Chapter 28: Nutritional Supplements Even Dogs Won't Touch
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She took the book and left the room.
When the man saw her, a trace of embarrassment crossed his eyes. “Oh, I’m sorry, little girl. Did I wake you?”
Lu Li hurriedly shook her head, indicating that she was simply too excited to sleep. Seeing the sparkle in the girl’s eyes, Uncle Liu found himself in a better mood as well.
“It’s still early. The people preparing to sell their goods are only just beginning to arrive. Go wash up and have a pouch of nutrient solution. You should be able to catch the earliest crowd and take a look around inside.”
She nodded and helped Uncle Liu move the goods.
“By the way, the Guilin Base has suffered a disaster recently, hasn’t it? There are lots of goods that were meant for export being cleared out at rock-bottom prices. They’re in the second alley inside. There’s no stall fee these days, so you can claim a spot and sell things too. As long as you don’t mark off too large an area, nobody will bother you.
“As for the antique shop, that depends on the owner’s mood. He usually doesn’t open too early.”
Uncle Liu waved Lu Li away. “You don’t need to help. I’m only moving today’s goods outside so I can carry them out quickly when customers arrive. That way, nobody’s time is wasted.”
Lu Li smiled and nodded before returning to the room.
The puppies had been startled awake. Their bellies were flat, and with their eyes still closed, they blindly wriggled around, yelping weakly. They clearly had little strength left.
She had neither points nor goat’s milk, so she rummaged through her backpack and took out the nutrient solution she had just acquired. She squeezed a little into the cap. The three puppies caught the scent, their soft little noses trembling as their pink mouths puckered and began to suck.
As she brought the cap closer, the fat gray puppy shoved the other two beneath his paws and got the first taste. But after one lick, he did not stick out his tongue again. Instead, he leaned straight backward.
Lu Li reached out and grabbed him. She held the puppy in place and prepared to feed him the nutrient solution, but before she could even lift the cap, he had already turned his head away and covered his mouth with his spotted paws.
Was the nutrient solution really that filling? One lick and he was full?
She placed him beside his siblings. The entire puppy immediately quieted down, curling into a ball and allowing the other two to climb over his head as they reached upward.
Lu Li grabbed another puppy. Sure enough, one lick was enough to fill him up too, making him easy to handle.
She lifted the little black puppy and raised the remaining nutrient solution to his mouth. He had not even tasted it before he turned his head away.
“You’re obviously the youngest. If you don’t eat, how are you supposed to survive?”
The black puppy’s muzzle was already damp with saliva, but he still refused to stick out his tongue and lick the nutrient solution. Lu Li placed him between her legs, pinched his cheeks to force his mouth open, and quickly scraped up the pale-green jelly-like paste before stuffing it inside.
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The puppy’s soft tongue suddenly erupted with astonishing force, pushing the scraps right back out without swallowing a single bit.
“Ha!”
Lu Li laughed in exasperation. No wonder he was so small. With such a picky appetite, how could he possibly grow?
The little creature clawed at the ground and began to wail. Its cries were extraordinarily pitiful, and amid the prolonged howling came aggrieved little “awoo, awoo” sounds, as though it were cursing her or lodging a complaint.
The howling woke the other puppies. All three, still with their eyes closed, began whining one after another. The child woke with a start and covered their mouths to keep them quiet. The puppies, apparently unwilling to lose face, stopped howling and instead crowded together, climbing onto his small hand.
At last, the world fell silent.
Lu Li rubbed her throbbing temples and squeezed the rest of the nutrient solution directly into her mouth.
It did not taste the way she had expected. She had squeezed in too much and could not swallow it at all!
The flavor was far inferior to those made by Jiang Linyi.
Looking at the child, whose cheeks were sunken from hunger, obediently cradling the puppy and accepting the nutrient solution, Lu Li decided to set a good example by not wasting food.
She forced herself to swallow despite the nausea, but her body rebelled and made her retch it back up.
She swallowed and gagged at the same time. Her face turned from white to purple with the effort, but at last she managed to get it all down and forced out a strange smile.
Dogs wouldn’t even eat this nutrient solution, but she had!
Even after finishing it, she felt no fullness at all. It was like drinking a stomachful of water—she had eaten it, yet felt as though she had eaten nothing.
Her stomach had gone nearly a whole day without proper food and seemed to be protesting incessantly. Rubbing her little belly, Lu Li decided to find somewhere to spend the money she had gotten from Jiang Linyi.
She had once been a prospective landlady who had been beautiful and ugly, but never poor, and she had certainly never mistreated her stomach. As for recent times… best not to mention them. Even so, she still wanted to improve her living conditions.
Watching the child greedily suck down the sticky nutrient solution, Lu Li found him unbearably pitiful. He had probably never eaten real human food in his entire life. She became even more determined to have a good meal in the safe zone before leaving.
After barely managing to eat breakfast, she packed away everything she had taken out, hiding what needed to be hidden and arranging what needed to be arranged.
Lu Li had originally intended to throw the sleeping puppies into her backpack and keep them concealed, but seeing how nervous the child looked, she found a piece of torn cloth, covered the puppies with it, and placed them in the boy’s arms.
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“Keep an eye on them. When they wake up, put something in their mouths right away. Try not to let them make any noise.”
The child nodded, happily hugged the puppies tighter, and rubbed against Lu Li.
Once they had finished tidying up, noisy sounds drifted in from outside. The married couple had also received their first customer of the day.
Lu Li wrapped and disguised their belongings, then led the child out with the backpack on her back.
“Uncle, Auntie, thank you! We’ll be going now.”
The woman hurried after them to see them off. “Go take a look around. Try to find something good. If anything happens, come to Uncle Liu and me anytime. We may not have many skills, but we know plenty of people around the market entrance. Perhaps we can still offer some advice.”
Lu Li hurriedly nodded in thanks. The moment her back disappeared around the alley, a voice rang out.
“Uncle Liu, Auntie Liu, we’ve known each other for so many years. How come you never treat us with such courtesy?”
The man who had arrived earliest to haul goods joked around noisily, making light of their hardships.
“You earn a thousand contribution points in a single trip, enough to live for a month after one job. What do you need us for? We’d be the ones at fault if we didn’t ask you to take pity on us.”
“That little girl is pitiful too. She used to be a pampered young lady from a wealthy family, but after one accident, she fell from heaven straight into hell. Her parents died, and her vicious aunt even brought along a clueless idiot of a younger brother…”
Having witnessed the birth of the embellished rumor, Lu Li’s mouth twitched.
When had she become a wealthy heiress? And was the child in her hands an idiot? When had he become her foolish younger brother?
She shook her head, casting aside the jumble of thoughts, and continued forward.
Yu Bai carefully held the bag containing the puppies. With his other hand, he tightly gripped Lu Li’s hand through the ugly, twisted seam resembling a centipede. It was made from Jiang Linyi’s latest protective suit, whose surface had once been smooth, delicate, and skin-tight. After Lu Li tore it apart, Jiang Linyi no longer wanted it, so she had picked it up, patched it together, and altered it into clothing for herself.
Yu Bai was small, and the garment did not fit him well. The only thing he could manage to hold was that centipede-like seam. It neither hindered Lu Li’s movements nor prevented him from looking around.
As far back as he could remember, he had lived in a shabby, dilapidated room. The women had never allowed him to leave. Whenever they caught even the slightest sign that he had gone outside, they beat him viciously. He had never been to the Ninth Trading Market before.
The two of them looked around with the curiosity of country bumpkins visiting the city for the first time.
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