“No, no,” the team leader quickly raised his wristband, cheerfully inputting 2,500, and tapped it against Shen Guoguo’s.
【Beep, transfer successful】
Only then did her heart finally settle down.
“Chef Guoguo, if I have any more mutant beasts in the future, how can I find you? Why don’t you… leave me a way to contact you?”The team leader asked cautiously.
Although he had lost the bet and didn’t get those ten nutrient injections, this phoenix had been handled perfectly. That alone was a profit.And she only charged half the usual price.
No matter how you looked at it, it was a good deal.
The base was huge—over a hundred thousand people—so finding someone again was difficult.If he could get her contact, he could always call her again for processing mutant beasts. That’d save a lot of money!
The others nearby also looked tempted.
But Shen Guoguo wasn’t stupid.If she really left her contact information, that would mean openly competing with Master Chef Li for business. She didn’t want to bring trouble to herself or to Huo Tao.
“See you if fate allows, see you if fate allows…”Seeing her refuse politely, everyone could only leave reluctantly.
Once there was no more show to watch, the crowd dispersed.
Only a single robot was left standing guard.
Finally, some peace and quiet.
Holding back her nausea, Shen Guoguo went to the large pit behind and picked out a still-intact cow stomach.
Cows had four stomachs—what she held was the rumen, the largest of them all.
It had clearly been sitting there for days. Even after several washes inside and out, it still reeked horribly.
She stuffed all the remaining edible parts of the mountain chicken inside.
At that moment, she really missed things like fiber bags, jelly packs, vegetable baskets…
But there was no choice—she didn’t have any containers.She could’ve borrowed a big basin from the slaughterhouse, but carrying a basin full of organs down the street would look strange.
So this would have to do.
She picked up the now-coagulated chicken blood, stuffed the feathers into her small cloth pouch, grabbed the foul-smelling cow stomach, and walked out of the mutant-beast slaughterhouse swinging it in her hand.
Before leaving, she even greeted the robot,“I’m heading out! Bye-bye! I’ll return this basin to you in a few days.”
The robot’s metal face showed no expression, only its two red eyes blinked on and off.
Shen Guoguo was in high spirits.
She was going shopping!
“Ugh, what’s that awful smell?”
“Shen Guoguo, what’s in your hand? Oh my god—you—you’re not picking up trash from the slaughterhouse to eat, are you?”
Persistent as ever.
At the furniture store entrance, she once again ran into Shen Yazhi and Li Ge.
Shen Yazhi pinched her nose, her face full of disgust as she stared at Shen Guoguo.
Shen Guoguo looked down at the bulging cow stomach in her hand, then took a step forward and held it up right under Shen Yazhi’s nose.
“Do you want some too?”
“Don’t be shy—I’ll treat you. Since you’re holding a house banquet today and I don’t have a gift, I’ll give this to you.”
As she spoke, Shen Guoguo swung her arm and tossed the cow stomach straight at Shen Yazhi’s chest.
“Ah!”
Shen Yazhi instantly jumped back and flung the stomach to the ground.
Truly a mid-level warrior—her reflexes were fast.
Shen Guoguo looked wronged as she bent down to pick it up.“If you don’t like it, fine. No need to treat me like this… boohoo…”
“She’s insane!”
“Zhizhi, let’s go. Don’t bother with her. Let’s see how she survives in a few days!”
Noticing the attention of onlookers, Shen Yazhi’s face darkened.
Li Ge quickly grabbed her and led her away.
Today was his big day—he couldn’t let someone like Shen Guoguo ruin it.
Once they were gone, Shen Guoguo immediately stopped crying, calmly picked up the cow stomach, and walked away proudly.
Better to drive others crazy than to wear herself out.
Along the way, everyone—whether they knew her or not—covered their noses as she passed.
