You Picked Me Up from a Trash Can

After about two and a half hours, Gu Ding had reached the last potion. Aside from the first three being Ultimate Quality, every potion he made from the fourth onward had reached Perfect Quality. After that, he grew more and more proficient, and his brewing speed kept increasing. He also tried six different final fusion techniques. From taking fifteen minutes to complete a potion at first to brewing a tube in under four minutes later on, his progress was simply terrifying.

When Pa Ma came out of her private potion room and passed the public potion room, she found its door wide open. Somewhat surprised, she walked to the entrance and saw a young man intently preparing a potion. Her brows lifted with pleasure. She was Deep Sea Star's number one pharmacist and the only pharmacy professor at the Basic Military Academy. Naturally, she was happy to see a student working so diligently. She carefully examined the young man and realized she did not recognize him. There were three pharmacy instructors at the academy, so perhaps he was another teacher's student. She did not care much whose student he was. As long as a student was interested in potion-making, she was inclined to favor them.

Pa Ma stood silently at the door, quietly watching the young man work. His technique was incredibly fast. In the mere dozen seconds she had been standing there, he had already completed the first extraction step. Her eyes immediately lit up as she stared unblinkingly at his hands.

After the extraction was complete, the young man placed different materials into twelve Distillation Flasks at once, leaving Pa Ma stunned. But what he did next nearly drove her mad. He directly turned the flames beneath all twelve Distillation Flasks up to maximum.

"Ridiculous!" Pa Ma frowned and was about to go over and lecture the young man, only to see him smoothly remove three Distillation Flasks that had changed color at just the right moment. His movements were neither rushed nor slow, as though he knew exactly when the solvents would change color. In just over ten seconds, the distillation was complete. All twelve distilled flasks had been removed, and his timing was frighteningly precise.

"Heavens..." Pa Ma stared at the horrifying sight before her, her eyes nearly popping out.

Then she saw another scene that left her speechless. The young man did not even use a measuring cup, directly pouring various solutions into a fusion cup in unknown proportions. He then picked up the fusion cup and began shaking the liquid inside with a strange technique she had never seen before. In less than two minutes, the liquid in the cup turned completely silver, refracting a beautiful halo beneath the light.

Gu Ding poured the solvent into a prepared test tube, sealed it with a stopper, and was about to toss it into his Storage Space when a voice called out to him.

"Wait..." A woman's voice came from the doorway.

The woman appeared to be twenty-five or twenty-six. She wore wide-rimmed glasses, had her hair in a ponytail, and was dressed in a sharp, capable manner. She wore the special uniform reserved for teachers, while the gold-edged badge on her chest displayed her distinguished status—professor.

"May I take a look at that potion?" The female professor's voice carried a probing tone. To other students, such a thing would have been utterly unimaginable.

"You can, but you have to return it after looking. I'm going to sell it for money." Gu Ding could clearly tell that her eyes were filled with surprise, but not greed.

The female professor took the potion from Gu Ding's hand and carefully inspected it from every angle. Then she removed her glasses and examined it carefully once again.

Gu Ding inwardly sighed. She was actually quite beautiful without her glasses.

"This... is really a Perfect Quality Cell Enhancer?!" After confirming it again and again, the female professor finally reached a conclusion she could hardly believe. It took her a long while to recover. "You just said you wanted to sell it. Can you sell it to me?"

"How much are you offering?" Gu Ding had no intention of taking a loss.

"You should know that a standard product sells for 10 Star Coins on the market, while Perfect Quality costs times as much. I won't let you take a loss. Times is twenty-four thousand Star Coins. I'll give you twenty-five thousand." The female professor tightly gripped the potion in her hand, as though she was determined to have it.

"Deal!" Gu Ding agreed readily.

After completing the transfer, the female professor placed the potion into her Storage Space. Seeing Gu Ding pack up and prepare to leave, she finally asked, "Which teacher taught you?"

Gu Ding was taken aback. "I'm not a student of the Pharmacy Department. I'm in the Combat Department."

"The Combat Department?" The female professor's eyes lit up again. "Are you interested in transferring to the Pharmacy Department? I'm a teacher here."

"Not interested." Gu Ding finished packing, stood up, shook his head, and turned to leave.

"What's your name?" Seeing that he was about to go, the female professor hurriedly asked.

"Gu Ding."

"Gu Ding..." The female professor quietly repeated the name. Seeing that Gu Ding had reached the doorway, she called out, "If you run into any trouble at school, you can come find me. My name is Pa Ma. I may only be a teacher in the Pharmacy Department, but I still have some standing in the academy."

"Okay, thank you!" Gu Ding turned back and nodded before quickly leaving.

"Judging by how much stuff he packed up, he probably brewed more than one potion..." Pa Ma muttered after a moment, then hurried toward the surveillance room on the top floor.

