Half an hour later.
As soon as Xu An entered the house, Gou Dan rushed towards her, his warm tongue licking Xu An's arm as he wagged his tail. The anxiety in her heart was finally slightly relieved.
She looked at the figure busy in the kitchen, smelling the aroma of the food, and for the first time, she had no appetite.
“You’re back, go wash your hands and eat.”
“Mom……”
As if sensing that Xu An's emotions were not right, Xu Yan put down what she was doing and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“The flood is coming…”
“Ah?! Then… then there are still so many people outside who haven’t come up…”
“The lighthouse has issued a mandatory ascent order, and the crowd at the entrance… rioted…”
“Rioted? Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. Just as the disturbance happened, Qin Chuan brought the troops over, and they were suppressed in a short while.”
Before they could say more than a few words, Xu An felt the ground beneath her feet tremble violently. The water cups on the table swayed, as if in an earthquake.
The sound from a distance was deafening, piercing the clouds.
They hurried to the balcony to watch, and indeed, the scene before their eyes was slowly sinking.
“Hold on tight!” Xu An urged.
Xu Yan nodded, and they tightly gripped the railing on the balcony. Before long, a sense of weightlessness swept over their bodies.
The lighthouse began to ascend…
Xu An's expression was somewhat solemn. The lighthouse was moving so fast, it must be that the flood was imminent.
In rooms where no one was usually seen, quite a few heads popped out in unison.
Everyone was curiously peeking out, looking at the grand spectacle of the lighthouse ascending.
As the lighthouse continued to rise, the violent shaking gradually subsided. Xu An could not see the outside, and she did not know how high they had risen.
Looking out, she felt that the surroundings of the lighthouse were enveloped in clouds, giving her an unreal feeling.
Xu An pulled her mother back into the room, drew the curtains to block the prying eyes, and sat on the sofa.
“Worrying is useless, let’s eat first.” Xu Yan forced a cheerful tone, bringing out the dishes.
The violent shaking during the ascent caused the freshly stewed soup to spill everywhere, splattering onto the kitchen counter.
She took a rag to wipe it, then brought out the three dishes and one soup, placing them on the dining table.
“Eat quickly, it’ll get cold. I made the pork rib soup you like.”
Xu Yan thought for a moment and continued, “Are the ID cards all done?”
“Yes, two thousand in total. The intermediary took 600, and 1400 arrived.”
“Also… the message is out. The mastermind behind it is that woman you argued with at the lighthouse entrance that day.” Xu An’s tone turned cold.
This woman must not be kept alive, but she couldn’t make a move against her on the lighthouse. She had to find a way to make that woman voluntarily leave the lighthouse so she could act.
“It’s her? Is this woman crazy? I only said a few words to her, and she actually wants to find someone to kill us?”
“That woman, at a glance, is someone who is used to bossing people around. Now that she encounters the slightest bit of dissatisfaction, she wants to kill others.”
Xu Yan looked at her daughter's confident demeanor, knowing that she already had a plan, and didn't ask any further questions.
After finishing the meal and tidying up, Xu An said goodbye to her mother and entered the space.
Xu An walked into the space. The butterfly she had unexpectedly acquired last time hovered around the space tree, and the branches of the red scale powder tree shimmered with starlight.
“It seems to have grown a little more,” Xu An concluded as she circled the space tree. The butterfly fluttered and finally landed on Xu An’s shoulder, as if it were acting spoiled.
Xu An extended her fingertip, teasing the little creature, “I just don’t know what kind of butterfly you are, or what the purpose of that tree is.”
As soon as Xu An finished speaking, the tree seemed to have gained sentience, and the two green leaves on its branches trembled excitedly, as if responding to Xu An.
She leaned closer and found that at the tip of a branch, hidden by the leaves, a small pink bud had emerged.
“Your old tree can still bloom?”
Then, the branches and leaves trembled even more frantically, as if protesting, that it was not an old tree.
Xu An had an indescribable strange feeling, as if the tree in front of her had consciousness.
Xu An’s eyes flashed. She would deal with the confusing matters later.
With a thought, she appeared in the vast farmland, and then, seeds of various grains appeared at Xu An's feet.
Xu An took out the hoe she had prepared, rolled up her trouser legs, bent down, and began to hoe the land diligently…
After she had completely finished her work, Xu An emerged from the space only to find that it was already ten o'clock in the evening.
Xu Yan had already fallen asleep.
She had casually eaten something in the space earlier and wasn't very hungry now. Gou Dan was lying on the sofa, and upon seeing Xu An, he changed his position and continued to sleep.
Xu An found that Gou Dan never seemed surprised by her sudden disappearance and reappearance, as if it were normal.
She rubbed Gou Dan's little belly and returned to her room to sleep.
…
Since the lighthouse ascended, apart from the sowing that kept Xu An busy, they had enjoyed a rare period of peace.
Every day, they followed their routine of training, sowing, and reading. When they had nothing to do, they would take Gou Dan out for a walk.
If it weren't for the boundless clouds visible from the balcony, Xu An would have almost thought she was back before the apocalypse.
The only good news was that the small bok choy Xu An had planted matured in just half a month, and the various grains, rice paddies, corn… etc., had all begun to sprout.
Xu Yan praised repeatedly as she looked at the bok choy Xu An brought out, “This bok choy is so fresh and tender.”
“It should have just been picked from the soil.”
Xu An herself felt that the vegetables grown in this space were very different from the ones she had stockpiled in her space before, both in color and size, they were much better.
“Then let’s have stir-fried bok choy today.”
Xu An smiled and nodded, preparing to take a shower. She had just come out of the space and was covered in dirt.
The days passed by like this.
The couple next door still occasionally argued and fought, adding some excitement to the boring lives of their neighbors.
Building 234 had an owner’s group chat, but most of the residents here were native inhabitants. Xu An came late and disliked socializing, so no one added her to the group.
Because of this, Xu An was completely unaware of the gossip in the building.
She didn’t know that in the residents’ group chat, everyone had started a betting pool, gambling on how long the couple next door to Xu An’s family would last before they divorced.