The Beautiful Top Being Pursued Relentlessly [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 8

Xie Cheng still couldn’t quite grasp what being “good at growing flowers” had to do with anything.

He was in a hurry, and the sleeve that had been shredded by the zombie remained unaddressed. With his forearm exposed to the elements, the wind felt biting against his skin.

The stammering Jiang Yi pressed close to him again. His flushed, burning cheek brushed against Xie Cheng’s arm, transferring a heat that felt incredibly vivid against the cold air.

Xie Cheng’s patience suddenly snapped. The faint air of indifference at the corners of his eyes turned to ice, making him appear cold and unapproachable. This irritability surged from deep within his heart, entirely without warning.

A shy Jiang Yi was certainly cute.

It was just that, right now, Xie Cheng wasn’t in the mood.

The period of weakness brought on by transforming into a plant was truly grueling—it came in waves with no rhyme or reason. This led Xie Cheng to suspect it was some form of petty revenge from Shen Yu.

All because he hadn’t let Shen Yu be the leader of the Destruction Division.

Good heavens, what a man-child. How did Wen Xun ever put up with him?

A wave of dizziness crashed into Xie Cheng’s mind. He pushed Jiang Yi away, then grabbed the man’s shoulder for support, pressing the other hand firmly against his brow to massage the ache.

“Headache again?” Jiang Yi asked softly. He didn’t dare move, fearing Xie Cheng might fall.

“Find a place.”

Xie Cheng’s voice trailed off.

Jiang Yi felt the weight against his back grow heavier, only to suddenly become light as a feather.

“Xie Cheng?”

Jiang Yi reached out anxiously but found nothing behind him. He spun around and froze in place.

Lying on the filthy ground was a single, listless white hydrangea. Flowers, leaves, stem  and roots everything was intact and complete, spread out like a botanical specimen.

As a first-time hydrangea, Xie Cheng wasn’t quite used to his new anatomy yet. The petals at the top were curled into a ball, shrivelled and parched from a long lack of water.

Jiang Yi stared blankly for a few seconds before dropping to the ground with a thump. His trembling fingertips cautiously reached out to touch the hydrangea’s petals; they were slick and soft, causing his fingers to curl back instinctively.

Even though he had known for a while that his “Immortal” was a flower, seeing his original form for the first time was still a shock.

So cute, so cute, so cute.

Pink bubbles of affection began to pop in Jiang Yi’s heart.

Jiang Yi giggled foolishly.

Jiang Yi covered his face.

He peeked through his fingers, stealing a glance at the Immortal Little Hydrangea on the ground.

Based on Jiang Yi’s meager knowledge of flower care and the textbook facts he had frantically memorized in his spare time, he could tell that Xie Cheng was a classic double-petaled hydrangea. When in bloom, the clusters should be massive and dense, but the Immortal’s true form seemed a bit.  small.

“Xie Cheng, can you still hear me?”

Jiang Yi flattened himself against the ground as much as possible, pressing his ear close to the hydrangea, straining to catch any sound.

“To the Rising Sun Base.” After a long silence, the petals quivered slightly, and Xie Cheng’s voice drifted out.

After forcing those words out, Xie Cheng fell into a deep slumber. No matter how many times Jiang Yi called his name, there was no response.

He wasn’t doing well.

His body felt trapped in a cramped space, unable to stretch, making it difficult to breathe. Yet, despite the enclosure, it wasn’t cold. Instead, it was exceptionally warm, wrapped in a familiar scent that caressed him gently.

His body didn’t reject it, but his consciousness did.

Xie Cheng could only endure the restlessness, curling into a fetal position while pillowed by the lingering floral fragrance, drifting in and out of consciousness.

Soon, he felt the space he occupied being lifted. He was tucked carefully into a palm and felt a gentle breeze being blown over him.

It was the kind of thing one did for a child. Like a patient parent blowing on a scraped knee to soothe the pain.

He wasn’t some fussy, crying toddler.

Xie Cheng shifted, wanting to put a stop to this behavior. But he couldn’t make a sound, and under Jiang Yi’s persistent soothing, he felt a ridiculous sense of peace.

Tsk.

How sentimental.

The sky turned sour as dark clouds pressed down, squeezing out a few drops of icy rain.

Jiang Yi’s left hand remained flat against his chest, holding the hydrangea steady to prevent it from being jolted. His right hand hovered over the top like a makeshift umbrella.

It wasn’t corrosive acid rain, so Jiang Yi didn’t rush. He observed his surroundings, small flickers of flame dancing atop his head.

Suddenly, the base of his finger felt itchy.

Jiang Yi looked down. A tiny, milky-white root had wrapped itself around his finger.

So cute, so cute, so cute.

He couldn’t take it anymore.

Jiang Yi quickly leaned down and planted a kiss on the slender little root, then snapped his head back up like a thief.

He looked left and right, scanning the area.

Excellent. No one saw. Not even the Immortal.

Jiang Yi’s “Secret Kiss Project” was a success.

Oh yeah!

****

“Hydrangeas require an extremely strict environment. They can’t be in the sun for too long, but they can’t stay in the dark forever either. They like fertile, well-draining soil…”

A deliberately hushed voice echoed from inside a car.

After a full day and night of rain, the weather had finally cleared up. The air smelled of damp earth mixed with a lingering, metallic scent of blood—it wasn’t pleasant.

An ordinary black sedan sat parked in the tall grass. The passenger door was wide open, and Jiang Yi was crouched in a highly awkward position, his torso leaning over the seat.

“Fertile, drainage, and the soil needs to be loosened a bit more.” Jiang Yi muttered to himself as he fished a small trowel out of a box under the car.

