As soon as the fruit entered her mouth, it melted instantly. Aside from the sweet fragrance still lingering at the tip of her nose, Shen Wuqiu had no time to experience any further flavors.
This tasted like nothing at all.
Shen Wuqiu’s lips remained slightly parted from where she had just put the fruit in. She stared at the remaining three fruits on the counter. Reason told her that she really shouldn’t eat any more of these bizarre fruits.
Yet, faced with the small fruits that appealed to both sight and scent, she felt completely powerless to resist.
After a fierce internal struggle, reason ultimately lost, and she picked up another fruit.
It still melted instantly in her mouth, too fast for her taste buds to catch any sensation.
Refusing to believe it, Shen Wuqiu picked up the third one.
It was still the same feeling of tasting nothing as it melted away.
Shen Wuqiu took a deep breath and stared at the last fruit. She was determined to taste what this fruit actually was like.
“Jiejie, why wasn’t there any heat?”
Just as she was studying the final fruit and wondering where to take a bite, the bathroom door was pushed open. Gu Lingyu walked out, and the moment she saw the small red fruit at Shen Wuqiu’s lips, her expression changed drastically. She sprinted forward to snatch it away.
However, just as she stretched out her hand, the fruit in Shen Wuqiu’s hand slipped smoothly right into her mouth.
It melted instantly, disappearing without a trace in a flash.
Shen Wuqiu swore that the fruit had moved first.
Both of them stared at each other with wide eyes.
After a moment, Gu Lingyu slowly shifted her gaze, filled with shattered hope, toward the counter, which was now completely empty. Holding her breath in a panic, she mechanically moved the items on the counter aside one by one, finding still no sign of those fruits. She then dropped to her knees and searched carefully through the gap between the counter and the bottom of the bed.
“Um, look,” Shen Wuqiu reacted, feeling guilty and apprehensive, but still honestly said, “If you’re looking for those red fruits, you can stop searching.”
Gu Lingyu trembled all over as she knelt on the ground. After quite a while, she turned her head to look at her.
That gaze was spine-chilling.
Shen Wuqiu awkwardly looked away, secretly took a breath, and explained, “I didn’t expect these fruits to be yours. I thought they were a gift from my cat.”
Fearing that the other person would misunderstand and think she was making excuses for herself, she added specifically, “That cat of mine is extremely spiritual. Back home, she once stole my dad’s dried fish, and the next day she brought back something that looked like red jade to give to him. Since your fruits were placed right on my bedside table, I assumed she had specially brought them back for me.”
Shen Wuqiu finished speaking in one breath. These words weren’t really an excuse; the very first thought that crossed her mind when she saw those fruits was that her pampered little ancestor finally grew a conscience and knew to bring her back a gift.
After waiting a long time without getting a response, Shen Wuqiu peeked at her. Seeing that Gu Lingyu was still maintaining the same posture, kneeling on the floor, she felt even more uneasy in her conscience. “I really didn’t know these were your fruits, otherwise no matter what I wouldn’t have eaten them.”
She clearly lacked confidence in that final sentence.
Come to think of it, she found it strange herself. She truly wasn’t a gluttonous person, but just now she had acted as if possessed by a ghost.
Faced with the speechless Gu Lingyu, Shen Wuqiu had no idea what to say.
The silence made the atmosphere increasingly awkward.
After another short moment, Gu Lingyu, kneeling on the ground, moved her lips. “Four. Four. You ate all four of them?”
Although she really didn’t want to admit it, Shen Wuqiu nodded with difficulty, though she still tried hard to save face for herself. “I just wanted to taste it at first, but I couldn’t taste anything. As for the last one, I don’t even know how I swallowed it down.”
Gu Lingyu’s upper body slumped completely forward.
Shen Wuqiu felt even worse and squatted down beside her. “I’m sorry, I really didn’t know. I’ve never seen this kind of fruit before, and I don’t know where you got it from either.”
Gu Lingyu interrupted her angrily, “Of course you haven’t seen it.”
Shen Wuqiu wore an awkward expression. “Then how can I compensate you?”
Gu Lingyu stared at her stomach.
That scorching gaze was rather embarrassing.
Shen Wuqiu turned her body slightly to the side. “Or if these fruits are sold anywhere, I can buy them for you.”
“Within the three realms, only one such fruit appears every hundred years. How are you going to buy it for me?”
Shen Wuqiu looked at her, and it took her quite a while to react. “What did you just say?”
Gu Lingyu watched her looking terrified and pouted. But the thought of the fruits being completely gone made her feel agonizingly miserable, so she lowered her head and stayed silent.
