Chapter 9: Fried Rice
(Warning: The below Chapter is a bit depressing and has mentions of sensitive topics. Please skip the first segment if it is uncomfortable! The summary of first segment is in author’s thought section.)
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’Yucai... why did you survive? You should have died! It’s all because of you that my brother died! I curse you, Yucai! I curse you! You will lose all your loved ones and die a horrible death!’
’You are guilty? Then die! Show me how guilty you felt!’
Li Jiao’s vicious shouts echoed in Lu Yucai’s ears. His hand, as if having a mind of its own, slipped under the pillows. Once the cold handle of the knife touched his skin, he took it out and placed it on his wrist.
’Do it! Come on! Show some remorse! This is what you owe them!’ The voice, like a vicious snake coiled around him, made him feel cold all over.
The next second, the cold knife was placed on his wrist. All the beautiful moments of his life flashed in his eyes, and a peaceful smile appeared on his face as he slashed his wrist.
As a soldier, he knew the vital vein. It would only need a few minutes... just a few minutes of distance between him and Li Qin...
Before he could succeed, though, a cold hand shot out and held the knife, preventing any contact between the cold steel and him.
"Lu Yucai! What the hell are you doing?" Ni Mengxue’s heart was racing with fear, and her mind was filled with only one thought.
Not again! She was not going to lose her Lu Yucai again!
Lu Yucai flinched a little as if realising what he was going to do, and his grip on the knife loosened, giving Ni Mengxue enough time to snatch the knife away completely.
For the first time, Ni Mengxue realised that she could hate an inanimate object. The knife was tossed in her space, and she swore to destroy it completely someday.
"Give me the knife back." Lu Yucai said calmly, like he wasn’t the one who had just tried to commit suicide...
"No," Ni Mengxue almost roared, her eyes staring at Lu Yucai coldly. "You will not be allowed near it ever again!"
Lu Yucai stared into her eyes for a long time before looking away. "As you wish."
Ni Mengxue had to take a long breath to prevent herself from shouting. Rather, she changed the subject and suggested,
"Let’s make a bet: tomorrow I will make fried rice, and if I fail, I will return you your knife. However, if I succeed, you will have to live for one more week. Deal?"
Fried rice may have been a common dish during normal times, but for people in an apocalypse, it was a premium dish cooked up during important or rare occasions.
For someone as dirt poor as Ni Mengxue, it was even harder.
’Maybe she doesn’t want to be blamed, and it is her hint that I should give her time to distance herself. ’Lu Yucai thought and gave a faint nod.
Ni Mengxue’s hanging heart relaxed. The coldness in her body receded, and she sat beside his bed like all of her energy was drained.
To ensure that Lu Yucai didn’t do anything foolish again, she stayed by his side.
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"System, can I use my consciousness to farm?" She racked her brain for all the possible things she could have done while staying by his side.
The environment needs to be changed! They couldn’t live in such a depressing place anymore!
[Yes, host.]
"Good." She thought and entered the spiritual space.
Having already read that the soil would adapt according to the plant seeds and even the temperature around it would be adjusted, she sowed tomato sappling, potato sappling, sweet potato sappling, cabbage sappling, and carrot seeds without any worry.
Each type of seed was enough to cover an acre of land. However, she knew it wasn’t enough.
"System, can’t I buy vegetable seeds?" Ni Mengxue asked.
[You can get it from system store.]
Ni Mengxue quickly checked the grey vegetable section and realised that she couldn’t buy vegetables, but vegetable seeds weren’t a problem!
She bought onion seedlings, rice, wheat cloves of garlic, spinach, lettuce, turnips, radishes, green peas, and cucumbers.
Most of them were fast-growing crops, the earliest being radishes, which she can harvest within the next 10 days.
The slowest-growing crops were onion and garlic; even with acceleration of growth, it would take a month before she could harvest the first batch.
Purchasing these saplings and seeds wasn’t easy. She even had to take a loan of 10,000 merit points.
If it weren’t for the fact that she couldn’t take out more loans, she would have bought more seeds.
"I remember there was a farming spirit here, right?" Ni Mengxue murmured. "System, how to activate it? Should I just leave my seed here or call it out?"
[Host, leave the seed, and all the farm-related work would be done by it.]
"Hm? So I just need to be a hands-off boss and come to collect vegetables later on?" She asked with a wicked grin.
[Yes, host.]
"Now, that’s what life is." She paused before her expression turned thoughtful. "System, notify me anytime Yucai tries to take his life. And do you have any hint as to why he tried to kill himself this time?"
[Alright host.]
’No response... again.’ Ni Mengxue sighed and decided to look into the matter on her own.
She owns quite a few luxury products and can exchange them to improve her life. As for running out of those items?
She can either make them on her own or even buy the blueprints from the system.
The blueprint section was filled with a variety of items, from building structures to food items and even medicine.
Regaining her senses, she quickly made dinner and tried to feed it to Lu Yuca; however, he didn’t even bother to open his eyes, let alone his mouth.
"I will take it as if you want a kiss," Ni Mengxue threatened.
But all that she received was a cold silence that seeped into her heart like vicious poison, making her feel cold all over.