Cheng Feng used to be a struggling entertainer, but he had always paid close attention to maintaining his figure, so he had long suppressed his appetite. Now, he let himself go.
Even the snails were cooked extra spicy. His lips swelled from the heat, and he kept gasping from the spice but couldn’t stop eating.
He also steamed some wild vegetable buns he had made earlier and ate them together. Watching the funny scenes on the show, he felt completely content.
By the time he finished eating, it was almost 4 p.m. He opened the door and saw snow falling again. There was nothing to do outside today, so he just glanced and closed the door.
Xiao Hong, who had just climbed up to greet him: …
It was still early—not time to go back to bed. Cheng Feng felt he shouldn’t waste the day and should do something productive.
Exercise? Too cold. Weaving bamboo baskets? His hands would freeze—no thanks.
So he focused his mind into his storage space, looking for something to do.
His gaze fell on his stored food.
Bags of wild vegetables, buckets of river seafood, wild goats, roe deer, rabbits…
All waiting to be processed.
His motivation instantly surged. He took out a bag of wild vegetables and several buckets of river seafood.
The vegetables were washed and stir-fried, then stored for later.
The seafood was more complicated—small fish, crabs, river shrimp, crayfish—so he sorted them first.
The crayfish were cooked in spicy and garlic flavors. The shrimp were stir-fried with chives. Some small fish were fried dry, others braised. It was amazing.
The aroma filled the yard from afternoon to night. Luckily, no people were nearby, and mutated plants weren’t interested in the smell—otherwise, it wouldn’t have been so peaceful.
That night, he ate happily again and even poured himself a small glass of homemade wild grape wine.
As his face turned red and his eyes grew unfocused, he thought dizzily: homemade wine definitely can be strong.
He slept well that night.
The next day, he didn’t stay in bed. He got up at 8 a.m.
After a simple breakfast, he started training.
He had a dream the night before—about his past life. Even though he knew things were different now, he felt a sense of urgency again.
What if something unexpected happened?
The thought of losing everything—his space, his supplies—made him feel terrible.
So he began improving himself.
Weight training could keep his muscles active, but it wouldn’t necessarily improve his combat ability.
Among the weapons he had stored, he was most comfortable using a crossbow, a machete, and a gun.
The machete required little skill, but he wanted to build endurance—to be able to swing it hundreds of times without tiring.
He hadn’t known how to use a crossbow or gun before, but he had practiced recently and even used them in real situations, so improving further made sense. He had plenty of bolts for the crossbow.
As for the gun, his ammunition was limited, so he used a practice gun instead.
In addition, he made sure to exhaust his abilities daily to improve them.
He created a strict five-day training cycle for himself.
Soon, it was time to harvest mutated vegetables again. Recently, they had stabilized to a five-day growth cycle.
After giving Xiao Hong its share, he took the rest into the mountains.
Collecting dead plant material was one goal, but more importantly, he wanted to build good relationships with the mutated plants.
The plants welcomed him warmly, offering their stored dead branches and leaves in exchange for tasty vegetables.
Cheng Feng glanced at some of the still “fresh” dead material but kept a neutral expression as he completed the trades.
With the extra harvest from Xiao Hong’s territory, he could go deeper into the mountains and meet new plants.
Today, he encountered a new one—a level-three mutated plant, the first he had seen in this life.
[Level 3 Mutated Chestnut Tree: Dangerous! Extremely hard body. Fruits are weapons! Not edible.]
Looking up at the tree full of green spiky chestnut burrs, clearly out of season, Cheng Feng swallowed nervously. If those were launched at him…
“H-hello, mutated chestnut tree. I’m your neighbor. I have some mutated vegetables. Would you like to trade your unwanted branches and leaves? Five jin for one vegetable.”
He placed mutated cabbages, white radishes, and carrots in front of the tree, while releasing his affinity ability.
A branch reached toward him, stopping at the vegetables. He relaxed slightly.
Recently, he had focused on growing these types because mutated plants liked them—big and juicy.
The branch tapped the vegetables, as if inspecting them, then gathered a large pile of fallen material.
There was a lot—about 50 jin.
That made sense, given how large and lush the tree was.
He added seven more vegetables to the three he had already placed, then collected the materials.
“Good trade. I’ll come back in five days.”
He turned to leave, but the tree stopped him.
When he looked back, five vegetables were already gone.
The tree tapped the remaining vegetables, then presented something in its branch.
It opened slightly—it was a chestnut.
The tree pointed at the chestnut, then at the vegetables.
Cheng Feng understood—it wanted to trade chestnuts for vegetables.
But level-three mutated chestnuts weren’t edible. At most, they could be used as weapons.
Still, it was a powerful plant. Better to build a good relationship.
He decided to trade one vegetable for it.
But the moment he took the chestnut into his hand, he realized he was completely wrong.