Chapter 69
Seeing the monkey take a couple of steps, then look back at him, then take a couple more and look back again—when Xie Xingchen still didn’t move, it actually doubled back, pointed at him, and kept chattering “ji-ji.”
Clearly, it wanted him to follow.
Xie Xingchen raised an eyebrow and turned to gesture for Get-Rich and Prosperity to come with him.
The monkey swung through the trees; Xie Xingchen and the two robots chased beneath.
Obviously, one human and two robots were nowhere near as nimble as a monkey in the mountains. They could only barely keep up.
They walked out of the dense forest, and after who knew how long, the monkey suddenly stopped.
A huge mountain stood before them.
Judging by the humidity in the air, Xie Xingchen guessed the other side of the mountain was the sea.
He poked the gibbon in front of him, starlight glittering in his eyes, and said loudly, “Little thing—why did you bring us here?”
The gibbon puffed up and chattered angrily, then scampered off and motioned for them to follow it into the mountain.
Since they’d come this far, Xie Xingchen wasn’t about to give up halfway.
He wanted to see what this “monkey” was really up to!
Without another word, he followed behind it over ridges and through valleys. When the monkey finally stopped, Xie Xingchen realized they were surrounded by a whole troop of monkeys.
Xie Xingchen: ?
Damn—did it bring them here to make robbing them easier?
Realizing that, Xie Xingchen stared at the innocent-faced guide monkey in disbelief.
Get-Rich and Prosperity quietly edged closer to him. The three of them formed a back-to-back formation, warily watching the monkeys around them.
Fortunately, the monkeys didn’t seem very interested in mugging Xie Xingchen. In groups, they quickly followed behind a massive monkey that looked like the monkey king and left in a hurry.
At that moment, the gibbon that had led them here also started to leave. Before it went, it even turned back and called “ji-ji” at Xie Xingchen, as if telling them to come along.
Xie Xingchen was utterly baffled.
“Should we go?” he asked the two robots.
This was too weird.
Weird to the point that going felt wrong, but not going also felt wrong.
Who knew—Get-Rich and Prosperity both nodded at the same time. “Go.”
They had a hovercar. If things went south, they could still escape.
And it was just monkeys, not alien beasts. What was there to be afraid of?
Xie Xingchen: “…”
He’d been overcautious.
“Fine. Let’s go.”
Following the troop, Xie Xingchen climbed over more hills until they stopped at a patch of “grassland.”
Xie Xingchen froze.
He stared blankly at the “grassland” in front of the troop, nearly screaming.
A second later, he actually did.
Some strong-looking younger monkeys were poking the ground with sticks, flipping up soil, grabbing sweet potato vines, and yanking out the sweet potatoes.
If that were all, Xie Xingchen could’ve praised them for being clever.
But—
Xie Xingchen reached out like Erkang. “Hey! You monkeys—stop!”
A bunch of monkeys were happily biting into the sweet potato cores.
Yes—you read that right. Sweet potato cores.
It seemed the ends weren’t as sweet, so the monkeys threw those away and kept only the core.
Seeing this, Xie Xingchen felt like he was about to have a stroke.
When the guide monkey handed him a split sweet potato core and then waved a straw at him excitedly, Xie Xingchen’s feelings were… complicated.
He took the sweet potato, fell silent for a moment, then grim-faced passed over a coconut.
The monkey expertly stabbed in the straw and drank happily.
The monkeys nearby, who were eating sweet potatoes, were amazed. They stopped eating and crowded over to watch.
Seeing that, Xie Xingchen pulled out more coconuts from storage and handed them to the curious onlookers—then he directed himself, Get-Rich, and Prosperity to dig up sweet potatoes.
[Ding-dong, congratulations! You found the plant “sweet potato.” Exploration task “Find 10 plants” progress +1. Current progress: 7/10.]
[Sweet potato: A famed crop that has saved countless lives. Its sweet taste is irresistible and beloved by many animals. It also has a very good temperament—it hardly picks its growing environment, and seems to thrive even when left to grow naturally.]
Xie Xingchen was overjoyed!
Thrives naturally?
Then his roasted sweet potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, sweet potato dessert soup… were all within reach!
While the troop drank coconut “juice,” the monkey king even smartly climbed up high, smashed a coconut open, and scooped out the coconut flesh to eat.
That nimble movement had Xie Xingchen marveling nonstop—this monkey was practically ascending to heaven.
No wonder it was the monkey king. With that IQ, if it wasn’t the king, who would be?
Once they had food, the monkeys didn’t mind Xie Xingchen digging up their sweet potatoes.
When they realized Xie Xingchen wanted the whole sweet potato, they even “helpfully” tried to break off the leftover cores and hand them to him—so frightened, Xie Xingchen hurriedly stuffed the remaining sweet potatoes into storage.
