104 - Meet the Parent

Li Yun tugged along four large paper bags and stood before a 10-story apartment, preparing to introduce Rouxi to his family.

"Why are you acting nervous?" He asked her.

"Isn't it normal to act nervous?" Rouxi responded. Dressed conservatively in a long skirt and buttoned blouse, she seemed more nervous than Li Yun.

Li Yun shook his head. "Not when you're pretending."

"Hey! I am nervous."

"No you're not. You're just going to enjoy watching them grill me."

He was beginning to realize that she liked to either surprise him or see him in a flustered state. Rouxi laughed. Her boyfriend was getting to know her too well.

"That's not true." Rouxi defended herself. "I do want to see how you normally react to your parents, but I am still a bit nervous."

Li Yun leaned over to her side and kissed her forehead. "I know, I was kidding."

A neighbor suddenly popped open the door, interrupting their little moment.

"Hi Ms. Wang," Li Yun greeted her, a bit annoyed.

Ms. Wang's eyes smiled with a hint of mischief. "Ooh, is this the new in-law my son was talking about? Meilin?" Ms. Wang stared carefully at Rouxi. "Haven't we met before?"

Rouxi nodded. She had met Fatty Fang's mother briefly when she visited the apartment.

"Ah, you're Xiao Ling's friend," Ms. Wang said, but then she gasped. "Oh! The boyfriend that you mentioned at that time, it was Little Yun?"

"Ah yes. Ms. Wang, this is for you and your family," Rouxi handed her the box with both hands.

"You're such a sweet girl, come on up." Ms. Wang held the door for them into the apartment lobby.

"Ms. Wang, weren't you going somewhere?" asked Li Yun, but he knew she wasn't heading out, but specifically opened the door to greet the two of them.

"Just to get some fresh air, but now I may need to talk to your mother about something," Ms. Wang replied.

Everyone in the building seemed to be aware that the young brat was bringing along his girlfriend. They popped out of their apartment, by coincidence, to say hello to the new apartment's guest. It was a good thing Rouxi bought extra gifts.

Meanwhile, inside Li Fan and Lu Suyin's apartment, they were panicking over last minute dinner details.

"Li Fan! You're supposed to take the meat out already!" Lu Suyin yelled at her husband. "Mom! Where are our special dinner plates!? Dad! I told you! Don't bring out any alcohol! You're meeting the future daughter-in-law, not the son-in-law!"

As Lu Suyin continued screaming, the bell rang, causing the hectic Lu Suyin to put on her warm and motherly mask. She needed to make a good impression for her daughter-in-law. Her son was already scary enough, no need to frighten her daughter-in-law with problematic in-law's behaviors.

Lu Suyin settled everyone in a line to greet Rouxi. She then calmly opened the door when the bell buzzed for the second time.

"Ah! My dear! Meilin, come in!" Lu Suyin quickly opened the door to greet the two guests but then kicked Ms. Wang away when no one was looking.

Rouxi greeted Lu Suyin and everyone with a warm hug, and gave everyone their gifts. Everyone's overall impression was good.

Lu Suyin remembered meeting Rouxi once before. "I was so sad when you said you have a boyfriend! I had no idea that you were already seeing my son."

"We didn't think it was appropriate to reveal it at that time," Rouxi responded in Li Yun's steed. "Aunty, do you need help with dinner?"

"No, no, everything is set," as soon as Lu Suyin finished the remark, all the family came together with food appearing at the dinner table.

After dinner, Lu Suyin took a seat next to Rouxi on the couch and showed off the family album from Li Yun's childhood.

"This little fatty right here is Xiao Yun when he's just a little toddler!" Even Lu Suyin couldn't resist squealing at the round baby with rosy cheeks. Lu Suyin had collected a lot of pictures from even before cellphones were prevalent. Many of the photos were from the old digital cameras.

Rouxi took several pictures with her cellphone as potential blackmail. She held in her laughter when she saw Li Yun in his high school days. She heard he was a delinquent, but she didn't imagine the full moody look, the untidy shirts, and the inked tattoos. He was sitting at an outdoor food stall with his other friends.

