This place is great; there's plenty of food, the environment isn't polluted, and there's a lot of prey.
The group decided to stay there temporarily.
Perhaps it was some unseen force pulling them together. A few days later, on his way back from hunting, Qin Qiu saw a beautiful flower on a cliff and climbed up to pick it for Ye Nianzhen, thinking she would like it.
This was no challenge for him. He easily picked the flowers by clinging to the rock face with one hand and carefully placed them in his basket.
Just then, he caught a glimpse of something flashing in the cave not far away.
It was a cave located on a cliff, probably inhabited by some kind of climbing animal, like a gecko or a bat. Its eyes reflected the sunlight, which is how he spotted it.
But Qin Qiu felt it didn't quite look like it, and he had an urge to find out more, so he swung over and landed steadily in the cave, looking inside.
The cave was very clean, with no trace of any animals that had ever lived there. Some plants that kept out of the light grew inside, and at the very back, a small, glowing flower was quietly blooming.
He had heard Mingyuan and Luoshui talk about this little flower before, and it seemed to have hallucinogenic or dream-like effects. After Mingyuan and Luoshui picked the flower, they both seemed to have experienced something bad, and their complexions were not very good.
However, Qin Qiu felt that Ye Nianzhen would want him to take the flower back, so he did.
After picking the flowers, he felt nothing different; everything seemed normal. So, without thinking much of it, he put the flowers in his basket and headed back.
As he walked, he suddenly realized that something was wrong with the scenery around him.
Subtle changes have occurred in the vegetation, the animals, and even the air.
Although he never left the forest, he was certain that this was no longer the forest he originally belonged to.
He amplified his five senses to the maximum, taking in all the sounds in the mountains and forests. Soon he discovered a sound like human conversation coming from a certain direction, so he put down his basket and silently headed in that direction.
He was originally a white tiger. Felines walk silently, so his presence went unnoticed. But as he got closer, he heard a man's voice, a woman's voice, and a quiet but subtly impatient man's breathing.
He hid behind a large tree, a bit far away, but that didn't prevent him from seeing the scene in front of him clearly.
First came the reprimanding voice of a petite woman, clearly displeased with the muscular man squatting on the ground. She said, "What did you promise me? You said you would protect me and stay by my side. Aren't I your most important sister?"
The man next to the woman said coldly, "You think you can escape our grasp by hiding in a place like this? You've done so many dirty things for us, and now you think you can get away with it? You're dreaming!"
The man on the ground who was being accused remained silent. He maintained his squatting posture like a wild beast, his breathing gradually becoming heavy, clearly brewing anger.
The woman continued, "Come back with us, and I can forgive and forget. We'll still be best friends, and you'll get the same treatment at the central base. It's better than living like a savage in these deep mountains and forests, isn't it?"
The man pursed his lips, opened his mouth and closed it again, but in the end he still didn't speak. Instead, he jumped up forcefully and disappeared from the sight of the two people in a few moments.
The man and woman left behind were furious and vented their anger on the flowers and plants around them. They then said, "He didn't give us any face at all, so there's no need for us to be soft on him! Brother Su Mo, I approve of your plan!"
Qin Qiu had been hiding in the shadows, watching everything unfold. Then he felt inexplicably dizzy, and the world before his eyes distorted. When he came to his senses, he found himself lying on the ground.
He got up, and the basket he had placed not far away was right next to him. The surrounding scenery had returned to normal. His head ached a little, so he rubbed his temples. Then a small flower rolled off him and onto the ground.
The little flower that he had picked earlier, which had been glowing, was now no longer glowing. Its petals were slightly curled up, and it lay quietly on the ground covered with vegetation.
Qin Qiu picked up the small flower, examined it for a moment, then put it back in the basket and headed towards where Ye Nianzhen and the others were.
*
After finding Ye Nianzhen, Qin Qiu placed the prey he had hunted on the ground and took out a small flower from his basket.
Ye Nianzhen saw this scene and felt that the little flower looked very familiar. She picked it up from the ground and asked Qin Qiu, "Where did this come from?"
Qin Qiu explained the whole story to him. Ye Nianzhen seemed to be thinking about something. He took out the little flower that Mingyuan and Luoshui had found earlier from his luggage. After confirming that the little flower did not have any special power left, they handed it over to Ye Nianzhen for safekeeping.
Three small flowers were taken out. The first two had withered, their petals shriveled and shrunken, and their stems, leaves, and petals had all turned grayish-yellow.
The flower that Qin Qiu brought back was still relatively fresh, but it had already stopped glowing, and it looked like it would soon become like the previous two flowers.
These flowers clearly no longer possessed any special power, but when the three flowers came together, a faint light suddenly emanated from them. At the same time, a noisy sound rang in Ye Nianzhen's mind. The sound was very faint but barely audible, and Ye Nianzhen was certain that the sound was the system's voice.
She immediately called out in her mind, "System, is that you? Why haven't you been making any noise lately? What's going on?"
But soon, the system's voice disappeared again, and at the same time, the light from the flower in Ye Nianzhen's hand also disappeared.
Ye Nianzhen called out to it in her mind again, but this time nothing changed. So she put away the three little flowers and had a general idea in her mind.
Perhaps... when they collect enough glowing flowers, the system will return!
Thinking this, a new question arose in her mind: what exactly was the reason for the appearance of this little flower?
It started as a cave, then became a corner of a factory, and now it's a forest. It seems to follow no pattern, and the locations are very random.
However, there is one thing: the person who ultimately picks the flower is different each time, and it is always someone from her team.
The people in her team are the romanceable characters!
Perhaps, the key to the system's return lies in having romanceable characters pick the glowing flowers, and all of them!
With this in mind, Ye Nianzhen suddenly felt enlightened.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
