After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar] – CH53

Chapter 53

Ludwig’s group stayed on Earth for two days, then left on the third.

In the past, traveling through space had been lonely and silent. But now… the entire cabin was filled with the scent of coconut, making people swallow unconsciously again and again.

Ael, who had performed the best while learning cooking, now spent most of his time—aside from daily scheduled training—in the newly tidied-up kitchen.

He sliced six or seven lemons and opened more than ten passion fruits.

After putting the fruit into three long-necked crystal carafes, he began pouring in honey—glug glug glug.

When the honey was in, Ael added ice cubes, poured in cooled boiled water, and stirred.

Once the bright fruity aroma no longer tasted so sharply sour, he stopped, capped the finished honey-lemon passion fruit tea, and placed it into the freezer.

Then Ael lifted the lid of the large pot where sago pearls were simmering. Seeing the sago was cooked through, he carefully took out a bucket of coconut milk and ladled a few spoonfuls into the sago dessert.

In an instant, the clear sago turned a rich milky white, and the coconut fragrance in the air grew even stronger.

He added granulated sugar and stirred.

Three minutes later, Ael turned off the heat.

He scooped two bowls of coconut sago into a tray, then took the smallest pitcher of honey-lemon passion fruit tea from the freezer, along with the pumpkin coconut balls he’d just made not long ago, and hurried away.

“Marshal Ludwig, this is today’s afternoon tea,” Ael said with a smile.

Ludwig accepted the afternoon tea personally and murmured his thanks.

Hearing that “thank you,” Ael’s smile grew even brighter.

His eyes shining, Ael said, “You’re welcome. It’s my honor to serve you, Marshal Ludwig.”

After handing over the afternoon tea, Ael left in high spirits—so smug it made people want to throw a sack over his head.

“Hmph. He just learned a bit of cooking—look at him showing off,” someone muttered sourly.

Ael hadn’t stood out before, but these past few days? He’d practically won Marshal Aelsop’s favor. That alone was one thing—what annoyed everyone more was that, with the marshal’s tacit approval, Ael had even started using a more intimate form of address: “Marshal Ludwig.”

If it weren’t for the fact that this affected their rations, they would’ve already put a sack over Ael’s head!

“Forget it, Buddy. Right now we’re eating his food—don’t let him hear you, or you’ll be doomed. We’re just not as skilled,” Nairang said, patting Buddy on the shoulder, looking helpless.

Back then, it wasn’t like they’d singled Ael out to learn. The whole guard unit had learned together. But the problem was… when Boss Xie did it, it looked ridiculously easy—yet everyone except Ael somehow learned it wrong.

Nairang sighed. Sigh. Ael’s smug because we’re the ones who were useless.

When everyone failed, of course Ael looked impressive.

“Enough whining. Let’s go—Ael already finished everything.”

“Yeah. During training my nose was full of coconut smell. It made me lose focus.”

“Honestly, Ael really is good. Let him show off—who told us we can’t do it?”

It wasn’t that they couldn’t do it at all. It was just that what they made tasted way worse than Ael’s.

And since the ingredients weren’t unlimited, it was better not to waste them by experimenting.

If Xie Xingchen—who had given them a storage button stuffed with ingredients—heard that, he’d probably want to say “goodbye” manually.

What do you mean ingredients aren’t plenty?
He’d given them more than enough!

If Ludwig hadn’t been so generous—giving him security weapons and leaving him the tasting equipment—Xie Xingchen wouldn’t have been able to be this generous.

Yes. Ludwig had left behind the tasting-slot device.

Not the newest model—the one already reserved by the Human Civilization’s central planet tasting-device rental department—but another, simpler model.

Its realism wasn’t as good as the new one, but among tasting devices it was still considered very solid.

A device worth a full eleven digits—if Ludwig hadn’t kept insisting the production cost was low, Xie Xingchen wouldn’t have dared accept it.

After forcing himself to accept it, he did his best to “pay back.”

That was why Ludwig ended up receiving an entire storage button’s worth of ingredients.

