Xie Zhiyu’s father’s confusion seemed quite reasonable.
Xie Zhiyu had only been up on the rooftop for an hour, yet when she came back, she was carrying several watermelons. And her father knew there was nothing growing on the rooftop, so where had these watermelons come from?
His first thought was that she had gone somewhere and robbed a few.
But the moment the words left his mouth, he realized how ridiculous that sounded and quickly corrected himself.
“Could wild watermelons have grown on the rooftop?”
And they were so big and round that anyone could tell they would be delicious.
Xie Zhiyu couldn’t help laughing when she heard him.
She deliberately lifted the watermelons in her hands a little higher and gave a smug little snort.
“Where would I go to be a bandit? I just grew these upstairs. And not just these—I brought all of them back.”
Xie Zhiyu’s father looked utterly incredulous. He turned his head and glanced out the window.
A few seconds later, he muttered, “Something’s not right. I’m not dreaming, am I?”
How had he started hallucinating too?
Xie Zhiyu was speechless at his reaction.
She finally rolled her eyes dramatically. “Dad, this is real. I used spiritual energy to make these watermelons grow.”
She slightly changed the explanation into something he could accept.
She had no way of explaining where the Spirit-Gathering Stone had come from, so she could only use this method to let her father know about it.
To make her explanation more convincing, she even told him some of the things the system had just explained to her.
After learning that ordinary plants would grow faster after the spiritual energy revival, Xie Zhiyu’s father was finally able to digest the fact that she had grown several large watermelons within an hour.
He helped her carry the watermelons to the dining table, then curiously knocked on them here and there. When he heard the dull thump coming from inside, his eyes lit up.
“Hey, they’re solid. You can tell they’re going to be delicious just from the sound.”
Xie Zhiyu raised her chin proudly. “Of course. How could anything I grow not be delicious?”
Her father nodded vigorously and praised her without hesitation.
“Absolutely. My daughter is outstanding at everything she does.”
Xie Zhiyu revealed a happy smile.
The system silently watched the scene.
“Host, the atmosphere in your family is really relaxed.”
Although it had only recently awakened, it already knew that the atmosphere in Xie Zhiyu’s family was exceptionally good.
Her father had never once put her down. Even Wang Yuerong, who was usually quite fierce, basically let Xie Zhiyu do whatever she wanted.
Seeing this, the system finally understood why, despite the original female lead in the novel targeting its host for so many years, its host had still grown up mentally and physically healthy.
The love given by her parents was enough to soothe every pain.
And the system had never experienced anything like that.
Perhaps sensing the indescribable emotion in the system’s voice, Xie Zhiyu answered calmly yet gently.
“Aren’t you part of our family now too?”
“Me?” The system froze.
“Of course.” Xie Zhiyu replied matter-of-factly. “From the day you bound yourself to me, you became one of us.”
Although Xie Zhiyu’s father was currently sitting there with a cheerful smile as he cut the watermelon, a man who had built his fortune from nothing and achieved financial freedom was not actually as simple-minded as he appeared in front of his family.
Xie Zhiyu even secretly suspected that her father had definitely noticed that something about her was different, but had ultimately chosen to accept those differences.
So she thought that if, one day in the future, the system really appeared here in physical form, her father would probably be surprised for a moment before welcoming it with a smile.
That was why she had said those words.
From the day the system bound itself to her, it had already earned the right to become her family.
She didn’t say those thoughts aloud, but the system could sense what she was thinking.
It was instantly overwhelmed with emotion.
Its voice became teary.
“Host, you’re really wonderful.”
“You’ve always known I was wonderful, haven’t you?” she coaxed with a smile.
“And since you already know how wonderful I am, can you lower the prices in your shop a little?”
System: “……”
The system, which had still been on the verge of tears a moment ago, instantly pulled itself out of its emotional state.
It firmly refused.
“No.”
Xie Zhiyu sighed. “What a pity.”
She was about to say something else when a sweet, refreshing fragrance suddenly reached her nose.
The warm moment between human and system came to an abrupt end.
Xie Zhiyu fell silent, and her gaze involuntarily landed on the watermelon her father had just cut open.
The inside was brilliantly red and perfectly ripe. With just one casual cut from her father, juice had already begun spreading across the tabletop.
“This fragrance… Why is it so much stronger than the smell of ordinary watermelon?”
Her father took a deep sniff. His stomach, which hadn’t been hungry at all, suddenly began growling.
He rubbed his belly.
“That’s strange.”
How could he suddenly be this hungry?
Even Wang Yuerong, who was cooking in the kitchen, was drawn out by the fragrance.
She immediately spotted the watermelon on the table.
“Where did this watermelon come from? It smells amazing.”
She walked over to the table, picked up a slice, and immediately took a bite.
Crunch—
She moved so quickly that Xie Zhiyu’s father had wanted to stop her but failed. He could only watch helplessly as she swallowed it.
He immediately became nervous.
“Oh dear, there’s something strange about this watermelon. How could you just eat it? Are you all right? How do you feel?”
Wang Yuerong said nothing. She closed her eyes and quietly chewed the food in her mouth.
Taking advantage of her father’s distraction, Xie Zhiyu secretly grabbed a piece herself and took a bite.
The moment the watermelon entered her mouth, she was stunned.
Juice burst forth under the pressure of her teeth. The flesh was sweet without being cloying. It retained that pleasantly grainy texture while still offering a crisp bite.
It tasted at least ten times better than ordinary watermelon.
So this was what food grown with spiritual energy tasted like?
It was unbelievably delicious.
Xie Zhiyu kept eating one bite after another without stopping.
