Cultivator in a Zombie Apocalypse

Chapter Seventy Six - The Mind of a Scholar

The seeds were very small, tiny specs of brown. If scattered upon the soil, they would vanish, completely camouflaged. In fact scattering them would have been the way most other gardeners would have dealt with the tiny seeds and then they would have thinned out the seedlings, pulling out the weaker ones or unnecessarily ones so that the rest had space to grow. However, Nathan couldn't bear to harm any seedlings, so could only painstakingly plant seeds this way. Plus, he didn't really view it as a chore.

With the numerous, spaced holes now containing a lone seed, Nathan gently filled them with more soil then sprinkled water from his own hand over them. He then placed the tray on a shelving unit in the second bedroom, before grabbing another tray; this one used to be a wooden tray to carry food before it got demoted to growing it instead. Nathan shovelled compost from a bucket into the water-blistered base of the tray before taking a stick and meticulously prodding holes into the soil.

A short while later, his eyes flickered up towards the open doorway of the second bedroom noticing Ren Zexian walking past the opening, mumbling to himself. Nathan returned his attention to his planting. After dealing with the little broccoli seeds, he'd turned his attention to planting melon seeds gathered carefully last summer from a cantaloupe melon. He also had seeds of other melons that Jonah and the others had brought with them when they first came to live in the main house, but melons needed warm, light spaces and there was only so much space in the greenhouse, so he focused on just this type for now.

Poking the seeds in even spaces of soil along the length and breadth of the soil, he noticed Ren Zexian wander past again and a small frown marred his smooth forehead. Ren Zexian had been like this for a while of late, walking around as if his legs had no choice but to move, while saying strange words beneath his breath. It had started the day that the strangers had moved into the large house next door.

The large house had belonged to a man and a woman who were married to each other. They also had had children, one of whom had been Nathan's age, but Nathan had not got along with that boy, who ran around everywhere and anywhere. He once had snuck into their garden through a gap in the hedge and had traipsed all over the vegetable bed that the old gardener had helped him set up. He had been six years of age and it had been his first attempt at growing tomatoes. Finding the other boy jumping up and down on his precious seedlings, none of which had been taller than eight centimetres in height, had made him angry and upset. So he had pushed the other boy, who had pushed him back and screamed at him, causing him to fall into a panic and clutch his pained ears.

His nanny had found him this way, curled up and rocking back and forth with the other boy poking him with a stick and yelling at him. The boy's parents had come and collected him, had been apologetic, but Nathan had seen the strange looks in their eyes, the mix of pity and disdain. Nathan had not wanted to leave his room the next day nor the next. It had taken his nanny and his mother almost a week to coax him out of the room and show him that not all of his plants had died. He took a great deal of care over the surviving three tomato plants, to the point where his nanny was worried about his lack of attention to his studies. However, his parents said to let him alone for now.

After the plants were around one metre and twenty centimetres tall, covered in an array of tiny yellow flowers and small green fruits, he'd finally turned more of his attentions to school work. His teacher had inspired him to practice writing about his experiments growing the plants and practice drawing and colouring using them and the cherry tomatoes as a model. Mathematics became counting the flowers and subtracting the number of fruits from the number of flowers...

As for that boy, Nathan saw him once when he was ten and due for a dentist appointment and another time when he was twelve and the family next door were celebrating a wedding. They made a lot of noise and set off fireworks that caused Nathan a lot of discomfort. His parents had been away and his nanny tried to keep him calm through nursery rhymes, but in the end, it was the gardener that had helped him. He guided Nathan in planting seeds for a few hours, teaching him how much space each plant needed as it grew up...

Ren Zexian came into his vision once more. He paused, his eyes widened then he hurried away, patting his dress as if looking for something. Nathan stared the empty doorway for two minutes, but Ren Zexian didn't return and the youth wasn't sure how he felt about that. Eventually, he returned to planting seeds, but after finishing this tray of melons, he didn't actually feel like planting anymore. He felt strange and unsure. While these feelings were not unknown to him, he'd never once not been able to settle his disturbed emotions by seeding, planting or watering. Even weeding could help.

He glanced at the drizzling rain outside of the window. Ren Zexian had said before not to go out in the rain. He, himself, would do so, would cover the delicate seedlings for him to protect them as they had lost weak plants to the bad rain. Heavier rain could hurt the established vegetables as well, though it was usually alright and they wouldn't suffer too many bad mutations. But it wasn't easy to know when rain was coming, they could only do their best. It would be better if he had a bigger greenhouse.

Suddenly, Ren Zexian hurried into the second bedroom with a bright smile upon his face. "Nathan," his voice was low in volume as usual, but the calm was somewhat tinged with excitement, like a sudden breeze rippling through tree leaves. "It seems I have managed to figure out an excellent formula for your cultivation. Would you allow me to teach you?"

The world became right once more as Nathan's rapidly beating heart settled the discontentment in his belly. The edges of his lips curled as he met the jewel-black eyes of Ren Zexian for a long moment. Then he reached to lay his hand in the one on offer and allowed himself to be pulled into the first bedroom to cultivate.

Author's note; double update as these two chapters are better together x