Xie Xingchen had practically squeezed those ingredients out to subsidize Ludwig. In addition, he attached several simple recipes, and even tried to forcibly give Ludwig the little deer pearl he originally wanted to keep as a family heirloom.

Unfortunately, Ludwig refused. As a compromise, Xie Xingchen gave him the high-quality black teardrop-shaped pearl instead.

The atmosphere back then could be described as both lively and awkward. Ludwig—who had never experienced anything like it—ended up dazedly accepting the gifts.

Xie Xingchen: Ah! Thank you, aunties of life, for providing material.

Even though Ludwig wasn’t exactly thrilled to accept the gift, since it came from Xie Xingchen, he still stored the three pearls away carefully.

But Ludwig wasn’t someone who liked jewelry. After putting them away, he didn’t take them out once over the next few days.

Still—

Xie Xingchen’s “presence” wasn’t reflected in expensive pearls.

It showed up in the smallest corners of Ludwig’s life—like food, the scent of coconut, and the guards’ casual chatter.

Ludwig didn’t like being waited on. Carrying the tray of afternoon tea himself, he walked into his room.

His room was huge, with three bedrooms and a living room, plus a large study that could serve as a temporary meeting room.

At the moment, Randy sat on a chair swinging his short legs, waiting to eat, while the merfolk king—Siren—whose video call had been interrupted, looked curiously at Ludwig.

When Ludwig came in with the tray, little Randy’s eyes lit up immediately. Siren, on the other hand, looked utterly astonished.

Randy urged in a tiny, eager voice, “Brother, hurry!”

Siren took a long moment to find his words. His strikingly handsome face was still filled with disbelief.

Siren stared. “Ludwig… did you hire a chef?”

Since when did mechanical lifeforms even eat?

Ludwig didn’t answer. Siren continued, unconcerned.

“I wouldn’t have guessed. Aren’t you supposed to be the lifeform who hates indulgence the most? And now you’ve learned to enjoy yourself?”

Siren, who adored fine food and beautiful clothing, watched the one big and one small person eating with obvious pleasure.

Then he nailed it with one sentence:

“You have a connection with Earth’s planet lord.”

A single pitcher of honey-lemon passion fruit tea practically screamed where it had come from.

Ludwig still ignored him and simply enjoyed the calm of the afternoon.

Only after everything was finished did he raise his eyes and say lazily, “What’s it to you?”

Siren laughed in anger. “Hah. You really do have two faces. Would you dare talk like that to anyone else?”

Ludwig said nothing, but Siren did.

“Lude, we’ve known each other forever. Shouldn’t we share the good stuff? I’m not asking much—whatever the Earth lord gave you, just split half with me.”

Siren shamelessly tried to split it fifty-fifty.

Ludwig’s expression didn’t change. He simply ended the call, leaving Siren on the other side furious enough to stomp.

Teeth clenched, Siren snarled, “Ludwig, you’ve got guts. Next time you’d better not need my help—otherwise I’ll scam you into bankruptcy and write my name backwards!”

After dropping his threats, Siren grew even more curious about Xie Xingchen.

Because Ludwig had never shown much appetite before. In all those years, whenever Siren demanded food, Ludwig had never been possessive.

But this time he refused?

Either Earth’s food was unbelievably good… or Ludwig—this quiet, secretly sentimental type—was interested in the person who gave it.

Thinking that, Siren’s gaze turned playful, his handsome face taking on a faint wicked edge.

Oh dear. Things were getting more and more interesting.

—

After seeing Ludwig’s group off, Xie Xingchen didn’t go back to Qiong Island.

He didn’t know if the system had maliciously lowered the odds, but ever since the Chang’an Workshop unlocked, he hadn’t refreshed a single food machine.

He was extremely confused.

“Xiao Mo, did you secretly lower my probability?”

Other than that, he couldn’t think of any explanation.

He had three food machines upgraded to max, giving him a probability boost, plus the Chang’an Workshop’s built-in buff. By all logic, he should’ve rolled another food machine already.

