Chapter 9: Flowers and Birds

Saturday morning, Zi Mountain Insect and Bird Market.

Locking his Phoenix-brand bicycle, Li Cheng clapped his hands, then looked up at the market's archway sign.

In the past, he would go to a dessert shop for work; now that the dessert shop was gone and he didn't want to waste time idly, he decided to stroll through the insect and bird market.

To scout for any insects that could serve as his next absorption target—so he wouldn't be caught off guard if his 【Gene Hunger】 suddenly flared up.

The genes of the prairie pavement ant enhanced his muscle burst power.

The genes of the Chinese giant mantis granted him retractable bone blades.

So what insect should he choose next? A cricket from the Orthoptera order, with exceptional jumping ability? A beetle from the Coleoptera order, with a hard exoskeleton? Or even the tough little cockroach from the Blattodea order?

Absentmindedly thinking, Li Cheng suddenly spotted a somewhat familiar figure, "Shao classmate?"

Shao Wangshu, dressed in a white dress and wearing a sun hat, sat outside a café in the market sipping an iced Americano; she was equally surprised to see Li Cheng, "Li Cheng classmate? What a coincidence."

"Yeah, what a coincidence."

Li Cheng scratched his head. Yin City was so big—if he hadn't seen Shao Wangshu already sitting here, he'd have suspected she was following him, "You're here to browse the insect and bird market too? By yourself?"

"Not by myself—my butler came too."

Shao Wangshu pointed behind her; the female butler, flipping through a fashion magazine nearby, felt the gaze and waved over.

Uh—being able to afford a full-time butler proved Han Letian was right—Shao Wangshu's family was indeed very wealthy.

But as House of Cards said, approaching power makes some people mistakenly believe they possess power; approaching wealth makes some people mistakenly believe they possess wealth. No matter how rich others were, it had nothing to do with him.

Li Cheng remained calm and asked casually, "Here to buy flowers?"

"Mm," Shao Wangshu nodded, "The garden—ah, I mean, my new home just moved in, it's too empty, so I want to buy some flowers to fill it up."

She paused slightly, adding with a touch of sadness, "My mother used to like keeping flowers."

Used to—not always.

Li Cheng sharply caught the wording discrepancy, but since Shao Wangshu didn't elaborate, he didn't press further, saying casually, "Want to browse together?"

As desk mates, they'd be spending time together for a while; moreover, since Shao Wangshu had just moved to Yin City, as a local, he ought to show her around, out of courtesy and reason.

Sigh—just thinking about showing someone around reminded Li Cheng of Officer Wang from the community police station—every year when the vice crackdown began, experienced Officer Wang would map out every illegal establishment in the city.

"Sure."

Shao Wangshu's eyes lit up; she took another sip of coffee, quickly set down her cup, grabbed her small bag, skipped paying the bill, and followed Li Cheng away.

The female butler nearby sighed, tapped her forehead with the newspaper, muttering, "Wei Caiyan, Wei Caiyan, how did you end up with this job..."

Then she stood up, scanned the code to pay for both herself and Shao Wangshu, and slowly trailed after the two who had left.

Tulips, peony chrysanthemums, peonies, roses, azaleas, hydrangeas, forget-me-nots

Walking past the colorful array of flowers, breathing in the rich fragrance, his mood naturally lifted.

Li Cheng also took several photos for Shao Wangshu at her request, using her phone—his photography skills and the girl's looks made the pictures surprisingly good.

"You like taking photos?"

Noticing the phone was packed with photos, Li Cheng asked casually.

"Mm." Shao Wangshu took back her phone, walking ahead, slightly embarrassed, "I think photos are snapshots of a person's life. Everyone dies three times: the first is physical death—heart stops, brain ceases functioning.

The second is social death—when the funeral ends, the deceased's social roles and relationships officially conclude.

The third is being forgotten—when the last person who remembers the deceased passes away, that person ceases to exist entirely."

Shao Wangshu skipped ahead of Li Cheng, turned around, and smiled brightly at him, "So I like taking photos, I like drawing. That way, when I die someday, my life's snapshots will still exist—even if no one remembers me."

For a vibrant high school student, constantly talking about death was strange.

Li Cheng blinked, unsure how to respond, so he just murmured some vague replies, introducing some local specialty foods and hidden, unassuming roadside eateries with surprisingly good taste.

After turning a few corners and selecting some flowers, they finally reached the destination of this insect and bird market trip—a pet shop called 【Mengmeng Exotic Pets】.

"I'll go take a look at the reptiles—why don't you wait outside?"

"It's fine, I'm not afraid."

Shao Wangshu, full of curiosity, followed Li Cheng into the reptile shop; inside, the space was moderate-sized, lined with several rows of glass cabinets.

One row held corn snakes, king snakes, pig-nosed snakes—all from the order Serpentes.

