A Young Man's First Love

"This is Goldfish Branch. Actually, it's a kind of seasoning. You don't need to add MSG to dishes with it; the stir-fried dishes will be incredibly fresh," Shadow said with a light laugh. "It really makes you feel like the world brightens up after just one bite. However, it's called Goldfish Branch because people who eat it will have a particularly bad memory for a day, forgetting many things, just like a goldfish. But sometimes, having too good a memory isn't a good thing either."

Qing Chen glanced at the shadow, whose expression clearly still held a hint of lingering reminiscence.

Could it be that the shadow often used this Goldfish Branch as a condiment, trying to forget some things?

As the shadow wandered through Forbidden Zone No. 10, the normally terrifying creatures all kept their distance from him.

"You can keep that purple herb. It's called Purple Orchid Star. Holding one in your mouth will speed up your cultivation. Each stalk grows seven spikes, and you can hold one spike for a week," Shadow said to Qing Chen with a smile. "You've struck gold again. This stuff is rare. What incredible luck you have..."

Qing Chen shook his head.

Purple Orchid Star is very important; even someone who has never been to Forbidden Zone No. 10 has heard of it.

The shadow pretends not to know that there is a Purple Orchid Star here.

But as I said before, it wasn't that Qing Chen was lucky; it was clearly that Yingzi knew there was a Purple Orchid Star here, so she brought him here specifically to pick it.

This brother now wishes he could give him the best of everything in the world.

"Don't touch that thing that looks like a melon," the shadow said, pointing to a spot in the distance. "This thing is called the Killer Melon. If any living creature gets close to it and applies a certain amount of force, it will explode, creating a kill radius of about five meters."

Shadow turned to look at everyone. "Years ago, the Wilderness People used to wrap this thing in cloth as a weapon. After throwing it, the seeds from the exploding Killer Melon would fly out and embed themselves in the animal's flesh, using the animal's blood and flesh as nourishment."

In fact, the evolutionary direction of plants in Forbidden Zone is mostly for the purpose of 'protecting themselves' and 'reproducing seeds'.

For example, the Killer Melon has evolved in a rather radical way.

More often than not, it makes its own fruit bitter, so even if it's given to others, they won't eat it.

At this moment, Qing Chen suddenly said, "Be careful!"

The shadow suddenly turned around and saw Zard already standing next to the Killer Melon, poking it with his finger. "Let me demonstrate for everyone."

With a loud bang, Zard's bulky body was thrown more than two meters away, and a large hole was blown open in his chest, with the plants inside falling to the ground.

It's like all the equipment that's been scattered everywhere.

Shadow. "?"

Fortunately, they were standing far enough away that they were not affected.

Even someone as knowledgeable as Shadow was a little confused about Zard's thought process.

But then Zard stood up, picked off the Killer Melon seed embedded in his face, and his chest closed up again at a speed visible to the naked eye, looking as bizarre as could be.

Zard looked at everyone and chuckled, "It's quite powerful. Don't worry, Purple Orchid Star will be fine."

Qing Chen watched this scene and thought, "This earth-elemental Awakened is really unreasonable. After his body becomes elemental, it seems like he's not afraid of anything except for the high temperature that will cause his body to glaze?"

Shadow looked at Zard and raised an eyebrow. "Since you like causing trouble so much, you'll let me experience them one by one later."

Zard beamed. "Okay!"

Qing Chen suddenly asked, "Zard, when you were a baby, you grabbed a medical record during your first birthday celebration, right...?"

Zard chuckled and said, "Ah, right, right..."

Judging from this guy's attitude, Shadow couldn't quite understand why the ever-calm and ruthless head of the Qing family could tolerate the existence of such an unpredictable assassin.

However, Zhang Mengqian was the one who suffered the most at this time.

Zard was exposed, so all the plants that Xiao Mengqian had painstakingly dug up were wasted, and he had to dig them up all over again.

The little boy's hands were already badly damaged, and now everything he did was extremely painful.

Without Qing Chen's permission, he didn't even dare to use Chicken Blood Sprout to treat his wound.

Zhang Mengqian silently squatted down, picked up the still intact plants and handed them to Zard, then silently returned the way she came and dug up new ones to replace the unusable ones.

Only then did Zard finally feel a little embarrassed. He scratched the back of his head and looked at Zhang Mengqian, saying, "Sorry... I'll help you dig it up later."

