Chapter 2: People’s Park, Absorbing Wood Element Energy

Chapter 2: People's Park, Absorbing Wood Element Energy

The cursing outside lasted for more than ten minutes before it finally died down.

Not long after, the sound of Ye Qing's mother calling everyone for breakfast could be heard from outside.

The brothers and sisters laughed and joked as they took their seats at the table, the family enjoying a harmonious atmosphere as if everything had returned to normal. However, no one came to call Ye Qing for breakfast, as if she didn’t exist at all.

No one remembered that the breakfast they were eating was prepared by the original body, who had woken up as early as five or six in the morning to make it.

Ye Qing could only feel pity for the original body, thinking that she must have been incredibly unlucky to be born into such a family.

There were five children in the family. The eldest brother and the youngest brother shared a room, while the eldest sister and the youngest sister shared another. Only the original body was nestled in a cramped storage room carved out of the balcony.

The storage room, less than three square meters, contained a very rudimentary wooden bed frame. The room was cluttered with miscellaneous old items, and even the lower berth of the bed frame was occupied, leaving only a narrow passageway to the ladder leading to the upper berth.

A washed-out old sheet was pulled across the upper berth as a makeshift curtain for privacy. This narrow bed, less than a meter wide, was one of the few spaces where the original body could find solace in this family.

Over the years, whether sleeping or studying, everything was done on this bed.

By the foot of the bed, there was a window. One of the windowpanes had broken several years ago. However, Ye's parents had been too reluctant to spend money on replacing the glass. Instead, they had scavenged a discarded wooden board from the trash and haphazardly nailed it over the window.

The wooden board was slightly too small, leaving a gap of about an inch. In the winter, the cold wind would whistle through the gap, forcing the original body to curl up shivering under the blankets.

The original body had once brought up the issue of replacing the window with her parents, but she was met with a scolding from Ye's mother. Ye's father had even labeled her as "unable to endure hardship," which scared the original body into silence.

Now, as Ye Qing glanced at the dilapidated window and the cluttered storage room, she felt a deep sense of irony.

Silently, she sighed in her heart:

"Perhaps death was your liberation. There's no need to cling to such relatives. Instead of suffering in this world, you should have moved on to the next life, and in your next life, choose parents who love you!"

As if in response to her thoughts, Ye Qing felt a sudden lightness in her body, as though something had detached from her.

She immediately realized what was happening and instinctively looked around.

But there was nothing to see.

Still, Ye Qing had a sense of understanding in her heart. She couldn't help but smile slightly and whispered:

"Don't worry, I will live well in your place. I will make the most of this life you've given me and not waste it!"

From this day on, the past was just a prelude. The apocalypse and the wasteland were things to be left behind. Now, in the 1970s, as Ye Qing in this parallel dimension, she would not only live freely but live brilliantly!

By the time Ye Qing came out, the breakfast of the six members of the Ye family was almost finished.

The table was a mess, but clearly, no food had been saved for Ye Qing.

Ye Qing wasn't surprised and didn't even spare a glance at the table before heading straight out the door.

As she walked down the corridor, she could still hear the family gossiping behind her:

"Didn't even bother to say hello. All those years of education were wasted!"

"What does she mean by this? Is she angry with me? Does she really think I'm afraid of her?"

"Where is Second Sister going?"

"Who knows? Let her die wherever she wants. If she has the ability, she can leave and never come back!"

"But Mom, if she leaves, who will do the dishes?"

"..."

Ye Qing's lips twitched, but she didn’t take the family's words to heart.

There was still a week before she would be sent to the countryside. Within this week, she needed to make preparations. One was to upgrade her abilities, and the other was to make money.

Right now, she needed to go out and embrace nature, absorbing as much wood element energy as possible!

As soon as she stepped out of the row house, a few flower beds came into view.

The lush bushes and thriving camphor trees in the flower beds filled her with an intense sense of vitality, causing her heart to race uncontrollably, and she instinctively swallowed hard.

But Ye Qing didn’t dare to linger. She knew what happened when she absorbed wood element energy.

Her wood element ability was special. When she absorbed the wood energy from a plant, she simultaneously fed back into it, causing the plant to sprout new leaves and bloom flowers instantly.

This process was entirely beyond her control, at least for now. She hadn't yet mastered the ability to regulate it.

Therefore, Ye Qing didn’t dare to touch the plants near the row house, fearing that if she did, the plants might suddenly grow new leaves and bloom, a scene that would be considered bizarre by anyone who saw it, and she wouldn’t be able to explain the anomaly.

