CH 46

TL: Moonlit

In another room not far away, the tough and thick-skinned Yu Jin sneezed and continued packing his belongings. Having already decided to migrate, Yu Jin had packed many of his things and was just waiting for transportation. Soon, he carried a pile of items downstairs.

As he descended the stairs, he happened to meet Gu Langu and Shu Shuishui. Gu Langu carried two large flower pots in each hand!

Yu Jin was puzzled. “Boss, are you planning to grow flowers? We can find flower pots when we arrive at our destination.”

Shu Shuishui, with a familiar grasshopper bag on his back, flipped down one step at a time while replying earnestly, “These large flower pots are for farming! Does Mao Jin like flowers? I can plant one for you.”

“Shui Shui, why are you calling me ‘Mao Jin’? Forget about the flowers; nothing can survive in winter, let alone plants,” Yu Jin explained gently, not wanting to upset the little mouse.

Shu Shuishui patted her small chest confidently. “I’m a field mouse; I can farm even in winter. I’ll roast sweet potatoes for you when the time comes.”

Not wanting to further shatter Shu Shuishui’s dreams, Yu Jin simply nodded. “Okay.”

Seeing the same lack of opposition from Gu Langu, Yu Jin gave up. He figured he could explain it more thoroughly once they reached their destination. On the Cang Zhan Star, even summer cultivation was challenging, let alone during the winter with temperatures near minus one hundred degrees Celsius.

No plant could survive such extreme cold, and even humans couldn’t stay outside for long. Planting crops in bed might be the only option.

Looking at Shu Shuishui’s excitement while carrying his grasshopper bag, Yu Jin shook his head. Convincing a field mouse not to farm was indeed a challenging task.

The three of them had only a moderate amount of belongings, and with the help of space-folding compressors, they made two or three trips to move everything.

Meanwhile, the other members of the base had also finished packing. It was already past one in the afternoon, and the three bases forming the migration team didn’t set off immediately. Instead, they had a warm meal at the base and then started the vehicles to head into the vast whiteness of the world.

The convoy was quite long, consisting of supply trucks, personnel vehicles, functional vehicles, Gu Langu’s special vehicle, and even buses with sleeping berths. The migration team was nearly a thousand people, and they couldn’t each have their own vehicle.

Of course, the leaders of the three bases didn’t need to squeeze with the others.

For example, Gu Langu and Shu Shuishui shared a car, while Yu Jin and Nan Ge drove another one, and the other two bases followed a similar arrangement.

In the front of the convoy was the snowplow vehicle, responsible for clearing a safe path. Of course, they couldn’t completely clear the snow, but they could create a passable road.

Beneath the accumulated snow was the frozen ice surface, which meant that once it froze, it would remain that way until the following summer. There was no point in waiting for it to thaw before migrating.

In Gu Langu’s car, the little dormouse obediently sat in the co-pilot seat, secured with a seatbelt. His entire furry body was snugly pressed against the backrest, with only his small head curiously looking around.

Due to his height, Shu Shuishui naturally couldn’t see the scenery outside. “Gu Gu, can I not wear the seatbelt?” The mischievous little dormouse sought Gu Langu’s opinion on breaking the rules.

“It’s okay, Shuishui can move freely inside the car, do some farming, sew clothes, or whatever you like. I’ll try to drive smoothly,” Gu Langu understood the mouse’s restlessness and knew that Shu Shuishui couldn’t sit still.

Upon hearing this, Shu Shuishui immediately unbuckled himself from the seatbelt and climbed along it all the way to the top of the seat. There, he gazed at the world outside, which was enveloped in pure white. “Wow, Gu Gu, look! Doesn’t it look like clouds have fallen and covered the ground? We are walking on top of the clouds.”

Though Shu Shuishui had seen this scenery before, he always admired it, finding something different in the world each time.

Gu Langu looked outside the car, especially on both sides where the vast expanse of land was visible. The footprints from the previous night’s snow had vanished, making it truly seem as if clouds had descended. After Shu Shuishui’s remark, even the long journey seemed to have become more interesting.

Shu Shuishui was now sprawled on the car window, pointing outside at the wilderness. “Gu Gu, look a bit further ahead, I caught some grasshoppers there before! I bet now, they’ve all become frozen and inedible, tasting like soil. Luckily, I still have six of them.”

The little dormouse finally seemed to remember his main task and hopped to the front of the car, scratching his head while looking at the bare sunshade. “Gu Gu, how about I make a decoration for the front of the car, a green one?”

Gu Gu wasn’t particularly interested in a car decoration, but he wondered why Shu Shuishui specifically mentioned green. “Sure.”

So, Shu Shuishui plumped himself down and took out an irregular, wide-mouthed, and low pot, explaining as he worked, “This pot seems suitable for planting bamboo, succulents, and other similar plants. Though it might not be deep enough for growing vegetables, it’s great for grass, and it even has a miniature mountain, which is simply perfect. Do you like it, Gu Gu?”

“I like it,” Gu Langu responded seriously.

Shu Shuishui placed the flowerpot in position, then evenly transferred some soil from the three large pots he had prepared earlier and arranged the formations using small spirit stones. Next, he took out small branches, trimming them one by one to equal lengths, peeling them, polishing, and refining…

As Gu Langu observed Shu Shuishui’s actions and the road ahead, he finally believed that the gloves were indeed made by him. The little dormouse was just too clever. After watching for a while, Gu Langu understood that Shu Shuishui was making a small fence.

Not long after, the short and low fence was completed, and the soil in the flowerpot was adequately moist. Shu Shuishui sprinkled spirit grass seeds into it and patiently waited for the grass to germinate. He brought over the bag of grasshoppers and released them one by one, allowing them to become familiar with their new environment.