And yet—

Why hadn’t he rolled even one in so many days?

He’d gathered plenty of ingredients, too. So why wouldn’t the food machines refresh?

[System: The player is advised not to question the system.]

Xie Xingchen scratched his head, his handsome face full of worry. “I don’t want to question you, but reality is forcing me to.”

[System: The system never acts without rules.]

Xie Xingchen was skeptical. “You sure you don’t?”

Then who was it that timed everything perfectly just to drain his account balance every time?

[System Warning: Do not casually question the system, or punishment will be issued.]

Xie Xingchen: ? Can’t take a joke?

System, system—don’t you look like you’re getting embarrassed and angry right now?

Xie Xingchen grumbled internally. The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that his odds had been reduced.

But the poor guy didn’t dare mouth off to the system.

Sigh. Confirmed: the most miserable player in history.

Xie Xingchen pouted. “Fine. You’re the boss. Whatever you say goes.”

He still understood the truth of “When you’re under someone else’s roof, you have to lower your head.”

[System: Please rest assured. The game probability is normal.]

Xie Xingchen smiled. “Then dare to show me the probability? Every game in China publishes their rates now.”

After a long pause, the system’s chime finally sounded.

[System: This game is not made in China.]

Xie Xingchen: Heh. So you won’t.

The man and the system were locked in a stalemate when—after who knew how long—the system’s familiar ding-dong rang out.

[Ding-dong. Your companion has returned from traveling. After a long journey, it seems to have brought you quite a few souvenirs.]

The dejected Xie Xingchen’s eyes lit up instantly.

Fei Fei was back!

After traveling for so many days, Fei Fei the rabbit had finally returned!

Not wasting another second, Xie Xingchen sprinted to the starship door.

As soon as he reached the entrance, he saw Fat Rabbit Ji, wearing a little pack, about to land.

He scooped the rabbit up in one arm, his heart surging, and rubbed it several times, saying excitedly, “Fei Fei! You’re finally back!”

If it hadn’t returned soon, he would’ve started worrying it had been eaten down to bones by some natural enemy during its trip.

The round rabbit twitched its long ears. Faced with the two-legged creature’s heartfelt longing, it remained completely unmoved.

After unstrapping its pack, Fat Rabbit Ji didn’t even glance at Xie Xingchen. It hopped away on its own, straight toward the rapeseed flower field.

Clearly, in Fei Fei’s heart, “partners” weren’t as important as “family.”

[Ding-dong. Your bunny has returned from traveling! This travel-loving bunny seems to have gone very, very far this time!]

[Ding-dong. Congratulations, you received the bunny’s travel souvenirs—Rare Four-Leaf Clover ×1, Rose Seed ×1, Lily Seed ×1, Camellia Seed ×1.]

[Rare Four-Leaf Clover: A legendary item said to bring luck. Wear this rare four-leaf clover when you go out, and your luck while traveling will definitely increase!]

[Rose Seed: An ordinary rose seed. It’s a keepsake gift from the bunny’s friend, a butterfly.]

[Lily Seed: An ordinary lily seed. The bunny collected it out of boredom while traveling. It looks ordinary, but its vitality seems strong—like it would grow if you planted it casually.]

[Camellia Seed: The bunny’s favorite seed. It collected it while admiring flowers in a valley. The bunny loves it the most—but it seems not easy to grow.]

Xie Xingchen: starry eyes.jpg

As expected, bunnies were the strongest!

If you wanted to collect things, you really had to rely on a bunny.

He wouldn’t even talk about how amazing the Rare Four-Leaf Clover was—just the fact that he’d sent Fei Fei out with a clover and the bunny came back with three flower types from the compendium told him this clover was absolutely a treasure. A golden-legend-level treasure!

Rose seed, lily seed, camellia seed!

All at once, he could unlock three new kinds of flowers.

The system said camellia was hard to grow, but Xie Xingchen figured that with enough effort, he could still keep it alive.

He carefully took out the camellia seed—marked by the system as “hard to grow”—and soaked it in a tube of plant growth solution.

