Chapter 116
After diligently digging up a whole basket of spring bamboo shoots, Xie Xingchen set up a makeshift stove right near the bamboo grove.
Once the stove was ready, he walked to the stream to wash the shoots clean. Then he took out a bone from a “snort-snort beast,” chopped it into a few pieces, blanched them, and tossed them into a clay pot. After that, he threw in the washed, plump white bamboo shoots as well.
With the soup ingredients in place, Xie Xingchen put the lid on the pot and started cooking the stir-fries.
Out in the wild, he hadn’t brought much—but he did have enough to make a quick stir-fried pork dish!
After frying the chilies until fragrant, he cooked the stir-fried pork. When that was done, he casually blanched a plate of greens.
Since both were tasty, convenient, and fast, it only took about ten minutes for his delicious and nutritious meal to be ready.
The only pity was—
The soup still wasn’t done.
But that couldn’t be helped.
A proper slow-simmered soup needed at least a few hours. There was no way it would be ready for lunch, but dinner was fine.
And honestly, this timing was perfect: keep it simmering on low heat while exploring, and by the time he was done, he’d have soup waiting!
After finishing his lunch—meat and blanched greens—Xie Xingchen couldn’t help taking a deep breath.
The rich, savory scent drifting from the soup made him exclaim, “Smells amazing!”
He took out a small protective shield and set it up over the area. Then he pulled out a custom-made portable wooden cabin he’d ordered from the Mechanical Trade House.
The cabin was only a bit over six square meters, but even that tiny space was split into two zones—an entry area and a bedroom.
The entry area was about 1.5 square meters. When you opened the door, the small space had a shoe cabinet below and a lockable storage cabinet above. Then there was a little threshold separating the entry from the bedroom.
The bedroom was much larger than the entry area, but even so, it was only around five square meters.
By the window sat a very comfortable-looking single bunk bed. Beside it were a fixed desk and cabinets, and in the corner was a tiny bathroom—just barely enough room to turn around.
This was Xie Xingchen’s “mobile home,” custom-made at the Mechanical Trade House. It looked unremarkable, but it was expensive!
Even though Ludwig had someone calculate it at cost, Xie Xingchen still spent several million star credits.
But there was no choice—just that tiny bathroom alone cost a fortune!
High-tech made life convenient, but it also came with a high price tag.
Whether it was the machine that extracted water molecules from the air and converted them into water, or the fully eco-friendly, pollution-free sewage treatment equipment—everything was insanely pricey.
Basically, those millions of star credits went into buying these devices. The actual cost of the wooden structure and furniture was, at most, only a few tens of thousands.
Before going inside, Xie Xingchen told Prosperity, “Good afternoon,” and—after his nap invitation was rejected—went in alone to sleep.
As for the tireless robot who refused the nap invitation, Prosperity was happily digging bamboo shoots!
This stretch of riverbank had a huge bamboo grove. When the wind blew, the light rustling of bamboo leaves brushing together brought a cooling freshness that seemed to rise from the heart.
It should have been a setting that calmed the mind and settled the spirit, but since Prosperity was a robot, he couldn’t feel any of that—and he “arrogantly” ignored it anyway.
Right now, Prosperity’s mind held only bamboo shoots and… the little creature that suddenly scampered out of the bamboo grove.
What a strange animal. It was so small!
Prosperity couldn’t help stepping closer.
He poked the bamboo rat with a finger.
The bamboo rat stared blankly at him for a second, then lowered its head and went back to gnawing on the bamboo in its paws.
Prosperity poked it again. It looked up again. Prosperity poked again. It looked again.
By the fourth poke, the bamboo rat squeaked angrily a few times, then hugged its bamboo and ran off.
Watching the strange little animal disappear, Prosperity tilted his head and thought for a moment.
Then… he went right back to digging bamboo shoots.
After Prosperity had cheerfully dug two big baskets’ worth, Xie Xingchen finally emerged from the cabin, stretching and yawning.
When he saw the two large baskets in front of Prosperity, Xie Xingchen couldn’t help saying, “Prosperity, you’ve been digging shoots this whole time? Didn’t I tell you to go play?”
