Ruan Qiao used the boxes she had bought the day before to pack two boxes each of perilla and lettuce. Just then, the self-driving car called by 001 arrived.
Because there were so many of them, the car ride this time was nothing like the quiet trip before.
The little ones, who rarely went out, were beyond excited. They chirped and chattered nonstop, expressing their curiosity and happiness in every possible way.
The entire ride, Ruan Qiao stayed tense, afraid that if she took her eyes off them for even a second, they would cause some kind of unexpected trouble.
By the time the car finally dropped them off at Doctor Aisen’s clinic, she felt as if her temples were throbbing and her ears were still ringing.
She got out of the car, picked up Gungun in her arms, and tugged the other little ones, who clearly hadn’t had enough of the ride, down from the vehicle.
Even after entering the clinic, she couldn’t stop rubbing her ears, which made Doctor Aisen burst out laughing.
Doctor Aisen looked especially cheerful today. Of the few times Ruan Qiao had seen him, she had never seen him smile so broadly.
Curious, she couldn’t help asking, “Is there some good news today? You seem very happy.”
The smile on Doctor Aisen’s face didn’t fade at all; the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepened slightly.
“You coming here is good news,” he said warmly. “Seeing all of you doing so well makes me very happy.”
As he spoke, he shifted his gaze from the little ones to Ruan Qiao, his tone filled with genuine emotion.
“I watched the videos you posted before, and yesterday’s livestream too. Ruan Qiao, you’ve worked hard.”
Doctor Aisen had been the first person she met in this world, and the first kindness she received had also come from him.
Although they weren’t particularly close, over time Ruan Qiao had come to regard him as an elder she cared about deeply.
So hearing his praise now warmed her heart.
She took the vegetables from Ah Qi and handed them over. “This is lettuce we grew ourselves, and this is perilla. Doctor Aisen, please try them. If you like them, we’ll bring more next time.”
Doctor Aisen accepted them with a cheerful smile, clearly very pleased.
After chatting for a bit longer, the two other doctors he had invited arrived one after another.
According to Doctor Aisen, both of them were very experienced and knowledgeable about secondary evolution.
After giving the children a brief examination, the older of the two doctors said to Ruan Qiao, “The children are all very close to their transformation period. If you agree, we would like to conduct a comprehensive and systematic examination for them.
Doctor Aisen mentioned earlier that they’ve never had a full physical checkup before.”
Doctor Aisen nodded in agreement. “My clinic is too small and doesn’t have enough equipment. I can’t conduct full physical examinations here. And when the children were younger, it didn’t seem necessary, so they never had one.”
He then glanced at his watch and suggested, “Ruan Qiao, how about this? It’s ten o’clock now. You and Ah Qi can take a walk around nearby and come back in the afternoon.”
“I’ll accompany them to Doctor Mu’s clinic. Once the test results are out, we’ll discuss the next step together.”
Naturally, Ruan Qiao had no objections.
The little ones were already familiar with Doctor Aisen. Aside from Jin Ge grumbling a bit in reluctance, the others rushed into his arms the moment they entered, as if reuniting with a long-lost relative.
Now that they heard he would be the one taking them out, none of them resisted, even Jin Ge behaved himself and didn’t show any displeasure.
And so—
Ruan Qiao, who had thought the day would be packed to the brim and that there wouldn’t be enough time, suddenly realized she had nothing to do.
“Shall we go take a look at the secondhand market?” she suggested, glancing at Ah Qi.
“The secondhand market is a bit far. Let’s go to the supermarket first,” Ah Qi said, looking toward the door. “We can check how their vegetables are packaged and what the prices are.”
Not far from Doctor Aisen’s clinic was the supermarket Ruan Qiao had visited the first time she came into town.
She knew Ah Qi was suggesting this because the vegetables at home were about to mature, and he wanted to get a sense of the market. She naturally didn’t object.
The two of them left the clinic and walked slowly along the pedestrian street.
Although not much time had passed between her two walks down this small road, Ruan Qiao’s state of mind had changed considerably.
The last time she came, she had felt anxious and nervous. Even though Lin Shan and Gungun had been with her, she had still felt lonely, as if she didn’t quite belong in this world.
But this time, her heart felt much more settled.
She didn’t know whether it was because the person beside her made her feel secure, or because she had gained confidence in the future.
In any case, walking this road again, she felt a little more integrated.
Even the supermarket ahead seemed somewhat familiar and welcoming.
After entering, they headed straight for the produce section.
Even though she had already been shocked once before, seeing the outrageous prices on the labels still made Ruan Qiao feel overwhelmed.
Especially when she saw a box about the same size as the ones she had bought, containing eight small heads of bok choy, priced at 400 Star Coins, she was deeply shaken.