Zhang Mengqian smiled and said, "No need, the boss told me to do it myself."

"Oh, well," Zard thought for a while, "Then I'll bring you candy next time I come over."

It seems that only at this moment is Zard relatively normal.

Sometimes Qing Chen would think that this guy and Huan Yu were a perfect match, a pair of lunatics.

"Boss, what are you going to do with all these saplings... Don't worry, we're sensible. We'll say what we should say, and we definitely won't say anything we shouldn't in the Outer World," Ma Jingjing said cautiously. "We're just here to explore. We're just curious about the world of the Forbidden Zone."

Qing Chen glanced at him and said with a half-smile, "You'll find out soon enough."

After all, you will all be laborers in the vegetable garden in the future... no, students of the Agricultural Academy.

Over the course of their time together, Ma Jingjing and the others have shown that they never ask questions they shouldn't ask and never reveal things they shouldn't reveal. Although each of them has a few minor flaws, they are all very capable at their jobs.

After all, they are all outdoor enthusiasts; those with weak practical skills wouldn't be able to survive in the wild.

Such students would naturally be selected for the Agricultural Academy.

At this time, Qing Chen's stockpile of plant seedlings already included Purple Orchid Star, Chicken Blood Sprout, and Oil Refining Fruit, but they were still missing Jingshan Tea '.

Just then, Qing Ye received a phone call. He looked at Yingzi and said, "Boss, the Chen family has deployed bombers. I reckon they want to use life detectors to find our location and then carry out a carpet bombing. This time the news came exceptionally late; the Chen family's secrecy is excellent. It was our field troops' phased-array radar, hidden in the wilderness, that detected them. They'll be there in about two minutes!"

Qing Chen was stunned for a moment. "Oh no, my Jingshan Tea!"

"T101 Flight Squadron is about to arrive at the target area."

"Requesting entry into the target area and preparation for battle."

In the fighter jet, the pilot reported the location in a flat, monotone voice.

In the communication channel, someone responded just as coldly, "Permission to activate the fire control system and conduct a blanket strike on all targets within the target area that match biological characteristics."

The Group Army's active-duty Meteor P-11 fighter squadron, equipped with turbojet engines, flashed across the sky.

The Federation had tried to improve fighter jets with more advanced multi-pulse aerospace engines, but they later found that while it wasn't difficult to make fighter jets faster, they couldn't find enough suitable pilots.

Pilots are required to be in very good physical condition. They have to endure extreme weightlessness and G-forces. Even in ordinary fighter jets, pilots have to endure at least 6G of overload flight conditions.

For example, enduring a 6G overload flight state means that the pilot has to bear six times his own weight.

Later, the federal military tried to select super pilots from among the gene warriors, but the final problem was that the gene serum did not have a direction to strengthen the brain.

The first super pilot to board the plane for a test flight had his brain completely turned to mush.

There are people who can withstand these conditions, but very few; there may only be five or six in the entire Federation, which is insufficient to meet the demand for fighter jets.

From this point onward, it is the limitations imposed by human beings themselves that begin to restrict humanity's pursuit of speed in the air.

At this moment, a squadron of 12 air combat aircraft flew rapidly over the treetops, which were covered with a carpet of green.

Inside the fighter jet, the pilot, glancing at the instrument panel, said, "Eight targets detected with human biometrics. Should we fire?"

"Shooting."

The next moment, the 12 fighter jets split into two groups and swooped down towards the ground, their wings flanks.

Their belly ammunition bays opened, and four air-to-ground missiles equipped with dual-pulse engines beneath each fighter jet, pulling on dazzling Mach rings, plummeted downwards like meteors.

The moment the missile was launched, all pilots performed tactical maneuvers, pulling their aircraft into the sky and beginning their return journey.

The squadron leader, wearing a protective mask, calmly looked at the data on the instruments. "Target destroyed, no survivors, requesting to return to base."

"Return to base."

As they were talking, the fighter squadron, led by the T101 fighter jet, turned back.

Starting today, they will enter a long period of silence, taking leave and being transferred from flight units to civilian positions. All details of this operation plan will be sealed in the highest archives of the Chen's Group Army.

The pilots knew very well that if the outside world found out that they were the ones who carried out the bombing mission, their entire families would likely be killed.

Return countdown: 6:00:00.

