Gu Jiaqi greatly approved of Nan Qingchuan’s decision not to abandon her and flee on his own. She had no objection to becoming friends with Nan Qingchuan. Besides, their current cooperation was mutually beneficial, so there was nothing wrong with exchanging a few gifts.
Besides, Gu Jiaqi herself could not cook at all. If she kept these things, they would only slowly rot and spoil. She might as well use them to win some goodwill.
“Can this really be eaten?”
Gu Jiaqi could see his concern. “Of course it can. Tata Beasts are considered quite valuable food where we come from! However, I heard that the liver of a Tata Beast can’t be eaten. Eating it will cause hallucinations, so you can cut out the liver and throw it away.”
Nan Qingchuan could hear the friendliness in Gu Jiaqi’s tone. Since she was showing such goodwill, he nodded and accepted. In any case, he would have experts examine it after he returned. At worst, they simply would not eat it.
“Thank you, Planet Lord Gu.”
Gu Jiaqi smiled. “You’ve already installed the chip, right? I’ll teach you how to use your mental power!”
Nan Qingchuan nodded. “I’ve already installed it. I also brought you a lot of vegetables, but it’s currently nighttime on our side, so I only have some ordinary vegetables. I’ll bring the rest over later.”
As soon as she heard that he had brought vegetables again, Gu Jiaqi’s eyes curved. Vegetables really were a wonderful thing.
As Nan Qingchuan spoke, he glanced toward the black hole. That one glance made his expression change dramatically.
“Where are the vegetables?!”
Gu Jiaqi turned around in confusion and saw three or four boxes scattered around the entrance of the black hole. They looked so pitiful and shabby.
Nan Qingchuan’s voice sounded again beside her. “I brought fifteen boxes of potatoes and tomatoes. How come there are only this few left?”
Gu Jiaqi was furious. “Someone stole the vegetables!”
She certainly would not suspect that Nan Qingchuan had brought three or four boxes and lied that there were fifteen. After all, vegetables were not particularly precious to them. There was no reason for him to lie to her.
And she had just gone to great lengths to lure the Tata Beast away, so it was impossible that the Tata Beast had eaten the vegetables.
That left only one possibility: the vegetables had been stolen.
Gu Jiaqi could not determine who had stolen them, but she could be certain that the thief was neither someone from the Ming Country nor someone from her side. The only possibility was that someone new had emerged from the black hole and stolen the vegetables.
The two of them hurried to the entrance of the black hole in shock. There were still four boxes of tomatoes left.
“Why would someone steal vegetables?” Even someone as composed as Nan Qingchuan could not help wondering. He did not know that the black hole could connect to other worlds. He simply thought that perhaps someone had passed by and stolen the vegetables.
But Gu Jiaqi knew better. Her expression darkened as she had Xiao Hong retrieve the surveillance footage from earlier. She was determined to find out exactly who had stolen the vegetables.
Gu Jiaqi’s StarNet connector was linked to her mecha. This was also the result of Gu Jiaqi being lazy. Most of the time, she was too lazy to search for things online herself, yet she did not want to buy another artificial intelligence assistant, so she had Xiao Hong take on the task as well. Fortunately, her mecha was the most advanced in the entire interstellar era, so Xiao Hong’s capabilities were more than sufficient.
Xiao Hong quickly retrieved the surveillance footage from after Nan Qingchuan arrived and projected it onto the virtual screen before Gu Jiaqi.
At first, the footage showed only Nan Qingchuan. Then part of the Tata Beast’s body blocked the camera. After that, Gu Jiaqi had already arrived and lured the Tata Beast away, while Nan Qingchuan also disappeared from the surveillance footage.
At that point, there was still a pile of boxes at the entrance of the black hole.
Gu Jiaqi sped up the footage. Three minutes later, someone emerged from the black hole.
The person was completely covered from head to toe, making it impossible to tell whether they were male or female. Even their face was covered by a mask, making them look exactly like a terrorist.
They held an old-fashioned assault rifle and cautiously moved forward. When they saw the huge pile of vegetables in front of them, they stopped in their tracks.
The person did not hesitate in the slightest. They grabbed several boxes and ran, going back and forth to carry away the boxes. They did not even spare a glance at the mecha fighting nearby.
Moving at such speed, they carried away box after box. The last time they came back, they seemed to hesitate over whether to take everything. In the end, they left four boxes behind.
Should I thank him for not taking everything?
“You thief! How dare you steal my vegetables!” Gu Jiaqi was furious. She had no idea where this person had come from, but she was determined to catch him.
Nan Qingchuan was quite puzzled by the anger on Gu Jiaqi’s face because the virtual screen before her was controlled by her own mental power. Nan Qingchuan could not see the screen at all.
“Planet Lord Gu?”
Hearing Nan Qingchuan’s voice, Gu Jiaqi calmed down slightly. She sighed. “Someone from another universe came and stole them. At the moment, I can’t catch this person either.”
Gu Jiaqi continued, “This black hole can connect to many different worlds, not just your planet. From the looks of it now, people from any planet could potentially enter this place through some kind of coincidence.”
Nan Qingchuan was extremely surprised by Gu Jiaqi’s words, but after thinking about it carefully, he realized that it was not impossible. Still, to steal things right after arriving was truly exasperating.
Gu Jiaqi rubbed her temples and decided to focus on the important matter first. She would definitely catch the thief eventually. There was no need to rush.
“Mr. Nan, I’ll teach you how to use your mental power now. Where did you install your chip?” The trade with the Ming Country had to get on the right track as soon as possible. Otherwise, if many people from other planes arrived at once, she would not be able to handle them all.
