Chapter 82 part 1
Owner Liu indeed had a hole in the top of his head.
The edges were smooth and rounded without a single trace of blood. Instead, a few wisps of green plant sap were visible.
It was a truly gruesome sight. Even for the worldly Guardians, seeing it caused a phantom pain to throb in their own scalps.
Hua Yi surmised that Luo Shizhen would be frightened. After all, he was still a student of a tender, ungraduated age.
Given Luo Shizhen’s visibly well-behaved personality, what kind of expression would he make if he were scared?
He watched Luo Shizhen’s face with practiced ease, waiting for him to show signs of terror.
However, Luo Shizhen showed no reaction at all.
It was as if this weren’t a hole opened in a human skull, but rather a hole in some common roadside flora.
He even reached out, tentatively hovering his hand over the hole to see if he could sense the aura of pollution.
Hua Yi initially thought he was putting on a brave front, but upon closer inspection of his eyes, they remained as clear as ever. His expression was one of total focus, without even a hint of being startled.
Had the school already given them training in this area?
Hua Yi felt a twinge of regret at missing the chance to see Sui An’s student make a fool of himself.
Luo Shizhen didn’t notice Hua Yi’s disappointment. He continued his serious investigation before eventually shaking his head.
“I can’t do anything.”
He couldn’t sense even a trace of pollution—forget a “small cookie,” there wasn’t even a crumb.
Hua Yi had expected this, so he wasn’t surprised.
“We’ll take him back for an examination. Check the official bulletins for the specific results.”
Luo Shizhen pointed to the tree bark on the ground. “Can I look at that?”
Hua Yi looked at him, paused for a second, and said, “Sure, go ahead.”
Strictly speaking, they shouldn’t allow ordinary people to touch a Bizarre, even a dead one.
After all, even a microscopic amount of pollution on it could cause an ordinary person to drop dead instantly.
However, Hua Yi was well aware of Luo Shizhen’s identity, so he turned a blind eye.
Furthermore, Luo Shizhen was an Energy User sensitive to both Qi and pollution; perhaps he truly might discover something.
Luo Shizhen walked over to the tree bark, picked up a small stick from the ground, and gently poked it.
The bark was also perfectly clean, without a single trace of pollution. It looked like a piece of the most ordinary bark imaginable.
He stood up and shook his head at Hua Yi.
Not particularly surprised, Hua Yi gestured for his team members to bag the bark. “We’re leaving.”
As he walked past Luo Shizhen, he glanced at the whorl of hair on the young man’s head and gave a half-smile.
“Old Grandpa, at such an advanced age, you really should take care of your health.”
While Hua Yi wasn’t entirely clear on the specifics of Luo Shizhen’s mission, between the disguises, the sudden fame, and now the incident involving a restaurant owner near the Zhen Family Hall, the pieces were quite obvious.
These students were truly “newborn calves who didn’t fear tigers,” actually daring to intentionally lure a Bizarre to themselves.
Even with Sui An backing them, it was incredibly reckless.
He had dropped a hint to Luo Shizhen, but the boy didn’t catch the meaning. Still fully immersed in his persona as a seventy-year-old man, he pressed his voice low and gave a kindly smile.
“Thank you for your concern.”
Hua Yi thought he was playing the part quite well. With that fatherly look in his eyes, an outsider would truly think a grandfather was looking at his grandson.
After he led his men away, the other shopkeepers—who had only dared to watch from a distance—cautiously swarmed forward. Liu’s Restaurant was temporarily sealed off, so no one dared enter; they just stood at the entrance discussing the situation.
“I saw it! A huge hole in the top of his head! His brains must have been sucked dry! I heard zombies love eating brains!”
“Doesn’t seem like it. If they were really sucked dry, how could he still walk? Aside from his eyes looking a bit dazed, Owner Liu seemed fine otherwise.”
“With a hole opened in his head, how could he possibly be fine!”
Luo Shizhen was still looking down at the spot where the bark had been when a merchant approached to strike up a conversation.
