Jiang Mian pressed her slender, fair hand against the scorpion tail.
A soft green healing light slowly flowed from her palm, covering the cyan, feverishly red tail.
‘It really is much more convenient to heal a Beastman who’s passed out.’
When Jiang Mian felt the temperature beneath her palm return to normal and saw the feverish redness fade, she withdrew her hand and left the room.
‘Time to start my plan to earn some Star Coins.’
‘Right, I also need to keep making and drinking the antidote.
The toxins in my system aren’t completely gone yet.’
Jiang Mian returned to her room, drank the antidote, and then slowly powered on her Light Brain.
She tried logging into the website she remembered, and sure enough, the page loaded and she was in.
The Cloud Network: a place where top experts from all walks of life gathered to exchange ideas and solve problems.
People who ran into problems in their respective fields would post bounties, seeking help.
Others would post their latest innovations, which required Star Coins to unlock and view.
However, the Cloud Network wasn’t as polished as it would later become.
For now, most of the users were Pharmacists; experts from other fields were still few and far between.
The current Cloud Network also lacked the numerous categorized boards it would have later.
All the bounties were in one section, while the paid-to-unlock original content was in another.
Jiang Mian looked at the projected interface and clicked on the bounty section.
It was a chaotic mess of all sorts of questions.
LosingMyHairOverAlchemy: Can any experts help me out?
I’ve already diluted my Thousand Leaf Worm Tail Juice to a 5% concentration, so why does it still explode when I add Rock White Reagent?
[Video] — Bounty: 10,000 Star Coins.
MoonlightOnMe: Looking for someone to write an empirical research paper on the practical applications of Qilanhua Medicinal Use.
— Bounty: 50,000 Star Coins.
SoDizzy: Experts, please take a look.
What’s wrong with this Bionic Man I built?
The speech system isn’t functioning correctly.
I’ve checked it over and over and made tons of adjustments, but it’s still bugged.
[Video] — Bounty: 10,000 Star Coins.
NotEvenDogsLoveMe: Looking to trade Beast Slaves for fun.
Duration: one month.
[Video] — Bounty: 1,000 Star Coins.
Redemption: Seeking contact information for a Beastman Doctor.
My Rabbit Beastman has been vomiting constantly lately.
We went to a regular hospital, but he didn’t get better, in fact, he got worse.
I heard that Beastman physiology is different from humans and they can only be treated by a Beastman Doctor.
Please provide contact info.
Beastman Doctors are also welcome to contact me directly.
— Bounty: 2,000 Star Coins.
Friendship: Sincerely seeking to hire a girlfriend with A-rank or higher Healing Power.
— Bounty: 500,000 Star Coins.
…
Jiang Mian glanced over the posts, then checked the original content section.
Xunmi: Method for Extracting Element 52 from White Essence Stone.
[Video] — 5,000 Star Coins [Unlocked by 20,040 people.]
Baixue: Method to Accelerate Purification of Blood Generating Reagent by 2.5x.
[Video] — 5,000 Star Coins [Unlocked by 10,006 people]
Domestication: 356 Days of Taming and Toying With an Aloof, Feral Beastman.
[Video] — 20,000 Star Coins [Unlocked by 356,807 people]
WeiNi: Growth and Development Log of a Mermaid Beastman.
[Video] — 10,000 Star Coins.
[Unlocked by 24,380 people]
…
Jiang Mian gave it a quick scan.
It was indeed a jumbled mess.
A lot of content was just piled together, lacking the refined categorization it would have in the future.
She went to the bounty section first, browsing through the questions and replying to those within her area of expertise as a Pharmacist.
She answered a great many of them.
To the first post: Add 10% Huo Mei Leaf Juice to the Thousand Leaf Worm Tail Juice to balance it.
That will prevent the explosion.
To the second: Add Snow Phosphorus Reagent.
…
After submitting an answer, she had to wait for the original poster to vet it.
Only after the OP confirmed the solution worked would the Star Coins be credited to her account.
Of course, if the OP chose someone else’s solution and it was successful, they would confirm that answer, and the Star Coins would go to that person’s account instead.
Many of these issues were no longer considered problems in the future she knew, so Jiang Mian couldn’t help but pause at some of the more elementary questions.
Things that were common knowledge in the future were still in the exploratory phase here.
After easily answering over two hundred questions, she left them for the OPs to confirm and moved on to the original content section.
She published two posts.
Bumian: Symptoms and Treatment Methods for Ten Common Beastman Diseases.
— 1,000 Star Coins [Unlocked by 0 people.]
Bumian: Methods for Harvesting and Refining Bosi Spider Venom for Medical Use.
— 2,000 Star Coins [Unlocked by 0 people.]
Jiang Mian set her prices a little low.
For the first post, she figured few people would buy it, given the low status of Beastmen.
The second one was priced low mainly because she couldn’t demonstrate the procedure with the proper equipment and upload a video.
Since it was only a text-based explanation, it would seem less definitive, so she couldn’t justify a higher price.
The medicinal properties of the Bosi Spider had yet to be discovered, so she guessed many people would still unlock her post out of curiosity.
「Meanwhile, Chi Lin was slowly waking up.」
He found himself sprawled on the sofa in an extremely undignified position.
His pants were half-pulled down.
Chi Lin: …
He pulled up his pants, casually rolled over, and sat back down on the sofa, his legs spread wide.
His scorpion tail seemed to wake up as well, its segmented length curving beside him, the sharp stinger at its tip gleaming with a cold, sinister light.
He recalled what happened before he passed out.
His mountain-green eyes darkened as he remembered that the woman had actually triggered his mating season.
He usually ran his mouth and made lewd jokes, but he rarely, if ever, acted on them.
But this time, when he’d asked Jiang Mian for a kiss, it wasn’t just a thought—he had fully intended to follow through.
Chi Lin’s expression darkened.
While he was unconscious, he’d had a dream—one from his sexual awakening as a youth.
The face in that dream had always been a blur, but this time, it had suddenly sharpened into perfect focus.
It had become Jiang Mian’s face!
Chi Lin’s expression was unreadable.
He’d only meant to test her, but he’d ended up trapping himself.
‘I hadn’t even realized when I’d started to fall for her.’
‘No, it must be the mating season affecting me.’
‘How could I possibly like that woman?’
‘That’s right.
It’s only because Jiang Mian is the only female on this Starship that my mating season is making me lose control.’
‘But right now, my mind is completely filled with Jiang Mian.’
Chi Lin frowned and pulled up the surveillance feed on his Light Brain.
He wanted to see what Jiang Mian had done to him after he passed out.
As he watched, the man on the sofa tensed, his tall frame arching.
Beneath his dark, bluish-green hair, his handsome face flushed crimson.
His mountain-cyan eyes were glued to the Light Brain, his fingers gripping the device so tightly that the backs of his slender hands turned red, veins bulging.
His breathing grew heavy, and a low, hoarse, strained gasp escaped his bright red lips.
He stared at the screen, at Jiang Mian’s slender, fair fingers wrapped around his tail…
Chi Lin stared intently at the screen, seemingly in anticipation of Jiang Mian’s next move.
But on the screen, Jiang Mian simply pressed her palm against his scorpion tail and held it there, motionless.
He grew anxious.
‘Why is she just holding it there?
Touch it.
Go on, touch it.’
‘Go on, touch the tip.’
But on the screen, Jiang Mian only pressed her palm to his tail to heal it, making no other movements.