Jiang City, residential district.
Du Qionghua hurried home, carrying Chen Xiaoyan, who was wrapped tightly in a soft blanket. She was a little out of breath by the time she arrived.
She carefully set the little one in her arms down on the sofa, rubbed her slightly sore arms, and complained fondly, "You're getting so big, sweetheart. If you grow much more, Mom won't be able to carry you anymore."
Chen Xiaoyan gave an embarrassed chuckle.
Then, as nimble as a little eel, he wriggled out of the blanket and darted back to his room at lightning speed.
He shut the door with a bang and swiftly changed into a clean set of house clothes.
He wouldn't dare use Chaos Qi to conjure up clothes at home...
Every item of clothing in the house had been bought by his mom, and she knew exactly what she'd purchased and how many of each thing she owned.
If a new outfit of "unknown origin" suddenly appeared, Chen Xiaoyan really wouldn't know how to explain it.
Meanwhile, Du Qionghua tied on an apron and began preparing a simple dinner.
The familiar bustle of cooking soon filled the kitchen.
Chen Xiaoyan usually ate all his meals, fruit, and snacks at kindergarten, so it had indeed been a long time since anyone had properly cooked at home.
After their simple dinner, Du Qionghua cleared away the dishes and looked tenderly at her son.
"Sweetheart, you had quite a scare today. How about I call the kindergarten tomorrow and ask for a day off, so you can rest at home?"
Chen Xiaoyan was about to refuse on instinct, but then he realized this was the perfect opportunity.
He could use staying home to read as an excuse to catch up on this era's knowledge of ferocious beasts and other common subjects.
So he immediately put on a well-behaved expression and nodded emphatically. "Okay, Mom! Then... can you take me to buy some books?"
Du Qionghua laughed, dried her hands, and came over to pinch his cheek.
"Oh? You only know a few characters, and you're already trying to read like a grown-up?"
"I know lots of characters!" Chen Xiaoyan puffed out his little chest, looking proud. "I've read every fairy tale in the kindergarten reading corner!"
"Really?" Du Qionghua sat down beside him, intrigued. "Then tell Mom a story. Let's see how clever our Xiao Yan is."
Chen Xiaoyan said, "Um..."
He tilted his little head and began making up a story on the spot.
"Once upon a time, there was a princess who was very, very white, so everyone called her Snow White."
"But her stepmother was jealous of how pretty she was, so she made her go work in the boiler room and stoke the fire."
"Then the smoke turned Snow White's skin black, and she got all sooty. The guards in the palace didn't recognize her, so they hurriedly called over a farmer..."
Du Qionghua's smile suddenly turned a little stiff.
"In the end, the kind farmer took her away from her wicked stepmother, and she lived happily ever after, picking cotton every day... um...!"
When Chen Xiaoyan finished, he gave his little head an approving nod.
Du Qionghua said nothing.
She was silent for several seconds, looking at her son's eager, "praise me" expression with a complicated look. Then she asked carefully, "Sweetheart... are you sure that's really the story of Snow White from the fairy-tale book?"
"I... I think so." Chen Xiaoyan sounded unsure.
Du Qionghua rubbed her forehead helplessly. It really did seem necessary to find her son some proper reading material.
She pinched Chen Xiaoyan's cheek, picked up her phone, found Teacher Li's number, and called.
The call connected quickly. In a gentle tone, she said, "Hello, Teacher Li. I'm Chen Yan's mother. Xiao Yan just had a checkup. There's nothing seriously wrong with him, but he's still a little tired."
"I was thinking of letting him rest at home tomorrow, so I wanted to ask for a day off."
As soon as Teacher Li heard this, she readily agreed. "Of course, of course! As long as Xiao Yan is all right, that's what matters! He can absolutely take the day off!"
Her voice even held a hint of relieved urgency. Then she very "thoughtfully" offered, "Will one day be enough? After a scare like that, he really needs time to rest properly."
"Why not... take a whole week off? Let him recover completely before coming back to school. It's no problem at all for us!"
Du Qionghua glanced at Chen Xiaoyan, who was sitting beside her with his ears perked up and his eyes wide.
"That sounds good. We'll take your advice and start with a week off. Sorry for the trouble, Teacher Li."
"No trouble at all! It's only right! Let Xiao Yan get plenty of rest!"
After arranging the leave, mother and son set out for the biggest bookstore nearby.
The bookstore had an impressive storefront, and right next door, separated from it by only a single doorway, was an internet café with a flashy sign.
A sign above its entrance read "New Era Electronic Reading Room," which felt like a rather transparent attempt to disguise what the place was.
Du Qionghua frowned, pulled Chen Xiaoyan closer to her, and went straight into the bookstore.
In the children's section, Du Qionghua carefully picked out a few illustrated character cards, classic fairy tales, and picture books for beginners—all suitable for ordinary preschoolers.
Chen Xiaoyan's gaze, meanwhile, had already wandered to the bookshelves farther away...
They held mostly weighty, serious books such as Secrets of the Spirit Realm Rift, Illustrated Guide to Ferocious Beasts, Introduction to Basic Martial Arts, and Brief History of the East Continent Alliance.
At the checkout, Du Qionghua saw the thick books in her son's arms, which were clearly beyond his age and understanding, and stopped him from buying them.
"Xiao Yan, it's too early for you to read these."
"When you start elementary school and then middle school, your teachers will naturally teach you all this."
Chen Xiaoyan thought, How could I wait that long?
"Then let me read for a little while longer before we go home!"
"That's fine." Du Qionghua agreed.
The bookstore embraced the idea of open reading, and all the books were free to browse.
Du Qionghua looked around and saw plenty of readers making use of the convenience. Thinking of the new books she'd just bought, she felt even more justified in sitting down to read.
