Chapter 49: Breadfruit Tree
Early the next morning, Mibao woke up.
Because she wanted to use her points to exchange for some food, she was also trying to think of what excuse she could use to make it sound reasonable.
She began browsing the tasty things in the system’s mall.
There were soup dumplings, vegetable buns, shumai, little cakes…
As she scrolled through, Mibao started swallowing her saliva.
She really wanted to eat…
But she couldn’t possibly forage any of those…
Books wouldn’t grow buns on them, right?
Mibao scratched her head.
So what should she buy…
Huh, she remembered seeing on TV once a kind of tree called a “breadfruit tree.” Didn’t that tree grow bread on it?
Thinking of this, Mibao tiptoed up, then carefully and cautiously walked out of the cave.
At the cave entrance she picked and chose, then exchanged for three big loaves of bread.
Mm… this should be enough to eat.
And while Mibao was choosing, Chaoyang and Ye Duo also woke up.
When they saw Mibao wasn’t there, both of them were instantly startled.
“Where’s Mibao?”
Chaoyang and Ye Duo looked at each other. Maybe it was because they had just woken up, but their brains were still a bit foggy.
But the one who got the biggest scare was Xiao Hei.
“Meow-ow!”
[What the heck! Where is she?]
Xiao Hei was nearly scared to death.
It was so dangerous outside—why was the host running around blindly!
If the host got killed, he’d be locked up again!
Anxious to the point his whole body was trembling, the cat started rushing outside. But just as he reached the cave entrance, Mibao came huffing and puffing back.
“Brother Chaoyang, Sister Ye Duo, I’m back!”
Mibao’s eyes sparkled as she proudly held out the bread in her arms like a precious treasure.
“Look! I found a breadfruit tree outside and picked three big loaves of bread!”
To make it more convincing, Mibao had even torn off the plastic packaging and thrown it away, returning with just the bare loaves in her arms.
She was so clever!
Of course trees wouldn’t grow plastic bags.
Chaoyang and Ye Duo stared at the three fragrant, steaming loaves in Mibao’s arms, completely dumbfounded.
Although… but still…
Ye Duo had heard of breadfruit trees before, but she knew they didn’t actually grow bread!
This was just way too far-fetched…
How was she supposed to go along with this?
The key problem was that Chaoyang wasn’t an ordinary child—he wouldn’t be so easy to fool.
“Ah-haha… Mibao, you’re so, so amazing. What incredible luck.”
While Ye Duo was still fretting over what excuse to make up, a stammering voice came from beside her.
“You’re really smart… to have found a breadfruit tree. They’re really hard to come across.”
Ye Duo: …?
She turned her head toward Chaoyang, her face full of question marks.
What the heck?
Chaoyang also turned his head to look at her.
The moment their gazes met, Ye Duo understood.
Chaoyang… had already figured it out!
Of course—she should have realized sooner.
Chaoyang was so sharp. He must have noticed yesterday’s cake wasn’t right but had chosen not to expose it.
So Ye Duo took a deep breath, turned back toward Mibao, and showed an encouraging smile.
“Yes, Mibao, you’re amazing!”
Hearing the two of them praise her, Mibao instantly let out a sigh of relief.
Phew~
Good thing they didn’t get suspicious.
She was amazing!
Happily, Mibao divided up the bread.
“Yeah, yeah! It took me so much effort! Hurry and eat, it smells so good.”
So the three children started gnawing on the bread for breakfast.
Off to the side, Xiao Hei, who had been watching the whole time, slowly had a question mark pop up over his head.
…Was he the one who’d gone stupid, or had the people of this world collectively lost brain cells?
Even if kids didn’t have much common sense and thought a breadfruit tree grew bread, how the heck could it possibly produce pork floss nut bread!
[Don’t talk too much.]
Xiaonian’s voice suddenly sounded in his ears.
It was a private chat with Xiao Hei—Mibao couldn’t hear it.
So Xiao Hei opened a private chat too:
[No, but seriously, this is way too ridiculous! You’re sure that aside from the apocalypse, human IQ hasn’t actually dropped?]
He used to love reading those kinds of novels—stuff like The world’s collective IQ dropped by 500 times, but mine didn’t; or Global prices fell a thousand times, but mine stayed the same…
He strongly suspected the IQ of the people in this world had plummeted!
Xiaonian: [……]
Had this dumb system read too many IQ-dropping novels and ended up losing IQ itself?
[Those two kids know. They’re just acting.]
Xiaonian was speechless.
Xiao Hei blinked: [Ah? So that’s it? Hah~ I scared myself for nothing~]
But why though?
If everyone already knew, then why sneak around? Wouldn’t it be better to just put everything on the table and talk openly? That way, his little host wouldn’t have to secretly exchange food anymore.
[You don’t understand.]
Xiaonian’s expression was blank.
Xiao Hei: [ … ]
He felt like he’d just been looked down on.
Ten minutes later, after finishing the bread, the three of them prepared to leave the cave.
They couldn’t stay here forever, and they couldn’t rely on Mibao’s food forever either.
Chaoyang knew that for Mibao to bring out food, there had to be a price. After all, Mibao’s alien “big brother” had also made her do tasks.
Meanwhile, Ye Duo remembered that in the anime she’d seen, even though magical pets would bring things to their masters, they also needed their masters to feed and support them. If the support wasn’t timely, the pets would drain their master’s life force instead.
Handled poorly, it could backfire!
So—they had to leave.
They needed to find a way out of this forest and regroup with the others.
“I wonder how Sister Chaolu and the others are doing…”
As Chaoyang and Ye Duo each held one of Mibao’s hands and led her forward, Mibao couldn’t help muttering.
…
…
Chaolu felt that things were not looking good.
Very not good.
Yesterday, because of the giant bees’ sudden “visit,” she, Zhu Dafu, and Qian Suiyou had scattered while running away.
Fortunately, Zhu Dafu had stuck close to her, so when they reached the forest behind the school, the two of them were still together. But Qian Suiyou—no one knew where he’d gone.
They had also jumped into the river, but unlike the others, after Mibao and Zhu Dafu leapt down, they were quickly blocked by a large rock, so the current didn’t carry them away.
The bees feared water, so when they saw their prey drop into the river, they were disappointed and flew off.
After that, Chaolu and Zhu Dafu climbed up onto the bank.
“Whew…” Zhu Dafu rubbed his hands together, shivering. “That scared me to death!”
Then he looked around and froze in shock. “Why is it just us left?”
Where were the others?
Where was his wife?
“They should’ve jumped into the river too.” Zhaolu copied Chaoyang’s habit of stroking his chin as she thought. “Anyone who didn’t jump in is probably dead.”
After all, those bees were no joke.
“Huh? Then my wife…” Zhu Dafu immediately grew anxious about Zhao Xuehua. “Chaolu, now that the bees are gone, I want to go look for Xuehua.”
Zhaolu paused. “You want to go back? Even if the bees left for now, they won’t be far. If you go back now, you’re asking to die!”
“But…”
“We’ll follow the river downstream. If they’re still alive, we’re bound to run into them!”
Zhu Dafu thought that made sense, so he nodded and followed her along the riverbank.
As they walked…
They did indeed run into someone familiar.
But what they found—was a corpse.
