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Published at 17th of January 2022 07:26:59 AM


Chapter 73

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After a simple dinner, everyone had freshened up and then went back to their rooms.

Mother Gu lay in the bed and sighed, regretting that she should have at least given them something to eat.

Gu Ning rolled over and pretended not to hear, while Father Gu was patiently comforting Mother Gu.

Gu Ning thought about her proficiency in manipulating her powers during the day, and the amount of psychic energy she had, she felt that she didn’t need to fight in any close-quarters combat anymore. Thus, did she really need to spend so much effort to enter the Five Stars Brigade to learn close combat skills? This side of the world was exhausting enough, maybe one could take it easy in the other world……

A little while later, Gu Ning sneaked out of the room and went straight into the space after entering the storage room in the backyard.

The first thing Gu Ning did after returning the space was to go and check the ocean of psychic energy. She had only just reached the shore and immediately felt that something was wrong. She was surprised to find that the level of the green ocean had lowered, the grass on the beach had previously grown close to the sea but now the sea level had shrunk so much to a distance of five metres and away.

This ocean was Gu Ning’s source of psychic energy, and of Gu Ning’s two types of powers, the plant ability consumption was lesser but the consumption of the healing ability was very frightening. If it were for any other special abilities users, such a huge consumption of psychic energy might have drained away all their reserve. However, Gu Ning, because of having such a huge amount of psychic energy reserve, didn’t control it at all when she manipulated it……

On the contrary, as far as the feedback from Xiang Xu and the others was concerned, the speed of recovery for the psychic energy was very fast as long as they were not depleted. Yet for some reason, Gu Ning wasn’t sure about her psychic energy whether it was recovering abnormally slow or simply not regenerating itself after consumption….. If it was the former reason, it would be fine, but what if it was the latter? Thinking of this, Gu Ning couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat.

Even if she had that much psychic energy in front of her, eventually it would run out sooner or later if she wasn’t able to absorb replenishment for it. Not to mention the healing ability consumption of psychic energy was huge.

Gu Ning sat on the beach for a while, after having a taste of being powerful, Gu Ning could hardly imagine losing her powers again. Just thinking about that situation made her feel drenched in a cold sweat.

She instantly dismissed the idea of giving up on entering the Five Stars Brigade. If she had become too dependent on her powers and once they could no longer be used, wouldn’t she be a failure or useless?

She stared carefully at the waterline again and then drew a line at the junction where the water joined the ground.

Only then did she emerge from the space with uneasiness.

Looking at the clock, the time was 6:30 am.

She changed out of her dirty clothes and wore the military uniform before going to the bathroom for a wash-up. Then she strolled out clean and fresh.

Although Gu Ning had maintained her posture throughout the day’s training, her mind had been preoccupied with the psychic energy in the space and was slightly distracted. However, as Gu Ning had always been a man of few words, Zhang XiaoBai and the others did not notice any difference.

As soon as she returned to her room at night, Gu Ning couldn’t wait to return to the space to check the waterline. However, she saw that the water still remained at the line she had drawn and it didn’t rise at all. The day went by without any of her psychic energy being replenished, and her hopeful mood was immediately washed down by a pot of cold water.

Even though she had been mentally prepared for it, Gu Ning was still a little depressed when it really was the worst possible outcome.

She sat on the beach all night and studied it but she didn’t come up with any solution.

The next day even Zhang XiaoBai noticed that she was depressed and thought that she was being nervous about the Five Stars Brigade selection tomorrow, so Zhong Xu and Zhang XiaoBai took turns comforting her for a while.

Gu Ning had finally come to her senses. After all, if she couldn’t rely solely on her psychic powers, close combat would be a life-saving skill for her. After going around in circles, Gu Ning felt like she was back to square one.  Although the psychic energy couldn’t be regenerated, then Gu Ning decided to use lesser in the future, not to waste her power until critical time. She instantly have a kind of feeling like she was back to the night of liberation, where her pockets were filled with silver but she didn’t dare to use it and the feeling was really very suffocating.

Today training only lasted half a day.

Brother San had decided to give them half a day off to get in shape for tomorrow’s selection.

The three were quite happy but there was a sense of tension and anxiousness in that happiness. Gu Ning was the most relaxed of the three, although she now had a sense of urgency to enter the Five Stars Brigade, she had the secret card of her psychic ability in her hands, and so she could try and use her powers to cheat when it was crucial. As compared to Zhang XiaoBai and Zhong Xu, she felt a little better.