In the somewhat bewildered eyes of Gu Langu, the grass seeds took root, sprouted, and produced tender green shoots, growing into a thriving mini grassland. It didn’t reach much height, only about three to four centimeters tall, but it appeared lush and dense, resembling a small pasture. The whole process took less than two hours!

It was fortunate that Gu Langu was the one driving; if it were Yu Jin, he might have been scared enough to drive the car into a ditch. Gu Langu had once observed the scenes of Shu Shuishui’s planting through detectors, but experiencing it firsthand allowed him to feel the mysteries behind it even more. He couldn’t fathom the principles at play and could only attribute it to the innate talent of a field mouse.

Once the grasshoppers became accustomed to their environment, Shu Shuishui completely released his hold on them. Of course, in the 10×20 cm flowerpot, the grasshoppers couldn’t escape.

In the end, Shu Shuishui’s decoration bent into something else—a miniature pasture with six “livestock” inside.

Gu Langu believed that this was probably the most unique car interior decoration, but he was mistaken. Soon, Shu Shuishui pulled out his long-unused little nest and placed it at the front of the car. The previously spacious and open area now appeared enriched, especially when the little dormouse lazily nested inside, basking in the sun and rolling around.

Gu Langu thought this might be the happiest long journey of his life. With a furry little dormouse sewing and stitching pieces of fabric in his nest, he had no idea what he was planning to make. Every time the needle went through the fabric, the little dormouse would stretch his tiny body, his claws gripping the thread, and his little paws pulling the fabric. Sometimes, due to the thread’s length, his body would complete a curve in the opposite direction.

Shu Shuishui was working on something, and of course, it was a down feather tent. The fabric he used was the parachute he collected earlier. As for the down feathers, he discovered them while arranging the spiritual storage at noon. It turned out he had collected two down jackets when he left the desert.

Shu Shuishui thought to himself, “…” Perhaps he was getting forgetful with age. Despite having two down jackets, he didn’t feel proud. Instead, he planned to stuff the down feathers into the tent so Gu Langu wouldn’t feel so cold when sleeping at night.

Upon leaving the car, Shu Shuishui realized that most of the time during the journey, Gu Langu stayed inside the vehicle, which had air conditioning. However, sleeping in the car at night would undoubtedly be uncomfortable. So, a tent was still the best option to wrap Gu Langu up warmly.

Therefore, Shu Shuishui’s original plan easily changed. Making a tent was a colossal project, unlike gloves that could be completed in the morning. Shu Shuishui wasn’t in a hurry, comfortably nestled in his little nest, basking in the sun while simultaneously working on the tent.

Of course, before sewing the tent, Shu Shuishui didn’t forget to set up the array for the three large flowerpots, waiting for the soil to be moistened and the temperature to rise.

Then, he encouraged the seeds he was going to plant to sprout and increased their growth rate. As for germination rate and survival rate, Shu Shuishui could proudly raise his head; they had always been one hundred percent.

The speed of the convoy was slow, and sometimes, they encountered obstacles ahead, forcing them to stop until the road cleared before they could continue.

In Nan Ge’s car, Yu Jin had yawned from boredom several times. “Nan Ge, when do you think we’ll be able to settle in a place?”

Nan Ge was driving and glanced at Yu Jin in the rearview mirror, who had already lost his proper form. “If everything goes smoothly, about a month and a half. However, this is just the first snow; soon there will be a second, a third, followed by snowstorms, then an ice-covered world. Mutated creatures will start hunting humans due to a lack of food. If a cold wave sweeps in first, our traveling speed will slow down even further…”

Yu Jin had a general understanding of these situations, but not as detailed as Nan Ge. “I already feel like I’m going crazy after just one afternoon. If I had known, I would’ve taken Shuishui into our car. At noon, I saw the boss moving flowerpots back and forth, a total of three. Shuishui even said he wanted to plant crops, I almost laughed to death. Hahaha! Shuishui said he would grow sweet potatoes for me. I think he could bury himself in them, and maybe he’ll grow more Shuishuis and distribute them to our car, so we won’t be so bored.”

“Shuishui wants to do farming in the flowerpots?” It was the first time Nan Ge had heard of someone wanting to do farming in flowerpots, but considering Shu Shuishui’s size, he thought it wasn’t impossible. However, he was concerned about the temperature.

“Yes, I said you can’t farm in winter, but Shuishui said he’s a field mouse and can farm even in winter. I guess it’s a racial instinct,” Yu Jin sighed from the side. He imagined a scene where Gu Langu was driving in the front seat while Shu Shuishui was frantically digging soil in the back seat and burst into laughter.

Nan Ge: “… ” Yu Jin might be really going crazy.

In the car ahead, Shu Shuishui was indeed digging soil, but he was loosening the soil. The little dormouse worked very carefully, ensuring not a speck of soil went outside the flowerpots. The three large flowerpots were securely fastened with seat belts and remained extremely stable.

Nourished by the array, the soil had become moist. Shu Shuishui used his tiny paws to create small holes in the soil and then placed the germinated seeds, one by one, into the holes.

In the end, Shu Shuishui planted two purple sweet potatoes, sixteen grains of wheat, and eight Chinese chives. “It’s a pity there are no eggs and shrimp, otherwise, I could make a dumpling filled with three delicacies…”

Shu Shuishui looked at his own paws and gave up on the idea of making dumplings with three delicacies. His only regret was that his paws couldn’t make many delicious dishes. He wondered when he would ever grow hands.