Footsteps sounded hurriedly. A girl with a ponytail and in a tailored white training suit quickly entered the ward with a basket of fruits in her hand.
"Oh, it's you, Shuyi. I'm here to visit Bai Xiaowen." Zhou Yi's originally arrogant face was already filled with smiles. He said eagerly, "Although I didn't injure him on purpose, I'm still at fault. I didn't expect you to come too. If I had known, we could have come together."
The ponytailed beauty in the white training suit was the school belle and straight-A student of Crimson Fire No.1 Middle School, Li Shuyi.
Li Shuyi swept a glance at Zhou Yi and a faint look of disgust flashed across her face. "Zhou Yi, your Basic Combat has already reached Level 4, am I right?"
Zhou Yi smiled obsequiously and said, "I'm merely so-so. I can't compare to you."
"Bai Xiaowen's basic combat skills are only at Level 1, how could you have miscalculated and inadvertently hurt him when one of you is Level 4 and the other one is Level 1?" Li Shuyi questioned.
Zhou Yi felt a little awkward to hear that. "Shuyi, you also understand that although the probability of such a thing is low, it's not impossible… I can only say that Bai Xiaowen and I were a little unlucky."
"If your father wasn't the CEO of Allomancy Pharmaceuticals and donated 10 million yuan to the school, do you think you could still stay in school?" Li Shuyi frowned. "I'll say this one more time. Bai Xiaowen and I are just friends. Since we were going the same way, we left together after school. That's all there is."
Although Li Shuyi was trying to emphasize that they were just friends, anyone could hear the protectiveness in her tone toward Bai Xiaowen. Zhou Yi was a little angry and glanced at Bai Xiaowen.
Although he was wearing a hospital gown, Bai Xiaowen still had an impeccable appearance. He still looked incredibly handsome. In contrast, Zhou Yi—who was dressed in branded clothes—looked like a crab in its bright shells of armor.
If it was someone else who was close to Li Shuyi, Zhou Yi might not have killed them. However, he had a natural jealousy toward Bai Xiaowen. Furthermore, he knew very well that Li Shuyi and Bai Xiaowen were not just friends. They were definitely more than that.
"Is there anything else?" Li Shuyi looked at Zhou Yi and frowned. "Bai Xiaowen is a patient. If you want to be considerate of him, don't agitate him. You should head back to class early."
Zhou Yi's expression changed drastically. In the end, he forced a smile. "Shuyi, don't be angry… All right, I'll leave now." After Li Shuyi looked away, he glowered at Bai Xiaowen warningly.
Wu Xiaoyan glanced at Bai Xiaowen and hesitated for a second. Then, she left the hospital with Zhou Yi. Throughout it all, she did not say a word to Bai Xiaowen.
Only Li Shuyi and the Bai siblings were left in the ward.
"Shuyi, please take a seat!" Xiaojun sensibly pulled up the high stool and informed Bai Xiaowen, "Shuyi visited you every day while you were unconscious, Elder Brother."
Xiaojun gestured for Li Shuyi to sit down, then sensibly walked out of the ward and closed the door.
"Thank you." Bai Xiaowen heaved a sigh of relief.
"Don't… Don't mention it. Actually, this is all my fault," Li Shuyi said softly.
When Li Shuyi was alone with Bai Xiaowen, she felt a little uneasy. There was a light tinge of crimson in her cheeks.
Memories surfaced in Bai Xiaowen's mind.
To the original host, Li Shuyi was not shy about her feelings, showing him how much she cared about him. He thought, "Having a good outer appearance is all that matters."
However, in the past, Bai Xiaowen was introverted and sensitive. Bai Xiaowen did not take the initiative to pursue Li Shuyi to avoid others saying that he lived off a woman. Despite that, he had a good impression of Li Shuyi. Due to the fusion of his soul and memories, he had inherited this feeling from his predecessor.
The relationship between the two of them was definitely not just ordinary friends like what Li Shuyi had just said. To use a fashionable saying, they were more than friends but not yet lovers.
Bai Xiaowen had already used Insight to observe Zhou Yi's personal attributes. Now, he activated Insight on Li Shuyi again.
A message entered Bai Xiaowen's mind.
[Li Shuyi]
[Race: Humanoid/Human]
[Talent: Battle Enthusiast (Unactivated)]
[Attributes: Strength 4.9, Agility 7.7, Physique 4.1, Spirit 3.5]
[Specialty: Basic Combat Level 5, Basic Machinery (Single-handed Sword) Level 5, Basic Meditation Level 3]
"Li Shuyi's total attribute is 20.2. She has already reached the Awakened threshold!" Bai Xiaowen was shocked inwardly.
Under the influence of the spiritual particles, an ordinary person's body's "preliminary digitization" was equivalent to opening the path of evolution. Humans could strengthen their attribute abilities in various ways. Once the sum of the four attributes reached 20 points, they would have to enter the Spiritual Realm to undergo a test.
After passing the test, one could "profession change" and their body would "completely digitize", becoming a powerful Awakened! Therefore, 20 points in total attributes was a critical value. Humans on Earth who had reached the critical value were called quasi-Awakened!
Bai Xiaowen looked at his attributes again. He was far inferior to Li Shuyi, and he only had a slight advantage in terms of his Spirit. He was far inferior with regard to the first three attributes of his physical fitness (Strength, Agility, and Physique), let alone the difference in his basic specialties.
