Chapter 126: The Mutated Peach with a Value of 27
After hearing Huai Yu’s words, Chen Xing’s expression became a bit hard to describe, “Mutated value 27, you’re not really… craving fruit, are you?”
She sighed and added, “Well, not just you, I’ve forgotten what real fruit tastes like myself.”
She then glanced at the unfortunate peaches, “If you like them, take them all, don’t leave any behind. With such a high mutated value, even the wealthy families in the imperial capital won’t bother feeding this to their pets.”
Huai Yu immediately became excited, “Thank you, Sister Xing!”
The peaches may have a terrifying mutated value, but as long as they were purified, they would definitely taste good. Perfect for giving to Zhou Qian to help him recover.
Uncle Zaozi couldn’t hold back after a long pause, and burst into laughter, “Little Yu, you used to criticize me, but now you want these mutated peaches with a value of 27?”
Huai Yu smiled innocently, “But the mutated value is 27, and the mutation direction is [unpalatable], I really want to know, how bad could they taste?”
“Uncle Zaozi, don’t you want to know?”
“What a strange mutated direction!”
After hearing this, Fanta, who had just finished adjusting the machine and followed into the warehouse, couldn’t help but turn and look at Huai Yu.
Meanwhile, Uncle Zaozi frowned, his face full of hesitation as he stared at the basket of peaches.
“I say, after all that effort to pick these peaches, didn’t anyone try them to see just how bad they really are?”
Chen Xing: “…”
She gave Uncle Zaozi a complicated look. Fanta, who passed by her, couldn’t help but mutter softly, “Sister Xing, did you break his brain?”
Huai Yu, however, remained curious, “Do plants’ sense of ‘unpalatable’ match with ours?”
Uncle Zaozi fell into deep thought.
Just then, Fanta, standing at the door, waved at her, “Come on, the machine’s ready. Put whatever you want to test inside.”
Huai Yu rummaged through her basket and pulled out a colorful ball—pink, white, yellow, green, and purple… all kinds of colors. Fanta froze for a moment, surprised.
“What’s this?”
Huai Yu paused, unsure what to call them, but Uncle Zaozi was already excited, “It’s pressed tea! High-quality pressed tea! The mutated value is particularly low, and the tea brewed from it is fragrant and helps digestion…”
He looked at Huai Yu, “You promised, right? After testing, you’ll leave me some.”
Fanta, after seeing Uncle Zaozi’s enthusiasm, lost his curiosity and casually put the ball into the testing chamber, “Come back in half an hour.”
Huai Yu nodded, then turned to look at Chen Xing.
Chen Xing patted her on the shoulder, “Let’s go back to the warehouse. You’ve only looked at the peaches, you haven’t finished picking.”
“Just look around, sister’s got a good feeling about you. Pick whatever you want, I’ll give you a big discount.”
Huai Yu felt that, rather than picking goods, it felt more like she had entered a scrap yard.
The entire warehouse was a jumble of things. After the best goods had been sold to the rich families, the rest of the collected items, the small scraps, were discarded and ignored.
To be precise, even if they were considered, given their current vacation status, they probably wouldn’t have the patience to sort things out.
Now, the items were roughly divided into [edible] and [non-edible], haphazardly stacked in this square room.
To Huai Yu, it felt like falling into a dragon’s treasure hoard.
“So many things!” She genuinely liked it.
Chen Xing, however, awkwardly scratched her nose, “Actually, these are all things we’ve collected over time… When we first set up the expedition team, we didn’t have much experience. We thought everything was precious and collected all kinds of junk.”
Now that their team was more established, they had a formula for what to bring on expeditions with a good cost-performance ratio.
Except for the peach, which they hadn’t anticipated, they rarely brought back anything of no value anymore.
Looking at these things, Chen Xing felt a bit overwhelmed—she wasn’t the only one, the others in the team were in the same state.
They had someone do an inventory count months ago, and no one had even managed to fill a page.
Seeing Huai Yu genuinely happy and looking at her pale, fragile form, a hint of affection rose in Chen Xing’s heart.
“So, feel free to pick whatever you want, don’t worry about the points.”
“After all, it’s too troublesome to sell everything individually, and we don’t have the patience to set up a stall. If you hadn’t come, we would have already packed everything up for the junk dealer.”
While they were talking, a man’s voice suddenly came from the door: “Junk dealer? I’ve already contacted him. He’ll be here in the afternoon.”
A middle-aged man, around his early thirties, with dark skin and a tall, thin figure, but an average face, walked in.
Chen Xing smiled, “This is Chen He. You can just call him Brother Chen.”
She smiled at Chen He, “This is my newly acquainted little sister. We hit it off, and since her family is missing some things, I invited her to come pick.”
Chen He looked at Huai Yu, then at Uncle Zaozi, who stood silently by the side, and smiled: “You’re a friend of A Xing? Then feel free to pick whatever you like. I’ll give you a better price.”
While speaking, he surveyed the warehouse: “Though, I’m not sure if the junk dealer will still offer a good price after losing some of the better goods.”
His words were somewhat blunt, and Huai Yu looked at Chen Xing with wide, confused eyes. Chen Xing’s expression soured slightly, but she cleared her throat, “Ahem.”
“Little Yu is here to sell some pressed tea, and Fanta is adjusting the testing machine. You can go check on it.”
Chen He sighed helplessly, “A Xing, you always do things based on your feelings.”
“We spent so many points to get that machine, and it consumes a lot of points every time it’s used. Why are you putting everything in there…”
He said as he turned to leave.
The room fell silent.
Huai Yu stood there, unsure whether to stay or leave.
After a long pause, Chen Xing took a deep breath and smiled at her: “Don’t mind that tightwad. Little Yu, take your time picking. The junk dealer would buy everything at a fixed price, so it doesn’t matter if you pick more or less.”
Huai Yu nodded, then squatted down to start sorting. As she turned her head, she noticed Chen Xing kicking a plastic storage box with an expression of boredom.
Huai Yu thought for a moment and kindly suggested, “Sister Xing, if you have something to do, go ahead. I’ll take my time here, is that okay?”
Chen Xing instantly relaxed, “Then I’ll go wait for the test results. I’ll let you know when there’s news. You take your time, no rush.”
As soon as she left, Huai Yu picked up the plastic storage box Chen Xing had kicked around. It was solidly made, with no scratches, and she happily set it aside.
She looked at the two piles of items on either side, thought for a moment, and began sorting from the items at her feet.