In the past two days, Chen Gen of the first company also trained with them. Chen Gen looked like just twenty-three or twenty-four years old, with a common look and a very calm personality, and was able to keep quiet for half a day. It was said that their company had nicknamed him Muffled Gourd. The past two days, Zhang XiaoBai had been making jokes about him and he was not annoyed or angry, but he also ignore him which in turn bored Zhang XiaoBai.

Gu Ning admired him but just didn’t know if he managed to escape during the apocalypse.

After half a day’s vacation, Zhang XiaoBai was there chattering for half a day and finally decided to go to an internet café to play games. He invited Gu Ning along, saying he could take her to practice for leveling. Gu Ning expressed no interest and wanted to take a trip back home instead.

Zhang XiaoBai immediately made a strong request to visit Gu Ning’s house: “Gu Ning! Take us with you! How about taking our parents out for a big dinner? It’s on me!”

Zhang XiaoBai and the others used to call Father Gu and Mother Gu the same way during the post-apocalyptic times. Gu Ning didn’t feel anything wrong for a while and just told him about the inconvenience of hiding her situation from her parents. Zhang XiaoBai immediately replied: “Just say that we are your college classmates, won’t you? I still look so young like a recent graduate, and for Zhong Xu who was slightly older, just say that he’s a classmate who looks old. As for Chen Gen, you can say that he is the college military training instructor.”

Zhong Xu laughed out loud and Gu Ning was also amused by Zhang XiaoBai, but Chen Gen replied seriously: “I have something to do this afternoon.”

Gu Ning continued: “You two should go and play the game as planned. I’ll go back and return in the evening.” On one hand, she wanted to bring back the money, and on the other hand, there was that little vault in her space. She was going to sell it away and it was not really a good idea to bring anyone with her.

Zhong Xu arranged: “Then let’s take the bus together and head over to the Golden Gate Street, we’ll go there for a stroll too.”

It just so happened that Chen Gen’s errand was also heading to the city centre, so it was happily decided.

Since there were four of them, Zhang XiaoBai was so cheeky that he persuaded Brother San to especially approve an off-road vehicle for them to drive there.

They chatted and laughed along the way, discussing the tactics to be used when they faced the Five Stars Brigades tomorrow. Time flew by and they soon arrived at their destination.

After parking the car in the car park, the four exchanged their mobile numbers, when they saw the bulging Nokia in Gu Ning’s hand, Zhang XiaoBai exaggeratedly marveled for a while. Even Chen Gen was a little surprised and then they made an appointment to meet here at seven o’clock at the latest.

As soon as Gu Ning left, Zhang XiaoBai couldn’t help but ask: “Is Gu Ning’s family having some financial difficulty? I see that she usually wears sports clothes or something, and she doesn’t have any feminine clothes. The mobile phone she is using has long been discontinued, right?”

Zhong Xu also answered with a deep thought on his face: “Don’t mention going to her house in the future. To prevent her from being embarrassed.”

Zhang XiaoBai nodded his head repeatedly.

Chen Gen, however, went off in another direction after a simple greeting.

Gu Ning casually waved for a taxi, now she only wanted to be convenient, previously, she would never take a taxi if she could have taken a bus. When she got into the car, she wanted to call Fang Fa but she thought better not to do so and asked the taxi driver next to her: “Sir, do you know where there will be a pawnshop?”

It took half an hour for the taxi to stop and the driver pointed to the shop across the road and said: “See? It’s the one across the road with the red sign.”

Gu Ning thanked the driver and got out of the taxi. After getting out of the car, she didn’t immediately enter the pawnshop but found a public toilet and took out dozens of gold necklaces from the space, packed them into a black plastic bag before crossing the road, and walked into the pawnshop.

Half an hour later Gu Ning came out of the pawnshop with several stacks of red bricks in her backpack.  When the pawnbroker quoted a figure, Gu Ning signed the pawn note without any objection which went smoothly than she had expected. The final payment from Fang Fa’s side was also credited to her card, so Gu Ning now had nearly 100,000 yuan. Gu Ning carried her backpack and it swept away any depression she had from her psychic energy and her face finally revealed a few smiles.

When she returned home, only Mother Gu was there. Gu Ning suddenly returned without greeting made Mother Gu so surprised and delighted.

