The Overlord Flower's Guide to Intercepting a Woman's Wife's Death and the Male Lead&

A rustling sound came from deep within the woods.

The withered branches swayed gently.

A squirrel peeked half its head out from behind a tree trunk, its nose twitching rapidly twice.

It darted down and stopped two inches in front of Su Xingmian's boots.

Holding half a pine nut in its two front paws, it squatted on the ground and looked up at her.

Su Xingmian squatted down.

The squirrel didn't run away.

It hesitated for about three seconds, then pushed the half pine nut in its mouth forward, to the edge of Su Xingmian's shoe.

"...For me?"

The squirrel tilted its head and hopped twice on the spot.

The soldiers behind them were stunned.

Xiao Zhao scratched the back of his head, his jaw almost dropping to the ground.

"Sister-in-law, what kind of constitution do you have? Aren't the wild animals in the mountains afraid of you?"

An old soldier next to him lowered his voice.

"What do you know? My sister-in-law is kind-hearted; even animals know to befriend good people."

Su Xingmian picked up the pine nuts and nodded to the squirrel.

The squirrel leaped up the tree trunk with its hind legs, and disappeared with a flick of its tail.

"Comrade Zhao, superstition is unacceptable."

Su Xingmian put the pine nuts into her pocket, stood up, and continued walking forward.

When the team reached the vicinity of the 2,300-meter contour line, Wei Guodong raised his hand to signal them to stop.

"Right here."

He pointed with a stick to a gentle slope in front of him where aspen and birch trees were mixed together.

Su Xingmian took out the brown paper notebook from her bag, turned to the page marked with a red circle, and compared it with the surrounding terrain.

She nodded, walked over, squatted down, and grabbed a handful of topsoil.

The layer of decaying leaves had dried to the point of being brittle. Peeling back the top three or four centimeters of dry leaf fragments revealed dark brown humus underneath.

She squeezed it; it was soft and elastic, and a little dark juice seeped out from where her fingers pressed.

"Uncle Wei, the shovel."

Wei Guodong handed over a shovel.

Su Xingmian dug down two shovelfuls.

The soil turned up by the shovel gradually darkens in color from top to bottom.

The bottom layer of humus is almost pure black, feels dense and thick when squeezed, and is covered with visible white mycelium when broken open.

Wei Guodong squatted down and took a look.

He took the shovel and dug another test pit next to it, with the same result.

"Forty-five centimeters."

He muttered something to himself.

"When I measured it in 1963, it was less than half a meter. No one touched it for ten years, and now the floor has increased in size."

He touched his chin.

"It's naturally accumulated to this thickness."

The soldiers no longer needed to wait for orders; the platoon leader had already begun dividing them into groups.

The three teams dispersed and began digging and filling baskets within the area selected by Wei Guodong and Su Xingmian.

Inserting a shovel into the soft, decaying leaf layer was more than ten times easier than digging through the compacted soil of the Gobi Desert.

Su Xingmian didn't keep an eye on the digging.

She sat on the trunk of a fallen old tree, took out an enamel mug, and took a sip of water.

The faint sound of falling leaves cracking came from behind me.

Su Xingmian turned her head.

A furry, round face peeked out from behind a bush three meters away.

It is grayish-white, with small, round ears that are pressed tightly against the top of its head.

Pallas's cat.

Su Xingmian recognized this thing.

My grandmother drew it in an old book she left behind, and it was labeled "Prairie Cat".

This creature is naturally solitary and extremely wary, never daring to approach people.

The Pallas's cat, however, crouched under the bushes, its two yellow-green pupils fixed on her, showing no intention of running away.

Su Xingmian didn't move.

The Pallas's cat didn't move either.

The man and the beast stared at each other for about half a minute.

The Pallas's cat suddenly yawned, revealing a pair of sharp canines.

It lay down, its front paws crossed, and its chin rested comfortably on them.

Its tail was as thick as a kettle brush, with segmented black rings at the tip, and it was now peacefully coiled at its side.

Su Xingmian slowly reached out her hand.

The Pallas's cat tucked its ears back, but didn't run away.

She didn't touch it.

Simply hold your hand in mid-air, letting the natural scent of plants emanate from your body.

