Chapter 13
The Abyss had no reason to lie to him.
The little flower demon looked back at Shi Changyuan, finally understanding why the other party had been so skilled at fertilizing and watering him during the heatwave.
And Shi Changyuan had also told him that he was looking for a seed, that his expansion was to find the lost seed, but when he met him, the expansion stopped.
The more Lin Ling recalled, the more traces he found that he had overlooked.
He walked up to Shi Changyuan and said sullenly, “Have you been searching for a very, very long time?”
“No.”
“Liar.”
As soon as the other party spoke, the little flower demon mercilessly exposed him. He said unhappily, “It took me three years to take root and sprout outside the base.”
The little flower demon, once again putting himself in the other’s shoes, finally asked the question he hadn’t asked before, “Were you very sad when you discovered your seed was lost?”
“Did you ever think, what if you really couldn’t find it?”
Shi Changyuan looked at the little flower demon standing in front of him, reached out, and pulled the lost and found treasure into his arms, then answered the little flower demon’s questions one by one, admitting, “Mm, I searched for a long time.”
“I was indeed very sad.”
“But I didn’t think I wouldn’t be able to find it.”
The person in front of him spoke in a voice that best suited the Abyss’s identity. He said, “As long as I swallow the whole world, I can always find you.”
Searching place by place in human form, if he was unlucky, even if it was right in front of him, he might miss it.
To avoid this situation, the Abyss decided to awaken, to move, to expand, to devour every inch of land. Whether the seed was buried deep in the soil, fell into a rock crevice, or was hidden in someone’s flowerpot in a corner of the city, he could always find it—
The Abyss never doubted this.
The little flower demon looked up, meeting Shi Changyuan’s gaze, and once again realized how important the seed was to the Abyss, even though he was that seed.
He sniffled and said, “But I don’t remember anything.”
A seed that didn’t remember anything made the Abyss search for so long. This sounded too much, as if only one person remembered this feeling.
“At that time, I hadn’t even sprouted yet,” Lin Ling felt inexplicably guilty. He couldn’t help but say, “I don’t even know how I ended up outside the wall of the human base.”
“I only know that one day, there were a few light rains, the soil was moist, very suitable for seeds to sprout, and then I pushed my way out of the soil and saw the sun.”
That was when Little Flower started to have clearer memories.
“At other times, I was like I was sleeping, everything that happened outside was hazy in my ears, I couldn’t hear clearly.”
The little flower demon felt that he should remember those things, so he poked the back of Shi Changyuan’s hand and asked, “What happened when I was still a seed?”
Then, under Lin Ling’s gaze, the Abyss slowly recounted their past.
Watering, loosening the soil, changing flowerpots…
Mm… it sounded like boring, repetitive actions. The little flower demon paused for a moment but said nothing, deciding to keep listening.
Maybe the beginning of the story just had a long introduction?
Lin Ling knew that some people liked to tell stories in a gradual, detailed way.
After persevering for half an hour, the little flower demon finally got tired of listening. He pushed off the table behind him, jumped onto it, and swung his legs, muttering, “Sounds so boring, nothing special happened.”
“Indeed, nothing special happened,” Shi Changyuan nodded in agreement.
“But, the day I discovered that there was actually a living seed in the Abyss was the most special.”
Although he had long guessed that the seed might not have any memories, after all, from a human biological perspective, it was just an embryo, a plant embryo.
But because of the appearance of this seed, it gave him hope and anticipation, allowing him to endure the long years alone in the dark Abyss.
Every day he wondered, when would his seed sprout?
How much water should he water today, and how much fertilizer should he apply tomorrow to ensure the seed’s nutrition and health?
Until a huge earthquake, even the Abyss was affected.
The entire Abyss was split in two, and one part even collapsed, with a lot of water pouring in, sweeping away his seed.
The Abyss couldn’t find his seed, so it awakened.
“So that’s how it is, now I know!”
Speaking of this, the little flower demon understood. At that time, he had just made friends with the humans. Every time the humans worriedly discussed the world-class disaster that was the Abyss, they attributed the cause of the Abyss’s formation to that earthquake.
“Humans always thought it was that earthquake that created the Abyss.”
The Abyss, as a living being, was actually a victim of that earthquake.
When Lin Ling mentioned humans, he seemed to faintly hear other human voices again.
“There are indeed people here. Want to go and see?”
“Sure.” The little flower demon nodded. Before he could jump off the table, Shi Changyuan picked him up.