This made him look like a heartless boss!
Seriously exploiting his employee!
Even if that employee was just a robot, Xie Xingchen still felt a little guilty.
But Prosperity corrected him with a solemn face. “I did go play. I saw a small animal. It was cute. I played with it.”
A cute little animal?
Xie Xingchen asked doubtfully, “What kind of little animal?”
Prosperity scratched his head and shook it. “Don’t know. It ran away.”
Hearing that the cute little animal had run off, Xie Xingchen nodded and didn’t say more.
As long as Prosperity wasn’t bored, it was fine—and… he didn’t really believe the “cute little animal” Prosperity mentioned was actually cute.
After all, this was a guy who thought even bugs were adorable.
Because of that “dismissiveness,” Xie Xingchen missed out big time.
Later, when he found out that Prosperity’s “cute little animal” was actually a bamboo rat, he was so moved that tears practically flowed from the corners of his mouth.
He’d have loved nothing more than to time-travel back and shake his past self awake for not caring enough about Prosperity!
He walked over to the stove and opened the clay pot to check on the slow-simmered soup.
He stirred it a few times with a ladle, and when the aroma rose, his mood instantly improved.
He put the lid back on and started digging bamboo shoots together with Prosperity.
The bamboo grove stretched endlessly. It was completely wild, with no one managing it—and naturally, no one had ever come to dig shoots here—so spring bamboo shoots were everywhere. The two of them couldn’t dig fast enough.
In the end, Xie Xingchen and Prosperity worked for hours and dug a massive pile. When they straightened up and looked around—well, great. They were still only at the outer edge!
And they hadn’t even finished half of the very outermost area!
After thinking seriously for a moment, Xie Xingchen waved a hand decisively.
He decided to stop digging bamboo shoots.
He was going to dig bamboo.
With bamboo this productive, he had to transplant it back—especially since this season was perfect: spring was the best time to transplant bamboo!
Ever since he realized the bamboo in the Listening-to-Bamboo Pavilion barely produced edible shoots, he’d been annoyed by those ornamental bamboo for a long time.
Now was the time to replace them with fresh blood.
The two of them huffed and puffed, picking out new bamboo stalks, then digging them up with their root systems intact and storing them in Xie Xingchen’s space button.
After digging up fifty or sixty stalks, Xie Xingchen finally nodded in satisfaction. He casually packed up the portable cabin and the small protective shield, then carried the soup pot onto the small boat, ready to leave.
Prosperity rowed, and Xie Xingchen drank soup and admired the mountains and waters!
Drifting leisurely upstream with the current, the elegant peaks ahead made his appetite even stronger.
Paired with the fresh, spring-flavored bamboo shoots, Xie Xingchen felt like his entire body had been cleansed and refined—inside and out—until he reached a clear, harmonious state, as if man and nature had become one.
Prosperity glanced at his owner, who was drinking soup with a blissful face. Hearing him talk so shamelessly, Prosperity finally couldn’t help complaining:
“Boss, you’re not feeling any ‘unity with nature.’ You’re just happy because the soup is good!”
Even though he didn’t understand what “unity with nature” meant, he could tell that soup was seriously delicious—otherwise the boss wouldn’t have eaten to the point of being stuffed.
How did Prosperity know Xie Xingchen was stuffed?
Of course—because Xie Xingchen had taken out that divine item again: digestive tablets!
Having his cover blown, the stubborn Xie Xingchen still refused to admit it. He argued, “Come on, Prosperity, you don’t get it. This is the spirit of ‘finding joy among mountains and waters.’”
Since he was already talking about it, why not recite that famous essay, “The Old Drunkard’s Pavilion”?
Back in school, he’d memorized it perfectly!
How could he not show off now?
Thinking that, Xie Xingchen cleared his throat and began:
“All around Chuzhou are mountains. Of its southwestern peaks…”
A whole torrent of classical phrasing made Prosperity’s robot brain go blank.
But as Xie Xingchen kept reciting, he started feeling it more and more.