The lily seed was labeled “easy to grow,” so he set it aside for now.

As for the rose seed… since the system didn’t say whether it was easy or hard, Xie Xingchen thought about it and decided to treat it as difficult.

After all, the seeds Fei Fei brought back were only one each. If he accidentally killed one, he wouldn’t even know where to find another.

Especially the rose seed—it was a gift from Fei Fei’s butterfly friend.

Yeah. If he asked the bunny, the bunny probably wouldn’t know where it came from anyway.

To help the rose and camellia seeds grow better, after soaking them in growth solution, he soaked them again in green-substance potion.

During this, Xie Xingchen didn’t dare overconsume his mental power. He simply waited for the camellia seed’s prep to finish, then planned to focus and—deal with it.

While the seeds soaked in the green-substance potion, Xie Xingchen finished the report he’d been writing for days, then sent it to the two professors.

Experiments needed data.

And Xie Xingchen had been hardworking at land clearing lately, using a lot of nutrient solution. In the end, he truly had recorded a long series of detailed experimental data.

As for the report… he felt it wasn’t very formal.

Otherwise he wouldn’t have dragged it out for so many days without finishing.

But now he had no time left to procrastinate. He slapped on a quick ending. As for the results… he’d leave it to fate.

He was a practical person, not a theoretical one. It was understandable if his report wasn’t as professional as an expert’s, right?

Whether the professors would “educate” him after reading it—he couldn’t care anymore.

After clicking confirm and seeing the upload received, Xie Xingchen immediately logged off, afraid the professors would tear into him.

Picking up the rose and camellia seeds that had finished soaking, he could see with the naked eye that they’d become much more full of vitality. He immediately proceeded to the next step—accelerated sprouting.

He started with the camellia seed, which the system had marked as hard to grow. The moment he fed mental power into it, he understood why.

Aside from the very center, the entire seed was wrapped in dark matter. A seed like that being hard to grow made perfect sense.

To force it to sprout, he first had to eliminate the dark matter inside.

As soon as his mental power entered, the dark matter instinctively coiled toward it.

Xie Xingchen increased the output, fully focused, working from point to area, bit by bit erasing all the dark matter inside the camellia seed.

He didn’t know how long it took, but by the time he was done, his head was slick with sweat.

When he felt his mental power was nearly drained, the system message finally appeared:

[Camellia Seed: The bunny’s favorite seed… It was originally hard to grow, but through the player’s effort, it has transformed into an easy-to-grow plant.]

Success.

Xie Xingchen set the camellia seed down and wiped sweat from his forehead.

After recovering a little, he picked it up again, brows knit, full of confusion.

“That’s so strange… it’s just a tiny seed. Why was it so hard to remove the dark matter?”

He was A- mental strength now. Normally, he could clear dark matter from thirty seeds at once without a problem. Yet this single camellia seed had forced him to spend everything.

And strangest of all—afterward, the seed showed no abnormality.

Weird. Too weird.

He couldn’t figure it out, and he couldn’t find any clue.

He probed the system, but the system played dead and didn’t respond.

Xie Xingchen shrugged. “Fine. If you won’t say it, you won’t say it. I’ll find the answer later.”

He had a feeling he’d eventually learn what had happened in that valley. As for now—land clearing was more important.

After putting the camellia seed away, he ordered the robots to clear land overnight, then lay down in the healing pod to sleep.

The next day, he checked the camellia seed again. Seeing it was perfectly normal, he set it aside and picked up the rose seed—the one the butterfly had given Fei Fei.

After soaking all night in green-substance potion, the rose seed looked extremely vigorous. But when he fed mental power into it, he discovered the seed had almost been completely corroded by dark matter.

Xie Xingchen’s face changed instantly.

Damn—good thing he’d been cautious, or this rose seed would’ve been ruined.

Next time he had to read system hints more carefully. The hints revealed a lot.

He proceeded carefully from point to area, expecting another brutal fight like last night.

But—

He erased the dark matter from the rose seed with ease.

