Chapter 29

Tao Shushu touched Nan Yuan's hand with one finger. "Cub, I will always be with you."
His eardrums throbbed, his heart beating fervently. Nan Yuan smiled. "Okay."
The answer Nan Yuan had been unable to find suddenly became clear. He wanted to return to the more technologically advanced central star systems. By then, perhaps he could find a way to see Shushu.
Nan Yuan curled his fingers slightly.
Tao Shushu accompanied Nan Yuan as he inspected the entire base once more. Noticing that Nan Yuan had been standing at the entrance for quite a while, Tao Shushu asked, "Cub, what's wrong?"
Nan Yuan tilted his head and listened for a moment. "The Bloodsucking Grass outside is moving."
"I'll go take a look." Tao Shushu switched her perspective to the area outside the underground base entrance.
The originally boundless field of Bloodsucking Grass had shrunk. The grass at the edges had withered and died, while the plants in the center had grown thick and long, like steel cables. They were gathering strength, suspended above the steel door, waiting until they had enough power to lift it and enter the base.
Tao Shushu felt a chill run down her spine. She remembered the last exploration showed this patch of Bloodsucking Grass had intelligence comparable to an eight-year-old child. Seeing it now, it really was quite clever.
Tao Shushu carefully explored the area around the Bloodsucking Grass, taking great care not to make any noise.
With a heavy heart, she returned to her cub and gently rubbed his ears. "Cub, the Bloodsucking Grass is quite clever."
After hearing about the situation outside, Nan Yuan pondered for a moment. "We need to find a way to leave."
The atmosphere grew heavy. Even a fortress-like safe base was surrounded by constantly evolving enemies.
Tao Shushu smiled faintly. "Don't be afraid, cub. I'll do my best to take care of you."
On the mission progress bar, the collection of spaceship fuel had reached 3.5%. Tao Shushu discovered that 10 energy balls could provide 1% of the fuel.
Her cub had found over a dozen energy balls today, along with some ore and other energy sources. She could also study hard to earn gold coins and spend them on energy balls. There was always a way to leave.
Nan Yuan agreed and brought up another matter. "That day, you gave me a serum recipe."
Tao Shushu thought for a moment and recalled that she had purchased it from the system store, thinking it might come in handy.
"Any progress, cub?"
Nan Yuan nodded. "I've collected some unique fungi and plant stems mentioned in the recipe."
Her cub was so capable!
Tao Shushu praised him. "That's amazing, cub. Let's give it a try once we've gathered everything."
"Alright," Nan Yuan agreed, though he didn't mention that some of the ingredients couldn't be found on this barren planet and might only be available back on the capital planet. "We'll make it together then."
He made a promise.
Tao Shushu watched as Nan Yuan returned to the main hall, where the night watch had lit a fire for warmth.
Seeing him return, the others offered to let him rest and took over the patrol duties.
Nan Yuan opened his backpack. "Shushu, I want to give you something too."
She had given him so much; he wanted to do what he could to repay her.
She had seemed rushed and tired these past few days.
"Hmm?" Tao Shushu's heart stirred. What mother could resist a gift from her cub? But she was outside the screen and couldn't receive it.
Just as she felt regretful, she saw Nan Yuan take out some rice-sized berries wrapped in leaves from his bag.
Next, he pulled out some dried Bloodsucking Grass.
He shredded the grass and mixed it with the berries for coloring, then tossed the crushed leaves into the fire.
Above the flames, bursts of red sparks erupted.
They looked like glittering fireworks.
"Shushu, may you be safe and well," Nan Yuan said as he threw the prepared colored leaves into the fire.
Above the flames, palm-sized fireworks continuously rose.
Red, yellow, green...
Tao Shushu instinctively pressed the screenshot button.
Dressed in combat gear, Nan Yuan sat behind the fireworks. Though he should have exuded a sharp, imposing aura, the look in his eyes was incredibly tender.
Tao Shushu touched the screenshot on her screen. Without turning on her microphone, she whispered, "Thank you."
She had seen her cub's heartfelt gesture.
