8 That’s Ingenious!

[Congratulations, you received - all-natural uncontaminated apple X10]

Zhou Wen uttered, "What the f*ck*ng h*ll is the point of giving me apples?"

He had thought about not being able to afford fruits just before, but it did not mean that he really wanted to eat apples! 

In fact, he had thought about wanting money too. Why was he not given 100000 or at least 80000?

He discovered that the system was agitating him on purpose. However, he could not return it even if he wanted to since he had already opened the loot box. 

He had already tried returning the masks yesterday evening but to no avail. The system obviously did not come with a customer-care option. 

So, he returned to the individual property panel and looked up the inventory list to see his all-natural uncontaminated apples lying quietly in the second box on the first row. 

His gaze swept past the apple. [Apple X10. Consume it within 24 hours upon retrieval.]

Zhou Wen remembered yesterday's mask's unique effect, so he immediately felt a wisp of anticipation in his heart. Perhaps, the extraterrestrial apple would produce some unique effect, such as making its consumer light as a sparrow, swift on foot, or extend his or her age or something.

At the thought of this, he immediately went to wash his hands and then removed an apple from the inventory. 

The all-natural apple was tiny. It was only one-third of the size of a normal-sized red Fuji apple. A person with a huge mouth could swallow it in one gulp! 

Zhou Wen picked it up and put it closer to his nose for a sniff. It emitted a refreshing scent. 

He took a bite then sucked on it for two seconds silently with a smile on his face, expecting the rich fragrance and sweetness of this extraterrestrial apple to explode in his mouth. 

"Hiss hiss… Huh…"

Three seconds later, the expression on Zhou Wen's face became twisted. All the veins on his neck bulged up as if he had just swallowed half a huge lemon. It felt as if one had just experienced the ultimate sourness that even seeped into one's teeth and caused profuse salivation. 

"F*ck…" Zhou Wen cursed in annoyance. Then, he lowered his head and began spitting everything out. 

The apple was so sour to the point that it could basically kill a man. He had never eaten an apple so sour in his entire life! 

"It's one thing to receive this apple from the loot box, but it's a completely different thing to have it sour beyond imagination! Is this a joke?"

Zhou Wen was about to toss away the apple in rage. However, he sensed something peculiar at this very moment. 

He had been bustling about the entire afternoon until now. In addition, he had yet to have dinner. He was truly fatigued and hungry, yet it felt as if these negative emotions reduced significantly after he consumed the acidic extraterrestrial apple. 

It felt just like he had half a bowl of a scrumptious meal and soaked in a rose-petaled warm spring bath. Those negative symptoms were suppressed such that he felt like he could continue to perform a few more hours of experiments now. 

Zhou Wen looked toward the apple in his hand and uttered in disbelief, "Could it be that… everything was due to this apple?"

He felt the remnant acidic sourness in his mouth to the point where a drop of saliva flowed down the corner of Zhou Wen's lips without his noticing. 

He struggled emotionally for a moment before he raised his right hand to get the apple closer to his lips. 

"Crack…" Zhou Wen took a bite of the apple. Then, before the acidic sourness could explode in his mouth, he swallowed the entire mouthful without even trying to chew it. 

Despite his attempt, the juice that flowed into his mouth still left him with a twisted expression on his face. "Hiss... Hiss… Yikes…"

Zhou Wen covered his face with his left hand while the veins on his temples were pulsating. 

About 15 seconds later, the acidic sourness finally passed. 

Zhou Wen rubbed his cheeks and tried to understand the feeling in detail. He soon discovered, to his surprise, that both his mental as well as physical strength had been elevated within a short period of time. He was energized and perked up. 

Zhou Wen lowered his head to look at the half-eaten apple left in his hand. He felt mixed feelings of love and hate. 

He sized up the apple properly. 'Why is the apple so sour?' He wanted to have more, but he dared not have too much either. 

In the end, he kept the apple into the inventory list for the time being. He would take it out and eat it later when he felt hungry again.

Meanwhile, he packed up the things in the laboratory and headed out. 

Zhou Wen did not have dinner that day because he did not feel hungry anymore after having the apple. 

He wanted to test if the sour apple could really replenish his physical strength. 

…

Zhou Wen returned to the hostel room. Other than Wifey, Deer Maiden Lu Ruiqing, IT nerd Zhang Wei and Declarant Liu Yukun were there. Three of them were playing a game of poker. 

"Boy… Would you like to join us? Let's play a game of Dou Dizhu, three plus one."

Then, Zhang Wei, who had a blue sweater wrapped around his chubby figure, tossed away the cards in his hand and waved his hand to call out, "Come come come! Pay up! Pay up…"

Deer Maiden complained, "Yikes yikes, Little Kun. Why would you take my card, huh?"

"F*ck you. I told you to stop calling me Little Kun and you're still f*ck*ng doing it."

The gentle-mannered and refined Liu Yukun, who had golden-rimmed glasses on his nose bridge, scolded ferociously. 

Then, he seized the opportunity to stand up and continued, "I'm not playing anymore. It's not fun!"

Zhang Wei replied, "F*ck you. You still have to pay up even if you stop playing."

Liu Yukun giggled and said, "I don't have any small change with me. I'll pay you later." Upon saying that, he picked up the washbasin on the bed and headed out. 

