Chapter 8
“Caw! Little Flower, Little Flower, the humans have moved back!”
The three-headed parrot, since learning that Lin Ling had completely infiltrated the Abyss, had become arrogant, daring to circle and forage near the Abyss, as if one person’s ascension benefited everyone around them.
“What, what?”
Lin Ling immediately stood up from the sea of flowers at the edge of the giant pit, ran to the boulder that had become the boundary of the Abyss, and shared the latest news with the three-headed parrot.
“Caw, caw, last night I went out foraging and found about a dozen people carrying bags moving back to the base, and then the base started to restore water and electricity!”
The three-headed parrot landed on the boulder, flapping its wings excitedly.
“Caw! This genius’s plan really worked!”
The middle parrot head cawed excitedly, and the other two parrot heads kept echoing the word “genius.” Their loud, gong-like voices made the little flower demon cover his ears.
“Plan? What plan?” Amidst the noisy commotion, Lin Ling immediately caught the seemingly most crucial word.
The three heads of the three-headed parrot looked left and right, their beady eyes darting around, as if exchanging some kind of secret signal.
“Caw, caw, we don’t have any plans!”
“I won’t reveal the brilliant plan of tricking you into becoming the Abyss’s spouse, so the Abyss would stop expanding—”
“I definitely won’t tell you that this is all so my master can move back to the Seventh Base!”
The three voices sounded almost simultaneously, and the original parrot head in the middle froze.
“Caw, caw, what are you all doing!!!”
Lin Ling was stunned by the three-headed parrot’s audacious plan.
Before he could react, the three-headed parrot in mid-air started fighting with itself, feathers flying, the left and right parrot heads almost pecking each other bald.
“Stop—” Lin Ling held his breath and shouted, “If you fight again, I’ll pluck all your feathers! If I can’t catch you, Shi Changyuan can.”
Whether it was the threat of plucking feathers or the deterrence of the Abyss, the three-headed parrot finally stopped. The three heads each looked guilty, looking left and right, refusing to meet Lin Ling’s gaze.
“Honesty is the best policy, resistance is futile! Confess!” Lin Ling pounded the stone in front of him. “What do you mean by tricking me into becoming the Abyss’s sp-spouse?”
Lin Ling stammered on the word “spouse,” his ears immediately turning hot. “The Abyss and I are just friends, how can you slander us like that!”
Seeing that the matter had been exposed, the three-headed parrot immediately spilled the beans about its plan.
“The Abyss became active not for food, nor for courtship, but because it lost something very important and came out to look for it.”
The little flower demon, seeing that the three-headed parrot had misunderstood their relationship, emphasized, “We are friends.”
The more the little flower demon emphasized this, the more rebellious the three-headed parrot became, and it immediately started shouting.
“Caw, caw, friends?” The three-headed parrot flapped its wings and asked back, “If I become friends with the Abyss, can I also not worry about being swallowed by the Abyss?”
“If I become friends with the Abyss, can I also stick a bunch of colorful feathers on its head?”
“If I become friends with the Abyss, can I also hug and cuddle with the Abyss?”
The three-headed parrot was very self-aware, “Then I’ll probably be swallowed whole by the Abyss, caw.”
The little flower demon was dizzy from the barrage of questions. Finally, he added the word “good” to their relationship, changing from friends to “good” friends.
“We… we are good friends!”
“And, the Abyss and plants aren’t the same kind of creature, they can’t be spouses.” Lin Ling reasoned, trying to persuade the three-headed parrot. “They can’t communicate or reproduce.”
That made sense. The three-headed parrot nodded in unison, but one of the heads, halfway through nodding, suddenly looked at Lin Ling with a puzzled tone.
“Caw, caw, but you both have human bodies, you can just fall in love the human way, right?”
The little flower demon’s eyes widened abruptly.
Just as he was about to say something, the three-headed parrot seemed to have seen someone and immediately turned and flew away in a panic.
“What are you talking about?”
Shi Changyuan appeared behind Lin Ling at some point and asked softly.
Ever since he met Lin Ling’s parrot friend, his progress in learning human language had been like riding a rocket. Now he could express himself fluently and accurately.
Lin Ling turned to look at Shi Changyuan, feeling a sense of guilt for some reason.
He blinked, avoiding Shi Changyuan’s direct gaze, and summarized the news about the humans brought by the three-headed parrot.
“Th-then its other two heads also said two things, I didn’t hear clearly, it seemed to be something about spouses, and its master.”
The little flower demon lied, blinking his eyes guiltily again, but fortunately, Shi Changyuan didn’t notice. He immediately changed the subject.
“The little parrot, before it mutated, should have been raised by a human, but its master moved away because of the city relocation, and the little parrot hopes they will come back.”
Although he didn’t know the details, after learning this, Lin Ling wasn’t too angry about their plan to trick him.
