53 Chapter 51: Trust, to a point.
Ding ding.
"Fuck." Was the first word coming out of my mouth the moment I woke up.
I wiped the saliva on the side of my mouth and stretched on my chair, cursing whatever entity possessed me to make me install a bell that would alert me anytime anyone entered my new building.
What was I even doing, sleeping at my table?
And why did I have a blanket covering me? There was no way that I would have put that on myself. I barely remembered falling asleep in the first place. If I had that much presence of mind I would have just gone to bed.
I shrugged and stood up, flowing a storm of energy through my head to eliminate all the drowsiness, then looked at what I had been working on last night.
The Heart is the prototype of the machine that would revolutionize my experience in this world, and hopefully this world itself later on, a theatrical way to name the equivalent of a computer.
It barely worked; it could only show me stuff I had to input by hand, and worst of all, the user experience was awful.
It was a sci-fi cube of inefficiency; it communicated directly to the user's head with recorded intents. I had to personally modify and upgrade Jasmine's thought transmission technique so that it could work the way I wanted it to; this version had way less range, and I could select which knowledge to receive from the thing many times faster than with the cards that I gave to the people of New Moon city.
It could barely record any data; it was an overly complicated book more than anything, but it had potential, and that's all that I aimed for.
This way, I could keep all my data in a single place rather than using my notebook every time, but if I wanted it to reach any satisfactory level, I needed better materials and more knowledge, the only problem was that it resembled more an information container than a computation machine.
Because I had no idea how to make one, what the fuck even is a transistor?
Ding ding.
"Damnit." That was my second word that morning. I craved rest, but apparently, rest is a sin in this world.
"I'm here, I'm here…" I grumbled, trying and failing to put on a nice face for who might be my first patient in this city.
"Doctor, it's a pleasure to see you again finally, I was beginning to fear that something unsavory might have happened during your journey," but in reality, what I found in front of me was a very familiar woman, with a slight smile and the eyes of someone that wanted something from me, just like she always did.
And Zhu not too far away glared at the woman, trying to hide behind the front desk and failing miserably, no amount of hiding could conceal her head popping out from the side of the desk.
There was no way that the woman not too far beneath my level could have senses that sucked enough to not feel the little girl glaring at her.
"Lan Xueruo, we took our time since I was also teaching my new disciples while on the way, the kid glaring at you is Zhu," I mentioned while enjoying the look of betrayal that the girl had just sent my way, I feigned ignorance. I continued with the conversation, "And by the way, what have you done for the kid to not like you like this?"
"I truly don't know Doctor, had this not been your clinic, I would have thought that it was an assassin waiting to attack me." She chuckled.
"Don't worry, she's a good kid," I replied before turning to the hiding spot, "Come here Zhu, this is a friend of mine."
The girl hesitated for a second before coming out of her hiding spot, "You can't glare at people like that Zhu, you might scare away a client," I admonished her gently.
"I have to admit, Doctor, when I was told that you took in two disciples I was skeptical, especially since you're so young, but I'm amazed by your disciple's talent, so young and she might reach the Nascent Profound Realm at any time," Commented the girl, while bringing out something from her pocket and giving it to the girl, "if you can't breakthrough on your own you can try this pill, it will help."
"Thank you," replied Zhu with grit teeth, still glaring at the woman, but trying her best to hide it.
And Xueruo might have even been fooled, but after six months together I could read both her and her brother like a book.
I had to teach her not to take candies from strangers though, stranger danger especially when they gave out weird magical drugs, but for now, I trusted that she was wiser than to take that pill without my okay.
As much as I believed the young woman to be a friend, I would rather not pump my children with steroids; but at the same time, I didn't want Xueruo to believe that I didn't trust her, which I did, but only to a certain extent.
"Where is your brother?" I asked.
"Still sleeping, he was tired." She replied curtly.
"Okay, go to your room, for now, I will finish my conversation with Miss Xueruo, I'll make breakfast for everyone later, okay?"
"Yes, teacher." The girl replied while looking down, before rapidly making her way up the stairs.
"Now," I turned back to my guest and got straight to the point, "did you need me for anything in particular?"
She chuckled and and brought out another bottle, but this time, it did not contain a pill, "I like your attitude doctor, straight to the point, this is the poison sample you asked for."
I took the bottle and uncorked it, it smelled awful, definitely smelled like death, "Thank you, this will be very useful, how are the poisoned people?"