This troop actually wasn’t a single species.
From what Xie Xingchen could tell, there were at least two: ordinary monkeys and a group of Hainan gibbons.
The one that led them here was a Hainan gibbon—but strictly speaking, gibbons aren’t monkeys. Xie Xingchen kept calling it a monkey, but the two groups shouldn’t really be able to coexist.
Yet reality was bizarre:
The monkeys and gibbons lived together!
And it looked like they’d merged into one troop—while the troop’s “monkey king” was an ordinary monkey.
After watching the monkey king teach the others to smash coconuts for coconut flesh, Xie Xingchen corrected himself.
Alright—maybe this “ordinary” monkey king wasn’t ordinary at all.
“Ji-ji-ji.”
The familiar gibbon came over again to beg for coconut.
Seeing it snuggle up so intimately, Xie Xingchen rubbed its head without hesitation and pulled out all the remaining coconuts from storage.
After feeding the troop, Xie Xingchen suddenly realized something—
Aren’t monkeys amazing at climbing trees? Then why didn’t they just pick coconuts themselves? There were plenty of coconuts around.
He couldn’t figure it out, but curiosity got the better of him, so he shouted at the guide gibbon, “Banana—come here.”
That’s right—because it loved throwing bananas at him, Xie Xingchen had affectionately named it “Banana.”
Coming closer, “Banana” yawned, perfectly embodying “eat, then sleep.”
Just as it fell asleep happily, all the hand gestures Xie Xingchen had been preparing in his head went unused.
Fine. Looks like he wasn’t getting an answer anytime soon.
After resting for a while and recovering his energy, Xie Xingchen left with Get-Rich and Prosperity.
The mountain where the monkeys lived had a nicer climate than the jungle, but there seemed to be fewer fruits.
Especially coconuts.
Here, Xie Xingchen almost couldn’t find any coconut trees at all.
Thinking back to the long stretch of road “Banana” had led him through, there hadn’t seemed to be coconut trees there either.
So… maybe it wasn’t that the monkeys couldn’t pick coconuts, but that they couldn’t even find coconut trees?
Xie Xingchen shook his head and laughed. “Those monkeys are kind of unlucky.”
But—
Get-Rich frowned, puzzled. “Why are they unlucky? There’s so much natural food here. They can eat for free forever.”
Prosperity followed up with a precise jab: “And the monkeys here are wasteful. They only eat the sweet potato cores; they throw bananas whether they’re happy or not… If this kind of life counts as unlucky, then a lot of people on StarNet would probably want to be ‘unlucky’ too.”
Xie Xingchen: ?
Fine. He’d been shallow.
Putting aside the question of whether monkeys were unlucky, Xie Xingchen realized their current exploration route had drifted wildly from the original plan.
But compared to that jungle earlier, his gut told him this mountain was better—so he had no intention of changing locations.
The mountain had abundant vegetation. Most of the common plants were things he’d discovered before, but he didn’t get discouraged—because he found the mountain had more small plants than the jungle!
A babbling creek flowed down from higher ground. On both banks, rabbits, birds, deer, monkeys, and other small animals drank water.
Along the creek grew plenty of weeds—but hidden among them was a pure and lovely “flower fairy”: yellow stamens, white petals, and sword-straight green leaves.
—A narcissus.
For once, he’d been sharp-eyed, and he’d spotted a flower from the system’s illustrated catalogue?!
Xie Xingchen was so happy he nearly jumped.
He hurried over, still carrying the heat from sprinting, and gently touched the elegant narcissus.
[Ding-dong, congratulations! You found the plant “narcissus.” Exploration task “Find 10 plants” progress +1. Current progress: 8/10.]
[Ding-dong, congratulations! You discovered “narcissus.” Narcissus entry unlocked.]
[Narcissus: The legendary “golden cup and silver pedestal”—green skirt, blue sash, refined and otherworldly; its fragrance is elegant. Standing slenderly above clear ripples, it’s like a water-walking fairy descending upon the waves.]
Since ancient times, narcissus had symbolized purity and beauty.
As one of the “Ten Famous Flowers” of old China, it had been cultivated for over a thousand years—no wonder it had so many admirers.
Finding narcissus put Xie Xingchen in a visibly better mood.
Following the creek, he carefully dug up every narcissus he saw along the way.
Downstream, the terrain shifted from rugged to flat.
It was a small valley.
Wide and open, with tall hills on both sides.
The creek nourished the land, and lush green grass carpeted the whole valley.
Here, Xie Xingchen saw long-lost herds of cattle and sheep.
They didn’t bother each other, calmly dividing territory and grazing leisurely.
