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“Of course,” Zhao Yang replied. “I’ve never lied. Go ahead and try it out. If it doesn’t work, I’ll find you something else. It’s not a big deal.”
Even so, Zhang Nu and the others still stared at the grass seeds in their palms with disbelief. The whole thing felt absurd.
“Are you sure about this? These just look like two ordinary blades of grass. I’m even starting to think you just plucked them off the ground,” Zhang Nu said, doubtful, holding the seeds up for Zhao Yang to see.
Zhao Yang gave a slight nod. “I simply just plucked them. But they really have special properties. If it weren’t for me eating these plants since I was little, I’d probably be just like everyone else here by now.”
Zhang Nu blinked, utterly dumbfounded. For a moment, it felt like Zhao Yang was playing a joke on them. But seeing the serious look on his face, he knew Zhao Yang wasn’t joking. He meant every word, and these were things that had genuinely happened to him.
“That’s incredible,” Zhang Nu murmured. “Just some wild herbs can undo all that... It really makes you think.”
Zhao Yang only gave a lazy nod and waved them off, lounging again against the tree trunk like there was nothing in the world worth worrying about. People like him were always unbothered by anything—never bound by circumstance, never weighed down by problems.
Once they parted ways with Zhao Yang, the trio started discussing again.
“Do you really think that grass will work?” Zhang Nu asked.
Lin Xiao and Ling X i shook their heads. They weren’t sure if the grass would have any effect. If it worked, great. If not, well—they couldn’t blame Zhao Yang. He’d done more than enough by offering a suggestion, even if he had his own motives.
“Let’s just give it a try,” Lin Xiao said. “If Liu Hai hasn’t recovered in three days, we’ll go talk to him again.”
It was the only option they had. With no other ideas, they followed the plan. For the next three days, they quietly mixed the grass into Liu Hai’s meals. On the fourth day, however, Liu Hai seemed no different than usual.
He gave them a confused look, as if they were acting like fools. “Why are you three staring at me like that? Don’t recognize me anymore?” he asked, baffled.
Hearing that, all three of them broke into relieved laughter. It worked—Liu Hai was back to normal. Zhao Yang hadn’t lied to them after all. The idling version of him was gone.
“Good,” Zhang Nu said. “We need to leave this village as soon as possible. This place numbs people, makes you want to stay without realizing it.”
Liu Hai nodded in agreement. Though the laziness and comfort had faded from him, the memories of the past few days still lingered. He hadn’t forgotten.
“You’re right. I remember everything clearly. If we stay here any longer, we’ll lose our drive completely.”
And so, they prepared to leave the village. What they hadn’t told Liu Hai yet was that they’d also decided to take Zhao Yang with them.
When Liu Hai noticed their direction wasn’t toward the village outskirts, he grew confused.
“Zhang Nu, where are we going? Aren’t we supposed to be heading out? Why are we going deeper into the village?”
“Oh, right. I forgot to tell you,” Zhang Nu said, scratching his head. “We’re taking Zhao Yang with us. He’s the one who gave us the method to wake you up. That was his condition.”
Liu Hai’s eyes widened. “You’re telling me we’re bringing someone with us from every place we pass through?”
He was half-joking, teasing Zhang Nu as he imagined the comical scene, gathering a new person in every village until they were a traveling army.
“Alright, alright,” Zhang Nu laughed. “No need to get dramatic. He helped us, and he made a deal with us. We gave our word—what kind of people would we be if we went back on it?”