Ning Xuan swirled the medicine in her hand and sealed the vial. Bone Healing Potion. As long as its purity was 80% or higher, it could mend a broken bone within three days. The higher the purity, the faster the healing process.

It was already dinnertime. After working for so long, Ning Xuan was mentally exhausted. She stood up, stretched her stiff joints, then closed the door and went downstairs.

The ingredients she had ordered from the Star Network that morning had just been delivered, and Chen Nan was in the kitchen preparing dinner. Ning Xuan noticed a white bag in the corner of the living room. She walked over and opened it, finding it filled with brown, oval-shaped objects covered in fine hair. Each was about the size of a human head. Ning Xuan lifted one out to test its weight. It looked like it should weigh only four or five pounds, but it actually felt like it was over a dozen pounds.

They were sent by a mercenary who had posted on the Star Network about finding some peculiar plants. His team specialized in foraging the wilderness for edible seeds, fruits, and medicinal herbs. Seeing these tubers, which grew underground, reminded Ning Xuan of foods from Earth like sweet potatoes, taro, potatoes, yams, and radishes, as well as medicinal herbs like ginseng and rehmannia root. The tubers of many plants were edible and quite valuable.

In this era, however, wilderness exploration and resource gathering only focused on what was on the surface. No one had researched the tubers and roots buried underground. In fact, as far as she knew, many of the truly high-yield crops were root vegetables, and they were delicious too.

Chen Nan had finished making dinner. Seeing Ning Xuan rummaging through the white bag, he walked over to her side. "Contractor, is this what you were looking for?" Chen Nan asked, looking curiously at the brown, hairy tubers in the bag. He had never seen anything like them before!

"Yeah, someone on the Star Network posted about finding a plant they’d never seen before. It looked a little odd, so I bought some to study," Ning Xuan said, looking at Chen Nan. She felt he was acting strange.

Ning Xuan’s open scrutiny made the already nervous Chen Nan even more tense. His body stiffened. "Contractor, why are you looking at me like that?"

"You look guilty. Did you do something wrong? Or are you planning to?" Although Ning Xuan couldn’t recover her former strength for now, her Spiritual Perception was still very sharp. Ever since Ning Chuchu had shown up at her door and mentioned the Bai Family, Chen Nan’s reactions hadn’t been right.

Chen Nan took two steps back, then, as if throwing caution to the wind, sat down beside Ning Xuan. "Contractor, let’s eat first. We can talk after dinner." ’At first,’ he thought, ’I had planned to coax Ning Xuan into listening only to me, to hide from my family’s pursuit together, living a contracted life where we only had each other.’

’But after spending this time with her, he saw her clearly. Ning Xuan had potential, ambition, and resolve. She wasn’t someone he could control. She would only ever move forward at her own pace, and she wouldn’t live a life of hiding with him.’

Ning Xuan watched as Chen Nan seemed to suddenly let a heavy weight off his shoulders. He was no longer standing and waiting on her attentively. The contrived manner he usually affected seemed to vanish in an instant.

Ning Xuan smiled. ’A showdown so soon? Too bad. I actually quite liked his prim and proper act from before!’

Chen Nan had prepared the meal exactly as Ning Xuan had taught him. He had re-marinated the processed, high-level beast meat before pan-frying it. The new marinade made the meat more tender, not only eliminating its original gamey taste but also giving it a faint, fresh fragrance. He cut the fried meat into small pieces and handed them to Ning Xuan, his service attentive and impeccable.

Ning Xuan took the plate and began to eat. Ever since the first signs of her Companion Spirit awakening and the Ghost-faced Red Vine stirring, her appetite had grown immensely. A single meal for her now was as much as two or even three meals from before. ’Chen Nan’s talent for cooking really isn’t anything special,’ she thought, ’so I can only teach him these simple recipes.’

After they finished dinner, Chen Nan wasted no time, directly handing Ning Xuan the letters his father had sent over the past month.

Ning Xuan read them one by one. After finishing the letters, she looked back at Chen Nan and scoffed. "So what’s this all about? Are you the rebellious son of a wealthy clan? The runaway young master fleeing an arranged marriage?"

"Contractor, I’m telling you all this because I don’t want you to walk into danger. As long as you don’t go to Light City, they can’t do anything to us! I can protect you!" Chen Nan took a step forward and wrapped his arms around Ning Xuan’s waist. He knew his family had brought her trouble, but their match had been made by the main brain; it couldn’t be refused. He had no power in his own family. Coming to Ning Xuan’s side to protect her was the only thing he could do.

"And why wouldn’t I go? Let go of me!" She still had no leads on the Bai Family, and now she learned that Chen Nan’s family wanted her dead. Ning Xuan did not have a good temper, and she couldn’t help but take her anger out on him.

At the same time, a deeper sense of insecurity washed over her. ’The Contractors the main brain forcibly matched me with... it wasn’t just Chen Nan. There were four others. If they also need a marriage alliance or require the pacification of a High-level Controller, wouldn’t they also see me as an obstacle? Wouldn’t they also try to make me disappear?’

Ning Xuan returned to her upstairs lab. Chen Nan followed, but she shut the door on him. Defeated, he returned to his own room.

Ning Xuan extended her hand, and a dozen vines shot out from her palm. Their interiors were filled with fine Vine Silk, while their outer skins were covered in sharp thorns. She had just brought up another dozen portions of Blue Flame Grass from downstairs. An hour later, ten vials of a pure, translucent blue medicine sat on the glass shelf. With the help of the vines, it was like she had a dozen extra hands, making her several times more efficient than usual.

Looking at the vials of medicine, Ning Xuan smiled softly. ’This is all money. Even if I can’t increase my strength overnight, as long as I have enough money, I can hire mercenaries for protection. The more money I make, the more powerful the bodyguards I can afford!’

Having come to this realization, Ning Xuan continued refining the Bone Healing Potion. She discovered that through the constant process of refining the medicine, her fine control over her spiritual power was becoming more proficient than ever. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Six hours later, deep in the night, the bottle of Bone Healing Potion that had only been a third full was finally filled to the brim. Ning Xuan sealed the bottle, took a picture, and sent it to Dean Wang. She explained that she had made this medicine with her own materials and planned to sell it on the Star Network.

She then left the lab, intending to go to her room and sleep. As she reached her bedroom door, she suddenly stopped in her tracks. There was someone in her room. And it wasn’t Chen Nan.

Uninvited guests meant trouble. ’If I turn and leave now,’ she thought, ’I’ll definitely alert whoever is inside.’