Chapter 28
Nen Ya's popular behavior was so eye-catching that everyone else unconsciously turned their eyes to Yu Tu's head.
The bud that was being watched turned its leaves to the left, then to the right, and when it realized that everyone was staring at it with interest...it closed itself off.
The scales, axillary buds, fish leaves, true leaves, and apical buds are closely attached to the center in sequence, forming a green strip that is thick at the bottom and thin at the top.
Lu Yayin twitched her lips: "No, it has the mimosa gene?"
Gu Hongying: "You know what, it's closed quite neatly."
Qin Fei: "If I poke it with my hand, will it continue to play dead?"
Meng Ziqiu: "... Stop scaring it."
Yu Tu, Yu Tu is still out of shape.
"Ding-a-ling~"
The notification tone from Meng Ziqiu's phone made them pause their further research on the sprouts. Meng Ziqiu took out his phone, clicked on the message, and found that it was a video call request from the elders of the Grass Clan.
Meng Ziqiu was a little surprised. Most of the Grass and Wood Clan could type but never speak, could speak but never talk on the phone, and could talk on the phone but never use video. He had dealt with the Grass and Wood Clan several times, and had never received a direct video request.
Meng Ziqiu chose to answer the call. A few seconds later, a very fairy-like face appeared on the other side of the screen. The owner of this face did not seem to be used to video chatting with people. He frowned and held the phone screen farther away.
Then Meng Ziqiu saw a person wearing a high ponytail tied with a hair crown, wearing an ancient-style shirt with exquisite embroidery on the cuffs and collar.
Meng Ziqiu was stunned by his gorgeous appearance at first, then he was a little confused: "The head of the Emperor's House?"
"If you have something to say, please say it now. If you have something to say, please fart now." The senior on the other side of the screen frowned, but his appearance remained unchanged. Compared with the appearance of a high-altitude flower just now, he now looked more worldly. He said angrily, "Where have you seen the cubs of our tribe?"
Plants are the spirits of heaven and earth. If they are born naturally, it takes hundreds of years for them to develop intelligence. However, after developing intelligence, there is still a long growth period, and not all intelligent plants can transform into human form. Once the transformation fails, the intelligence will be gradually worn away over the long years until it degenerates into the most ordinary plants.
Because of the difficulty of breeding and the harshness of growth, the number of plant tribes in the inner world is even less than that of powerful ghosts who can cultivate. It is said that in the past hundred years, the number of plant tribe cubs has not exceeded two hands. Their species and growth levels are encrypted layer by layer, and the procedures for checking are extremely complicated.
"In the past hundred years, all the cubs that have become intelligent have been raised in our tribe, and we check them every year. How could there be a cub that has been left out?"
If it weren't for the screen, Meng Ziqiu had no doubt that the chief of the Grass Clan, Diwu, would personally beat him up. He remembered the rumors about the chief of the Grass Clan in the Alien Bureau - he was extremely beautiful, powerful, and had a bad temper.
Some people even murmured in private that they suspected that the patriarch of the Grass Clan, Diwu, was a firecracker genius in his previous life, otherwise how could he explode at the slightest touch? The key point was that when he exploded, few people were able to stop him.
Meng Ziqiu didn't understand. The person he contacted was clearly Di Xiu, the elder of the Grass Clan, so how come the person who answered the video call was the clan leader Di Wu?
But no matter who answered the call, that was not the point. Meng Ziqiu decisively turned the camera to Yu Tu, who was surrounded by all kinds of plush dolls on the hospital bed.
As the camera flipped, Diwu saw a small hill of plush toys on the other side of the screen. Just as the grumpy patriarch was about to spray, he found a tender little sprout on the top of the hill. However, the sprout looked a little strange, thick at the bottom and thin at the top, as if it didn't even have a leaf.
Diwu: “……?”
Confused, he moved closer to the screen, but before he could see clearly, his phone was snatched away.
Diwu turned his head and was about to see who was so ignorant of the immensity of the world, and then... he silently swallowed the words he had not yet uttered.
The person who took his phone away was Di Xiu, the best-tempered elder of the Grass Clan whom Meng Ziqiu had first contacted.
"Zi Qiu, move the camera closer." Meng Zi Qiu finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the familiar white hair appear on the screen. Compared to the somewhat irritable Plant Clan Chief whom he had never seen before, he preferred dealing with this mild-tempered and stable elder.
Meng Ziqiu walked forward a few steps and moved the camera closer to the small tender buds on Yu Tu's head.
"Why are the sprouts coming out from the top of the head?" Diwu squeezed into the camera and frowned, "Are you sure it's real? Don't tell me it's a fake—"
Before he could finish his words, he was pushed out of the camera by a slender jade-like hand: "Chief, shut up."
The irritable clan leader was asked to leave the camera, and Di Xiu turned his gaze back. After a moment, a gentle smile appeared on his face: "My son, don't tie the leaves so tightly, it's not good for you."
At the top of the green stripe that was thick at the bottom and thin at the top, a leaf twisted slightly.
Di Xiu pretended not to notice and continued, "You are so pretty and tall, why are you shrinking your body in embarrassment?"
He bent down, picked up a small flower pot from the side and put it in front of the camera: "Do you want to see your sister?"
