Chapter 22 - 21: Boiling a Frog in Warm Water

When Doctor Jenkins left, Sev Steele was already yawning from exhaustion. She didn’t have time to tell the children about today’s encounters. She washed up haphazardly and threw herself onto the bed.

She originally planned to give herself a day off the next day and sleep in until the sun was high in the sky.

However, she was woken up by faint "SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK" sounds near her ear. Opening her eyes, she saw a little head poking out from the cloth. A pair of shiny, black-bean-like eyes met her gaze perfectly.

"Morning, little Silvy. Did you sleep well last night?" Sev smiled, gently rubbing its head.

"SQUEAK SQUEAK!" The little creature’s cries were still faint, but it seemed to be responding to her.

Up to now, Sev had not noticed any connection between herself and this little creature that had supposedly initiated an equal contract with her. Didn’t all the novels she had read before claim that after signing a contract, they could communicate telepathically? It seemed they were all lies.

But she didn’t mind. After all, her original intention in bringing Silvy back was to take care of it on its deceased mother’s behalf. If nothing else, its mother had given her a Wood Element Crystal Core right before dying.

Yesterday, she had actually considered taking out that Wood Element Crystal Core a few times to let Doctor Jenkins appraise it, but she held back in the end. As the saying went, wealth stirred the hearts of men. Even though Doctor Jenkins seemed fair and upright, who could guarantee that he wouldn’t be tempted by a Wood Element Crystal Core?

Even if he was willing to pay for it, she didn’t plan to sell. From the moment she accepted this treasure, she had already decided to give it to her fourth child.

The children were still full of wariness toward her right now. It was entirely possible that they were already plotting in their hearts how to get rid of her, their vicious adoptive mother. However, she noticed that the fourth child’s hostility toward her was slightly weaker. Or perhaps it was because the girl was too young and had been protected so well by her three older brothers that she hadn’t yet learned how to hate.

Since that was the case, this Crystal Core of hers was essentially a bribe—wait, no, bah! It was the warmth of a mother’s love! As long as the fourth child received this Wood Element Crystal Core and awakened a Wood Ability, her three older brothers might change their opinion of Sev.

Sev didn’t expect to be accepted by the children in a short period of time, nor did she expect to quickly correct their twisted worldviews. Her plan was to take the slow and steady approach—like boiling a frog in warm water. She would gradually amend her persona as the vicious adoptive mother, slowly make them lower their guard, and ultimately have them accept her as their mother from the bottom of their hearts.

"SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!" The cries near her ear interrupted her thoughts.

Silvy’s black-bean eyes were fixed intently on her, and Sev actually saw a hint of... grievance in its gaze? Could a cub that was barely a day old really show an expression like grievance?

Sev doubted her own judgment, but she somehow just knew that the little thing was hungry, and because it couldn’t get any food from her, it felt wronged.

With a resigned sigh, she climbed out of bed, washed up, and went to the kitchen.

The large pot of mushroom and shepherd’s purse soup she made last night had been completely eaten up. The four little ones had drank quite a lot of it at the time. But they had eaten very little of the basin of dried wild yams placed on the table, leaving more than half of it behind.

Sev had been too busy attending to Doctor Jenkins at the time to pay much attention to them. Now, seeing the half-basin of dried wild yams left on the dining table, and then looking at the four little ones busy twisting hemp ropes in the yard, her heart couldn’t help but ache for them.

They must have thought this item would fetch a high price, so they couldn’t bear to eat it. For such young children to endure hunger rather than eat the savory food—just how many hardships must they have experienced to develop such a sensible temperament?

Thinking of this, she waved to the children. "Aren’t you going to come over and help? I’m going to cook another pot of mushroom soup!"

Last night’s mushroom soup had been truly delicious. Hearing this, the four little ones couldn’t help but start drooling. They put down the work in their hands, hurried into the kitchen, and started helping out on their own initiative.

It was the same mushroom soup. Knowing that they couldn’t bear to eat the wild yam slices, Sev took out four Nutrition Blocks and handed one to each of them.

