64 The Gardener's Flowerbed (11)
Main quest step two
But when he was a plant, he was cursed and discarded by the gardeners of Hundred Flowers Town. Even when he briefly took human form, he was not popular in this town.
Because he was defined by them as a pollutant, a pollutant that would cause plants to wither and die if it came into contact with them.
Xie Yunhuai had thought about leaving this place, but it didn't work. He seemed unable to get away from this town. No matter how hard he tried, he could only stay within the vicinity of the town.
The gardeners had considered finding his true form and burning him to ashes, but Xie Yunhuai did not want to die. So, for every bit of harm he suffered at the hands of the gardeners, he would calmly damage Hundred Flowers Town tenfold.
The two sides had been hostile to each other for years, until all the plants near Hundred Flowers Town were contaminated, at which point the group of gardeners finally agreed to negotiate peacefully with him.
They wanted him to control his pollution, and they wanted him to promise that he would never plant anything in any patch of soil within the boundaries of Baihua Town without permission.
In exchange, they could accept Xie Yunhuai's human form appearing in Hundred Flowers Town instead of having nowhere to go.
Xie Yunhuai agreed because his original form was a pollutant, but his human form was no different from other gardeners, so he wanted to try to integrate into Hundred Flowers Town by transforming.
The result was, naturally, failure.
He's like a rat or cockroach that everyone wants to kill. They can't hit him or get rid of him, so they just ignore him for now. But in reality, they've secretly come up with countless ways and means to try to kill him completely.
Xie Yunhuai was well aware of all of this.
But what could he do when he had nowhere else to go?
No gardener was willing to plant him in the soil, and no human being was willing to let him get close.
Qin Fu'an was the first.
Qin Fu'an took the initiative to approach him, kiss him, and lead him back to the gardener's cottage. She also prepared the best flower garden for him and made him a small wooden sign, ignoring the mayor's warnings and threats.
Even though Qin Fu'an was just a stranger he had just met, Xie Yunhuai still took advantage of Qin Fu'an's deep sleep and secretly curled up a few steps closer to him.
Qin Fu'an was not a stranger.
He is searching for his own gardener across three lifetimes.
Plants' dependence on and closeness to their gardeners is a biological instinct, and Xie Yunhuai does not feel that his trust and obedience are wrong.
-
The next morning, Qin Fu'an's gardener's cottage was never quiet.
First, there was the town mayor with a sullen face, then the woman in the flowery dress whose charming smile had vanished, and then...
In just one morning, these NPCs, who should have been operating according to the game's program, all left their usual areas and came to watch Qin Fu'an, the newcomer, in his flower garden.
To be precise, he persuaded or even coerced him to uproot and throw away Xie Yunhuai from the flowerbed.
Unfortunately, they arrived one after another, saying different things, but receiving highly similar answers.
Not pulling it out, not letting it go, is impossible, absolutely not.
Qin Fu'an was determined to cultivate this pollutant.
Such behavior, in the eyes of the gardeners of Hundred Flowers Town, was tantamount to courting death and dragging the entire Hundred Flowers Town down with him.
Their murderous intent could no longer be concealed.
However, Qin Fu'an did not violate any of the town's hidden rules, and for the next two days he stayed in his gardener's hut, quietly planting and growing grass.
This left the gardeners, who had tried countless methods to kill him, helpless; they could only hope that he would fall in their own flowerbeds.
After all, for newly arrived townspeople, just to keep an ordinary plant alive requires a considerable amount of effort and resources.
Each of them held their own expectations, and by the end of the third day, the town mayor appeared right on time outside Qin Fu'an's flower garden.
He was still dressed like a simple farmer, his shoes and trouser legs still damp with mud. He had regained the kindness he showed when we first met, and asked cheerfully, "Young man, three days have passed. Have the seeds I gave you grown into mature plants yet?"
Qin Fu'an stood in front of the flowerbed, with Xie Yunhuai's phantom standing behind him. The town mayor, however, seemed not to see him and continued to wait for Qin Fu'an's answer with a smile.
"Of course." Qin Fu'an reached out and lifted the wooden trough he had casually hung on the fence, then hung it upside down so that the straight, golden, ripe wheat inside was facing the town mayor. He chuckled and said, "Take a look, does it meet my requirements to become the gardener of Baihua Town?"
The mayor was not surprised by the wheat seedling that looked completely out of place with the other plants in the town. After listening to Qin Fu'an's question, he produced a black testing stone and pointed it at the wheat seedling in front of Qin Fu'an.
Plant grade - Common, growth status - Mature, pollution level - None (pollution index 0%), growth requirements - None.
A short and straightforward line of text appeared before Qin Fu'an and the town mayor.
However, the town mayor, who had just remained calm, now pointed to the line indicating the pollution level and asked in astonishment, "How can the pollution index be 0?!"
As he spoke, he turned his gaze to the single plant in the flowerbed behind Qin Fu'an.
Qin Fu'an moved to the left to block his view, and instead of answering, asked, "Excuse me, have I passed successfully now?"
Perhaps influenced by the rules of the instance, even though the mayor looked very unwilling, he had no choice but to speak coldly and firmly: "Of course, young man, on behalf of Hundred Flowers Town, I welcome you. From now on, you will be the gardener of our Hundred Flowers Town."
Just like the pre-set process of the system, the mayor then read out a new line: "But this is only the first step. There are many outstanding gardeners in our Hundred Flowers Town, and naturally there will be more stringent gardener assessments. You are only a junior gardener now. If you want to gain more influence in Hundred Flowers Town, please complete the intermediate gardener assessment standards as soon as possible."
