Chapter 22: Dad
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Boy, you can treat my grandpa’s injuries?” Ning Xueshi did not dare to believe it, but she could not help but want to believe him.
Ever since her grandfather was poisoned, he had sought treatment everywhere. They had exhausted every method possible to treat him.
But the Purple-crowned Halys Viper was a new creature which had just mutated. Most of the doctors, harvesters, and medicine brewers had not even seen it before, so how were they supposed to treat its venom?
The White-haired Ghostly Hands’ pride and joy, his Ghostly Hands, were destroyed when the viper’s venom invaded his nerves. His Divine Eyes, which could see through superbeasts’ organs, were gone as well. 90% of his abilities were robbed from him, and he lost his former glory. He was even humiliated by the hooligans in the field; all of them told him that he should just retire.
And now, an intern popped up on the roadside...
A notification popped up before Meng Chao’s eyes.
[Will you activate your first Treatment Quest?
[Quest Details: Resources are the fuel that will help a civilization move forward. Resource collectors are the most important soldiers of a civilization. If you treat Ning Shewo, you will contribute to Dragon City’s rise to power
[Quest Time Limit and Rewards: A month later, you will be rewarded between 200 to 2,000 contribution points based on how much Ning Shewo recovers.]
‘Activate it!’
Meng Chao just loved “elite monsters”!
“I can try, but treating this sort of unknown viper’s venom is very troublesome. I don’t have any antidote recipe on the ready, so I might have to search for a few weird ideas.”
“That’s already very good. I know most of the antidotes, but right now, the doctors don’t even have any idea of might help and work as a treatment plan.” Ning Shewo smiled bitterly.
With his connections, he could get most of the valuable medicine, and he was also acquainted with a lot of the veteran medicine brewers. The key was to settle down on an idea to write a recipe.
The senior wanted to talk about the treatment fees, but he did not have a lot of cash in his account, and the boy had an inscrutable background. If he just offered three hundred to five hundred thousand to him, he would just be humiliating him.
He thought about it for a moment, then his eyes lit up. “My young friend, didn’t you mention that you want to open a resource recovery company later?”
“Yes. Elder Ning, do you have any instructions for me?” Meng Chao asked with partial sincerity.
Ning Shewo smiled and said, “I wouldn’t dare to give you any instructions, but would you be interested in signing a contract with Thunderbolt Fighting Squad to harvest monsters with them?”
“Thunderbolt?” Meng Chao felt that he had heard the name before.
“Thunderbolt Fighting Squad was created by five-star superhuman Lei Qianjun, who is also known as Wind Thunder Saber. Aside from him, the team is made up of two four-star superhumans, five three-star superhumans, and dozens of one-star or two-star superhumans. They have a pretty solid foundation, and they also have a good reputation in being trustworthy.”
Ning Shewo stroked his white beard. “Last year, they managed to kill one hundred and twenty-five superbeasts. The number of normal monsters they killed is far too high to have been counted. They will definitely have no problem with providing carca.s.ses for your harvesters. We can also discuss the ratio of profit allocation. Thunderbolt hired me to be the chief inspector of their resource planning, and I can negotiate normal contracts for them.”
Meng Chao thought about it carefully. “My company is still in the planning stage, and our skills are rather limited for the time being. Let’s not talk about superbeasts for the time being. We can handle normal monsters, though. We don’t need too many of them. With how big Thunderbolt is, the random, small cases they throw at us will be enough for us to survive.
“How about this? You can’t keep a Dragon Wolf Spider’s poison sac for too long, so how about you have someone process it into medicine first? I’m working at Five Blessings Street, and I might have to continue working there for the time being. You should send the materials away first, and we can talk later.”
Once Ning Shewo gathered a total of eight hundred thousand worth of cash, he transferred the money to Meng Chao through his phone, and Meng Chao left with his pockets full.
The grandfather-granddaughter pair watched his retreating back and sighed with emotions.
“Xueshi, that young friend of ours isn’t a simple man. If you have the chance, you should get to know him,” Ning Shewo said.
Ning Xueshi seemed to have thought of something, and her face turned red. She said softly, “Grandpa, even if he’s really good, it’s not necessary for me to befriend him!”
“Of course, there are plenty of youngsters in Dragon City with great backgrounds and ultimate skills in their possession. Am I supposed to have my own granddaughter go out of her way to curry favor?” Ning Shewo glared at her. “His skills and his background are secondary. I asked you to befriend our young friend because of one single sentence from him.”
“Which one?”
“He’s not interested in money. He only wants to contribute to society.”
“No way, Grandpa. You actually believed those lies?”
“Heh, when I was young, I was known as Divine Eyes Ghostly Hands. My Jade a.s.sessment Skill allowed me to see through a monster’s organs and sense the slight changes in the muscles of a person’s face so that I can tell whether they’re lying or not. Even though my eyes are mostly useless now, I’m not a youngster anymore. Would I not be able to tell the depths of a boy still wet behind his ears?”
Ning Shewo stroked his beard and said, “I don’t know whether he was lying or not when he mentioned that he isn’t interested in money, but when our young friend mentioned that he wants to contribute to society, his eyes were shining, so those words were definitely sincere.”
“Huh?” Ning Xueshi was bewildered for the umpteenth time.
They lived in an era in which monsters appeared everywhere, and everyone was filled with material desires. Yet there was a strange boy who did not like money and wanted to contribute to society.
