65 The Gardener's Flowerbed (12)

If you don't work hard when you're young, you won't be a good person when you grow up.

When asked about the outside world, Qin Fu'an was actually taken aback for a moment.

Because at that moment, he wasn't thinking about the outside of Hundred Flowers Town, but rather the real world outside the entire bizarre game.

If Xie Yunhuai, who has only ever seen Hundred Flowers Town, is asking him about the outside of Hundred Flowers Town, wouldn't Xie Yunhuai in the other instances be more interested in asking him about reality outside the game?

While Xie Yunhuai waited, Qin Fu'an paused for a moment, then teased him with a smile, "Why don't you guess? There's a prize if you guess right."

"..." Xie Yunhuai was silent for a few seconds, then said softly, "Yes, there is, isn't there?"

Before Qin Fu'an could answer, he continued, "Outside Baihua Town, you have your own little house, a flower garden full of plants, and even better plants than me, right?"

To be precise, in Xie Yunhuai's mind, even the wheat seedling that Qin Fu'an casually transplanted was far more valuable than him.

He's nothing but a clump of pollutants clinging to life, hated by everyone.

"No." Qin Fu'an interrupted his inexplicably turbulent thoughts.

The boy reached out and flicked the soft leaves clinging to his wrist with his finger, amused. "I do have my own little house, a flower garden full of plants, and even a grumpy little brat, but I definitely don't have a better plant than you."

While Xie Yunhuai was stunned by his words, Qin Fu'an pondered and changed his words: "No, that's not right. If I had to say, I do have an extremely precious plant that I cherish. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it's my most beloved plant."

As he spoke, one could sense the tentacles wrapped around his wrist tightening silently, even leaving a distinct red mark on his wrist.

Xie Yunhuai himself was unaware of this. Even though his emotions were churning inside and hard to swallow, he still managed to maintain a cold tone and casually replied, "So that's how it is."

That's all I wanted to say.

Even the black tentacles that had been coiling around Qin Fu'an just moments before, after their initial tension, ruthlessly loosened and distanced themselves from him.

Qin Fu'an turned around and looked down at the black clump of grass that had retracted all its branches and leaves or even extended them in the opposite direction from itself in just a few breaths.

A faint smile lingered in his eyes, along with a warmth that Xie Yunhuai couldn't perceive at that moment.

"Why don't you ask me why I have a crush on someone?" He deliberately dragged out his usual lazy tone, and the smile in his voice hung at the end of his words, like a small hook gently tickling Xie Yunhuai's mind.

Xie Yunhuai certainly wanted to ask.

He had far more questions than just this one.

But he swallowed back all those complicated and mixed questions just before they were about to be uttered.

Just like the trust and reliance that he had just given to Qin Fu'an today, it was being quietly and slowly taken back by him.

But in the end, he could neither avoid nor hide the changes in his emotions.

So her reply was cold and laced with sarcasm: "No need, that's your own business, it has nothing to do with me."

He should have known that the person in front of him was a shameless swindler, and that he deserved to be fooled like a fool, stupidly falling into the trap the other party had dug with his true form. Now that he thinks about it, it's utterly ridiculous.

As for those behaviors that show no disdain, perhaps it's just a deliberate act of indifference. Maybe the other person is secretly pleased, feeling a great sense of accomplishment for having fooled them to this extent.

The roots that were originally deeply embedded in the soil began to move silently. He mocked his own foolishness and gullibility while planning to leave with his true form.

But then someone went too far and hooked one of his tentacles.

In that instant, all of Xie Yunhuai's movements came to an abrupt halt.

"Little cloud, where are you planning to go after you ran away?" Qin Fu'an gently stroked the trembling leaf in his palm with his fingertips.

Xie Yunhuai stood frozen in place. His initial cynicism and anger were easily transformed into inexplicable grievances by Xie Yunhuai's casual question.

“It’s none of your business.” His voice was tense and cold. “I never needed a gardener to take care of my plants. I’ve been alive even without you. Now it’s just that everything is back to normal.”

Rather than rejecting Qin Fu'an, it would be more accurate to say that he was making excuses to comfort himself.

But to Qin Fu'an's ears, his originally stiff and indifferent voice was now tinged with a pitiful grievance.

Like a fierce, puffy-haired cat that refuses to let people near, it will hide in a corner after chasing people away, secretly envying other kittens that can be adopted and taken away.

So while she was saying she refused, she actually let him hold her hand without moving an inch.

Qin Fu'an suddenly felt a pang of heartache.

He knelt down on one knee in front of the dark clump of grass, gently patting the fluffy leaves in front of him as if coaxing a child, and then took out the tender green grass sprout from his palm.

“Look,” he explained in a low voice to the silent little grass ball in front of him, “this is a gift you gave me in your first world, and I have kept it alive and well.”

Before Xie Yunhuai could react, he added, "The little grass I planted in the outside world looks very much like it."

The tentacle he had been holding suddenly tightened, as if someone was looking up at him in surprise.

Qin Fu'an smiled and nodded, "You guessed right. In the second world, you gave me such a small piece of your original body. After I took it home, I planted it in a flowerpot. We made a promise that once I made it grow, you would come home with me."

He patted the stiff grass clumps on every branch and gently coaxed the grass in his heart that was still sad and angry: "But I couldn't wait that long, so as soon as the time came, I ran to find you immediately, leaving only a little cub at home to guard the part of your body for me."

