5: I want to be a salted fish
"Mom, I'm not feeling well, a bit dizzy..."
Taking advantage of her mother's slow reaction, Song Yu quickly spoke up.
She leaned against the seat, slightly shifted her legs, and gently brushed her hand over her forehead, feigning weakness.
The girl's willowy eyebrows seemed to furrow, and her black and white eyes welled up with tears. Her face, already pale due to her persistent fever over the past few days, became Song Yu's best shield. With a light touch to her forehead, Song Yu wore a look of a "sick beauty."
"Are you having a fever again?" Zhou Fangmei, snapping out of her trance, inquired with concern about Song Yu's condition.
Her daughter had been running a recurrent fever these days, with pale skin and frequent headaches, dizziness, and muscle weakness. There had been a few episodes of nausea and vomiting as well. Today, she seemed better than the previous days, but now she wasn't feeling well again.
Zhou Fangmei frowned, her eyes filled with concern, completely unaware that Song Yu was acting.
Under the gaze of her mother's concern, Song Yu's back stiffened, and she felt a pang of guilt for a moment. She then coughed weakly while clutching her chest, slumping down in the back seat. "Mom, don't worry. It's just a low-grade fever... Cough, cough, I just need to rest for a while... Cough."
"Since it's a low-grade fever, you don't need to worry too much," Song Wenhai, driving the car, reassured his wife. "I have some fever-reducing medication in my bag. Fangmei, you can give it to Xiaoyu."
Song Wenhai drove the car, looking at the flow of traffic ahead, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
He never expected that from the moment Song Yu awakened her Taming Space on her birthday until now, despite giving her three premium energy fruits, the initial release of the Strange Beasts in three days still brought her such immense pressure.
When Song Wenhai learned from the doctor that his daughter had a high fever due to excessive stress and anxiety, he was taken aback.
Even though he was a second-tier junior professional Tamer himself, he hoped his children would become professional Tamers too.
But he never stipulated that both of his children had to become professional Tamers.
While being a professional Tamer was a good thing, one could still lead a good life without becoming a Tamer.
Unfortunately, since she was a child, his daughter had shown an intense fascination with becoming a professional Tamer.
She often got up at five in the morning, exercising harder than even adults. "Fortunately, the birthday gifts we prepared, Fangmei, were the Grade-Three Intermediate Hundred-Flower Nectar, which is most loved by bug-type Strange Beasts. Especially by bee and butterfly type bug-type Strange Beasts."
Song Wenhai secretly thought, driving with one hand and touching his nose, his mouth involuntarily curling up slightly.
He believed that when they got home and revealed this birthday gift, his daughter Song Yu would surely jump with joy!
*****
The small bottle, carved from white jade, was about the size of an adult's palm. It featured beautiful and colorful peony flowers carved onto the white jade.
By simply opening the bottle stopper, a rich and fragrant scent of various flowers would waft out from the bottle, which would tantalize the nostrils of everyone present and put them in a state of ecstasy.
When Song Wenhai and his wife handed the bottle containing the Grade-Three Intermediate Hundred-Flower Nectar to Song Yu, she was still feeling somewhat stunned.
She didn't expect to receive three premium energy fruits from her grandfather just a moment ago, and now she was being given Grade-Three Intermediate Hundred-Flower Nectar by her parents.
If Song Yu hadn't remembered the plot in the novel where the male lead had to fight with Strange Beasts to obtain a First-Grade ore spirit herb, and the original owner had died at the hands of an enemy for a Second-Grade spirit fruit, she would have suspected that Grade-Three spirit fruits were already quite common in this world.
You see, Jianghuai City was just a small Third-Level city.
And above the Third-Level, there were Second-Level cities, First-Level capital cities, and super First-Level mega-cities, all categorized into three levels.
The bigger the city, the more abundant its surrounding resources.
In this world, every city was built around a resource-rich wilderness and rifts secret territory.
"Xiaoyu, are you happy? This is specially purchased by your dad's acquaintance," Zhou Fangmei said as she touched Song Yu's soft and fluffy hair, her smile radiant.
"...Happy," Song Yu squeezed out a sweet smile. The original body's happiness or not, Song Yu didn't know, but right now, she didn't feel very happy.
She even felt like her chest was pierced, two arrows deeply piercing, with fresh blood gushing out.
But at this moment, Song Wenhai extended his slightly rough big hand and patted Song Yu's head.
Seeing his daughter's soft and fluffy hair, Song Wenhai, with his chubby face, showed a contented smile.
Song Wenhai said, "I knew Xiaoyu would like this birthday gift."
Song Yu: "..."
"While it's true that insect-type Strange Beasts have shorter lifespans compared to other Strange Beasts, they also have a much shorter juvenile period. They are best suited for contract makers with lower-level Taming Spaces..." Song Wenhai said cheerfully, "With this Hundred-Flower Nectar and that energy fruit, in a few months, our Xiaoyu might be able to have a mature insect-type Strange Beast!"
Song Yu: "..."
"By the time of next year's college entrance exam, Xiaoyu might even be able to get into a prestigious Tamer University with the help of this contract beast!"
Song Wenhai was ecstatic, "Although the prestigious Tamer Universities have a longer duration with a 12-year program for a bachelor's, master's, and doctorate, our Xiaoyu will definitely become more and more formidable! By that time, your class teacher will take you on various adventures exploring rift secret territories, and Xiaoyu will surely enjoy that thrilling life!"
Song Yu: "..."
Song Yu's face displayed her inner turmoil: Thank you! I really don't like excitement at all!