Perhaps because she had eaten quite a lot, she gradually sensed a faint fluctuation of spiritual energy inside her body.
There wasn’t much spiritual energy, but for ordinary people who had yet to awaken a spiritual root, the effect might be astonishing.
Xie Zhiyu fell into thought.
While she was silently pondering this, Wang Yuerong had already swallowed the food in her mouth.
When she opened her eyes, her expression was serious.
“I can feel the spiritual-energy fluctuations inside this.”
She pointed at the watermelon she had bitten into.
“There’s spiritual energy in this watermelon.” Her tone was extremely solemn.
“Really?”
Xie Zhiyu’s father froze. He looked at Wang Yuerong in disbelief, only to see her nod seriously. Her expression clearly wasn’t a joke.
The enormous shock caused his brain to stop functioning for several seconds.
Then an unbelievable possibility suddenly surged into his mind.
He instinctively turned around to look for the person responsible, only to find Xie Zhiyu beside him, eating enthusiastically like a little hamster.
Xie Zhiyu’s father: “……”
No matter how earth-shattering his thoughts had been, they were instantly wiped away by her behavior.
Yet seeing this scene actually made him relax.
After hesitating for a few seconds, he picked up a slice of watermelon and took a gentle bite.
Someone who had already stepped onto the path of cultivation might not find it easy to notice the effect, but he was still an ordinary person.
The instant the watermelon entered his mouth, a powerful surge of energy rushed through him.
He collapsed backward into his chair, his eyes wide open.
For a long while, he couldn’t say a word.
His strange reaction caught Xie Zhiyu and Wang Yuerong’s attention.
The two of them quickly put down the watermelons in their hands and instinctively reached out to support him, but the next moment, something unexpected happened.
Xie Zhiyu’s father suddenly retched.
The watermelon he had just eaten didn’t come back up. Instead, what he vomited out was yellowish-brown mud.
“Pfft, pfft, pfft—”
It fell in a steady stream, almost like he was farting, with yellow mud scattering all over the place.
Xie Zhiyu’s outstretched hand froze in midair.
Wang Yuerong stared in astonishment. It took her a while to process what had just happened.
She looked at Xie Zhiyu’s father, whose face was covered in yellow sand. He seemed to have lost all his strength and was leaning against the table, his right hand clutching his stomach.
Then she suddenly burst into laughter.
“HAHAHA—I… hahaha… I’m—going to die laughing! How—how could something this—this hilarious happen?”
Wang Yuerong laughed so hard that her whole body shook. She bent over because she could barely hold herself upright, and eventually she was gasping for breath, clutching her stomach in pain.
“Pfft—”
Xie Zhiyu also burst out laughing.
However, she didn’t dare laugh as boldly as Wang Yuerong. She merely covered her mouth with both hands, her shoulders trembling as she tried desperately to suppress her laughter.
Neither of them had expected Xie Zhiyu’s father to awaken his spiritual root in such a unique way. Even she was stunned for a moment.
As his daughter, she had already done her best to take care of Old Xie’s feelings.
The protagonist of this whole incident, Xie Zhiyu’s father, wiped his face. He looked at the hysterically laughing Wang Yuerong, then at Xie Zhiyu, who was desperately trying to hold back her laughter but still kept making little sounds.
Xie—full of resentment—Father: “……”
“Stop laughing,” he said gloomily. “I awakened a spiritual root. Isn’t that a good thing?”
“It is indeed a good thing.”
Xie Zhiyu nodded seriously. If one ignored the laughter she could barely conceal in her eyes, her response would have been quite convincing.
Her father merely gave a dry laugh and stared at her with dead-fish eyes.
Regardless, the fact that everyone in the family had now awakened spiritual roots was indeed something worth celebrating.
After laughing to her heart’s content, Wang Yuerong returned to the kitchen and prepared an enormous feast. By the time they finished eating, Xie Zhiyu was clutching her stomach and complaining that she was stuffed.
However, she didn’t play favorites. After dinner, she carefully taught her parents the cultivation formula.
Since both of them had already awakened their spiritual roots, this time she taught them the complete version of the Qi-Condensation and Body-Entry formula.
Their talents were nowhere near Xie Zhiyu’s. They followed the formula and tried to sense the spiritual energy, but neither noticed any significant change. There was simply a little more spiritual energy inside their bodies.
Wang Yuerong became somewhat anxious about it, but Xie Zhiyu’s father took it in stride.
“I think I understand now. Neither of us has talent as good as our daughter’s. If we’re a little slower, then so be it. We’ll be able to draw spiritual energy into our bodies sooner or later anyway.”
That was true.
After his reassurance, Wang Yuerong stopped worrying as well.
With her parents’ situation settled, Xie Zhiyu finally relaxed a little. That was when she suddenly felt that something seemed to be missing from the house.
She looked around. Little Hei wasn’t in the living room, so she checked every room in the house, but she still couldn’t find him.
Only then did she ask in confusion, “Dad, Mom, where’s Little Hei? Why haven’t I seen him?”
Normally, Little Hei would hide somewhere they couldn’t easily see during the day and sleep until nighttime, when he would come out to look for food.
But it was already after dinner, and Xie Zhiyu still hadn’t seen Little Hei appear.
A trace of panic rose in her heart.
“Little Hei? He—”
Her father had only just begun speaking when the three of them suddenly heard a very distinct scratching sound.
Xie Zhiyu turned toward the source of the noise.
When she saw the black cat absentmindedly pawing at the glass window, she froze.
After carefully examining it for several seconds, she finally seemed to recognize him and exclaimed in surprise,
“Little Hei?”
“How did you change so much?”