The car drove smoothly on the way home, her parents quietly discussing daily trivial matters.
In the quiet space, only the phone in Tao Shushu's hand emitted a soft glow.
Inside and outside the screen, they admired the small, precious fireworks together.
The bursts of fireworks illuminated Nan Yuan's face and cast shifting lights and shadows over the girl in the car.
In the world of the game, there was someone struggling to survive in the apocalypse, yet he was still willing to set off a firework display just for her.
Tao Shushu suddenly felt motivated. After returning home, she didn't log out of the game.
Nan Yuan was patrolling, walking and stopping intermittently.
Tao Shushu placed her phone in front of her, took out her notebook, and continued digesting the knowledge points she had learned in the physics competition training.

News about the physics competition training class quickly spread.
Su Momo was already a well-known figure. As the female lead, she never lacked topics of discussion wherever she went.
Moreover, "fainting from excessive study pressure and being taken away in an ambulance" struck a chord with many students.
Tao Shushu ate the lovingly prepared breakfast Li Anyu had brought her. "So many posts on the forum?"
Huiwen had its own campus forum, and now the discussion section was flooded with posts about Su Momo.
"Not only that, I heard the physics competition training teacher might be replaced," Li Anyu said mysteriously.
"Why?" Tao Shushu asked. The physics competition training at Huiwen High had always been overseen by Li Xin, who had led the team to win several awards.
"Because the board thinks a student fainting reflects poorly on the school," Li Anyu explained.
Tao Shushu recalled the original novel's plot. In the book, Su Momo's academic system hadn't been suppressed, so large sections described how she earned her teachers' praise and overcame challenges to win gold medals.
This time, everything was different.
"Let nature take its course," Tao Shushu said, pulling out a set of classical Chinese literature questions. The system had just issued another task.
Achieve an 80% score rate in poetry appreciation, reward: 10 gold coins.
Tao Shushu was desperately short on gold coins, so she loved doing tasks.
Li Anyu was utterly shocked. "Shushu, you're actually doing poetry appreciation? What's gotten into you? Didn't you once create an AI that automatically writes poetry and declared that poetry appreciation should be removed from exams?"
"Don't tell me you're scared by Wang Tianba? Don't worry, I stayed up last night gathering information. Wang Tianba's grandfather went to another province to inspect cultural relics and won't be back anytime soon. Plus, he actually broke a thousand-year-old willow tree inscribed by a top scholar! Given how much his grandfather treasures cultural relics, he'll probably beat him up first. Wang Tianba should lay low for a few days."
Tao Shushu remembered the unbearable past and her wounded Chinese language scores. "Anyu, I want to be an all-around top student. Poetry is beautiful, it's just that my appreciation skills weren't up to par before. I'm not afraid of Wang Tianba. If he comes looking for you, just push the blame onto me."
Mentioning Wang Tianba made Tao Shushu's mind active again.
Although she couldn't deal with the female lead for now, she couldn't just stand by while the female lead's "fish" came offering themselves up.
But she could temporarily deal with Wang Tianba, starting with his grandfather.
Wang Tianba’s grandfather had a fondness for antiques.
In the original storyline, Su Momo generously donated her family’s antiques, thereby winning over Grandpa Wang.
Tao Shushu pondered for a while and came up with a plan.
She didn’t act immediately.
The entire morning, Tao Shushu spent studying.
During lunchtime, as she walked to the cafeteria, she overheard discussions everywhere: “The transfer student fainted,” “The transfer student was preparing for the school festival performance but got scolded by the teacher for being late,” “Su Momo is so beautiful, even lying in the hospital bed she looks pitifully delicate.”
Mixed in with the chatter were explanations from students in the competition class: “Actually, before she fainted last night, we were just doing a diagnostic test, just one set of questions. Is the pressure really that intense?”
“Maybe the teacher was too harsh,” argued Su Momo’s admirers.
“Come on, the teacher barely spoke during the test, just reminded us when it was almost time to hand in the papers.”