But the moment a stranger stepped in, both herds lifted their heads warily.
Xie Xingchen couldn’t help swallowing.
He wasn’t scared—but he was… drooling.
Cows! Sheep!
This was truly the first time he’d seen them again on Earth.
Real cows and sheep.
Not like what StarNet sold!
He called those “beef and mutton” too, but they weren’t the same—of course the taste differed.
As if sensing the waterfall of yearning pouring out of him, the cattle and sheep stopped grazing entirely. They grew alert and began moving away.
If Xie Xingchen charged now, he could get delicious beef and mutton.
But cattle and sheep were far too rare! He needed to keep them for breeding stock!
Watching them run off, Xie Xingchen forced himself not to chase.
After they left, he turned back and whined tearfully to Get-Rich and Prosperity.
Prosperity: “Boss, don’t cry. I’ll go catch them back!”
Get-Rich: “Once Prosperity brings them back, I’ll roast them into mutton skewers and beef skewers.”
Xie Xingchen: “…Thanks so much. Truly. So grateful.”
Skewers, my ass!
He dared to think it, but he didn’t dare do it.
He stopped Prosperity’s eager attempt to chase the livestock and said, “Let’s keep exploring. We still need two more new plants.”
Hearing that, the two robots gave up on the already-escaped cattle and sheep and split up to search the valley.
There weren’t any tall trees here. Xie Xingchen guessed the tallest “tree” was only a little over two meters—a papaya tree.
The papaya tree was loaded with fruit, and the ground beneath it was littered with papayas.
There was a difference: the papayas still on the tree were intact, while the fallen ones were missing chunks—clearly gnawed by small animals. And those animals were incredibly wasteful, biting only half before abandoning it.
Looking at the papayas, Xie Xingchen couldn’t help thinking of those monkeys.
There were so many species here that the animals didn’t even know what thrift meant.
Shaking his head, Xie Xingchen walked to where the cattle and sheep had been frolicking.
That area had the most grass. He came looking for dandelions.
To Xie Xingchen, dandelions were the most ordinary plants—and among the easiest to grow.
Back in his rundown apartment complex, he could find them in the landscaping strips.
Only he never got to pick them—local aunties always grabbed them as soon as they appeared.
Maybe it was his dandelion obsession?
He felt like this valley should have dandelions.
But—
After searching around, he still didn’t find a single dandelion.
Instead, in this damp valley, he found even more narcissus. Near the left hillside was practically a narcissus habitat—fresh, lovely, and beautiful.
After a while, Xie Xingchen got tired.
He found a shaded spot, pulled out a chair from storage, plopped down, took out an ice-cold drink, and gulped down a big mouthful.
“This weather is way too hot,” he complained, wiping sweat with a handkerchief.
Even in his temperature-regulating protective suit, without a head covering, he was drenched.
All he could say was: Qiong Island’s October was nothing like everywhere else.
It was already October, yet it was still scorching—this temperature had to be nearing forty degrees.
Seeing the two robots tirelessly searching the other side of the valley, Xie Xingchen felt bad and called them back. “Get-Rich, Prosperity—come here!”
They stopped and walked over.
After Xie Xingchen pressed them into seats, they went along with his whims and sipped the coconut-scented energy drink he handed them.
The sun was bright. If they’d been near the starship, Xie Xingchen might’ve been moved—here on Qiong Island, all he wanted was rain.
But it never rained here!
He’d been here several times and had never once seen Qiong Island rain, while it rained plenty near the starship.
After Prosperity finished his drink, he suddenly asked, “Boss, what’s the flower with yellow stamens, white petals, and green leaves called?”
At first Xie Xingchen thought Prosperity had found a new plant, but hearing the description, he relaxed back.
Lazy but still serious, he replied, “That’s narcissus.”
Prosperity scratched his head and shook it firmly. “No. That’s not narcissus.”
Xie Xingchen: ?
Confused, he said, “It is narcissus. Does it have another name?”
He wasn’t sure the interstellar world would call it “narcissus,” so he didn’t dismiss Prosperity outright.
But Prosperity meant something totally different.
Prosperity looked confused by Xie Xingchen. “I don’t know.”
Xie Xingchen: ?
“Then why are you saying it’s not narcissus?”
“Because it really isn’t narcissus!”
Xie Xingchen was even more confused. “But it really is!”
Even so, Prosperity kept shaking his head.
Xie Xingchen asked again, “You mean the flower with yellow stamens, white petals, and long sword-like green leaves, right?”
Prosperity shook his head. “No! Its leaves are small and round!”
Small and round leaves?
Xie Xingchen shot to his feet.
Oh—no wonder Prosperity said it wasn’t narcissus.
