Just as she began to grasp a thread of hope, Fu Erdie quickly doused herself with a bucket of cold reality.
She didn’t have a car. And even if she did, she didn’t know how to drive.
Moreover, if H City was suffering from severe flooding, she would need items like inflatable boats and kayaks. Where was she supposed to get those?
Even if she had a car and a boat, strapped the boat to the roof, and set out, once she left the house and the plants, how would she protect herself?
All she had was the robust physique cultivated by the house, making her stronger than the average person. But could she really fight her way through everything that stood in her way?
It was impossible just thinking about it!
The man beside her had that kind of ability, but his combat strength relied on the house’s continuous healing and repair. Even if he was incredibly kind, the most benevolent person in the world, and willing to set out with Fu Erdie, every fight along the way would wear him down. He might very well end up dead on the road!
Just the thought made Fu Erdie’s scalp tingle!
Pushing her worries aside, Fu Erdie followed her original plan and searched the surrounding fields.
Just as she was about to come back empty-handed, she spotted a little yellow chick in the farmland.
The chick was covered in grayish dust. It let out soft, chirping calls, sounding like it was searching for its mother. It glanced around nervously, scratching at the ground for anything edible and forcing it down its beak.
Sang Wenhao used a metal sphere to trap it.
The two of them headed back to Building 7 with their new provision.
On the way back, the little chick kept hopping around frantically inside the metal sphere, trying to peck its way out. The sphere remained unmoved, dutifully carrying it home, where they handed it over to Zhang Dongxuan.
The chick couldn’t be eaten just yet, it would have to be raised.
Zhang Dongxuan said it was a young hen. Perhaps it would have to hope it could find a mate, have chicks of its own, or, once it grew up, lay eggs every few days, otherwise, it would just end up as a meal for a special treat.
Fu Erdie gave a few brief instructions and then threw herself into work.
She needed to figure out what her ability was, as soon as possible.
Or… did she even have one at all?
She took out the seeds she had been experimenting with for several days, poured them onto a plate, and spread them out. Cutting her finger, she dripped her blood onto the seeds, ensuring each one was soaked.
Then she took the blood-soaked seeds to the succulent on the second floor, rubbing her hand under its fleshy leaves to wipe the blood off.
The fleshy leaves absorbed the blood but didn’t help heal Fu Erdie’s wound.
Earlier, Fu Erdie had already let the succulent absorb her blood. If it had already been mutated by her blood, it should have had at least some healing effect.
What went wrong?
Blood didn’t work. Carrying seeds on her didn’t work. What did work?
Could it be that she couldn’t cause plants to mutate, only the house, and the mutated properties of the house were what made the plants mutate?
Growing anxious, she immediately smeared blood on the doorframe of a random room on the second floor.
But nothing happened.
At some point, a circle of plants had gathered around her. They watched their director, who seemed to be harming herself, with worry. Not knowing what to do, they turned their gaze to the pothos plant.
But Big Boss Pothos simply stayed quietly by Fu Erdie’s side, watching. Only after Fu Erdie tried various methods, leaving bloodstains on doors and walls, testing for any signs of mutation, and finally slumped down in defeat, only then did it step forward. It wrapped its leaves around the wounds on Fu Erdie’s hand and arm, cleaning off the residual wall dust, then absorbed the blood and healed the wounds.
Watching this, Fu Erdie suddenly noticed that her blood hadn’t turned into white light.
She blinked slowly. Remembering how the potato seedling had stopped her from injuring herself for an experiment the other day, a sudden realization struck her.
“You all can absorb my blood and mutate, but there’s a condition,” she said, looking at the pothos, speaking slowly as she sorted out her thoughts. “The condition is that I’m not hurting myself deliberately for the purpose of feeding you. Is that right?”
Seeing that she finally understood, the pothos frantically nodded!
These past few days, watching the director so anxious, it had wished it could grow a mouth and just tell her everything it sensed!
But it was too dumb. It couldn’t speak, and it didn’t know how to read.
It couldn’t do anything, it was just a little pothos.
The pothos plant drooped its leaves, nuzzling against Fu Erdie with a pitiful air.
And Fu Erdie finally saw the light.
Deliberately cutting her finger to feed the plants, not allowed.
But when she had cut her arm on the outer wall while trying to save Sang Wenhao, the blood that flowed from that wound had fed the plants, that was allowed.
This limited her ability to use her power and promote plant mutation, but it also genuinely protected her. It meant that no other mutated plants, animals, or ability users could come rushing over to kill her and take her blood.
Calming down, Fu Erdie leaned against the wall and thought it through slowly.
Whether it was the house or the plants, when they first mutated, none of them had the ability to attack. Instead, they focused on protection.
Healing was protection. Stopping bleeding was protection. Ample water was protection. Clean air was protection. Comfortable temperature control was protection.
Everything was for protection.
Later, when the plants mutated the ability to attack zombies, it might have been a choice they made, or it might have been an extension of protection through offense.
Through battle after battle, through trial after trial, the plants had grown to like and trust her more and more.