Not even a sweaty forehead. He felt he’d used less than one-tenth of his mental power.

He quickly pulled up the system prompt and frowned.

Both the rose seed and the camellia seed had been attacked by dark matter, but only the camellia seed had been explicitly labeled “hard to grow.”

And during the cleansing process, the rose seed seemed to contain more dark matter, yet the camellia seed—the one labeled hard—was actually the hardest to cleanse.

So… was the system accurately detecting the true amount of dark matter in plants?

Or did the system know something deeper about Earth itself?

What relationship did this system have with Earth?

Was it really a higher-dimensional product like he’d assumed?

Xie Xingchen’s thoughts spun wildly.

He felt he should be more cautious about the system.

Yet some instinct told him the system wasn’t hostile. It even seemed to… like him?

While thinking, he accelerated the lily seed.

Lily truly lived up to being “easy to grow” in the system’s eyes. Without any effort, Xie Xingchen made it root, sprout, bloom, and produce seeds.

[Ding-dong. Congratulations, player has discovered “Lily.” Lily unlocked.]

The moment the lily bloomed and his hand touched the flower, the system prompt sounded.

And on the compendium page, the lily entry that had been tightly locked in chains was finally unsealed.

Xie Xingchen gazed at the newly unlocked lily in satisfaction, then used the same method to sprout the rose and camellia.

[Ding-dong. Congratulations, player has discovered “Rose.” Rose unlocked.]
[Ding-dong. Congratulations, player has discovered “Camellia.” Camellia unlocked.]

By the time his mental power was depleted, Xie Xingchen had produced 100 lily seeds, 98 rose seeds, and 103 camellia seeds.

After checking them one by one, he soaked the seeds in growth solution. Once a new flower field had been cleared, he brought the seeds over and planted them.

Since the seeds weren’t many and were still in the early cultivation stage, he didn’t separate them into different fields. He planted them together in one area, planning to split them later once the numbers increased.

His mental power was exhausted again, so he couldn’t feed power to the newly planted seeds. Instead, he diluted the green-substance potion he’d used for soaking and used it as watering solution.

After everything was done, Xie Xingchen lay back down in the healing pod, then returned to his “three-point line” routine: starship ? healing pod ? flower field.

Hard work paid off. On the third day, the seeds he’d planted finally bloomed.

Three days later, the flowers matured again.

Three days and three more days… until eventually, Xie Xingchen harvested one mu of roses, one mu of lilies, and one mu of camellias.

And around that time, the plant trellises he’d ordered arrived.

Yes—trellises.

Xie Xingchen had specially customized them for the roses.

During the earlier days of forced sprouting, the roses had sprawled across the ground. Big, beautiful blooms spread out like a woven floral carpet.

The carpet was gorgeous… but it made moving around difficult.

To keep the roses from crawling across the ground or onto other plants, Xie Xingchen decisively ordered support frames.

Today, after collecting rose seeds, he needed to set those frames up in the flower field.

Watching the robots set up the trellises with practiced efficiency, Xie Xingchen felt very satisfied.

Then he urgently called out to Prosperity in the distance:

“Prosperity! Come here!”

Prosperity, busy in the flower field, returned to Xie Xingchen’s side—but even as he came, he kept directing the other robots to keep assembling frames.

After finishing the instructions, Prosperity turned back, curious. “Boss, what is it?”

Xie Xingchen nodded gravely, his expression serious. “Yes. Something important. Have you seen my Fei Fei?”

Fei Fei had vanished somewhere early in the morning.

At first, Xie Xingchen hadn’t cared. Until just now—

He’d received a system postcard from Fei Fei.

It was a photo of Fei Fei posing with a tea tree!

Xie Xingchen’s face went green when he saw it.

This system was toxic!

The bunny had already returned from traveling!

And only now the system delivered the postcard?!

Where was he supposed to find Fei Fei now? Fei Fei never even liked staying near him!

He could only ask Prosperity—because Prosperity had a skill Xie Xingchen didn’t: Prosperity could recognize Fei Fei and identify it correctly among countless rabbits.

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