He clasped his hands behind his back, lifted his face, and quietly felt the spring breeze brushing past.
In front of him flowed a clear stream; on both sides rose beautiful mountain peaks. The essay’s description—“the forests and ravines are especially lovely, lush and deep”—became reality.
This feeling—sharing the same taste as the ancients, blending into nature—was hard to describe with words.
He opened his eyes. Xie Xingchen stopped reciting and started using his own eyes to record the beauty of the mountains and waters.
When they reached the hovercar’s location, he reluctantly took out a pen and drew a simple sketch on his map: two small mountains with a stream between them—and if you looked closely, a tiny boat drifting through.
Before leaving, Xie Xingchen stood there watching for a long time. Only when the evening glow began to fall did he finally move and climb into the hovercar.
Since he didn’t need to explore on the way back, he returned to Chang’an City just in time to see the last light of the setting sun.
The magnificent ancient city stood quietly beneath the sunset’s afterglow. Against a sky red as flames, it looked like a giant who didn’t fear fire—silently waiting as the flames burned, waiting for rebirth after the ashes were spent.
It was the first time Xie Xingchen had ever felt that an ancient city could yearn for renewal through rebirth.
That fleeting sensation made him fall silent.
After a moment, he smiled, casually snapped countless photos of the ancient city, and sent them all to the design department staff.
If it longs for rebirth, then let it be reborn.
If it longs for new life, then let more people fall in love with this place.
Reviving the city in one step was impossible, of course—but the “Chang’an: Impressions” postcard series was due for an update.
That’s right—time to harvest the netizens’ love for Chang’an again.
Xie Xingchen switched moods instantly. With light, happy steps, he walked into Chang’an City.
After arriving at the Chang’an Workshop tucked away in a corner of the city, Xie Xingchen called over all the robots working inside and had them follow him to transplant bamboo.
To be honest, he’d been fed up with the ornamental bamboo in the Listening-to-Bamboo Pavilion for a long time!
Sure, the ornamental bamboo was pretty—but the bamboo shoots were terrible!
So don’t blame him for finding them some competition.
They planted the new bamboo in every available space in the Listening-to-Bamboo Pavilion’s open ground, but when they finished, there were still twenty or thirty stalks left.
Xie Xingchen thought for a moment, then decided to plant them all in the front courtyard!
After another half hour of work, all the bamboo was finally planted.
Setting down his tools, Xie Xingchen began channeling mental power into the newly transplanted bamboo.
He was used to this. After doing it thousands of times, channeling mental power was as easy as eating and drinking for him.
Thinking back to the days when he had to lie in a healing pod while feeding mental power into plants… it felt like an old, yellowed photograph in his memories now.
But as soon as he withdrew his mental power, Xie Xingchen suddenly remembered something huge—
Oh crap. He was about to depart for the insect race territory!
But what about his green-substance potion?
There was nowhere near enough!
The two planter employees at Thorn Manor were already working at full capacity to make green-substance potion, but Earth’s plants kept increasing. And all the newly discovered greenery still needed to be planted. As a result, they simply couldn’t supply enough potion for Earth.
And him?
He’d been wandering around exploring like an idiot, so absorbed he’d forgotten about the potion entirely.
Xie Xingchen: so awkward. Really, really awkward!
No. He had to get the green-substance potion situation under control first.
Otherwise, those newly discovered plants wouldn’t be able to propagate at all.
He made up his mind: for the next while, he would stop exploring and instead grind hard on producing green-substance potion.
Thinking about it, he couldn’t help drooping his face and complaining, “Why does it feel like my work never ends?”
He was working so hard!
So why did the more he worked, the more work there was?
Was he born to be a workhorse?
Work until old age and still keep working?
Xie Xingchen pulled a miserable face, feeling like his life was soaked in bitterness.
When he was broke, working hard made sense—but now that he had money, he was working even harder than before.
It was exhausting!
Compared to the lazy, wealthy, carefree life he’d imagined when he first transmigrated… it wasn’t just different. It had absolutely nothing in common.
But life, like living, was always ups and downs and downs and downs and downs…
The work was right there. Do it or don’t—your choice. But if you slacked off, it would probably trigger a chain reaction.