When Ning Xueshi saw that Meng Chao had long since disappeared, she found herself absolutely perplexed.
With loaded pockets, Meng Chao walked with light footsteps. Even his pores were singing with joy.
He was going to open his account in front of his father later and shock him senseless. His father might demand whether he had done something wrong, but Meng Chao would calmly reveal what had happened. His father’s expression would then be... Hehehehehe!
When he returned to Five Blessings Road, he was puzzled. ‘Why is he gone?’
The sound of an argument could be heard faintly from the refrigerated truck for materials.
Shen Rongfa’s incredibly piercing voice could be heard over there. “Two hundred and eighty thousand! Old Meng, I’m already selling it to you cheap!”
Meng Chao’s pupils shrank, and he ran over.
The harvesters stood behind his father with their heads hanging dejectedly.
As for Shen Rongfa, he looked like a fighting c.o.c.k who had just won. He gestured about, and his saliva flew in the air.
Two of his st.u.r.dy bodyguards stood behind him brandishing stun batons, which made crackling sounds.
Meng Chao suppressed his anger and tugged at a harvester. “What’s wrong, Big Brother Zhou?”
Zhou Qiankun had an incredibly thick wrist. Even so, when Meng Chao tugged at him, it still hurt him so much that he gasped.
“Oh, A’chao, you’re here?” he asked with a bitter look on his face. “Your dad went to Shen Rongfa to buy the etherealized neurosphere. I think Shen Rongfa refused to sell it even after he offered a high price for it. Both of them tugged at each other for a while, and then, unexpectedly, the item fell on the ground and was damaged.”
“What?!”
Meng Chao was shocked. He looked through the gaps between people, and just as Zhou Qiankun said, there was a crack on the container because of the fall. The stabilizing solution had spilled all over the floor, and once it came into contact with air, it started producing bubbles.
The monster material was exposed to the air. Its outer sh.e.l.l, which was originally like a yellow gemstone and shone with a crystalline quality, was starting to turn dark.
The etherealized neurosphere was an incredibly sensitive material. Even if it was placed in a stabilizing solution, it could not withstand jolts and tremors.
The container could not be completely sealed either, or else, the rampaging spirit energy could not escape, and it would turn into a biochemical bomb at any moment.
It was very common for this sort of material to be tarnished because the steps to preserve it were not done well.
An etherealized neurosphere with a perfect appearance could be sold for approximately three hundred thousand. Now, its appearance had been tarnished, so they would only be able to sell it for seventy thousand or eighty thousand.
“Wait, why does my dad want to buy that etherealized neurosphere? Can he even afford it?” Meng Chao was a little confused.
Zhou Qiankun gave him a troubled expression, and Meng Chao instantly understood. “My dad wants to treat me so that I can get into college!”
Zhou Qiankun sighed. “This thing has gone completely out of hand...”
Meng Yishan’s eyes were as red as a piece of coal in a furnace. He stared at the bubbles on the ground and did not see his son trying his hardest to squeeze over.
“Old Meng, just answer me. A’xiong and A’bao both saw that you slipped and damaged the material,” Shen Rongfa said impatiently.
“I...”
Meng Yishan’s mind was a mess. What happened moments ago spun in his mind like a kaleidoscope. He remembered that the item had fallen on the ground by accident AFTER it had been placed in Shen Rongfa’s hands.
But there were no CCTVs in the place, and there were two bodyguards who could serve as witnesses for Shen Rongfa, while he was still earning his living under this man.
He simply could not explain what had happened clearly.
“Dad!”
At this moment, Meng Yishan heard his son’s voice.
The middle-aged man felt his mind go numb, and he forced out an awkward smile. “What are you doing here? Go back. This has nothing to do with you. Go back and rest for a while longer at the camp. Go on.”
“What’s going on? Did we really drop the goods?” Meng Chao went forward and supported his father.
He also stared at the aggressive looking Shen Rongfa coldly over his father’s shoulder.
The memory shards from his previous life surged forward, and certain emotions that were incredibly sharp stimulated his cells and nerves.
They made him really want to punch Shen Rongfa in the face and make him lose a few teeth.
Shen Rongfa snorted. He found it under him to pay any attention to a boy who had not even graduated yet.
“A’chao, this thing is beyond you.” Meng Yishan saw his son’s fierce gaze. Worried that he would act rashly, he quickly held him back. “This is just a mess of a problem.”
Meng Chao knew his father. He was the most serious and responsible person he knew when it came to work.
If he were really the one who dropped it, he would definitely not mince matters.
Since this was a “mess of a problem”, it was highly likely that it was not his father’s fault.
Meng Chao’s gaze landed on the side of the refrigerated truck. A folding table stood there with a few self-heating dishes that had beautiful packaging. There was also wine on it.
When his father sent the materials over, Shen Rongfa had to have been eating supper with his bodyguards.
The harvesters working at the frontlines worked hard for half the night, and even then, they could only eat high-calorie nutritional fluid that tasted like paste. Yet these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds could eat really good food. Their hands were even greasy.
Meng Chao knelt down on one knee and examined the sh.e.l.l of the container.
Then, he raised his head swiftly and stared fixedly into Shen Rongfa’s eyes.
Shen Rongfa felt guilty and shuddered. The fat on his face started trembling wildly.