Soon, rumors spread throughout the Shen family:
“Shen Guoguo is eating garbage…”“Shen Guoguo is starving to death…”
When Shen Mother heard the gossip, tears streamed down her cheeks in distress.“I can’t rest easy. I need to check on those two kids…”
She and Shen Tianliang hadn’t attended the family banquet—and of course, no one had invited them either.
Shen Tianliang gently pressed her shoulders, guiding her back into the chair.“Even if we went now, it wouldn’t help. I can collect my nutrient injections tomorrow—I’ll bring them some then.”
He was right.
If the clan head found out they skipped the banquet just to visit Shen Guoguo, their faces would be even harder to keep.
Meanwhile, Shen Guoguo waved to the robot standing in front of a store entrance.
“I want to buy the cheapest single metal bed.”
She now had 2,650 star coins—enough to buy the cheapest bed.
【Sorry, defective human, you have no right to purchase】
“Huh?”
The shock hit her like a lightning strike—no, worse than lightning.
She couldn’t buy anything!
Then what was the point of earning star coins?!
No—no, the problem wasn’t the money. It was her status—her identity as a defective human.
Now she understood. That 150 star-coin balance she had before? Completely useless!
She really wanted to curse.
With a sigh, she carried her foul-smelling cow stomach and chicken blood back home.
From afar, she saw Huo Tao sitting quietly in his wheelchair at the doorway.
When you’re in a bad mood, just look at a handsome man more often—it helps.
Shen Guoguo quickened her pace, a smile lighting up her face.“Hungry? I’ll make you something to eat.”
She even waved the things in her hands as she spoke.
Huo Tao didn’t even flinch at the smell, only kept his eyes fixed on her face.
He couldn’t move well. Going out to collect the nutrient injections and coming back would take at most an hour and a half.
Within the first half hour after she left, he’d been filled with expectation—and a touch of confusion.
So this is what it’s like to be married?
After an hour, he thought, She should be back soon.
After an hour and a half, he rolled himself to the doorway to wait.
After two hours, she still hadn’t returned.
He’d already imagined countless possibilities—Did she take the injections and run away?No… people said she’d never been outside the base. Where could she go?
Was she robbed?No—robbery inside the base was a serious crime. Ten nutrient injections weren’t worth that risk.
Did she… regret it?
Huo Tao’s heart went up and down with every shadow that passed the alley entrance. He thought each one might be her.
Ten more minutes, he told himself. If she doesn’t come back…
He didn’t have to finish the thought—because she came back.
When he saw Shen Guoguo smiling, her little tiger teeth showing, Huo Tao couldn’t help but smile softly in return.
He turned his wheelchair and followed her into the house.
Shen Guoguo took the ten nutrient injections from her small pouch and placed them neatly on the table.Then she tossed the chicken feathers into a corner and put the dark green cow stomach into the stainless-steel basin.
Once cleaned, it could make a nice storage bag.Right now, the whole household only had one small cloth pouch, barely the size of a baby’s bellyband—not enough at all.
Huo Tao: …That was his washbasin.
“Oh right, do you know what defective humans are?”
“I do,” Huo Tao said, watching the little figure busily working on the floor, suddenly realizing that Shen Guoguo herself was one.
At the doorway sink, Shen Guoguo washed her hands and sat on the edge of the bed.
Propping her chin on one hand, she asked seriously, “Tell me about it. I went shopping today and found out defective humans can’t buy things. I want to know why.”
“Uh… You know, I didn’t care about these things before. But now that we’re family, I should learn.”
Seeing her act so casually, Huo Tao felt a pang of sympathy.
He began to explain the origin of defective humans.
“Three hundred years ago, after the apocalypse, a human leader cultivated a kind of seedling. Eating it could change human physiology and awaken hidden talents.”
“Later, after humanity used nuclear weapons to defeat the zombies, that leader disappeared, and the seedlings were lost. But the mutated genes remained in humans.”
“However, there were still some people who, even after eating the seedlings, never evolved.”