The Pallas's cat twitched its nose twice.

Then it closed its eyes and made a very low purring sound in its throat.

Su Xingmian withdrew her hand.

Xiao Zhao walked over at some point and stood five meters away, his mouth agape for a long time.

"Sister-in-law, sister-in-law...that's a Pallas's cat! The veterans in our area said they've been living on this mountain for ten years and have never seen one alive!"

"Shhh."

Su Xingmian held up one finger.

The Pallas's cat lay there dozing under the bushes.

It waited for nearly half an hour, until the soldiers started making more noise as they filled the baskets, before it lazily stood up.

He shook off the dry leaves clinging to his clothes and walked deeper into the woods.

As it reached the edge of the bushes, it turned back to look in Su Xingmian's direction.

He turned and disappeared into the bushes.

"My God!" Xiao Zhao plopped down on the ground. "If I go back and tell the political commissar, no one will believe me."

Su Xingmian held the enamel mug and took a sip of water.

She didn't know how to explain it.

The scent of plants seemed to be more attractive to animals than she had anticipated.

*

We were halfway down the mountain.

Su Xingmian stopped in her tracks as she passed through a mountain hollow.

She crouched down, pretending to tie her shoelaces, kneeling on one knee and pressing her fingers between the pebbles.

The demonic power sank.

ten meters.

Twelve meters.

A waterway.

It runs east to west, with abundant water and a steady flow.

The burial depth of twelve meters is exactly within the range of manual well digging.

To the east of the valley lies a wide, gentle slope. The slope is gentle and the area is large enough.

If we just dig a well here and bring water for irrigation, that Gobi Desert can be turned into fertile land.

These are all genuine acts of merit.

She pressed her fingers to the ground and held them there for three seconds.

The coordinates were etched into my brain.

The moment the demonic power was withdrawn, a slight tremor came from deep within the meridians.

Su Xingmian stood up and brushed the dirt off her hands.

Wei Guodong, who was in front, turned around and shouted.

"Comrade Su, keep up, we need to get down the mountain before dark."

"They're here."

She strode to catch up with the group, suppressing the tremor she had felt just moments before.

No rush, turning the Gobi Desert into an oasis must be done step by step.

*

evening.

When the team returned to the gate of the camp, the setting sun had dyed the entire residential compound orange-red.

As soon as Su Xingmian stepped into the alley, she felt a slight numbness all over her body.

The night-blooming cereus in the yard has split off, with all its sharp thorns standing upright.

The last time this reaction occurred was when Song Qingqing touched a raw nerve in her hometown in the south.

No, this defensive stance isn't Song Qingqing's.

Su Xingmian didn't stop walking.

She walked to the courtyard gate and reached out to push it open.

The door was opened from the inside first.

Zhou Bingheng stood inside the courtyard gate.

He was dressed in a neat military uniform and first reached out to help her brush the fallen leaves and dust off her shoulders.

He lowered his head and whispered in her ear.

"Two people have arrived from the division headquarters; they are a working group sent by higher authorities."

He paused for a moment.

"I came for you."

Su Xingmian raised her face.

"An investigation team? To check my identity?"

Zhou Bingheng did not deny it.

"Someone submitted materials to higher authorities regarding your identity issue."

Su Xingmian's mind was racing.

Song Qingqing returned to the capital, and the investigation team immediately went to Helan Mountain.

"Who do you think reported me?"

The two looked at each other.

The answer is obvious.

Su Xingmian pressed her face against his chest, listening to his heartbeat.

Calm and composed, without the slightest sign of panic.

In the corner of the courtyard wall, the sharp thorns of the dwarf lily's divided branches fell off one by one.

It's a sense of security that comes from finding someone to rely on.

Su Xingmian nestled in his arms, her voice muffled by the fabric of his clothes.

"That's perfect, let them investigate to their heart's content."

The leaves of the Queen of the Night flower in the flowerpot tilted slightly, leaning towards the two of them.

Zhou Bingheng's palm remained pressed against the back of her head, not letting go.

At the end of the alley, a Jeep with a Beijing license plate was parked at the entrance of the division headquarters compound, its engine already turned off.