Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Xu Shuangyu limped her way to the clinic.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she grew. She had to endure the undeserved misfortune so early in the morning.
“You call yourself a man, yet you didn’t even try to send a fragile young woman you injured to the clinic. You still tried to make her walk to the clinic all alone! How can you even consider yourself a human being?”
“What? Did I say that I didn’t want to send you to the clinic?”
“So, you’re not going to send me to the clinic just because I said so?”
“This is simply baffling!”
Xu Shuangyu shared her situation with the doctor in the clinic with a chest full of pent up anger.
The doctor examined her closely before he pondered and said, “It’s nothing serious. I think that you have soft tissue injury. Go back and apply heat compression to your leg. Don’t perform any strenuous exercise for a week.”
“If you’re still worried about your condition, you can get an x-ray too.”
Xu Shuangyu answered, “Oh.” Then, she added, “Ah…”
Why did she find the doctor’s instruction so familiar? It felt as if she heard it someplace else before.
Oh right. She remembered. It was the man that knocked her down earlier. It seemed as though he said so too.
“He had actually gotten it right, surprisingly.”
Xu Shuangyu was still under the assumption that Zhou Wen made a blind conjecture earlier. Nevertheless, even with evidence, she cursed, “He’s such a foolish person. I’m certain that he made it up.”
…
Zhou Wen gazed at Xu Shuangyu’s departing silhouette and then headed to the cafeteria.
While having his breakfast, he suddenly remembered that he did not seem to have taken his dinner last. However, he found that he did not feel the slightest bit of hunger until now.
Moreover, he recalled waking up filled with vigor! He was certainly energized and refreshed this morning. It was then that he remembered the sour apple.
He brought up the individual property panel; then, he shifted his gaze to the half apple in the third box of the first row in the inventory list.
“This is some impressive item,” Zhou Wen praised in his heart. “What a waste that it is way too sour.”
After breakfast, Zhou Wen headed back to the hostel room to grab his portable charger and earphones. Then, he walked into the library as soon as it opened.
He had actually wanted to gain experience in the laboratory. After all, it felt like the act of spending downtime in the library was too slow for him.
What a waste that he could not keep doing what he did without justification.
Shi Lei and Lin Jiayi were both official employees with salaries. It was fine for him to help them out occasionally, but they could not possibly hand over work to him all the time.
In addition, the laboratory was genuinely a leisurely environment too. If they kept shoving all their work to him, what would they have left to do then?
So, he went to the third floor of the library and leaned against the side of a book rack before he brought up the panel. Then, he selected ‘Mission 3’ from the taskbar.
According to the mission’s requirements, he pulled out a book titled ‘Paediatric Clinical Pharmacology’ from the book rack.
At the same time, a dialogue box popped out from the taskbar. [Mission in process. Time remaining: 23:59:53. Literary value: 50]
“There’s actually a literary value prompt,” Zhou Wen noted in bewilderment when he saw the explanation in the dialogue box. Soon afterward, he switched to a few other books in succession.
[Paediatric Clinical Pharmacology, literary value: 60]
[Molecules & Cells, literary value: 80]
[Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, literary value: 100]
[Medical Immunology, literary value: 100]
[Cancer Biology, literary value: 0]
[The Selfish Gene, literary value: 0]
Zhou Wen discovered some of the popular science readings by famous authors had a rather low literary value. On the contrary, the books related to the basics subjects of biology had very high literary value.
For example, the title ‘Molecules and Cells’ was used as the teaching material for junior year in public schools. Its literary value was as high as 80. “Why is that so?”
Zhou Wen pondered for a moment and figured that it was possibly due to the fact that basic subjects were the foundation that allowed one to search for the essence of life and played a driving role in the development of biological sciences. As a result, its literary value was higher.
On the other hand, those popular science readings were only focused on the subjective opinion of a professional in a specific field. Perhaps, the opinion was in direct contravention to reality. Hence, the system gave it a low literary score.
Zhou Wen chose the two books titled ‘Biochemistry & Molecular Biology’ and ‘Medical Immunology’.
Then, he found a seat, and soon afterward, he started reading the Biochemistry & Molecular Biology book according to the mission’s requirement.
He realized that his arms grew sore after holding the book for some time. Moreover, it was not a convenient position for him either.
He brought up the taskbar interface and clicked on the mission. [Mission in process. Time remaining: 23:51:14. Literary value: 100]
After that, Zhou Wen placed the book in his hand on the table, and the countdown timer stopped at once.
It began ticking when he picked up the book with one hand and stopped again as soon as he let go.
He then touched it with a finger; it ticked.
He removed his finger; it stopped.
He discovered after multiple attempts that the mission was considered active as long as his hand touched the book.
Zhou Wen placed his left hand on the book while his right hand began rifling through the pages casually.
Frankly, it was truly boring and dull beyond imagination to sit in the library alone and read a biochemistry book as compared to carrying out experiments in the laboratory. The majority of the content was on molecular structures and data diagrams, making him feel like dozing off from reading it.
In addition, a warm breeze was blowing slowly in the library. It was quiet and tranquil. So, in the end, he fell asleep.
…
By the time Zhou Wen awakened, his stomach was rumbling from hunger.
