Chapter 146: Chapter 146: The Research Institute

The car pulled up to Paige Walsh’s research institute. Zara Walsh got out, straightened her clothes, and walked slowly inside.

But she didn’t see Paige Walsh. Instead, she was greeted by Paige’s assistant.

Paige Walsh’s assistant said apologetically to Zara Walsh, "My apologies, Miss Walsh. Our director is still in a meeting. Would you mind waiting for a little while in the reception room?"

The thing Zara hated most was being made to wait. But right now, she showed no sign of dissatisfaction. Instead, she nodded with a polite smile and replied, "Of course. I’ll wait for my aunt here. Tell her not to rush; her work is more important."

After the assistant left, Zara Walsh let out a sigh of relief.

She had tried to ask Zane Simmons out several times recently, wanting to build a relationship with him, but he always found an excuse to refuse...

’He’s probably doing it for the mother of that illegitimate child!’ Zara thought.

The thought that the "Canary" was about to be officially recognized made Zara panic. Since Zane Simmons wouldn’t see her, she would come see his mother and build a good relationship with her instead!

Conveniently, Zane Simmons’s mother, Paige Walsh, was also a Walsh, making her Zara’s distant aunt.

Zara believed that she and Zane Simmons were a perfect match in terms of social standing. With their families already connected, it would be a union that strengthened existing ties. She refused to believe her aunt wouldn’t help her.

Just then, a reply from her paternal aunt, Kylie Walsh, came through on her phone.

Kylie Walsh was shocked that Yuri Walsh had fallen for a girl from a poor family. She said she would never agree to Yuri being with such a girl and that she would help him find a suitable young woman from a well-matched family.

Seeing her aunt’s reply, Zara finally felt at ease.

In Zara’s view, whether it was Zane Simmons or Yuri Walsh, these wealthy young masters should be paired with ladies of distinguished families of equal standing. It was absolutely not the place for some girl from an ordinary, disreputable family!

Then Zara sighed again. She thought about how her own aunt, Kylie Walsh, had been chasing Roman Rhodes, the eldest son of the Rhodes Family, for twenty years. Kylie had sworn she would marry no one but him and had waited until now. Zara wondered when, if ever, the two of them would finally end up together...

A short while later, Paige Walsh pushed open the door to the reception room and walked in. She looked at Zara with a kind smile and said, "Zara, you’re here. Sorry to keep you waiting."

After speaking, Paige Walsh coughed a couple of times. She looked exhausted.

Ever since the volcanic eruption, more and more people were developing respiratory and pulmonary diseases caused by the ash. Her research institute was working on a specific cure for the effects of the volcanic ash, but they had made no progress.

This volcanic ash, which penetrated deep into the lungs, was incredibly difficult to clear from the human body. Paige Walsh had been stressed to her wit’s end over it lately. She herself had been feeling discomfort in her respiratory tract and lungs but had no time to rest, stubbornly continuing her work at the institute.

Seeing this, Zara quickly went up to her, smiled at Paige Walsh, and said, "Not at all, I just arrived. Aunt, I know you haven’t been feeling well lately, so I came especially to see you."

Zara took two jars of loquat paste from a paper bag and continued, "Auntie, I bought this loquat paste recently. It’s very effective for respiratory and lung problems. You should try it!"

Paige Walsh looked at the loquat paste and found it slightly amusing.

She herself was a leading expert in the pharmaceutical industry. She knew very well that loquat paste was of little use for serious lung problems. She figured Zara had probably been swindled by some scammer selling health supplements.

But seeing the hopeful look in Zara’s eyes, she picked up the loquat paste anyway, scooped out a spoonful, and put it in her mouth, letting it slowly slide down her throat.

Unexpectedly, the moment the paste flowed down her throat, Paige Walsh felt a soothing sensation in her respiratory tract. A moment later, the tight, stuffy feeling in her lungs vanished as well.

Paige Walsh was astonished. She picked up the jar of loquat paste and examined it closely, only to find there was no label on it.

She quickly asked Zara, "Zara, where did you buy this loquat paste? Do you still have the outer box?"

Zara heard this and replied, "There was no box, Aunt. I bought it from an online store called Arcadia. The store used to sell agricultural products. I think the owner probably makes this themselves..."

