Chapter 18

A sense of accomplishment welled up inside him.

Yay! He could call a cab now, so Uncle Cao could get more rest from now on.

Bai Ruonian happily got into the car. As the distance to Central Avenue shrank, he peered curiously at the sky outside.

The Capital Planet basked in abundant sunlight, star-bright and dazzling, utterly bustling and prosperous. LED screens displayed all sorts of 3D advertisements—celebrities, luxury goods, full-dive holographic games, trending movies.

Bai Ruonian stood under Central Avenue, utterly stunned.

The incredibly rich and diverse ecological environment and the supremely advanced technological living conditions were completely new to him. Master had picked him up and brought him home when he was very small, and because his planet had been a junk planet back then, he had never seen a scene like this, even after growing up.

Bai Ruonian had originally wanted to find Chen Zhenghe, but he forgot which street he was on. So, he just strolled along, looking at the various shops, big and small, sniffing here, peering there.

He spotted a shop not far away with a long queue forming outside.

Being a cat, Bai Ruonian was curious and instinctively went over.

A long line stretched outside, heads bobbing, packed like sardines.

“What are you all lining up for?” Bai Ruonian curiously asked a passerby.

“Blue Snowflake! Haven’t you seen StarNet? It’s exploded in popularity lately, and only this one shop sells it—Blue Snowflake extract supplement. It treats Light Affliction!”

Bai Ruonian’s eyes widened, and he asked quietly, “Isn’t Blue Snowflake basically extinct?”

Ji Shiyu had even told him that even he didn’t have any there.

“It’s practically extinct, sure, meaning a small portion is still held in the hands of the upper echelons. But now some has trickled out.” The shop owner overheard Bai Ruonian’s words and spoke with confident assurance.

Bai Ruonian furrowed his brows. His kitty intuition told him something was off.

Hesitating for a moment, he cautiously took out his Terminal, saw his master’s name on it, and called.

It rang several times on the other end but was never picked up.

Bai Ruonian’s expression fell a little. He was always told to call if anything came up, and now that he had finally plucked up the courage to call, why wasn’t it being answered?

Just as he was about to give up, the line finally connected.

The background noise was a scene of utter chaos; Lu Mingjin was on a mission.

“What’s wrong?”

The young, magnetic voice sounded on the other end. The moment he spoke, the originally noisy crowd around Bai Ruonian seemed to vanish from his awareness.

“I…” Bai Ruonian thought for a moment. He didn’t quite know how to ask, but then he remembered what Ji Shiyu had said, and his eyes lit up.

“I heard… um, I heard you were going to give me Blue Snowflake?”

“There is that intention,” Lu Mingjin said. “But the physical exam showed your surgery is fine, and you won’t need it. Why?”

Bai Ruonian hemmed and hawed, not knowing whether to say he wanted it or not, so he beat around the bush.

“It’s nothing… I just wanted to ask if it has many uses.”

“It does.”

“I heard it boosts Mental Power and can even cure Light Affliction?”

“Mm.”

“Is it very rare?”

“Fairly. It’s a hard currency among the upper echelons.”

“Then besides those upper echelons, could… could other people possibly get it?”

“I can give it to you. Others, impossible.”

Lu Mingjin was a little puzzled. To him, Bai Ruonian’s whole roundabout line of questioning was simply wanting something but not being able to ask directly.

“Ah, ah, ah, not right now, not right now.” Bai Ruonian quickly refused. Central Avenue was still somewhat noisy, and he was afraid of giving himself away, so he hurriedly added, “We can talk about it later, maybe…”

Lu Mingjin narrowed his eyes.

He knew how to proactively probe and negotiate terms, and he even played hard to get.

This omega was more astute than expected.

He hadn’t chosen to sell him out, likely because the price wasn’t high enough.

Little did Bai Ruonian know that his master over on the other end had already overthought things to a cosmic degree. He was still secretly pleased with himself for his seamless, traceless information gathering.

Master had said it: Impossible!

He was someone who genuinely had access to Blue Snowflake.

Thus, he puffed out his chest and lifted his head, ready to burrow into the crowd.

Just then, a familiar voice sounded near his ear.

“Little Bai?”

Bai Ruonian looked towards the source of the voice, a bit surprised.

“Uncle Cao, is that you?”

Old Cao was at the very front of the line. Seeing Bai Ruonian, he wanted to go greet him but also didn’t want to recklessly lose his spot in line, finding it quite difficult. So, he patted the little girl next to him. “Daughter, go quickly and say hello to him.”

The girl was only about seven or eight years old. She walked over shyly and bashfully. Her foot was a little lame, her skin color somewhat sickly, her eye whites a murky yellow, tinged with bloodshot veins. She seemed unable to see the path clearly and stumbled, nearly tripping over.

Startled, Bai Ruonian hurriedly rushed forward to meet her. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop, don’t walk anymore.”

