Daily life of a teacher in the martial arts department

Without asking any further questions, Kui walked over and pulled out Yinhensheng.

"Do you know why this herb is called 'The Birth of Regret'?" Ji Chaoge asked casually, not addressing either Cain or Kui Zhong. Neither of them knew who he was asking, or perhaps both.

Finally, Cain, who suffered from social bull syndrome, spoke up and, quite politely, expressed his doubts.

"why?"

Ji Chaoge chuckled and said, "Legend has it that in a distant era, there were no cities in this vast Black Dragon Mountain Range, only villages. The place was so poor, and the people there were so ignorant and greedy. Generation after generation, they lived within these mountains, their hearts, like the calluses on their feet, worn down by the rubble from their ascents and descents, becoming fierce and violent..."

Ji Chaoge stopped abruptly here, looked at Cain who had seen all his memories, and spoke in a tone like a bard reciting an ancient legend:

"They would buy young women from outside and torture them until they resigned themselves to their fate... Then one day, a florist's daughter went out to buy supplies and was abducted by traffickers into this mountain range... The mountain range was winding and treacherous, and she was powerless to escape for the rest of her life, spending her days in tears. In her pocket was a seed. What kind of plant this seed would have originally grown into is no longer important; what matters is that it arrived in the Black Dragon Mountains. Due to the special environment here, its medicinal properties have changed..."

“You’re really not suited to storytelling,” Ji Chaoge suddenly interrupted Cain. He smiled and said, “It must have been the girl’s tears that fell, nourishing this seed. It took root and sprouted, watered by tears of hatred. The vengeful goddess, stripped of her divine power, transformed her unvented rage into soft tears, which became the seed’s life. So it grew, and then one day, it was plucked and used as poison, mixed into a family’s dinner…”

"Therefore, it is called 'Born of Regret'."

"Of course, this story is unreliable. Although it is true that oranges grown south of the Huai River are oranges and those grown north of the Huai River are trifoliate oranges, it is too exaggerated for a seed to directly transform into a different species in another place, not to mention the inexplicable toxicity. Although it does exist, we don't know how the girl knew about it, so just listen to these stories."

Ji Chaoge said meaningfully, "Take it away, Kui. Although it wasn't formed from the tears of the goddess of vengeance, the raging wrath of the god of vengeance is about to burn this world to ashes."

Kui nodded silently and left the basement with Yinhensheng.

He began to evacuate the Black Dragon Ruins, but not by the same route. Cain had helped him out earlier, and he needed to find a time and a place to "find" Yinhensheng before he was done.

As Kui walked along, all he could see was emptiness. Silence and desolation were the eternal themes. The whole world seemed to have lost its color. The apocalypse had destroyed everything, turning everything into ruins. Apocalypse, apocalypse... just like its name, it brought only destruction and nothingness.

"In a place like this, if you find plants... everything else has turned to ashes, how can they possibly survive..."

Kui shook his head, took a step, and after turning a corner, suddenly stopped.

In front of him, there was a touch of emerald green.

It too was a plant born of bitterness, growing amidst broken walls and ruins, struggling to grow in the corner, stubbornly peeking out from the cracks, facing this bleak world with its head held high.

In these colorless and lifeless ruins, it is the only life, the most ordinary life, and at the same time, a miracle of life.

It grows here, overcoming all the incredible, as tenacious as if guided by the gods.

Chapter Fifty-Seven: Two Trees of Regret

(PS: Three-in-one, 58 yuan missing)

"You've never seen a Nocturne before...?"

"Yes...but isn't this normal for Nocturne? What's wrong?"

Mu Nandong did not answer the question because he could not give an answer either, or perhaps he felt that the word "intuition" was not quite right for him.

This morning, he finally realized the silence surrounding Nocturne and asked several people, hoping to get some information about her whereabouts. The answers he received were surprisingly consistent: Nocturne hadn't been seen since a certain day.

Mu Nandong's intuition was quite astonishing, yet he rarely relied on this ability in the first half of his life. Consequently, it had somewhat deteriorated... However, the truth of the matter cannot be guessed based on so-called intuition.

【“..”】

"Have you seen Nocturne? I haven't seen her much lately... Huh? Someone asked the same question not long ago, who?"

Mu Nandong turned his head upon hearing the sound and happened to see Ying Qin Guan looking up.

The teacher, caught between the two, chuckled awkwardly and said, "I don't know anything... You two talk, you two talk."

After saying that, he disappeared in a flash.

