Chapter 62 - 61: Visitor from Flower City

Chapter 62: Chapter 61: Visitor from Flower City

"General Wu," Zhou Qian said earnestly as the car gradually slowed down. "Thank you for the sacrifices you made back then. For the past five years, the Rose Corridor has been sheltering us. The powerful Mutant Beasts and mutated plants of the Wilderness cannot get in, which also keeps reckless civilians from blindly venturing out. It has given us a long period to rest, recover, and adapt to society. I am truly grateful to you."

The young man in the backseat slightly turned his head. Beneath his thick black eyebrows, his deep eyes gazed at the distant roses that looked like rosy clouds. His voice dropped to a near whisper. "Yes... We really sacrificed too, too much for it..."

He paused, then asked with a sigh, "Has it always been like this?"

Zhou Qian was a little curious. "Like what?" Then he smiled in embarrassment, realizing the question probably wasn’t directed at him, but was merely an unintentional sigh. After all, everyone knew that Wood Element Catalysts could communicate telepathically with the plants they had put immense effort into catalyzing.

The Rose Corridor had bloomed unfailingly for so many years, ensuring that Flower City had never fallen either. All of this relied on the current Garrison Officer, the savior of Flower City from back then, and the true Catalyst of the Rose Corridor—Wu Yue.

General Wu.

However, seeing his embarrassed smile, Wu Yue froze for a moment. Then he leaned back against the seat in silence, not saying another word.

After a while, he asked the man in the front seat, "Where is the old lady?"

The soldier of the Guard Army in the front, also wearing a uniform, answered rigidly, "After resting this morning, she went shopping. She said she hasn’t been back in many years and wanted to properly experience the hometown atmosphere."

"Hometown..." Wu Yue muttered. His mouth twitched, and he subconsciously rubbed his forehead. "Is someone following her? Her card has a limit, right?"

The soldier hesitated for a second. "An assistant is with her."

Wu Yue’s expression looked quite unpleasant. The car gradually approached the Rose Corridor, where clusters of vibrantly blooming roses swayed and stretched in the wind ahead. Clearly, more important matters awaited him.

Zhou Qian only half-understood, but he figured it was the other man’s family matter, so he wisely kept his mouth shut. He simply eased off the accelerator and said, "When it’s in a good mood, we can only drive this far. If we get any closer, sometimes it throws a temper—it doesn’t really like us. But, General Wu, if you want to get closer, there shouldn’t be any hindrance."

After all, he was its Catalyst. Although the temperaments of mutated plants in this world were as varied as humans, they generally held the greatest affection for their Catalysts.

Unexpectedly, Wu Yue just got out of the car in silence. He stood by the vehicle, quietly gazing into the distance.

Zhou Qian was a little curious. Coming back after so many years, didn’t the general need to go and communicate with it? But as someone who had only undergone mild enhancement, Zhou Qian didn’t know much about Wood Element matters. Since Wu Yue had managed to catalyze this rosy cloud-like Rose Corridor that stretched to the horizon, he figured the communication between the two must have reached an unimaginable level. Whether he approached physically or not was probably just a matter of physical distance.

While Zhou Qian could rationalize it, the Guard Army soldier beside Wu Yue seemed somewhat curious. "Aren’t you going to take a look?"

"No," Wu Yue shook his head. A slight silence and melancholy appeared on his handsome face. He stood there, as if gazing at his lover from afar. The longing and reluctance were so thick they seemed ready to materialize.

Zhou Qian snapped out of his daze, realizing he was really letting his imagination run wild.

However, General Wu had already gathered his thoughts. He turned and confirmed with him again, "Are you sure Lin Xuefeng went to the Wilderness through the Rose Corridor? How did you confirm this?"

This had already been detailed in the report, but since the other party asked again, Zhou Qian answered meticulously.

"The Rose Corridor has been experiencing frequent anomalies lately, which you should be able to sense. The rainstorm had a significant impact on it... During a recent anomaly, we came to investigate and found an unfamiliar young girl living alone over here.

"She currently has no assigned ID history. Her registered age of eighteen was uniformly given as the default age of adulthood on Flower City’s Open Day, along with a household registration in Flower City and a residential assignment at the former site of Mansion One in the Rose Mansion.

"And according to her, General Lin Xuefeng once told her that he wanted to go to the Wilderness..."

He earnestly recounted what he had learned from Huai Yu, doing his best to exclude any subjective factors, merely pointing toward the tiny treehouse whose outline could barely be seen in the distance.

"The girl kept an unfading Ice Sculpture formed by an Ice Ability. It bears the signature of ’Lin Xuefeng’. We couldn’t confirm with absolute certainty that it was General Lin’s handwriting, so we had to report it..."

Many other details had already been reiterated in the report, so he omitted the useless ones for now.

Yet, Wu Yue, after a moment of deep thought, asked a completely irrelevant question. "You said that girl is named Huai Yu? Which ’Huai’? Which ’Yu’? Is it ’Yu’ as in holding a beautiful piece of jade? Is she really only eighteen?"

"Ah?" Zhou Qian was stunned for a moment, then replied seriously, "No, it’s ’Yu’ as in elm tree. And... because Flower City’s Open Day aimed for unified management and to make it easier for residents to live independently, they were very lenient with age registration. Huai Yu is eighteen on her ID, but from what I saw, she looks about sixteen—just a little girl who hasn’t fully grown up yet."

This actually had nothing to do with General Lin Xuefeng’s tracks, but since Wu Yue asked, Zhou Qian answered earnestly despite finding it strange.

"Only a teenager..." The melancholy on General Wu Yue’s face seemed to deepen. He sighed, moving past the topic, and simply pointed to the treehouse ahead. "Go bring that Ice Sculpture back."

Zhou Qian paused, not quite understanding why Wu Yue wouldn’t go to the treehouse himself. Wouldn’t an on-site inspection make it easier to discover other details? He wondered if it was because the Rose Corridor was too close. Regardless of the myriad thoughts in his mind, he diligently carried out the order and headed toward the treehouse.

Meanwhile, Wu Yue looked at the vast grass around him and the beautiful, romantic Rose Corridor ahead. He couldn’t help but smile bitterly. Then, he subconsciously took a few steps forward, muttering under his breath, "You couldn’t possibly still be mad after all these years, could you?"

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than the thorns on the Rose Corridor rapidly stood up, and the serrations on the leaves gleamed with a sharpness like blades! The petals danced wildly in the fierce wind, and the air was torn by a rustling sound that cut like a knife.