Imperial Treasure

Over the next few days, she kept seeing that girl selling vegetables in the same spot at that market. Business was terrible; Sui Yi figured she was probably the only one buying from her. The second time the girl was still on guard, still confused. By the third and fourth time she’d probably gotten used to it—every time she saw Sui Yi coming, there was joy in her eyes, but her face stayed stubborn, putting on a very aloof act.

Little did she know, Sui Yi had seen her that night biting the railing like a marmot... the more she thought of that scene, the funnier it got.

So yeah, first impressions really matter.

Sui Yi directly pegged her as a stubborn yet tough little kid.

Until the fifth day....

After buying her vegetables, Sui Yi saw the girl at the entrance, cornered and beaten by a group of people... the veggies on the ground were a complete mush.

Sui Yi frowned, but didn’t step in.

That bunch didn’t dare beat her to death; they stopped quickly and ran off. The nearby stall owners burst out laughing, pointing at the person on the ground...

The girl climbed up from the ground, gathered up the vegetables, threw the ruined ones into the trash, collected the good ones, then limped away.

Behind her came a chorus of jeers from the crowd.....

Ah....

The racial exclusion’s really this bad?

Is there something seriously wrong with this girl’s race?

The 13th Administrative District is the most remote district, in both military capacity and economic level. But that also means this area has large stretches of land used for farming.

Huge vegetable fields, all lush green or splashes of color, full of the scent of fresh produce, the air feeling very clean and crisp.

The girl limped along for more than half an hour before she finally made it here. On the way she washed her face in a roadside stream, wiped off the grime on her body, then called out to an old granny working in one of the fields.

The chubby old granny lifted her head, and the moment she saw the girl her eyes crinkled into a thin line from smiling.

She hurriedly climbed up onto the ridge, pulled out a big flatbread from her basket, and handed it to the girl...

"No, Granny, I already ate, I’m super full. Look at my belly, it’s all round and full."

"What nonsense. Your little belly’s all flat, how is that ’already eaten’? I baked this bread just this morning, it’s corn-flavored, your favorite. It’s for you. The one I’m eating is underneath, sweet bean flavor."

The granny smilingly took out another big flatbread, pulled the girl to sit down on the ridge, and the two of them ate and laughed together.

Suddenly, the girl’s expression changed; she stared at the person standing by the road not far away.

"Oh, it’s a young lady. Ah Dou, she knows you."

"Huh? Uh... I’ll go take a look."

Sui Yi watched the girl come over with a clearly wary, unfriendly look. Sui Yi struck first: "I get up in the morning to go buy groceries, it’s pretty tiring. I figured I could have you deliver straight to me, and at the same time check out where these veggies come from—isn’t that good?"

Now that look in her eyes was the real killer.

The first reaction of Ah Dou the Little Fairy was—sounds pretty reasonable. Kinda nice, actually~~

"Um, that, that... I guess so..."

"The vegetables belong to Granny? Aren’t you going to invite me over to say hello to her?"

"Uh, okay, come on then..."

As soon as Ah Dou stepped off the ridge, she felt even more that something was off. Hey, hang on, this isn’t right.

But muttering to herself inside, Ah Dou couldn’t really say anything. After all, Sui Yi was her only customer these past few days—can’t afford to offend your meal ticket, right.

And she just felt this person was kind of spooky. With those eyes staring at you, it felt like you didn’t even dare trigger a hostile state....

"Eh eh, she really is your friend, young lady...." Granny was so happy she looked like a blooming flower. Sui Yi was a bit surprised at first, but then remembered how those people treated the girl.....

Granny was probably seeing this girl have a friend for the first time?

Sui Yi didn’t say much. She sat down on the ridge and chatted with Granny about how to grow eggplants, sweet potatoes, and all that.

Very down-to-earth.

If Black and Agoleus were the ones haggling, their jaws would probably hit the floor.

Once Granny understood that Sui Yi’s purpose was to secure a supply of vegetables and meat ingredients, she got even happier and personally led Sui Yi to look at the fields. Sui Yi had already used Magnetic Sensation to scan these vegetables and found that their vitality far exceeded that of the produce sold by other vendors. After seeing the fields, she also realized that the soil within the vegetable plot was different from the soil in the neighboring fields.

Sui Yi was puzzled, but didn’t ask much. She just thought, while the rest of them don’t eat that much, Nine Tails is a different story—that guy is a real big eater. Last time they did hotpot, it basically wiped out more than half of all the ingredients. Later when she bought the girl’s vegetables she still needed to top up with lots of meat....

—Nine Tails eats hotpot too.

Anyway, money wasn’t a problem now, so Sui Yi directly placed a pretty sizable order.

She didn’t raise the prices either.

Otherwise Granny would feel guilty, which would ruin the mood. Better to just give them more orders.

After the deal was settled, Granny was delighted and took Sui Yi to the farmhouse near the fields, serving her tea and water, and even giving her a few big flatbreads.

On the way back, the girl walked in front, glancing back at Sui Yi from time to time, until she finally couldn’t hold it in.

"Are you pitying me?"

"Hm?"

Sui Yi, who’d just been thinking about that peculiar soil, looked up at her.

"If someone pities you, it means you still have a bit of cuteness left. That’s something to be happy about."