Arcadia?

Paige Walsh frowned, thinking. The name sounded very familiar. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

She remembered drinking some honey water at her son Zane Simmons’s place before, which was also from the brand Arcadia.

That honey water had made her feel incredibly comfortable after drinking it.

Now there was this loquat paste...

This Arcadia Store was truly something magical.

Paige Walsh had a housekeeper to take care of her food and clothing, and she only needed to tell her personal assistant to buy whatever she needed. She wasn’t familiar with these online shopping channels.

So she asked Zara, "Zara, can you send me the link to the store?"

Zara quickly replied, "Of course, Aunt. I’ll send you the link right now!"

Paige Walsh followed the link Zara sent and opened The Arcadia Store, but she couldn’t find the product.

Seeing this, Zara quickly said, "Aunt, many of the items in this store have to be snatched up the moment they’re available. If you like this loquat paste, I’ll have my housekeeper keep an eye on it. The next time the owner lists it, I’ll buy a bunch and bring it to you!"

Hearing this, Paige Walsh smiled, nodded, and replied, "Good girl. That’s very thoughtful of you."

*

The temperature had dropped recently, so there was no need for air conditioning, and residential electricity consumption had gone down with it.

Two days ago, Grace Sutton’s clothing factory sent out a notice: the factory was resuming operations!

The factory still had some raw materials in stock and could produce some clothes after reopening.

Grace Sutton found it a bit strange—’surely no one is buying clothes right now...’

But she was still delighted to be able to go back to work and happily prepared to do so.

After being stuck at home for over a year, she felt like she was about to rust!

The clothing factory where Grace Sutton worked was also in the suburbs, not far from the villa. Even more coincidentally, the factory where Miss Joanna Dunn—whom she had met at The Nimbus Hotel—worked was in the same industrial park. This meant Grace Sutton could carpool with Joanna to and from work.

’It’s early June now,’ Melody Summers thought. ’Come October, there will be global snowfall. The temperature will plummet, and a lot of warm clothing will be needed.’

The government must have predicted this, which was why they were notifying some factories to resume production and make supplies for the winter.

Melody Summers had nothing much to do these past few days. Without leaving her home, she had been digging furiously in the mine. Her original plan was to dig up more coal to save for after the blizzards.

But for some reason, her luck had been explosive lately, and she had dug up two very large diamonds in a row.

A red diamond and a purple diamond.

Melody Summers looked it up. According to her research, there were only a few dozen red diamonds over one carat in the entire world, and purple diamonds were even rarer.

Yet the red and purple diamonds she had dug up were both over 400 carats, each the size of an egg. They were also of high purity and had rich, intense colors.

The red diamond was the color of a dark red rose, while the purple diamond had a rare blue-violet hue, with no trace of gray, giving it a mysterious and noble appearance.

Melody Summers had no plans to sell them for now. She really didn’t understand these things. ’A person can’t earn money beyond their scope of knowledge.’ She decided to wait until she had a better understanding of how to price such jewels.

Melody Summers piled the excavated coal in her warehouse, gazed at the distant lake, and sighed.

Her biggest problem now was—that Peach Blossom Value was still at 1.

She previously suspected that her Peach Blossom Value had increased by one point because she had donated security cameras to the property management.

So, over the past few days, Melody Summers had tried donating compressed biscuits to the emergency response office and giving fever reducers to people in her group chat who had fevers, but the Peach Blossom Value hadn’t budged at all.

Melody Summers felt it was hopeless. She just couldn’t figure out what the trigger condition for this Peach Blossom Value was.

She picked a batch of loquats, opened The Arcadia Store, and prepared to list the fruit.

Bored, Melody Summers scrolled through the customer reviews. They were all praising how effective the loquat paste was, and people kept asking when she would restock it.

Melody Summers felt that brewing the paste was too time-consuming, so she hadn’t restocked it since the first batch sold out.

Just as she was looking through her shop messages, one particular message caught her attention.

The other party claimed to be from a research institute in Anworth. They mentioned that the recent volcanic ash had caused air pollution, leading many people to experience respiratory and lung problems. Therefore, they were collaborating with government departments to develop a specific cure for the current issues caused by the volcanic ash.