Chapter 154 - 121: High Speed

Chapter 154: Chapter 121: High Speed

Because of the little "boyfriend" interlude, by the time Zhou Qian finished his meal, the food at the bottom of the basin had gone cold.

Fortunately, everyone had cast-iron stomachs these days. As long as the ingested Mutant Value was within safe limits, their digestive systems would be perfectly fine.

Huai Yu contentedly packed away the basin and looked at Zhou Qian expectantly. "What do you want to eat tomorrow?"

Zhou Qian shook his head. "The hospital provides meals, and there are dedicated caretakers. You don’t have to go out of your way to deliver food anymore."

He knew that Huai Yu didn’t own a car. Every time she came to Flower City Hospital, she had to transfer buses twice, which was truly exhausting.

Huai Yu sighed. "I’d better bring it. You’re the only person I know right now. If I don’t visit every day, I’m afraid you might secretly get transferred away."

Huai Yu felt that she had perhaps been alone for too long, so once she invested emotionally in someone, she trusted them implicitly. Moreover, she compartmentalized her various emotions very clearly. For instance, just one meeting was enough for her to know that Lin Xuefeng was trustworthy, or to feel comfortable speaking her mind freely around Zhou Qian.

Boss Tang at the trading market was a good man, and Uncle Zaozi, while money-grubbing, wasn’t a bad person either. The staff at the market entrance were quite nice too, just like the older staff members who had originally processed her paperwork...

However, she still kept a clear mental ledger of who was merely an acquaintance and who truly mattered.

Hearing this, Zhou Qian couldn’t help but fall silent for a moment.

Normally, veterans who retired due to injuries like his would be arranged to attend the military academy in the Imperial Capital, or sent back to their hometowns for retirement care, receiving a fixed amount of Contribution Points every month until the end of their days.

This time, he had made a significant contribution and narrowly escaped death. There would certainly be no shortage of rewards and commendations, but Zhou Qian himself didn’t know what arrangements would be made for his future.

Not to mention his leg...

Nowadays, various medicines were extracted from mutated flora and fauna. Coupled with the fact that their physical constitutions far exceeded those of ordinary people, just a few days of rest had already brought his amputation wound close to full recovery.

Once it met the medical standards, he would be fitted with a prosthetic limb.

None of these matters were things he could decide at the moment. After thinking it over, Zhou Qian realized the only thing he could do was give Huai Yu a promise.

"Don’t worry, I will absolutely not leave without saying goodbye.

"If I have to leave Flower City, I will tell you no matter what."

With Zhou Qian’s promise, Huai Yu happily stuffed the stainless steel basin back into her woven basket and prepared to head back.

Unexpectedly, as soon as she walked into the hospital lobby, she saw a man standing in line, wincing and grimacing. Although his face was puffy and his cheeks were swollen, for some reason, he looked somewhat familiar...

"Uncle Zaozi!"

Huai Yu exclaimed in pleasant surprise. "Are you here to stroll around the hospital too?"

For some reason, Uncle Zaozi was bruised and battered. Two long streaks of dried blood trailed down his philtrum, one eye was swollen shut to a mere slit, and his cheekbones were a mottled purplish-blue.

Not to mention the corners of his mouth—the swelling extended all the way up from his cheeks.

Uncle Zaozi struggled to pry his eye open with his fingers to glance at her, then snapped in annoyance, "Do I look like I’m here to casually stroll around the hospital for fun?"

"Hehe," Huai Yu giggled foolishly.

Since Uncle Zaozi was still lining up by himself, it was obviously just superficial wounds.

She had witnessed Zhou Qian hovering at death’s door and had personally slashed him up so many times; looking at these superficial injuries now actually felt quite endearing!

"What exactly happened?" She dug through her pockets and handed Uncle Zaozi a piece of toilet paper.