Upon seeing that, Deer Maiden got up from the bed hastily as well, leaving only Zhang Wei behind. Zhang Wei said in dejection, "These two shameless fellows are always cheating."

To which Zhou Wen replied smilingly, "They're always cheating, yet you're still playing with them, so the issue doesn't lie with them but with you."

Zhang Wei was speechless. 

Deer Maiden, who had just picked up his phone, could not help but burst out laughing while slapping the headboard. "That's ingenious!"

Later, Chen Ziyuan came back at 9:30 in the evening. He brought along a few kilograms of spicy crayfish with him too. 

With a whiff of the smell of the food, the few people who were lying on their beds chatting aimlessly got up swiftly. 

"Mmm…delicious."

"The crayfish looks huge, but it's actually not that fleshy in real life."

"Right, right… The softshell prawn is still better… It has more flesh…"

"Wifey, where did you go today that puts you in such a great mood to bring us all some crayfish?"

...

Zhou Wen woke up at six the next morning. 

He felt rather differently from how he did in the past. The feeling of being lost had faded away as he had a clear idea of what he wanted now. The wonderful feeling of being hopeful about life was ineffable. 

When he got up from his bed, Liu Yukun, who was sleeping on the upper bunk bed next to him, muttered, "Why are you awake so early, huh?"

Zhou Wen answered, "I'm going for a morning jog."

Liu Yukun did not utter a word, but he flipped over and continued to sleep with his face to the wall. 

Meanwhile, Zhou Wen washed up and then headed to the field. 

He did not expect to see quite a number of people having their morning run. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that 90% of the people that came for their morning run were in good shape. Those chubby and slightly fatter men and women were missing. 

Therefore, the scene was practically a sea of people that flaunted their boobs, waists, and long legs in the short-form mobile video apps. Who would choose not to flaunt their body when they were in good shape?

Zhou Wen was panting loudly out of fatigue after jogging two rounds around the place due to his lack of physical training. 

He pushed himself to finish the third round before he sat back on the grass plain. 

"Damn it. Inhale… Exhale…" Zhou Wen panted for some time before recovering. 

When he could finally breathe regularly, he stretched out his hand and wiped away the sweat on his forehead. Then, he stood up and walked toward the outside of the field. 

He did not expect that a black shadow would come charging at him from the track just after he had taken a few steps forward. "Oh… Make way, quick. Make way…"

"Bang…"

Both of them collided with one another. Zhou Wen had only stumbled from the collision while the woman that bumped into him fell onto the rubber running track and was in agony. 

Zhou Wen stabilized himself and took a glance to see that it was a beautiful woman dressed in black Nike sports attire. She had an oval-shaped face, huge eyes, a fair complexion, and skin as fine as a freshly-peeled young water chestnut. Her long, black hair was tied into a braid and hanging down naturally behind her head. 

At present, she was lying on the ground on her side. Her pair of legs were long and straight. 

Zhou Wen apologized, "I'm sorry, mate. I didn't see you. How are you doing? Are you injured?"

When he spoke, he stretched out his hand to help the woman with long, black hair to stand up while activating his Truevision. 

[Name: Xu Shuangyu. Gender: Female. Age: 18. Occupation: Student. Physical state: ??? Mental state: ???]

"Why don't you watch where you're going?" The woman with long, black hair named Xu Shuangyu queried him in rage. She did not take Zhou Wen's hand but struggled and stood up by herself. Then, she limped her way to the grass plain on the side. 

Zhou Wen walked over and asked embarrassedly, "How are you doing? Are you okay?"

Xu Shuangyu did not wish to speak to him at all now. 

She was constantly nagged by her mother, who told her that she would turn into a piglet soon, so she woke up early today on a rare occasion for a morning run. Yet, who would have thought that her first run would end up in a disaster? She had only run one round before she was knocked down by a stranger. She would never run again from now on! 

She cautiously pulled down the sock on her left leg and saw a large abrasion area that was about two inches above her ankle. It was red and fresh. 

"Boo hoo hoo… It's bleeding…" Xu Shuangyu cried in rage. 

Zhou Wen, who was standing on the side, felt rather embarrassed upon seeing the woman with long, black hair crying there. He knelt down and said, "How about… you let me take a look? I'm from the school of health sciences."

"No need." Xu Shuangyu rejected Zhou Wen's kind intention. 

She was from the school of health sciences, too, and was well aware of these tricks that men used to deceive females. They were all not very capable but loved to tell the girls that they were doctors. 

She pulled up her ankle socks and struggled to stand up from the ground after rejecting Zhou Wen's outstretched hand. 

"Uh...please allow me to send you to the clinic then?"

"Thank you; it's fine." Xu Shuangyu rejected Zhou Wen's kind intention once again. She made her way to the clinic outside of the field while limping. 

Zhou Wen looked toward Xu Shuangyu's left leg with his Truevision. He studied human anatomy and physiology for more than a year, so he possessed a superficial understanding of the human nervous system as well as the circulatory system. 

His vision zoomed past the skin on her leg, and he could see her muscles, tendons, bones, and arteries. 

He discovered, after scrutinizing her leg meticulously, that the woman with long, black hair had genuinely injured the soft tissue on her medial malleolus. However, it was good that there was no internal hemorrhage. It was not a big issue. 

"I think you've only injured the soft tissues in your leg. Please have the doctor apply heat compression for you in the clinic. Don't perform any strenuous exercise for a week…"