DLWAV CH153

“The chicken soup is ready, Ruize! Quick, come have a taste.”

An hour later, Zhang Jianguo emerged from the kitchen carrying a pot of richly aromatic chicken soup.

Naturally, he hadn’t prepared only this single dish.

Looking at the braised pork belly, dry-fried green beans, and stir-fried eel laid out on the table, Zhang Jianguo wore a satisfied smile.

Only then did he realize that a good while had passed, yet Ao Ruize hadn’t responded to him.

“Ruize?”

He immediately went over to check.

On the cramped balcony, he saw Ao Ruize turning over a pile of stones in the corner.

Seeing him approach, Ao Ruize asked directly, “Where did these stones come from?”

To his surprise, the smile on Zhang Jianguo’s face faded bit by bit.

He said, “Did you forget? These are the meteorites that rained down from the sky twenty years ago.”

It was these very stones that crushed his parents, his wife, his children, his good brothers, and his neighbors to death…

It was also these very stones that caused Great Yang, even today, to tighten its belt and service debts owed to foreign nations.

Under the circumstances of those years, how could an impoverished and backward Great Yang have endured relying solely on itself?

Fortunately, Great Yang still had quite a few fraternal nations at the time.

They extended a helping hand to Great Yang at the earliest moment.

Unfortunately, they were not wealthy themselves either, so the assistance they could offer Great Yang was limited.

And this provided developed nations the exact opportunity to kick them while they were down.

They either demanded massive concessions of Great Yang’s mineral resources in exchange for meager aid, or provided loans with interest rates as high as forty percent.

To survive, Great Yang had no choice but to agree to their terms.

Later on, several fraternal nations fell out with Great Yang over conflicts of interest, while certain developed countries sought to further squeeze Great Yang’s resources, resorting to all manner of pressure to force debt repayments…

Most critically, meteorites that landed on Earth in the past always carried more or less some scientific research value.

—Precisely because of this, the state held high hopes that these meteorites could be traded for survival supplies.

Upon hearing the news back then, almost every household across all of Great Yang took flashlights out into the night and brought back entire rooms full of meteorites.

In the end, they were informed that the meteorites within Great Yang’s borders contained not even a trace of metallic elements.

In other words, they were utterly worthless.

The Great Yang government finally realized that the heavens truly hadn’t left them a shred of hope.

Consequently, when neighboring coastal nations noticed Great Yang’s weakness and encroached upon its territorial waters, Great Yang could only swallow its grievances in silence.

And the common people could only toss these meteorites back out.

Zhang Jianguo hadn’t thrown them all away, however, keeping a few pieces to vent his pent-up fury whenever grief overtook him.

It was just as he remembered: these stones had destroyed his entire family.

Hearing this, the Little Milk Dumpling piped up at once: “Our mission in this world is very simple: help Zhang Jianguo get his revenge.”

“Killing Shen Xinghui right now would be letting him off far too easy, though.”

“Why not wait until he climbs to a high position before striking, letting him taste what it feels like to reap what he sows?”

“So we have plenty of time right now.”

“Why don’t we strengthen the nation along the way?”

In any case, they had done this sort of thing plenty of times before.

Besides, this country was also called Great Yang; for the sake of that coincidence alone, they shouldn’t just stand by.

Most importantly, three worlds ago, Ao Ruize had helped the China of that world develop laser weaponry.

So right now, whatever technology he casually leaked from between his fingers would be enough to let Great Yang crush those shameless nations, venting a solid breath of resentment for Great Yang—and for themselves, after being thoroughly disgusted by hearing about it.

Then, as if struck by a thought, the Little Milk Dumpling asked offhandedly, “By the way, is there something special about these meteorites?”

Ao Ruize: “This is actually a raw material used to refine awakening potions.”

Setting aside the fact that it didn’t even know what these meteorites were, let alone how Ao Ruize knew, the Little Milk Dumpling’s first thought was:

“An awakening potion? The kind that lets humans awaken superpowers or spiritual roots?”

If that were true—

Then how had the heavens failed to leave Great Yang a shred of hope? This was practically delivering a massive gift right to Great Yang’s doorstep!

The courier had just handled the delivery a bit roughly, that was all.

After all, if Great Yang mastered a method of awakening, never mind now—even if foreign nations developed laser weapons, they wouldn’t need to fear them in the slightest. How could someone wielding a gun compete with an immortal cultivator?

What kind of development was this?

It had been far too conservative!

Then it heard Ao Ruize say, “No.”

“It’s a potion that allows Shadowfire Pigs to awaken their racial talents.”

The very Shadowfire Pigs their household’s Prime Minister Turtle loved to eat.

For pigs?

With that single sentence, the light gleaming around those meteorites in the Little Milk Dumpling’s eyes dimmed instantly.

Still, the Little Milk Dumpling pressed on: “What kind of racial talent can it help that Shadowfire Pig awaken?”

Transforming into a Fire Boy? Or gaining boundless physical strength?

Wasn’t it just swapping immortal cultivation for pig farming?

Although the prestige plummeted considerably, so long as the pigs raised could overpower rocket artillery, it wouldn’t be half bad either.

Ao Ruize: “A more even balance of lean and fat across its meat.”

The Little Milk Dumpling: “…”

The Little Milk Dumpling: “…………”

The Little Milk Dumpling: “………………”

It never wanted to hear the word “prestige” again in its entire life.