“Doctor Zhen, you’re really something else, Old Gentleman!”
He gave a thumbs-up and launched into a series of praises. “I saw your Zhen Family Hall on TV! I never imagined you could actually treat pollution. A divine doctor! If I’d known, I should have come to pay my respects much sooner.”
Once this man started, the other shop owners immediately stopped obsessing over Owner Liu’s condition.
A divine doctor capable of treating pollution—in this day and age, establishing a connection with such a person was practically equivalent to having a “Get Out of Death Free” card.
These owners were all businesspeople used to greeting and seeing off guests. Even the most clumsy-tongued among them had honed their skills; their praises never repeated, and each face wore an eager smile that looked entirely sincere.
Luo Shizhen could turn a blind eye to negative reviews, but he had no defenses against such blatant adulation.
In Xia Country, students were always judged by their grades. Even if teachers liked Luo Shizhen, they wouldn’t praise him daily.
Thus, in the first nineteen years of his life, he had rarely received compliments; usually, it was only his grandmother and close teachers who praised him.
Only top students like Chu Xiao would find a crowd of people praising them wherever they went.
When it came to Luo Shizhen, the only comment was “this child is honest.”
He had once felt dejected over this, but he slowly adjusted his mindset. It was like his “dull wits” were something innate and unchangeable—since he couldn’t change it, he could only adapt.
Consequently, as the crowd surrounded and praised him, he knew they were technically praising “Zhen Shiluo,” but he couldn’t help but feel secretly delighted.
He was also troubled, as he rarely encountered such situations and had no idea how to respond.
Fortunately, Assistant Cheng intervened in time. “Thank you, everyone, but Doctor Zhen has patients scheduled for this afternoon. We must head back now. Let’s chat next time—next time.”
Luo Shizhen was like a superstar, shielded by Cheng Yunshao as they moved through the crowd, greeted by the respectful gazes and hellos of the waiting patients.
The patient who had just been undergoing treatment had already had their pollution removed, and Cheng Yunshao guided them to another room to “inhale the medicinal fragrance.”
Only when Luo Shizhen was alone in the consultation room did a flush of excitement appear on his face. He secretly cheered himself on before starting to tidy up the items knocked over on the floor.
As he was cleaning, he suddenly felt a wave of craving. This craving came so abruptly that even Luo Shizhen, who was used to always being hungry, was caught off guard. He habitually took a piece of bread from the cabinet and ate it while his gaze instinctively scanned the room.
Luo Shizhen didn’t realize it himself, but this action made him look exactly like a lion that had caught the scent of prey; his expression carried a hint of excitement.
Finally, his gaze landed on a potted plant on the windowsill.
Most people who opened shops in this area kept some plants; it looked nice and added a touch of class.
The Zhen Family Hall was no exception. Xiao Shan had personally bought these from the flower and bird market, purchasing over a dozen pots at once and lining them up neatly on the windowsill.
The group of students were all young, and none of them had ever raised plants or even remembered to water them.
Lu Qiujin was a Wood Element user, and the Lu family’s company was in the seed business, but he never raised plants himself. If a plant had an issue, he could immediately fix it by using his ability to stimulate growth.
Surprisingly, the plants had survived just fine and even looked quite healthy, without Lu Qiujin ever having to use his power.
One day, Luo Shizhen suddenly remembered that plants needed watering or fertilizing. He looked up some information and planned to take good care of them, only to discover Sui-laoshi’s spiritual power threads holding a watering can and tending to the flowers.
It turned out Sui-laoshi had been the one taking care of them all along.
Since then, every morning when Luo Shizhen arrived, he would first check the growth of these plants.
Having looked at them so often, he had memorized exactly what they looked like.
Now, with a single glance, he immediately noticed that a Kalanchoe plant, which should have been alone in its pot, now had a single blade of grass growing beside it.
This grass looked just like any common weed, yet it appeared inexplicably tempting.
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