Chapter 170 - 137: Mental Illness

Chapter 170: Chapter 137: Mental Illness

Boss Tang looked troubled.

"It’s best not to, at least for now—with his abilities and his constant bizarre research, it took a lot of effort on my part to get his charges reduced to those of an ordinary petty smuggler...

"Let him keep a low profile and suffer for a few months. We’ll talk when he gets out."

Huai Yu was somewhat puzzled. "But his abilities are already so strong. Can’t he do specialized research?"

"No," Boss Tang said, shaking his head decisively. He looked at Huai Yu, recalled what she had just told him, and finally made up his mind. "He’s mentally ill."

Huh? Now it was Huai Yu’s turn to be dumbfounded.

"He truly has a mental illness." Boss Tang sighed. "When he was just messing around on his own, without adequate equipment or the cooperation of Superpower Users, and with us keeping an eye on him, it didn’t cause any major issues.

"But if we let him into a research institute, I’m genuinely afraid he’d create a disaster that no one could clean up... Little Yu, did he seem pretty normal to you when you saw him at the auction last time?

"He didn’t use to be like that."

Boss Tang frowned, racking his brain until he finally plucked out a few adjectives. "He was like... like—the kind of elegant, refined gentleman you girls love to read about in storybooks.

"He could do everything. Back in the day, he was the famous ’perfect child’ everyone compared their own kids to.

"But not long after the Cataclysm, he suddenly went mad one day... He threw himself entirely into researching plants and animals..."

In short, his condition was incredibly hard to describe. They weren’t Gao Ming’s close friends and could only notice the abnormalities in his daily words and actions. It was only because a few of his original friends had banded together to cover for him that he hadn’t been forcibly taken away.

Huai Yu didn’t quite understand.

But if someone’s mental state was unhealthy, letting them come into contact with highly dangerous things would indeed be rather irresponsible.

For now, she obediently nodded. "Then I won’t see him right now. If he gets out and is in a better state, can I go ask him then?"

Boss Tang nodded and cautioned her once more, "So... whatever you do, don’t let anyone discover Ke Taichiro’s abnormalities!"

Huai Yu nodded solemnly. Ke Taichiro was Zhou Qian’s savior, and she would definitely protect him well!

After leaving Boss Tang’s shop, Huai Yu wandered through the market, embarking on another massive shopping spree.

However, unlike her previous purchases of various bottles, jars, buckets, and basins, this time she focused intently on food rations.

Pork, lard, soybeans, mung beans, rice, millet, and flour...

She was determined to stuff her woven basket to the absolute brim.

She also spotted a stall selling vegetable seedlings. Recalling the grueling labor of farming, she really didn’t want to buy them. Yet, remembering the misery of having no vegetables to eat, she ultimately spent some points to purchase a few.

She didn’t buy many—just enough to casually clear a small patch of land back home!

If she had known Ke Taichiro’s rolled balls were so useful, she wouldn’t have wasted them as fertilizer back then.

Then there were the two goslings. They ate nothing but bamboo shoots and grass leaves, and their sea urchin-like fuzz still hadn’t developed into proper feathers... Could it be that they really wouldn’t ever fly?

Even the ugly duckling had to turn into a swan eventually. When exactly would those two transform?

She thought of the massive pile of junk back home. There had been so much going on these past two days that she hadn’t even had the time to sort it out properly!

And then there was—

Huai Yu looked at her pocket, which held a plastic bag containing two peach pits.

Zhou Qian had gnawed the peach flesh completely clean, but if she took these pits out, could she use her powers to grow them into a small tree?

She silently pondered which of her two abilities she should use, or if she should use both together.

Otherwise, what if the resulting mutation turned out to be "super doubled-up disgusting"? What would she do then?

Clutching her woven basket, she was squeezed aboard a crowded bus. As the vehicle passed the municipal administration hall, she saw a long queue already forming out front.

Just as she pressed her face against the glass window to get a better look, she heard the other passengers engaged in a lively discussion.

"The Guard Army has started recruiting again, hasn’t it?"

"They sure have! The benefits are fantastic. My son has a tiny bit of Fire Ability, but I’m not sure if he’ll be selected..."

"My eldest nephew has a bit of it too, but his power is very weak, so our family didn’t dare let him go... Didn’t you try to stop your kid?"

"Sigh! I couldn’t stop him! His father is sick, and you know how expensive medical treatment is nowadays.

"Plus, jobs are hard to find, and it’s tough to earn points. If he doesn’t go all out and try his luck, our whole family will suffer..."

"You probably don’t need to worry too much these days. Haven’t we all returned to normal life? As long as we leave those mutated plants in the Wilderness alone, they won’t come running over from the other side of the Rose Corridor, right...?"

"That’s exactly it! It was with that in mind that I dared to let my kid give it a shot. Who knows, maybe he can secure a logistics position or something..."

"Speaking of which, if it weren’t for the Rose Corridor here in Flower City, our lives might not have returned to normal so quickly."

"Right. I heard that many other cities are still operating under a planned economy."

"They don’t have a choice. I heard they have to constantly fight off invading animals and plants while struggling to restore their livelihoods. It’s tough for them, too..."

The topic gradually drifted. Soon, the focus shifted back to the benefits and positions within the Guard Army and the Defense Army.

Listening in silence, Huai Yu gained a deeper understanding of the Rose Corridor’s importance once again.

So... what exactly was her relationship with the Rose?

Sigh! That Rose was truly tight-lipped!

Having left early today, it was only just past noon when she arrived home. The sun shone brightly overhead, illuminating the idyllic, lush green scenery of the Wilderness.

The massive cowpea vine in the distance was simply too large to be put on a trellis. It could only coil twice around the vegetable garden, resembling a giant, slithering python.

Fortunately, she had deliberately let the surrounding weeds grow tall, so it was impossible to spot unless one got close.

However, whether it was the giant python or the idyllic scenery, Huai Yu had no time to admire it. She could only grab her hoe and head out to turn the soil.

With the vegetation flourishing these days, the roots of the weeds clung to the dirt more stubbornly than anything else. HUFFING and PUFFING, she was already exhausted after tilling just a small fraction of an acre.

Unfortunately, the vegetable seedlings she had bought couldn’t afford to wait. Gritting her teeth against the soreness, Huai Yu had no choice but to put her head down and continue the grueling work.

As she dug, she sulked.

If she had lived a good life in the past, she could have let it go. But in her dreams, she realized she had been naive and even found herself a super-doubly impoverished boyfriend. She didn’t even know if she had ended up marrying him!

If they had truly loved each other, getting by on a modest life would have been fine. But she had come down from the mountain all by herself!

Even if her true love couldn’t stay by her side, shouldn’t there at least be a few parting words or some sort of token of affection?

She was so capable; sooner or later, she would become incredibly wealthy. When her name spread, what if he actually showed up with a child to find her?

Huai Yu swung her hoe down fiercely, regretting that she hadn’t just changed her name.

At the very least, she shouldn’t have used the "Yu" from "elm coin" when registering her ID card. That character was way too eye-catching!

She could have used the "Yu" for "surplus"! Or the "Yu" for "jade"!

Dammit!