Chapter 8
When the treatment was over, watching Feng Wu pay the bill, Lin An’an felt as if his heart were bleeding.
But since things had already come to this, Lin An’an knew there was no saving that money now. The only thing he could do was find a way to protect the foolish big brother’s remaining fortune.
So this was what people meant by more money than sense…
The little cub clutched his aching tiny heart and decided that later he would go on the star net and buy some medicinal herbs to keep at home. That way, whenever there was a need, he could just make medicine himself and save a huge amount of money otherwise spent on the hospital!
What Lin An’an had not expected, however, was that there were pitifully few medicinal herbs available on the star net. And even when some herbs were in stock, one could tell just from the seller’s pictures that their quality was far from good.
If this had been in his original world, such herbs could have been dismissed with a single phrase—poor, defective goods. Yet in this world, they were sold at astonishingly high prices, and judging by the reviews, there were still plenty of people praising and chasing after them.
Lin An’an browsed around for a long while, yet failed to find even a single batch of herbs he found acceptable.
The little cub put away his terminal and dejectedly spread himself flat in Feng Wu’s palm.
Feng Wu noticed his low spirits. “An Cub, is there anywhere else that feels uncomfortable?”
The little cub shook his head. “Yingji.”
It was not discomfort, exactly.
He had simply never expected this world’s medical system to be so strange. No matter whether the illness was major or minor, everything was treated with a treatment pod. And if the treatment pod did not work, then they brought in healing-type ability users…
That was far too wasteful of resources. No wonder healer appointments took so long to queue for, and no wonder the prices were outrageously expensive.
Seen from that angle, he really had misunderstood the healer just now. It was not that the healer was black-hearted; this was simply how medicine worked in this world.
Lin An’an thought that one reason this strange medical model had formed was probably the scarcity of medicinal herbs.
Thinking of how fruits and vegetables in this world were equally absurdly precious, Lin An’an more or less understood why medicinal herbs were so scarce.
At the end of the day, the problem lay in cultivation. If medicinal herbs were scarce, then naturally many treatment methods were restricted, and treatment costs would inevitably become much higher.
The little cub rolled over once in Feng Wu’s palm and sank into thought.
When Feng Wu returned home, he had not even entered the door yet when he heard Xiong Yingjun’s booming voice inside.
“Boss! We found Elder Shang!”
Lin An’an’s heart jolted, and he sat bolt upright from Feng Wu’s palm in a single roll.
Feng Wu asked, “Where is he?”
“On the way here.” Xiong Yingjun sounded excited. “We already asked him. He said the medicine hasn’t been taken yet.”
Lin An’an instantly let out a breath of relief.
Xiong Yingjun continued, “Speaking of which, you probably won’t believe it. Our people found the old man at that trading hall from before. He’d been waiting there for most of the day. The moment he heard who we were, he came along without a second word…”
Feng Wu interrupted him. “Waiting there for most of the day? What do you mean?”
“He was looking for the one who sold him the tomatoes,” Xiong Yingjun answered honestly. “Said he had something he wanted to discuss with us, but since he didn’t know where we lived, he could only wait at the trading hall we’d visited before.”
Feng Wu instinctively lowered his head to glance at the little cub. Lin An’an was somewhat baffled as well. Could there have been some problem with the tomatoes?
Feng Wu asked, “Did he say what it was about?”
Xiong Yingjun shook his head. Just as he was about to speak, a message popped up on his terminal screen. His expression brightened. “They’re here, they’re here!”
As he spoke, he opened the door and welcomed Shang Youyuan, who was standing outside.
Lin An’an poked his head out from Feng Wu’s palm. When he saw the old grandpa he had met only the day before walk in perfectly safe and sound, he finally relaxed completely.
The person who had escorted Shang Youyuan over exchanged a greeting with Xiong Yingjun and then quickly left again. They still had to find the last person who had purchased the miracle medicine.
The moment Shang Youyuan saw Feng Wu, his eyes lit up. He took a few quick steps forward and stretched out a hand, looking for all the world like he intended to shake hands.
Feng Wu was startled by the old man’s enthusiasm and instinctively extended his own hand in return—only to watch Shang Youyuan seize one of the little cub’s tentacles instead.
Feng Wu: “……”
He quietly lowered his hand again, pretending as if nothing at all had happened.
“At last, I’ve finally found you!” Shang Youyuan said excitedly. “Do you still have any more of those tomatoes? I’d like to buy more!”
Lin An’an shook his head. “Yingji.”
No more.
The tomatoes had already been shredded into tomato mush by Fourth Brother’s ability riot. They were all gone!
