CH 7

TL: Moonlit

Gu Langu looked at the garbled code transmitted by the detector and finally connected to the camera to see what had happened.

Soon, a virtual screen appeared in front of Gu Langu, displaying the content captured by the detector in great clarity.

A chubby, fluffy, warm brown ball was lying face down on a crimson sponge cushion. It was trying hard to lift its head, raise its hind legs, and hold its own hind legs with its front paws, forming an oval-shaped ball.

Gu Langu: ? What is this? What is it doing? Why is it so cute? I want…I want to have a pet.

No wonder the detector sent back a bunch of garbled codes. Gu Langu couldn’t clearly identify what creature was in front, but it strangely made others itch to have it as a pet.

Originally, Gu Langu only wanted to investigate the impact of the electromagnetic storm this time and the possible future developments of the storm. He didn’t expect to discover a life form, let alone an unfamiliar one. Judging from its size and appearance, it looked like some kind of rat, but the color and behavior didn’t match a rat.

Gu Langu decided to observe this garbled creature carefully. After understanding the patterns of the electromagnetic storm, he would enter the Imperial City and bring back the garbled pet.

It seemed like it had been a long time since he had the impulse to do something. Gu Langu raised his hand and touched the virtual screen, wanting to touch the soft ball in advance, but his hand passed through the screen, unable to touch anything.

After practicing yoga for half an hour, Shu Shuishui had no idea that someone already wanted him as a pet. You see, on Earth, dormice were protected animals, and they were rare. Few people would keep dormice as pets. Shu Shuishui had kept many other pets, such as little butterflies, dragonflies, silkworms, small scallops, and small snails.

Shu Shuishui had also thought about keeping a human as a pet but was rejected by Shu Bao, citing financial difficulties. It was too expensive to raise a human pet: formula milk, diapers, education, buying a house, buying a car, getting married, and even funeral expenses would cost a fortune. Calculating all that, it amounted to astronomical numbers.

Shu Shuishui “…”. The poor peasant farmer gave up on the idea of keeping a human as a pet.

At this moment, the farming mouse finished its yoga exercise, feeling a comfortable stretch throughout its body. Shu Shuishui jumped off the yoga mat, rolled it up from one end, tapped it on the ground to make it neater, tied it up, and put it back in the spiritual space.

Shu Shuishui stretched lazily and then returned to his field. He climbed onto a flowerpot and looked at the tender sprouts breaking through the soil, gently touching them with his paws. Then he went to collect the dew water bowl and poured the clear dew water from it into his water bottle. Considering that human cups were generally too big, there was a risk of taking a bath while drinking water. So, the water bottles that Shu Bao bought for Shu Shuishui were baby cups with a nipple.

The size was just right for Shu Shuishui to hold and drink comfortably. This hundreds of years old little mousie had no shame, using them without any guilt, and even eagerly left a good review.

Naturally, the review was written by Shu Bao and included a picture of Shu Shuishui holding the baby bottle. [Very good, the cup is as big as my rat, and it comes with many replacement nipples. Highly recommended.]

This comment was wildly liked by buyers and remained at the top of the comments.

Shu Shuishui couldn’t understand why humans gave their little mousie likes instead of their own offspring.

After filling both bottles with water and putting them back in the spiritual space, Shu Shuishui scratched his chin and took out a hand-cranked charger, a toy car, dead batteries, and a solar-powered desk lamp.

He placed the lamp near the window to recharge it and then began studying the toy car. Shu Shuishui wasn’t a physics genius; he had used his exceptional language skills for translation purposes.

Shu Shuishui could perfectly serve as a mouse translator but couldn’t make sense of complex circuit diagrams. Therefore, he didn’t plan to make a solar-powered toy car but instead used the hand-cranked generator to charge the batteries and then replaced the depleted batteries in the toy car with fully charged ones.

It was impossible for him to crank it by hand. Shu Shuishui would never grow tall enough in this lifetime to crank a generator. He had to put in a lot of effort to make the generator look like a bicycle. Then, he sat on it and started pedaling.

Fortunately, the quality of goods in this era was good, and the batteries were reusable. Otherwise, Shu Shuishui wouldn’t have had the ability to modify the batteries.

After such a diligent day, the battery indicator finally turned green. Shu Shuishui fell off the “bicycle” with a thud, lying on the ground like a pancake, and weakly said, “Who needs a bicycle anyway.”

Exhausted Shu Shuishui took a long time to climb back up and dragged his weary little body out of the dew formation. He set up an iron pot, put firewood at the bottom, and started a fire to boil water.

The small amount of hot water quickly heated up. Shu Shuishui adjusted it to the right temperature and took out a yellow mini rubber duck toy. They then took out shower gel, a bathing flower, and finally a white porcelain basin.

He poured the hot water into the basin and threw the rubber duck inside. Shu Shuishui followed suit, jumping into the water, and diving in headfirst. With a kick of his hind legs, they swam to the opposite side of the white porcelain basin. His four little paws moved rhythmically in the water, and Shu Shuishui enjoyed swimming in his own “luxury pool” for two rounds before emerging from the water with a splash.

Enjoying the comfortable water temperature, he poured shower gel and rubbed the bathing flower to create abundant foam. Shu Shuishui relaxed his body and leaned against the edge of the ceramic basin. He placed his two front paws on either side and found a small towel to place on his forehead, closing his eyes and enjoying the pleasure of a hot bath.

