Chapter 29: Stay Calm, Let's Talk This Through

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Thank goodness, thank goodness—there was fur covering it.

Slurp!

Qin Xiaoyu swallowed her drool and said to the iron pot, “Congratulations! You’ve officially become a mutated beast.”

The iron pot was puzzled. “Gah?”

What was a mutated beast?

Qin Xiaoyu said, “When we get home, I’ll have Grandpa brew you a pot of medicine. Once you drink it, you’ll feel refreshed and instantly understand your abilities.”

The iron pot: ...

For some reason, it had a very bad feeling about this.

Before it could think things through, a fierce hunger seized it, urging it to eat at once.

But the moment it tried to feed, its flat bill was pinched shut. Then a strand of Bermuda grass was wrapped tightly around it, leaving it unable to open its mouth even a fraction.

“...”

The iron pot wanted to ask what was going on, but it could not speak. All it could do was stare at her anxiously.

Qin Xiaoyu responded by looping another strand of Bermuda grass around its neck.

“You can’t eat any more, or you’ll turn into a dim-witted goose.” As she spoke, Qin Xiaoyu hoisted the shoulder pole, steadied it with one hand, and tugged the goose along with the other, hurrying home.

Going back like this, she would definitely be found out.

How was she supposed to explain it?

Forget it. Never mind.

She would go home and sleep first. Whatever happened could wait until tomorrow.

The iron pot kept turning its head back every few steps, gazing reluctantly at the olives covering the ground and hanging from every tree. There was enough food here to last it for ages. What a waste if other beasts ate it all!

“Stop looking. Aren’t you afraid you’ll sour yourself to death from eating so many green olives?”

“Gah!” Not sour!

In truth, it could not tell whether they were sour or not. All it knew was that they smelled delicious. It could swallow one whole in a single bite; they were just the right size, and since it had no teeth, there was no need to chew.

The village was far from quiet at night. The village chief had arranged for people to stand watch, and powerful lights swept across the area from time to time.

Not wanting to be questioned, Qin Xiaoyu avoided them whenever possible. She moved even faster than she had on the way there and reached home without taking long.

She dumped the shoulder pole beneath the eaves, returned the bamboo shoots to the kitchen, locked the iron pot in its iron cage, and went back to sleep.

The round trip had taken nearly three hours, and she felt rather exhausted.

More than anything, she was sleepy. After all, she still had a child’s body.

She returned to her room and fell asleep the moment her head touched the pillow.

Early the next morning, just as the sky was beginning to brighten, several startled cries rang out beneath the eaves.

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“Where did all these olives come from?”

“Who dug up these bamboo shoots?”

“There’s a mutated blood-stopping herb here too.”

“Who locked the iron pot in the dog cage? Good heavens, how did the iron pot get so huge?”

...

One startled cry after another roused Qin Xiaoyu from her sleep. She wanted to doze a little longer, but the noise was simply unbearable—unless she shut the window.

But the village had lost power long ago. Without air-conditioning, sleeping with the windows closed in the middle of summer would suffocate anyone.

She sat bolt upright and could not resist grumbling, “The whole Earth has transmigrated, so why is summer still summer? Couldn’t the climate have changed even a little?”

She raised a hand and rubbed her face hard. She was instantly wide awake.

She got out of bed, put on her shoes, and went to wash up.

Beneath the eaves, several people exchanged bewildered looks. No one knew where so many olives had come from. Each bundle weighed nearly two hundred pounds, and the two bundles together had to weigh more than three hundred.

Besides the olives, there were bamboo shoots and a mutated blood-stopping herb.

Then there was the enormous fat goose locked in the cage. No matter how they looked at it, something seemed wrong.

They glanced around. Everyone was there except Xiaoyu.

Most of them had already formed a likely guess; they simply could not bring themselves to believe it.

An Xian’s hands felt itchy. She especially wanted to grab the feather duster. She was eighty percent certain this had been her daughter’s doing.

That little rascal had stayed up in the middle of the night and sneaked out to pick green olives.

