Chapter 49: Xiao Yuan Likes Mumu

The sapling shook its head desperately, “No, Xiao Yuan wants to stay with Mumu.”

“Xiao Yuan?”

Lin Mu softly repeated the name.

“Xiao Yuan is my name. Don’t reject me, Mumu smells the best. Xiao Yuan wants to stay with Mumu.”

Lin Mu’s slender fingers tightened their grip, nearly uprooting the sapling.

The frail sapling trembled, “Mumu, you can’t, you’ll die too, wuwuwu.”

[If you stay with me, don’t do anything unnecessary. Otherwise, even if I die, I’ll throw you out of my body.]

Lin Mu wanted to survive, but if similar incidents kept happening, it would endanger more than just his own life.

Rather than risk that, it was better to eliminate the threat now.

“Mumu, wuwuwu, Xiao Yuan won’t do it again.”

It felt extremely wronged. It just wanted to consume more energy to grow faster and stronger.

Seeing it admit its mistake, Lin Mu let go of the sapling. Xiao Yuan’s consciousness was still connected to his, a stark contrast to before when he had to touch it to sense its presence.

It seemed that the energy it had absorbed recently had caused some changes.

[There won’t be a next time.]

Lin Mu softened his tone a bit, realizing that it was rather pitiful. Such a small tree, left in the greenhouse for over a year, now so weak that he could crush it with one hand.

“Mumu, Mumu, Xiao Yuan really likes Mumu.”

The tiny leaves trembled and nudged against Lin Mu’s palm.

[……]

[Stop being coy.]

“Oh, okay.” Xiao Yuan nodded, and Lin Mu felt like he could almost see it blinking its eyes.

“Mumu, Xiao Yuan will protect you.”

[But I want to protect my friends.]

“Mm, then Xiao Yuan will help Mumu protect them too.”

Lin Mu reached out and touched its small leaves, said “I’m leaving,” and then exited his consciousness.

Xiao Yuan watched as Lin Mu disappeared, tilting its tiny branches and muttering to itself, “Mumu left so quickly, I still have a big secret to tell him…”

Lin Mu opened his eyes to find Fu Jingmo watching him intently. Their clothes were still lying on the rock, and both were still only wearing shorts.

Fu Jingmo unabashedly stared at Lin Mu’s face, taking in his delicate features, long eyelashes, and soft, pink lips.

Just as Fu Jingmo was getting engrossed, Lin Mu opened his eyes, catching Fu Jingmo staring at his chest. He awkwardly coughed.

Fu Jingmo, unperturbed, looked away without any embarrassment. “How did it go?”

Lin Mu stood up and grabbed their clothes from the rock. “Nothing much, just went in to educate a kid. Yesterday, it drank Wu Jin’s blood to absorb energy and nearly let the zombies through.”

The clothes were only half-dry, but he didn’t mind and started putting them on. Under the hot sun, they would dry soon enough.

“Mm, it needed to be taught,” Fu Jingmo agreed, and also got dressed.

“By the way, it has a name. It’s called Xiao Yuan.”

Fu Jingmo raised an eyebrow, a strange feeling passing through his mind. “A tree knows how to give itself a name?”

Lin Mu paused, realizing it was indeed a bit odd.

The two of them slowly walked downstream. The two women had also finished washing and were gathering firewood nearby.

Seeing them approach, He Ze shook his hair, “Hey, Mumu, look at me. I caught two fish!”

Xiao Yu giggled as she held down the wriggling fish on the ground, “Brother Mumu, we have fish to eat!”

“Mm,” Lin Mu smiled at Xiao Yu.

There were three or four fish on the shore, each one thicker than an arm, flopping around and still fresh.

Looking at the almost waterlogged He Ze, Lin Mu suddenly had an idea. “He Ze.”

He Ze happily swam to the shore and climbed onto a rock. “What’s up, Mumu? Am I awesome? Admire me, the master fish catcher.”

