Even the Abyss Wants a Wife 15

Chapter 15

Little Flower happily finalized his Abyss decorating plan, and then rummaged through the Abyss’s pocket space for the star lights he wanted.

The Abyss’s space was void and could expand infinitely as long as Shi Changyuan willed it, but since Lin Ling wanted “a wall” to hang star lights, the Abyss could also be solid.

The star lights Little Flower found had both horizontal and vertical hanging options. He took the vertically hanging star lights and, standing on the bed, tried to hang a row of them from the ceiling at varying heights.

“How do I hang this up?” Lin Ling looked up at the pitch-black ceiling, stretching his hand.

“You want to hang it up?”

As soon as Shi Changyuan’s voice fell, a black shadow stretched out from somewhere, wrapping around Little Flower’s fingertips, then coiling around the star light’s wire and returning to the air.

The star lights were perfectly integrated into the ceiling.

Little Flower exclaimed “Wow” and continued to hang the other star lights in the same way.

“Can it be a little shorter? And move it a little to the left.” Lin Ling only needed to give instructions, not even needing to stand on tiptoe. The black shadow would extend itself infinitely, wrap around Little Flower’s fingers, and take the star lights from his hand.

After the vertically hanging star lights were done, it was time for the horizontally wall-mounted ones. When Lin Ling discovered the black shadow’s existence, it replaced the nails mentioned in the instruction manual.

“Finished decorating?”

Shi Changyuan followed behind Lin Ling, helping to untangle the knotted wires of the star lights, and finally placed the switch in Lin Ling’s hand.

“All done, our cozy room is almost complete!”

Lin Ling admired his handiwork, then took the power switch Shi Changyuan handed him and pressed it expectantly—

The Abyss remained pitch black, the star lights hanging silently on the wall.

“Maybe the battery is dead,” Lin Ling examined it repeatedly, concluding based on his three years of human life experience.

He found a small compartment for batteries on the back of the switch, containing three button batteries.

He knew that some things needed energy to operate, and electricity was one of the most important.

“This is easy to solve, we just need to change the batteries.” Lin Ling looked at the small batteries and then at Shi Changyuan. “You should have swallowed some before, right?”

He definitely had.

Shi Changyuan looked at the button batteries in Little Flower’s palm, about the size of fingernails. For the Abyss space, finding these batteries among a pile of miscellaneous things was like finding a needle in a haystack.

“It might… take a long time to find them,” Shi Changyuan reminded him tactfully.

“It’s okay!” Lin Ling put the small batteries in his pocket. “You take your time looking, I can go ask the humans first!”

“Sister Mo and the others will definitely know.”

The Abyss didn’t comment on Little Flower’s suggestion, but from the way he picked Lin Ling up again, it was clear that he didn’t want to stay in the Abyss and search slowly by himself.

“Alright, it seems you want to go to the human base with me.”

Lin Ling had gotten used to the Abyss picking him up at any moment, like a human occasionally bothering their sleeping kitten. And he had even found some more comfortable positions, such as being held with one arm, sitting on the Abyss’s arm.

This position required a certain amount of arm strength, but the Abyss was always steady, seemingly more indestructible than rock, which made Little Flower feel very secure.

When Shi Changyuan brought Lin Ling back to the surface, it was pouring rain. The floodwaters, carrying large amounts of sediment, were surging from higher ground, irresistibly destroying many plants.

Lin Ling, wearing his little yellow duck raincoat, watched the “small waterfall” at the edge of the Abyss’s territory, which had reached his chest, and occasionally even large stones and debris would be washed out from the deep water—

The Abyss hugged Little Flower and flashed to a distance, and the large stones and debris that fell into the Abyss’s territory were instantly swallowed.

But Shi Changyuan felt that Little Flower was still frightened.

He gently patted Lin Ling’s head and comforted him, “It’s okay, nothing can hurt Little Flower in the Abyss.”

Lin Ling, after all, had survived three years of extreme environments in the apocalypse with the humans. He quickly recovered and even had time to worry about the human base.

“Tomorrow’s rainstorm will probably start to flood the human base,” Shi Changyuan said to Lin Ling, “But I will expand the devouring range tomorrow.”

“Okay.” Little Flower nodded. That meant the Abyss had to work even harder!

He looked around the area encircled by the Abyss, more than half of which was already covered with small white flowers. “Will these little white flowers be submerged?”

Shi Changyuan paused for a moment and said, “No.”

“I’ll expand the Abyss forward a bit and use the extra space for drainage, not the area inside, so the little white flowers won’t be submerged.”

Actually, the best and fastest way was to directly let the floodwaters pour into the sinkhole. The large contact area would make it very efficient, but that would indeed submerge the sea of white flowers Lin Ling had planted.

But the humans only asked him to help swallow the floodwaters, they didn’t specify the speed or time.

Shi Changyuan’s gaze shifted from the floodwaters to the sea of white flowers. There was no question of which side his heart leaned towards, they weren’t even comparable in the Abyss’s mind.