The yellow rubber duck in the ceramic basin bobbed up and down with the ripples, seemingly accompanying the person taking a bath.

With a simple formation modification, the ceramic basin could maintain the water temperature well. Shu Shuishui felt completely relaxed in the water and finally emerged from the basin, wrapped in a light yellow bath towel.

Shu Shuishui:  

Gulan Gu:

Even through the screen, the sweet aroma seemed to be perceptible. Gu Langu concluded without hesitation that this pet must be sweet. Shu Shuishui even kissed the toy duck, so they would probably kiss other things too, like Gu Langu.

After wrapping themselves in a bath towel, Shu Shuishui stood at the edge of the ceramic basin, lifted the yellow duck out, and carefully dried it with his paws. He gave it a kiss and put it back in the spiritual space.

Then Shu Shuishui fluttered and tumbled inside the towel, vigorously rubbing himself. When he emerged again from the towel, he transformed back into a cute little mousie.

His fur was no longer dripping water, and Shu Shuishui took small steps, walking toward his nest. He retrieved a soft and dry towel from inside and wrapped himself in it. With his feet tightly together, he hopped into the nest, rubbing against it for a while, and found a comfortable position to fall into a deep sleep.

Watching the series of actions from Shu Shuishui, Gu Langu could already tell that this quirky little pet was intelligent, clean, and even kissed the toy duck. He thought Shu Shuishui might also kiss other things, like themselves.

Watching the peacefully sleeping little pet, Gu Langu stood up, preparing to rest or rather enter hibernation. But before going into hibernation, he gave an order to the detector. Once the little pet wakes up, he would receive a notification.

Gu Langu didn’t expect that this wait would last for seven days. If it weren’t for the small body constantly swaying on the virtual screen, he would have thought the pet had died. Gu Langu found it quite amazing. Could this little pet also be a robot? Could it really survive without eating or drinking for seven days?

Little did he know, sleeping for seven days was just a blink of an eye for Shu Shuishui. If it weren’t for his concern about food, Shu Shuishui would have loved to sleep for a whole year.

During these seven days, the electromagnetic storm visited twice, though both times on a smaller scale than the first, it still consumed a significant amount of energy, further solidifying Shu Shuishui’s determination to relocate.

Shu Shuishui cleaned up the “luxury pool” and other toiletries that he hadn’t tidied up before, and retrieved them back into the spiritual space. Then he climbed onto a flower pot and circled the edge, checking the growth of the food.

At the same time, he took out a baby cup from the spiritual space. He drank water from it while inspecting the remaining flower pots. The mung beans had already formed pods, and the plants were gradually withering. The sweet potatoes and potatoes were growing well, with deep green leaves indicating that they had already produced underground.

After finishing the water, Shu Shuishui took out a hazelnut to reward himself. Once he finished nibbling on it, he plunged into the lush foliage. Following the stems of the plants, he dug downward effortlessly, with the soil crumbling under his two little paws. It didn’t take long for Shu Shuishui to dig out the first sweet potato, which was twice as big as himself.

Shu Shuishui remained buried in the soil, only revealing the back half of his small body. His hind legs occasionally kicked out the soil from the hole. Soon, Shu Shuishui emerged, dragging along a huge sweet potato.

He wobbled while holding the sweet potato and climbed down, placing it on the clean floor. Then he turned back to the large flower pot to continue digging for another sweet potato, planning to dig them all up and clean them together.

Although Shu Shuishui only planted one tuber in each flower pot, the harvest was not low. On average, he harvested about four sweet potatoes from each pot, all of them evenly sized, with the smallest one still larger than Shu Shuishui.

The potato yield was also good. While the size couldn’t match the sweet potatoes, each pot had produced seven or eight potatoes. Shu Shuishui exerted his strength to pull out the potato vines, easily bringing out several potatoes. It didn’t take much effort to search for the remaining ones, and he held them together, creating a satisfying harvest.

Lastly, there were the mung beans. Shu Shuishui skillfully nibbled off the stems of the mung beans. Since each pot had ten mung beans planted, Shu Shuishui made bundles of five beans each and then dragged them out into the sunlight to dry.

Looking at the harvest, Shu Shuishui felt that these foods would keep him full for a long time. After cleaning up, he decided to leave and find a new place to settle, naturally avoiding the direction from which the electromagnetic storm had originally come.

Shu Shuishui returned to the pile of sweet potatoes and potatoes, carefully cleaning off the dirt from each one, striving to make them spotlessly clean. His little paws were too sharp, so he used his belly to rub against them, preventing any damage to the skin of the potatoes and sweet potatoes.

During the process of cleaning the sweet potatoes, some of the mung bean pods couldn’t withstand the high temperature and cracked open, revealing a few plump mung beans.

Shu Shuishui wasn’t in a hurry and planned to finish cleaning the sweet potatoes and potatoes before picking up the scattered mung beans. As for the sweet potato vines and potato vines, Shu Shuishui intended to collect them as well. They were excellent fodder for raising livestock, and it would be great if he could come across a grasshopper or two on the way.

‘A chubby, fluffy, warm brown ball was lying face down on a crimson sponge cushion. It was trying hard to lift its head, raise its hind legs, and hold its own hind legs with its front paws, forming an oval-shaped ball.’ 

It’s quite funny and cute imagining it