Even Zhou Yi's attributes were no match for Li Shuyi's. If the two of them fought, it would be very difficult for Zhou Yi to last for a minute. Moreover, Li Shuyi's innate skill "Battle Enthusiast" had yet to be activated, so her potential was far greater than Zhou Yi's.
Bai Xiaowen had a better understanding of his talent, Insight.
Insight was overly powerful!
Before one's talent awakened, even that person himself would not know if he had talent! However, Bai Xiaowen, who had the Insight talent, could see it directly!
Just based on his Insight talent, Bai Xiaowen was destined to be the most discerning person. He could discover talents with potential and invest a large amount of resources in mass-producing Awakened with talent!
There was a huge difference in whether an Awakened had innate abilities or not. In a "guild" formed by Awakened, Awakened with talent were the pillars of the guild. Awakened without talent would find it difficult to achieve as much as the former even if they worked twice as hard.
If any of the major factions were to find out that Bai Xiaowen had such talent, they would definitely offer him the most generous terms and invite him to join them.
Unfortunately, Bai Xiaowen did not have the qualifications to convince others. An ordinary third-year student rarely even had the chance to see an Awakened, let alone recommend himself in front of the leaders of the large guilds.
Moreover, even if there was a chance to recommend himself, Bai Xiaowen did not have the guts to do so. Every large guild had allies and enemies. If the enemy faction found out, would they attack him? The answer was yes. With how weak Bai Xiaowen currently was, he would be killed easily if he got involved in the conflict between the Awakened factions.
Bai Xiaowen made up his mind to disguise his Insight talent as an ordinary scouting talent. He could not let anyone know that he could spy on others' talents.
Li Shuyi had always kept a low profile, so she did not know that her quasi-Awakened abilities had been discovered by Bai Xiaowen. She said, "I'll be leaving school for some time."
"But it's almost time for the college entrance exams. Are you leaving school now?" Bai Xiaowen asked.
Li Shuyi shook her head and said, "I might not take the college entrance examination."
"You're exempted from exams?" Bai Xiaowen reacted quickly. "Congratulations! Which university are you going to?"
"Jinghai University, which is in this city," Li Shuyi replied.
Bai Xiaowen gave her a thumbs up. "Impressive! As expected of the top student in Class 17."
Jinghai University was one of the top five focal universities in
Bai Xiaowen deduced that Li Shuyi was probably leaving Crimson Fire No.1 Middle School to enter the Spiritual Realm and undergo an Awakened test. Perhaps the next time he saw Li Shuyi, she would already be a true Awakened.
Bai Xiaowen could clearly feel the difference between the two of them.
Li Shuyi glanced at Bai Xiaowen and hesitated before saying, "Bai Xiaowen, I have a favor to ask of you."
"What is it? Tell me," Bai Xiaowen said.
"You have to agree first," Li Shuyi said with a mysterious smile. "Otherwise, I won't say anything."
"Okay." Bai Xiaowen agreed immediately. He had nothing worthy for Li Shuyi to scheme against. Moreover, Li Shuyi had a good relationship with him.
Li Shuyi said, "In the past, I would go to my family's pharmaceutical shop to help out after school. After I leave, the shop will be short of people, so I hope that you can replace me and work part-time for a few months there."
"A part-time job in a pharmacy? That's a job in high demand, how can it be that you'll fail to find people for it?" Bai Xiaowen asked subconsciously. Seeing Li Shuyi's unnatural expression, he quickly understood that Li Shuyi was helping him on purpose.
In the Spiritual Energy Era, people who were good at making enhancement potions were called pharmacists. Items that contained a large number of spiritual particles could not be processed through machines. They could only be fused by hand with pharmacists, so the production output was low but the price was high. Pharmaceutics became a popular subject because of this, and pharmacists were also highly respected.
The pharmacist profession had always been passed down from master to disciple, so many people racked their brains to enter the pharmaceutics shop in order to become an apprentice. So long as the Li family's pharmaceutics shop posted a notice to recruit part-timers, even university students would fight to do it. How could Bai Xiaowen, a third-year student, have a chance?
"We're short of people… Are you willing to go?" Li Shuyi's fingers curled around the hem of her white training suit nervously.
"Yes, I'm willing to go." Bai Xiaowen smiled and said solemnly, "Thank you."
Li Shuyi broke into a smile. "You're doing me a favor… There's nothing to thank me for. Rest well and recuperate for the next few days. You can report to the shop at any time. I still have something on, so I'll take my leave first."
Li Shuyi walked to the door and suddenly turned around with a smile. "Bai Xiaowen, I realized that you've changed a lot. This is really good. Goodbye!"
"I think Shuyi is right. You have indeed changed a lot, Elder Brother." Xiaojun, who entered the ward again, said softly, "In the past, whenever Shuyi wanted to help you, you kept rejecting her. In the end, both of you were unhappy. Also, when I faced that b*stard Zhou Yi just now, I felt that you were very dependable."
Bai Xiaowen was a little dumbfounded. He recalled his past self from another time and space, and he could clearly sense the changes in himself.
Bai Xiaowen did not know if it was because the two lives had coincided or because he had the Mysterious Eye and the Super Brain, but he noticed that his personality had changed a lot. He had become more confident and calm. In Xiaojun's words, he had become more reliable.
"This change… doesn't seem to be a bad thing. I'm still me, but I'm more outstanding!" Bai Xiaowen stopped thinking about this problem and changed his mind. "The pharmacy job that Li Shuyi recommended might be a good opportunity for me."