Little Flower hadn’t thought of this aspect and just nodded, shifting his attention again.

“Then with the water so high outside now, how do we get to the base?” Lin Ling asked, “Can you teleport us directly there?”

Shi Changyuan shook his head, “The distance is not close enough, we need a foothold.”

But in this turbulent flood, where could they find a foothold?

“Hold on tight.”

Shi Changyuan seemed to have thought of a solution. He picked Lin Ling up again, then teleported to mid-air above the vast flood.

From this angle, Lin Ling could already see the half-submerged city wall of the base. The base gate had long been completely blocked, and on the city wall, there were a few people in raincoats using water pumps to continuously pump the accumulated water out of the city.

Lin Ling looked down at the surging floodwaters beneath him and Shi Changyuan and felt dizzy.

How did they teleport to mid-air?

Before Lin Ling could exclaim, Shi Changyuan landed steadily in the middle of the flood, his feet on a speedboat.

“Sit tight and hold on.”

Shi Changyuan placed Lin Ling in the back seat of the speedboat and went to take the helm.

With a roar, the two went upstream, splashing a large amount of water.

“Waaaaah—” Little Flower had never been on this kind of watercraft before, it was so exciting, his whole being was flushed and his heart was racing.

Oh my god! This was so cool!!

The yellow-haired young man diligently pumping water on the city wall looked at the rumbling motor in the distance with envy in his eyes.

“Such a show-off, driving like that, if he hits any debris underwater, it’ll be scrapped.”

And it was also quite dangerous.

But the Abyss and Little Flower weren’t fragile humans! They could do whatever they wanted!!!

Shi Changyuan drove the speedboat to the city gate, then turned the steering wheel 180 degrees, let go of the helm, picked up Little Flower, and teleported directly to the city wall.

The unmanned speedboat roared away from the base, instantly disappearing from everyone’s sight, and then a faint sound, like a violent collision, came from the distance.

“Whoa!” The yellow-haired young man beside him was dumbfounded. “Did he know it would be scrapped, so he just scrapped it directly?”

The yellow-haired young man didn’t know what the Abyss and Little Flower were here for and hesitated for a moment, not knowing whether he should go up and greet them.

But it was obvious that the Abyss didn’t want to pay attention to the human beside him. He looked at the situation inside the base. The water wasn’t deep, only reaching their ankles. Then he took out a pair of rain boots and helped Little Flower put them on.

“Go.”

Just like the first time he had brought Little Flower to repay the favor, he stood at the entrance of the monitoring station, gave Lin Ling a little push, and let him enter the human base on his own.

Lin Ling looked back, saw that Shi Changyuan seemed to be waiting for him there, and walked forward, asked for directions, and went to find Sister Mo Cheng, leaving the Abyss and the yellow-haired young man looking at each other.

The vanguard team had already moved to another location for shelter. When Lin Ling came to them and explained his purpose from beginning to end, besides deepening their understanding of the Abyss’s attachment to Little Flower, Mo Cheng silently noticed another piece of information.

—The things swallowed by the Abyss didn’t disappear.

This was good news.

“Sorry, Little Flower, we don’t produce these kinds of batteries anymore. It was troublesome for you to come all the way here in the heavy rain.”

Mo Cheng looked at Lin Ling apologetically. “Batteries are too inefficient at storing energy, so our current power supply uses solar energy.”

Mo Cheng took a small solar device from the lab table beside her and said to Lin Ling, “How about I modify your star lights for you?”

Lin Ling shook his head.

“But there’s no sun in the Abyss.”

Mo Cheng froze, as if she wanted to say something, but after hesitating for a moment, she didn’t say anything more. She thought for a moment and continued to offer suggestions to Little Flower.

“Or, after the rainy season ends, Lin Ling, you can go to other bases and see. There should be people who still have these kinds of batteries for private transactions.”

“You might just have to go to several places.”

Lin Ling nodded, understanding.

When Little Flower returned empty-handed, Shi Changyuan was stunned, but didn’t say anything and just took Lin Ling back.

Mo Cheng watched the surveillance footage of their arrival and departure, feeling somewhat emotional.

Indeed, if it weren’t for Little Flower, the Abyss wouldn’t want to have anything to do with humans, and it wouldn’t be interested in the life or death of humans at all.

She watched as the various human bases struggled to drain the water, but this was already a good situation. Humans couldn’t expect a non-human to bear all their disasters for them.

However… she was a little worried about Little Flower.

If she remembered correctly, the Abyss had probably taken Little Flower’s main body into the Abyss as well. If there was no sunlight in the Abyss, and even solar energy couldn’t be used for flowers, wouldn’t Little Flower be unable to bask in the sun?

Plants that didn’t get sunlight for long periods would gradually turn yellow, wither, and even die.

Did the Abyss know this?

Mo Cheng quickly compiled professional knowledge on caring for plants, then gathered various flower-growing experts, and held another emergency meeting.

