Ch 123: The Cannon Fodder Won’t Play Along Anymore [QT]

Annie’s father was instantly wide awake.

He squatted down, eyes wide, carefully examining that little round bump, his gaze shifting from doubt to shock to disbelief.

After a long moment, he abruptly exited the livestream and began searching the net for every growth stage of a gardenia.

W-why does it look so much like a bud?

He studied a while longer, then re-entered the stream, crouching by that patch of gardenias to continue observing.

Sure enough, not just one—he counted dozens of suspicious little buds in that flower bed.

Annie’s father took a deep breath and moved forward to check the others. But strangely, apart from this patch, he walked several hundred meters, inspecting each plant carefully, yet saw nothing resembling a bud.

Confused, he wondered: what’s going on here? If these really are buds, then why does only this patch have them, while the others—planted at the same time—don’t? Could there really be a difference?

As he puzzled over it, his expression froze.

Quickly, he tapped twice on the virtual screen before him and replayed yesterday’s livestream.

This particular patch—Mu Xing had planted it himself with a small spade!

Mu Xing planted it, and buds appeared.

The ones planted by his family and the robots showed no change at all.

Annie’s father stared blankly: could this streamer really have some sort of magic?

Suddenly wide awake, he skipped breakfast, rushed to the forums, typed furiously, and posted:

Thread starter: Bored this morning, I checked Iya livestream. Look what I found! Suspected gardenia buds! [pic] [pic] [pic]

2F: OP here. I spent over an hour observing carefully. In the patch Mu Xing planted himself, there are 56 suspected buds. The craziest part? We all watched the stream—the exact same seedlings planted by his family and robots are totally bare! [pic] [pic] [pic]

3F: Calling it now, this post is going viral. Bookmarking.

4F: Morning? I just got off work—bet OP is in the Huading system?

5F: Real or fake? Those things buds? Could just be leaves.

…

11F: Whoa, seriously? Buds overnight? That’s insane speed. Didn’t he sneak them in?

12F: Buds or not, accusing him is a reach. Iya’s stream is 24/7, billions of viewers watching. Let’s see you “sneak something in.”

370F: I went and checked! Came back! OP, you miscounted—it’s clearly 60 buds!

…

11380F: OP only counted earlier, why are so many chiming in? You miscounted too. It’s 61 now.

12222F: I counted 61 as well. Honest question: are these buds… growing in real time?

…

23822F: I already DM’d several big flower experts. Goddess Fu Yunrong was first to reply—she says they really do look like buds!

29999F: Whoa!!

…

82223F: No way… they really can bloom? I trashed the streamer a few days ago.

…

That morning, when Mu Xing came out of his room, he was greeted by three pairs of shining eyes.

He froze, casually asking, “What’s the good news? Why’s everyone so happy?”

Mu Rongrong looked at him as if seeing a miracle, clicking her tongue in wonder. “Lately I keep asking myself, how did someone useless like me give birth to a son like you? There’s no such gene in the Mu family.”

Mu Yue nodded solemnly. “Xing, in our family you’re practically a mutation.”

Mu Xing: ?

“Speak properly.” He frowned. “What’s going on?”

“A huge deal!” Mu Yue excitedly pulled him outside, straight to yesterday’s flower bed.

“Look carefully. Notice anything different?”

Mu Xing immediately saw the new growths and smiled. “So soon? The buds are out.”

Mu Yue, who had been waiting forever, deflated. “That’s it?”

Mu Xing asked in confusion, “What do you mean, that’s it?”

Mu Yue gaped at him. “The gardenias are going to bloom! So many! And you’re not thrilled? Not excited?”

“I’m happy,” Mu Xing replied calmly.

Mu Yue: …

She suddenly lost steam, muttering, “Yeah, guess I shouldn’t compare a bigshot like you to us ordinary folks.”

She crouched down, gazing at the flower bed with starry-eyed devotion. “Almost seventy buds here. Seventy gardenias. I hear they smell amazing—I’ve never even smelled one.”

Clutching her chest, she whispered, “I just realized, even though we left the Mu family, we’ve become ultra-rich again.”

Mu Rongrong cupped her face, already grinning foolishly. “Across the entire galaxy, who else could have a courtyard draped in roses and a gardenia patch ready to bloom?”

*

Mu Xing crouched too, looking at the little bed.

Softly, he called, “Mai Mai? Mao Mao?”

Two gardenias glowed faintly green. From the leaves, tiny winged Iya folk flew out.

Mu Yue didn’t hear what he said, so she turned back, puzzled. “Hm?”

Mu Xing smiled and said, “Nothing. I was just thinking, with my little garden blooming so fast, maybe there are little fairies secretly helping me. So I tried calling out.”

See, didn’t that just summon two cute little fairies?