He took out his phone and took a glance to see that it was already 11 o’clock.
He brought up the taskbar panel and took a glance to see that the remaining time was 20:19:47.
The time must have been still counting down even when he slept! It was a superb and powerful system!
Zhou Wen was too lazy to go to the cafeteria, so he leaned on the study table and secretly took out the remaining half-apple with his back facing the security camera.
Then, he clutched his scalp with his left hand and stuffed the half-apple into his mouth, straightaway.
For some unknown reason, the scene of a live stream video he watched before suddenly popped into his mind. “Next, I’ll be doing the ‘eat a lemon with no expression challenge’.”
He chewed the apple twice as rapidly and swallowed it with a loud ‘gulp’ before the taste buds on his tongue could relay the taste stimulation to his brain.
Two seconds later.
“Hiss… Hiss… Yikes…”
Zhou Wen wished that he could stab his left hand into his brain to somehow stop the sensation. Meanwhile, his right hand rubbed his cheeks in an attempt to relieve the sourness in his mouth.
Ten seconds later, the acidic taste finally passed.
Zhou Wen raised his arm and wiped away the tears with his sleeves. “Damn it. This is the last time. Whoever eats the next apple is not a man.”
After relieving his hunger, Zhou Wen became more perked up than ever.
Since there was nothing else he wanted to do, he took out his phone and portable battery, put on his headphones, and then began watching his tutor’s PCR experiment.
It was much more lively and exciting as compared to the dull, boring book.
Moreover, the act of watching the video did not hold up the mission, either.
Time passed swiftly.
Zhou Wen had only left the library at half-past nine in the evening.
It was possibly due to the apple that he did not feel any hunger and was full of energy as well.
In fact, he even went for a night run around the field before returning home.
By the time he got back to the hostel room, he was visibly drenched in sweat; it was an hour since he left the library.
His four roommates were all there. Each of them had a phone in their hands as they laid in bed, playing mobile games loudly.
“Lan Ling Wang is killing us! Come and capture him quickly…”
“Come back quick, Yang Yuhuan. People are attacking from the middle.”
“…”
Zhou Wen picked up his clothes and went for a shower. He joined the game when he came back.
However, Liu Yukun suddenly said after they had just finished one round of the game, “Old Zhang, how’s your job hunt?”
Zhang Wei was destroying the enemy’s tower in elation, but his mood had swung the opposite direction right after hearing Liu Yukun’s question. He placed his phone down right away and laid back on his bed to look at the ceiling.
He chose not to get into graduate school just like Chen Ziyuan and Zhou Wen. Therefore, he was about to step into the cruel and harsh world soon.
Nevertheless, he had yet even to get himself an internship.
He was planning to play a few rounds of games to numb himself, yet he was jolted back to reality by Liu Yukun’s words.
“F*ck, Old Zhang! Why did you AFK?” Chen Ziyuan, who was fully immersed in a team battle, shouted aloud anxiously upon seeing that Zhang Wei had stopped moving in the game. “Kunkun, what the f*ck is wrong with you and why can’t you keep your damn mouth shut. Why did you choose to bring up the topic of work now when it is not the time???”
Deer Maiden added, “He is precisely an idiot.”
Meanwhile, Zhou Wen declared, “I second it.”
Liu Yukun had also realized that he was wrong. “I’m sorry. I’m an idiot. It’s my bad. I will reflect on my mistakes.”
That said, the game ended in a mess, and the hostel room sank into momentary stillness.
About a minute later, Chen Ziyuan’s voice was heard in the darkness. “Old Zhou, what’s your plan after graduation?”
“I don’t know.”
“How about… with Old Zhang, the three of us make a joint investment to start up some business?”
“What do you have in mind?”
“If you can lower your ego, we can form a partnership to become street vendors and come up with some ideas after we make a certain profit. We can open a shop or something.”
“My ego isn’t worth anything, but what should we do if we suffer losses? Will you bear the losses?”
“Losses will be losses then. Just think of it as gaining experience, and we shall start over again. Since when is there a business that is only profitable and does not lose money?”
“B*llsh*t! If you lose money, your father will be channeling the house rental he collected to your bank account in the next month. But if we lose money, what are we going to eat?”
Chen Ziyuan was a local Jiangzhou resident. His family was ordered to move out of their family home by the government last year, and they were compensated with five houses in return. He would inherit his family’s wealth eventually, which made him a rich second generation kid.
The reason why he was always fooling around was that he had yet to assume his wealth. Furthermore, his family had just gained its wealth recently, so he did not have the same air around him.
“Yikes, Old Zhou. We can’t chat anymore if you wish to speak in such a manner. Could it be that I’m not one who wants to put in the hard work? I still blame real estate developers for killing my willpower to fight. Who can understand my pain?”
“Wifey is not only good at being coquettish; he has also picked up the ability to be pretentious too.”
“Wifey, if you’re going to speak in such a pretentious manner, don’t blame us for beating up the rich man and take his wealth, huh.”
“Say no more. Tomorrow night, let’s head to Wealth Seafood Restaurant, VIP Room 308. Wifey is buying everyone a feast.”
“The plan is set.”
“F*ck you. Why should I treat the meal again?”