On the mountaintop, one person and two Pokemon lay on the ground, panting.
“I’ve never worked this hard in my life; I’m exhausted. I actually ran out of energy halfway up the mountain, but thankfully Grimmsnarl attacked Hydreigon. But why would they attack Hydreigon?” Miraidon couldn’t understand.
“Maybe all Dark-type Pokemon are like that, just fighting at the drop of a hat.” Chen Kai still felt a lingering fear: “I felt like I saw my great-grandmother several times.”
Miraidon suggested, “Let’s be more careful in the future. Let’s not just charge around so brazenly anymore.”
Chen Kai nodded, “Let’s rest for a day, and then we’ll take a longer route and avoid that small hill.”
It was already afternoon when they returned home. Chen Dafu and Bai Lijuan were out herding Mareep, so Chen Kai could relax on the sofa and calm his mind.
After the long journey, Miraidon’s sandwich had long been digested, and Chen Kai hadn’t eaten anything all day, so he was starving.
Fortunately, during their escape, his backpack wasn’t lost, and the Berries inside were still there. Chen Kai remembered how Berries were often chopped and stewed in the anime.
So he casually picked some Berries, chopped them up, and stewed a pot of soup.
Chen Kai tasted it and found no issues, so he shared it with Xiao Mei and Miraidon.
But for some reason, Xiao Mei and Miraidon both looked at him with constipated expressions.
“What’s wrong?” Chen Kai asked, puzzled.
This pot of food, while rich in nutrients and energy, completely disregarded the taste of the individual Berries, containing a mix of sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and astringent flavors.
It was as if sweet soy milk and savory soy milk were mixed together, with an added spoonful of chili.
Even the dogs by the roadside shook their heads.
Miraidon hesitated for a moment before saying, “Xiao Kai, maybe you shouldn’t cook anymore. Berries can be eaten directly after being washed.”
But Chen Kai couldn’t taste any problem. He scratched his head and said awkwardly, “Uh… alright, I thought my cooking was fine, but if you don’t like it, I’ll just wash them and give them to you next time.”
Upholding the principle of not wasting food, and with complex feelings, they finished the Berry soup.
Xiao Mei surprisingly diligently went to the yard to practice her move accuracy. Repeated Thunderbolt misses made her very annoyed.
Miraidon also went to the yard, occasionally offering guidance to Xiao Mei.
Miraidon gestured with his two front paws, “Xiao Mei, you need to do it like this, and this, and then this, and you’ll be able to control the current’s direction better.”
After evolving into Flaaffy, Xiao Mei could stand upright, and she also began to gesture with her hands.
“Flaaffy, Flaaffy, Flaaffy!” (Like this… and that… Oh! I think I get it now.)
“Huh?” Chen Kai looked at the two Pokemon communicating in disbelief.
Is this how you teach skills? I feel like I don’t quite understand.
But seeing the two serious Pokemon, Chen Kai didn’t want to interrupt. He scrolled on his phone for a while, unsure what to look at, and sat in the shade, lost in thought.
The weather outside the courtyard was lovely. It was summer, but because they were in the mountains, it wasn’t particularly hot. The clear blue sky was like a pure sapphire, without a single cloud to obscure it.
From not far away came the chirping of cicadas, which in this world were most likely the sounds made by Ninjask.
Several Rattata poked their heads out, and seeing that the surroundings were safe, they crawled out of their holes to forage, playing and frolicking along the way.
In the past decade or so, he had never seen such a sight living in the capital, but then again, no one on Earth had ever seen a real Pokemon.
He sighed deeply:
“It’s like a dream!”
After an unknown amount of time, Miraidon came to his side, tilting his head and asking in confusion, “Xiao Kai. What’s wrong?”
Chen Kai got up and waved his hand:
“Just a bit of weariness.”
After speaking, he got up and went back into the house.
Miraidon: “…”
Xiao Mei walked over and said, “Mareep!” (He’s like that. In human terms, it’s called chuunibyou.)
In the evening, Chen Dafu and Bai Lijuan returned home, looking shocked at Xiao Mei, who had already evolved into Flaaffy.
“This… Xiao Kai, what’s going on?”
Chen Kai replied, puzzled, “Nothing’s going on, Xiao Mei just evolved!”
Chen Dafu emphasized again, “I know it evolved, but how could it evolve so quickly? You’ve only had Xiao Mei for less than 10 days, right?”
Chen Kai scratched his head, asking in confusion, “Is that fast?”
