Wen Xian had never seen anything like this.
Beneath the house she was staying in was a pond, and on the opposite bank grew a willow tree.
The willow had clearly mutated. Although not very thick, it reached the height of a three-story building, and its branches sprayed outward in all directions like the fountain at the center of a city square. Everywhere except the pond, the ground, the furnishings, even the houses, was covered beneath the sprawling willow branches.
From the second floor, Wen Xian looked out and saw what appeared to be a rolling cloud of willow leaves. Even the room she was in was covered by the branches, yet one thoughtful opening had been left so she could see outside.
A tingling sensation ran across her hand. Looking down, she saw the small tender branch that had been accompanying her these past two days acting coquettishly, as if it had no idea how astonishing its current form truly was.
No wonder there were no people or animals around, this willow had become the undisputed king of this place.
Wen Xian didn’t know whether to feel lucky or unlucky. When she had previously commanded the snow peas and baby bok choy, they couldn’t respond to her at all. Later, the little branch could. She had thought about why, and now she understood, it was because the extent of their mutation differed.
Obviously, this willow already possessed a certain level of intelligence.
At that moment, Wen Xian’s emotions were complicated. She once again felt the strangeness of nature and realized that humanity’s status as the master of the world might soon become a thing of the past.
She stroked the tender green leaves. “Why are you following me?”
They had first met at the far end of the old town, a place that should have been far from here. Yet it could extend its reach across that distance, demonstrating the immense power it possessed. There was no real need for it to obey her, yet it continued to follow.
The little branch said softly, “You are… our king.”
Wen Xian: …
She was human, how could she possibly be the king of plants?
Then she paused, realizing, yes, the only one who could truly be the king of these mutated plants would be the giant tree that had once tried to absorb her.
So, after she swallowed that crystal bead, she had inherited the abilities of the giant tree and, in turn, could influence other plants?
Her emotions swirled even more. If the other plants realized their king had been swallowed by her, would they come after her?
But at this point, overall, this was to her advantage. Wen Xian didn’t dwell on it further. After finishing breakfast, she looked around and realized she was likely at Feihua Pavilion, a famous scenic spot in the old town.
[1]Yang Wanli was a Chinese poet from the Southern Song dynasty, known for his nature poetry and simple, elegant style. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1822057_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1822057_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });Yang Wanli had written a poem: “The spring gurgles quietly, cherishing its gentle flow; the shade of the trees reflects on the water, loving the soft sunlight.” It had perfectly captured the original scene at Feihua Pavilion. But now, everything had changed, the landscape transformed. Yet the spring by the willow still glistened green and clear, delightful to behold.
She asked the willow, “Can the water be drunk?”
“It can. It’s good water.”
“Good water?” Wen Xian thought. So there must also be bad water. It seemed even the fruit had been affected.
She turned and went downstairs, scavenging everything edible or useful in the inn first, then checked the other houses in the area as well.
At the edge of Feihua Pavilion, in one of the rooms, she stumbled across a human corpse. She couldn’t tell what animal had done it, but only the torso remained; even the head was half gone. Around the body were darkened bloodstains and bits of flesh. She saw bones and rotting meat.
For a moment, Wen Xian was so shocked she couldn’t react. It was as if all sensation had left her. Time seemed to stretch and contract at once. A nauseating stench hit her nose, and she scrambled out, crawling and rolling, straight back to the house where she had slept the night before. She collapsed on the floor, trembling violently, her face pale as a ghost.
She had seen dead people before, when her grandparents passed away, she had been there. As a child she had been scared, but growing up, that fear gradually faded, replaced by remembrance and sorrow.
But those deaths were natural, surrounded by the love and grief of descendants.
What lay before her now was death by unnatural means, treated as food…
She couldn’t help but feel terrified.
It took her over an hour to regain some strength. Wiping away the tears she didn’t even realize had fallen, she forced her weak legs to continue scavenging, avoiding the area where the corpse had been.
Her luck held. Just as she was finishing searching most of the Feihua Pavilion houses, she found a supply room in one inn with over ten blue water buckets, eight already used, and five still sealed.
She collected all the buckets into her space, then ran to the pond, took out the empty ones, and dunked them to fill them with water.
But the bucket openings were too small; filling them one by one would waste too much time.
She glanced at the little willow branch swaying gently in the breeze and asked for its help.
In response, the branch bundled the eight buckets and pressed them into the water simultaneously to fill them, while she went to finish searching the remaining rooms.
These places hadn’t been visited by anyone yet, and the supplies were abundant: various snacks, drinks, bottled water, ethnic clothing, local specialties like dried beef, dried mushrooms, and milk jelly. Not knowing when she might find these again, Wen Xian carefully collected everything.
