"Okay, now what should I do to get my luggage back?" Yang Zhang mumbled. The luggage was still in the same position, and although that territorial tree closed its eyes, whenever Yang Zhang wanted to step in, it opened them immediately. It started slashing wildly with its giant whip.
The tree wasn't hostile to animals and plants, but Chestnut wasn't strong enough to retrieve something that big.
Yang Zhang fished the Brain Bead out of his pocket, "So my only hope is using this Brain Bead to mutate a bigger plant."
"Though, I'm afraid if I pick a big plant, it will turn out to be similar to this territorial tree and will be hostile to humans as well…."
Yang Zhang looked around to find a good plant. He was thinking of a vine-type of plant that was medium size because he needed something that could catch and drag his luggage back.
Yang Zhang and Chestnut paced around the forest together, searching for a good plant.
They stopped when they stumbled upon a tree covered with ivy.
The ivy was long and thick, already covering the entire tree so well that Yang Zhang couldn't find its roots.
He tried to pull on the ivy, but it took more strength than he expected, "Oh, this is perfect!"
"Squeak!" Chestnut looked curious. It jumped from Yang Zhang's shoulder to the tree, trying to help him pull away the ivy.
"One, two, hurrah!"
Yang Zhang pulled at the ivy as hard as he could, trying to get a lot of it.
"Okay! This is enough, Chestnut!" Yang Zhang rolled the ivy he plucked and returned to the wooden hut with the electric squirrel. Yang Zhang had decided to make that wooden hut his new house. It seemed safe from zombie invasions and ability users who might want to invade for some reason.
Yang Zhang searched for another pot with dead flowers in front of the wooden hut. Removing the dead flowers first, he then buried the Brain Bead in the soil before planting the ivy.
Yang Zhang patted the dirt and brought the potted plant inside the house like the rose he'd mutated before.
"Squeak?"
"Ah? You're asking why we returned home before taking my luggage?" Yang Zhang looked at Chestnut, who circled the potted plant on the table. "Well, I think the mutation needs the whole night or something to be effective. So it's better for us just to take a rest today!"
Yang Zhang checked the food box that he brought from Xiao Mei Jiejie's attic and found a pack of roasted nuts.
"Ah, you may like this, Chestnut!"
"Squeak! Squeak!" Chestnut excitedly grabbed the pack when Yang Zhang opened it. The squirrel could smell the fragrant scent of the nuts.
Yang Zhang chuckled and went to the well in the backyard to get some water and boil it.
But when he passed the grave of the baby son and mother rose, the rose wiggled again, dancing happily.
Yang Zhang was a bit creeped out, but he couldn't do much about it anyway. So he tried to ignore it and took some water from the well.
He returned inside with water and started boiling it with the help of Chestnut, of course.
After eating two packs of instant noodles, he tucked himself in a blanket with Chestnut. He glanced at potted ivy, "Hopefully, that Brain Bead doesn't go to waste. I will feel really guilty for Xiao Mei Jiejie if it turned just like that rose…."
**
Yang Zhang opened his eyes slowly as he heard something rustling and the sound of a whimper.
"Vii… vii… vii…."
He checked on Chestnut, who was still sleeping, and got up carefully so as not to wake the squirrel. He searched for the source of the soft crying, thinking it was another human.
"Am I dreaming or what? How come there is a whimper inside this hut?" Yang Zhang thought it might be a ghost, but he wasn't afraid of ghosts anyway.
"Vii… vii… vii…."
He listened carefully and found the source of the whimper.
And it came from… the mutated ivy!
Yang Zhang saw the ivy he planted suddenly curl up, trying to cover something under its leaves. Yang Zhang could determine the living ivy looked nervous and scared because it was trembling in fear. He approached carefully and pulled gently on one of the leaves.
"Vii… vii…"
"Ah, this one has eyes?" Yang Zhang pondered as he saw a pair of tiny Beads peeking at him.
The tiny Beads acted like a pair of eyes as they looked at Yang Zhang, and the trembling on the ivy slowly stopped. It also stopped whimpering, "Vii?"
"H—Hey there, little uhm… little ivy, are you scared?"
"Vii…"
"Ah, don't be scared here. We're inside our hut. There will be no zombies around," Yang Zhang said, and the ivy finally relaxed its guard.
'I think the Brain Bead also brings the subconsciousness of the human before they turned into a zombie. Xiao Mei Jiejie must've been scared out of her wits when she was hiding in that attic for days. Scared and desperate.'
'So that's why this little ivy mutated with her Brain Bead also has the same fear of the zombies….'
'Then… What about that rose? Why is it dancing like that?'
Yang Zhang was dazed for a moment, thinking about what possible reason there was for the Brain Bead to make it act like that. Little did he know, the ivy would suddenly pluck itself from the pot and jump into his palm.
"Wha—" Yang Zhang had no time to react when he realized the little ivy had suddenly stretched its vines and coiled them around his hand.