If she dared to do this in a residential area, she would likely be sent to a laboratory for examination by the end of the day.

So, the place she needed to go had to be far from any residential area, preferably somewhere desolate, to avoid drawing attention.

But going to such a place wasn’t as simple as she wished.

First, this was the 1970s. Without a letter of introduction, going to another place wasn’t even worth considering.

For one thing, she was completely broke at the moment.

Before leaving the house, Ye Qing had thoroughly searched the original body's bed, but all she found was a mere 0.12 yuan.

This 0.12 yuan was earned by the original body in school by helping others with their daily cleaning duties.

With so little money, Ye Qing had to be extremely frugal and spend it wisely.

After much thought, she finally narrowed down two places.

One was People's Park, seven kilometers outside of Yan Tang Old Street, and the other was the mountains on the outskirts of Shen City.

In the 1970s, Shen City had two types of public transportation: trolleybuses and buses.

To get to People's Park, she could take the trolleybus, which cost 0.04 yuan per ride.

To go to the outskirts, she would need to take the bus, which cost 0.07 yuan per ride.

Since Ye Qing didn't have enough money, she could only go to People's Park for now.

As for going to the outskirts, she would have to figure out a way to get more money later.

People's Park was one of the few public gardens in Shen City in the 1970s, with about four hectares of public green space for citizens to relax and enjoy.

Ye Qing chose this park as her first stop for wood element energy replenishment.

The main reason was that the park was densely vegetated, with many towering old trees that were decades or even centuries old. These old trees contained abundant energy, which would greatly help her upgrade her abilities.

At the same time, while she absorbed the energy, she could also nourish the old trees in return, helping them regain their vitality. It was a symbiotic relationship.

Ye Qing made her way to People's Park and began to wander around, observing carefully without drawing attention.

There weren't many people in the park, and most of them were either playing on the lakeside lawn or walking on the lakeside path.

Seeing a wooden fence with a hole in it, Ye Qing quickly slipped through when no one was looking.

After going deep into the woods for several dozen meters, and making sure that the people outside couldn't see her, she finally felt relieved to start her work.

Every few steps, Ye Qing would choose a tree to absorb energy from.

Any tree she touched would start to dance wildly, visibly rejuvenating, bursting into flowers and growing new leaves, with petals fluttering to the ground.

At the same time, the pale green light poured into Ye Qing's body from her palms, and she could feel her wood element ability expanding rapidly. The more vitality she absorbed, the lighter and more refreshed she felt.

After nearly three hours of absorption, having explored almost the entire park, Ye Qing finally stopped.

Looking back, she felt a little guilty.

She estimated that in just two hours, she had affected nearly a hundred large trees.

Before she crossed into this world, it took her seven years in the apocalyptic era to barely upgrade her ability to level two. But now, in just a morning, she could already feel her ability showing signs of a breakthrough.

Having gained so much energy, Ye Qing was naturally generous in giving back.

She found many tree seeds on the ground in the woods and picked them up.

After catalyzing them with her wood element ability, the seeds quickly took root and sprouted, rapidly growing into one or two-meter-tall saplings, standing straight and healthy.

By the time she finished planting the trees, it was already afternoon.

After working for five or six hours, Ye Qing was already starving.

She had only 0.08 yuan left, and the steamed buns at the state-run restaurant cost 0.02 yuan each, but she also needed food coupons, which she didn't have.

But she couldn't go without eating. Given the original body's physical condition, Ye Qing was afraid she might faint from hunger halfway.

Ye Qing quickly left the woods and started wandering around, looking for a way to get food coupons.

Just as she was racking her brains, she heard a provocative voice from not far away:

"Old Man Wu, with your lousy fishing skills, if you don't come back empty-handed today, I'll give you all of my monthly allowance, not just five yuan!"

"Haha, count me in!"

"I can't bet my allowance; my old wife controls it tightly, but Old Man Wu, if you catch a fish today, I'll give you my chess set!"

"...''

Ye Qing looked in the direction of the voice and saw several retired old men by the lake, fishing with their rods.

After listening for a moment, Ye Qing understood what was going on.

One of the old men, surnamed Wu, had terrible fishing skills and always returned empty-handed, so the others were teasing him for fun.

As they egged him on, one of the old men started a bet.

The others became interested and started putting up their own stakes, laughing.

Old Man Wu was embarrassed and frustrated by his friends' teasing, his face turning red.

He wanted to redeem himself, but he knew his fishing skills were poor, and the chance of success today was slim.

Standing nearby, Ye Qing's eyes lit up when she saw Old Man Wu's distressed expression.

This was an opportunity to earn food coupons!