The girl pressed her lips together, speechless. Was he saying she wasn’t cute, wasn’t cute, wasn’t cute?

"I’m a Goblin, you know."

"Only half."

The girl’s expression changed; she stomped her foot. "Even if I’m only half Goblin, I belong to the Green-eyed Fairy Clan. I can brew Poison to poison you to death! You ate my vegetables, so you’re definitely going to....."

Sui Yi’s expression stayed calm: "You only tell me this after I’ve already paid? You’re so young, it’s not good to be this wicked."

What kind of person is this!

The girl deflated, stomping her feet. The bad-tempered act she’d just mustered collapsed, and her pointed ears twitched up and down.

"Those vegetables Granny sells, you grew them with Potion?"

"Yeah." The girl stared at her. "So you still dare to eat them?"

"I’ve been eating them for five days... and every day there isn’t enough, so that’s why I followed you over here..."

What Sui Yi said stunned the girl.

"What’s your full name?"

"Green Bean."

"Green Bean?" Sui Yi’s lips curled up. Nice name. "Green Bean, huh."

"Mm." Green Bean turned her face away and ignored Sui Yi.

"Your Potion work is really impressive..."

Green Bean whipped her head back around.

"Impressive?"

"Mm. You’ve cultivated those vegetables really well... My family all love eating them... They’ve always had picky tastes. If they like eating them, that proves your veggies are good."

"But those people....."

"No fate."

"Eh?"

Sui Yi looked off into the distance and said lightly, "The people in this world who insult you, curse you, hate you—you don’t need to treat them as bad people, or treat yourself as a bad person.... It just means you’re not meant for each other, so you can only be strangers."

Green Bean pondered. "Then do we have fate?"

A teachable kid, huh.

Sui Yi had originally wanted to pour a bit more chicken-soup-for-the-soul into her, but seeing how quick this girl was on the uptake, she smiled.

"We do."

"Then can you teach me how you made the stuff cooking in that pot.... I’ve tried cooking it myself.. it tasted awful, no flavor at all, but the way you guys cook it smells so, so, so good...."

So much for being shy, stubborn, and aloof, huh?

The essence of a foodie cannot be suppressed.

Sui Yi laughed.

————————

As for Sui Yi dragging the little neighbor girl from next door over to eat hotpot together, Yi and the other two were very calm about it. She was just a kid, after all. They chatted casually over the meal, and Green Bean didn’t guard herself at all—everyone here already knew her story anyway.

"My mother went up the mountain to gather herbs again and disappeared for a month. When she came back, she was pregnant with me... When I was born, my Goblin traits showed right away... They said I was the bastard spawn of the Green-eyed Fairy Clan... But because of the racial treaty, they couldn’t kill me, so they beat my mother instead, and not long after, she passed away... Later, it was Granny who raised me....."

Granny—that would be her maternal grandmother.

Sui Yi had tested Green Bean and that old granny’s blood; part of it was indeed hereditary.

"There are all kinds of races everywhere, so why do they reject the Green-eyed Fairy Clan so much?"

Pu Qinghan used the public chopsticks to drop a big piece of meat into Green Bean’s bowl.

This little girl’s appetite was almost catching up to Nine Tails’; probably the Goblin bloodline at work.

"Ah, you guys don’t know?" Green Bean was surprised. She looked at the few of them. "The Green-eyed Fairy Clan is the most cunning, vicious race in the world, best at using Poison to harm people.... None of the races like them.... Uh, they don’t like me either."

Uh... a fifteen-year-old kid talking about half of her own people in such a flat yet certain tone—that alone was enough to show how extreme this environment was.

Sui Yi lowered her eyes and took a sip of tea. "Whether someone is evil or not depends on what they do, not what they are....."

Green Bean thought for a bit, then ate another piece of meat and said, "Mm, Granny told me the same thing. She said my mother, before she died, also asked her to pass a message to me.... not to look down on myself.... So I’ve been working hard to save money, getting ready to take the Pharmacognosy exam at our Administrative District Academy...."

Yi glanced at Green Bean. "The best Pharmacognosy program belongs to the Ice Gleam Administrative District’s Ice Gleam Academy. District Thirteen’s is worse."

She trusted Sui Yi’s judgment, so she felt that Green Bean was aiming too low.

"Ice Gleam Academy!!! Ice Gleam Academy’s Pharmacognosy is the best and strongest for us Dragon Ape folk! But it’s super, super, super hard to get into, and the tuition is fifty thousand Spirit Currency per semester. Even setting aside that I probably can’t get in, even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to afford to go...."

Green Bean swallowed the food in her mouth. "My goal is the Thirteenth Academy, and the day after tomorrow is the Thirteenth Academy’s entrance assessment.... I also have to thank Sister Sui for letting me earn money. I can finally afford the exam fee..."

"Aren’t the other academies’ enrollment dates ten days from now?" Yi had also been asking around about a bunch of academies these past few days. She always held herself to high standards, so of course she was aiming for the best, and she was very sure about their assessment dates.

"Oh, you mean the exam dates for Starshine, Ice Gleam, Golden Shine, and Purple Sky—the four strongest academies directly under their Administrative Districts. Their dates are different from the other districts’.... Sis, are you going to take the Ice Gleam exam?"