He proactively said hello. “Hi there…”

The girl looked at him timidly. “Hello…”

“Uncle Cao, didn’t you say you were taking your daughter to the hospital today?”

Bai Ruonian asked Old Cao.

“Sigh, couldn’t get an appointment,” Old Cao said, a little agitated. “Figured I’d take her out to look around first, and it just so happens we ran into a shop here actually selling Blue Snowflake. And it’s open on the Capital Planet, so it has to be legitimate.”

Bai Ruonian looked at the queue that was about to reach Old Cao’s turn, wanting to speak but then hesitating.

“Hey, you’re up. Buying or not?” The shop owner didn’t look like a pleasant person. Selling medicine, yet he lacked any scholarly air of a doctor. Instead, he had the aggressive look of a thug, barking at customers without the slightest courtesy.

Old Cao quickly said, “Buying, buying. How much?”

“One hundred thousand Star Coins.”

Old Cao’s hand, reaching for his money, stopped. He looked somewhat incredulous.

“One hundred thousand Star Coins for one course of treatment. Put in that bit of money, and the hospital won’t even take a shadow of it. Who dares guarantee they can cure Light Affliction right now?”

The hesitant expression on Old Cao’s face instantly became resolute. He gritted his teeth, and his money-retrieving hand sped up slightly, yet his hand still trembled.

“Don’t buy it.”

He had just confirmed with his master—something even he had trouble getting his hands on couldn’t possibly appear on the open market.

Old Cao paused. Bai Ruonian’s own hearing wasn’t good; afraid Old Cao hadn’t heard clearly, he repeated it clearly and crisply.

That one sentence brought the entire place to silence.

The line had just reached the two of them, and Bai Ruonian’s words were delivered right to the store owner’s face.

The shop owner recovered, glaring. “What’s that supposed to mean, you omega?”

Immediately, others in line chimed in agreement.

Bai Ruonian tilted his head, a little puzzled. He didn’t know why his words had provoked such a strong reaction from so many people.

He blinked. “Just… exactly what I said, literally.”

He wasn’t saying anything ambiguous, was he…? How come these people couldn’t understand plain words? Much sillier than him.

The shop owner glanced at him—an omega, slender and pale, looking like he had just barely come of age, and here alone. The owner didn’t take Bai Ruonian seriously at all.

“You, an omega with such limited knowledge—do you even know what Blue Snowflake is? Do you know what it’s used for? It saves lives. You stopping others from buying it is holding up their treatment.”

Others nearby chimed in too. “Yeah, if you don’t understand, don’t come causing trouble. You’re not buying, but others are waiting to buy.”

Old Cao felt a bit awkward.

“Little Bai, I know you mean well, but they all say this Blue Snowflake, it really works…”

“I know it works.”

Bai Ruonian stood his ground, chest out, head high, full of confidence. He lifted his small, pointed chin. “But Blue Snowflake is on the verge of extinction. Where did you get hold of it? Don’t tell me it trickled down from the upper echelons—even the upper echelons don’t have it!”

The owner sneered. “Anyone not buying, step aside. Plenty of people want to buy.”

So saying, he reached out to shove Bai Ruonian aside. Bai Ruonian sidestepped and dodged.

Having failed to get the upper hand, the owner was now completely enraged and was about to call for his thugs. The crowd behind him surged, and he yelled, “If you’re not buying, get out of the way!”

Bai Ruonian was nearly knocked over.

Just then, a young woman came over and pulled Bai Ruonian away. She was dressed in youthful, pretty clothes. She hesitated, but still spoke.

“Good advice is hard to give to those hell-bent on dying. Why bother with them?”

Bai Ruonian refused to budge. He lifted his face, his azure eyes very determined.

“Can you prove the supplement contains Blue Snowflake?”

The bustling street quieted down a bit.

This was a question the people in line also wanted to ask. Although they still believed the promotions, they were ultimately somewhat influenced by this youth’s stubbornness.

They really did want to know.

“Since you asked.”

The shop owner unexpectedly didn’t just ignore him. Instead, he laughed strangely, looking at Bai Ruonian. He pulled a gilt-edged special permit certificate from a plaque hanging behind him and slapped it onto the counter with a “thwack.” The steel seal of the Capital Planet Senate gleamed with cold, hard blue-green light under the sun.

“Open your eyes and take a good look.” His finger jabbed at the gilded insignia on the certificate. “A Collection Permit specially approved by the Capital Planet Governor—a Blue Snowflake Collection Permit!”

Planetary Governor’s special approval. When those four words dropped, no one present disbelieved.

In his heart, Old Cao still leaned towards Bai Ruonian’s side, but he stepped forward and carefully examined the steel seal. His hand gripping the money trembled violently, the edges of the bills stained dark by sweat.

“Little Bai…” His throat was dry. “This seal… this seal is real…”