Chapter 10 Physical Mutation This isn't my blood, it's yours. ...
After entering the mountains, the master and apprentice resumed their life of living in the open and enduring hardship.
Unlike before, this time the food reserves are plentiful, so Lin Jianyu no longer has to go hungry or overeat, and Lin Jinshui no longer has to worry about her three meals a day, allowing them to focus on finding places rich in spiritual energy.
As the saying goes, perseverance pays off. On the day before the start of winter, he finally found a place rich in spiritual energy.
After carefully inspecting the surrounding area to make sure there were no mountain and sea tribesmen, he found a cave and settled there with Lin Jianyu.
Lin Jianyu couldn't sense any spiritual energy, nor did she believe that spiritual energy existed in this world. However, she quite liked the place Lin Jinshui had found because there were many animals there. Knowing that she liked to eat meat, Lin Jinshui set up several traps nearby and would catch one for her to enjoy from time to time.
Ever since she vomited and had diarrhea after eating Lin Jinshui's roasted rabbit meat last time, she no longer trusted his roasting skills. She always roasted the meat herself or made soup with it. Most of the time, she made soup because roasting meat over an open flame is a skill that she hadn't mastered very well. It was common for her to roast meat that was burnt on the outside but not cooked on the inside, just like Lin Jinshui.
Even after eating undercooked meat, she never vomited or had diarrhea again. It wasn't that her constitution had improved; it was mainly because she had a cure-all medicine for all her ailments.
Whenever she felt unwell, she would ask Lin Jinshui to cut her finger so she could suck a mouthful of blood.
Over time, she developed the illusion that she was a zombie.
This day is the winter solstice, and nearly four months have passed since they first met.
Aside from running out of instant noodles at the beginning and going hungry for a while, Lin Jianyu ate and drank well every day afterward, and her originally skinny body finally gained some weight.
As the body swelled, so did the mind.
For example, right now, deep in the mountains and forests, she actually wants to eat dumplings.
People in Shandong have a tradition of eating dumplings on the Winter Solstice. Every year on the Winter Solstice, regardless of wealth, every household will make dumplings as a festive meal.
Several years ago, on the winter solstice, when her mother was still alive, she was fortunate enough to eat one dumpling, filled with pork and scallions. The taste... to be honest, she doesn't remember it now, but she remembers how she felt after eating the dumpling. It was the most delicious thing she had ever eaten, just like when she first ate instant noodles, she wished she could eat them for the rest of her life.
When Lin Jinshui told her that it was the winter solstice, she inexplicably felt a strong urge to eat dumplings, and then she started talking about them.
I want to eat dumplings.
"Can't you think of something we have here?" Where is he supposed to get dumplings for her in this remote mountain forest?
“If I want something here, I just have to say the word.” He always manages to get it for her. “You count how many times I’ve said it since this morning.”
"You know you've been nagging me all morning." He was so tired of hearing it that he couldn't concentrate on his cultivation at all.
"If I can't eat it, I can't even talk about it?"
"Are you Nian Nian? Are you Nian Nian Nian Nian..."
"I'm just idling around anyway."
"Go take a nap, you can dream about anything."
"oh."
Lin Jianyu found a sunny spot, covered himself with his Taoist robe, lay down, and planned to daydream about eating dumplings.
Lin Jinshui thought that she could finally have some peace and quiet after seeing her go to take a nap, but in less than fifteen minutes, she started talking about dumplings again.
At first, he thought she was just muttering to herself because she couldn't sleep. But when she turned over and made a grinding sound, he realized that she was talking about dumplings even in her sleep.
It really is...
I lost to her.
Southerners generally don't have the habit of eating dumplings during festivals. Lin Jinshui has only eaten dumplings a handful of times in his life, let alone made them. He's never done it before, but he's seen Yun Dan do it.
His second nephew had extraordinary talent for cultivation, but he disliked cultivation and preferred to tinker with food.
A few years ago, his third senior brother brought some fresh shrimp dumplings back to the Taoist temple for them to try. His second senior nephew liked them after tasting them, and so did he.
Unlike him, his second nephew was a man of action; whatever he liked to eat, he would try to make it himself.
To make dumplings, you first need flour. Unfortunately, at that time, there was no flour in their temple. But this did not stump him. Soon, he found a substitute for flour: noodles.
He pounded the noodles into powder, added water to make dough, rolled it into wrappers, and filled them with various fillings, including but not limited to shrimp, and the dumplings were made.
It was his first time making dumplings, and the ingredients were limited. The taste was far inferior to the ones his third senior brother brought back. But food was scarce back then, and the filling contained his favorite shrimp and fish... so he was quite satisfied with the dumplings.
