Chapter 97 - 96: Midnight Convoy

Chapter 97: Chapter 96: Midnight Convoy

The fish fry might be small, but what could she do? It was a monopoly.

If Huai Yu didn’t buy them, she could set traps in the mountain pond every day and eventually gather a decent amount of fish and shrimp over time. But putting aside the three or four hours of round-trip travel, just considering the size of that small pond...

Even if they were packed as tightly as sardines, it couldn’t hold that many!

After thinking it over, she still forked over 300 points.

Great, her savings were down to just 500 again.

Standing there and rubbing her wristband, she wondered why she always ended up penniless despite earning a decent amount.

Inside her woven basket was a large bag of water densely packed with an astonishing amount of fish fry, shrimp, and loaches. Having bought what she wanted, Huai Yu headed straight to the parking lot.

She took off the bracelet and read out the code on it. She watched as the older woman made a couple of marks on her clipboard before telling her she could take her bike.

"Um... do I not need to return the bracelet?" Huai Yu asked curiously.

The woman wasn’t worried in the slightest!

Her bracelet was a cheap, acid-washed, flashy trinket from a street stall. It was the kind of junk you’d worry about causing health issues if you gave it to a kid to play with. No one would covet it.

"We agreed on one point for three parking sessions. Return the bracelet to me once you’ve parked three times.

"Otherwise, if I take it back now, will you remember this parking code next time?"

Huai Yu genuinely wouldn’t remember it, so she silently wheeled her bike away.

The heavy basket was somehow hung across both handlebars. Huai Yu rode quite a distance away before suddenly turning her head back to look.

Golden Yuan District looked much more bustling than it had when she first took a car to the trading market. Even the woman’s bike parking area now had eleven or twelve bicycles.

Everyone’s lives were undeniably getting better. So...

What about Zhou Qian?

Did they go to the Wilderness this time just to maintain this increasingly better life?

Just like Lin Xuefeng and the other Mutants—they knew their Mutant Value couldn’t be allowed to rise, yet they still inched closer to the critical breaking point step by step.

Was it all for this present moment?

She pedaled her bike forward.

The April spring breeze blew past, carrying the warmth of a sunny day, yet still tinged with a lingering chill.

Back at the house.

The fish fry’s Mutant Value was quite high, but the water in Huai Yu’s pond wasn’t exactly pristine either. Therefore, she simply applied a little Power of Induction before releasing them directly into the pond.

As for the six lotus roots...

Compared to the plump, segmented lotus roots she had imagined, these few were pitifully thin and scrawny.

Huai Yu sighed and exerted a bit more power into them. Then, she rolled up her pant legs and carefully planted them in the mud along the edge of the pond.

HISS! The water was quite cold.

She hauled up a bucket of water and went to water the ginseng, which was growing vigorously once again. Although, she had no idea how long it would take for this mutated carrot to fully mature...

Only after finishing all her chores did Huai Yu muster the courage to dawdle her way to the edge of the bamboo forest behind the house.

"Um... Kuang Biao... are you alright?"

Not a single bamboo leaf moved. It looked as if it were dead.

However, Huai Yu stared at the bamboo shoots rapidly breaking through the soil and shooting upward. Then she looked at the center of the spacious bamboo forest. The two goslings were playing whack-a-mole, frantically pecking at the newly sprouted bamboo shoots.

They pecked whichever shoot grew the fastest, honking non-stop. Obviously, they were having a great time.

Huai Yu was speechless.

She understood now. It was an invisible battle. In the future, with Rose as the undisputed boss of the house and Little Tian not counting, these two would just be fighting for second and third place!

She turned around silently, thought for a moment, and took two steps back toward the bamboo forest.

"Um... goslings, you can come out and wander around if you want. But remember to go back into the bamboo forest to poop. Make sure it’s a big one."

Otherwise, with Kuang Biao’s vigorous growth rate, relying purely on its mutation abilities wouldn’t be enough. Wouldn’t it drain the soil of all its nutrients?

"HONK HONK HONK!" The goslings loudly responded, keeping their heads down to peck at the shoots, never tiring of the game.

Looking around at the scattered, messy bamboo stalks, Huai Yu sighed. She had no choice but to drag them one by one to the clearing.

The thin bamboo twigs could be tied into brooms. The bamboo hearts could be extracted to roast tea. The leaves could be collected, dried, and burned into ash for fertilizer or used to start fires.

As for the long bamboo poles...

They could be split for firewood or tied into fences. Either way, they had to be split. Otherwise, burning them whole would cause constant, explosive popping sounds—who could stand that?

Huai Yu sighed again. She looked at her newly bought axe and truly felt that her home needed a male servant.

Later that evening.

There was neither a male servant nor a castle. Huai Yu carried her axe and spent the entire afternoon grunting and panting as she chopped wood. By the time she made dinner, her arms and hands were shaking.

When she finally managed to lie down, she hesitated for a moment among her three books of reading material. She decided she was too tired today and should just read one that would put her to sleep.