Chapter 29: Rainwater

Chapter 29: Chapter 29: Rainwater

Sitting by the fire and staring at the soybeans for a while, Huai Yu agonized for a long time before finally suppressing her desire to eat them.

She thought, "This can’t go on!"

She stood up, estimating that enough water had been collected. Putting on her raincoat and rain boots, she went outside and lugged all the buckets, pots, and kettles back in.

The bucket was brimming with water. Huai Yu counted out ten Water Purification Tablets, dropped them in, and stared at it for a moment.

She didn’t know why, but even though there was no visible dirt or impurities, the water somehow felt dirtier than the pond water.

Looking again, she only saw the purification tablets fizzing in the water, so she didn’t pay it much mind. As long as it was purified, it would be fine for daily cleaning tasks like washing clothes and hands.

Beside the blue-brick fire pit, she used a few more bricks to build a stand and placed the pot on top. While waiting for the water to boil, Huai Yu didn’t sit idle. She grabbed the kettle and washed out all the basins she had recently bought.

Once the water boiled, she threw a new towel in to boil for a bit, then scooped it out to let it cool. After wringing it dry, she tied its four corners and hung it over the mineral water bucket to serve as a filter cloth.

In the past, when she didn’t have the proper supplies, she would just boil the purified water and drink it, even with particles still floating on the surface. But now that she had bought new towels, she could boil the water to sterilize it, let it cool down slightly, and then filter it through the cotton terry cloth.

She thought excitedly, "I won’t have to force myself to drink gross water anymore!"

Then she lamented, "Ah, I forgot to buy gauze today! That would have been much better for filtering water."

She went over to check on the peanuts. Actually, peanut shells could be roasted in a pot over the fire to make charcoal, which was the best filtration material!

She paused. "Should I... just eat the peanuts first?"

A warm treehouse, the SPLATTERING of the pouring rain, quiet moments, and a stable life. All of this amplified Huai Yu’s craving for food. Staring at her seed bank now, she wished she could just bury the yam bulbils into the dirt right away.

Roasting them until they were completely cooked, pulling them out, gently peeling off the thin skin, and dipping them in white sugar... She whined inwardly, "Ugh... and these are Iron Stick Yams, too!"

But she couldn’t farm that much land, could she? With her frail physique, she didn’t look like someone cut out for that kind of agricultural work! In that case, having fewer seeds wouldn’t matter. The great mountains were her home!

But... this pile of yam bulbils weighed about two pounds. They only required a patch of land the size of a palm, and come harvest time, they should yield around a hundred pounds! The peanuts, too. A yield of a thousand pounds per acre was entirely possible. Wouldn’t it be too much of a pity to eat them now?

Only the soybeans looked a bit ordinary and had a lot of impurities. Huai Yu rolled them around in her hands for a good while. The texture felt different from rolling Zaozi; it was much lighter.

Vaguely, she felt that she had expended her Superpower, but it was far less taxing than when she had stimulated the wisteria to take root and grow.

She spread her palms and looked at them. After doing so much farm work, her palms would turn red, swell, ache, and develop popped blisters during the day, but they would heal by night. However, stimulating plant growth had different requirements, and the sense of fatigue it brought was also different.

She wondered when she would finally be able to improve her efficiency.

For example, if she encountered a bad guy, she could throw a seed at them, instantly stimulating it to take root, drill into their blood vessels, and absorb their nutrients... Ideally, all of this would be completed within a dozen seconds, or even less. Otherwise, this Superpower would be completely impractical. If the seed didn’t grow fast enough, she might get killed first.

She imagined that cool scene. Right now, she gripped a seed, frowned, and exerted all her strength. It did quickly take root and sprout—but it took three to five minutes just to "load" before the seed even began to germinate!

Now, it took root, sprouted, and grew vines right in the palm of her hand, feeding on nothing but air. Yet, before it could even bloom, Huai Yu grew so exhausted that she had to drop it.

It was too tiring. She was so drained she didn’t want to move a muscle. Relying on this to protect herself was simply out of the question.

She sighed at how weak she truly was. The world was too wicked, forcing girls like her to mutate or evolve just to protect themselves.

"Hmph!" she grumbled.