Where could green olives have come from at a time like this? Unless they had come from a mutated plant. And there was only one mutated olive tree nearby.

More than anything, however, An Xian was worried. The olive tree was so dangerous, yet her daughter had picked so many olives from it. Had she been injured?

Just as she was thinking this, she saw her daughter descend the stairs, swinging her arms. Qin Xiaoyu was wearing piglet pajamas, and her two exposed legs were clean and fair, without even a scratch.

Her two arms were the same, as was her little face—clean, fair, and completely uninjured.

The heart that had risen into An Xian’s throat dropped at once.

Then she wanted to grab the feather duster.

Qin Xiaoyu quickly withdrew the foot she had just placed on the stairs and said warily, “Mom, calm down. Let’s talk this out. Don’t ruin your beautiful image in front of Dad—the fair-skinned beauty with long legs who can be both cool and sweet, both a seductive green tea and an innocent white lotus.”

An Xian: ...

She was so furious that she laughed.

She had been hesitating a little, but now she decisively seized the feather duster.

“You seem to have forgotten that your mother can grace the halls, manage the kitchen, discipline unruly children, and deal with hooligans.”

Qin Xiaoyu: ...

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Qin Xiaoyu said, “Mom, you can’t force a rhyme like that.”

An Xian snorted. “I’m uneducated!”

Qin Xiaoyu: ...

Mom, you graduated from Qing University. How could you say something like that without shame? Aren’t you afraid the university’s entire student body will drown you in spit, one mouthful at a time?

Seeing that things had gone far enough, Qin Baishan hurriedly reached out to snatch away the feather duster, wearing an ingratiating smile.

“Wife, she’s still young. It wouldn’t be good to beat her too badly, would it?”

An Xian thought: Do you know that the mind inside your daughter is already twenty-eight years old?

She’s nearly thirty and still this troublesome!

Still, An Xian had never truly intended to hit her daughter. Seeing the opportunity, she took the offered way out.

“Explain what happened.” An Xian pointed at the green olives scattered across the ground, then at the pitiful-looking iron pot in the dog cage.

Qin Xiaoyu thought for a moment and decided to tell the truth, though she left out the matter of her own physical mutation. She merely said that she had relied on her great strength to chop the olive tree into eight pieces.

When the family heard that Qin Xiaoyu had cut down a second-level olive tree, shock filled every face. That olive tree was terrifyingly fierce; they had not even dared approach it.

Was she really that powerful?

They stared at Qin Xiaoyu for quite some time, yet saw nothing unusual. If they had to name one distinguishing feature, it was that she was rather plump—and solidly so.

Qin Hao could not help asking, “Xiaoyu, how did you manage to become so powerful in such a short time?”

Qin Xiaoyu’s answer was almost asking to be slapped. “Because I possess unparalleled talent and train harder than ordinary people.”

Qin Ran blurted out, “I’ve never seen you train at all.”

Qin Xiaoyu said, “That’s because your eyes are useless. Doesn’t chasing Big Shrimp around every day count? Doesn’t carrying tables and hugging stone stools count?”

Everyone: ...

We thought you were just playing around. It never occurred to us that you were exercising.

Who trains their body like that?

Qin Xiaoyu pointed at Big Shrimp. “Then try chasing him while he runs. Uncle is getting old, Dad’s legs are short, and Big Brother is young and fast, so let him try.”

Qin Ran immediately looked eager. “I’ll do it. I was the champion in both the short- and long-distance events this season. I defeated eighteen universities and set a new record.”

“Fine, you do it.” Qin Xiaoyu nodded. Then she said to Big Shrimp, “Big Brother Shrimp, run one lap around the village. If you make it home without being caught, I’ll teach you how to get an endless supply of sunflower seeds.”

Big Shrimp added another condition. “You also have to chop down a stalk of sugarcane for me. I’ll give you half.”

Qin Xiaoyu said, “Deal.”

Big Shrimp immediately shot off like a streak of smoke.

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