A flowerpot sat on the seat. It was a bright, vivid yellow, carved with intricate, multicolored patterns that looked incredibly busy.

This was Jiang Yi’s latest “treasure” find.

Jiang Yi leaned over the pot, sinking the trowel into the dirt and turning it clockwise. Before long, the soil in the pot became light and fluffy.

“Done.” Jiang Yi set the trowel down and clapped the dust off his hands, grinning at the pot. “Now I just need to find some fertilizer, and I can put the Immortal inside.”

With that finished, Jiang Yi went to the back seat to check on his “Immortal Hydrangea.”

The sky had changed colors, yet there was still no sign of the hydrangea turning back into a person. It remained spread out on the seat, its shrivelled petals opening and closing ever so slightly.

Jiang Yi climbed halfway into the car, propping his chin on his elbow, and just watched the flower.

One, two, three. so many petals.

But only five leaves.

When searching for the car, Jiang Yi had been extremely careful not to damage any part of the plant. He wasn’t sure which part of the hydrangea corresponded to which part of the Immortal’s body, and he lived in constant fear that if a leaf fell off, some vital organ of the Immortal might disappear.

Ugh, this was boring.

Jiang Yi began to tidy up the hydrangea’s fine roots. “The road to Rising Sun Base is blocked by collapsed debris. We have to find another way, but I.”

He trailed off.

He was hopelessly bad with directions a total road-blind.

“I left a signal for Old Qian and the others. I don’t know if they’ll find it. If they don’t…” Jiang Yi let out a little “hehe” laugh. “Then I’ll have to rely on the Immortal’s divine powers.”

In his heart, the Immortal was omnipotent.

“And those survivors in the building. the two of us can’t take that many people. We still need to wait for Old Qian.”

Jiang Yi rambled on, letting out a sigh.

Old Qian and the others were members of Jiang Yi’s team. There were many ability squads in the Rising Sun Base, all under Jiang Yi’s jurisdiction, but the team he led personally was the strongest. They had survived countless life-and-death situations and trusted each other implicitly.

At the mention of “Old Qian,” Jiang Yi became melancholic and started gossiping to Xie Cheng about his teammates. It was all trivial nonsense—like someone putting too many spoonfuls of salt in the cooking, or a water-user not producing enough water.

By the time Jiang Yi mentioned that over-salted dish for the third time, Xie Cheng, nestled inside the hydrangea, had reached his limit.

“Noisy. Shut up,” he voiced.

Jiang Yi blinked. Before his eyes, the tightly curled petals were forced open by some invisible power. In a split second, the elegant hydrangea transformed into what looked like a piece of wilted cabbage.

“Xie Cheng!”

“I’m not dead. Stop shouting.”

“Xie Cheng! Xie Cheng! Xie Cheng!”

Bothered by the noise, Xie Cheng pulled his petals back together. From his bizarre perspective, all he could see was Jiang Yi’s oversized head and his sticking-out backside.

It looked like… a winding mountain range?

To prevent Jiang Yi from chanting like a broken machine, Xie Cheng asked first: “Where are we now?”

“I’m not sure,” Jiang Yi said softly.

“What do you mean ‘not sure’?”

So, Jiang Yi explained the road conditions, emphasizing that the main path was impassable, before finally admitting in a breezy tone that he was directionally challenged and had no idea where they were.

Xie Cheng stared at his forced attempt at composure and let out a cold snicker that made the whole hydrangea cluster tremble.

“You can’t blame me for that,” Jiang Yi wheedled.

“Are you certain your teammates will come?” Xie Cheng remained silent for a moment. “What kind of signal did you leave?”

“An arrow?” Jiang Yi scratched his head. “An arrow pointing to the right. When they see it, they’ll come running.”

Xie Cheng: “…”

Jiang Yi held up four fingers pressed together. “I promise, the chemistry between us is perfect.”

Xie Cheng: “Idiot. People use three fingers to swear an oath.”

*****

“Old Qian, come over here. Doesn’t this look like a marker left by our Captain?”

On a small path overgrown with weeds, a red-haired man jumped up and down, pointing excitedly at a “Red Apple” symbol on a wall.

The man called “Old Qian” was middle-aged and a bit portly, but after years of high-intensity training, his weight had settled into solid, bulging muscle. He wore a trendy t-shirt with a massive, eye-catching skull pattern plastered across the chest.

“I hear you,” Old Qian grunted, chewing on a piece of dry grass as he walked toward the wall.

An abandoned corner, a crumbling half-wall, and knee-high wildflowers—it was indeed a prime spot for a marker. Old Qian analyzed it and nodded to himself.

The wall was covered in a mess of random arrows; they either looked like a child’s scribbles or an enemy’s attempt to distract them. But that big red apple right in the center was unmistakable.

Of course. Their Captain loved apples most of all.

Old Qian pulled off his sunglasses and spat out his decision after careful deliberation: “We go left.”

“Reason?” Tang Ling, a cold-faced woman sitting on a rock, spoke up while adjusting the holster of the gun strapped to her wrist.

Old Qian: “The stem of the apple is pointing left.”

“But the dimple at the bottom of the apple is pointing right.”

Old Qian spat out his dry grass, dropping his usual cavalier attitude for a serious expression. “We must follow the leader’s footsteps closely. With a clear target, we shall reach the finish line.”

Tang Ling: 

“I think Old Qian is right,” the red-haired man, Jiang Shui, said as he slapped his hand against the red apple.

Old Qian turned his head to the other side. “Xiao Yu, what do you think?”

A young girl sitting cross-legged on the ground looked up, rubbing her chin against the ragdoll in her arms. “Okay.”

Old Qian laughed heartily and put his sunglasses back on. “Comrades, let’s head left to find the Captain!”

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