Huai Yu completely lost her appetite. She tossed the soybean seeds into a basin and poured in some warm water, intending to soak them first. Early April would be Qingming Festival, and it was currently mid-March. Since she had some abilities, planting them a bit early shouldn’t be a problem...

"Wait!"

Huai Yu abruptly turned her head. Through the lifted door curtain, she saw the heavy rain pouring relentlessly outside.

She stared blankly for a moment, then felt a mix of pleasant surprise and deep dismay. "It’s the will of heaven!"

The beans were already soaked and could no longer be stored. With such heavy rain outside, they couldn’t be planted, either. The only way to avoid wasting them was to find a way to eat them.

She simply cast aside all her mental burdens, brought the basin of soybeans in front of her, and began picking out the bad ones. She hadn’t been paying much attention when she used the Superpower Disc earlier. Now that she rummaged through them, she indeed found two blackened, moldy beans that had to be thrown away.

Just as she was about to scoop the soybeans out, she suddenly heard alarms blaring one after another outside.

"Mutant Value in Zone 29 of the Rose Corridor is rising rapidly!

"Mutant Value in Zone 32 of the Rose Corridor is rising rapidly!

"Rose Corridor Zone 35...

"Rose Corridor Zone 42..."

The broadcasts echoed in succession, and it seemed no zone was spared. The alarms across the entire Rose Corridor were screaming themselves hoarse.

Huai Yu was stunned.

Standing at the doorway of her treehouse, she peered through the dense curtain of rain. The romantic flower wall, hidden in the dim night, now appeared wild and menacing, looking genuinely terrifying.

The sound of vehicles gradually rang out in the distance. The dim yellow headlights couldn’t pierce far through the rain, but she could vaguely make out lights darting back and forth from afar.

After quite a while, Huai Yu finally saw a vehicle driving in her direction. She hurriedly pulled on her rain boots, threw on her raincoat, and dashed into the heavy curtain of rain. Before she could get very far, the approaching vehicle made a sharp arc right in front of her.

Inside the car, Zhou Qian’s face was familiar yet stern, his voice full of urgency. "Go back, quickly! Don’t linger in the rain. The rainwater will accelerate mutations—go back now!"

Huai Yu froze for a second, then nodded at him, turned around, and bolted back.

Inside the car, Zhou Qian narrowed his eyes. He could vaguely make out that the direction Huai Yu was running toward seemed to be a small cabin. The rain was too heavy, the sky was dark, and the headlights’ range was limited. Having confirmed that she was safe, and failing to notice just how close her house was to the Rose Corridor, he drove off, his heart still heavy with worry.

At the same time, his voice carried over the walkie-talkie. "All units on high alert! No one is allowed to take a single step near the Rose Corridor. The entire Sanqing Mountain defense line is to fall back fifty meters!

"The Mutant Value has increased by five points and is still rising.

"Beware of the rainwater..."

Another voice responded through the walkie-talkie. "Captain Zhou, we’ll hold a meeting tonight to discuss protective measures for the aftermath of this rain. Also, the Ministry of Health will issue a broadcast tomorrow strictly forbidding everyone from going to parks or similar areas to forage for wild vegetables, mushrooms, or anything edible for the short term!

"Experts predict the Mutant Value won’t hit the critical threshold, but it will rise significantly. If these things are ingested... Never mind." The person on the other end sighed. "They taste so awful, probably no one would be able to stomach them anyway."

Zhou Qian lowered the walkie-talkie and couldn’t help but curse. "Fuck!"

The others in the car sighed as well.

"In the past, the Mutant Value only spiked when the winter snow set in. The Guard Army’s Water System users would accelerate the thawing and underground river circulation, so we could always keep it under control."

"Who would’ve thought it would start as early as the spring rain this year? People were even saying that right after Qingming Festival would be the perfect time for planting..."

"Exactly! As the old saying goes, plant melons and beans around Qingming. We’re looking at just half a month until then. If the Mutant Value hasn’t dropped by that time..."

"It’s fine." Zhou Qian took a deep breath and consoled the group. "The root nodules of mutated legumes will actively absorb pollution. This has been part of the contingency plan from the very beginning, which is why everyone was issued seeds when they registered their households. With a Mutant Value of 25, no one is likely to eat them.

"Once the rain stops, we’ll rally the entire population to plant the beans first. With the Guard Army’s Wood Element users accelerating their growth and cycle, things should return to normal before June."