His rhetorical question, on the contrary, stumped Chen Dafu. Should Pokemon evolution be this fast?
In Chen Kai’s impression, according to the game’s timeline, evolving in one day was normal, and he even thought his own training of Xiao Mei’s evolution speed was slow.
But in the Pokémon world, even a Caterpie evolving into Metapod takes at least 10 days to half a month, let alone a Mareep.
Chen Dafu’s mouth moved, unsure what to say, and a thousand words converged into one sentence: “That’s great, keep up the good work.”
Bai Lijuan clapped her hands and said, “Alright, let’s not dwell on this. To celebrate Mareep evolving into Flaaffy, we’ll have extra dishes tonight and make something delicious to celebrate!”
Flaaffy! (Yay!)
Miraidon also secretly rejoiced: “Yay!”
Chen Kai rummaged through his backpack and took out a few Berries he had picked in the secret realm: “Mom, I picked these on the mountain. If we’re having extra dishes, do you think we can add these?”
“What did you pick?” Bai Lijuan took them and was startled, almost dropping the Berries: “Ah! What are these?”
Chen Kai pointed at the Berries, naming them one by one: “This is a Sitrus Berry, this is a Wepear Berry, this is…”
“I know what they’re called, I’m asking where you got these?”
Only then did Chen Kai remember that Berries were rare in the wild. Taking out so many at once was hard to explain, but explaining the secret realm would be even harder, so he could only bite the bullet and reply, “I picked them up on the mountain.”
“Where on the mountain did you pick them up? I’ll go pick some tomorrow too.”
Facing Bai Lijuan’s continuous questioning, Chen Kai had a headache: “Uh… I… I encountered a Greedent in the mountains, and I won a battle against it, and then I picked these from its nest. I took them all, so there’s none left, and it probably moved its nest too.”
“Oh, so Xiao Kai has good luck!” Bai Lijuan happily patted Chen Kai’s shoulder and said, “I’ve never cooked with so many Berries before. Tonight, I’ll take on the challenge and make a grand feast!”
Bai Lijuan indeed kept her word. With the assistance of Chen Dafu and Chen Kai, a table of delicious dishes was prepared in just over half an hour.
Xiao Mei and everyone else ate heartily, and Miraidon ate with his mouth dripping with oil.
As night fell, Chen Dafu returned to the room in high spirits: “Wife, tonight’s Berry feast was really good! I feel full of energy, especially after Gogoat ate, it feels like it’s almost Senior-level!”
“Indeed, ordinary people wouldn’t be able to eat so many of these Berries.” Bai Lijuan replied without looking up from her book on the bed.
Chen Dafu asked in confusion, “Ah, wife, what do you mean?”
“Tonight’s Berries aren’t the ones you usually eat. Those are unique Berries from a secret realm.” Bai Lijuan put down her book and looked up, speaking seriously to Chen Dafu.
“You might have entered a secret realm without knowing it. Berries with so much energy and still so fresh can only be freshly picked from inside a secret realm. If they were outside, wild Pokemon would have eaten them all long ago. How could they still be around?”
Chen Dafu said, puzzled, “Then at dinner…”
“These past few days, I’ve had Xatu follow him, but it often loses track. And Xiao Mei evolved so quickly, and he foolishly took out so many Berries without trying to hide them a bit. Anyone with eyes can see there’s a problem.” Bai Lijuan sighed helplessly.
“I estimate that when Xiao Kai came to Sichuan Province, he found a new secret realm on this Zining Mountain that no one had ever explored before.
Such new secret realms contain a large amount of resources, and even the energy concentration in the air is much higher than on Blue Star, which is why Xiao Mei was able to evolve so quickly.”
“A secret realm!” Chen Dafu exclaimed in surprise, “And a new secret realm!”
Bai Lijuan threw her book at Chen Dafu.
“Keep your voice down, are you trying to let everyone know or what?
This is a huge opportunity. Many high-ranking officials and nobles don’t even have a secret realm, and Xiao Kai actually stumbled upon one. You absolutely cannot let word get out.”
Chen Dafu quickly nodded and said, “Mhm! Of course, how could I tell anyone? It’s just that I saw Xiao Kai seemed to be planning to go to the county town tomorrow to sell the remaining few Berries.”
Bai Lijuan instructed, “Remember to remind him to sell them at the Qu County Alliance Center. I saw he only has 2 left in his bag; the officials won’t care about those two Berries.
Also, remind Xiao Kai to use any good things for himself. For truly special items, he can give them to us to help him handle.”