She grabbed Ah Qi’s arm and rubbed her eyes with her other hand.
“What’s wrong?” Ah Qi turned to look at her.
“It’s nothing. I just need a moment.”
As she spoke, Ruan Qiao let go of his arm, picked up a box of bok choy from the display case, and examined it carefully.
She wanted to see what was so special about this bok choy that made it worth such a price.
But no matter how closely she examined it, she couldn’t find anything unique.
If she had to point out something… it almost looked less fresh than the ones she had grown herself.
“How many days has this been sitting here?” she muttered.
Ah Qi took the box from her hands, turned it over, and examined it carefully. Then he pointed to the place of origin. “This was shipped from the Capital Star. It must have been at least two days.”
As he spoke, he pointed to a small, inconspicuous capsule at the bottom of the box. “There’s a preservative in here.”
Sure enough, no matter how good the preservation technology was, it couldn’t compare to something freshly picked.
Ruan Qiao couldn’t understand it. Did a simple bok choy really need to be transported from another planet?
0813 wasn’t some barren wasteland. It had a considerable permanent population.
And from what she could see, the technology here wasn’t particularly backward either.
Even if the soil quality was poor, couldn’t they just buy nutrient soil?
Just like them, though they were planting in a seedling room, it looked like the harvest wouldn’t be small.
No matter how expensive nutrient soil was, could it really cost more than long-distance interplanetary shipping?
Why couldn’t they just grow it themselves?
If she had just arrived and knew nothing, she wouldn’t have had the right to question it.
But now she had already planted crops, and the harvest was just around the corner.
Most importantly, she knew she hadn’t even taken especially meticulous care of the seedlings, yet they had grown perfectly fine.
The germination rate wasn’t low either.
So she truly couldn’t understand why such a large planet couldn’t even be self-sufficient in something as basic as bok choy.
She shared her doubts with Ah Qi.
After thinking for a moment, Ah Qi asked, “Have you considered that maybe it really can’t be grown here? Or that even if it can, it’s very difficult to cultivate, so the cost is too high and it’s cheaper to import it from other planets?”
“But…”
Ah Qi tapped his temple lightly and continued, “I’ve gradually started remembering some things lately. Actually, these past few days, I’ve also felt something strange.”
“What’s strange?”
“The vegetables in our yard are growing too well.”
“What’s strange about them growing well?” Ruan Qiao asked, puzzled.
“It’s precisely because they’re growing so well that it’s strange.”
Ah Qi swept his hand over the labeled boxes. “If vegetables were really this easy to grow, would they be sold at such high prices? If all it took was buying some nutrient soil and building a small seedling room, would Ella have struggled so much back then?
You said it yourself, the annual tax for the whole mountain is only five thousand. If we picked perilla for a few more days, or even forget the perilla, just wait for the vegetables you planted to mature, we could probably earn that five thousand in about a month out of the year, right?
If it’s that simple, why couldn’t Ella do it?”
Ah Qi’s string of questions left Ruan Qiao speechless.
Yes, living in the same orphanage, if she could do it, why couldn’t Ella?
Even if Ella couldn’t find help or clear land to farm, building a small seedling room and planting vegetables on a modest scale like she was doing now shouldn’t have been that difficult for her. So why hadn’t she done it?
Seeing her fall into deep thought, Ah Qi put the vegetable box back where it belonged and asked again, “Qiaoqiao, have you ever thought about getting tested for special abilities?”
“Special abilities? Me?” Ruan Qiao was even more startled.
How could that be?
She hadn’t finished reading the book she had dreamed about, she had woken up in anger after reading about the original owner freezing and starving to death on the street.
But even so, she knew that in the book, the original owner had just been an ordinary person.
According to the grading system here, at most she would have been classified as a C class individual.
There had been no special abilities at all.
That made sense, if she had possessed any special powers, would her life have turned out like that?
Most likely, she wouldn’t have set her sights on the orphanage in the first place.
“No need. I don’t have any. I’m just an ordinary person,” Ruan Qiao said quickly, waving her hands.
“If you get the chance, you should still get tested,” Ah Qi said thoughtfully.
“Although there’s still a lot I can’t remember clearly, I do know that fresh fruits and vegetables aren’t scarce only on this planet, they’re considered luxuries in many other places too.
Being able to grow vegetables so easily might itself be a kind of special ability.”
A vague image surfaced in Ah Qi’s mind—
A tall man smiling as he took a bright red cherry tomato, still warm from his body heat, out of the pocket of his combat uniform and placed it in Ah Qi’s hand.
He said, “Ah Qi, this is for you. I saved it especially for you.”
He couldn’t see the man’s face clearly, yet he knew that this was the person closest to him in the world.