They weren’t her tools, nor her servants. They were mutated plants, each one bound together by trust.
They were a kindergarten. They were also a family.
Just as her parents protected her, she wanted to protect her parents too. There were no rigid constraints, no rules demanding that anyone must care for anyone else. It was simply because they were family, when there was no other special circumstance, they naturally relied on one another.
Fu Erdie covered her face.
Her ability, it seemed, was having these new family members when her original family wasn’t by her side.
She felt happy. She felt fortunate.
But what could she do with this protective ability now?
The condition for her blood to promote mutation was that she hadn’t deliberately hurt herself. So if she went to fight zombies, bled, and then fed the blood to the plants, would that count as deliberately hurting herself?
No, these details were minor. The main point was…
Fu Erdie buried her face in her arms, her fingers unconsciously tugging at her hair.
The main point was that her ability couldn’t help her find her parents. Unless… unless this building, this house, could move like a vehicle and take her to them.
…
Wait!
Fu Erdie’s head shot up.
If her ability allowed her to promote mutation in surrounding plants after being injured, then what if she tried to mutate a car? That way, the car would have the same protective functions as the house!
It was only halfway through the day. After lunch, they could go out again in the afternoon.
Fu Erdie decided to ask Sang Wenhao to help escort her to find a drivable car, then fight zombies near the vehicle.
To ensure the injury wouldn’t be considered “deliberate,” she would genuinely fight the zombies with all her might. After getting injured, she would get into the car, let her blood drip inside, and see if she could sense any change in her ability, whether the car would mutate.
Regardless of whether the car mutated on the spot, Sang Wenhao could clear out the surrounding zombies and drive the car back to the neighborhood. Then they could observe it further and keep it as a backup.
Having made up her mind, Fu Erdie immediately discussed it with Sang Wenhao.
Naturally, he didn’t object. After a quick meal, they set out onto the road.
The road leading to Qingfan Town didn’t have an overwhelming number of zombies, but without Sang Wenhao’s help, Fu Erdie would have struggled to bash so many heads with just a hammer.
As Sang Wenhao kept an eye on Fu Erdie’s situation, he also searched for a drivable vehicle.
Multitasking, he controlled metal spikes to fly around, piercing each zombie’s skull with precision. After a quick stir, they shot back out through the same hole they’d entered.
The zombies collapsed, falling silent.
He found a car. Fu Erdie, exhausted after her effort, finally sustained an injury, deep scratches on her back, down to the bone.
Closing her eyes, Fu Erdie focused inward and suddenly realized she could sense a faint but distinct energy flowing through her body.
She tried to guide it, and the energy successfully reached her fingertips where they touched the car seat.
But…
Fu Erdie frowned.
It felt like pouring water into a cup, but the cup was solid instead of hollow, the water couldn’t get in, spilling over the sides instead.
“Time to head back,” Sang Wenhao said as he started the engine. “Hold on.”
Back at the neighborhood, Fu Erdie didn’t continue studying the car’s mutation. She also refused the pothos plant’s healing, wanting to keep exploring this mysterious energy.
She moved her fingertip to touch the succulent’s leaf beside her. This time, the succulent was no longer a “solid cup”, it was like a vast ocean, ready to absorb the “water” she poured in.
And at the same time… she could also draw the water back out?!
She tried to draw a little bit of the “water” out of the succulent. Just that small amount, and she realized the vicious wound on her back no longer hurt at all.
“Sang Wenhao, is my back healed?”
She turned to him and received an unexpected yet affirmative reply.
“It’s healed.”
Fu Erdie stroked the succulent. “Are you feeling any discomfort?”
The succulent shook its leaves.
“I’m sorry, but I’d like to try one more thing. If you feel any discomfort at all, let me know immediately.”
The succulent nodded.
This time, Fu Erdie gradually increased the amount of “water” she drew out.
It was like drinking some kind of nutrient solution. The exhaustion from fighting all afternoon vanished, replaced by a surging sense of vitality.
She asked the succulent how it was feeling, whether it felt unwell.
The succulent shook its leaves.
Yet strangely, Fu Erdie could sense that it was a little tired. Not in pain, but just like it had been playing for a long time or had eaten too much, it wanted to sleep.
So, Fu Erdie poured the “water” she had drawn out back into the succulent.
She guessed that this energy, which could flow between her and the succulent, had powerful healing properties and also restored vitality.
She had drawn energy from the succulent, and now that she was giving it back, she would likely become tired again herself.
That was fine, she could just sleep it off.
With that in mind, she not only returned all the energy she had taken but also poured in a lot more “water.”
The result, however, was that she remained energetic until reaching a certain critical point.
Once she passed that threshold, which she had vaguely sensed coming, it was like a water filter being breached by the flow. There was a soft pop, and suddenly she was no longer in control. An overwhelming exhaustion washed over her.
She tried to steady herself and pull some energy back, but she found her control over this intangible force had weakened.
She could only maintain the current state and couldn’t heal herself.
That day, she was so weak and unsteady that Sang Wenhao had to carry her back up the building.