“Why are you back at this time?” Mother Gu asked nervously: “It’s something wrong with your work?”

Gu Ning smiled and replied: “Nope. The kid’s grandparents came today and took him out to play, so they gave me half a day off. Thus, I came back. They were especially pleased with me.”

Mother Gu then breathed a sigh of relief before asking: “Have you eaten?”

“I’ve eaten.” After Gu Ning had pawned the gold necklace, she went to a small restaurant, ordered several meat dishes, and cleared all of them which even stunned the owner.

Gu Ning sat down on the sofa, then took out the money from her backpack.

Three neat stacks of large red banknotes were laid out on the table, startling Mother Gu: “What… where did you get so much money?!”

Gu Ning answered: “Isn’t there some family debt we owe? I’ve talked to the parents of that family to see if I could get a three-month advance for my salary, and since they were particularly happy with me while Fang Fa helped in guarantee it, they agreed. Take this money to pay off the urgent ones first, and wait a while for the others that are less urgent.”

Mother Gu was surprised and delighted but was still slightly unconvinced: “This… How can that parents be so nice?” There had been several calls recently urging for the payment. She and Father Gu were lying in bed last night, worrying about where they would get the money to pay it back, and these tens of thousands of dollars were a real relief.

“This 30, 000 yuan, I’ll pay back the 10, 000 to your uncle’s family first. Your aunt had called several times to urge, saying that your cousin had a job which need to send some gifts. Previously when I loaned her eighty thousand, I didn’t even rush her so frequently. By the way, your uncle has heard that you’re back and asked you to come over for dinner. Let’s go over on one of the Sundays and return them the money too.”

The smile on Gu Ning’s face disappeared without a trace as soon as she heard Mother Gu mention her uncle’s family, and she simply replied perfunctorily: “Let’s talk about that later. Go and keep that money first.”

Mother Gu hurriedly picked up the money and chimed while walking back into the room: “NingNing, you should really thank Fang Fa! He introduced you to such a good job!”

Gu Ning suddenly cut her off and asked: “Mom, aren’t you going to take a nap?”

Mother Gu replied: “I was just about to take a nap, but I didn’t know you were coming back. Now how could I fall asleep?”

Gu Ning said: “I want to catch some winks too, so let’s sleep together.”

The two of them lay on the bed and chatted for a long time. Mother Gu also told Gu Ning about the cactus that had come back from the dead on the balcony, and Gu Ning had linked it back to her psychic powers that had leaked out that night.

Half an hour later, Mother Gu had fallen asleep soundly.

Only then was Gu Ning be able to do her own thing.

She held onto Mother Gu’s wrist, then manipulated her healing powers and kept pouring into Mother Gu’s body through her palm while Mother Gu was oblivious about it.

Although Gu Ning knew that her psychic energy could not be replenished, she still had no intention of saving it up when treating Mother Gu and the psychic energy gushed out wildly.

It took around half an hour before Gu Ning let go of Mother Gu’s hand and Mother Gu’s originally heavy breathing became lighter.

Gu Ning carefully got up and walked to the balcony. Looking at the very verdant cactus that Mother Gu said to have come back from the dead, and sighed at the wonders of psychic powers.

Mother Gu got up after a good sleep, not only was she relaxed, she didn’t feel any uncomfortable at all. She even smiled at Gu Ning and told her that she felt much better after sleeping with her.

Without waiting for Father Gu to return, Gu Ning had left.

It was already dark at six o’clock.

Gu Ning stepped out into the light of the street lamps, there was still plenty of time so Gu Ning decided to stroll there, stopping by to admire the streets which were very different from the post-apocalyptic world.

Gu Ning lives in a relatively isolated area, and to get to the main road, she had to go through a lot of those confusing streets and alleys that were dimly lit. In the past, Gu Ning was afraid of the dark and rarely crossed through these alleys at night, but now she was not afraid at all and went straight across those streets and alleys.

When walking out an alleyway, crossing a street to enter another alley, a hand reached out violently from a dark corner. Before Gu Ning could react, she was dragged in and pinned against the wall, and a coarse palm covered her mouth with unerring accuracy in the darkness. A cold aura flashed in Gu Ning’s eyes and when she was about to move, yet as if that person could foresee Gu Ning’s movement, the man lifted his leg and pushed down the leg that Gu Ning was about to lift. A low voice rang out in her ear: “Shhh.”

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