"If someone were to kill you, the patriarch would definitely avenge you, but only if you were truly dead," Shadow said, sitting on a recliner and looking at the Jingshan Tea in front of him. "What happened just now was merely a false target created by replacing us with eight Kashima spies. In that situation, the patriarch would simply pretend it never happened and wouldn't seek revenge for you. However, this time they're serious, which is good. My biggest worry was that the Chen family wouldn't be willing to intervene."

Just moments before the air combat squadron arrived.

Shadow first sent Ma Jingjing and the others back to City No. 10, and then brought Qing Chen and the others to Jingshan Tea, where he threw the eight Kashima spies who were originally going to be planted in the ground into the Forbidden Zone No. 10 to attract fire.

As for the Jingshan Tea Qing Chen hasn't collected yet, Shadow has more here than in Forbidden Zone No. 10.

Shadow laughed, "This tea garden is yours now. You can move as much as you want."

Zard and Zhang Mengqian started digging up tea seedlings.

Zard even dug up a skeleton from underground and said, "Wow, Brother Shadow, you're really using superhumans to grow tea."

As he spoke, he actually took a skull and secretly went to scare Zhang Mengqian Yang Yang.

Zhang Mengqian, however, remained expressionless. "Isn't it boring?"

Yang Yang used her force field to count the bones buried underground, then stared at the shadow several times in shock.

Qing Chen asked, "Is it because you knew that there was a phased array radar hidden by the Qing Clan near Forbidden Zone No. 10 that you agreed to let me go there?"

The air raid was so swift that even with radar monitoring, everyone only had two minutes to react.

If it weren't for the Shadow Gate, they would all have surely died.

However, the shadow's expression remained calm and composed, as if it had just been a minor incident.

The shadow said, "More and more people want to kill you now... Speaking of which, you're quite adept at attracting hatred. I heard from Si Nianhua that even people from across the ocean in the Outer World want to kill you."

Qing Chen, lying on a chair beside him, looked at the Jingshan Tea in front of him. "There are definitely more people who want to kill you than they want to kill me, but you are too strong, so they don't dare to show it."

Qing Chen looked at the sunflower garden that was always in bloom next to the Jingshan Tea, and the delicate tombstone in that sea of sunflowers.

"Brother, who is that?"

The shadow gazed intently at the tombstone. "When I was little, I often went to play on the streets of City No. 5, pretending to be a poor boy and experiencing the so-called hardships of life. I led a gang in fights, and sometimes when I ran out of money, I relied on dancers for help. Fortunately, you and I inherited the looks of our ancestor Qing Zhen, so we never lacked food wherever we went."

Qing Chen listened silently, realizing that Shadow had such an absurd and unrestrained history.

Shadow continued reminiscing, "She was the most beautiful dancer in the Fourth District at the time. She didn't know who I was, and she was three years older than me. I sneaked into her dressing room to sleep, and when I woke up, I found myself covered with a coat. I got up to look at her and saw her putting on makeup in front of the mirror. I think it was probably the first time I had ever seen someone so beautiful."

"And then?" Qing Chen asked curiously.

Shadow seemed to remember something and chuckled, "Then, when she saw I was awake, she lectured me for two hours, saying that I was too young to be doing anything productive, that even someone like her was working hard to make a living, and that I, with my hands and feet, shouldn't find a job. She even found me a job as a porter, making me work myself to the bone on construction sites for six months..."

"I had nowhere to live, so I would still sneak into her changing room to shower and sleep every day. She never seemed to mind my body odor, and would even secretly bring me leftover food from other customers. She said that as long as I worked hard to support myself, I could stay with her forever."

"Once, I was spotted by the security guards at the nightclub. They were going to beat me up and throw me out, but she protected me like a little lion, like an older sister," Shadow reminisced about that time. "A woman stood in front of me, doing things that even my family had never done for me. She didn't know who the person she was protecting was, and she never asked me who I was or where I came from. It seemed that as long as I could muster the courage to face that world, she was content."

Qing Chen asked, "Is it because of her that you're unwilling to become a beta tester in the Outer World?"

"Yes," Shadow nodded, "Every day after work, I would secretly hide on the steel frame above the nightclub backstage and silently watch her dance. The dazzling dance dress and the lights, she was proud and beautiful, confident and self-loving. I felt ashamed in the darkness, and even my identity as a member of the Qing Group could not give me the confidence to match her."

Yang Yang squatted to the side, supporting her chin with both hands, listening intently.

There will be another chapter before 11 PM.