Ying Qin Guan and Mu Nan Dong had known each other for over a year, and now they could confidently knock on each other's doors without any embarrassment and ask him to open the door for them. He greeted him immediately.

"What a coincidence, are you also looking for Nocturne?"

"There's no need to repeat something so obvious," Mu Nandong said coldly. "Indeed, we've reached a consensus on strange matters."

When the matter was brought up, Ying Qin Guan straightened up slightly and said, "I've been feeling like something's missing lately. Ye Qu has suddenly disappeared without a trace for some reason. Do you have any clues?"

"Who knows?" Mu Nandong said in a normal tone, as if "it has nothing to do with me if she dies." "Who knows what sudden idea she had or where she went to have fun?"

Ying Qin Guan couldn't help but laugh, "If that's really what you think..."

"how?"

"...No, it's nothing, I was just being nosy."

Ying Qin Guan promptly apologized, and Mu Nan Dong didn't dwell on it too much, continuing the previous topic.

“I don’t have any ideas. I’ve already contacted the vice president and the president, but they haven’t given me any answers. However, Jiu Yi hasn’t been to his office for a long time, so he might have overlooked something.”

"Jiuyi's office..."

Jiu Yi, a very normal personal name; office, a very normal noun.

These two things should have blended together seamlessly. However, when Mu Nandong mentioned Jiu Yi's office, Ying Qin Guan's mind went blank for a moment. Jiu Yi has an office? The two words together felt incredibly incongruous, even giving Ying Qin Guan a sense of magical realism and absurdity.

"what happened?"

"No...it's nothing. Shall we go to his office?"

"...That's to be expected. What an irresponsible guy, thinking he can relax just because it's summer vacation."

Ying Qin Guan said in a low voice, "If we found something about Nocturne in Jiu Yi's office, then... what do you think it would be?"

Mu Nandong calmly gazed at Ying Qin Pass.

"When you ask this question, you already have the answer in your heart. I hate this kind of question the most. Don't look for the determination you want in others. The only person who can give you determination is yourself."

..

The two arrived at Jiu Yi's office and found Wu Changying and Ye Qu's letters among the few available files...unopened. However, at this moment, opening them or not made no difference, because the answer was obvious.

"It's incredible, isn't it?" Mu Nandong placed the unopened letter back on his desk and said coldly, "But it happened."

"Why so suddenly..." Ying Qin Guan's ability to accept this was clearly not as strong as Mu Nan Dong's. Because this matter was indeed hard to accept; it happened suddenly without any warning, and Ye Qu didn't say anything either.

"Let's go, we've got the answer." Mu Nandong didn't linger and turned to leave. He was always a decisive person and never dragged things out.

"Ugh.."

Ying Qin Guan sighed, but there was nothing he could do. Ye Qu left silently, but left a resignation letter before leaving, which meant that she had taken care of everything. This was her attitude; she didn't want outsiders to disturb her. Since she had made her choice, there was nothing others could say or do, especially since they couldn't even meet with her now.

As he was about to leave the office, Ying Qin Guan felt a strange sense of reluctance. He looked back and saw the white envelope bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun, dressed in a pale golden veil. It lay there quietly, waiting to be opened one day, but the answer had already come long before that.

-

In the basement, Cain withdrew his gaze and said softly:

"He took both of the 'Hateful Life' plants back with him."

Ji Chaoge didn't care and replied, "A normal choice."

"The normal choice... Why do you say that? If we're talking about the normal choice, it would be to take our things back, or take the 'Blood of Regret' plant on the ground back, not both of them, right?"

"That's a stupid question," Ji Chaoge said, tapping his head dismissively. "Why don't you look at it yourself?"

"If I did this all the time, I would miss out on a lot of the fun. The process of solving a mystery lies in the unknown."

"Really... then let me answer you."

Ji Chaoge held up one finger. "I said this is a 'normal' choice. This 'normal' doesn't mean normal in the universal sense, but rather normal for Kui. Others might choose something else. But for Kui, that's the normal choice he should make."

Cain asked curiously, "Why do you say that?"

“Because Kui is different from us.” Ji Chaoge said meaningfully, “Ordinary humans will make a firm choice because their position determines everything. Similarly, ordinary non-subhuman aliens will also make a firm choice for the same reason: their position determines their perspective. There is nothing to hesitate about. Even if they hesitate, they will definitely make a choice before leaving the Black Dragon Ruins.”

"However, he took both of the 'Hateful Life' plants back with him... because he was neither a complete human nor a complete alien. He wanted to gain freedom and to complete the revival of his race, but he had lived in human society for too long and had almost forgotten that he still had sharp claws. He lacked awareness and determination, and dared not turn around and report us to the military, nor dared to fully commit to helping us."