Listening to the little flower demon’s sentiments, Shi Changyuan looked down at the little flower demon in front of him and suddenly said in a solemn tone, “I won’t abandon you.”
The suddenly formal atmosphere stunned Lin Ling. He looked into Shi Changyuan’s deep eyes, which were full of sincerity, and his earlobes, which had cooled down, immediately became hot again.
Seeing Lin Ling dazed, as if he hadn’t reacted, Shi Changyuan reached out and pinched his face, and said again pointedly, “I won’t leave without saying goodbye either.”
“…I heard you,” Lin Ling rubbed his ears and immediately returned to normal, no longer fidgeting or avoiding eye contact.
His human friends had left without saying goodbye before. Lin Ling hadn’t even seen them one last time, and he had been sad about it for a while.
Wasn’t the Abyss’s sentence just him secretly getting angry on his behalf!
Human friends were just ordinary friends. The Abyss comparing itself to his human friends still meant they were friends, right?
It was just that the Abyss was better than those human friends.
As he had said, they were good friends! That three-headed parrot was really misleading!
“Now that the humans are back, does Ling Ling want to go see them?” Shi Changyuan pinched the little flower demon’s face again, his tone a little unpleasant.
Lin Ling knew that the Abyss didn’t like humans very much, especially since the other party had just been sticking up for him. Lin Ling’s eyes curved, he stepped forward and hugged him, comforting him, “I know, I’m just going to return something.”
“Humans have helped me a lot before, otherwise I would have withered long ago.” The little flower demon stood on tiptoe, hanging on the Abyss, and rubbed against Shi Changyuan affectionately.
“According to humans, this is called repaying a favor. After I repay the favor, I can leave.”
[After repaying the favor, his seed would have nothing to do with humans.]
Shi Changyuan thought to himself.
[His seed would be his alone.]
[And could also… return to the Abyss.]
“Okay, I’ll take you.”
Shi Changyuan immediately took the initiative, took Lin Ling’s hand, and teleported to the gate of the Seventh Base in a few blinks. He sensed the life fluctuations inside, and after a few more teleports, he immediately found the Seventh Base’s monitoring station.
“The humans are all here.”
He looked at the underground base, stood at the door, and nudged the little flower demon beside him, “Go quickly and come back quickly.”
Lin Ling turned his head, his eyes full of confusion, the question “Aren’t you coming with me?” not yet spoken, when Shi Changyuan said, “I’ll wait for you.”
He lowered his head and touched the black shadow on Lin Ling’s hand. “It will protect you.”
The little flower demon looked at the mark on his hand and nodded vigorously, then pushed the door open and walked in.
Lin Ling’s intrusion set off alarms throughout the monitoring station, but the alarm only lasted for a few seconds before stopping.
The little flower demon suspected that someone recognized him, so he obediently stood there, waiting for the humans to appear.
No one knew what was discussed inside, or what kind of mental preparations were made. They watched the terrifying Abyss fluctuation inside the base, appearing at the door of the monitoring station, and then stopping at the door.
Soon, several footsteps sounded in the quiet corridor, but as they got closer, they merged into one, as if someone was coming alone.
“Sister Mo?”
Lin Ling seemed to recognize the heavy footsteps. A head suddenly poked out from the corner of the corridor, revealing a pair of sparkling eyes.
It was someone he knew!
“…Little Flower?”
The researcher, who had been on high alert, relaxed her guard upon seeing Lin Ling, her face full of surprise: “It’s really you?!”
“Yes, yes, yes, I saw someone come back, so I came to take a look.”
Lin Ling held a jar of fertilizer in his hand and handed it to Team Leader Mo, “I’m here to return the fertilizer. While you were away, I made a new friend, and he’s been helping me with watering and fertilizing.”
“I’ve been taking good care of myself!”
Hearing Lin Ling mention this “new friend,” Team Leader Mo immediately thought of the sea of white flowers with golden stamens at the entrance of the Abyss.
“Yes, he’s the Abyss you’re talking about,” Lin Ling said, knowing that humans were afraid of Shi Changyuan, and quickly explained on behalf of his friend.
“The Abyss became active because it lost its seed, and it’s not expanding anymore, but I want to help it find its seed.”
“It’s been searching for a long time, can you help?”
In Lin Ling’s few short sentences, he revealed the answer they had spent years searching for.
Team Leader Mo had no reason to refuse. Whether this news was true or false, whether it was from the standpoint of a friend or from the standpoint of all mankind, they would try.
“Of course.”
Repaying the favor was simpler than Lin Ling had imagined. Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly seemed to remember something, turned around, and looked at Team Leader Mo, who was in her human form.
“Oh, right, I have a question.”
The little flower demon fidgeted, his face suddenly turning red, and stammered, “What… what is it like for humans to fall in love?”
Team Leader Mo froze. “Fall in love???”
