My abstract plant was exposed by my sister.

She picked up a piece of braised pork, placed it on a small plate, and pushed it towards the cactus. The plate slid halfway around the coffee table. "Try it, just in case you like it."

The middle finger guy stretched out his finger, touched the flesh, got a little sauce on his fingertip, and then quickly pulled it back, making a heart shape with his fingers towards Xu Huiru.

"It said thank you," Lin Muyang translated.

"I can tell."

Xu Huiru beamed with joy, stared at the cactus for two seconds, then took the plate of meat back and ate it herself.

After dinner, Xu Huiru was clearing the dishes, and the clinking of the dishes made a clattering sound. Lin Xiaokui wanted to help, but was chased away.

She suddenly remembered something, wiped her hands on her apron, and took a cake box out of the refrigerator.

She carefully opened the cake box; inside was a cream cake, with red jam adorning the white cream and the words: "Happy Graduation, Lin Muyang!"

"Mom, how did you know I was graduating today?" Lin Muyang rarely showed a surprised expression.

"That's what Xiaokui said," Mom said, placing the cake on the coffee table. "Your dad queued for an hour to buy it."

Dad stood beside him, fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan, pretending not to hear. The fan covered half his face, revealing only his eyes, which blinked twice behind the fan.

His mother cut a piece of cake and handed it to Lin Muyang. He took the plate, lowered his head, and took a bite. Mmm, it was very sweet.

"Is it sweet?" Xu Huiru looked at him, her hands on her knees, her body leaning slightly forward.

"sweet."

"How about compared to the tomatoes you grow?"

Lin Muyang thought for a moment, chewed twice, and swallowed: "It's different."

"What's different?"

"The cake won't explode."

Xu Huiru paused for a second, then laughed, laughing until tears streamed down her face.

In the afternoon, Lin Muyang went to the yard for some fresh air.

The yard wasn't big; the ground was cement, and there was a small flower bed around the edge. A few rose bushes were planted in the corner, their leaves wilted and lifeless.

He squatted down in front of the rose bed, dug around in the soil with his hands, picked up a small clump of soil, which was so dry and hard that it crumbled when squeezed.

"Mom, how long has it been since you watered this rose bush?"

Mom poked her head out of the kitchen, holding a dishcloth in her hand: "That one? It was planted last month, but it hasn't sprouted any new shoots. I was about to pull it out."

Lin Muyang returned to his room and took out a small bottle from his bag. It contained the last bit of the induction solution he had prepared earlier.

He returned to the small flower bed, unscrewed the bottle cap, and poured about half a bottle of the solution into the roots, allowing the inducing liquid to gradually seep into the dry, cracked soil.

He scooped a ladle of water from the bucket next to him and poured it on the roots so that the roses could absorb it as quickly as possible.

"What did you just fall down on?" Hsu Hui-ju walked over, her face full of curiosity.

"The nutrient solution I prepared myself."

"Will it work?"

"As long as he's not completely dead, he's still useful. Let's see again tomorrow."

Just then, Aunt Wang, a neighbor, peeked out from over the wall. Aunt Wang was in her sixties, with permed hair that was as bushy as a lion's mane.

His voice was as loud as a megaphone; the whole street could hear him when he opened his mouth: "Hey, Mu Yang's back!"

She spotted the middle finger guy in Lin Muyang's hand at a glance, her eyes widening: "Is this the cactus that swears online?"

Before Lin Muyang could answer, Aunt Wang reached out and tried to touch him.

The guy with the middle finger immediately gave her the middle finger, almost poking her fingernail.

"Oh dear! It insulted me!" Aunt Wang withdrew her hand, not angry at all, but rather quite excited; "It really does give me the middle finger! I have to go back and tell Old Zhang!"

She pulled her head back, and immediately her loud voice came from the other side of the wall:

"Old Zhang! Old Zhang! Come quick! Mu Yang's cactus really does curse!" Old Zhang didn't respond, probably because the sound of cooking in the kitchen drowned out her shouts.

Lin Zhenbang, standing to the side, fanned himself with a palm-leaf fan and muttered something under his breath:

"Your Aunt Wang told me yesterday that she wanted you to put a couple of drops of medicine on her clivia too." Although the palm-leaf fan covered half of his face, it couldn't hide the smile on his lips.

Lin Muyang glanced at Lin Zhenbang: "Wasn't her clivia already dead?"

He saw it even through the wall.

"You only save someone when they're dead."

Lin Muyang was silent for a moment, then tapped the edge of the flowerpot twice with his fingers: "It's completely dead, there's no way to save it."

Dad nodded and fanned himself twice with his palm-leaf fan: "That's what I told her too. She said, 'How will you know if you don't try?'"

In the evening, the family sat in the living room watching TV.

The TV was on, but no one was watching it; the screen flickered, and the volume was very low. Xu Huiru placed the "middle finger guy" on the coffee table, facing her directly.

"Tell me, are you a man or a woman?" Hsu Hui-ju was speaking to the cactus, her tone as serious as if she were having a conversation with someone.

The cactus raised its middle finger.

"What do you mean by that?"

"It said 'Guess'," Xiao Kui translated from the side, with half a watermelon still in her mouth, juice spilling from the corner of her lips.

Xu Huiru turned to look at Lin Muyang: "It can really talk?"

"No. It only uses gestures."

"Then how would your sister understand?"

"She's just guessing." Lin Muyang leaned back on the sofa, his hands behind his head, his eyes staring at the ceiling.

Xiao Kui protested from the side, "I'm not just guessing! I deduced it based on the length and angle of its fingers!"

She quickly finished the remaining fruit, threw the watermelon rind into the trash can with a thud.

Lin Zhenbang suddenly took out his phone from his pocket, opened a shopping app, and searched for "high-end cactus flower pots".

The blue light from the phone screen shone on his face. He squinted at it for a moment, then looked up and asked Lin Muyang, "Muyang, what kind of flowerpot should I use for your cactus?"

"Whatever, it's not picky."

"Won't it mind?"

"Even I find it distasteful." Lin Muyang's tone was flat, but Xiao Kui noticed that the corner of his mouth twitched.

Dad nodded and ordered a purple clay pot for over three hundred yuan.

When Xu Huiru saw this, she glared at him, her eyebrows raised: "You can't even afford to buy yourself a belt."

"That's for the cactus, not for me," Dad said matter-of-factly, putting his phone back in his pocket and patting it.

The next morning, Lin Muyang was awakened by Xiao Kui's screams.

He sat up in bed, his hair a mess, his eyes still closed, yawned, and walked into the yard in his slippers.

Xiao Kui stood in front of the rose bed, holding up her phone; the live stream was already on.

She was wearing pajamas and her hair was unkempt.

Lin Zhenbang and Xu Huiru also stood to the side. Xu Huiru was holding a toothbrush cup with the toothbrush still in her mouth, while Lin Zhenbang was fanning himself with a palm leaf fan.

As for why Xiao Kui screamed, it was because the rose bush that was about to die had survived.

Not only did it survive, it also blossomed. The petals were gradient colors, from pink to golden yellow, each one plump and waxy.

The flowers are twice the size of ordinary roses, almost as big as an adult's fist.

Even more outrageous, a smiley face shape grew from the position of the flower's stamen, with a mouth made of petals and two dark stamens for the eyes, making it look lifelike.