Chapter 71: Waking Up to a Surprise—Suddenly a Mom!

That leaf looked like it had a tiny radar installed. After standing upright at the edge of the blanket, it glanced around alertly.

Soon, a slender vine as long as a wrist and another leaf stretched out as well.

Then, a fist-sized man-eating flower with a mouthful of sharp, jagged teeth crawled out from under the blanket.

It perched by Jiang Yan’s bedside, its shiny black eyes darting around as it surveyed the room and took a look at the still-sleeping Jiang Yan. Then, it reached out a vine to gently pull the blanket up, covering the part of her back that was exposed. After that, it gave a soft “biu” and hopped lightly off the bed.

There was no night in the space—sunlight shone brightly twenty-four hours a day—so whenever Jiang Yan slept, she not only closed the curtains but also shut the door.

The man-eating flower poked its head out and peered at the crack beneath the door. With a “whoosh,” it flattened itself like a sheet of paper and slipped out through the gap.

Gazing at the spacious, well-lit living room outside, the man-eating flower instantly became excited.

The two leaves on its slender vine began to wave around in delight.

“Jie jie jie~”

It instinctively stuck out its crimson tongue and licked its uneven sharp teeth, then closed its little eyes and sniffed the air all around.

Suddenly, its head froze in a certain direction.

Its mouthful of jagged teeth curved up into a hungry grin, and the ravenous flower’s eyes snapped open.

Its eyes sparkled, and the two leaves bent down to form legs. “Biu, biu, biu”—it tiptoed across the floor toward a finely carved golden nanmu wood cabinet in the corner of the living room.

Stopping in front of the cabinet, it cautiously glanced back at the bedroom to make sure the person inside was still asleep. Only then did it stretch out a leaf and curl it around the drawer handle.

Since Jiang Yan was the only one in her space, she didn’t bother locking up any valuables.

The cabinet was slowly pulled open.

A pile of high-end jewelry boxes of various sizes appeared before its eyes.

A vine reached forward, a leaf nimbly curling around each box and taking them out one by one.

*Snap.*

*Snap.*

*Snap.*

With each sound, another box was opened.

Looking at the neatly arranged gold necklaces, jade bracelets, and other treasures inside, the man-eating flower couldn’t help but let out an excited “Jie jie jie!”

It stuck out its tongue and, with a “whoosh,” slurped up a 100-gram pure gold bar from the first box.

Next came gold bracelets, gold earrings, gold chains, jade rings, pearl necklaces, diamond studs—

Each one crunched down in a single bite.

The man-eating flower ate with utter satisfaction, savoring every bite.

Meanwhile, outside the apple pod, changes were slowly beginning to take place.

The flower quickly devoured all the gold and silver jewelry in the cabinet.

After standing there and letting out a contented burp, it used its leaves to carefully close all the jewelry boxes and set them neatly by the cabinet door, then shut the cabinet.

Then, just as it had come out, it slipped back into the bedroom.

But instead of jumping onto the bed, it flopped down on a white wool rug beside Jiang Yan’s bed.

Its slender vine curled up into a ball, propping up its big head, and its two leaves draped over itself like a blanket.

With a full belly, the man-eating flower soon drifted off to sleep.

*

The Next Morning

When Jiang Yan woke up, it was just eight o’clock.

That was when she’d set her bedroom curtains to open automatically.

Sunlight spilled onto the bed. As usual, she sat up, rubbed her sleepy eyes, and glanced out the window.

It was just a casual glance, but she was instantly stunned.

In front of the black soil, there seemed to be... a stream?!

But the stream didn’t seem entirely real—it looked more like a phantom image.

Jiang Yan’s heart raced with excitement. She jumped out of bed, ready to rush out and check.

*Plop!* Her bare foot stepped on something soft.

The man-eating flower, with one end of its vine pinned under Jiang Yan’s right foot, bared its teeth and looked up at her pitifully: “Jie jie jie!”