Ao Ruize: “However, I can experiment to see if it can be modified into an awakening potion suitable for human use.”

The Little Milk Dumpling’s eyes lit up: “You can even do that?”

Without waiting for Ao Ruize to reply, it declared directly, “If it’s you, you definitely can.”

After all, Ao Ruize never failed to bring it an assortment of frights and pleasant surprises.

“Mm.”

Ao Ruize turned to look at Zhang Jianguo: “Could I use these meteorites for something?”

Zhang Jianguo naturally wouldn’t refuse: “Take whatever you need.”

He didn’t want to waste his good mood dwelling on these meteorites, so he added immediately, “Alright, the food is ready. Let’s eat first.”

Ao Ruize: “Okay.”

Looking at the three dishes and one soup on the table, Ao Ruize offered a timely, satisfied smile.

In the past, whenever Zhang Ruize returned and found the food cooked by Zhang Jianguo not to his liking, he had thrown tantrums on several occasions.

Sure enough, Zhang Jianguo breathed a sigh of relief.

He promptly placed both drumsticks straight into Ao Ruize’s bowl.

“Go ahead, try them.”

Ao Ruize didn’t refuse either.

Though these two drumsticks were considered exceptionally precious items in this era, in the future, they would be nothing more than standard fare on the dining tables of Great Yang’s citizens.

Of course, it would have been even better if the neighbor’s child hadn’t suddenly burst into tears right at this moment.

“What is that smell? It smells so good!”

“It’s the smell of chicken soup—”

“I want chicken soup too! I want chicken soup too! Waaah…”

Soon, his mother’s voice rang out: “Drink what chicken soup? Do you think you’re Zhang Ruize, and I’m that sucker Master Zhang?”

“Where would our family get that kind of money for you to squander?”

Ao Ruize: “…”

Zhang Jianguo, who was just contemplating whether to bring a bowl of chicken soup over to the neighbors, saw his expression shift instantly.

He said hurriedly, “Auntie Zhang… she… she just misunderstood you, and doesn’t know how to speak properly… Don’t take it to heart. I’ll go over and clear things up with her right after dinner.”

Ao Ruize, however, put on a look of suppressed anger laced with contempt: “I know they look down on me, but it doesn’t matter, because I look down on them too. Just wait; when I make it big in the future, they’ll have plenty of time to regret it.”

Only then did he meet Zhang Jianguo’s eyes and say, “Dad, don’t worry. A real man keeps his word; once spoken, a team of four horses cannot overtake it. Since I promised to let you live a good life and care for you in your old age and see you off, I will definitely deliver on it.”

Looking at it this way, modifying the awakening potion had to succeed at all costs.

Hearing these words, Zhang Jianguo was instantly moved: “Good, good, good! Come, come, eat, eat.”

Early the next morning, pocketing five boiled eggs pressed on him by Zhang Jianguo and carrying a large chunk of meteorite, Ao Ruize returned to Qianda.

The first thing he did was replace the padlock on his laboratory.

Then he returned all the electrical equipment inside the laboratory back to the logistics department.

Hearing this news, Principal Li, who was just preparing to attend a meeting at the Education Bureau, took an immediate detour straight to Ao Ruize’s laboratory.

Before he could even speak, he heard Ao Ruize say: “Principal Li, I was just about to look for you. I’d like to requisition a batch of chemical testing instruments…”

“Nonsense!”

Principal Li cut him off directly.

He assumed that Ao Ruize, having faced repeated failures, had grown thoroughly demoralized with electrical engineering and was now abandoning himself to despair, shifting on a whim to chemical technology.

Although he didn’t care for Ao Ruize—viewing him as somewhat violent by nature after the brawl with Xue Jiazhi—that wasn’t an insurmountable flaw, was it? After all, Ao Ruize was still a minor and could be guided back on track.

Most importantly, even though he had fallen one step behind Shen Xinghui every time, the mere fact that he could keep up with Shen Xinghui’s pace put him ahead of the vast majority of students in the Youth Class.

Furthermore, the reason he had fallen one step behind Shen Xinghui every time might very well have been due to sabotage by Xue Jiazhi.

So even if he hadn’t produced many results over these past few years, Principal Li had still planned to let him graduate smoothly, and perhaps even grant him an opportunity to study abroad on government sponsorship if possible.

He never expected Ao Ruize would suddenly throw in the towel like this.

So Principal Li urged him with earnest, painstaking concern: “Student Zhang, I know those past incidents dealt you a heavy blow, but your talent in electrical engineering is indisputable. The state expended immense effort to nurture you in the hopes that you would achieve outstanding results in electrical engineering and bring glory to the nation.”

“Do you realize that doing this now is tearing down your own walls?”

Ao Ruize cut him off in turn: “Principal Li, I understand all of that. But I didn’t switch to biochemistry because I lost faith in electrical engineering; I genuinely thought of an excellent research topic and want to explore it.”

“Rest assured, I won’t neglect my original coursework.”

Principal Li: “…”

He hadn’t expected that he had simply overthought things.

What else could Principal Li say?

He could only cover his mouth, clear his throat, and say, “…Then go ahead and do it.”

Even though he didn’t believe Ao Ruize could produce any meaningful results.

After all, electrical engineering and biochemistry were completely unrelated disciplines.

He figured that since Ao Ruize’s mind wasn’t on electrical engineering right now anyway, he might as well let him have his way; once he hit a wall, he would naturally rein in his focus.