Chapter 145: What Happened?

Chapter 145: Chapter 145: What Happened?

While her grandpa and mom were clearly still in a daze, Gu Nuan Nuan quickly sought answers from Cao Cao. "Cao Cao, what just happened? How did I get so strong, and why don’t I feel any discomfort at all? I remember the last time I pulled Mom, I used way less strength than I did now, but didn’t I end up completely drained?"

"Gosh, that was scary! Master, do you even need to ask? It was all my doing, of course." Cao Cao first patted its main stalk with its leaves, then swayed its foliage smugly.

"I knew it. Thank you, Cao Cao. What would I have done without you this time?" Gu Nuan Nuan was touched. When her consciousness entered the space, she froze for a moment. "Huh? Where’s your Plant Essence? Why are there only three drops left? Did you use it all up?"

"You don’t have to thank me, Master! We’re one and the same. It’s what I should do." In the space, Cao Cao swayed its main stalk and foliage, its voice filled with pride and the joyous relief of having survived the ordeal. Gu Nuan Nuan stroked it affectionately, feeling that any more words of thanks would be unnecessary and create distance between them. "Cao Cao, this time, I really don’t feel any discomfort at all."

"Master, the truth is, your strength is already immense. Several grown men combined might not be a match for you; you just haven’t realized it. The reason you felt drained for a short while last time was because you had just been reborn, and your body hadn’t fully adapted yet." Cao Cao explained patiently to Gu Nuan Nuan, then seemed to stick out a tongue and looked at her sheepishly. "Actually, you provided most of the strength just now, Master. I just gave you a little push at the right moment. The Plant Essence was used up so quickly because I was too nervous. But none of it was wasted! The leftover energy is enough that I won’t need to absorb any more for a few days. You don’t think I’m too silly, do you, Master?"

"Of course not! My Cao Cao is the best. Even when you make a little mistake, you’re still the best. The absolute cutest!" Gu Nuan Nuan leaned in and gave Cao Cao a kiss. Cao Cao’s main stalk instantly turned red before returning to its original green. Before Gu Nuan Nuan could even tease it, Zhang Dazhuang’s trembling voice came from outside: "Nuannuan, this tree... how did you do that? You..."

"I-I don’t know. I was in such a panic, I just pulled it up." Gu Nuan Nuan feigned a bewildered expression as she looked at her grandpa. "Grandpa, what do we do now? Should we drag these wild boars back home?"

"Of course we are." Zhang Dazhuang was left a little speechless by her answer. But when he heard her next question, his voice immediately jumped a notch. "I don’t care how you did it—you killed these wild boars. How could we possibly just leave all this meat behind?"

As he spoke, Zhang Dazhuang bent over to lift the tree away. However, despite using every ounce of his strength, he had barely raised it off the ground before he was exhausted and panting heavily.

Gu Nuan Nuan’s heart leaped into her throat as she watched, terrified her grandfather would throw out his back from the effort. She rushed over, grabbed the tree, and casually tossed it aside. Then, she glanced with distaste at the still-bleeding boars on the ground. Both were full-grown and massive; she figured they had to weigh at least three or four hundred pounds each. That was a combined weight of seven or eight hundred pounds.

Under her grandfather’s once-again stupefied gaze, she reached down, lifted one of the boars to test its weight, and then let it drop.

’Good. It’s not too hard to lift one with a single hand,’ she thought. ’But carrying both of them for over two hours would be exhausting. We’ll have to make a simple tool.’ "Grandpa, we need to build a sledge," she said. Fortunately, her grandpa had plenty of grass rope on him. They could solve any shortage by just gathering some vines and twisting them together.

"I’ll go find some big branches." Zhang Dazhuang collected himself. He decided his questions could wait until they had dealt with the two boars and could start dragging them home. It wouldn’t be too late to ask her on the way. He replied at once.

"Grandpa, no need to look elsewhere. We have a ready-made one right here, don’t we?" Gu Nuan Nuan pointed to the large tree she had tossed aside. Zhang Dazhuang slapped his forehead. "You’re right. I’m still in a daze from what you just did."

"Grandpa, I’m pretty amazing, right?" Gu Nuan Nuan gave a goofy grin, her gaze suddenly fixing on Zhang Dazhuang with burning intensity. "This means I can go with you to scout the mountains, right?"

Zhang Dazhuang was silent. For a long moment, the two words he would have normally said without a second thought—"No way"—were stuck in his throat.

"If you’re not saying no, that means you agree, right, Grandpa? So don’t you dare sneak off by yourself! You have to wait for my break from school, and we’ll go into the mountains together. If any more wild boars show up, I’ll just uproot another tree and smash ’em dead." Seeing the constipated look on her grandfather’s face, Gu Nuan Nuan took the liberty of nodding for him.

"Dad, just let Nuannuan go. Honestly, at this point, I’d be more worried if she *wasn’t* with you. And me, I want to go with you both, too." Unseen, Zhang Minzhen had walked up behind them and heard their conversation. This time, she was firmly on Gu Nuan Nuan’s side.

"Mom, you’re brilliant!" Gu Nuan Nuan cheered. Zhang Minzhen smiled, and both of them turned to look at Zhang Dazhuang with hopeful eyes.

"Fine, come along if you want. Just don’t come crying to me when you get blisters all over your feet." Seeing the hopeful looks from the mother-daughter duo, Zhang Dazhuang finally gave in. "I don’t know where Nuannuan got this incredible strength, but if it wasn’t for her, we’d all have died here today." As he said this, he glared irritably at Minzhen. "I told you to run. Why did you stay? You couldn’t have helped, you would’ve just gotten yourself killed for nothing. How could you be so foolish?"

"Dad, I... I just wasn’t thinking straight at the time." ’How could I have been cruel enough to run away and leave my own father to die? Besides, all I could think about was that if I stayed, I could at least stall the two boars for a moment longer to give my daughter a better chance of survival.’

Zhang Minzhen just gave a sheepish smile. "Dad, this isn’t a safe place to linger. We should get moving."

"You... you’re just like your older brother, always trying to be brave and doing foolish things." Zhang Dazhuang shook his head in resignation, but he was thinking, ’My wife and I raised two children who are willing to be "foolish" at critical moments, who can’t bear to abandon their old folks. Even if we were to die right now, we could do so contentedly.’

The simple sledge was quickly assembled. At Gu Nuan Nuan’s insistence, both wild boars were tied onto the one frame. Zhang Dazhuang gave it a try and found it was a real struggle for one person to pull. Gu Nuan Nuan, on the other hand, handled it with ease. In the end, Zhang Dazhuang stopped arguing and let Gu Nuan Nuan drag the sledge by herself. Only when they reached the foot of the mountain, to avoid drawing attention, did they add a second rope so it would look like Zhang Dazhuang was helping to pull it.