In one well-stocked inn, she even found a medicine kit. It wasn’t huge, but fairly complete: cold medicine such as Vitamin C and Yinqiao tablets, even [2]Huoxiang Zhengqi Wan – “Huoxiang Zhengqi Pills” or “Agastache Qi-regulating Pills” (used for nausea, stomach upset, and digestive discomfort). jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1822057_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1822057_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });Huoxiang Zhengqi Wan and [3]Lianhua Qingwen – “Lianhua Qingwen Capsules/Pills” (used for colds, flu, and respiratory symptoms). jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1822057_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1822057_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });Lianhua Qingwen; fever and pain relief like ibuprofen suspension and acetaminophen; and cough, phlegm, diarrhea, and insect bite remedies.
In the backyards and kitchens of several inns, she found many kitchen knives, machetes, and even a heavy cleaver in one shop, with a handle as long as her forearm. Swinging it twice, she realized that perhaps her body had grown stronger after mutation, she could actually handle it.
Other items were too miscellaneous to examine individually, so she put everything usable into her space.
By the time she returned to the pond, the eight filled water buckets were neatly lined up on the bank.
Wen Xian praised the little willow branch, and it seemed pleased as well.
She then took the new plastic bags she had collected from the specialty shop, tightly tied each bucket’s opening, taped them securely, and stored them in her space. At least this would help prolong their shelf life.
Finally, she grabbed the wooden stick she had brought from the inn and stepped out of Feihua Pavilion.
When she first arrived at the ancient town, she had looked at a map and mentally recalled the location of Feihua Pavilion. She then chose a direction that was relatively far from Sifang Square.
She hoped to encounter a mutated animal, but was also afraid she might not be able to handle it, so she felt a bit uneasy.
After walking for a long time without encountering anything, she grew somewhat disappointed, wondering if all the creatures had already been captured by the people at Sifang Square to feed that Tibetan mastiff.
She stopped briefly for a simple lunch and rested a little before continuing her search. This time, after not walking far, she came across a traditional Chinese medicine shop.
It wasn’t visible at first, most of the ancient town was now overrun by mutated plants, like a human-forgotten ruin, with only occasional glimpses of pre-apocalypse human civilization visible through gaps in the branches and vines.
She noticed the smell of herbs as she passed by, then slipped into the store through vines that did not attack her.
The shop was small, but a row of herb cabinets along the wall immediately caught her eye. The glass counter in front had scattered herbs, and the chairs in the room lay overturned, as if the scene of people fleeing in panic during some sudden disaster was still frozen in time.
She didn’t know much about Chinese medicine, but when she was little, her family was poor. For minor illnesses, they couldn’t afford a hospital, so her grandfather would take her and her siblings to gather herbs along the fields and ditches. She remembered learning that Centella asiatica (frog grass) could be brewed as a tea, and that mugwort could stop bleeding.
Those were very early childhood memories, yet strangely, she still remembered them clearly.
She wanted to collect all the herbs in the shop, but the variety was too vast, and packing and labeling each one would take too much time. Eventually, she decided to just take the entire cabinet.
After examining it, she saw that the shop had been there for many years, and the cabinets weren’t firmly fixed to the wall. She spent some effort prying them off and stored the entire cabinet in her space, along with the glass counter, chairs, and all the tools for weighing and preparing medicine. Everything was taken.
Then she went to the backyard and found a storage room. It wasn’t very big, but it was fairly tidy. There were about ten wooden shelves, neatly organized with a variety of already prepared herbs, and she collected all of them as well.
By the time she finished, it was already past three in the afternoon. She hadn’t yet accomplished her goal of finding a mutated animal, so she decided not to delay any longer.
Just as she was about to leave through the front door, the small willow branch suddenly wrapped around her wrist, signaling that someone was coming. She vaguely heard voices outside.
She quickly pulled back, remembered seeing a back door earlier, and ran over to it. Just as she was about to unlatch it, the small branch tried to stop her, but she moved too fast. It didn’t have time to react, and as a result, both she and the person outside caught sight of each other.
It was a familiar face, a young man named Qi Hao, who had stayed in the same inn before.
He was clearly startled and didn’t immediately recognize her. By now, she had changed into a black cotton jacket she had found, with the hood up and a mask covering her face.
But her eyes were too distinctive, clear, cold, and unforgettable. On top of that, he recognized the wooden stick and backpack she was carrying.
Qi Hao opened his mouth, and just as Wen Xian felt a surge of nervousness, he whispered urgently, “Go, quickly! Boss Xiang and Brother Lian are both looking for you.”
Wen Xian froze for a moment, quickly whispered thanks, and ran.
She was panicked and ran fast. Qi Hao wanted to warn her about the direction she was heading, but it was too late. When she emerged from the alley, she came face-to-face with a large group outside.
There were at least twenty people. They were startled by her sudden appearance and instinctively formed a circle around her.
Ding Wei, however, recognized her immediately and sneered triumphantly, “It’s you! Long time no see!”
Xiang Yuyang and Chen Lian, who had been on guard, were momentarily taken aback. They sized her up and then also recognized her.
Xiang Yuyang’s face flickered with a trace of hostility, but he quickly smiled, “So it’s Miss Wen. Didn’t expect we’d see each other again so soon.”
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