"Ma! How did you get this picture!?" Li Yun had never seen the particular picture before.

"I bribed one of your friends!" Lu Suyin proudly announced.

So much for friendship. Since Bufu was the only one not in the picture, it was obvious who had stabbed him in the back.

Wu Bin, Wu Ling, and their parents also stopped by. They were all gathering around Rouxi to take pictures, except Wu Ling. Apparently, they were all fans of the broadcast.

While they were taking pictures, Wu Ling was more excited to talk to Li Yun. "Cousin Yun!!! You would have never guessed!"

"What?" Li Yun wondered if she made money somehow.

"Almost all of the items in the TeeBee shop are sold out!" Wu Ling couldn't contain her excitement. "I know you have more hidden somewhere in your clinic, can we please sell them!?"

"No," Li Yun wasn't going to sell the copies that the system had deemed as perfect.

Wu Ling pouted. "Shouldn't you be stocking up on the items?"

Li Yun's calligraphy wasn't like a machine and mass production. Every piece he had made consumed thought and a bit of his energy. He could scribble some words, but it wasn't the same.

"Why don't you start scanning the calligraphy of the medicinal?" asked Rouxi. "Although it's not original, it has illustrations and important information on each plant. Once more people see it, they will understand the value of your work, and the original will be higher if people start acknowledging your skills."

Everyone thought it was a good idea, and Wu Ling could scan and organize the sheets to create a medicinal book.

Lu Suyin overheard something from their discussion. Clinic?

"Li Yun!!! You have a clinic and you never told your mother!" Lu Suyin questioned him in a screeching tone.

"Mom! Let me explain, it's only on weekends," Li Yun explained quickly, but glared at Wu Ling for being a big mouth.

This gossip monger, he knew he shouldn't have told her. Li Yun sighed, well, he hid it from his mother so that she didn't know he was in town. It sounded like he was a horrible son, but he really needed time to himself.

He had to explain to his parents that the clinic was on sale and he wanted to practice medicine without the constraints of hospital politics.

After the interruptions, Li Yun returned to Dong Xuan to study the plants. Plants were good, they weren't screaming at him. Just after a week, Li Yun was surprised by how everything was growing in the greenhouse. The plants had grown twice as fast as grown on the outside.

Aside from the temperature, humidity, and light, Li Yun added soil and worms he had ordered from South Asia, Yunan region. The soil recreated the conditions best suited for growing the plants, and the worms were used to release natural waste that would feed the plants, and to provide Gu energy.

Li Yun pinched a little leaf from the mung bean plant inside the greenhouse and tasted it. From his observation, the taste was similar to the variety from South Asia, slightly different from the ones grown in the courtyard. The age of the small plant was also the same as the one outside in the courtyard, even though it was planted a week after.

<Mung bean>

His method of discerning the age and location was similar to that of a wine sommelier, but rather than taste and smell, he used cellular structure.

Merlot was a variety of grape, but the most famous was produced in the Bordeaux region of France. Experienced sommeliers could discern the region, year, method, and winemaker; simply by tasting the flavors and notes of the wine.

Li Yun's Shennong title gained him the ability that was similar. As long as he ingested a familiar substance, he was able to quickly categorize the information based on the cellular structure.

When Li Yun ate the jujube fruit snack, he was able to distinguish the age based on the structure, the particular region if there was a specific cellular marker, and processing method of the fruit based on the shape. The particular jujube fruit he ate was ripe, but it wasn't ripened naturally. It had artificial preservatives and was dried in the sun based on the imbalance of yin and yang.

The ability seemed impressive, but there were limitations. First, his internal library depended on whether he had encountered and studied the substance before. If it was an unknown fruit he had not studied or ingested before, it would remain blank. As he ingested and studied more substance, his internal library filled up.

Although it was a limitation, Li Yun also gained one action point for every 10 substances he studied. The rate was faster than helping people out in the ER. He wondered if his system really wanted him to change career...

His other limitation was mixed substance. As he tried out variation #8, he was able to perceive the twelve different medicinal that was mixed in the formula. However, it was extremely difficult to separate the individual components.