Shen Wuqiu felt miserable too, blaming herself for her gluttony.
However, things that had already been eaten could not possibly be returned intact.
“How about this, you name a price?”
Hearing such vulgar words from her made Gu Lingyu even more furious. “Money isn’t everything. It can’t buy this fruit, so what’s the use of it?”
Shen Wuqiu agreed with that statement, but since this kind of fruit existed in the world, its value should surely be measurable.
Anyway, she didn’t believe the other person’s stories about one fruit every hundred years. One every hundred years meant four would take four hundred years, so how could three of them have been preserved? They weren’t gold.
Seeing the other person’s completely impervious attitude, Shen Wuqiu also felt suffocated and angry. She even began to suspect whether this person was here to pull off a scam.
“Well, now that I’ve eaten them, what do you suggest we do?”
After quite a while, Gu Lingyu finally raised her head, placed her hand on Shen Wuqiu’s stomach, and said with solemn devotion, “You have to make sure they grow up well right here.”
Shen Wuqiu felt like she was seeing a ghost. It took her several dozen seconds before she lowered her head to look at her own stomach. “What do you mean by that?”
“Do you know how rare this fruit is?”
Shouldn’t things eaten into the stomach be digested? At this moment, Shen Wuqiu deeply realized her communication barrier with the person in front of her. She took a deep breath, not wanting to get any more entangled with this person. “Aside from this, are you sure you don’t need any other compensation?”
“Aside from this, there’s no way you can compensate me.”
They were like a duck trying to talk to a chicken.
Shen Wuqiu stood up. “Right, it’s not raining much today. After dinner, I’ll send you back.”
Gu Lingyu, who had originally intended to stand up as well, immediately sat back down with an expression of disbelief mixed with grievance. “You ate all my fruits, and now you actually want to chase me away?”
What did those two things have to do with each other? Anyway, Shen Wuqiu couldn’t understand. Standing from the perspective of an elder, she simply tried to reason with her and persuade her:
“Running away from home will definitely make your father and mother worry. Even if you don’t like the, um, partner your father and mother arranged for you, you should communicate well with them instead of running away from home without a word. Besides, the outside world is very dangerous, and a pretty young girl like you…”
“Is Jiejie worried about me?”
The young girl really knew how to shift the focus.
Shen Wuqiu paused, not answering her question directly, as she only wanted to send the person away now. “How about this, I’ll send you back first. If you like our place and want to come over to play, you can come back after your parents know about it.”
Gu Lingyu shook her head, hugged Shen Wuqiu’s leg, and rested her head against her stomach. “Now that I’ve lost the fruits, I can go home even less.”
“Huh? Why? Is it an heirloom?”
Gu Lingyu thought for a moment and nodded. “The fruit is the sacred treasure of the clan.”
“Are you sure you aren’t joking with me?” Struck by yet another bolt from the blue, Shen Wuqiu almost couldn’t stand. Which clan used this kind of fruit as a sacred treasure anyway?
Gu Lingyu nodded with utmost sincerity, stroking Shen Wuqiu’s stomach. “So, your stomach really needs to pull its weight.”
Shen Wuqiu almost thought her next sentence would be that she had to give her a big, fat baby.
After a moment of daze, Shen Wuqiu stammered, “Then what if your clansmen find out the fruit was eaten by someone?”
“There has never been a precedent.” Gu Lingyu thought about it. “They might just have to make you stay in the clan.”
“Oh, then when you brought these fruits out, didn’t they care?”
“These fruits were meant for me in the first place. Like I said, as long as I bring back babies, they’ll be very happy.”
Although she thought the other person’s explanation was absurd, Shen Wuqiu still felt that her gluttony had caused a massive disaster.
“Then your father and mother don’t mind what kind of person you marry?”
“Huh?”
“I mean, don’t they care who you have babies with?”
“Even though they arranged a partner for me, it was just to let me have babies as soon as possible. To them, the primary thing is babies. As long as there are babies, they don’t care about the rest. Of course, we can’t have babies with close blood relatives within the same clan.”
Thank goodness, there was at least one custom that matched.
Shen Wuqiu breathed a slight sigh of relief and confirmed once more, “If you just run away from home like this, won’t your father and mother really worry?”
“No. I’m already an adult. If I weren’t the clan leader, my father and mother would have chased me out of the house long ago.”
Shen Wuqiu was completely disoriented.
Seeing that her expression had softened, Gu Lingyu continued, “So, Jiejie, you ate my fruit, you have to take responsibility for me. You can’t chase me away until I have babies.”
In a daze, Shen Wuqiu’s plan to send the person away was thus shelved.