Chen Xiaoyan knew exactly what he wanted. He carried the thick books over to a quiet corner of a sofa and immediately became absorbed in them.
He read Illustrated Guide to Ferocious Beasts, which contained detailed color illustrations and thorough information about the beasts' habits.
In particular, the sections explaining how beast cores formed and how their energy levels worked quickly filled in gaps in his knowledge.
[Removed promotional watermark.]
[Removed promotional watermark.]
Almost as soon as he understood and memorized the new material, a cold notification rang out in his mind.
[You are reading attentively. "Photographic Memory" skill proficiency +5] [Proficiency +5]
Chen Xiaoyan's thoughts stirred.
He realized that reading weighty books packed with complex information earned proficiency far more efficiently than reading the simple fairy tales at kindergarten.
At kindergarten, plowing through a thin fairy tale might only give him about 10 proficiency points.
But now, after only a few minutes of focused reading, the notification had sounded twice, giving him a total of 10 proficiency points!
The discovery gave him a boost, and he focused even more intently on the sea of knowledge.
He turned page after page, rapidly reading, understanding, and memorizing.
Du Qionghua looked up and was stunned by her son's incredible reading speed.
Watching him use this quantum reading method, she couldn't help laughing and shaking her head.
Meanwhile.
"My name is Du Yan."
Chen Yan calmly gave an alias.
Zhou Li nodded and gave him a long look, but didn't press him for details, as if he didn't care whether the name was real.
He turned and told another guard to move the pickup.
Then he silently led Chen Yan and the others deeper into the camp.
The heavy iron gate slowly closed behind them with a dull clang.
Beyond the gate wasn't the camp itself, but a thick drawbridge spanning a deep ravine.
There was no river below. Instead, the low-lying area was crowded with shacks even more crude and dilapidated than the ones they had seen before.
There were crooked mud-brick houses, drafty wooden sheds, and even tents cobbled together from torn tarps and discarded scraps.
People lived here, too, but their circumstances and clothing were worlds apart from those of the neatly dressed Qiu siblings.
Their clothes were filthy, and most of their faces were either numb or tinged with hostility.
As Chen Yan and the others passed, looks mixed with greed, envy, and inferiority came at them from every direction.
The stray thoughts Chen Yan picked up were even more dark and filthy, making him frown slightly with a visceral sense of disgust.
Qiu Jiu, walking beside him, noticed the subtle change in his expression and assumed he felt sorry for them.
He pursed his lips and said quietly, "Yan, don't pity these people. Most of them were put out here because they deserved it."
"They either like to steal things around camp, or they've completely given up and just sit around waiting for others to support them instead of doing any work."
Chen Yan nodded slightly, understanding.
This place was more like an internal "exile zone," where they sent people who broke the rules or refused to contribute.
Another equally sturdy iron gate stood at the far end of the drawbridge.
Only after passing through it did they truly enter the camp's central area.
The scene beyond opened up before them, and it looked much more "normal."
A fairly spacious packed-earth plaza lay ahead. On the left stood two large public restrooms, one built lengthwise and the other crosswise from rough cement, along with a communal washing area.
On the right were three adjoining packed-earth drying yards, spread with grains, animal hides, and plants of unclear purpose.
On both sides of the plaza stood several rows of relatively neat brick houses.
They were plain, but looked sturdy and durable.
The people moving about here were dressed and carried themselves very differently from those in the exile zone outside.
They still bore the marks of hardship, but otherwise they seemed no different from the ordinary residents Chen Yan had seen in Jiang City.
"Do you live here?" Chen Yan asked Qiu Yashuang in a low voice.
Qiu Yashuang shook her head, a faint pride befitting a reserve member on her face.
"We're reserve mercenaries. We live farther inside."
She raised a hand and pointed to the other end of the plaza.
Chen Yan followed the direction of her finger. At the far end of the plaza stood another iron gate, even taller and more imposing than the others.
The outlines of sturdier buildings were faintly visible beyond it.
Damn, no wonder this felt so familiar.
The corner of Chen Yan's mouth twitched slightly as he couldn't help grumbling to himself.
Isn't this Maria, Rose, and Sina?
After they passed through the "Sina" wall, Chen Yan's gaze swept over the buildings.
He suddenly noticed people carefully tending plants beside some relatively orderly plots of land and sheds.
The plants had strangely shaped leaves that glimmered with an unusual sheen. They weren't ordinary vegetables.
Qiu Yashuang noticed where he was looking and explained with a touch of pride, "Those aren't ordinary lettuce or cabbage. They're medicinal herbs Uncle Zhou grows!"
"Things like Blood-Vein Grass and Dew-Condensing Flower are the main ingredients in Blood-Qi Pills. They're precious!"
"Uncle Zhou can make pills?" Chen Yan asked, following up on what she'd said.
"Not exactly. It's just that these herbs are very particular about where they grow."
"If they're taken away from a particular energy field or their place of origin, their medicinal effects and yield drop sharply, and they might even wither."
"Our camp works with the East Continent Alliance. We provide them with a growing area of a certain size, they provide the technology and seeds, and we take care of the plants every day."
Chen Yan nodded slightly, then turned his gaze to another area enclosed by a crude fence.
Inside were some livestock of various sizes and unusual appearances.
"Most of those," Qiu Yashuang continued, "are low-tier ferocious beasts captured in the wilderness and domesticated."
"For example, those Thick-Skinned Guinea Pigs. They're unranked domestic beasts, but they're easy to raise, aren't picky eaters, produce plenty of meat, and grow quickly!"
"They're part of our daily rations."
"Otherwise, hunting alone wouldn't be enough to feed this many people."
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