Whether you wanted to do it or not, in the end you still had to do it. And if you did it too slowly, you’d have to redo your whole plan.
Xie Xingchen: “……”
Damn it. So annoying.
Left with no choice, the guy who desperately wanted to slack off was forced back into the busy wage-slave lifestyle.
How busy was he?
So busy that even when he went to Chang’an City to see the cats, he brought a little stool and test tubes of green-substance potion—so he could pet cats while making potion.
And this “endless darkness,” “self-draining” routine lasted for many days, until the day the large delivery base station was completed. Only then did Xie Xingchen excitedly stop this “self-torture.”
When he heard the large delivery base station was finished, his smile was dazzling.
He couldn’t wait and said, “Little Mo, the base station is done. My lottery reward should be in my hands now, right?”
He clearly remembered: building the large delivery base station was an infrastructure mission. The reward was one random weapon draw!
Now that it was completed, his draw should be ready, right?
System: “……”
System: “The player must confirm receipt. After confirmation, the mission will be completed and the reward can be claimed.”
Xie Xingchen: ?
Pretty strict—no unfinished projects allowed, huh.
He stepped onto his hoverboard and flew off happily like a little bird to the construction site.
The area was still wrapped in thick mist, but the occasional clanging of machinery from inside had quietly stopped.
Ding-dong. System friendly reminder: The large delivery base station has been completed. Please confirm receipt.
PS: After confirmation, please give serious reviews and ratings to the system robot team and system engineers!
As the system’s ding-dong sounded, the mist gradually dispersed.
A vast, imposing silver-white structure appeared before Xie Xingchen.
Its exterior was a huge egg shape. No one knew what material it was made of, but the building shimmered with silver light, radiating high-tech vibes.
The egg-shaped building was enormous—so big that you’d need a vehicle to get around. And since the equipment hadn’t been installed yet, the inside was empty enough that even speaking produced echoes.
Xie Xingchen cruised around on his hoverboard at the lowest speed, looking here and there. Occasionally, he rose up into the air to inspect the upper structure.
He had to admit: the system engineer was incredible, and the system construction team was meticulous.
He’d come intending to nitpick—but instead of finding flaws, he ended up impressed!
After a full tour, Xie Xingchen said, “Confirm receipt.”
Ding-dong. Receipt confirmed. Please rate the system robot team and system engineers.
Two neat, formal rating forms appeared in front of him.
Based on how he felt, Xie Xingchen gave five-star reviews across every category and submitted the report.
Ding-dong. Rating report submitted. Thank you for supporting the system.
Ding-dong. Congratulations! You have completed “Infrastructure Mission (2) — Build a Large Delivery Base Station.” Reward issued: 1 random draw (weapon).
System friendly reminder: This reward does not expire. You may draw from the draw page in your user center, or summon the system to draw.
Xie Xingchen smiled. 🙂
A non-expiring reward? Great, but unnecessary!
He wanted to draw right now!
He cracked his knuckles and said, “Little Mo, come on—let’s do the draw.”
Since there was no ten-draw guarantee anyway, why save a single draw?
Use early, enjoy early. Only an idiot hoards it.
Ding-dong. Weapon draw activated. Please press the button.
Xie Xingchen thought it would be the usual spinning wheel, but when the draw page appeared, his eyes widened.
A gacha capsule machine?
And a premium capsule machine, at that?
The machine in front of him glittered with a bling-bling sheen and looked expensive as hell.
That was one thing—but if he wasn’t mistaken, the capsules inside were all transparent, and each transparent capsule contained a tiny weapon.
Xie Xingchen was stunned. “Little Mo, did you secretly upgrade behind my back?”
Otherwise how could the draw interface suddenly become so badass?
System: “The system has not been upgraded. Please continue working hard.”
Xie Xingchen: black question mark face.jpg
Continue working hard?
What does me working hard have to do with you upgrading?
Isn’t that your programmer’s job?
Xie Xingchen immediately tried to distance himself from responsibility!
System: “Please press the capsule machine button.”
