Chapter 286: Testing Taotao
After the meal, everyone else was sent back to rest. Zhuang Mingxu finally had time to talk with Lu Weiyi alone.
He lightly tapped Lu Weiyi’s forehead, “Still hurting? Besides the pain, do you feel anything else?”
It was a dragging pain, like something inside his head was being pulled.
Lu Weiyi had almost no energy left, but seeing how worried Zhuang Mingxu was, he forced himself to respond, “A little. I’m working on it—I have a lead now.”
Zhuang Mingxu had also asked Xu Yi, but he hadn’t been able to help either. Using scientific equipment wasn’t practical right now. Everyone relied on Lu Weiyi to stabilize morale. If word of his condition got out, the team itself might fall apart.
Zhuang Mingxu pulled him into his shoulder and looked over at Taotao playing with Zhuang Ai Yi. That reminded him of the strange child’s sudden appearance. “Where did he come from?”
“I don’t know either,” Lu Weiyi lowered his voice to make sure no one was listening. “After I absorbed a few spatial jades and the space was repaired, I got pulled into it. Then he appeared and said he was the ‘Yin-Yang Protective Jade Spirit.’”
He repeated what Taotao had said back then to Zhuang Mingxu.
Zhuang Mingxu thought about the jade’s origin, the auction house seller’s pitch, and the legends associated with it. Supposedly, it had belonged to a powerful figure from the Shang Dynasty. It was referenced in several unofficial histories, and its presence had been noted across different time periods.
“Could it really be a jade spirit?” In the past, Zhuang Mingxu would have scoffed at the idea. But now, with supernatural powers existing, he figured he wouldn’t even be surprised if someone told him immortals were real.
“Maybe,” Lu Weiyi replied thoughtfully, pointing to his head. “There’s something weird with him. In the space, he seemed older than Ai Yi. But once he came out, he looked this small. I haven’t had time to ask. He seems harmless toward Ai Yi, so I let them play.”
Though they couldn’t figure out where Taotao came from, he clearly wasn’t a threat. So Zhuang Mingxu didn’t press further and instead asked, “If he’s the jade itself, does that mean he’s connected to your space? Can he go in independently?”
Lu Weiyi shook his head. “I haven’t sensed anything inside being touched.” Previously, when only he could control the space, he hadn’t noticed anything unusual. But after letting Zhuang Mingxu in, he realized that he could observe everyone’s actions in the space at will—just like he could now control those in the lab.
Zhuang Mingxu called out to Xu Yi to take Zhuang Ai Yi aside to play, then waved at Taotao and asked Lu Weiyi for a bag of snacks.
“Big Daddy, Father,” Taotao stood obediently in front of the two of them, his little bellyband and pigtails making him look more and more like a traditional New Year’s painting doll. Only, he was wearing a very modern pair of sandals, which made him look slightly out of place.
Compared to how agile he was in the space, he now seemed a bit wobbly and unsure on his feet, walking with an unfamiliar gait. But with his current small stature, it just made him seem like a toddler who had just learned to walk, which didn’t seem odd at all.
Zhuang Mingxu handed him the bag of snacks with a warm smile. “This is Big Daddy’s gift for meeting Taotao.”
“All for Taotao?” Taotao looked cautiously at Lu Weiyi.
Zhuang Mingxu noticed that while Taotao clearly wanted to get close to Lu Weiyi, he also seemed to harbor a faint, elusive fear.
He scooped the child onto his lap. “Yes, all for Taotao. Do you like them?”
It was a whole big bag, almost as big as Taotao himself. Taotao’s face lit up with joy. He tried tugging at it but couldn’t lift it, so he ended up hugging the whole bag, half lying on top of it.
“Thank you, Big Daddy,” Taotao said happily.
“Taotao, tell Big Daddy—how old are you?” Zhuang Mingxu asked gently.
Taotao thought for a moment, then shook his head, his eyes briefly filled with confusion.
“Then how did you end up inside the jade pendant?”
Taotao shook his head again.
“Can you go into the jade on your own? Can you take things out from inside?”
“Yes,” Taotao said seriously, and he took something out and handed it to Zhuang Mingxu.
Zhuang Mingxu lowered his head—it was a handgun. Taotao carefully pushed it back into his hand. “I don’t like it. It hit me. It hurt,” he said, pointing to his chest in a tone of grievance, like he was tattling.
He really did seem muddled and innocent. If you called him dumb, he was actually quite polite. If you called him clever, he didn’t seem to understand a lot of things, even sometimes getting stuck, like his brain lagged half a beat behind.
“Can you live outside? Will it have any effects on you?” Zhuang Mingxu asked.
Taotao shook his head and was already tugging at the snack bag, wanting to open it.
Lu Weiyi held down the snacks. When Taotao looked up at him with innocent eyes, he asked, “Can you control the peach branches?”
“Yes! I am Taotao,” he said. As he spoke, his two white, chubby little hands instantly turned into countless tiny green vines, as thin as hair—exactly like the ones Lu Weiyi usually controlled.
But compared to Lu Weiyi’s single vine, Taotao’s hands turned into a dense net, capable of engulfing everyone nearby, and he seemed far more practiced with them—as if they were part of his own body.
