Troubled Squishies
They must have just assumed he would bring back a big load again. They had prepared a guide, a specialist, and even a large tank of water. The specialist was staring at him with sparkling eyes with a laptop on a stand with wheels, ready to begin frantic typing.
Cui Xuefeng had them find a bigger tank, drain it, and clean it. The specialist was getting more and more excited. Cui Xuefeng wanted to knock them over the head a few times but refrained. The specialist started asking for specifics while they waited.
When they'd finished the arduous and resource-high process it was already several hours later. There were only two hours left until her school got out. He didn't delay any longer. He stepped forward. He cleaned the tank again with mana. They'd left behind many chemicals. Then he took the bag and held it upside down over the tank. Water gushed out. Of course, it was actually from his inventory, but he was still using the small bag as a camouflage piece.
In the water he pulled out were tiny organisms that'd been affected by the contaminated water. After clearing the water, he filtered out the ones that had absorbed anything that didn't fit the realm he had observed and took them along with the water. The water took several minutes to finish. Then he dumped jellyfish in. There was a second type, it was a smaller one he'd picked up later. This was about the size of two hands. There was a small school of them. The first one was much larger. Five of him could stand under it and still have enough space to comfortably move around.
It was interesting to see the specialist's face while all this happened. Especially when the large jellyfish popped out and moved around in the water. The specialist's jaw dropped and looked from it to the bag in his hand over and over again.
"It doesn't have a brain, so it isn't considered a life. It's like a plant." He casually explained.
The specialist was quick to understand this point. They were a little disappointed with the outcome but also excited. Particularly when Cui Xuefeng mentioned it was a Precambrian-like realm. This successfully distracted them and Cui Xuefeng slipped out.
At the school, the students began getting out of class. When they saw him at the gate he grabbed a lot of attention again. Many people were whispering. He thought it would be the same as before, but he suddenly overheard a conversation.
"That's him, right? This morning's prince?"
"When I saw him this morning I thought he was an idol. I thought they might be filming something."
"Classmate Lee said junior classmate Cui said he can cook, too!"
"I heard even Senior Jiang went to the first-year classrooms to ask about him."
"Really? Dang. Even the school flower is interested, now I have no chance."
"You had a chance before? Look in the mirror!"
After the first one, he heard another and another.
"Gege!" As soon as she saw him, she ran and buried her face in his chest.
Her voice sounded lively, but to him, it seemed as if his little creature was drained of energy. He held her and softly asked, "What happened?"
Her puffy cheeks greeted him when she finally looked up. "It's your fault!"
He could guess what happened. She had garnered a lot of attention today. For Cui Baozhai, this shy little one, it must have been terrible. He could guess something else from her reaction, too. She was scared he'd been taken away. That's why, even this little shy girl, wasn't afraid and jumped right into his arms as soon as she'd seen him. She wanted to stake her claim. Especially after they'd just started getting close.
He smiled and leaned into her ear, "Did Baobei brag about her Ge in school?"
She held her breath and touched her ear. A few seconds passed and she glared up at him again, her cheeks enlarging like a squirrel with nuts. Her eyes were moist. "Gege is at fault!"
He patted her head smilingly, "Yes, I'm sorry."
This made her pout even more prominent. She buried her face in his chest again and hugged him for a while. She must've felt bad that he so easily accepted the one-sided claim. A small paw shot out and pulled his hood over his head. His smile deepened. He kissed her head and started leading her home.
She stuck to him the whole day. She brought out her homework to do in the living room and didn't even let him go as she slept. She was clingy now, but he knew that would wear off eventually. He treasured these moments with her. He sat at her side and searched the net.
He spent the night searching the internet for more knowledge. He started with Novus. Novus was a catch-all term for anything to do with magic humans had come up with. They used it for the era, calendar, class in school, titles in names, titles in plants and other materials, for monsters, etc. It was a little gross how they tried to shove it all together in a box like that.
He decided he needed to start making notes about what to teach them. The more he read, the more he felt he had his work cut out for him. No wonder Earth was destroyed even without the intervention of a level 3 source. Pitiful fools.
If he wasn't one of them, he would probably just walk away. It's too much trouble to bother with.
He'd considered taking his mother and sister and leaving. He thought it the moment he realized what time he'd returned. But he knew he would regret it. Just like in the past life. Even if he couldn't remember what he'd done or what had happened, that guilt and regret still carried. Mostly, he felt an all-encompassing longing. A hunger. He couldn't leave humanity if he wanted to. He'd go mad.
He focused on what they knew about materials. Even as experienced as he was, he couldn't help but stop and rub at his aching head now and then. He couldn't believe some of the things they were doing with pieces of the realms they'd removed. Halfway through the night, he stopped to get a glass of water and take a break.
Eventually, he came across an Exalted Twin Cocoon. It was an article about using it as a light source in a cave-like dungeon. They cut it open and smeared it on the walls to produce light and keep monsters away.
His face drained of color.
The recording monster caught the horrified look on his face. It also saw exactly which article he was looking at. At the association, an email was sent out to stop the moving of the Luminescence Pod to another dark dungeon. This put a break on a job several months in the making.
Cui Xuefeng woke the little creature for school the next day. Looking at her smile as she greeted him, he felt his heart settle back into place a little bit.
He smiled and placed a kiss on her forehead, "Good morning, Baobei. Time to get ready for school."