Jiang Yan: “???” What the heck was that sound?!

She looked down and couldn’t help but gasp, leaping a meter away in shock.

Wasn’t this the man-eating flower that had been dormant for so long?

Only, it had shrunk a lot in size.

But this second appearance was definitely more startling than delightful.

The flower, oblivious to her thoughts, blinked its eyes, then “pitter-pattered” over on its leafy legs, rubbing against her feet and chirping, “Jie jie jie!”

Jiang Yan felt as if she could understand it. It seemed to be saying: “Mama~”

“Mama?!” Jiang Yan was completely baffled.

Was she hearing things?

This was too much!

Man-eating flower: “Jie jie jie—Mama, baby’s hungry.”

Jiang Yan pinched the bridge of her nose. So it wasn’t her imagination!

Wait, can we change the way you address me?

And besides, whose baby looks like this?

Seeing her unresponsive, the flower rubbed its head against her leg again:

“Jie jie jie—Mama, baby’s hungry.”

Sigh. Fine.

Her baby looked like this.

Great. She was single, never married, never pregnant, and yet—

She’d woken up overnight and become a mom!

Jiang Yan pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed.

Forget it.

It was her golden finger, after all—she’d just have to spoil it.

Besides, even though this man-eating flower looked ugly and fierce, it was actually kind of cute...

Thinking this, Jiang Yan crouched down and looked into the flower’s toothy face. “What do you want to eat?”

Hopefully not people...

“Jie jie jie!” Mama, um, is there any more?

The flower spoke, one leaf carefully pointing toward the living room.

Jiang Yan walked over and opened the door, spotting the pile of jewelry boxes stacked in the corner at a glance.

“This...” She frowned slightly, then asked, “You want to eat gold and jewels?”

The man-eating flower nodded furiously.

“...”

Great, another shock.

But honestly, this answer was way better than “people.”

After all, the one thing she had in abundance was gold and jewelry.

Most of it had been left to her by her mother, worth tens of millions.

When she’d brought it back from the vault, she’d just left it in the living room.

And the huge batch she’d bought from the jewelry company’s factory was tossed straight into the [Inventory Area] of her space.

Jiang Yan got up and walked over to the jewelry boxes.

The man-eating flower pitter-pattered after her.

Looking at the pile of empty boxes, Jiang Yan seemed to understand.

She picked up an empty box and asked, “Did you eat all of these?”

The flower nodded innocently.

“...” Jiang Yan felt her blood pressure skyrocketing.

Great. The last mementos her mother left her—gone.

Great. Ate up tens of millions in one sitting!

Forget it.

Forget it.

Still, as she’d just told herself: it’s her golden finger, she’d just have to spoil it.

Besides, without it, she never would have escaped the clutches of that devil Song Deming.

So it ate them—so what.

After giving herself a pep talk, Jiang Yan focused her thoughts and pulled out a pile of 100-gram pure gold bars from the [Inventory Area].

When the man-eating flower saw this, its eyes lit up and it nearly jumped for joy.

“Jie jie jie! Sss-ha sss-ha! Mama, can I eat all of these?!”

Jiang Yan nodded with the resigned expression of a mother.

Very quickly, the gold bars were picked up one by one by the flower’s leaves and stuffed into its mouth like Snickers bars.

Listening to the “crunch crunch” of its chewing, Jiang Yan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Was she raising a gold-devouring beast?

But soon, she was stunned by the changes happening to the flower.

As it devoured more and more gold bars, tiny golden sparks began to glow on its body.

These sparks drifted away like fireflies, slowly floating out of the apple pod and gathering above that phantom stream outside.

---

Thank you to [Yuzhong Moke] for the 76 Xiaoxiang tickets! [Moved.jpg]

And thanks to everyone who’s sent monthly tickets, Xiaoxiang tickets, and recommendation votes these past few days! Love you all!

Happy holidays, everyone! (づ￣3￣)づ╭～"