As soon as the mayor finished speaking, unsurprisingly, the system notification sounded in Qin Fu'an's mind once again:
[Congratulations on successfully completing the first step of the main quest. System rewards are being calculated; please wait.]
After about three seconds, the notification sounded again:
[Rewards settlement complete. The reward list and items have been stored in the Gardener's Hut. Please collect them promptly.]
[Congratulations to the player for successfully triggering the second step of the main storyline: passing the intermediate gardener assessment within one week.]
The assessment criteria are as follows:
1. You must have at least one precious plant and three common plants.
Second: The plant is fully mature.
3. The degree of plant pollution must be slight, with a pollution index below 3%.
[Please note: Successfully completing the quest will grant you this stage's rewards; failure will leave you permanently trapped in Hundred Flowers Town.]
The tasks issued by the system have clearly stated the task content and the penalties for failure.
When Qin Fu'an received the mission, the town mayor waited patiently, just as he had before, without any surprise or impatience.
Qin Fu'an nodded and said to him, "Okay, thank you for taking care of me these past few days. I will work hard to become an intermediate gardener."
As soon as he finished speaking, the mayor seemed to be freed from some kind of restraint. He put away his stiff smile and said coldly, "Young man, you'll regret not listening to your elders. Since you insist on planting this pollutant, then I'll wait and see!"
As for why the pollution index of the wheat seedling that had just been tested was 0, the town mayor did not ask any further questions. Perhaps it was just luck, or perhaps it was due to the different characteristics of the plant. After all, this plant was different from the other plants in Baihua Town.
He came with malice, and he left with malice as well.
Qin Fu'an couldn't help but sigh, "This instance is quite suitable for people with social anxiety."
Since it's a single-player dungeon, the characters within it are completed by the player as needed. If possible, you don't even need to interact much with NPCs other than the mayor. It's practically a single-player farming game designed specifically for people with social anxiety.
Of course, it would be even better if we could ignore the fact that its difficulty level is "evil".
-
"What's outside Baihua Town?" Xie Yunhuai's tendrils twisted and climbed along the fence, watching Qin Fu'an hammering and tinkering to make more wooden troughs, while curiously asking him about the outside world.
He had never seen the outside world, but he had imagined it countless times in his mind. So, before Qin Fu'an could answer, he began to describe the outside world as he imagined it.
"Is there a larger flower garden? A lot of exotic flowers and plants? And more gardeners and warmer sunshine?"
He couldn't imagine a world he'd never seen before, so the outside world he spoke of was actually just an enlarged version of Hundred Flowers Town.
Like a little frog trapped at the bottom of a well, it may only dream of a bigger and deeper well outside, rather than the vast sky or the boundless grassland.
Because that was something completely outside the little frog's understanding.
Upon hearing this, Qin Fu'an reached out and casually placed the newly completed wooden trough aside, stopping his busy work. He then earnestly described the soft tendrils that had climbed onto his shoulder: "The outside world is vast and wonderful."
"In the whole world, Hundred Flowers Town is as insignificant as a tiny speck of soil in the flowerbed beneath your feet."
"Outside, there are skyscrapers whose tops you can't see, giant ships sailing on the sea, and transportation hubs more complex and dense than a spider web..."
He described everything from the grandest to the smallest, from the vastness of the sky and the sea to the most basic necessities of life: food, clothing, shelter, and transportation.
The boy's voice was clear and bright. In his narration, those things that sounded like a dark mass with indistinct shapes and appearances were gradually outlined in the listener's mind.
Perhaps it was still blurry and unclear, but Xie Yunhuai listened attentively, and every word easily stirred up the longing and joy hidden in his heart.
When Qin Fu'an stopped speaking, Xie Yunhuai, who was not talkative to begin with, seemed to have entered his own world. He was quietly growing in the flower bed, his branches and leaves trembling gently in the wind. A faint green hue flowed between the branches and then quickly disappeared.
Qin Fu'an did not disturb him.
He put down the ten finished wooden troughs, got up to wash his hands, and then went into the gardener's hut to begin receiving the first stage of the mission rewards from the instance.
Soon, the list of rewards appeared in his hands.
Main Quest Step 1 Rewards List:
1 bag of medium-grade fertilizer
10 vials of plant growth solution
Plant-based tranquilizer x5 bottles
10 common plant seeds
3 precious plant seeds
Pollution inhibitor x2
3 tubes of insecticide
1 set of flower bed expansion materials
Fence upgrade materials x1
[1 set of cabin protective materials]
Judging from the list alone, this is already a truly luxurious reward.
Following the list, Qin Fu'an found the plant seeds and set them aside, then also took out the fertilizer and growth solution.
"See if these are useful to you?" He took out some of the fertilizer and growth solution, put them into a container, and placed it next to Xie Yunhuai's body.
But after Xie Yunhuai came to his senses, he asked him another question.
Do you also have your own cottage and flower garden outside?
[Author's Note]
Anzai: He exploits the system to support his own wife.
Updating every morning, how can that not be considered punctual in another sense? QAQ
.
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution:
10 bottles of Autumn Orchid and Citrus Gardenia;
Yu hanggg 5 bottles;
Two bottles returned to their home.
Moon Window, Sheep, Lonely Boat in Clear Rain, Heartless Road Couplets 1 bottle;
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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