Although these weren’t his abilities exactly, Lu Weiyi had been using the little green vines since the beginning of the apocalypse. Now seeing someone else use them, it gave him a strange feeling.
Seeing Lu Weiyi fall silent, Taotao thought he had done something wrong. His hands returned to normal in a flash, and he offered a peach to Lu Weiyi with a flattering smile. “Father, eat.”
Lu Weiyi didn’t take it. He thought for a moment, then reached to the side. Without clearly seeing what he did, a vine appeared in his hand—it looked quite familiar.
“Father, here,” Taotao said sweetly, trying to please. “Taotao’s good, don’t be angry, please don’t hit Taotao.”
Lu Weiyi took the vine from his hand and said to Zhuang Mingxu, “It’s Gu Qingji’s mutant vine.” He turned to Taotao. “How did you get this?”
This vine rarely interacted with anyone but Gu Qingji. On one hand, it didn’t understand others; on the other, it acted a bit aloof.
Only Zhuang Ai Yi would regularly bribe it with snacks, and then it would “gracefully” agree to play for a while.
But it was said that during Zhuang Ai Yi’s recent escape, the vine had helped quite a bit.
Lu Weiyi stroked the vine, which immediately lashed its tendrils and tried to escape. Its rebellious attitude was nothing like the well-behaved version Taotao had just handled.
With lightning speed, Taotao caught it again and held it tightly. “For Father,” he said.
Then, his small hands started moving toward the base of the vine, as if about to snap it.
Lu Weiyi squinted at the scene and mouthed two words to Zhuang Mingxu: “Crystal core.”
Zhuang Mingxu’s expression tightened slightly. On closer inspection, the vine that had been fiercely resisting in Lu Weiyi’s hand now appeared submissive in Taotao’s grip, occasionally trembling slightly—as if shivering.
“Taotao wants to give his energy to Father,” Taotao mumbled as he gripped the vine tightly. Just as he was about to break it, he stopped and said in panic, “Don’t cry, don’t cry.”
“Father, the vine says it will die.”
“You can understand it?” Zhuang Mingxu asked.
“Yes, we’re the same.”
Zhuang Mingxu thought about it but didn’t understand what “the same” meant.
“Why doesn’t it resist you?” he asked again.
“Because I’m strong,” Taotao said proudly, then tried to shove the vine back into Lu Weiyi’s hand. “All for Father.”
Zhuang Mingxu asked a few more questions. Taotao’s answers remained vague and unclear.
But one thing was very obvious—he couldn’t stand seeing Lu Weiyi look unhappy. The moment Lu Weiyi frowned or showed any sign of displeasure, Taotao would instantly shrink back, trying his best to please him. With his round little face and helpless look, it tugged at anyone’s heartstrings.
Zhuang Mingxu couldn’t bear to tease him further. He gently reminded him not to take things from the space randomly, not to talk to others about the space or his origins, and made sure he understood. Then he finally gave him the long-awaited snacks and let him go play.
“Then Taotao will go find Big Brother,” Taotao said cautiously, only walking away with his snack bag after Lu Weiyi nodded.
As he walked, he shouted for his brother to come.
Zhuang Ai Yi’s delighted voice came from the room. Then they heard him say, “My little brother called me!” and he ran out with Xu Yi.
What they saw was a small child struggling to drag a huge bag of snacks like a plough ox, face flushed red from the effort—a scene that looked suspiciously like child labor.
Xu Yi immediately felt that the two of them were truly heartless.
He rushed forward, scooped up Tao Tao in one arm, grabbed the bag of snacks with the other, and directed the other child, “Come with Uncle Xu.”
He led the two children to a corner, then sat cross-legged on the ground. The two kids followed his example and sat in the exact same posture.
Tao Tao spread the opened snacks all over the ground, happily distributing them one by one—one for you, one for me—taking turns with a big grin. Xu Yi sat between them, smiling with a rare trace of innocence.
“We’ll just keep observing him for now,” Zhuang Mingxu whispered to Lu Weiyi, before asking about Zhuang Mobai’s group’s whereabouts.
“Didn’t you see it yourself?” Lu Weiyi replied.
Zhuang Mingxu thought for a moment and suddenly realized, “Oh, that was…”
Lu Weiyi nodded. Zhuang Mingxu suddenly choked up and didn’t know what to say.
They briefly informed Qi Lin, then turned back to their room. Lu Weiyi began to hesitate again—he didn’t want Zhuang Mingxu to have contact with them.
“What’s wrong?” Zhuang Mingxu noticed his silence, pulled him into a hug, and asked gently, “Xiao Yi, talk to me, what’s going on?”
His voice was soft and soothing, the same tone he used when comforting children. It was as if there had never been any conflict between them, as if their previous argument had never happened. It made Lu Weiyi feel a bit out of place.
They had never had such a serious confrontation before, and now it felt like a thorn wedged in his heart that he didn’t know how to remove. Zhuang Mingxu didn’t seem to be offering any help either, leaving Lu Weiyi unsure of what to say.
“I can go see him by myself,” Lu Weiyi said after a moment.
“I’ll go with you. There are lots of strange potions in the lab. I wouldn’t feel at ease if you went alone. I’ll go with you. If anything happens, at least I’ll be there to help.”