So, what he was referring to was the little house outside, the flowerbed outside, the grass in his heart outside...

Actually, it all relates to oneself.

Xie Yunhuai seemed to have forgotten how a blade of grass breathes, and that a blade of grass doesn't have a heartbeat. Otherwise, how could he have felt so flustered and breathless after hearing Qin Fu'an's words?

Even though she had just realized she had been deceived, she was still able to remain calm and composed when she decided to leave.

So why do you feel sad and wronged now that you don't have to leave?

He couldn't understand his own heart. Perhaps plants and trees don't have hearts, which is why he was in such a predicament, unable to move forward or backward, and why he had become so confused and unable to sort things out.

In the chaos, the branches and tendrils that had silently moved away secretly came back and, feeling wronged and dependent, wrapped themselves all over Qin Fu'an.

"fraud."

"asshole."

"Qin Fu'an, you're a liar!"

The invisible black tentacles also softly accused him of his excessive behavior, and if you listened closely, you might even hear a few sobs of grievance.

They are always more sensitive and emotional than Xie Yunhuai himself.

Therefore, the little emotions that Xie Yunhuai desperately tried to hide in front of Qin Fu'an were all clearly expressed.

I'm not happy that you lied to me.

Your words made me so sad, I want to leave you.

Please don't say things like that again; it scares me when I hear it.

You should like me more than you like all the plants combined.

you……

The relationship between Xie Yunhuai and his soul body is like that of a child wearing a mask and secretly shedding tears. No matter what joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness is shown on the mask, the tears under the mask will slide down his cheeks and then fall down his chin in a pattering sound, unable to be hidden at all.

Xie Yunhuai's figure appeared behind Qin Fu'an at some point.

He quietly watched Qin Fu'an kneeling in front of his body, coaxing him from behind, his fingers hanging at his sides curling slightly.

Seemingly sensing his gaze, Qin Fu'an turned around and looked over.

Their gazes met gently as they looked up from below.

-

“You shouldn’t have come here.” Xie Yunhuai stood in the flowerbed, looking down at the few seeds that Qin Fu’an had casually tossed into the wooden nest.

Qin Fu'an did not use the seeds purchased from the system, but instead used the rare and ordinary seeds distributed as rewards, as well as two unknown seeds from the seed bag that the town mayor had given him.

I planted a total of 10.

I planted all 3 precious seeds, 5 common seeds, and 2 unknown seeds.

When Xie Yunhuai said he shouldn't have come to Baihua Town, Qin Fu'an was covering the seeds with soil.

After covering everything, he took out the testing stone, aimed it at the seeds, and asked Xie Yunhuai why he said that.

"No one has ever left Baihua Town alive," Xie Yunhuai stated calmly, presenting this chilling fact.

The testing stone in Qin Fu'an's hand also happened to show the test results for the seeds.

Plant grade - Rare, growth status - Budding (countdown: 4:59:48), growth requirements - water with 100ml of fresh blood every 2 hours.

"Compared to you, these things are more like so-called pollutants." Qin Fu'an sneered as he poured a ladle of water on the seed.

Xie Yunhuai paused for a moment, watching him test other seeds without changing his expression and repeat the watering process. For some reason, he suddenly felt like laughing.

“If you do that, they won’t grow.” After he finished speaking, Qin Fu’an poured another ladle of water into the wooden trough.

After watering all the seeds, Qin Fu'an raised an eyebrow and looked at the handsome young man he had raised in the flowerbed, and snorted, "Raising flowers and grass is no different from raising children. You can't spoil them. Why should I give them whatever they want?"

"Survival of the fittest. If they don't want to live, then they should die." Qin Fu'an said indifferently, "If they don't work hard when they're young, they won't be any good when they grow up."

Do you want him to use his own life to nurture these seeds?

Dreaming might be faster.

Meeting Xie Yunhuai's surprised and worried gaze, Qin Fu'an put down the water ladle in his hand, raised his eyebrows and asked, "Have you ever heard of raising Gu?"

"What?" Xie Yunhuai had never heard of it.

Qin Fu'an then demonstrated it to him on the spot.

In front of Xie Yunhuai and many viewers in the live broadcast room, Qin Fu'an used tweezers to take two ordinary seeds out of the soil and put them together.

"..." Almost instantly, Xie Yunhuai understood the meaning of raising Gu.

Because he was made of plants, he was more aware of the cruelty and ruthlessness hidden in those two words.

Plundering and plundering are the instincts of plant growth.

Just like how, once he takes root, he causes swathes of nearby plants to die.

When two seeds are close together, instinct will drive them to try to seize each other's living space during their growth process, until the other seed becomes weaker and weaker.

"If they were outside of Hundred Flowers Town, they might coexist, but one would be weak and the other strong."

Qin Fu'an took off his gloves, which were covered in damp mud, and sneered coldly, "It's a pity that this is Hundred Flowers Town, where every step is deadly."

[Author's Note]

Anzai is trying his best to appease his wife again today.

If you make yourself cry, you have to comfort yourself; if you obediently admit your mistake, you'll do it again next time.

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Thank you to the little angel who threw the landmine:

Qiu Xiaolan 1;

Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution:

Patrick Star (5 bottles);

A lone boat in the clear rain, a quiet dawn, ..., a bottle from the mausoleum;

Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!