Cain said, "I understand all of that, but the question now is why he took those two 'Hate-Reaping' plants back with him. Do you think the reason of insufficient enlightenment alone is enough?"

"Don't you think that's enough? I thought you would understand by now..." Ji Chaoge chuckled, shook her head, and said, "Alright, alright, then I'll make it even clearer."

Cain once again adopted a listening posture... Although he had viewed all of Ji Chaoge's memories, it was clear that Ji Chaoge's wisdom and way of thinking could not be learned by simply watching a few times.

"You're focusing on trivial matters and haven't noticed the crux of the problem at all. What do you think is the reason Kui took both plants out? Was he unsure which side to favor? No, no, no, you've completely misunderstood..."

He paused slightly and gently raised his head.

"The reason is a lack of awareness. If he takes the one on the ground, it would undoubtedly be a betrayal of me. He doesn't intend to betray me. Also, if he takes the one here, that would be wrong too. However, it's not for Shenzhou-9, but for something else."

Cain repeated, "Others?"

“That’s right, the others.” Ji Chaoge smiled and said, “If he took away our Yinhen Sheng, and then Shenzhou-9 took the drug and died, what would the military think?”

"...What you're trying to say is that if Shenzhou-9 crashes, the military will suspect him of tampering with it? But that's a very low probability. In that situation, the military would have no choice but to believe him."

“Indeed.” Ji Chaoge did not deny it, nodding frankly, and said, “Bringing two ’Blood of Regret’ plants and letting the military make their own choice would indeed reduce suspicion to some extent. But the amount is small, and at first glance, it’s not enough to make Kui do this. However, when you think about something, you have to think about it from all angles. Cutting off your own arm seems like a stupid choice at first glance, but what if the situation is that you’ve been poisoned?”

Cain seemed to understand something and said, "...I see. Bringing two 'Hate-Reaping Plants' would only bring limited benefits. But compared to completely offending us or bringing our 'Hate-Reaping Plants' and causing the Shenzhou-9 to crash and be suspected by the military, bringing two 'Hate-Reaping Plants' would minimize the cost of the accident...no, it's not so much minimized as it is a moderate choice. In the end, no matter who wins, their fate won't be the worst."

"This was a decision he made after careful consideration. To be honest, it was too moderate, but that's precisely why I chose him."

"You chose him?" Cain asked curiously. "How so?"

“I could have had other soldiers find Yinhensheng… Although I couldn’t get into the Black Dragon Ruins at that time, it would have been easy to do so, but none of them were the best option,” Ji Chaoge said. “Cain, what do you think the military will do after finding Yinhensheng?”

"How do we do it... we can make it into medicine and have Shenzhou-9 drink it."

"Are you an idiot..." Ji Chaoge was slightly shocked. He hadn't expected Cain to give such a foolish answer. "How could it be directly made into medicine..."

Cain was called an idiot but he didn't get angry at all; he had a really good temper.

"Then how do we do it?"

"Of course, we will study the chemical composition of the 'Blood of Sickness' and then conduct experiments in batches."

"Well... I thought they would use it directly."

"If it weren't for the apocalyptic bombardment, we might have used it directly. But with the apocalypse, we definitely wouldn't dare. We could only detect the chemical components that might be effective, extract them from other plants, and add them to the final product to create a medicine that could save Shenzhou-9."

"In this situation, if I give them a *Epiphyllum oxypetalum*, even if they don't suspect that I've tampered with it, they'll spend a lot of time on useless experiments. Because they'll have to test every single chemical component of the *Epiphyllum oxypetalum*, which of course doesn't take much time, but the problem is the materials... Besides *Epiphyllum oxypetalum*, there are several other materials that are also on the verge of extinction. I'm afraid that they won't be able to test the chemical component I want them to test, and because of the lack of materials, they'll have to choose the wrong option."

"No, no, wait... This is indeed a disadvantage of planting only one 'Bloodstained Life' plant. But if you plant two, will it make a difference?"

“I will give them some instructions,” Ji Chaoge said. “The two Yinhensheng plants are almost identical, except for one special component.”

"How about this ingredient?"

"It will be affected by strong radiation, causing the components within one 'Blood of Regret' plant to change into those within another, and..."

Before Ji Chaoge could finish speaking, Cain interrupted her again.

"No, that's useless. It's not like that special component has 'I am the special component in Yinhensheng' written on it. Do you think the military would just assume that special component is what they need because of that?"