Lin Ling’s legs instinctively wrapped around the other’s waist to steady himself. He was caught off guard by this natural embrace and instantly felt the difference in the Abyss’s attitude towards him as his seed.
Before, as neighbors and friends, before they recognized each other, the Abyss was friendly and polite, even very gentlemanly, noticing every little emotion of Lin Ling’s.
But now, his possessiveness was overflowing. He carried Lin Ling around, not letting anyone else touch him, openly and rightfully, wanting everyone to know at a glance that this was his seed.
But this change was too rapid!
Shi Changyuan carried Lin Ling, and in a few blinks, they left the dark Abyss and came outside. It was still drizzling outside. Shi Changyuan opened a black umbrella, completely covering Lin Ling.
It was Team Leader Mo and the yellow-haired young man who came to find the Abyss. They were driving a huge military off-road vehicle, recklessly driving through the knee-deep water, circling the edge of the Abyss, making a rumbling noise.
The sharp-eyed yellow-haired young man saw the Abyss and Little Flower appear, executed a beautiful drift, and stopped at the nearest edge of the Abyss, barely avoiding crossing the line.
“Wow, you’re both dressed so formally.”
Lin Ling, hanging on Shi Changyuan, turned to look at the two. Both were wearing the official uniform of the human base, dark camouflage with the human alliance logo on the chest.
The last time Little Flower saw Sister Mo dressed like this was at the Seventh Base’s founding ceremony.
The yellow-haired young man coughed twice, scratched his head in embarrassment, and said familiarly, “Actually, we’re representing the Alliance. It’s okay to lose face for the Seventh Base, but we can’t lose face for the Human Alliance.”
Mo Cheng glanced at the yellow-haired young man, then extended her hand to Little Flower and the Abyss, and said officially, “The Alliance wants to make a deal with you.”
Shi Changyuan looked at her, not extending his hand in return, but his gaze was calm, as if he wasn’t surprised at all.
“Eh, a deal? What kind of deal?”
The Abyss wasn’t enthusiastic, but Little Flower was. His beautiful eyes showed curiosity and inquiry.
Mo Cheng immediately softened her voice and looked at Little Flower, “It’s about this rainy season.”
“First of all, thank you for providing us with information about the rainy season. Now most of the people have been evacuated, and there are almost no casualties.”
Although most of the personnel had been evacuated, some infrastructure couldn’t be moved. Many things in the base would be ruined by the floodwaters, years of hard work wasted.
Humans had been seeking survival and development in the apocalypse, but they had been stagnant for a long time and couldn’t afford to regress any further.
“The Abyss can devour everything, naturally including floodwaters.” Mo Cheng looked at the vibrant sea of white flowers in the Abyss’s territory and was momentarily lost in thought.
When did this land of death become like this?
The water outside was about to submerge the tires of the off-road vehicle, but Shi Changyuan, holding Little Flower, stood ten steps away, on what was still just damp grass.
The floodwaters poured into the Abyss’s territory from the edge, only to be devoured. So, despite there being no height difference, the floodwaters formed a small waterfall around the Abyss.
Someone had been guarding this place very well.
Mo Cheng retracted her gaze and continued, “We haven’t found a suitable flood diversion area yet, or rather, in this unconventional, apocalyptic rainstorm, we haven’t found any solution at all.”
“We hope the Abyss can help us.”
“And we are willing to meet any reasonable conditions you propose,” Mo Cheng said, “including medical care, energy, consumables, and convenient status in the human base.”
“These can all serve as guarantees for Little Flower.”
After finishing speaking, Mo Cheng smiled at the two of them, patiently waiting for their answer. She knew that as long as they showed enough sincerity, the Abyss would agree.
Sure enough, the Abyss nodded.
Lin Ling watched the humans leave and poked Shi Changyuan’s chest.
He didn’t quite understand those official sentences, nor did he understand what conditions had moved Shi Changyuan. He was just a little worried, “Will swallowing so much floodwater affect you?”
“No, it will be beneficial.”
He explained, “The water that enters the Abyss can be filtered of impurities through devouring and then stored. Ling Ling won’t lack water during the next heatwave.”
Hearing Shi Changyuan’s plan, Lin Ling’s eyes lit up.
“If Ling Ling doesn’t need that much, we can sell it to humans at a high price.”
Shi Changyuan held the little flower demon in his arms and said teasingly, “Does Little Flower want to rule the world?”
Lin Ling: Σ( ° △°|||)︴
Not really.
The abyss and his little flower are very cute 💗