Chapter 3 Early Marriage is Necessary Without Awakening

After leaving the market, the four parted ways, and Ye Nai walked for a bit more than a quarter of an hour to get back to her residential complex.

The complex comprised 20 buildings, each with 50 floors and 12 units, and she lived in unit 12 on the 38th floor of building 16.

Upon returning home, she started to get busy with housework, washing the vegetables that needed washing, chopping what needed to be chopped, and putting things on to cook as necessary.

After blanching the ribs, she started to stew them first. The potatoes were peeled and cut, ready to be added once the ribs were cooked.

She set aside a little baby bok choy for stir-frying, cleaned and shredded the rest, and mixed it with mashed tofu to make a filling, which she then wrapped in dumpling wrappers to make buns.

An hour and a half later, she deftly finished making the buns, cleaned up the kitchen, gathered the kitchen waste into a bin, and walked out to the balcony, opened the household fermentation bin installed against the left wall, and dumped the waste inside.

This bin was well-sealed, locking in any bad odors. Organic materials were added on top, fermenting in the middle to lower layers. Every three months, she would pull out the locked drawer at the bottom to check the humus formed by fermentation. If ready, she would bag it and sell it for some extra income. The government would then collect and uniformly use it in farmland.

Next to the bin was a three-tier plant stand, filled with commonly used herbs and condiments like green onions, ginger, garlic, cilantro, and perilla. The remaining space was used to dry the family's clothes.

Her house was only a two-bedroom, and the balcony was pitifully small. Despite the large number of people, the daily kitchen waste wasn't much. Ever since she discovered that her superpower had awakened and accidentally decomposed the kitchen waste, she hadn't touched the household garbage again, as it was a stable source of extra income, and she did not want any accidents.

After she had finished all the work on the countertop, Ye Nai finally swept and mopped the floor before picking up her dustpan and heading out to dispose of the ash. She couldn't afford products like garbage bags anymore.

There was a garbage chute at both ends of the hallway, making disposal quite convenient as it didn't require going up or down floors.

While heading home after disposing of the trash, she ran into a neighbor who was also there to throw away garbage.

"Oh, isn't this Ye from unit 12?"

"Yes, hello," Ye Nai responded courteously with a slight nod.

"You're a grown girl, tall and pretty, in your senior year, right? Are you continuing with your schooling?"

Ye Nai blinked and asked sincerely, "What does my education have to do with you?"

The other person was at a loss for words.

Ye Nai smiled and repeated, "What does it have to do with you?"

"Well, I'm just concerned about you. You're a grown girl; it's time to think about marriage and children."

"Oh, and what does that have to do with you?"

Ye Nai tilted her head, her gaze fixed on the other person, a look of genuine confusion on her face as she waited for an explanation.

The other was just an ordinary person and felt immense pressure under Ye Nai's gaze, moving his mouth a few times but unable to utter a single word, still puzzled by how powerful the gaze of the girl from unit 12 was.

"Uh, never mind, never mind."

"Oh, you go ahead, I'm going back home,"

Ye Nai shook the empty dustpan in her hand and walked past the neighbor, heading away.

The neighbor held his chest and gasped for air, muttering, "Young people are just temperamental," shook his head, and quickly threw away his trash and returned home.

Having returned home and put everything back in its place, Ye Nai washed her hands and sat on the simple sofa in the living room, pondering her future.

Her situation was quite complicated.

The Awakening Stone had not identified her awakening, she was an Awakener yet couldn't obtain the printed Awakening Certificate necessary to go to the Awakener Center to receive the Awakening Badge and officially become an Awakener.

Awakening was a matter of probability, and the nation conducting collective awakenings for high school seniors was a gamble on the highest likelihood. Outside this high probability, there were those who awakened earlier or later on their own; reportedly, ages ranged from slightly over ten to several decades old.

Ye Nai had awakened earlier on her own. She had fantasized about the joy her family would feel when she brought home the Awakening Certificate, but she hadn't expected the Awakening Stone to have no reaction to her.

She racked her brain for a while, and vaguely remembered that during last week's class meeting, the homeroom teacher, while discussing the collective awakening, had mentioned that if there were any unexpected issues, the local Awakener Center would be helpless. For impartial and authoritative results, one would have to travel to a major city's Awakener Center for a costly comprehensive test.

Exactly how the test would be conducted, the homeroom teacher didn't know, but it was assured to be expensive, not just the testing fee, but also the travel, food, and lodging costs were a significant expense.

Unfortunately, the recent period was the national awakening test for high school seniors. The Awakening Stone was a crucial tool; there were only about thirty in the country, typically housed in major cities' Awakener Centers. During this time, those centers would suspend related tests, rendering paid testing futile.

Ye Nai thought about it and ultimately decided against being candid with her parents about the mishap. Mentioning it wouldn't solve anything, so why bother.

She would now act as if she hadn't awakened.

She recalled the homeroom teacher mentioning a trash collection team and decided to sign up to earn some money, lest her parents blurt out that she was just freeloading at home.

After sorting out her thoughts, Ye Nai got up, went to the kitchen to steam a plate of buns for lunch, and then lay down on the couch for a nap.

While she was deeply asleep, she was awakened by the banging sounds of the door opening. She sat up and saw her mom, Yu Qing, breathing heavily as she entered.

"Mom? Are you off work already?"

"Your dad had an accident," her mom Yu Qing said from the entry mat without entering the room, gesturing for her daughter to come over to talk.

"What? What happened to him?" Ye Nai quickly put on her slippers and rushed to her mom's side.

"His workplace called me. They said your dad fell from a five-meter-high platform while repairing electrical wires and broke both legs. He's been taken to the hospital. I'm heading there now. You go to the market, buy some bones to make soup, cook some easily digestible soup and rice, take a couple of sets of clothes and a bag of adult diapers to the hospital, got it?"

Her mom, while speaking, pulled out her wallet and handed her daughter a hundred.

"Oh, okay, go ahead, mom. I'll use the restroom and then leave."

There wasn't a landline at home, and Ye Nai didn't have a mobile phone, so her mom had to receive the news about her dad's accident, take leave from work, and then come home to inform her.

Her mom took a deep breath and hurried off. A few minutes later, Ye Nai left the house, heading straight for the market and store.

After buying everything, she went home to make the soup, cleaned the thermal flask while the soup cooked, then made noodles. She packed the soup and noodles separately into the flask.

In the noodle bowl, she arranged half a circle of ribs and also steamed a bag of buns, all for her mom. She then packed a bag of clothes for her dad, and with everything ready, she left for the hospital, which was not far, just three bus stops away.

On the orthopedic floor, she found her dad's bed number, entered the six-person ward, and saw her mom Yu Qing sitting at the foot of her dad Ye Yu's bed, her dad looking in a sorry state with both legs in casts suspended in the air, but his facial color was okay.

"Dad, mom."

"You're here."

Her mom Yu Qing took the items brought by her daughter and began organizing them in the bedside cabinet.

"Dad, do your legs hurt?"

"Not now, I took painkillers."

"How many days will you be in the hospital? What's the plan for these days? Should we take turns taking leave?"

"Just staying for two days to observe. If the condition stabilizes, I'll be discharged. I've already taken leave and will be at the hospital during the day and go home at night. You kids don't need to take turns; just take good care of the little ones at home."

"Okay."