“Comrades, the content of this meeting is also extremely important. It concerns the survival of humanity, so please be sure to attend on time!”

…

“Don’t be sad, the star lights will light up eventually.”

Little Flower returned empty-handed, but for some reason, it was Shi Changyuan who was feeling down. Lin Ling reached out and poked the Abyss’s cheeks, trying to make him smile.

“We can take advantage of the rainy season to search properly in the Abyss space, or we can go to other bases after the rainy season.”

“I haven’t visited other human bases yet!”

Shi Changyuan looked at the still lively Lin Ling in front of him, feeling at a loss for a moment.

Actually, when he heard Little Flower mention solar energy, he had already realized that there was no sunlight in the Abyss.

And plants needed sunlight and rain to grow and survive.

Shi Changyuan belatedly realized that the seed, having always been in the Abyss, couldn’t grow at all. No matter how much water he watered or how much fertilizer he applied, it couldn’t take root and sprout.

The seed could only lie dormant with him.

Due to some accident, Little Flower had left the Abyss and sprouted. Now his main body had returned to the Abyss, but if a plant didn’t see sunlight for a long time…

Shi Changyuan reached out and held Lin Ling’s fingers, which hadn’t had time to retract, and gently squeezed the still healthy little flower.

The plant would become malnourished, fragile, weak, and sickly.

“Aren’t you worried about not having sunlight, Little Flower?” Shi Changyuan asked after a long silence.

“Huh?”

Little Flower leaned against Shi Changyuan, hearing the other party suddenly ask a strange question out of the blue.

“What is it?” Lin Ling wrapped his arms around Shi Changyuan’s neck, rubbing against his cheek, absorbing his warmth.

“The sun.”

The Abyss explained further, “Little Flower needs the sun, but there is no sun in the Abyss.”

“If there’s none, then there’s none.” Lin Ling didn’t care at all, sitting on the edge of the bed, hugging a plushie, waiting for Shi Changyuan to dry his hair.

“But Little Flower will get sick without sunlight.”

Lin Ling looked at the worried Abyss, tilted his head, “But there’s sun outside.”

“We can take the flowerpot with my main body outside with us every day when we go out to play, and we can bask in the sun together before coming back.”

“It’s just a little troublesome.” Lin Ling thought about the feasibility of this and felt a little embarrassed, then quickly became confident again. “Anyway, you’re not allowed to dislike me!”

“Mm.” The tension in Shi Changyuan’s heart finally eased, and he nodded.

“I won’t dislike you.”

Little Flower didn’t dislike the uninhabitable Abyss and didn’t want to leave, so how could the Abyss dislike Little Flower?

So the next day, when Mo Cheng, having compiled a bunch of professional experience on how to raise plants in the dark, airdropped a bunch of books and equipment with parachutes into the Abyss via helicopter, Lin Ling hadn’t woken up yet. Shi Changyuan, taking advantage of a break in the rainstorm, had already moved the flowerpot outside to let his main body fully photosynthesize.

Shi Changyuan looked at the books and equipment slowly descending with parachutes onto his territory, and when he realized what they were, he was amused.

Both the Abyss and the humans, for some reason, were extremely pessimistic about this matter.

The Abyss would never hurt Lin Ling.

But he was extremely worried that Lin Ling would leave the Abyss completely because of this. In Shi Changyuan’s eyes, the Abyss devoured sunlight, preventing it from entering, which was equivalent to devouring Little Flower’s life force, even if it wasn’t his intention.

His seed had been accidentally lost before, and he was able to find it again, but what if the seed wanted to leave on its own?

So the Abyss was pessimistic.

On the other hand, the humans seemed extremely radical.

They seemed to assume that the Abyss would definitely use force to keep Little Flower in the Abyss, even if it meant mutual destruction.

So, worried that the fragile little flower would die, they worked overnight to come up with a “compromise,” and even sent equipment that could simulate sunlight, just so Little Flower could survive in the Abyss, as if Little Flower was going to be locked up and never allowed to go out.

Among those materials, there were even research materials on genetically modified shade plants.

Shi Changyuan looked at those words and was greatly shocked, feeling that humans were indeed humans, the most emotionally complex creatures. Wasn’t this doing harm in the name of love?

The Abyss couldn’t quite understand this human emotion.

When Lin Ling woke up and went outside to bask in the sun with Shi Changyuan, the Abyss told Little Flower about this incident as a piece of news.

Little Flower immediately burst into laughter, laughing very happily.

“Hahahaha, didn’t you know? Humans love doing this kind of thing.”

Little Flower sat on the edge of the Abyss, surrounded by a sea of flowers, basking in the rare sunshine during the rainy season, and laughed so hard that he fell into Shi Changyuan’s arms.

“Humans even have a special term for this kind of thing!”

“They call it forced love.”

Lin Ling’s eyes curved into crescents, “There are even novels dedicated to this theme, and many people like them!”

“Oh my, how come you don’t even know this?”