Lu Zhiyu felt his memories suddenly come rushing back. As a boy, he had been incredibly arrogant. He got good grades, was good-looking, and came from a well-off family, so he had been rather domineering as a child. He was a force to be reckoned with at school.
Ai Shu had also been very pretty as a child, but she was timid, kept to herself, and rarely spoke. Lu Zhiyu had been very interested in her back then—he had been a boy with a crush on a girl. But a little boy's interest in a girl was rarely a good thing. Boys were especially strange in the way they expressed their feelings and tried to get close to girls. Usually, they started by picking on her.
At first, Lu Zhiyu had been the only one who bullied her. But because Ai Shu was such an outsider, the whole class gradually began to exclude her. Later, Lu Zhiyu remembered, he had accidentally broken something of hers. Ai Shu had been furious and gotten into a fight with him. When he fought back, he had swung his schoolbag at her.
As it happened, there had been a flashlight in Lu Zhiyu's schoolbag, and he had struck Ai Shu on the head hard enough to split it open. The school had issued him a formal reprimand over the incident. It was sixth grade, and graduation was just around the corner, so his family had arranged for him to withdraw and go to the provincial capital for middle school!
Now that he was seeing Ai Shu again, a wave of shame washed over Lu Zhiyu, leaving him at a loss for where to hide. He sat there feeling as if he were on pins and needles. Lu Zhiyu had thought that, once he grew up, he would naturally put such foolish childhood behavior behind him. But whether because it had mattered so much to him as a child or for some other reason, he still felt deeply uncomfortable.
Throughout the dinner, Lu Zhiyu kept glancing at Ai Shu, which caught her attention. She stared at him blankly. A female classmate beside her immediately leaned over and whispered something. Ai Shu looked at Lu Zhiyu in surprise, then turned away and avoided his gaze.
She still remembers what happened back then!
Lu Zhiyu lowered his head in embarrassment. He was distracted for the rest of the reunion. Most of the class spent the evening catching up, exchanging contact information, and asking how everyone was doing.
Quite a few people were already married, so most left after dinner and a few rounds of drinks. No one went anywhere else or stayed out until late. They called it a night while things were still pleasant.
As they said goodbye, several classmates gathered around Lu Zhiyu, asking for his contact information and where he lived now. They promised to visit him if they ever went to the provincial capital.
"Definitely! If you go to the provincial capital, you have to come visit me!"
Lu Zhiyu was chatting with a few of his female classmates from primary school when he turned and saw Ai Shu getting ready to leave alone, her handbag slung over her shoulder. He quickly excused himself and hurried after her.
Lu Zhiyu stopped in front of Ai Shu. She halted and looked at him in confusion. After taking a breath, he said, "Do you remember me? I'm your classmate from primary school, Lu Zhiyu. I was the one who..."
Ai Shu's short hair gave her a charming look, and she stood rather stiffly. She was very tall, though. Lu Zhiyu was over 1.8 meters, but even in high heels, Ai Shu wasn't much shorter than him.
Ai Shu nodded at Lu Zhiyu without saying anything. He realized he was actually nervous. "What I wanted to say today is that I'm really sorry about what happened back then. I'm sorry. I know this apology is a long time coming, but I think I'll feel a lot better once I've said it."
Lu Zhiyu quickly took a business card from his pocket. "This has my phone number and contact information. If you ever need anything, you can get in touch with me!"
"Mm!"
That was the first word Ai Shu had said to Lu Zhiyu. Then she turned and left. Lu Zhiyu watched her go and let out a breath of relief. Wang Yi came over and put an arm around his shoulders. "What's up? Make peace? It's been so many years. Ai Shu can't still be so petty as to hold a grudge, can she?"
Lu Zhiyu shook his head. "I don't know. She only said 'mm,' but she took my card!"
Wang Yi nodded. "Don't dwell on it. It's been so long. That's just how Ai Shu is—she doesn't talk much or socialize with people. She's been like that for years."
They got into Wang Yi's car and set off. Lu Zhiyu felt the reunion had been well worth attending. Not only had he met up with his childhood classmates and rediscovered many happy memories, he had also run into Ai Shu. He had to admit, what happened had always been a knot in his heart.
In Space Castle's library, the shelves had gradually filled with books thanks to Lu Zhiyu's recent spree of purchases. Yet the books he had put there earlier had already yellowed, making them look like ancient volumes.
Two hundred years had passed since the New Humans project began. In the south of Alan Continent, in the Maria World, large numbers of human tribes had begun to appear. Over those two hundred years, humanity had multiplied through more than a dozen generations. The first humans had long since passed away, worn down by time. To the people alive now, it seemed they had lived on this continent since time immemorial.
Humanity's population had grown from a few hundred to tens of thousands. The original handful of small tribes had gradually spread throughout the southern lands, scattered like sparks that had started a prairie fire. In the north, the Beastmen tribes had begun to form city-states and develop civilizations. As humans continued to explore, they had begun to encounter the Beastmen and learned that they were not the only people on this land!
For Lu Zhiyu, those two hundred years had amounted to only a short two weeks in the outside world. Ten days earlier, while observing the development of the tribal civilizations, he had discovered a major mistake he had made. Although the Maria World was rich in resources, it had one fatal flaw: it had no mineral deposits.
That was right. When Lu Zhiyu had created the Maria World, he had distributed all kinds of minerals throughout the land, but everything was too evenly spread out. There were no continuous mineral veins underground. The tribes remained in the Stone Age, and the occasional rare ore they found was treated as a divine artifact. The Bronze and Iron Ages had yet to arrive, delaying the rise of city-state civilizations as well.
There was nothing Lu Zhiyu could do but use Source Substance again to alter the Maria World's rules and adjust the distribution and concentration of metals underground, forming veins of gold, silver, copper, tungsten, antimony, iron, and other metals. He also guided the formation of coal deposits, oil fields, and the like.
Several exposed veins of copper and iron even appeared near these tribal civilizations, encouraging their development. Lu Zhiyu had originally had 108 units of Source Substance left. He had spent three to create Castle Space, but over the ensuing years, as these civilizations developed, the lives lost each day had brought him more Source Substance. The total had since risen to 176 units.
Creating the mineral veins beneath Alan Continent had cost him another 47 units of Source Substance, leaving him with 129. But Lu Zhiyu's investment had certainly been worthwhile. As bronze-smelting techniques emerged, all kinds of bronze implements began to appear in the tribal civilizations. The arrival of the city-state era accelerated the evolution of Beastmen civilization, and they now had their first king.
"The Beast King of Saga City!"
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