One row held frilled lizards, leopard geckos—all from the order Squamata.

One row held orange baboons, golden straight-jawed spiders, Solomons—all from the order Araneae.

And, most importantly to Li Cheng, various insects.

"It's so cute!"

Shao Wangshu's attention was drawn to a plump, round blue-tongued skink (genus Tiliqua, family Scincidae); her eyes sparkled, and after the clerk nodded approval, she reached out to touch it.

The blue-tongued skink looked dopey—fat and chubby, with short legs, constantly sticking out its blue tongue, its expression perpetually dazed and dim-witted.

The slender shop owner noticed Li Cheng lingering by the insect cabinet and approached, asking, "What kind are you looking for, handsome? We've got the mighty giant Hercules beetle, Chinese giant flat-horn, giraffe stag beetle.

The beautiful ones: rainbow stag beetle, two-spot red stag beetle, white-stripe green flower beetle, Uganda flower beetle, king flower beetle.

And there's the Meitlifer slender red stag beetle—beautiful and mighty, extremely cool."

The shop owner opened the glass cabinet and took out a stag beetle, placing it on his palm.

This insect came from Sulawesi Island and nearby islands in Indonesia; its body was slender, its carapace blue and purple with a metallic sheen.

But the most striking feature was its mandibles—longer than its body, spiked inside, resembling bizarre weapons, incredibly beautiful.

Li Cheng suppressed the urge to touch the stag beetle, rubbed his palms, and asked, "Do you have the Hercules beetle? Or the Atlas beetle would do too."

The Atlas beetle, also called the Atlas rhinoceros beetle, belongs to the family Scarabaeidae, genus Dynastes; primarily distributed in tropical rainforests of Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines.

It has three long, sturdy antennae on its head, with a maximum body length of 140.63mm, feeding on tree sap, and is extremely aggressive—known as the king of rhinoceros beetles.

The Hercules beetle, also called Hercules rhinoceros beetle, is the emperor of rhinoceros beetles, with a maximum body length of an astonishing 184mm.

"We have the Hercules. Rhinoceros beetles are strictly regulated by customs—can't be imported. But domestic insect societies have obtained special breeding licenses and breed them locally."

The shop owner nodded, "Do you want L1, L2, or L3?"

"Can it become an adult?"

From egg to adult, the dung beetle passes through several stages: egg, first-instar larva (L1), second-instar larva (L2), third-instar larva (L3), pupa, then adult.

The entire process is very long, and the greatest pleasure lies in raising the fat, plump larvae until they pupate and emerge as adults, breaking free from their cocoons. It feels like breeding Pokémon.

After emerging as adults, one can also artificially breed them to produce offspring that are larger, stronger, and more handsome.

People like Li Cheng who buy adults directly are actually rare.

Not only because adults lack the joy of breeding, but also because they cost more—some individuals with superior bloodlines and near-maximum body length can sell for tens of thousands.

"You came at an unlucky time—we just sold out. The long-horned beetle's growth period is long, and its adult lifespan is only six months to a year."

The shop owner asked: "I have pupae at most—would you like one?"

"That's fine."

Li Cheng nodded. The pupal stage of the long-horned beetle lasts about forty to sixty days; considering he had just completed a round of 【Gene Hunger】, he wasn't in a hurry. Besides, he wanted to test something.

"I'll go get it for you."

The dung beetle circle isn't large, and finding a fellow enthusiast was rare—the shop owner was quite enthusiastic, retrieving from storage a pupa nearly sixteen centimeters long, housed in an artificial pupation chamber.

While packing wood shavings for Li Cheng, he went on at length about how noble this long-horned beetle's ancestry was.

Just as Li Cheng was about to pay, he saw Shao Wangshu walking over, holding two geckos—one was a Queensland eastern variety, priced at eight thousand; the other was a northern variety, priced at four thousand.

Together they cost twelve thousand—that was a real sale!

The owner's eyes lit up, and with a hundredfold enthusiasm he served Shao Wangshu, giving a detailed explanation of how to care for the blue-tongued skink. In truth, there wasn't much to it—the species was incredibly simple-minded, essentially a walking kitchen waste bin that ate dog food and cat food alike.

When it came time to pay, the delighted owner waved his hand and waived the price of Li Cheng's pupa.

Outside the shop, Li Cheng held the box and scratched his head. "Uh, I owe you one this time."

"Hehe, just treat me to a milk tea next time."

Shao Wangshu, carrying the two plastic boxes, whispered: "Or maybe we could go explore other places together sometime?"

"What places?"

"What do you think? The zoo? The cinema? Disneyland? Even a cruise ship would do."

Shao Wangshu skipped ahead, unaware that Li Cheng had suddenly turned his head sharply toward a corner of the alley.

He smelled a familiar scent.

The scent of the Lord of Insects.

(End of Chapter)