Chapter 602: A Miracle

Melody Summers had starved in her past life, so she knew just how agonizing prolonged hunger could be. If she had been forced to starve for two or three years, she wouldn’t hesitate to eat a panda! She wouldn’t care if it was a Class I or Class II nationally protected animal!

So she was a bit worried—would the Animal Gift Package she had spent 10 billion to redeem be devoured as soon as it took effect?

’Melody doesn’t oppose people eating animals, nor does she think animals are more noble than humans. On the contrary, she believes the right to human life is paramount. But... if the Animal Gift Package she’d gone to such lengths to redeem was just eaten, that would go against her original reason for buying it!’

News reports said that during the three years of the Cataclysm, Terra had experienced an unprecedented mass extinction of plants and animals. Hundreds of millions of species had already vanished from the planet... Melody Summers didn’t want the surviving humans to live on a barren world.

So, she hoped this Animal Gift Package would serve a greater purpose. She hoped that future children would still be able to see lions running on the savanna, eagles soaring in the sky, and butterflies dancing among the flowers...

Seeing Melody Summers’s worried expression, Albus replied:

"Don’t worry, Host! The ’Animal Gift Package’ will coordinate with Terra’s big data models and activate gradually at opportune times. It will also adjust based on the recovery of human society."

Hearing this, Melody Summers’s eyes widened in astonishment. "...It’s really that smart?..."

’That’s incredible!’

Albus flicked its tail and nodded proudly.

"That’s right! This gift package is a present from an advanced civilization!"

"Based on the current situation, it’s estimated that the ’Animal Gift Package’ will take over a decade to gradually restore Terra’s ecosystem to its pre-Cataclysm state!"

Hearing Albus’s words, Melody Summers finally felt relieved.

’I hope that in the years to come, this planet can be restored to what it once was—a place where humanity and nature coexist in harmony.’

******

A week after the rain stopped, Melody Summers and Winnie Summers were invited to a party in the reconstruction zone.

The party was held in a banquet hall provided by Rhodes. By the time Melody Summers and Winnie Summers arrived, the hall was already a swirl of perfume and shadows, bustling with guests. Elegantly dressed men and women gathered in small groups, holding wine glasses and chatting.

The banquet was originally meant to celebrate the successful launch of the medical center and was scheduled for two months ago. However, Anworth had been plagued by a series of crises recently—first the epidemic, then the rebel uprising—so it had been postponed until now.

Melody Summers, carrying a small fish tank full of Blue Scale Prawns, searched the banquet hall for a long time before finally finding Sophie Thorne in a corner, leaning against a window and staring blankly into space.

Sophie Thorne wore a simple black dress with no jewelry. She just stood there silently by the window, gazing absently at the night sky, looking somewhat forlorn.

"I finally found you!" Melody Summers strode forward and patted Sophie Thorne’s shoulder, complaining breathlessly, "Why didn’t you text me back? I’ve been looking all over for you. I was starting to think you didn’t come today!"

Sophie Thorne seemed startled to see Melody Summers at first, then replied in an apologetic tone, "...Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to my phone..."

Seeing Sophie Thorne’s pale complexion and the unconcealable sorrow between her brows, Melody Summers dropped her playful expression and asked with concern, "What’s wrong? Why do you look so pale? Haven’t you fully recovered yet? ...Are you still feeling unwell anywhere?"

’Could it be because the S Level Far Sea Secret Medicine wasn’t effective enough?’

Meeting Melody Summers’s worried gaze, Sophie Thorne forced a smile. She shook her head and replied softly, "...I’m fine... It’s just that..."

At this point, Sophie Thorne trailed off, because she didn’t know how to explain.

Her body had already healed completely, and all her vitals were normal, but the pain in her heart could not be soothed—

Ever since she was born, she had stood at the pinnacle of the pyramid, the only legitimate daughter of her parents, the sole heiress of the Thorne Family. At parties like this, she had always been the center of the crowd, the focus of everyone’s fawning attention.

But ever since her father, Wendell Thorne, had committed treason, colluded with the rebels, fled the country, and died in a plane crash, her situation had become completely different.

During this time, news of the Thorne Family’s treason was a constant topic of discussion online. Although the Rhodes Family had managed to get the discussions about Sophie Thorne taken down, these matters were common knowledge in the upper circles.

Everyone knew the Thorne Family had fallen. Sophie Thorne had gone from being the great lady of the Thorne Family to the daughter of a traitor. All the people who used to fawn over and curry favor with her now avoided her like the plague.

At the party today, Sophie Thorne didn’t know how to face the gazes that were either full of insinuation or watching for a good show. She could only try her best to stay away from the crowd, hiding silently in a corner by herself.

Since Sophie Thorne didn’t say anything, Melody Summers couldn’t have guessed all this. She just assumed Sophie was still upset about the fire.

To cheer Sophie Thorne up, Melody Summers quickly held up the small fish tank in her hands, winked, and said, "Ta-da! Quick, look what this is!"

—At the bottom of the small fish tank were a few beautiful white seashells, and floating around them were countless tiny blue shrimp. There were so many that they seemed to tint the water blue.

Staring at the hundreds of densely packed Blue Scale Prawn fry in the fish tank, Sophie Thorne’s eyes instantly widened in shock. "You!... You actually managed to breed them?!"

Sophie Thorne was completely shocked. She couldn’t believe her eyes!

It was a well-known fact that breeding Blue Scale Prawns was considered an insurmountable problem. Several top research institutions in the province had confirmed the prawn’s immense medical value, but not a single one had succeeded in breeding them.

One research institute even resorted to electroshock, hoping the Blue Scale Prawns would mate and spawn under electrical stimulation. But not only did their experiment fail, they ended up killing the two Blue Scale Prawns they had.

The situation was similar at other research institutes. Whether through drug injections or other methods, the test-subject Blue Scale Prawns simply refused to mate and reproduce.

By now, almost all the Blue Scale Prawns originally sold by the Arcadia Store had died. There were fewer than five left on the market, and the Arcadia Store hadn’t sold any more of the new species since. The researchers had fallen into despair.

But now, Melody Summers had somehow managed to breed so many!

It was nothing short of a miracle!

Seeing Sophie Thorne’s look of utter disbelief, Melody Summers touched her nose guiltily—the truth was, she hadn’t bred them herself. She had just tossed the fish tank into the shallow waters of the Arcadian Sea, and after a while, this was the result... It could only be attributed to the miraculous power of the space.

When Sophie Thorne looked at her, Melody Summers had no choice but to bite the bullet and say, "...Ah... yeah... Ahem! Didn’t I tell you before? My family used to run a fish and shrimp farm. This is a family trade secret!"

Sophie Thorne mentally counted the number of Blue Scale Prawns in the tank, growing more shocked with every one. She murmured, "...Do you know... you’re going to be rich..."

—Perhaps it was more than just getting rich. If the Blue Scale Prawns truly had immense medical value, then Melody Summers, by cracking the problem of their reproduction, could be said to have made a contribution to both the biological and medical fields.

Melody Summers just smiled at her words. She placed the fish tank in Sophie Thorne’s hands and said softly, "These are all for you. Don’t be sad anymore. Everything will pass."

Sophie Thorne stared blankly at the small fish tank in her hands, then looked up at Melody Summers. She opened her mouth, about to say something, when a sudden scream came from nearby:

"AH—"