Chapter 49
Three hours later, the official personnel from the United Star System, who had been camping out in Xia Anran’s livestream channel, successfully snagged the link the moment it was posted.
This time, the items had been prepared in advance by the capital. And now, with the addition of the Portal, a truly game-changing long-distance transfer function, the prepared package arrived in the United Star System in a matter of moments.
The package was delivered to the consulate immediately.
Items mailed from Earth were always of the utmost concern to the entire United Star System. The high-level leaders and the professors from the Academy of Sciences had been waiting with eager anticipation for a long time.
“I wonder what they’ll send this time.”
“I hope there are some of the Hua nation’s characteristic cultural crafts. The silk and porcelain from last time were so beautiful!”
“Yes, I heard the Consul General is already preparing to hold a nationwide exhibition?”
“Of course. Such cultural treasures must be experienced by all our citizens.”
“Hey! It’s here, it’s here!”
Two staff members carried in the familiar black delivery box, and a crowd immediately gathered around it. However, since the Consul General hadn’t arrived yet, no one opened it.
Director Li was very anxious. After waiting impatiently for a minute, he couldn’t hold back any longer. “Where’s the Consul General? Wasn’t he notified?”
The consul of the Third Planet, who was also looking on, heard him and said, “Major General Qin Feng is about to lead a team to the Aler System. The Consul General is in a private meeting with him to discuss related matters.”
“I was just wondering why you were on the main planet today, Old Deng,” Director Li said. Hearing it was about the Aler System, his excitement cooled a little. “Good. Everything is developing as we expected. The energy on the Aler System is indeed very important to us.”
The consul of the Third Planet nodded. “Indeed. The Third Planet is the closest to the Beastman race, so I’m here to provide support for the exploration team.”
As the two were talking, the Consul General and Qin Feng entered the hall together.
The Consul General also smiled when he saw the delivery box in the middle of the room. “Oh, it’s already here. It seems I’m late.”
Director Li, being the most anxious, urged him to open the box. The Consul General also smiled and opened the first one. Inside were two types of fruit they had never seen before.
One was an oval-shaped red fruit, about the size of a peach. Some had faint white stripes, and they were firm and smooth to the touch. The other was an orange-yellow, round fruit with a small green nub on top. It felt much softer and had a rougher texture.
“This pinkish-red fruit is called an apple,” Director Li said, skillfully finding the instruction manual, which even had a thoughtful photo attached.
“Apples are rich in carotene, vitamin C, and minerals. They are very beneficial to human health, can protect eyesight, and prevent cardiovascular diseases.” The more he read, the more excited he became. This fruit called an apple seemed to be very powerful. Could it actually have medicinal properties?
They weren’t quite sure what the substances mentioned, like carotene, were, but they were already used to Earth having things they no longer knew about. The Earth side had also anticipated that the United Star System might mistake the apple for a medicine, so they had thoughtfully explained the concept of “food therapy,” which made everyone present nod in agreement. Look at their ancestors! They had so many tricks up their sleeves!
“So apples can’t cure diseases, but eating them is good for the body.” A leader picked up an apple and took a deep sniff, then looked a little blissful. “What a fragrant smell! It’s unlike any other fruit!”
Director Li pushed up the special glasses on his nose and said, “Strictly speaking, it’s the substances contained in the apple that are beneficial to the body.”
“That is to say, it’s possible that other fruits also contain these substances, or other substances exist…” After muttering to himself, he continued to read.
“It also mentions a proverb. On Earth, there is a saying: [An apple a day keeps the doctor away],” he said with a sigh. “It seems this apple is a very significant fruit indeed!”
The Consul General and the consul of the Third Planet were discussing the fact that since the interstellar era had no fruit, their bodies were likely deficient in the substances mentioned above. They wondered if these substances affected psychic power, causing the people of the United Star System to be unable to awaken it. The fact that fruit could promote psychic power might very well be because of this. However, so far, there had been no cases of anyone awakening their psychic power from eating fruit.
