"Here, take twenty bucks and go buy some candy from the corner store."
Ansheng glanced at Jellyfish Lady and rummaged through the tea table drawer, taking out twenty bucks and handing it to the chattering jellyfish trying to pull off a financial scam.
"Twenty? I'm a young lady of the noble Meredici family lineage, you're insulting me!"
"Now it's only fifteen." Ansheng said calmly.
"......" Jellyfish Lady was stunned for a moment, puffed out her cheeks, extended her tentacles to take the two bills, folded them, and tucked them into her umbrella cap, muttering some extremely cryptic words.
Stuff like 'charity food', 'hundredfold leverage', 'crypto going all-in and returning to slap faces', and such.
Ansheng was stunned, listening to the whole thing.
"Though I want to believe you, you might want to ask those creditors living at your house if they believe you."
Ansheng commented, completely speechless.
This jellyfish had some vision, but had no skills or common sense. Even if a maid did get smuggled in, it wouldn't help.
By Xia Country's law, foreigners need a special visa to work; otherwise, entering means no official work or investment.
"..... I'll donate fifty to buy fish feed for her, lest it starves in our base."
After calling Sister Leopard, the Fat Cat glanced at Master Fuli, then Jellyfish, and sighed:
"She's so clueless that I feel sorry for her. I wonder how she's grown this big. The old steward must have quite the workload; thinking of how tough it is for them, yet they willingly spent ten grand to bribe me, makes me feel guilty."
Fat Cat showed a sympathetic look into the jellyfish lady covered in paper money.
It wasn't about being dumb; even with Fat Cat's perception, she was plainly naive—a jellyfish lady like someone unfamiliar with agriculture and physically lazy.
"Let's go, Master Fuli! Sister Leopard should be almost at the door now...."
Fat Cat raised a paw, patting the jellyfish's head, and looked at Master Fuli.
"Hmm..."
Ansheng nodded slightly, tidied up the recently used tea utensils, then jumped onto Fat Cat's shoulder, walking together to the den's door.
"By the way, Master Fuli, I just remembered something perhaps not noteworthy..."
"Some tomatoes Ah Qing planted in the greenhouse went rogue and shot bull tomatoface, while a few peppers also exploded, nearly collapsing the greenhouse."
As the cat pushed the door open and walked outside, they saw students engaged in a melee in front of the cafeteria, seemingly recalling some matter, Fat Cat mentioned to Master Fuli.
Fruit and veggies nurtured personally by Ah Qing, when watered with fertilizer containing Spiritual Particles residue, showed greater chances of spiritualization compared to regular students.
Tomatoes transformed into pea shooters, shot bison a face full of tomato juice, covering the eyes, scampered from the drainage channel.
Those explosions were peppers post-spiritualization, pooled all Spiritual Particles on themselves for superior breeding offspring, detonated itself, wildly spreading pepper seeds across the greenhouse...
Though this incident was minor, Master Fuli might need to look into it.
Or else, with greenhouses blowing up every other day, the professor's lecture progress could be hampered.
"Then... Ah Qing's culinary skills are quite outstanding, unwittingly ended up with a roomful of minced pepper heads." Ansheng's mouth twitched slightly, utterly amazed at Ah Qing's terrifying farming prowess.
"What are y'all talking about? Hurry up and get in the car!" Wang Qiqi's navigator drove behind the cafeteria, rolled down the window, and called out to Master Fuli and Fat Cat by the roadside.
"Nothing much, just chatting about the happenings in Chang'an while I was away these days."
Ansheng sat in the passenger seat, pulled out the seatbelt, crouched in the chair to buckle up, while Fat Cat hopped to the back seat to sit with Golden Leopard lounging on the cushion.
"What could happen in Chang'an? Principal Li, Professor Wu, and Professor Bai are here, our Agricultural Research Institute's top researchers and the Biology Institute's all securing the place...."
Wang Qiqi drove outside the campus, casually saying to Master Fuli, and continued: "Principal Li said, Master Fuli, upon your return, let me guide you along the planned route to scout to prevent any unforeseen events."
"Departing tomorrow night at ten thirty, expected to complete recovery and transport mission within three hours."
Ansheng hearing this, eyebrows pinned up, curiously remarked: "You're transporting by Thunderbolt Jet?"
"How's it possible within三-hours, besides retrieving and completing the tasks round-trip between Chang'an and Northern?"
The flight from Chang'an to Northern Grassland consumed more than one and a half hours one way even on aircraft velocity.
Ansheng had flown personally before; at the time, owing to boarding trivialities, travel from Potou City back to Chang'an Airport took two hours in total.
"Thunderbolt Jet, that thing has no seats, purely a large drone..."
"Our route planning understandably has distinct channels we utilize."
"Yet..." Wang Qiqi glanced through the rearview mirror towards Golden Leopard.
"Boom—"
Golden Leopard understood, raised a paw and smacked across Fat Cat's crown.
"?"
Fat Cat could only manage wide-eyed bewilderment, not letting out a sound before directly peacefully sleeping.
"Now, Chatty Cat's dozing off..." Wang Qiqi halted the navigator amidst the ecological base, cradling Master Fuli, entered the base interior, swiping card access into an elevator.
"Here's our starting point."
The high-speed elevator descended close to thirty seconds, with the doors opening, revealing a spacious tunnel to Master Fuli's gaze.
The tunnel all around silent, dim lighting illuminating the reinforced concrete channel.
"What's this..."
Ansheng peered towards both ends of the tunnel, seeing a completely shut metal door at the left and a seemingly endless right path.
"This is [Underground Highway], shipping particular items, we traverse here." Wang Qiqi, embracing Master Fuli, entered inside:
"How shall I explain? When nuclear missiles power first manifested Divine Power, due to nuclear threat safety appeals, all cities and counties nationally dug extensive nuclear defense projects."
"Though later abandoned, leading traffic routes' nuclear defense efforts engaged with the national extensive infrastructure connecting mutually beneficially, resulting in underground passages."
"Tomorrow, we'll depart here, aboard magnetic levitation train bound for Northern, interact with Northern Security Bureau staff, return the goods back to Chang'an."
Wang Qiqi led Master Fuli across the station, informed about journey initiation location.
Buried beneath Xia Country, lies an underground motorway predating defense restructuring.
Its main outline forms an [Mi] character, links major cities of Xia Country north to south. Once, Xia Dong officials to entice Lin Clan entrenchment, persistently signaled to Lin leadership, Xia Dong is undoubtedly safe.
Even if global conflict ever erupted, Jiule would emerge unaffected.
Entrance to underground motorway lies amidst Jiule City suburb's Snake Mountain within Xia Dong.
Speedy travel on a magnetic train missile, globally rarely witnessed
Because... accelerating a missile before ignition nearing sub-sonic velocity for travel, expressing such beloved devotion illuminates its significance.
"Looks quite unbelievable!" Ansheng's expression inadvertently revealed astonishment on the cheeks.
"Are we even talking about the same infrastructure here?"
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