"Our doctors can keep them stable, but the poison keeps causing trouble, a cure would be very appreciated, but there is another, more important, problem that I would like your help with." She continued.
As long as they were stable then I could find this cure with peace of mind, but her words intrigued me, "Of course, what is it?"
She showed me a wry smile, "I cannot talk about it, but tomorrow I would like for you to follow me to the patient."
That was a very suspicious request, but I quickly came to a pretty bad conjecture, someone very important was very, very ill, and they needed help.
The girl was the assistant, or whatever her job was, of the princess of the Empire, this wasn't a completely unfounded theory.
But there had to be many other doctors in this Empire, most were no doubt more trusted than I was, and this meant they had no alternatives, they might have asked all of the trusted ones and nothing came from it, or they had no trusted doctors, but the second alternative might be the worst and least likely one.
"I see, it must be a bad situation if the patient can't come here themselves, but it would be ideal to bring them here. All of my machines are here, and moving them around isn't easy," I explained.
"I understand, but the situation is too delicate, we can't risk any outsider knowing, the situation isn't horrible yet, our doctors say that we have a bit more time." She replied with a wry smile.
So I was right, it was someone important, good enough. I should be able to get samples from the patient and analyze them.
We went a bit more with some pleasantries, talking a bit about how I met the kids since she seemed curious, but she had to leave soon, more important duties awaited her, probably, "I see, thank you for your visit."
The first thing I did was go to search for the kids, and I met the boy on his way to the bathroom, I didn't want to waste time so I immediately asked him, "Xue, where is your sister?"
"In her bedroom?" He replied unsure.
"Is that a question?" I asked back with a smirk.
"No," he smiled embarrassed, "She's in her bedroom, teacher."
"Good, thank you." I grinned back.
Damn, embarrassing kids was fun, I had to do it more often, it built character.
I gently knocked on the girl's door and asked "Zhu, are you there?"
She opened the door, she was looking at me weirdly, why was she looking at me weirdly? "Hello teacher, do you need anything?"
"We need to talk for a bit, do you mind if I come inside?" I asked.
She made way for me and I sat down on one of the chairs around the mini table, these rooms were huge.
"Do you still have the pill that the woman gave you?"
"Yes teacher, why?" She asked back, curious.
"Could you give it to me? We have no idea what's inside of it, and I would rather you and your brother don't rely on these things in your cultivation, at least until I'm sure that they are completely safe." I explained.
I thought that explaining clearly my reasoning made children more likely to comply, since these two weren't dumb kids, except Xue, who's mostly dumb, but that was beside the point.
Just fifty percent of my kids were dumb, that was a pretty good percentage.
"You don't trust her?" She asked with a tilted head, curiosity obvious in her tone.
"I trust nobody with what gets inside my body, except food, and you shouldn't either, and since we can afford not to take these pills thanks to runes and our perfect openings, I don't see a reason to take these shortcuts, nobody is running after us after all," I explained.
"But you trust her more than other people, right?" She asked again, why was she looking at me weirdly again?
"I somewhat do, yes, we've known each other for a while and she gave me no reason not to trust her, we have had some good dealings in the past, so we can be considered business partners," I replied.
"I see…" she mumbled, seeming reassured about something, before her eyes snapped back to me, "I don't like her."
I raised an eyebrow in confusion, had the woman done something while I was waking up?
I needed to move with planting those surveillance cameras I planned to work on, but it was seventh on my current order of priorities, I was too busy, but at least I had fun making the things.
Work was my only hobby, I was turning into my father.
Work and my kids, damn, exactly like my father.
Will Xue turn into me?
I snapped away from those dark thoughts, "Did she do something?"
"N-no… it's a feeling," She replied, suddenly lowering her gaze, "It feels like she's always hiding something…"
That explained how she acted toward Xueruo earlier…
Her words were vague, but I knew better than to distrust my child and put them in actually uncomfortable situations, except when embarrassing them, which I would do often.
"Alright, you don't need to interact with her at all if you don't want to, but she's a business partner and an important contact I have with the Empire, but if you want, you can keep an eye on her whenever she's here, to make sure she's not up to anything weird."
She nodded vigorously, that was cute.
I ruffled her hair, which displeased her and amused me, "Now, that pill?"
She handed over the pill.
Damn, I was a good father.
Well… I tried to be.
Hello~~
Hands up and gimme your stones!
I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I love when you guys give me feedback in the comments.