Hearing Gu Jiaqi say this, Nan Qingchuan immediately became attentive as well. Although there had been a minor incident, they still had to do what needed to be done. Gu Jiaqi saying this meant that she was still going to sell him the mecha.
“On the back of my hand.”
In fact, awakening one’s mental power was extremely simple. Gu Jiaqi only needed to use her own mental power to guide him, and she could awaken Nan Qingchuan’s mental power in less than a minute.
But this method clearly would not work for them. Gu Jiaqi remembered that people in ancient times placed great importance on propriety between men and women. Mental power entering the brain would cause a strange, almost intimate sensation, and she was afraid it would cause unnecessary trouble. So she decided to use the more cumbersome method.
“First, close your eyes and imagine a room in front of you. Then, imagine things according to what I tell you.” Gu Jiaqi slowly guided Nan Qingchuan using the teaching methods of an Imperial kindergarten.
Nan Qingchuan closed his eyes and emptied his mind, trying to imagine a room in his head.
“The room should have blue walls.”
“Put a desk in it. There should be a chair beside the desk.”
“There are three books on the desk, two thick ones and one thin one.”
“Put the thicker book in front of you and open it.”
After saying this, Gu Jiaqi stopped. Looking at Nan Qingchuan, who still had his eyes closed, she could not help marveling. These ancient people were quite impressive. Most ordinary people could not imagine things this far, yet he had managed to do it on his first try. It seemed he had some talent.
Nan Qingchuan, meanwhile, slowly furrowed his brows. He had imagined too much, and now his head was starting to hurt.
Just then, he suddenly felt as though there was something on the back of his hand. At the same time, Gu Jiaqi’s voice sounded again.
“Does the back of your hand feel a little strange? Use your thoughts to sense it.”
Nan Qingchuan did not know how to use his thoughts to sense it, so he could only follow his arm and explore bit by bit.
Gu Jiaqi stood beside him with her chin resting in her hand. She noticed Nan Qingchuan’s brows drawing tighter and tighter. It seemed he had run into some difficulty.
Indeed, this kind of sensation was difficult. To save time, Gu Jiaqi decided to help him.
She stared at Nan Qingchuan’s well-defined hand and sent a strand of mental power into it, guiding the spatial chip to seek out Nan Qingchuan’s mental power on its own.
Sure enough, while Nan Qingchuan was struggling to explore, he suddenly sensed a special presence, like a door. He tried his best to “look” at it and actually “saw” a vast space.
“Did you sense it? That’s your storage space.” Gu Jiaqi withdrew her mental power, keeping her contribution to herself.
Nan Qingchuan opened his eyes. Using mental power for the first time had left his gaze somewhat tired, but he could not hide his excitement.
“That space seems to have no end!”
Gu Jiaqi nodded. “This chip is very expensive, so go ahead and use it. Here’s to a pleasant partnership.”
Nan Qingchuan practiced somewhat awkwardly. He was still unaccustomed to using such a mysterious power. Every time he wanted to enter the space again, he had to exert some effort. It was nothing like the first time, when everything had gone smoothly. This was normal, after all. The first time, Gu Jiaqi had guided him, whereas now he could only probe it himself again and again.
Seeing him keep his eyes closed, Gu Jiaqi simply took out the five-meter-tall mecha from her space. “Try putting this inside.”
“How do I do that?” Nan Qingchuan was rarely this bewildered. He could now sense the space, but he did not know how to put something inside it.
Gu Jiaqi said, “Try using your chip to make contact with it. You need to actually see the space you’re sensing make contact with the thing you want to store.”
And so, Gu Jiaqi patiently guided him, bringing out the best patience she had in her entire life to teach him how to use mental power. Half an hour later, Nan Qingchuan finally succeeded in storing the mecha.
In reality, Gu Jiaqi had been taking things for granted. Who would start by storing something this large? Everyone usually practiced little by little. Gu Jiaqi had gone straight for the most difficult option and made Nan Qingchuan store a mecha, yet he had still succeeded. This also showed, in its own way, that Nan Qingchuan had quite a talent for mental power.
However, after storing and retrieving the mecha, Nan Qingchuan felt extremely exhausted. Overusing mental power would naturally cause fatigue, especially since this was his first time using it. The fact that he had managed to hold out this long was already quite impressive.
“For now, practice more in your spare time. Keep storing things and taking them out. Practice for about half a month, and you should be fine.”
As she spoke, Gu Jiaqi thought that she should buy a machine for measuring mental power when she got back. She suddenly felt that Nan Qingchuan was very talented and wanted to test which level his mental power belonged to.
“Thank you, Planet Lord Gu.” Nan Qingchuan forced himself to stay upright. “I’ll bring the vegetables over again later.”
The vegetables had been stolen this time, so both sides had actually suffered a loss. But Nan Qingchuan was thinking about how his superiors had repeatedly told him to show goodwill toward Gu Jiaqi. Since the vegetables had been stolen, he could simply send her another batch.
Gu Jiaqi did not see it that way. “No need, brother. Next time you come, just bring the vegetables for the next trade. I can handle this little loss.”
“No, no, no. The vegetables weren’t delivered into your hands, so that was my failure. I should bear the loss.” Nan Qingchuan insisted.
“Uh, then bring me a tableful of dishes. Don’t send potatoes for the time being. Oh, right, take this Tata Beast back with you. If you can make it taste good, send me some when you come back.” Gu Jiaqi relented.
Nan Qingchuan smiled faintly, turned around, stored the Tata Beast, and left. A tableful of dishes was much easier to transport than several tons of vegetables.
And so, both sides felt that they had gotten the better end of the deal and that they could keep trading indefinitely.
After Nan Qingchuan left, Gu Jiaqi watched the surveillance footage once more and gave a cold laugh. She opened StarNet and began buying protective fencing and security robots.