Mu Yue couldn’t see the Iya folk, and she didn’t take Mu Xing’s words seriously.

She laughed and said, “You’re always like a child who hasn’t grown up, believing in these baseless fairy tales.”

Mu Xing looked at the Iya perched on his shoulder and shook his head. “Why say baseless? What if they really do exist?”

Mu Yue denied it. “Impossible. If another race really existed, with humanity’s level of technology, there’s no way not a trace would have been found after all these years.”

Mu Xing chuckled. “Humans are always this arrogant.”

Mao Mao was already humming his displeasure in his ear.

Mu Xing asked with his mind, “This little garden blooming so fast, that’s your doing, isn’t it?”

Mao Mao said proudly, “Of course! Mai Mai and I saw those people talking about you. Hmph, if you hadn’t said not to make it too exaggerated, I could’ve made all the flowers bloom last night.”

He was even a little impatient. “Quick, go into the livestream! I want to see those hateful humans apologize to you!”

Mai Mai also flapped her little wings, softly chanting in his mind, “Apologize! Apologize!”

Mu Xing opened the livestream.

The real-time online count flashed across his eyes.

Then the constant stream of glowing rewards kept dazzling him.

He was astonished. “So many people?”

He hadn’t realized that several hours had already passed since Annie’s father discovered the gardenia buds.

The Starnet had already cycled through multiple rounds of discussion. From five hours ago onward, the gardenias in the Iya livestream had been sitting at the very top of the interstellar trending list, never dropping once.

The moment Mu Xing entered the livestream, the glowing reward effects burst even brighter.

Accompanying it was a full screen of unified messages:

[Daddy!]

Mu Xing: “…”

[I was wrong, I shouldn’t have doubted the big shot who can grow miracle roses.]

[I’ve been camping in this livestream. I’ve never experienced this before, watching a flower go from bud to bloom.]

[Streamer daddy, how long does it take for gardenias to blossom? I’m so curious!]

[I can’t stand this new trend on Starnet, where everyone just calls people daddy. Don’t you know this puts the streamer in a tough spot? Not me though, I’m different. I call him Ancestor! Ancestor, look at my kneeling posture, isn’t it proper?]

[I don’t care, I’m just moving in here!]

[Question: Why is it that among all these gardenias, only the ones you planted have grown buds?]

[Sending a reward to apologize. I cursed you yesterday. Now it’s proven—I’m the real idiot.]

[Rewarding to support the big shot. But still, I want to ask, what’s your secret to growing flowers? I’ve rewatched your livestream replay many times, but honestly, I didn’t notice anything unusual. You just planted them, and then they bloomed.]

…

Most people were asking about his secret.

But that was exactly the thing Mu Xing had no way to answer.

It wasn’t that the plants had a problem—it was that the Iya folk rejected the Earthlings who had taken over their homeland and refused to let the plants bloom.

As for why the little Iya liked him, Mu Xing still hadn’t figured it out.

He had asked Mai Mai and Mao Mao.

They just said they liked him the moment they saw him, thought Xing Xing was cute, thought his scent was pleasant, completely different from other humans.

It was a very subjective answer.

Mu Xing guessed maybe it was because he had reincarnated several times, his soul tempered by spiritual energy, making him different from ordinary people.

He replied, “There’s no secret. I’ve liked plants and animals since I was young, and I can feel that they like me too. That’s probably why growing flowers is easier for me than for most.”

[That… you basically said nothing.]

[Translation: What the big shot means is—no secret, it’s innate talent, you can’t learn it.]

[I actually think he isn’t lying. I’ve watched the livestream long enough, and I really haven’t seen him do anything special. He just plants, and the flowers bloom. An ordinary miracle.]

[So growing flowers is… metaphysics, huh?]

[Alright, I’m placing an order right now for gardenias and a few other flowers. I’ll try raising them casually too—maybe they’ll bloom.]

[Order placed +1]

…

All the plant sellers instantly rejoiced. Their orders surged so much that they couldn’t keep up with supply.

Some who knew how to show gratitude even sent part of their seedlings as thanks to Red Moon Star.

Many viewers weren’t exaggerating when they said they were practically living in the livestream.

Except for eating, sleeping, and working, all their free time was spent staring at the little buds, recording data. Any tiny change sparked another round of heated discussions on the forums.

A lot of people even dreamed about the buds blooming.

Many joked they had never been this nervous or excited even raising their own children.

The one actually involved was much calmer than all of them. Mu Xing just came to check daily during the livestream. The robots steadily built the park. The roses in the yard dropped another layer of petals.

By the time the first bud grew as long as a child’s palm and was about to unfurl its first petal, the park’s outline was already complete. And the gardenias planted by the robots were finally beginning to sprout their own buds.

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