“Quick, let me see what good stuff this kid brought out this time.”
Chen Yunliang seemed long accustomed to such a scene, looking expectantly at the pile of items in Yan Hong’s arms.
“Dried vegetables, wafers, fruit candy—ooh, and chocolate,” Yan Hong unceremoniously tore open a bar of chocolate, snapped it in half to toss into her own mouth, and handed the other half to Lu Shiyu.
“These snacks don’t sell for cheap in the base,” Lu Shiyu noted, taking the chocolate and biting into it. The sweetness melted across her palate. “Shao Xingyang actually bought this much.”
“All the money he has goes straight into his mouth; he buys a ton of this stuff every time we head out,” Chen Yunliang said, picking through the pile to grab some dried sweet potatoes. “Sometimes when we can’t stomach the compressed biscuits anymore, we take a bit from him to eat.”
“You call that ‘taking a bit’? That was straight-up robbery!” Shao Xingyang protested tearfully.
Looking at the backpack, which now had a significantly deflated section, Lu Shiyu asked curiously, “Is his bag filled entirely with these?”
“Probably about a quarter of it,” Yan Hong said, opening a pack of wafers. “Aside from the essentials for an outing, he stuffs in as many snacks as possible. Feel free to take whatever you want to eat.”
Lu Shiyu kept the chocolate in her mouth, waiting slowly for the rich sweetness to dissolve on her tongue. Normally, she couldn’t bring herself to buy these expensive snacks. It wasn’t that she lacked money—she saved most of her earnings in hopes of eventually buying her own shop so she wouldn’t have to pay monthly rent to the base. However, the prices for shops in the base were not low, and Lu Shiyu’s savings were still a long way from buying the storefront she currently rented.
Shao Xingyang finally let go of his backpack and came over to sit down, tearing open a bag of candy and tossing a handful of jelly beans into his mouth.
“Too much! This time I barely let myself eat any, fearing I’d run out before we were done.”
“When the snacks are gone, you eat real food. What’s the big deal?” Yan Hong, feeling parched from the strong flavors of the snacks, picked up her bowl and took a sip of pumpkin soup.
Before long, the pumpkin soup was gone, leaving only the bottom of the “pot.” Shao Xingyang rubbed his stomach and said, “It was delicious, but just drinking soup doesn’t really feel filling.”
“Don’t we still have the pumpkin left to eat?” Lu Shiyu reached out, broke off a piece of the pumpkin pot, and handed it to Shao Xingyang. “Give it a try.”
Shao Xingyang took the pumpkin. The outer skin had become shriveled from the fire, but the inner part remained moist and soft thanks to the soup.
He took a bite. The pumpkin seemed even sweeter after being roasted. The outer skin had turned slightly crisp while the inner flesh was sweet and glutinous, creating a subtle contrast. The interior was still coated with a layer of slightly thickened pumpkin soup, like a syrup topping on a pastry that wasn’t overly sweet. There was also a faint milky aroma that made the flavor richer; it tasted almost like a dessert.
“Using the pumpkin container as a dessert after the soup is finished is actually quite creative,” Chen Yunliang commented as he broke off a piece to taste. “It’s a bit like a moist cake, but this is much more substantial than a dessert cake.”
The group ate the pumpkin pot piece by piece. The small amount of soup remaining at the bottom was used as a dipping sauce. In no time, the entire pumpkin had been polished off.
“I’m so full,” Shao Xingyang said, rubbing his rounded belly. “I ate too much without even realizing it.”
“I’m a bit stuffed…” Yan Hong lay on her side on the ground to make her stomach feel more comfortable.
Tang Zeyu glanced at the two of them and issued a notice: “If you eat like this again, you won’t be allowed to eat until you’re full in the future.”
“Ah…” Shao Xingyang drawled, beginning to plead with Tang Zeyu. “Captain, I won’t do it again. Please don’t stop us from eating.”
Yan Hong also scrambled to sit up. “Yeah, Captain, we promise this was just an accident. It won’t happen next time.”
Lu Shiyu watched the scene with some confusion and only received an answer after asking Chen Yunliang.
“They’ve eaten so much that they’d throw up if they moved too much. What if a mutated creature suddenly attacks, or if a natural disaster happens and we need to run?” Chen Yunliang sighed as he watched the two attempt to act cute. “Life has been too comfortable these past few days, and they’ve lost all their alertness. No wonder the Captain is angry.”
He’s angry? Lu Shiyu leaned her head in curiously to look. Throughout the journey, Tang Zeyu had remained so emotionally stable that she couldn’t even imagine him getting angry—especially over something as trivial as his teammates eating too much.
Tang Zeyu’s brow was slightly furrowed, and he showed no sign of relenting regardless of what the two said.
“You’ve had it too easy lately. You have zero sense of crisis, even forgetting the most basic requirement of an exploration team: ensuring your mobility at all times,” Tang Zeyu said in a calm tone. It didn’t sound like a scolding or a criticism; he was merely stating a fact without any emotion. “When we get back, the two of you will go through another round of training with the rookies.”
“No!” Yan Hong and Shao Xingyang wailed simultaneously, as if already foreseeing the miserable life awaiting them upon their return.
“This is what he looks like when he’s angry?” Lu Shiyu looked at Chen Yunliang skeptically. “It doesn’t seem that serious.”
“The Captain means for them to participate in rookie training again,” Chen Yunliang said, tossing a piece of wood into the fire. “The instructors in charge of rookie training are a bunch of maniacs. These two are formal members being sent back to retrain; they’ll likely be given ‘special attention.’ They’ll be lucky to come out with their skins intact.”