Still shocked, Xie Xingchen obediently pressed the button.
The moment he did, the capsule machine started playing a cheerful song. Then the transparent capsules inside began spinning rapidly.
Soon, the song stopped. He heard a click, and a transparent capsule popped out of the dispenser.
Staring at that clear capsule—once upon a time he would’ve been thrilled, but now he felt sorrow.
What the heck? Why could a weapon draw give him an umbrella?
And it was an oil-paper umbrella!
Is that a weapon?
It’s not even a qualified rain tool!
If the rain got heavy, it would tear!
So was this capsule machine basically scamming the player?
Xie Xingchen grabbed the capsule and was about to argue with the system—when suddenly, he stopped.
He broke into a grin.
Thousand-Mechanism Umbrella: A legendary super defense weapon with “absolute defense”! With it, Mom never has to worry about me running into danger outside again, because all danger will be blocked at the door.
Usage: Press the button on the umbrella handle to activate defense mode.
Seeing this description, Xie Xingchen immediately laughed out loud.
Then he clutched the capsule like his life depended on it.
What a perfect capsule!
What an amazing item!
A super-strong “absolute defense” weapon.
Xie Xingchen excitedly asked the system, “Little Mo, what kinds of weapons can this Thousand-Mechanism Umbrella defend against?”
Even doctors said you can’t talk about toxicity without dosage!
So the umbrella’s real value depended both on what it could block and how strong the blocking was.
Only if both were powerful could this weapon be truly strong.
But Xie Xingchen had a feeling—
System: “The Thousand-Mechanism Umbrella can defend against 99% of weapon attacks, excluding large-scale planet attack weapons.”
Xie Xingchen’s smile shot upward uncontrollably.
His eyes shining, he asked again, “What about mental-power attacks?”
System: “The Thousand-Mechanism Umbrella can defend against some mental-power attacks, and it can absorb the opponent’s mental power as energy for itself.”
So, so insane!
Xie Xingchen was completely fired up now.
This weapon had arrived at the perfect time!
In a while he’d be heading into the unfamiliar insect race territory, and the system just handed him a personal defense weapon?
And not just any defense weapon—one this ridiculously strong!
He’d been worrying about what to do once he got there.
After all, he’d sold so many low-priced green plants. Everyone praised him for pushing a “greenery price democratization reform,” but in reality, fame like that was basically a giant target on his back.
He’d acted too ruthlessly and directly harmed the interests of countless planters and planting planet lords.
Xie Xingchen had self-awareness. He wasn’t delusional enough to think the people he’d hurt would treat him like family.
If they just gave him cold faces in public, that would be fine. The scary part was if someone started plotting behind the scenes to mess with him.
That was why he’d originally planned to buy a top-tier self-defense item from Ludwig, even at a high price.
Now why would he need that? He had the Thousand-Mechanism Umbrella!
Except…
He flipped it over and over and couldn’t find any “charging device.”
Then he remembered the system saying it could “absorb the opponent’s mental power as energy,” and he suddenly got a sinking feeling that he’d stepped into a trap.
So he asked carefully, “Little Mo… how does the Thousand-Mechanism Umbrella recharge?”
Sure enough—
His bad feeling came true.
System: “Dear player, the Thousand-Mechanism Umbrella currently has two charging methods. First: the player manually charges it by channeling mental power into the handle. Second: spend a certain amount of revenue to recharge through the system.”
Any unclear spending is a trap.
Burned countless times, Xie Xingchen stayed alert. “If I charge it myself, how much mental power does it take? If I recharge through you, how much money?”
System: “Method one: manual charging requires a full-power attack from an SSS-level mental power user, once per charge. Method two: system charging costs fifty million star credits per charge.”
Xie Xingchen: 🙂 Knew it—both are traps.
He didn’t even want to compare anymore, because method one was literally impossible for him.
If he wanted to use this umbrella, he only had one option—system charging.
Alright. Now he only had one question left.
![After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar]](https://i1.wp.com/panda-translations.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/20220822190944_300_420.jpg?resize=151,215 "After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar]")
