Li Meirong carefully considered her options. The thought of being responsible for the life of another lay heavily on her heart, as vile as he was.
"I wonder if it's possible to preserve that demonic cultivator's life while ensuring he won't be able to harm us.." She pondered.
An idea soon popped in her mind!
"Little Chou, if we extract that person from your um, belly right about now, would the person stay shrunken in size?" Li Meirong asked, a spark lit in her eyes.
Chou didn't have eyes, but the gaze he directed towards Li Meirong after her question made her certain that he thought she was dumb.
After a moment of silence.
'Master, I'm just a plant..'
Chou's soft and almost childlike voice echoed in her head, exasperated. She swore she heard him telepathically sigh.
A vein popped on Li Meirong's forehead.
"Yes yes, you're just a plant…So what does actually happen if you extract him out?" She asked slightly angered.
She's not even from this world! Give her a break, is it even considered a common occurrence to communicate with man eating plants here..
'I will have to revert to my original size and spew him out. It doesn't feel that good master, imagine puking your food. Feels bad. Imagine someone shoving his hands into your mouth and taking out the food from your belly. Sure is awful, master.'
Chou explained as slowly as possible and even went as far as to offer a description for Li Meirong to understand what he would have to go through, and especially what he had to go through because of her previously.
In Chou's opinion, he was a very considerate and attentive spirit plant.
Another vein popped on Li Meirong's forehead.
"I see….I'm sorry about before, but in my defense, you did almost eat my friends, I had no choice but to shove my hands inside and…Sorry about that." Her apology came almost instinctively, but after she asked for forgiveness, she soon regretted it!
He was the bad guy here, why am I apologizing?!
Chou on the other hand thought it was right and proper for her to do so. 'It's alright master, I won't hold it against you.'
"…" Said Li Meirong.
'However master, in response to your predicament, my body's saliva paralyzes prey before my body digests them. I can keep him in a state of incubation for a while if you wish, if you will provide me with blood regularly instead.'
That didn't seem like a bad idea, maybe she can ask her friends what to do with him later on.
"How much blood do you need?"
'As much as you can give!'
"…I can give you a drop a day." Testing the grounds, Li Meirong responded.
'Master, I'm a growing plant and I need my nutrition!'
Cho crisscrossed his vines around him.
He sounded mad. It was only possible to tell from his voice, since he had no face.
"Fine, a few drops a day." Li meirong relented.
The master and pet reached a bargain and the walk continued in silence. Li Meirong planned on asking him, why did he even help her? And why did he want to be her pet when he could have just eaten her, but she didn't want more on her mind now.
She had to find Shu Qianqian and Mo Jing first.
They followed the previously charted territory. Tracing Chou's track's from his agile hopping capabilities in the jungle. After what felt like a whole day of agony, Li Meirong finally made it through to the familiar river bank she sat by previously.
She was completely drained. Blisters formed on her feet, her legs already got coated with dry mud, twigs and leaves got stuck on her loosely tied hair.
She was definitely fitting the scenery better as the hours passed by.
Li Meirong dragged her weary feet towards the thick vines where she discovered Chou for the first time, but she was depressed to find that Mo Jing and Shu Qianqian were not there.
Now what…
They can't be dead, their corpses would have stayed or she would have at least found some remains.
They wouldn't have left her..
Li Meirong tried to assure herself , but gloomy thoughts kept surfacing.
Her mind blanked, she really wasn't sure what to do at this point. She aimed for the practical approach and figured she could at least care for herself.
Going back to the river, she bent down on the ground and cupped water in her hands. It was the first time that Li Meirong saw how she looked like in this body.
She saw a disheveled young woman. She really got dirty from head to toe, but she could still see that if it were not for those horrible facial wounds and unkempt appearance, this body of hers might have passed for a real beauty in a year or two.
The sought after pale skin, full eyebrows, long lashes and small full ruby colored lips was the vision she gazed at.
Li Meirong wasn't bad looking before, she had an average type of look, at least that's how she would describe herself. She was the type that with a little bit of makeup she could pass for beautiful, but without she would be considered plain.
She felt a bit guilty for taking over the body of this delicate girl who has probably been through so much only to end her life at such a young age, she appeared as a delicate Chinese doll who's been mauled by an angry animal. She definitely didn't take good care of herself since she arrived here.
Li Meirong splashed the water on her face and used her fingernails to try and scrape off the dirt, as well as taking off the worn out mud filled leather boots. She let her poor sore feet breathe some fresh air before placing her feet in the water. The blisters burnt, she bit her lips to stifle her yelp.
Chou hopped off from her shoulders and imitated her actions, cupping water with his miniature leaves and splashing water on his chubby plant body. She couldn't help giggling, viewing his antics.
Li Meirong decided to spend the night there. Just in case Shu Qianqian and Mo Jing would decide to come back and see if she's there again.
She lay at the corner where the thick vines lightly grazed the waters.
As Li Meirong curled her body in a fetal position, she didn't forget to bleed her finger on Chou's hungry mouth.
Chou was so happy to receive her blood he lay about as well, and swung his chubby belly around happily.
It would have looked cute if he was a seal, or a puppy, but he was a carnivorous plant, with a man stuck inside his body.
Eh.
She closed her eyes and hoped dreams would take over.