Rose started eating first, but Rusty hesitated. "Mom, haven’t we been eating a bit too much these past few days? Winter is coming soon, so we should store more food."

Sev had noticed last night that he kept stealing glances at her, looking as though he wanted to say something but kept holding back. No matter how deep his scheming was, he was ultimately just a seven-and-a-half-year-old child. How could Sev not see through his little thoughts? She had been waiting for him to speak up.

"Don’t be a buzzkill. I struck it rich yesterday, and I’m in a great mood right now," Sev said, glaring at him. Her vicious adoptive mother persona couldn’t collapse all at once, so she didn’t dare speak to the children with a gentle tone and pleasant expression.

Afterward, she put on a smug expression and recounted yesterday’s encounters.

Of course, she didn’t dare mention the massive sum of 370,000 points added to her account; she only said she had earned 37,000 points. After all, they were just children. If they went out and accidentally let it slip, it would likely attract the covetous eyes of others. Although the safety of the poor within the safe zone was guaranteed to a certain extent, if they were targeted while out scavenging, their little lives would probably be forfeit.

Hearing 37,000 points, the four little ones couldn’t help but doubt their own ears. To them, this was absolutely an astronomical figure!

Of course, if one point was equivalent to one yuan, such a large sum of money would have also been an astronomical figure for Sev back when she was still a college student on Azure. She had shrunk her earnings tenfold so that the children could eat to their hearts’ content without worrying about a lack of food for the winter.

"Mom, haven’t you always wanted to buy a dagger? Now that you have money, you should go to the trading hall and buy one later!" Rusty said with an urgent expression.

After saying this, he felt a bit annoyed with himself. Why should he care so much about this bad woman’s life or death? But recalling the danger she had experienced yesterday that he had just heard about, he couldn’t help but worry, wanting her to have a handy weapon.

Fine, he wasn’t worried about her at all. He was only taking into consideration how generous she had been these past two days, letting him and his younger siblings eat top-tier delicacies without limit, allowing them to stuff themselves full.

Hearing Rusty’s words, Sev’s heart warmed. It was good to see that the child hadn’t completely gone astray yet; there was great hope in correcting his worldview.

"Ahem! Well, I seem to have forgotten to tell you guys. I asked Doctor Jenkins for a favor to find a Forging Master to make two daggers out of that pair of Snake Fangs I luckily found yesterday.

"Once the daggers are done, I’ll carry one with me, and the remaining one can be given to Rusty to use first. After all, you’ll be turning eight in a few months.

"When the time comes, you’ll be able to go out scavenging, and that dagger will be perfect for you to use," Sev said with a dry cough.

"Really? I’ll soon be able to have a dagger of my own?" Rusty’s eyes instantly lit up.

To a child in the safe zone, a weapon was simply a dream treasure. Before today, he had dreamed countless times of having a sharp weapon of his own. In his dreams, he wielded his weapon and slaughtered enemies left and right. There was even one time when Rose was beaten by the bad woman, and in his dream, he took his knife and hacked at the bad woman’s wrist. At that time, a large gash was torn open on her wrist, bleeding profusely.

Recalling this dream, Rusty felt extremely ashamed, his small face flushing bright red. The moment his adoptive mother made money, the first thing she thought of was getting him a dagger. For him to still have such dreams was simply too heartless.

At this moment, the hatred Rusty once harbored for his adoptive mother dissipated by more than half.

He even thought that the reason his adoptive mother used to beat and scold them was purely because the family was too poor. Raising the four of them all by herself, relying solely on the official child-support subsidies was simply not enough. See? Now that she had money, her mood had improved. Not only was she willing to let them eat good food, but she was also willing to have a weapon forged for him.

Right now, Rusty was urgently hoping to reach the age of eight sooner, so that he could also go out scavenging and help the family earn money. With two people scavenging, the family would definitely become much more well-off. If that happened, would his adoptive mother become kind from then on and never abuse them again?