When Ruan Shu saw the price, she wondered if her eyes were playing tricks on her.
She glanced at the plant online, then looked at the one in her room. It wasn’t just similar—it was identical.
Ruan Shu was dumbfounded. How could the plant her older brother gifted her be so expensive?
It wasn’t until she did some research that she understood the issue.
In this world, the land was heavily polluted—once again, due to that infamous X pollution source.
Delicate plants couldn’t survive in the soil, and vegetables, among other things, were considered particularly fragile. Especially ornamental plants like this one, which, while beautiful, had no practical use.
There was a dark period in interstellar history when many races starved or went mad due to X material pollution.
Eventually, people managed to extract consumable, absorbable substances from mutated plants, which helped them endure those chaotic times.
Mutated plants were a byproduct of X pollution, and they became the hope for survival across all races in the universe.
But these mutated plants had a peculiar trait—they attacked anything in sight, whether powerful or weak, civilian or noble. Even the emperors of various races were treated no differently.
Obtaining resources from mutated plants was, therefore, no easy feat.
There was also a strange phenomenon: other plants grew better in places where mutated plants existed.
However, mutated plants were incredibly rare.
No one paid much attention initially, but as the universe’s races gradually emerged from the dark age and grew stronger, they began to cultivate vegetables using purification agents extracted from mutated plants. Yet, cultivating vibrant flowers remained nearly impossible, and it became evident that almost all bright-colored flora had nearly gone extinct.
Scarcity breeds value, and in this prosperous era, a single vibrant flower could fetch a high price at auction.
Yet, even now, the supply of flowers was meager. Every time one appeared, it would spark fierce bidding.
After seeing the price, Ruan Shu became even more attentive to caring for her Star Cluster plant. She even looked up a ton of information online about caring for it.
Thankfully, the plant was blooming beautifully. She just hoped she wouldn’t accidentally kill it.
After all, it was worth twenty million!
This newfound knowledge also made her conflicted about the sprouting plant in her little pot.
“Are you guys… just weeds?”
She highly doubted she could grow anything rare. Though the seeds she’d bought online were labeled as “plants,” she suspected she’d been duped.
Grass was incredibly hardy—the only plant in the universe that thrived in X-polluted soil. Other plants, like trees and vines, only grew within the territory of mutated plants.
It was as though the mutated plants absorbed some of the X pollutants from the soil, enabling ordinary plants to grow in the remaining space.
Given that hers grew independently, they probably weren’t anything special.
But she’d been nurturing them for so long, so she decided to continue.
Ruan Shu didn’t dwell on it. After setting the little pot aside, she went online and bought some treated fine vines to make woven vine balls for her own enjoyment.
The vine balls were beautiful and lightweight, and they seemed to be a thing of the past.
There were plenty of other types of toy balls, but after looking around, Ruan Shu noticed a common feature in most of them: they were sturdy and heavy, unsuitable for her tiny ragdoll kitty self.
After all, any ball that wasn’t tough or weighted would be a single-use item for star beast cubs.
She decided to make her own toy instead.
Sitting on a small stool, Ruan Shu carefully crafted a lovely vine ball and then, unable to wait, transformed into her cat form to play with it.
Cats naturally loved these kinds of toys, and Ruan Shu couldn’t resist the urge any longer after seeing others play with similar ones on the internet and on TV. Now, she could finally indulge herself!
The lawn in the Ruan family estate was huge, providing ample space for her to play!
She was so immersed in her game that, before she knew it, she had wandered far from the villa. Xiaomi, who had been playing ball with her, accidentally kicked the ball beyond the wall.
Ruan Shu: “…”
Xiaomi hurried over, saying, “Sorry, Shushu, I used too much force.”
“Meow meow meow…”
It’s okay; they just needed to retrieve it.
But she couldn’t jump over the wall, and going around would take a long detour.
Ruan Shu, who was beginning to feel a bit tired, stuck out her tongue. She’d take a little rest before going to fetch it.
However, it seemed like there was another estate on the other side of the wall, adjacent to her father’s estate. If she went over there, would it count as trespassing?
Maybe she should just let that ball go and make another one.
“Shushu, there’s a hole here,” Xiaomi’s voice suddenly chimed in, prompting Ruan Shu to flick her fluffy tail and trot over.
She parted the grass and saw there really was a hole.
But it definitely wasn’t a dog hole—no dog could squeeze through such a small space.
It did, however, look just the right size for her to slip through.
Ruan Shu crouched by the hole, hesitating, “Meow meow meow…”
Maybe she shouldn’t go after all.
Xiaomi looked at her and asked, “Are you going to leave your ball behind, Shushu?”
Ruan Shu peeked through the hole and spotted her ball on the other side.
The other side was also a lawn, with the vague silhouette of a villa in the distance, partially hidden by a bamboo grove.
It didn’t seem like anyone would come over here. Maybe… maybe she could just grab her ball and hurry back?
After a couple of seconds of indecision, Ruan Shu gingerly stepped forward. She only had to lower her head slightly to wriggle through.
Feeling a little nervous, she had an unmistakable sense of sneaking into someone else’s property, like a guilty thief.
Ruan Shu practically scampered over to her vine ball, nudged it with her paws, and prepared to head back the way she came.
Suddenly, an enormous shadow fell from the sky. Ruan Shu barely had time to glance up before a massive creature landed right in front of her.
It was… bigger than her father. Completely covered in tough black scales, with a thick tail that blocked the small hole she had crawled through.
When it landed, the ground shook so much that Ruan Shu even bounced a little from the impact.
She stiffly raised her head and met a pair of golden eyes, larger than lanterns, staring directly at her.
Ruan Shu: “!!!”
She wasn’t just scared—she was so terrified that she fainted on the spot!
The little white ragdoll cat only managed a single look at the terrifying creature before her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed backward.
Almer: “…”
He quickly transformed back into his human form and walked over, gently picking up the unconscious little cat from the ground.
He had only recently moved into the estate, and Ruan Shu’s arrival had been immediately detected by the estate’s heat-sensing surveillance system.
He’d planned on making a dramatic and impressive entrance. It turned out to be impressive, all right—but impressive enough to frighten this tiny thing into passing out.
Just one look at her eyes had been enough for Almer to confirm that this little, soft star beast was indeed Ruan Shu.
After all, he’d never seen anyone else with such pure, clear blue eyes.
“So small… and so timid,” he muttered, both amused and slightly guilty.
Seeing her faint from fright left him feeling a mix of amusement and remorse.