A beautifully blooming gardenia appeared in the camera. The flower was swaying in the pot, and it looked quite rhythmic. When it was brought in front of the camera, the gardenia stopped swaying and the leaves beside the flower waved, as if saying hello.
The small tender bud on Yu Tu's head twisted a leaf and swayed.
After the two seedlings greeted each other through the mobile phone screen, the gardenia continued to sway vigorously, and its movements were like a combination of the crazy hair-shaking in street dance and the twisting and turning version of the sunflower with sunglasses blowing saxophone.
Di Xiu smiled and said, "Zhizhi has been practicing dancing recently. Is she dancing very well?"
Silence belongs to everyone on the other end of the phone.
Lu Yayin was the first to praise: "It's quite special."
Qin Fei: "You dance very well."
Gu Hongying: "There is a kind of beauty that does not belong to the human world."
Meng Ziqiu: “…Yeah.”
After the four people finished speaking, Meng Ziqiu moved the camera downwards, and Yu Tu's confused face appeared in the camera.
Di Xiu's smile became gentler: "Zi Qiu told me that your name is Yu Tu, can I call you Tu Tu?"
Yu Tu was still a little confused. Meng Ziqiu put the phone in his hand. On the screen, Yu Tu saw a person with white hair tied in a crown, with a clear temperament and a gentle smile. He nodded subconsciously, and the small buds on his head quietly stretched out their leaves, and the cat poked its head forward stealthily.
"'Tu' is an ancient Chinese character for tea, and your name explains your origin." Di Xiu said, "The little bud on your head is a manifestation of your emotions. You are it, and it is you, but it is you at about three years old."
Yu Tu: “…Ah?”
He thought of the bud on his head, how it started to move around after it emerged, and then suddenly pretended to be dead, how it eavesdropped openly and then pretended to be dead, and then pretended to be dead and then became lively and finally closed. Was he this lively and dramatic at the age of three?!
Embarrassment spread obviously on Yu Tu's face, from cheeks to ears to neck, and the tender buds on his head also curled up their leaves.
"There's no need to feel embarrassed, Tu Tu." Di Xiu looked at the child with red ears, his eyes filled with heartache, "It takes us a hundred years for the plant clan to awaken and a hundred years for us to transform, so we need to grow in a place with abundant spiritual energy. The spiritual energy in the surface world is poor, so there is a small problem. You don't have to worry too much, it will shrink naturally after a while."
Emperor Xiu actually concealed a very important thing, that is, normal, normally developed, normally grown, and normally transformed cubs will not suddenly sprout after having a human appearance. Only children who have not received much love in the process of growing up will show infantilization phenomena when they grow up.
After getting enough love and enough sense of security, the infantilization phenomenon will disappear. Sprouting actually means amplifying the emotions hidden in the heart many times to make people pay attention to his true thoughts.
Therefore, the young cubs of the Grass and Wood Clan who were stranded outside actually didn’t have a good life.
———But Emperor Xiu did not say it.
Some things can be said, and some things cannot be said. Sometimes, revealing certain things in public can be harmful.
So he just smiled gently and said, "Except for those with spiritual powers, ordinary people can't see the little bud on your head. You don't have to be afraid of being watched when you go out."
"It's normal for cubs to have all kinds of conditions." Di Xiu gave Yu Tu an example. "Last year, a desert cat cub from the demon tribe sneaked from the inner world to the outer world to play. It was fed so well in college that it almost got caught and sterilized in the hospital along with stray cats. The year before last, a red jackal cub ran away from home. On the road, someone knocked it down with food and sold it to a dog meat restaurant. It was only when the special forces passed by that street and sensed the abnormal spiritual energy that they bought it back on the spot for 200 yuan. The year before last..."
He gave several examples to prove that all kinds of accidents would always happen to cubs, and Yu Tu was just a sprout, which was nothing compared to the great deeds of these cubs.
"Three-year-old Tutu is very cute." Di Xiu looked at the strange cub they had never seen before through the screen and said softly, "So when it is happy, it will swing around and be energetic and lively. When it is afraid, the edges of its leaves will turn yellow and dry. When it is worried, it will pretend to be dead. When it is embarrassed, it will shut itself off and curl its leaves. These are all ways for it to express your inner emotions."
"If it were me, I'd send the kid back to the tribe first." A fairy-like face suddenly appeared on the other side of the screen, "He must be suffering out there!"
"Your name is Ziqiu, right?" Diwu said on the other side of the screen, "I'm sorry for what happened just now. I didn't expect that our Grass Clan actually had a cub stranded outside. Thank you very much!"
The way that the chief of the Grass Clan, Diwu, expressed his gratitude was very simple, which was to give money.
The second after he apologized, everyone in the ward heard a clear announcement—
【Your payment has been credited to your account! 】
【Your payment has been credited to your account! 】
【Your payment has been credited to your account! 】
…
Because the maximum amount that can be transferred in a single transaction via Alipay is 100,000, the announcement was made ten times.
Meng Ziqiu: “……?”
Lu Yayin: “!!!”
Qin Fei: “???”
Gu Hongying: o_o → o_O
In the background sound of [One hundred thousand yuan has been deposited into your payment account!], Di Xiu remained calm and smiled gently:
"TuTu, when are you going to go home?"