a place like this in the Wilderness?"

"No," Zhou Qian shook his head decisively.