He raised his chin and shot a challenging look at Fu Jingmo.

Fu Jingmo smirked, flicking a few black crystals. Five or six fish floated belly-up to the surface.

“…”

“Wow, fish, so many fish!”

The miners joyfully carried the fish ashore to start cooking.

Lin Mu looked at He Ze, whose face was a bit pale, and struggled to keep from laughing. “Aren’t you a water ability user? Why don’t you try controlling the water?”

“Control the water?” He Ze’s eyes lit up. Why hadn’t he thought of that? If he couldn’t produce water, surely he could control it.

He focused his energy, staring intently at the water’s surface. The water began to ripple with small waves, forming concentric circles. Suddenly, with a loud splash, a wave about half a person’s height rose and came crashing down.

Lin Mu quickly jumped back to avoid it.

The wave, however, soaked He Ze thoroughly.

…

No need to be so hard on yourself, Lin Mu thought, trying to remain encouraging.

Lin Mu gave a thumbs up. “Mm, very good, just like that. Keep practicing.”

He Ze glanced back at Lin Mu and Fu Jingmo, who were standing five steps away, “If you had said that while standing next to me, I might believe you a bit more.”

After their bit of teasing, He Ze found the idea of controlling water quite intriguing and continued practicing.

Lin Mu touched his nose and headed back with Fu Jingmo to the spot where everyone was cooking.

The miners, accustomed to manual labor, quickly piled up stones and started a fire.

The fish were swiftly cleaned, and Lin Mu brought out two iron pots, one large and one small, from the car along with some rice.

These supplies were scavenged from the village they had previously encountered. They rarely ate the rice, and there were still two large bags in the trunk, along with flour and noodles. For now, it was enough, but they would need to gather more food whenever possible. No one would ever think they had too much food in these times.

One pot was used to cook rice, and the other for fish soup. They also skewered a few fish on sticks to roast.

The meal left everyone satisfied, with even Lin Mu eating a large portion of rice and half a fish.

After eating, while everyone was tidying up, Lin Mu and Fu Jingmo got into the car to look at the map. He Ze, still a bit wet, joined them in the car.

“Brother Fu, where are we heading next?” He Ze asked.

Their current location was on a highway, and it was still fifty to sixty kilometers to reach the expressway. Once on the expressway, they needed to travel over a hundred kilometers to reach Wushi.

In peaceful times, this journey would take just a few hours, but now, it could take days.

“We need to get to the expressway first, then head to Wushi. The expressway is our only option; taking side roads would require long detours,” Fu Jingmo said.

Lin Mu took the driver’s seat, feeling refreshed after sleeping all morning.

“Alright, let’s head for the expressway,” he agreed.

He Ze instructed Old Zhang in the back to do a headcount, and the two vehicles set off again.

Gradually, the cars approached more populated areas, turning from the yellow dirt roads of the mining area onto paved roads.

The ground was littered with dry branches and leaves, with the occasional abandoned car crashed on either side of the road.

Lin Mu recalled hearing once that an unused object might break when taken out again, just like these roads. They had only been unused for a few days, yet the scene had already turned desolate.

He sighed lightly and carefully watched the road ahead, following the directions on the map. Eventually, he saw the road sign for “Yiwushi Expressway.”

Turning from the small road onto the expressway, the road suddenly became much wider. The sign indicated 125 kilometers to Wushi.

If the road conditions remained this good, they would reach their destination in less than two hours.

But that was clearly unrealistic.

To accommodate the bus’s speed, Lin Mu didn’t drive too fast, maintaining a speed of 80 km/h.

After only half an hour, they saw a bridge ahead. The mountainous terrain around Wushi meant that this expressway was either on bridges or through tunnels.

They had already passed through several tunnels, and now there was a bridge spanning between two mountains. However, the bridge was broken.

Lin Mu slowly brought the car to a stop, and frowned. “The bridge is out. We can’t take this route.”