Later, as he gained experience and was no longer limited by the ingredients, the dumplings he made became tastier each time. But what impressed him most was the experience of making dumplings for the first time.
Because that was the only time he observed the entire process.
After hearing Lin Jianyu talk about dumplings countless times, he finally made up his mind to recreate the process of his second nephew making dumplings for the first time.
First, you have to grind the noodles into powder. They have noodles in their winter food stash, so grinding them into powder isn't difficult. Then, add water and knead it into dough. That shouldn't be difficult either... just kidding.
The first time he added too much water, he had no choice but to add some more noodles. Then, he added water when there was too much noodles, and added more noodles when there was too much water... This went on and on, endlessly.
When the dough was finally kneaded, the amount was many times larger than he had intended.
He originally intended to make two for Lin Jianyu to try, just two, not too many and not too few, but now he could cook a big pot for her to eat until she was stuffed.
Once the dough is ready, it's time to roll out the wrappers.
Rolling dough is a more difficult skill than kneading it, and clearly, he doesn't know how.
After several unsuccessful attempts, he gave up and manually shaped the dough into wrappers. Then, he filled them with dried shrimp, dried fish, and even instant noodles that they had bought in town, fully embodying the spirit that anything can be used to make dumplings.
The dumplings he made were not oddly shaped... he rolled them all into round shapes.
So when Lin Jianyu woke up from his sleep by the aroma, what he saw was his master squatting by the fire cooking "tangyuan" (glutinous rice balls).
Lin Jianyu had lived in Nanyue for two years and knew that southerners had the custom of eating tangyuan (glutinous rice balls) on the winter solstice. When he saw the round, plump things boiling in the pot, his first thought was that he was cooking tangyuan.
but……
"Where did these glutinous rice balls come from?" She knew perfectly well what kind of food they had stored up; there were definitely no glutinous rice balls among them.
“These are dumplings,” Lin Jinshui corrected.
"Are you sure?" Although Lin Jianyu hadn't eaten many dumplings, he had seen quite a few. This was the first time he had seen dumplings made into meatballs.
"OK." Except for the shape, he made it the same way he would make dumplings. "Can't dumplings be made round?"
"Never seen it before, but it's not impossible." It's all the same once it's in your mouth. "Is it cooked?" She was a little hungry.
"Is it cooked?" Lin Jinshui wasn't entirely sure. "Try one and see."
"Okay." Lin Jianyu scooped up a piece with a spoon, blew on it twice, and then couldn't wait to take a bite, only to be burned and wince.
"Let it cool down before you eat it. No one's going to take it from you," Lin Jinshui said helplessly.
Lin Jianyu obediently blew on it to cool it down before eating. The skin was a bit thick and not fully cooked, so she cooked it for a while longer before eating. It was cooked through, but the filling...
"A dumpling filled with brown sugar, are you sure this isn't a glutinous rice ball?"
"He didn't just pack brown sugar." He packed everything he could.
Lin Jianyu tried a few more: instant noodles, dried shrimp, dried fish, raisins... The fillings were a bit outrageous, but the taste was pretty good. Eating a bowl of this in the dead of winter warmed him up nicely, and he thoroughly enjoyed it.
After eating and drinking her fill, she finally calmed down and stopped constantly talking about wanting to eat dumplings. Lin Jinshui was finally able to meditate and cultivate in peace.
While he was meditating, Lin Jianyu first slumped down beside him, then got up and walked a few steps to digest her food. Just as she was about to take out her brush, ink, paper, and inkstone to practice calligraphy, she suddenly felt a tightness in her chest and couldn't breathe properly.
Even after several months, she still recognized the feeling; it was a reaction to poisoning.
Realizing she had been poisoned, she rushed to Lin Jinshui and cried, "Master, help! The dumplings are poisoned!"
Upon hearing this, Lin Jinshui opened his eyes. Just as he was about to say something, he saw her clutch her chest and spit out a mouthful of blood.
He had just changed his clothes that morning... but that's not the point. The point is that after vomiting blood, Lin Jianyu's originally slender blood vessels were bulging again, as if they were about to burst at any moment. His body was twisted in a bizarre posture, making the sound of bones dislocating, accompanied by one painful scream after another.
Having seen the world once, Lin Jinshui knew that this wasn't poisoning, but rather that her body was undergoing a strange change.
The mutation was far more dangerous than poisoning. He placed his cut finger in her mouth and waited for about fifteen minutes before her body returned to normal.
He tried to wake her, but she didn't respond at all.
So he pinched her philtrum with his hand.