Uncle Zaozi refused it. He moved his jaw a bit, wiggling his upper lip, which was exceptionally stiff from the crusted blood. "I can’t wipe it. I got beaten up, so I absolutely have to make that guy pay me a hefty sum."

As he spoke, he nudged the insides of his cheeks. The high swelling on his right cheek subsided, and suddenly his left cheek swelled up instead.

Huai Yu’s eyes slowly widened.

Uncle Zaozi looked a bit bewildered at first, then realized what was happening. "The right side! It was the right side, wasn’t it?"

The swelling shifted back and forth between his cheeks again as he adjusted it, muttering to himself, "Why hasn’t that guy come to negotiate compensation yet? My candy is going to melt in a second, and it was so expensive."

Only then did Huai Yu understand that Uncle Zaozi’s cheek wasn’t swollen from a beating at all—he had just stuffed a hard fruit candy into his mouth.

She was left a bit speechless and had no choice but to change the subject. "What exactly happened here? You were doing just fine; why would someone hit you?"

Uncle Zaozi got angry just bringing it up!

"Isn’t it the Labor Day national work drive? A bunch of Explorers who specially came back for the holiday got stuck on the highway, so I did my usual routine—staking out the inspection station to scavenge for leftovers!"

Huai Yu remembered their first meeting, and her expression grew complicated. "Were you scavenging for those Zaozis with a Mutant Value of 23 again?"

Uncle Zaozi’s face turned green—the exact shade of a green Zaozi!

"I just couldn’t resist a small bargain in the moment. Besides, no matter how much time I spent, didn’t I sell them all in the end?" He looked at Huai Yu pointedly.

But Huai Yu couldn’t figure it out. "But you worked so hard for so long, staked out the highway intersection, set up a stall at the trading market, and even personally ate such awful-tasting Zaozis... and in the end, you only made 4 points. Uncle Zaozi, what are you trying to achieve?"

She asked earnestly, and Uncle Zaozi answered just as earnestly.

"I just genuinely love working. I don’t want to sit idle."

Huai Yu was rendered speechless.

"Don’t look at me like you don’t believe it!" Uncle Zaozi grew anxious.

"This is why they say you kids don’t understand business. Sure, I was staking out the East District highway inspection station, but it wasn’t just for that one batch of Zaozis. There were definitely other things too.

"Wasn’t it just a matter of convenience? Besides, I have connections. Once I get my hands on the good stuff, I flip it quickly. As for what’s left, like those Zaozis, I might as well set up a stall since I’d be idle anyway. It doesn’t cost me anything.

"Nowadays, a lot of people only make a monthly salary of 100 points. I made 4 points squatting there for an afternoon—that’s not too shabby, is it? It’s a zero-capital business."

Huai Yu listened, feeling somewhat dazed.

She indeed wasn’t very good at business. Hearing Uncle Zaozi explain it so logically now, it seemed like it actually made a lot of sense.

She couldn’t help but feel curious. "Where is the East District highway? Can anyone go stake it out? Can I go take a look?"

Uncle Zaozi laughed. "I knew you were gutsy!

"But you can’t go alone. There are people staking out all four highway stations—North, South, East, and West—and they all have their own factions. A little girl like you, all by yourself, would easily get bullied.

"How about this: tomorrow at 9 AM, I’ll close up shop and head over there. Will you wait for me at the entrance of the trading market?"

Huai Yu nodded. "Mhm!"

Uncle Zaozi nodded briskly in return. "Alright! There are a lot of big bosses waiting to buy things over there. If you have any good items that are inconvenient to sell normally, you can sell them there, and no one will ask questions. Private transactions don’t need to go through the scanners either."

Just as he was speaking, he suddenly let out an "OUCH!" and weakly leaned against the wall. His right cheek instantly swelled up high again as he whimpered indistinctly, "I’m being beaten to death! He’s killing me... A poor soul with a cheap life like me, I deserve to be bullied..."

Huai Yu looked up, only to see a man with a dark, gloomy expression walking over from a short distance away.