“Perhaps we should try letting some ordinary people eat the fruit,” the consul of the Third Planet said. “Before, we only provided the fruit to the awakened psychics of the 115th Squadron, so we lack information in this area.”
The Consul General also agreed. “But we can’t just hand it out randomly. We still need to study how to select the candidates.”
While everyone was engrossed in the apples, Qin Feng, standing on the side, was more interested in the yellow fruit. From the moment the box was opened, he had smelled a very fresh yet stimulating scent that filled his entire nasal cavity.
While everyone was discussing apples, he had moved closer to the other side and, unable to control himself, had picked up one of the yellow fruits. He swallowed physiologically. Its peel didn’t look edible. Based on his experience with lychees, he judged that this thing probably needed to be peeled.
At this moment, his entire being seemed to be drawn to the little yellow thing in front of him. He uncontrollably peeled off the outer skin.
“Hmm? What’s that smell?”
The moment the peel was removed, the fresh scent immediately filled the entire hall. Everyone turned to look and saw that Qin Feng had, at some point, taken a fruit and peeled it! Inside were segments of orange-yellow flesh. He had already put one into his mouth.
“Wait, Major General Qin Feng seems to be on the verge of a breakthrough!”
Seeing his skin rapidly turning red and his eyes clearly starting to glaze over, Director Li immediately realized this was a precursor to a psychic power breakthrough!
Without a moment to think, everyone quickly sent him to the 115th Squadron’s dedicated breakthrough room and notified the professional staff to come and watch over him.
“Qin Feng is already at S-class. If he succeeds this time, he’ll be 2S-class. He can be considered a top-tier expert in the entire interstellar era,” the Consul General said, standing guard outside the breakthrough room, his gaze fixed on the now-sleeping Qin Feng inside.
Director Li held the fruit that Qin Feng had peeled. He examined it for a while and, besides finding its scent particularly strong, didn’t see anything special about it.
The Consul General also looked over. “What is this fruit?”
The instruction manual was still with Director Li. The incident had happened so suddenly that he hadn’t had time to read it. Only when the Consul General asked did he remember to take it out and look.
“This fruit is called an orange. It’s rich in vitamin C and is a very popular fruit among the people of Earth. It also has some medicinal value, and its fresh scent often makes it a fruit that is displayed in the home.”
Director Li had a sudden realization. “So the color ‘orange’ comes from this fruit?”
“Then this color should be the most authentic orange!” He was overjoyed to have unknowingly filled in another piece of his knowledge panel. Heaven knew how torturous it was for researchers like them to have things with unknown origins.
Qin Feng’s breakthrough would take some time, and it wasn’t practical for a group of people to just stand guard outside. After confirming that his condition had stabilized, the group left the breakthrough room and returned to the hall to continue inventorying the items from Xia Anran. To be on the safe side, the Consul General personally ordered ten oranges to be sent over. If there was an emergency, they could very well help Qin Feng get through it.
For him to have a breakthrough just as he was about to head to the Aler System was undoubtedly an uplifting event.
As the oranges were being sent over, Director Li discovered another phenomenon. The other members of the 115th Squadron did not have as strong a reaction to the oranges as Qin Feng. For them, without eating it, the orange, like other fruits, only made their psychic power feel a little excited.
Different fruits had different effects on different people. Director Li jotted down another piece of fruit-related information in his notebook.
…
Returning to the hall, the group quickly recovered from the sudden incident and refocused their attention on the items from Earth.
“The contents of the first box already brought us such a big surprise. I can’t wait to see what’s in the second one now,” Director Li said, grinning from ear to ear.
Based on last time’s experience, the second box would contain some of the Hua nation’s characteristic gifts.
Sure enough, this time was no exception. The box was no longer filled with fruit, but with various bottles and jars, as well as the blessing bags that had been specially mentioned to Xia Anran.
Speaking of which, ever since the United Star System had told her that Ye Yuxing’s psychic awakening was very likely related to the blessing bags that had appeared in her stream, she had thought about it for a long time and had also informed Professor Gong and the others, trying to find the reason. They could barely understand that fruit could promote psychic power, since it was something you could eat. But blessing bags… just looking at them could trigger psychic power? It was a bit too absurd.
