Her Celestial Farm on the Scrapyard Planet (by Kay Lucas) novel Chapter 7

Chapter 7 The Exchange

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The ferocity and wariness on the two children’s faces shattered like ice struck by a heavy hammer, cracking apart to reveal disbelief and confusion underneath.

Their eyes widened in unison as they looked back and forth between the vial of liquid supplements that could keep their sister alive and help them survive for several more days and the dirt–covered lump in Elizabeth’s hand that they regarded as a lethal poison.

Those unnaturally large eyes darted back and forth.

The boy named Timothy even rubbed his eyes hard, convinced hunger had driven him into hallucinations.

Using precious liquid supplements to trade for something inedible and poisonous?

How could anyone in the world be that foolish?

The girl’s throat bobbed sharply. Her cracked lips trembled, but no sound came out.

She stared at the liquid supplements, then, after a long moment, gathered the courage to look at Elizabeth again, as if searching her face for any trace of mockery or deceit.

In the end, the instinct to survive overwhelmed every doubt and guard she had left.

In a hoarse voice on the verge of breaking, the girl asked, trembling, “H–how… How do you want to trade?”

Elizabeth weighed the green–tinged potato in her hand and named her price. “One vial of liquid supplements for five of these dirt lumps. How does that sound?”

“We’ll trade,” the girl replied without the slightest hesitation, gritting her teeth.

At her answer, Timothy hurriedly emptied his pockets, dumping all the dirt lumps into Elizabeth’s hands. His voice carried an anxious eagerness to please. “Here. All of them. Take them all.”

Elizabeth glanced down.

In the boy’s filthy palm lay seven potatoes of uneven size, each with greenish skin and even spots of mold. To her, they were more precious than anything else in the world.

Under the children’s tense, apprehensive stares, she handed the vial of liquid supplements to the girl.

“Five means five,” Elizabeth said evenly, her calm voice carrying an inexplicable sense of

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Chapter 7 The Exchange

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authority. “I’ll keep track of the extra two for you. If you find more of these dirt lumps later, you can bring them to trade with me.”

The girl nearly snatched the vial, hurriedly twisting the cap open and raising it to her mouth.

For a moment, Elizabeth thought she was about to drink it all herself. Instead, the girl only took a small lick to confirm what it was, then immediately poured it into her little sister’s mouth.

Watching the child, Elizabeth frowned slightly.

Her breathing was so faint it was barely there. She was clearly at her limit. Liquid supplements alone might not be enough.

As expected, only a little was poured in before it all spilled out along the child’s pale, parched lips.

Not a single drop was swallowed.

“Yvonne. Yvonne, drink it. These are liquid supplements. Drink it and you won’t be hungry anymore. Please, drink.” The two children hovered anxiously, tears pooling in their eyes, their voices filled with helpless despair.

Elizabeth sighed silently and stepped forward.

Timothy instantly blocked her like a cornered wolf cub, his entire body taut, eyes fierce with fear. “W–what are you trying to do?”

“If you don’t want your sister to actually die,” Elizabeth said, her tone leaving no room for argument, “move aside.”

Faced with her gaze, edged with faint pressure, both children froze.

Seizing the moment, Elizabeth supported the unconscious girl’s neck with one hand and skillfully eased her jaw open with the other. Taking the vial, she fed the liquid supplements again, slowly and carefully.

In return for helping her find potato seeds, she would give the child a trace of spiritual

power.

Her fingertip brushed the girl’s throat almost imperceptibly, and a thin thread of living spiritual energy flowed in, gently nourishing the small body on the brink of collapse.

The effect was immediate. That thread of power awakened the child’s last instinct to survive.

Her throat moved faintly. She actually began to swallow.

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Chapter 7 The Exchange

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Seeing the liquid supplements finally go down, the two children stared wide–eyed, forgetting even to breathe.

After half the vial, Elizabeth stopped. She placed the remaining half back into the girl’s hand.

“The rest is for you two to share,” she said, her gaze sweeping over the pair who were barely holding on themselves. Her voice was calm, yet brutally clear. “Don’t let your sister survive only for you to collapse instead.”

She could tell at a glance that the two children guarding their sister were already at their limits, sustained only by sheer will.

They looked from the faint swallowing movement in their sister’s throat to the half vial in their hands. Joy and gratitude beyond anything they had ever dared hope for shattered the ferocity they had been forcing themselves to show.

The girl grabbed Timothy and dropped to her knees before Elizabeth, her forehead thudding hard against the cold, filthy ground.

“Thank you. Thank you,” she sobbed, her voice trembling with the shock of survival.

Elizabeth waved it off indifferently. “No need to thank me. I gave liquid supplements. You sold me dirt lumps. A fair trade. We each got what we needed.”

She wasn’t used to bearing such heavy gratitude, especially when, to her, it truly had been just a transaction.

With that, she turned to leave.

It was getting late. She needed to get back before nightfall and plant those potato tubers.

With some effort and a bit more spiritual power to accelerate growth, she might even be eating fresh potatoes she grew herself by tomorrow.

As long as she didn’t starve, she would rather not drink those stomach–turning liquid supplements again.

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