Pa Ma spent a full two and a half hours watching the recording, yet the shock in her eyes only grew stronger. "In two and a half hours, he brewed twenty tubes of potion. The first potion took the longest, only around fifteen minutes, and he was clearly flustered for a while during the distillation stage. He kept his nerves tense throughout the entire brewing process. It was obviously his first time brewing. There were slight mistakes in the next two attempts at different points, but judging from the color of the finished potions, they should have been at least high quality, possibly Ultimate Quality. Starting from the fourth attempt, he completed an operation with zero mistakes and produced his first Perfect Quality potion. During the fifth attempt, he began to relax, and his proficiency clearly improved. His speed began increasing during the sixth attempt, continued increasing during the seventh and eighth, and by the ninth, his final fusion technique began changing... Aside from the first three potions, all seventeen of the remaining potions were Perfect Quality. What kind of monster is this guy, to possess such terrifying talent? Unfortunately, the camera angle only showed his back, so I couldn't see the complete brewing process."

Gu Ding was completely unaware that his brewing process had been recorded. Sea Emperor knew very well and had deliberately not blocked the cameras. He hoped someone would discover Gu Ding's talent in potion-making and draw the attention of the relevant people, allowing him to obtain more resources.

At this point, Gu Ding had already returned to his home in the Red Light District. He was now in his graduating year, and he had long since accumulated enough credits to graduate. It did not matter whether he attended the remaining classes or not, so he could freely arrange his time.

"Soaking your body in hot water will help you absorb the potion faster," Sea Emperor reminded him.

"Mm." Gu Ding had also seen such claims online. He went to the bathroom, filled the bathtub with hot water, stripped naked, and soaked himself inside. Then he reached into his Storage Space, took out a Perfect Quality F-grade Cell Enhancement Potion, tilted his head back, and gulped it down.

A wave of heat rolled down his throat into his abdomen. The instant it entered his stomach, it erupted with astonishing heat and spread in every direction. Gu Ding instantly felt as though his body were on fire.

"Do not resist the heat. Let it cleanse every cell in your body, and try to stay conscious. Once you pass out, the absorption speed will be cut in half. Although your Cell Comprehensive Index will increase by seven points no matter what, some people only need a week to fully absorb the potion's effects, while others need more than two months. When the medicinal effects erupt, absorption is at its best and fastest." Sea Emperor explained from the side.

Gu Ding clenched his fists, enduring the pain as he tried not to think about the burning sensation in his body.

The flame-like current of heat traveled throughout Gu Ding's body. Everywhere it passed, he felt as though he had been scorched by a branding iron. That kind of pain was not something an ordinary person could endure.

No one knew how long passed before Gu Ding's consciousness began to blur, and strange images appeared in his mind.

Snowflakes drifted through the sky. A middle-aged man held a baby in his arms and walked toward the Rose Tavern. Upon reaching the entrance, he placed the baby into the trash can by the door.

"Hey, what are you doing? Abandoning an infant is strictly prohibited under federal law. You'll be sentenced to at least twenty years in prison!" Gu Ding shouted as he jogged over, trying to stop him.

But when he reached the man and reached out with one hand, it passed through the man's body as though he were transparent. He looked up and finally saw that face. "Old Dad?!"

The man quietly gazed at the baby in the trash can. A snowflake landed on the baby's forehead, and the man reached out to brush it away. The baby in the trash can stretched out both tiny hands, grabbed the man's little finger, and giggled.

A strange light flashed through the man's eyes. He closed his eyes for a long time before picking up the baby again and pushing open the door to the Rose Tavern.

"You picked me up from a trash can." Gu Ding remembered that whenever he asked about his origins, Old Dad would always say this through a mouthful of alcohol.

"The first time I saw you, little guy, you were still a baby. That drunkard was holding you in his arms, wrapped up nice and tight." Gu Ding remembered Rose saying that too.

"How could you possibly be my biological son? My eyes are blue, while yours are black. My hair is brown, while yours is black. Mine is even naturally curly, although not very noticeably. I'm so tall and strong, while you're so skinny and small. And your old dad is so handsome, while you... are somewhat handsome too. Of course, that can't be inherited. How many times do I have to tell you before you believe that I picked you up from a trash can?" This was how Old Dad would arrogantly compare them and list all the ways Gu Ding fell short of him.

"You idiot, you got into another fight? Your thigh isn't even as thick as their arm. It's normal that you lost, so why the hell are you crying... Let me teach you. If you want to fight in the future, find someone shorter than you." Every time Gu Ding got into a fight, Old Dad would rub his head and comfort him like this, even though he knew Gu Ding was the smallest and skinniest of all the children.

"Come on, take a drink. You're already ten and still can't drink alcohol. Are you even a man?" When Old Dad first encouraged him to drink at the age of ten, the Rose Tavern erupted in laughter.

"According to an agreement with an old friend, my fifteen-year period of caring for you has ended. Don't come looking for me." This was the last sentence Old Dad left behind, written on a sheet of white paper. One corner of the paper had been held down by a glass, but Gu Ding had smashed that glass to pieces over half a year ago, and the paper had been torn into scraps at the time as well.

"Old Dad..." Tears streamed uncontrollably down Gu Ding's face.