“That… that sounds serious.” Lu Shiyu suddenly began to worry about what the two would experience after returning. “Is the punishment too harsh?”
“You think their situation is no big deal?” Chen Yunliang cocked an eyebrow. “Regrettably, in their current state, they’re practically half-incapacitated in terms of mobility. Losing mobility is a major taboo in an exploration team. And they did it to themselves by stuffing their faces. They deserve the punishment; I’ve never seen people so greedy.”
Actually, Chen Yunliang was also quite puzzled. Logically, Tang Zeyu should have “educated” the two of them on the spot. Why had he become so mild? Was it because there was an outsider present and he didn’t want to get physical? Chen Yunliang gave Lu Shiyu a deep look. Lu Shiyu had no idea that she had, without even realizing it, saved Yan Hong and Shao Xingyang from a “friendly” session of practical combat training with their Captain.
Under the tranquil night sky, the group huddled in their sleeping bags and fell into a deep sleep, though two of them were plagued by nightmares all night long.
Early the next morning, the group continued their journey. The further they went into the forest, the denser the vegetation became.
Although most of these plants did not actively attack people, their appearances were truly terrifying.
Lu Shiyu ducked her head to avoid a cluster of plants that looked like eyeballs and waved her hand to push away a flower whose petals resembled many silk threads. The whole journey went basically like this. At first, Lu Shiyu was shocked by the appearance of these plants, but after walking for half a day, she was essentially immune. She brushed away the encroaching plants as if they were pesky insects.
As the only moving creatures in the vicinity, they were undoubtedly conspicuous targets. It was unclear if the plants were curious or simply joining in the fun, but everything that could squeeze toward them did so.
“I feel like I’ve seen this scene somewhere before…”
Lu Shiyu thought back. In the princess cartoons she watched as a child, the princess would enter a forest and be surrounded by all sorts of cute animals. Looking at the plants crowding around her, she felt the profound gap between ideal and reality.
While distracted, Lu Shiyu felt her foot strike something. She looked down and saw an “egg.”
The egg was as large as an ostrich egg, with a bumpy texture on its surface like lychee skin. Such a large egg just sat there quietly on the ground.
“What kind of creature’s egg is this?” Lu Shiyu looked at the massive egg, wondering how large an animal must be to lay something like that.
“Did you find something?” Shao Xingyang walked over from the side. Hearing the noise, the others stopped as well. Seeing everyone stop, Lu Shiyu hurriedly waved her hands.
“It’s nothing, I just found a very large egg.”
“An egg? What kind of egg?” Shao Xingyang leaned in curiously. When he saw the massive egg, he couldn’t help but let out a “Wow.”
“Wouldn’t the creature that laid this egg have a sore butt?”
“What a disgusting question, though I imagine they would.”
Just as Tang Zeyu was about to urge them to keep moving, the egg suddenly began to crack. it split evenly into three segments, unfolding slowly until it was completely open, revealing a dense mass of long, thin tentacles inside. The inner walls of each segment were covered in crowded tentacles that writhed frantically upon sensing the presence of living beings.
“So it wasn’t an egg, it’s a plant. I thought we could eat it.” Shao Xingyang felt a bit disappointed.
Yan Hong had a look of disgust: “It looks even grosser now.”
A small flower bud in the center of the plant suddenly exploded, spraying out countless particles of dust. The group noticed instantly, but the powder spread too quickly and they were too close. Even though they quickly covered their mouths and noses, they inevitably inhaled a few breaths.
“This flower actually pulled a sneak attack!” Just as Shao Xingyang finished speaking, Lu Shiyu felt the figures of the others begin to flicker, and then they vanished into thin air!
“What’s happening?”
Lu Shiyu closed her eyes and opened them again, only to find that her surroundings had suddenly changed. She looked down at her hands—pudgy little hands that she opened and closed. Lu Shiyu was currently a child.
She smelled a long-lost fragrance. Following the scent, she found the kitchen and peeked inside the doorway.
“Hmm? Yu Bao is back,” the woman busy in the kitchen quickly spotted Lu Shiyu and walked over to squat down and wipe the dirt from her cheek. “Did you have fun playing today?”
“Yes!” Little Lu Shiyu grinned, showing her baby teeth that hadn’t fully grown in.
“Oh, today really wore me out,” a man stepped out from the hallway, carrying a coat he had just taken off. “To take first place, I nearly worked my old life away for our Yu Bao.”
“Hehe, thank you, Daddy.” Little Lu Shiyu’s sweet smile instantly relieved the man’s fatigue.
“Fine, for my little treasure, any amount of exhaustion is worth it,” the man thumped his back and said to little Lu Shiyu, “Go quickly and show your award certificate to your mother.”
“Award… certificate?”
Little Lu Shiyu thought back. she had just returned from a parent-child activity at the kindergarten. She had taken first place, so the teacher had given her a beautiful certificate, though it seemed the other children had similar ones.
Little Lu Shiyu pattered off to rummage through her small backpack and indeed found a brand-new certificate inside, still smelling of ink that had only recently dried.
“Mom, look! A certificate!”
Little Lu Shiyu proudly showed the certificate to the woman. Without even looking closely, the woman gave her a big kiss on the cheek.
“Our baby is so wonderful! Mommy is going to make something delicious to reward our hard-working Yu Bao.”
“Delicious food! Mommy is the best!” Little Lu Shiyu jumped and twirled in place with joy, making the man and woman burst into laughter.
The tiny Lu Shiyu clutched the certificate in her hand as the man picked her up and sat her at the small dining table. Waiting for the woman to finish cooking the meal and smelling the familiar fragrance, little Lu Shiyu felt deep down as if she had forgotten something.