However, the more Song Wenhai spoke, the brighter his eyes shone. This middle-aged man seemed to have returned to his university days.
He looked at Song Yu, who was listening to him attentively, and continued, "I attended an ordinary Tier Two Tamer University back then, only visited two rift secret territories... One had scorching hot sand everywhere, with daytime temperatures soaring to forty to fifty degrees, and dropping to minus ten degrees at night... Another was all snowy white, and if you went in, you had to put on a down jacket and thick cotton clothing, although those with Fire-type and Ice-type contract beasts didn't need that. The energy in the secret territory was denser than in the wilderness forests, so the higher the level of the Strange Beasts, the more powerful they were... Every time I came out of the secret territory, I could feel my own strength improving..."
Song Wenhai chatted on about the sights he had seen during his time at Tamer University.
Sitting by the side, Zhou Fangmei smiled, and her eyes were filled with the imagery of secret territory schools described by Song Wenhai, as she listened with great relish.
Song Yu had a stiff expression and, in her mind, involuntarily compared her father's words to the various college majors she had encountered in her previous life. It felt more suffocating as she listened.
...Was there a college major more troublesome than being a Tamer?
Back in the day, everyone said, "Encourage others to study medicine, and heaven will strike you with thunder."
Medical students took a long time to graduate, and it was not uncommon for them to spend eight years on their bachelor's, master's, and doctorate.
However, now... What was eight years?!
Who could have known that Tamer University in this world required twelve years? The blazing hot desert secret territory, the freezing snowy mountain secret territory... and those layers upon layers of ferocious wild Strange Beasts!
Just thinking about these, Song Yu's face turned green!
How could there be such a tricky college major?
It's no wonder the original owner had died early.
Without the protagonist's destiny shield, it was entirely normal for someone to die young, running around in such dangerous places every year.
In short—try it, and you'll die!
This time, Song Yu couldn't keep a straight face.
Her eyes went vacant, her left hand holding the bottle of Hundred-Flower Nectar, and her right hand holding the energy fruit crystal box.
Her expression was solemn, as if she was holding two time bombs and was afraid that they might explode her soul if she wasn't careful.
Song Yu's serious expression was seen by her father and mother, but they thought it was just their child pondering some major life decisions.
Song Wenhai felt a little nostalgic upon seeing this and remembered that he had been restless during the initial release of Strange Beasts in his university days.
The middle-aged man patted his slightly sparse head, didn't bother to disturb Song Yu's lost thoughts, and took his wife's arm to go upstairs. He left Song Yu alone in the living room.
*****
However, the tranquility in the living room lasted for just over ten minutes...
From outside the house, there came a loud, rhythmic, and discordant sound of music, accompanied by the sound of a key being inserted into the lock.
"Click—!"
The door was opened from the outside.
A teenager with a black baseball cap on his head, wearing a loose black T-shirt and baggy shorts, and sporting cool sneakers, walked casually into the house. He was a hedgehog-haired young man who had just returned from his evening study session.
A youthful and arrogant air, along with the cool music on his phone, wafted in as he entered.
The young man was like a proud rooster. He walked into the house, kicked off his sneakers carelessly, as if he hadn't noticed there was another person in the living room. He then flung his backpack, grabbed a bottle of mineral water from the table, and drank a whole bottle "gulping" down.
After downing the bottle of water, he comfortably let out a satisfied burp, crossed his legs, squeezed himself onto the sofa, and started playing a game on his phone.
In his black T-shirt, shorts, and with the spiky hair, along with a fierce dragon tattoo on his left arm, he was quite a sight to behold.
Song Yu raised her head and was almost blinded by her original body's younger brother's eccentric outfit. If it weren't for the fact that this person shared the same parents as her and had decent genes, the big arm tattoo combined with the hedgehog head was almost unbearable to look at!
In this world without population control, ordinary families usually had two or three children.
The original owner's family was no exception, and as the eldest daughter, she had a younger brother who was two years younger than her.
Unfortunately, just like Song Yu, in the novel... the original host's brother, Song Qi, was also just a tool.
But unlike the original plot, Song Qi was following a script as a lickspittle for the female lead, Su Yue.
As a lickspittle for the female lead in a male-oriented web novel, Song Qi came from a good family, and two years later, he would awaken an S-level Taming Space.
In the early stages of the novel, an S-level Taming Space made Song Qi shine, but when SS-level Taming Spaces were all over the place in the middle and late stages of the novel, Song Qi, this lickspittle, was seriously injured by another admirer of the female lead with even greater talent and a better family background.
He suffered broken dantian, a collapsed Taming Space, and eventually fell into the tragic fate of becoming an ordinary person.
Song Yu blinked her eyes, and for a moment, she had many complaints to make but didn't know where to start.
Even she didn't know whether she should feel sorry for this lucky younger brother or be envious of the fact that he still ended up with the ordinary wealthy life she had always dreamed of.
"Damn it! It's really mostly envy!" Song Yu couldn't help but look at Song Qi again.
"Hey! Grade-Three Intermediate Hundred-However—"
Just when Song Qi thought that the woman across from him would start quarreling with him as usual...
The young girl tilted her head, suddenly opened her eyes wide, looked at him in surprise with an expression she couldn't contain, and seemed to hide a trace of undisguised excitement in her eyes...?
Song Yu: "Huh? Is Xiao Qi jealous? Then these two are for you..."
Song Qi widened his eyes, almost spitting out the water he was drinking, "Who's jealous?... Don't say that!"
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