"You had another nightmare."

Xia Chuhe hurriedly avoided Lu Dangui's gaze: "Um, I'll be fine in a bit."

Xia Chuhe is now certain that the reason for his nightmares is 100% Pu Tongying's curse!

Lu Dangui handed Xia Chuhe a glass of water: "The housekeeper is here, in the courtyard."

Xia Chuhe pursed her lips, took the water glass, and casually placed it on the table beside her: "I understand."

Outside the courtyard, yellow sand filled the sky.

Inside the courtyard, the butler stood ramrod straight, his pristine white collar spotless. He seemed not to be standing in an ordinary courtyard, but in a royal palace.

Xia Chuhe tossed the neatly arranged plants at the housekeeper's feet.

The butler took a step back, his posture as graceful as a dance.

Among the plants, the most conspicuous is the large carrot, which has been cut in half, with pieces missing from both sides.

The butler's perfect mask cracked: "Miss Xia, may I ask if this carrot was gnawed by a mutated dog?"

Xia Chuhe boasted shamelessly, "The mutant dog's teeth aren't as sharp as my knife. I chopped the carrot like this, and it's still jumping around. Luckily, I'm blessed with good fortune, otherwise you wouldn't be here today."

The butler pointed to the dry, broken sugarcane: "Was your struggle with it this intense?"

"Yeah, didn't you see I squeezed it dry?" Xia Chuhe laughed.

Seeing that Xia Chuhe was completely unmoved, the housekeeper stopped asking questions, since the company didn't have any requirements regarding the quality of the plants anyway.

The butler glanced at the sunflower whose stamens had been rubbed off. The color was still quite beautiful, and it seemed to be one of the common flowers before the wasteland era. He carefully put the sunflower away.

The butler said, "The company will soon settle your task points. So... Miss Xia, how is your matter going?"

Xia Chuhe knew he was referring to Bao'er's matter: "Fortunately, we've made some progress."

The butler turned to leave, but Xia Chuhe suddenly called him back.

"Aren't you going to confront me yet? At least tell me what that symbol means, right?"

The butler paused, saying, "If you can find Bao'er, I will tell you everything I know."

...

The transfer from Five Star Company came very quickly. Xia Chuhe distributed the points to the other three people who participated in the mission together, and took the opportunity to check their loyalty.

Li Qiusheng's loyalty has increased by 10, currently at 50.

Zhao Maomao's loyalty has increased by 20, currently at 30.

Perhaps it's because Zhao Maomao is quite pragmatic; pragmatic people can be easily manipulated by self-interest.

Idealists, on the other hand, rarely make any breakthroughs until their spiritual level is truly touched. But correspondingly, once an idealist has committed to a person or thing, they will not easily betray or abandon it.

Xia Chuhe didn't know how to make Li Qiusheng feel the freedom she wanted.

The loyalty of these two is still relatively low, so Xia Chuhe will not take them to the auction for the time being.

Wang Yan had experience in organizing auctions, so preparations for this event were completed quickly.

However, considering the need to give businesspeople time to arrive, the exhibition was ultimately scheduled for the day after tomorrow.

After dealing with the housekeeper, Xia Chuhe went into the kitchen.

Caught between nightmares and the exhaustion of waking up, she chose to cook something delicious to comfort herself.

Although the soybeans ruined by the large carrots were not fully ripe, the pods were already quite plump, making them perfect for making salted edamame.

Salted edamame may sound like it only requires salt water and edamame, but to make it delicious and flavorful, you also need various spices and chili peppers.

She didn't have any of those summer harvest crops. She could only cut small slits in the edamame beans at the front and back to cook them longer.

I don't know if it's because they're from a farm, but the edamame started emitting a pleasant aroma after cooking for a short time.

Li Qiusheng was lured into the kitchen by the aroma.

She glanced at Xia Chuhe: "Boss, you have some dark circles under your eyes."

Xia Chuhe: "..."

I forgot to leave the housekeeper behind to teach Li Qiusheng how to speak.

Xia Chuhe said weakly, "I haven't rested well."

"Having another nightmare, huh?" Li Qiusheng asked mysteriously. "I have some pain relievers, sedatives, and medications that make people relax and happy. Boss, do you want one?"

Xia Chuhe immediately became alert: "Is it addictive?"

"I don't know, I didn't dare to try."

Xia Chuhe: "..."

No wonder they were so kind; they wanted to use her as a test subject for their drugs.

"Let me see," Xia Chuhe said.

Li Qiusheng returned to his room and took out a small brown glass bottle containing only one blue pill.

No instructions, no indications, no expiration date—it's a completely unregulated product.

"Where did it come from?" Xia Chuhe asked.

Li Qiusheng answered every question: "I got it from someone when I was running a dungeon. There seem to be quite a few of these unorganized lone wolves outside the base who take this kind of drug."

"Don't eat it," Xia Chuhe instructed, without saying anything more.

"Can we eat beans?" Li Qiusheng glanced at the pot.

The edamame in the pot looked greenish and were clearly not fully cooked.

"Wait a minute."

...

Li Qiusheng waited a long time before he finally got to eat the salty edamame.

Li Qiusheng expressed his satisfaction with this.

As night fell, Xia Chuhe left the lights on when he went to sleep.

The nightmare arrived as expected.

Xia Chuhe couldn't remember the details of the dream clearly, only that he was being chased and surrounded.

It seemed that the curse of the nightmare was gradually fading, and this sleep at least relieved Xia Chuhe's physical fatigue.

Early in the morning, Xia Chuhe made a special trip to the purchasing point.

The buyer was someone Xia Chuhe had never met before, and his attitude towards Xia Chuhe was quite ordinary.

Xia Chuhe exchanged a lot of white sugar and brown sugar. Facing the envious looks from the other people in line, Xia Chuhe boasted, "I've had some good hauls from these dungeons. Besides these, I have quite a few other good things too!"

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!