Instinctively, he turned his head to look toward the corner of the room. There stood a little flowerpot, in which was planted a bare, wilted green vine. On it remained only one lonely green leaf with a missing corner.
Shang Youyuan’s gaze followed his.
And then, under everyone’s watchful eyes, that battered little leaf detached itself from the vine and drifted slowly down to the floor.
Shang Youyuan: “……”
A-a little pitiful, somehow.
Lin An’an spread his tiny tentacles at Shang Youyuan, indicating that he too could do nothing about it.
Shang Youyuan still would not give up. “Not even one left, really?”
Feng Wu sharply sensed that his attitude was somewhat strange. “What happened to the tomatoes?”
Shang Youyuan hesitated for a moment. “To be honest, I suspect those tomatoes…” He paused. “They may be able to treat Alpha Syndrome.”
The moment he said this, everyone present showed shock in their eyes.
Xiong Yingjun let out a laugh. “How could that be? Elder Shang, please don’t joke with us!”
But Shang Youyuan said sternly, “I’m not joking!” He recounted the changes in his wife after she ate the tomatoes the day before, then added, “To verify my guess, I also let my wife eat the remaining tomato.”
Xiong Yingjun was already listening in a daze. “And then?”
“Her fingers moved again.” Shang Youyuan’s voice trembled slightly. “This morning. Not long after she finished the tomato. At that time, she had eaten nothing else besides the tomato.”
After hearing Shang Youyuan out, Feng Wu revealed a thoughtful expression.
Seeing that Lin An’an truly had no tomatoes left, Shang Youyuan did not persist further. He left behind his contact information and repeatedly urged them that if they ever had such tomatoes again in the future, they must contact him immediately.
Before he left, Feng Wu asked him for the miracle medicine.
Once Shang Youyuan learned that the medicine was not only useless but actually life-threatening, he handed it over to Feng Wu at once without another word.
He refused the compensation Feng Wu wanted to offer him, saying with feeling, “The fact that you told me the truth about this medicine already saved my wife’s life. So where would the need for compensation even come from?”
Seeing this, Feng Wu no longer insisted, and together with Xiong Yingjun he escorted the old man out.
Xiong Yingjun asked blankly, “Boss, don’t tell me you really believed what Elder Shang said? One tomato? Able to treat Alpha Syndrome?”
After saying that, even he himself could not help giving two dry laughs, because the whole thing sounded utterly absurd.
But very soon, Xiong Yingjun was no longer able to laugh.
Feng Wu raised his hand until the little cub in his palm was level with his own eyes. Then he asked, “That time when my mental power rioted—were you the one who treated me?”
Xiong Yingjun rubbed his ear. “…Huh?”
Lin An’an did not hide it. He nodded. “Yingji.”
Feng Wu asked again, “After Fourth Brother’s ability riot stabilized, did you also treat him?”
Lin An’an: “Yingji.”
Feng Wu said, “Mental speech.” He wanted to hear the little cub admit it himself.
Lin An’an gathered his strength and tried. “Ying… ah-pff!”
Mental speech failed. The little cub spread his tiny tentacles and blinked his innocent bean-like eyes again and again.
Feng Wu tapped open Lin An’an’s juvenile terminal and enlarged the completely blank floating light screen in front of him.
“I remember that you know how to write,” he said.
Lin An’an: “……”
Right.
How had he not thought of using the terminal to communicate?
Under Xiong Yingjun’s stunned gaze, Lin An’an chose to confess some things selectively.
For example, that he apparently had amnesia. That he really could treat Alpha Syndrome. That his mental power and abilities were being restricted for “unknown reasons,” and that right now he was still extremely, extremely weak and fragile…
Xiong Yingjun was dumbfounded. “An Cub, y-you really aren’t a little cub?”
Lin An’an shook his head and wrote on the screen:
I should already be an adult.
In that brief dream, Feng Wu looked several years younger than he did now, while the dream-version of himself was already a teenage boy.
And yet, for some unknown reason, his second form was still that of a cub.
Feng Wu nodded, indicating that he understood.
Xiong Yingjun still wanted to ask more, but Feng Wu had already picked up the juvenile terminal, wiped away every word on the light screen, and carefully deleted all synchronized backups as well.
Such a solemn and cautious manner made Xiong Yingjun’s heart tighten. “Boss, do you suspect there’s something off about An Cub’s situation?”
Feng Wu nodded, but did not say much. He simply returned the juvenile terminal to Lin An’an.
Si Youlin remained unconscious for three full days before regaining awareness.
After waking up, the very first thing Si Youlin did was look for Lin An’an and solemnly thank him. It was Lin An’an who had saved his life.
The little cub waved his tiny tentacles carelessly, not taking it too much to heart. Saving people was simply his instinct as a healer.