So it really wasn’t… but Prosperity’s descriptions were truly unreliable.
He looked at Prosperity anxiously. “Where is it?”
Prosperity pointed at the narcissus patch.
Xie Xingchen looked—narcissus, narcissus, narcissus… all narcissus.
He rubbed his eyes. Still the same.
But by now, Xie Xingchen trusted Prosperity’s sharp eyes, so he didn’t argue. He had Prosperity lead him.
At the narcissus patch, all he saw was narcissus.
But—
Following Prosperity to the far back, Xie Xingchen found what was hidden among the narcissus—
chamomile.
Yellow center, white petals, green leaves.
In color and shape, it really did resemble narcissus enough to confuse someone at a glance.
So similar that if Xie Xingchen had come alone, he could’ve searched until he died and still never realized a chamomile plant was hiding in the narcissus patch.
[Ding-dong, congratulations! You found the plant “chamomile.” Exploration task “Find 10 plants” progress +1. Current progress: 9/10.]
[Ding-dong, congratulations! You found “chamomile.” Chamomile entry unlocked.]
[Chamomile: A cute, vigorous chamomile plant! It doesn’t know why it grows among narcissus, but it likes narcissus a lot. If you plant it beside narcissus, it’ll be in a great mood and grow up fast~]
Xie Xingchen: ?
Chamomile… that likes narcissus?
Wasn’t that a little too weird?
Even plants had hobbies now?
Or had Earth’s species evolved—
in a… strange direction?
Since even the system said chamomile liked narcissus, Xie Xingchen didn’t dare dig it up alone.
He pulled out a large basin, filled it with soil, transplanted a few narcissus into it first, then carefully dug up the chamomile and placed it beside them.
Maybe it was his imagination, but the moment he dug up the chamomile, it drooped—until he planted it next to the narcissus again, when it seemed to perk back up.
Xie Xingchen: “…”
Absurd had opened a door for absurd—absurd all the way home!
He couldn’t help calling inwardly, “Xiao Mo, Xiao Mo… don’t you feel like Earth is kind of weird?”
For a second, he thought he heard faint system chimes—then the sound vanished.
[System Notice: Player, do not worry! Earth is very normal!]
Xie Xingchen glanced at the chamomile, unconvinced. “You think this is normal?”
[System Notice: Yes. Correct. Exactly so!]
Xie Xingchen: “…”
Alright then. If the “reliable” system said so, then this must be normal evolution.
Placing the chamomile in a special protected corner of his storage space—one he’d rigged up with shielding, energy stones, and spiritual power—Xie Xingchen continued exploring.
The valley wasn’t fully explored yet, and he didn’t want to leave. He felt like there would still be surprises.
Back on the grassland the cattle and sheep had trampled, he saw the wild grass was astonishingly resilient.
Aside from some blades crushed beyond recovery, most of it still looked bursting with life.
This valley was truly rich: besides wild grass and fruit, it even had many flowers.
Seeing the flowers made Xie Xingchen both happy and sad.
If he’d come here at the start, his task progress would probably already be on Illustrated Catalogue 02!
Just this small valley alone had narcissus, chamomile, carnations, jasmine…
And while the total fruit quantity was less than in the jungle, the varieties were plentiful: papaya, lemons, passionfruit, bananas.
Most terrifying of all—there were also bird’s-eye chilies, wild scallions, wild ginger, and wild garlic.
If these weren’t things he already had, he’d be shouting “treasure land” at the top of his lungs.
Exploring the valley took Xie Xingchen six hours.
In those six hours, he unlocked two catalogue entries and pushed the exploration task to 9/10.
“Get-Rich, Prosperity—we should get ready to leave!” he shouted at the valley entrance.
But what answered him wasn’t Get-Rich or Prosperity—
it was the distant thunderous rumble of a cattle stampede.
Xie Xingchen reflexively looked back.
Far away, a herd of cattle was charging toward him.
A herd sprinting at full speed was no joke!
Xie Xingchen spun around and ran.
He ran as long as they ran—fast as if he were flying.
Only when the herd stopped did Xie Xingchen dare stop too.
By then, he’d been pushed to the very edge of the valley.
He bent over, panting, seeing stars.
Suddenly, a calf bumped into him.
Xie Xingchen lost his balance and fell, his hand brushing a patch of tiny, scattered greenery.
[Ding-dong, congratulations! You found the plant “orchid.” Exploration task “Find 10 plants” progress +1. Current progress: 10/10.]
[Ding-dong, congratulations! You found “orchid.” Orchid entry unlocked.]
[Orchid: An orchid that has been half-chewed and trampled by cattle. It’s about to die. Player, please rescue it.]
![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]")
