Chapter 88: The Lover Beyond Reach
The shop owner clicked her tongue. “Why are you being so stubborn?”
“Is love really more important than making money?”
Huai Yu widened her eyes. “But I am making money. Love, I’m not sure about yet… Besides, what if the romance novel turns out to be good?”
“And we’re not even talking about love here—we’re talking about how your book title and its contents don’t match at all!”
The shopkeeper averted her eyes. “I told you—it’s pirated… pirated stuff with mismatched titles and unrelated content is completely normal, okay? At least the content is complete, right?”
Huai Yu: …
She quickly flipped through a few more pages of One Birth, Eight Babies, and sure enough, the protagonist, Xiao Yan, was getting rich by raising pigs. Later, a guy named Wang Shitou raised scorpions, and another named Li Fugui raised giant snails…
The common thread? They all got rich.
Wait! Something’s off!
Huai Yu suddenly snapped out of it. “I came here to find a guide on how to raise geese!”
That strange book had totally thrown her off track—Boss Tang was still waiting!
“Oh, raising geese…” The shopkeeper relaxed, now that Huai Yu wasn’t harping on the title-content mismatch anymore. She pointed toward a shelf.
“Third book from the right. The one with the blue sky, white clouds, and green lotus leaves on the cover.”
That cover actually looked like it could be about geese, and Huai Yu let out a silent sigh of relief. But when she glanced at the title, her face fell again.
“The Lover Beyond Reach”
“You—what is this?!”
“It is about raising geese! The female lead’s family raises them. It’s super detailed. And not just any geese—swans!”
“Come on, swans are basically fancy geese, right? They look similar enough.”
Huai Yu: …
“I want something proper—like a real guide to raising geese.”
“No can do,” the shopkeeper shook her head. “You don’t know how in demand that kind of book is since the Cataclysm. There’s no way I’d have one.”
“I’m telling you, I’ve read all these books. If you want something even remotely related to raising geese, this is your best bet. Want it or not?”
Huai Yu was torn. “Then… alright, fine! Can you pick two more interesting ones for me? How much?”
The shopkeeper brightened immediately. “Oh, you have to take One Birth, Eight Babies—it’s actually hilarious. And this one too… bla bla bla…”
In the end, Huai Yu stumbled out of the shop in a daze, clutching four books, having spent a whopping 100 points.
So expensive! So extravagant! And they’re pirated, too!
But… at least they were thick, with tiny print. Should last her a while.
She hurried back to the store, books in hand.
Meanwhile, inside, Boss Tang was practically pacing a hole in the floor!
When he saw her come back carrying a whole stack of books, he rushed over. “That goose-raising guide is that thick?”
Uh-oh.
Huai Yu looked a little embarrassed and pulled out the one with the blue sky and clouds cover. “Only this one is.”
“What’s this?” Boss Tang glanced at it. “The Lover Beyond Reach? What is this, some toad trying to raise a swan story?”
Hiss!
Classic Boss Tang!
So accurate!
Huai Yu was amazed. No wonder the cover looked so familiar—I didn’t even realize… I’m still too green.
All she could do was nod respectfully. “Pretty much… The shopkeeper said this was the closest thing to a goose-raising manual. She said the first chapter is about feeding newborn cygnets fresh veggie leaves… I figured geese probably eat the same?”
Boss Tang actually had fresh veggie leaves on hand, with low mutation levels.
The real problem was…
“Does it normally take this long for a goose egg to hatch?”
The movement inside seemed to be growing quieter and quieter. What if they couldn’t break out?
The two goose-raising newbies exchanged uncertain glances.
Huai Yu reached out and gently touched the two bluish-gray goose eggs. The more she touched them, the more uneasy she felt.
“Should we… help them hatch a little?”
Boss Tang hesitated. “You think that’s okay?”
Who knew? What if they weren’t fully developed yet and they broke the shells too early?
Huai Yu felt the smooth shell and sensed strong mutation energy radiating from it.
Once it reaches a certain level, it doesn’t feel “dirty” anymore—it’s just… foreign.
She hesitated. Should she use her purifying energy to help the hatching process? But what if she used purification and, like with the black fish earlier, they just went still again and couldn’t hatch?
But if she used growth energy instead… what if it made too much of a scene?
She wavered, and finally, cautiously released a tiny bit of purifying energy.
The eggs remained perfectly still, like they were sleeping. The one that had a beak poking out didn’t move at all.
Huai Yu began to panic and quickly switched to growth stimulation energy—
Still nothing.
That can’t be right? Maybe just a bit more… Still no reaction? Don’t tell me they’re really dead? But they feel alive!
Okay, just a bit more!
As she channeled more energy, suddenly—“Crack!” A sharp sound rang out.
Boss Tang dashed over and carefully examined the eggs. He finally let out a breath and said:
“This is my first time hatching eggs, you know.”
Huai Yu shot him a look—But all you did was put a hot water bottle underneath! You’re calling that hatching?
Before she could say anything, Boss Tang frowned.
“Why are the cracks all evenly spread across the middle of the shell? Like… really uniform? Almost like they were pushed open from the inside—hahaha—huh?!”
His eyes widened.
Huai Yu’s heart skipped a beat. She instinctively pulled her hand back.
Both eggs were now covered in fine, even cracks. And with one final sharp “crack”, two fat, chubby, grayish mutant goslings stood up.
They shook themselves, scattering bits of eggshell all over the box.
Their sparse little feathers were still wet, sticking to their skin, making them look kinda bald.
Boss Tang instinctively held his fist next to one for comparison.
The baby’s plump, solid body was already bigger than his fist!
What?! They were inside those little eggs just now?! This mutation is too weird!
“Bone-shrinking technique or something?”
“And those eggshells really were pushed open from the inside…”
He stared for a while and finally murmured, “These geese might grow even bigger than normal ones…”
Huai Yu sheepishly lowered her head.
But she quickly lifted it again—So what if they cracked the shells? Not a big deal.
Bigger is better! Bigger geese lay more eggs—and they’re fiercer, too.
She reached out, trying to pet one of the goslings, and stared at their flat little black beaks, asking curiously, “What breed of goose is this? Aren’t baby geese supposed to be yellow?”
Boss Tang shook his head. “No idea. When I eat goose, I’ve never studied that kind of detail.”