Over the past few days, Lin An’an had another two dreams. Both were extremely brief, yet the amount of information they revealed was immense.
In one of them, he was still inside that same room from the previous dream, the one with bars on the window. The door had not been shut tightly, and he could hear people talking outside—
“…Useless.”
“He’s already an adult and still hasn’t awakened an ability. He doesn’t even have a second form…”
“I heard Third Highness is the only member of the imperial family in history with F-rank mental power. No wonder His Majesty has always kept him confined and never held a birthday banquet for him. People outside are already starting to suspect that Third Highness may have already…”
The boy stood just behind the door. The immense disappointment and helplessness in the dream left Lin An’an with a heavy tightness in his chest even after waking.
In the other dream, Lin An’an was shut inside a box. The box was completely sealed, without even the tiniest crack.
The box rocked and swayed, while inside it he was half-asleep and half-conscious. He heard voices speaking outside—
“They’re just throwing it into Poison Mist Forest like this?”
“Yes. The supervisor said it’s all hazardous waste inside, so tossing it into Poison Mist Forest will let the poison gas decompose it.”
Then came a brief sensation of weightlessness. After a tremendous clang, it was as if some mechanism had been triggered, and the box rapidly fell apart, exposing him inside to the open air.
The foul, fishy poison mist surged toward him, and with it came a pain and agony as if even his bones were melting.
In the dream, the eighteen-year-old boy finally awakened his second form amidst despair and torment.
After waking, Lin An’an instinctively lifted his little tentacles. Only when he saw that their tips were still soft and cute, with none of the horrifying corrosion from the poisonous mist, did he let out a long breath.
Both dreams were unbearably heavy, but at least they let Lin An’an understand one very important thing: the people who had deliberately thrown him into Poison Mist Forest did not know that he was still alive, nor did they know that he had awakened his second form because of it.
Right now, he was a monster cub who looked no more than three to five years old. For him, this form was undoubtedly the best possible shield.
The little cub rolled over on the pillow and began to think seriously about a very grave matter—
How to make money.
He wanted to recover his mental power and abilities as quickly as possible, and that required a large amount of medicine and medicinal herbs. Buying them outright was not really possible, so Lin An’an planned to grow medicinal herbs himself.
There were medicinal herb seeds for sale on the star net, but what gave Lin An’an a headache was that those seeds were extremely, extremely expensive. The 200,000 star coins he had on hand would not buy very much at all. As for some rarer medicinal herb seeds, they were practically impossible to buy at any price.
His Brother Wolf did have money, but Lin An’an did not want to casually spend Feng Wu’s money, even though Feng Wu—rich and a little too easygoing with it—did not seem to mind.
Quite a few shops in C City were hiring workers, but obviously, no shop was willing to hire a little monster cub who could not transform back into human form.
After thinking it through from every angle, Lin An’an set his sights on the star net.
There was a forum on the star net dedicated specifically to Sin Star. The entire interstellar world paid great attention to Alpha Syndrome, and because of that, this forum—called SinNet—had extremely high daily traffic.
Discussion boards, trading boards, mutual-help boards, livestream sections… there was everything one could want.
Lin An’an’s target was the livestream section. He clicked into one of the top recommended streams and discovered that it featured a giant octopus monster sleeping in the Sin Star wilderness. The barrage comments were flooded with things like “Hubby, kiss kiss” and “Hubby, hug hug,” while the comment section was basically a battlefield of underwear flying everywhere—a truly magnificent sight.
Still just a cub, Lin An’an covered his eyes. Why did this livestream room feel a little… improper?
But this octopus monster seemed a tiny bit familiar.
Lin An’an lowered his tentacles and looked a few more times. Suddenly, the scene flashed through his mind of the day he had been chased by that crazed male lion, and a giant octopus monster had swooped in to save the beauty—no, bah, save the cub.
Wasn’t it exactly this Brother Octopus?!
Once he put on the “hero” filter, even this somewhat indecent-looking octopus monster, made suspicious by the comment section, suddenly became much more pleasing to the eye.
The little cub happily gave Brother Octopus’s livestream a like and decided that once he earned money in the future, he would come back and tip Brother Octopus properly in thanks for saving his life that day.
Lin An’an spent the entire morning carefully studying the livestream section.
At noon that very day, after lunch, Lin An’an used his Sin Star identity card to apply as a streamer on SinNet and gave his livestream room a title that was both outrageously dramatic and irresistibly eye-catching—
Shock! A monster cub has fallen onto the Sin Star! Is it the collapse of morality, or the distortion of human nature?! Starting with a single seed—click now to see how this delicate little cub makes a stunning comeback and rises to become the King of Sin Star!!!
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