“Starting with such difficult questions right away, were they deliberately trying to mess with our minds?”
“It’s not like one test decides everything. It’s just like how Huiwen’s entrance exams are always tough, to help everyone refocus.”
“Exactly, and someone even scored full marks.”
“Who said Su Momo fainted from stress? Couldn’t it just be that she wasn’t feeling well?”
Hearing this, Tao Shushu nodded in agreement. Given the female lead’s pride, admitting she fainted from exam pressure would probably be mortifying for her.
“Isn’t it just you all trying to attack Teacher Li Xin? Let me say this: with a chemistry score of 8, I doubt someone like that is any good at physics either.”
Tao Shushu’s guess was correct. Around noon, Su Momo posted on social media, saying she had fainted due to a cold and feeling unwell, and that it had nothing to do with the teacher.
After watching Li Anyu’s relay of the updates, Tao Shushu felt she had wasted fifteen seconds, time that would have been better spent studying.
Tao Shushu glanced outside, puzzled. “What’s going on? Why are there so many people out there?”
She wondered if Wang Tianba had sent them. If so, she’d have to teach him a proper lesson on how to be a respectable school bully.
Li Anyu grabbed Tao Shushu’s hand. “They’re here to see you. The perfect score you got on last night’s competition training test was posted on the forum. Everyone wants to soak up some of your genius vibes, hoping their physics scores will skyrocket.”
“Young people, superstition is no good,” Tao Shushu said, though she didn’t stop Li Anyu from giving her a high-five.
Li Anyu pulled out a draft notebook. “Now people are buying draft paper you’ve touched, saying it makes solving physics problems smoother. Come on, leave a handprint!”
Tao Shushu retorted, “Li Anyu, are you asking for a spanking?”
For the entire afternoon, people kept passing by the hallway. Tao Shushu’s excellence in physics was universally acknowledged.
Since arriving at Huiwen, she had consistently scored the highest in every physics exam, except for the recent entrance exam when she had “fallen asleep.”
Everyone wanted to improve their physics, so during the break, when Tao Shushu went to wash her hands, she turned around to find several hands pressing down on the faucet at once.
For a moment, Tao Shushu doubted whether she was really in an academic genius novel, this scene was just too exaggerated.
Tao Shushu was in a good mood all day.
Meanwhile, Su Momo, lying in the hospital, was not doing well. The emergency measure suggested by her Academic Genius System had been to make her faint.
Although she had avoided the embarrassment of being exposed as an academic fraud, her head was still buzzing.
The Academic Genius System showed no remorse. “For the sake of realism.”
Su Momo was furious but had no one to vent her anger on.
Then, she came across a post on the forum about how her immense academic pressure had landed her in an ambulance.
At first, her classmates expressed sympathy, overwhelmingly supporting her and condemning Li Xin as a devilish teacher. Su Momo was quite pleased, after all, Li Xin had made her stand as punishment.
But unexpectedly, by noon, the tone in the forum had shifted.
Now, they speculated that she was afraid of the exam, questioning how she hadn't written a single answer in half an hour and ended up submitting a blank paper.
Su Momo nearly gritted her teeth in frustration. Why was it that when Tao Shushu turned in a blank paper and scored zero, she was praised as a uniquely individualistic top student, while Su Momo was labeled as having poor psychological resilience? Some bored individuals even began to doubt her academic abilities.
Su Momo was so infuriated by the forum comments that her liver ached. To make matters worse, her parents were ashamed of her embarrassment.

Tao Shushu remained completely unaware of Su Momo's mental state. She spent the entire day enthusiastically immersed in her studies.
After dinner, she attended another physics competition training session. This time, Su Momo never showed up, so Tao Shushu saved a "Primary Clarity Card" and felt quite pleased.
Finally, Li Xin announced the end of class. Tao Shushu took out her phone to meet with her "cub."
As she walked out of the classroom while checking her phone, she spotted Su Momo standing in front of Li Xin.
Just as Tao Shushu was about to turn off her phone, she noticed that the game didn't crash as it had the previous two times when she got close to the female lead.