Lin Jianyu was awakened by the pain. When she opened her eyes, her pupils were blue for a moment, as if they contained the stars and the sea, but they quickly returned to normal.
When she first woke up, she was in a daze and couldn't remember what had happened before she lost consciousness. She only felt weak all over, as if she had been hungry for a long time, and her throat was very dry.
Just as she was about to ask Lin Jinshui what was wrong with her, she suddenly noticed the bloodstains on his chest, her pupils contracted sharply, and the next second, she sat up in shock from her deathbed.
"Master, you are injured."
"No." Lin Jinshui denied it subconsciously, but when he saw her eyes staring intently at the bloodstains on his chest, he realized she had misunderstood and hurriedly explained, "This is not my blood, it is your blood."
"Oh." Lin Jianyu breathed a sigh of relief and was about to lie back down when she suddenly realized something, "Whose blood?"
“Yours,” Lin Jinshui replied.
"I'm injured!" No wonder she felt weak all over; it must be due to excessive blood loss. But... "Where's the wound?" She looked herself up and down but couldn't find any wounds, not even a trace of blood. It couldn't be on her back, could it? She turned her head to look at her back but saw nothing.
“No need to look anymore, there are no wounds. This blood came from your mouth. Your body just underwent a strange change, which is the aftereffect I told you about,” Lin Jinshui said.
"An anomaly?" Lin Jianyu carefully recalled what happened before she lost consciousness.
First, she ate dumplings he made himself. Then, feeling full, she took a walk to digest. Suddenly, she felt a tightness in her chest and had trouble breathing, which was obviously food poisoning. Then, she ran to him for help. And then... she couldn't remember anything else. It must have been the poison taking effect, causing her to lose consciousness, or it could have been the strange change he mentioned.
Although she was a staunch materialist who did not believe in any supernatural beings, her master's blood did have a miraculous effect on her. It was unlike the blood of a normal person, and it might really cause her to undergo a transformation.
But what has changed?
Her hands were hands, her feet were feet, and her body hadn't changed much. She even touched her face; her features were normal, she didn't have horns on her head, and she didn't have a tail behind her.
"What are you doing?" Lin Jinshui asked, puzzled as she touched her face and head repeatedly.
"How have I changed?" Lin Jianyu asked instead of answering.
"My body," Lin Jinshui replied.
"No!" She had checked everything, and there was no change at all.
“You can’t see it with the naked eye,” Lin Jinshui said. “Try to sense the spiritual energy around you.”
Lin Jianyu tried it, but felt nothing.
Very well, I've fallen for his lies again.
All that talk about strange phenomena and spiritual energy is just him trying to scare people; it doesn't exist at all.
Otherwise, it would be understandable if she couldn't sense the spiritual energy, but how could she not sense the changes in her own body?
Hmm, I think I sensed it.
My stomach is empty and I feel weak all over.
I'm hungry.
"You're hungry so soon?" Not long ago, I was so full that I felt bloated.
"I was hungry as soon as I woke up, so my body must have undergone some kind of change," Lin Jianyu said nonsensically.
Lin Jinshui believed it.
"Then let me cook some more dumplings for you?" I had made too many dumplings before, and the only small aluminum pot was too small to cook them all in one pot. There were still some left over, and I originally planned to cook them for her as a late-night snack later.
“Okay.” Lin Jianyu nodded, picked up the water bottle next to her, and took a sip of water. After waking up, she was not only hungry, but her mouth was also very dry, as if she hadn’t drunk water for a long time. It was the same feeling she had when she woke up a few months ago after he rescued her. It must be some kind of aftereffect, but whether it was the mutation he mentioned was still in doubt.
While she was drinking water, Lin Jinshui had already boiled the water and was waiting for it to boil.
Looking at the plump dumplings, Lin Jianyu suddenly asked, "Are you sure these dumplings aren't poisonous?"
"No, I don't think so!" He ate some too, so even if it was poisonous, it probably wouldn't affect him. "It shouldn't be, right?"
Given the uncertain tone, Lin Jianyu really found it hard to believe that the dumplings weren't poisoned.
As everyone knows... well, not everyone, only she knows that when there is no danger, her master is the greatest danger.
Vomiting and diarrhea were the mildest symptoms; she had experienced the near-death experience of poisoning several times.
But it was impossible for her not to eat the dumplings. When faced with delicious food, she was not afraid of anything, not even a coffin. Anyway, with her master there, she was sure she wouldn't die; at most, she would suffer a little.
After the dumplings were cooked, she ate them without any pressure, enjoying the whole process. Nothing happened after she finished eating.
It seems that this really is the aftereffect her master mentioned, not poisoning.
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