"That's right, Mu Xiaoxuan. How many people are you going to hurt by backing out? Without you, our group doesn't have enough people to link the chain!"
"And didn't you hear Zhang Lingling? She already submitted the report. Her virtual points have been deducted."
Mu Xiaoxuan lowered her head, aggrieved. "But I really don't want it. This kind of distiller barely makes any water. Do you really want to push it on friends and waste their virtual points?"
"Whatever it makes is still something. It's basically a free water collector. You recommend it to a friend, your friend brings another friend, and soon everyone gets it for free, with lots of work points to earn."
"Exactly."
Mu Xiaoxuan ducked her head as tears streamed down. "But, but…"
Seeing Mu Xiaoxuan surrounded, Jing Shu shoved through with her flashlight. "If she doesn't want it, she doesn't want it. You planning to force a sale? Stop using those flimsy tricks as an excuse. You know perfectly well what you're doing."
A person who drank from the Spirit Spring daily and had killed before carried a different aura. Jing Shu's domineering presence stunned many of them on the spot.
Zhang Lingling pointed a finger at Jing Shu. "You, if you won't buy, fine. But don't be so unreasonable!"
"Alright, drop it. If they don't want to buy, forget it. I don't care about those points," Xie Zihao stepped in to mediate.
Zhang Lingling snorted. "Kindness treated like donkey liver. I'm trying to help her make money, and she thinks I'm out to harm her. Let's go. We're transferring virtual points at the supermarket." Zhang Lingling worried that Jing Shu would ruin a perfect setup. Since when had Jing Shu's personality changed so much?
"Since I didn't register, I'll pass. Jing Shu and I still have things to discuss," Yao Zixin said quickly.
"Hmph, don't come begging me later." Zhang Lingling rode off with a group on their bicycles.
In a blink, the mall quieted until only three were left. Mu Xiaoxuan sobbed softly. "It really is a pyramid scheme. Just like my uncle. No matter how you talk, he won't listen."
Jing Shu handed over a tissue and a bottle of mineral water. Mu Xiaoxuan accepted the tissue but not the water. She pushed the bottle into her hands. "Head home early."
"Thanks." Mu Xiaoxuan thought for a moment, then took a redwood box from her bike rack and offered it to her.
"This is the mother seed of a Bodhi tree. My grandfather said it can be cultivated. It may be useless now, but if Earth's Dark Days end, it represents hope. The branches can yield rubber, the leaves can feed livestock, and it has many medicinal uses. It is valuable from root to crown."
Jing Shu suddenly remembered. In the apocalypse, a few years in, some disaster struck and many died horribly. Later, a doctor said that if there had been a Bodhi tree, it might have saved them.
What was it again?
Jing Shu pulled out her phone and quickly searched the medicinal uses of the Bodhi tree. Mu Xiaoxuan and Yao Zixin watched Jing Shu, dazed and unsure what to say.
"That's it!" Jing Shu said, delighted. A few years into the apocalypse, a mutated parasite appeared. After infection, the digestive tract ulcerated.
Victims endured ten days of agony without dying, passing blood daily. People said it was the parasite expelling what was left of the organs. Only when the innards were fully eaten did the victim finally die. It was a real-life iron wire worm nightmare.
But the parasite needed specific conditions to survive, and numbers were small. It was like a lottery. Pray you never get picked.
The Bodhi tree was used in traditional medicine for asthma, diabetes, and epilepsy, and it showed significant effects against parasites. But in the first year, the species withered from drought and was basically wiped out.
Prevention never hurts. Jing Shu turned to the car and brought out a barrel of water for Mu Xiaoxuan. "This is payment for the Bodhi mother seed. Don't refuse. You deserve it, and I happen to need it."
In Mu Xiaoxuan's hands it might never realize its value. In Jing Shu's hands, it could save many lives. Whether for paid treatment or free aid, it would be a great merit, and it protected Jing Shu's own family too.
Mu Xiaoxuan took the water, pushed her bike, and left in a fog of confusion. The follow-up discussion with Yao Zixin left Jing Shu distracted. Jing Shu skimmed the designs and dimensions, found no issues, handed over ten liters of water as agreed, and headed home.
On the way back, Jing Shu tied the shark submarine to the back of the BYD Song and towed it home. There was no space left in the villa, so Jing Shu put it straight into the RV's storage bay.
"You go out in the middle of the night and haul back another useless contraption? Go on then, what's today's story? A thank-you gift from saving Lao Wang next door, or the president this time? How do you keep saving people every day, and why do they always give you such weird things?"
Su Lanzhi stared for a long time and still could not tell what it was.
For the first time, Jing An talked back to Su Lanzhi. "Enough. Every time our kid brings something home, you say it's useless. And then?"
Then came the slaps to the face. Even if it was useless at first, it always became useful later.
Su Lanzhi flushed for once. "Fine, fine. Put your precious toy away and go to bed."
"Got it."
Jing Shu hesitated for a long while, then cleared out one cubic meter of medicinal plots to plant the Bodhi tree. Jing Shu did not know when it would be useful, but planting it now would not hurt. The information said Bodhi grows fast. When it matures, Jing Shu would fell it and store it in the Cube Space.
…
"I heard the young miss traded for a batch of honeysuckle today?" The middle-aged man rubbed his temples. His voice was cold.
A well-dressed, portly old man stirred milk into his coffee, smiling lazily as he handed it over. "Yes. She traded with a classmate. The young miss is hiding it like a treasure. I have not had time to analyze its components yet."
Bang!
The man slapped the redwood table hard.
"Analyze what? Best case, she got conned and that old bastard drinks poison. That bastard has the gall to use my resources and still win my daughter's devotion, and I can't even show it. I want to tell that silly girl straight out, the man she wants to save is her father's mortal enemy!"
The old man kept smiling.
"You know the young miss's fate. Master Zhang said she is favored by Heaven, blessed with a heart where wishes come true. Anything she wants, anything she sets her mind to, she gets it done. She wanted an antidote, and here it is. If she wants to cure that man, he might be up and lively tomorrow."
"Hmph. Maybe that's for the best. The illness has tormented him long enough. Death is a release. Whoever comes after might be an even worse bloodsucker. Let's just hope the artificial sun goes smoothly."
"Shall I still investigate?"
"Investigate. Outside of our stock, all the Chinese herbs have withered, and the rest have nearly been used up these nine months." The man narrowed his eyes. "If it is real, I hope it is fake. If it is fake, I hope it is real."
The old man chuckled. "I fear you will be disappointed again."