Chapter 290: Magic Blessing
Chapter 290: Magic Blessing
Sitting in the bathtub, Anran idly plays with the white foam in her hands. When she hears Zhan Lian’s words, she smiles, nods, and calls out, "Okay, then I'll wait."
The outside world is indeed unsafe, and she understands that well enough. The biggest issue between her and her ex-husband now isn’t just their estrangement—it’s the unfamiliarity between them, a distance that feels as though it has lasted a lifetime.
But more than that, Yun Tao’s safety matters most. Now that Zhan Lian is willing to take her to see Yun Tao, she is willing to wait. There is no point in arguing or making a fuss.
Because arguing and making a fuss are useless against Zhan Lian.
After a while, the outside falls silent. Anran figures Zhan Lian has left, so she carefully finishes washing herself from head to toe, even washing her hair. She yawns, dries off, and puts on the clean clothes he left for her.
Feeling refreshed, she steps out of the bathroom and, as expected, finds that Zhan Lian is no longer there. At the doorway, two large plastic water jugs, the kind used for bottled mineral water, sit neatly—clearly meant for bathing Doll.
Anran returns to the dormitory and pushes the door open.
Inside, Little Mint has woken up and is busy assembling the wind chime that Zhan Lian left unfinished. In the middle of the wind chime is a small sun that will play music once a battery is installed. Little Mint carefully hangs the sun from a pink stand positioned right over Doll’s crib.
Around the sun, the other dangling ornaments—clouds, winged unicorns, and more—sway gently in the air.
The baby has been awake for a while, lying in the crib, waving tiny hands and kicking chubby legs, staring up at the sun above with wide, curious eyes.
"Go take a bath first," Anran says, picking up Doll from the crib. "We’ll finish it when we get back."
She takes Little Mint’s hand and leads both children to the bathroom.
But the moment she steps inside, she hesitates. The water in the bathtub has turned murky after just her bath, yet it feels like such a waste to simply pour it out.
What should she do?
Anran thinks for a moment. Determined not to waste a single drop of water, she suddenly has an idea. She hurries outside, plucks a leaf from a creeping vine growing along the dormitory wall, then returns to the bathroom and tosses it into the bathtub.
Activating her ability, she watches as the vine leaf rapidly takes root and begins to grow, its branches and tendrils spreading quickly, climbing up the walls and curling along the ceiling.
She has never tried activating her ability this way before. Usually, when she uses her powers to accelerate plant growth, she has to rely on soil or an existing plant to start with. If she tries to generate a plant out of thin air, it rarely grows large or lush.
But now, something is different.
As she watches the vine flourish in the water, Anran suddenly realizes something significant—her ability is somehow enhanced when she activates it in water. In the past, using her power to grow plants would completely drain one slot of her energy, but now, submerged in water, it only takes half as much.
Does this mean her ability functions the same way as natural plants? Does it also require sunlight, water, and soil to truly thrive?
When all the right conditions are met, her plants are no longer just floating, rootless things. They are being blessed by something—something like magic.
And when her plants consume zombies and humans… is it the same principle? The blood and flesh of the dead act as nutrients, just like soil does for normal plants.
Anran stares at the ivy now draping over the bathtub, transforming the once stark white tub into something that looks like it belongs deep in a forest.
Shaking off her thoughts, she adjusts Doll in her arms and works with Little Mint to clear the overgrown vines from the bathtub. Then, she pours the two buckets of clean water inside and lets Little Mint step in to take a bath.