Upon hearing this, Xu Yan did not object. She was also tired. The events of the day had been too much, leaving her no time to process them, only to digest them internally.
Xu An took a small wooden table and two small stools from her space.
They hadn't had a proper meal together in a long time, but as they were in the wilderness, Xu An didn't want to make things too complicated. She simply took out the pre-cooked food they had prepared earlier.
She brought out two bowls of steaming hot *saozi mian* (minced meat noodles), along with a few refreshing cold dishes, some fruits, and beverages.
She also prepared Dogdan's dog food, mixing it with goat's milk, and took out a few apples and canned food for his extra meal.
The noodles were made by Xu Yan before the apocalypse, and the minced meat topping was also stir-fried by her. The noodles, fresh out of the pot, were served in bowls, drizzled with a large ladle of topping, and then placed in the space while still hot. Now, when she wanted to eat them, she could just take them out.
They tasted exactly as if they had just been made.
“You mentioned on the way here that something was attracting the space tree?” Xu Yan asked Xu An as she ate her noodles.
“Mhm, I’m not entirely sure about the specifics. We’ll see as we go. The tree would react when I encountered luminous mushrooms, but this time the movement was very slight. I don’t know if it’s mushrooms,” Xu An replied.
Xu Yan had witnessed firsthand the absorption of mushrooms by Xu An.
However, after asking, she learned that apart from accelerating the space's functional upgrade, absorbing the mushrooms didn't seem to have any other effect.
Xu An had only encountered two mushrooms on her journey. She had checked in her space earlier, and the tree seemed to have grown a little taller.
“Once this stabilizes, I can start planting in the space.”
The spirit soil area could have been used much earlier, but Xu An had been constantly busy on their journey, which had caused delays.
“That’s great! But how do you plant those seeds? Do you just scatter them in?” Xu Yan asked curiously.
Mentioning this, Xu An’s face darkened slightly as she explained.
“No, it’s real ‘farming’.”
“Ah?”
“It requires plowing, tilling, sowing, fertilizing, and watering.”
If it weren't for the fact that planting time in the space was shortened, it would be no different from farming in the outside world.
After hearing this, Xu Yan was also speechless. No wonder Xu An hadn't mentioned planting anything along the way. She had thought it was just scattering seeds, what difficulty could that be?
After eating their fill, Xu An put everything back into her space and then brought out the RV.
“I think it’s relatively safe here. Let’s sleep here tonight,” Xu An suggested.
Xu Yan nodded and got into the RV first, starting to look for a rag to clean. In reality, there was no dust in the space; she just treated it as exercise to aid digestion.
Xu An left the hunting rifle for her mother and then took Dogdan to patrol the surroundings.
When she had walked a few hundred meters and felt it was time to return, a flash of red suddenly caught her eye. She was inexplicably drawn to it, and even the space tree emitted a subtle tremor.
Curious, Xu An led Dogdan in the direction where the red flash had disappeared.
…
“Woof woof woof woof!!!!”
…
Dogdan’s urgent barking pulled Xu An back from her daze. She looked at Dogdan, who was biting at her pant leg and tugging at her, appearing bewildered.
She then looked at a high slope not far ahead. The slope was not low, and the bottom was covered in jagged rocks. If it weren’t for Dogdan just now, she would have likely fallen from here, ending up at least severely injured, if not dead.
A chill spread from the soles of her feet up her spine. She had no recollection of how she had ended up here.
At this moment, a red butterfly, about 10-15 centimeters long, suddenly appeared before her eyes.
In the darkness, it looked eerily enchanting.
As it flew, countless scales fell from its ruby-like wings, creating streaks of red light under the moonlight.
Xu An turned to comfort Dogdan. Seeing that Xu An had regained her senses, Dogdan stopped barking frantically.
As Dogdan quieted down, the butterfly, as if it had gained sentience, tried to approach Xu An.
As if summoned by some magic, she inexplicably opened her palm.
The next second, the beautiful and fragile butterfly slowly approached her palm, as if testing whether Xu An would harm it.
Finally, it gently landed on Xu An’s fingertip.
Xu An looked at the butterfly in front of her with astonishment. She wasn't sure if everything that had just happened was its doing, but the butterfly was too beautiful.
She felt reluctant to kill it.
She didn't know what species of butterfly this was. Even with the highly developed internet before the apocalypse, a time of massive information explosion, she had never seen a butterfly as red as a ruby.
“Could it be a mutant?” Xu An murmured, examining the butterfly in her hand.
Dogdan, however, seemed to be filled with hostility towards the butterfly. He panted heavily, bared his teeth, and vigilantly stared at the butterfly in Xu An’s hand, ready to pounce and kill it at any moment.
Just as Xu An was struggling with how to deal with the butterfly, her space made the decision for her.
The butterfly disappeared directly from Xu An’s fingertip and reappeared in the space the next second.
Xu An followed it into the space, only to find that the butterfly was not only alive but was dancing around the space tree incessantly, appearing very pleased.
The scales it shed fell onto the branches, emitting a faint red glow.
Seeing that the butterfly seemed to have no adverse effects, Xu An paid it no mind and let it stay in the space.
She then took Dogdan back and got into the RV.
“Where did you go? Why did it take so long? I was almost going to look for you.”
“I picked up a red butterfly on the way, which caused a slight delay.”
“A red butterfly? Are there red butterflies? No, are there even butterflies anymore?” Xu Yan asked a string of questions.
Xu An spread her hands, indicating she didn’t know. “Let me get it out for you to see.”
Saying this, she reached into her space to catch the butterfly. However, the butterfly had been out for less than three seconds before it quickly disappeared from her fingertip.
Before it vanished, its wings clearly trembled, as if it were afraid of something.
“Did you put it back?”
Xu An shook her head. “No! It… it seemed to go back on its own.”
The two fell silent, both seeing shock in each other’s eyes.
The space was controlled by Xu An’s consciousness, but she had given no command. For this butterfly to be able to enter and exit the space freely, there was only one possibility.
Was the space actively accepting this butterfly?
Why?
And also, the moment the butterfly appeared earlier, it was clearly afraid. Afraid of what?
Xu An looked at the bright light overhead, recalling the deep forest they had just passed. Was it afraid of light?
“This butterfly… it won’t cause any harm, will it?” Although it was only for a moment, Xu Yan had still seen this dazzling butterfly. Pretty as it was, it was truly bizarre.
“Probably… not…” Xu An recalled her brief loss of consciousness, and her words came out with a hint of guilt.