Being sent outside by her mother, Shen Youyou still couldn’t sit idle.
She was thinking about what the system had said when she picked up the wild eggs before. Back then, it mentioned something about collecting 100 wild plants—it was the plant encyclopedia system, after all.
So, as long as it was a plant, it should count, right? Shen Youyou looked at the garden her mother hadn’t finished yet and felt a surge of curiosity. Perfect—she could test whether her guess was right.
She strode into the freshly tilled garden and, imitating Li Shi’s movements from that morning, carefully planted each little seedling in the soil.
Li Shi had brought back quite a few seedlings, and now it was spring—the perfect season for planting. Besides the seedlings, she had also brought some seeds from Shuanziniang for commonly eaten vegetables.
The mountains were vast. As long as you didn’t mind hard work, you could plant as many vegetables as you wanted. Just clear some more land.
Li Shi kept things simple—she was a farmer’s wife with no other skills besides tending crops. When the family split up, the old Shen clearly didn’t want to give them any land. At the time, Li Shi hadn’t pressed the matter, wanting to quickly raise money for her husband’s treatment.
So now, all they could do was clear more wild land and plant more vegetables. Not only would they have food for themselves, but any extra could be taken to the town to sell and support the household.
After finishing her meal, Mo Yan joined in, loosening soil and digging.
For him, this was easy work—just a bit monotonous.
When Li Shi came out of the kitchen, this was the scene she saw: two kids, one loosening soil, the other planting seedlings, working together in perfect harmony.
Li Shi smiled with satisfaction. The kids were so diligent—there was nothing to fear for their future; life would only get better.
She joined them, and soon everyone was busy at work.
When Shen Youyou had finished planting five or six kinds of vegetables, about 100 seedlings in total, a mechanical voice rang in her mind again:
【Congratulations, host. You have completed the task of planting 100 vegetable seedlings. Reward: two rare plants not yet appearing in this world—tomatoes and chili peppers—have been placed around your residence. Please take care.】
Shen Youyou couldn’t help but be overjoyed.
This system really loved the number 100. It seemed that whenever she did plant-related tasks, reaching 100 would trigger a bonus reward.
And each reward was different—giving Shen Youyou the feeling of opening a “big loot box.”
Today’s reward was especially pleasing: chili peppers and tomatoes! She had loved both in her previous life, and they were essential for cooking.
After planting the last seedling in her hands, she told Li Shi:
“Mother, I’m going out to the privy.”
She left without realizing that Mo Yan, working nearby, had blushed when he heard her say it so bluntly.
This country girl was indeed different from the women he’d met in the capital. She could say she needed to go to the toilet so openly in front of a man, without any shyness.
Yet Mo Yan liked Shen Youyou’s straightforward personality. Dealing with someone like her made life easier—there were no complicated games of the heart to decipher, no exhausting guessing.
Still… she was too frank—she even mentioned something so private right in front of him. It made him feel rather embarrassed.
Meanwhile, Shen Youyou wandered around her house, trying to find where the system had planted the reward. Previously, she had gone far into the forest to relieve herself, but now, with more people around, it seemed wiser to build an outdoor toilet that could also compost straw for fertilizer.
She decided it should be placed far enough away so the smell wouldn’t bother anyone.
After wandering for a bit, she finally found the seedlings behind a thatched shed, in a small patch of wild grass.
Magically, the system had already planted them in the ground.
The seedlings looked healthy and vibrant. Counting them, she found exactly ten chili peppers and ten tomatoes!
She couldn’t help but chuckle at the system’s obsession with numbers—if it wasn’t 100, it was 10. But ten was still plenty. Careful tending now would result in a good harvest later.
She knelt down and pulled weeds around the seedlings so they wouldn’t compete for nutrients.
Worried about mountain animals damaging them, she even gathered sticks to make a simple fence, enclosing them all.
Shen Youyou clapped her hands in satisfaction, proud of her freshly planted creations. Perfect.
From now on, she would take care of them every day.
She didn’t tell her family about this yet—she planned to surprise them later.
After the three of them finished the garden work, they were all sweating!
Shen Youyou sniffed herself and wrinkled her nose. She hadn’t bathed in days. Although it wasn’t hot yet, she still felt uncomfortable.
This ancient world… sigh, so backward. Taking a bath was so inconvenient.
Back when she was a zombie, hygiene didn’t matter, but now she was human again—she had to pay attention, or she’d be no different from a zombie.
Sighing, she muttered to herself:
“If only there was a place to bathe…”
Her voice was low, so Li Shi didn’t hear it, but Mo Yan nearby heard it clearly.
“Bathe? You want to… take a bath?”
He quickly realized he might be overstepping—after all, they were of opposite sexes.
Shen Youyou nodded, curious:
“I’m all stinky, huh? Strange… you live here too, but you don’t smell at all. How come?”
She leaned closer and sniffed him deliberately.
Indeed, there was no unpleasant odor from him.
Seeing this, Mo Yan quickly stepped back, blushing:
“Well… I know a place where you can bathe. I can take you there if you want.”