Humans Shrunk 100 Times

Chapter 180: Dragon Boat Festival

"What are you whispering about?" Dong Junwei's voice came through.

It was the afternoon break, and everyone had returned to the living area. They saw Chen Mu squatting next to Gu Yinglong, engaged in a conversation.

"These tea leaves..."

"Oh, a few days ago, I saw Yinglong with nothing to do, so I casually gave her a few stems of these tea leaves."

Since the last grain of original rice was eaten, there was nothing left to divide among Gu Yinglong. So, Dong Junwei thought of this solution when they acquired the tea leaves.

"But is it necessary to divide tea leaves?"

Chen Mu was a bit puzzled. Unlike other food items, tea leaves were meant to be steeped in water. There was no issue with taste; just pull some down, and the resulting tea would be the same. Splitting them seemed like an unnecessary extra step.

Dong Junwei laughed, "I know it's not necessary, but it's just to give Yinglong something to do."

Chen Mu smiled, no wonder Gu Yinglong had referred to it as a form of entertainment earlier.

Tang Jing added, "Besides, it can also be used to practice our abilities. Sooner or later, we'll need to grow other plants, and Yinglong will have to contribute her abilities then."

Gu Yinglong heard everyone's conversation while attentively tending to the tea leaves. Upon hearing Tang Jing's words, she nodded in agreement.

Chen Mu commented, "However, it seems that tea leaves are much more challenging than rice."

"I've noticed that too. Perhaps it's because their structure is more complex?" Dong Junwei suggested.

Tang Jing nodded, "That's likely the case. Look, the previous six types of food - rice, potatoes, carrots, green peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes - all shared a common characteristic."

"A simple structure?"

"Exactly. They all had simple, roundish shapes. But in comparison, tea leaves are much more intricate. Not only are they irregular in shape, but they also have many fine hairs on the surface."

"This point seems to apply to all telekinesis-related abilities."

As they continued their research on telekinesis, the group at Qi Ming was gradually moving towards summarizing and generalizing their findings, hoping to discover its rules and principles.

The afternoon break lasted only half an hour, and afterward, they would be back to work until dinner time.

After organizing the shelves up to the second floor, there was even more work to be done.

Chen Mu, Wei Dalei, and other main laborers were fully occupied with the high-level turret project, unable to assist Dong Junwei on her end.

...

Afternoon work was finished.

Before dinner.

Chen Mu and Tang Jing went to visit Yu Yuan.

Yu Yuan had been relocated to a spot 40 centimeters away from the others, and Chen Mu even had a single room built specifically for him.

Originally, they thought he might feel lonely, and Chen Mu was worried that he might feel isolated.

But when they saw him, he was holding a pile of tomatoes, completely engrossed in eating.

Friendship was more important than food.

He had already finished the first box of tomatoes and was now working on the second one, not even noticing Chen Mu and Tang Jing's arrival.

"Don't just focus on eating. Remember what I told you, practice controlling your abilities," Tang Jing reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah." Yu Yuan perked up when he saw Tang Jing. "Senior Tang, I know."

"You haven't talked to that person, have you?" Tang Jing asked again.

"No, not at all, we haven't even made eye contact."

Near Yu Yuan's room was one of the two captives from Zhongyi High, Kong Qi.

Tang Jing needed Yu Yuan to restrain the energy emission as much as possible, which meant cutting off their supply to the people around them.

Naturally, they still needed someone to be the subject of the experiment.

It was evident.

This person was now being treated as a test subject.

Kong Qi was still unaware of this, but he couldn't help but feel strange that Tang Jing, who brought him food every day, didn't come today.

Not only that, she didn't even bring food at all.

For Kong Qi, who had grown accustomed to living here, he could go without food, but not seeing Tang Jing made him feel empty inside.

No food was being delivered.

Were they planning to starve him to death?

Were they finally going to kill him?

However, an entire day passed, and even with two missed meals, he surprisingly didn't feel hungry.

To save food, Tang Jing had been feeding them both with tomatoes and occasionally supplemented with some salt.

Kong Qi now felt nauseous at the smell of tomatoes, but even so, he didn't feel hungry at all today.

Tomatoes didn't have much caloric value; they just filled their stomachs with water, but after a while, they would get hungry again. However, today, he didn't feel hungry at all.

Kong Qi was unaware of Yu Yuan, who had recently moved nearby to accompany him. At first, he thought Yu Yuan was also captured like him, just with slightly better conditions, having a room of his own.

But later, he discovered that Yu Yuan could freely leave his room.

After a whole day without eating, yet not feeling hungry, Kong Qi started to worry about his body.

So, when Tang Jing approached, he spoke up for the first time:

"What did you do to me?"

"Nothing," Tang Jing looked puzzled.

"Then why don't I feel hungry? I haven't eaten anything all day."

Kong Qi had become increasingly accustomed to life here, and he had developed some reliance on Tang Jing. So, although his words sounded like an accusation, his tone was more of questioning and confusion.

"Is that a bad thing?" Tang Jing chuckled. "You must be tired of tomatoes too."

"I've been tired of them long ago."

Perhaps unconsciously, over these days, his wariness towards Tang Jing had gradually faded.

"Our food is limited, so we can only make do with what we have."

"I remember there were dozens of boxes of stuff on that truck," Kong Qi bluntly pointed it out.

Tang Jing smiled, "You must have heard about the attack Zhongyi High made at night. Now we can't even dare to go outside. We don't know how long we'll need to make those supplies last."

"You're quite generous to provide food for a captive like me."

"That's not going to happen again."

"Hmm?"

Kong Qi was taken aback. Although he had long prepared for death, hearing Tang Jing say this suddenly made it hard for him to accept.

But Tang Jing no longer paid him any attention and left.

When she returned to Yu Yuan and Chen Mu, she said to the former, "When can you make that guy feel hungry? Even if it's just a little progress."

"I'll do my best," Yu Yuan replied, standing up straight.

As Chen Mu and Tang Jing returned to the living area, dinner was already prepared.

As the most important meal of the day, Du Jiajia usually put in the most effort for dinner.

However, when the food was served today, everyone was startled.

It looked like rice molded into a ball, but the color was wrong—it was green.

At this moment, Du Jiajia announced excitedly:

"Today is the Dragon Boat Festival! I invited everyone to eat zongzi."

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