Not only were the interstellar folks who didn’t understand blessing bags confused, but even Professor Gong and the other professors at the Academy of Sciences had discussed it for a long time without coming up with a reasonable explanation.
In the end, it was a professor of folklore who proposed a theory. In ancient Hua nation, there was a saying that things like blessing bags, which were used for prayer, carried the wishes and beliefs of humans. The ancients believed that through these items, they could communicate with the heavens. So, in a certain idealistic interpretation, these things possessed power. To put it another way, it was possible that the spiritual power loaded onto these blessing bags had an effect on psychic power. Although it sounded even more ridiculous, when combined with something as mysterious as psychic power, it actually felt quite plausible.
After careful consideration, the Hua nation side had decided to replace the exquisitely crafted blessing bags that were originally prepared by master embroiderers with the ones hanging on the great willow tree in Yanshan Village. Although the ones made by master embroiderers were more delicate, the ones hanging on the willow tree were the ones that truly carried the beliefs of the people.
Taking down these blessing bags had actually caused Xia Anran quite a headache. They had been hung there by the villagers for many years, and it was a bit rude to just take them down. After thinking for a long time, she had finally gone to the village chief and, using the excuse that the film crew found these blessing bags to be very retro old objects and hoped to take some as props, had managed to get away with it. Recently, the fruit business in Yanshan Village had been booming. In the eyes of the villagers, Xia Anran was the number one contributor, and the film crew, who had been staying for a while, had also played a significant role. So, the village chief had immediately announced the situation over the loudspeaker. Xia Anran, standing on the side, had broken out in a cold sweat. The villagers had no objections and some had even specially climbed the tree to take them down and deliver them to her house.
These blessing bags, having been exposed to the wind and sun on the willow tree every day, had already faded a little. The ones the villagers used were not particularly exquisite; most were either sewn by themselves or were cheaper ones they had bought.
After arriving in the interstellar era, the group was also very excited to see these blessing bags, which clearly bore the marks of time. These were things that could potentially trigger psychic power!
Xia Anran had also truthfully written down the possible reasons the professors had discussed in the instruction manual. After Director Li read it, the people of the United Star System also expressed that it seemed to have some logic to it. It was just that these blessing bags didn’t seem to have any effect on the few of them present.
“It’s highly likely that, like the fruit, different people have different responses to the blessing bags,” Director Li said. “Perhaps we really should consider expanding our screening range.”
The Consul General nodded seriously. This matter seemed to need to be put on the agenda immediately and could not be delayed any longer. They had to take advantage of the temporary peace brought by Xia Anran’s livestream to quickly develop the United Star System’s own psychic power.
“What is this?”
An old professor took out a jar. After opening it, he found some dark green, dried leaf-like things inside, but the smell was very fragrant, almost refreshing.
“This is tea, a product made from the dried leaves of a plant. It’s used to brew in water to drink. It’s very beneficial to the body and has been a very popular beverage in the Hua nation from ancient times to the present.”
Next to the tea was a set of Zitan wood tea utensils. The exquisite craftsmanship instantly attracted everyone’s attention.
“Such a small cup!”
“What is this? For holding water? Why does it have a curved thing?”
“That’s called a teapot. It’s for brewing tea!”
Professor Gong studied the photo for a while before he could match all the cups and saucers. Their ancestors were really so particular.
“Host Anran said there’s also an explanatory video included. Let me find it…” Professor Gong looked into the box and, sure enough, there was a silver-white tablet inside. After following the instructions to turn it on, a video began to play.
In the video was a middle-aged woman in a qipao, her posture elegant. She patiently introduced all the tea utensils and then demonstrated the etiquette of how to brew and drink tea.
Everyone watched, captivated. When the video ended, they couldn’t help but applaud.
“So beautiful,” the Consul General sighed. “Whether it’s the person or the tea culture, it’s all extremely elegant. This is the cultural heritage of the Hua nation, and it’s what we have lost.”
“But it doesn’t matter. From today on, we will slowly find our culture again!”