“Mo Congcong.”
Gu Yun stroked her belly and said calmly:
“You’re sixteen this year, and you insist on drinking fresh milk every day. You don't like supermarket milk, so I have to wake up at the crack of dawn every single day to buy it at the morning market.
At six-thirty in the morning, the vegetables at the market are cheap and fresh. For over a decade, all the vegetables, meat, and eggs in this house have always been the freshest. Because of that, I developed chronic migraines and can’t bear the cold wind.
Your father has rhinitis, so the floors have to be disinfected every day and mopped with disinfectant solution.
You're allergic to dust mites, so the sofa covers, bedsheets, and duvet covers have to be washed every three days and lugged up to the rooftop to dry in the sun—which gave me rheumatoid arthritis.
The underwear, socks, and shoes for you and your father can't be machine-washed. I’m the one bending over every week, squatting on the bathroom floor to scrub them clean piece by piece, which left me with lumbar muscle strain.”
Gu Yun looked at her husband and said coldly, as if she had just heard a ridiculous joke:
“As for your mother?
Is she taking care of me, or am I taking care of her? She wants hand-ground soy milk at five in the morning and lunch on the table by eleven-thirty sharp. Seven days a week, with chicken, duck, fish, and meat that can never repeat. Is she an empress dowager?
With only three hundred yuan a week for groceries, you expect me to feed your father, your mother, your sister's whole family—ten mouths in total! You tell me how I'm supposed to do that!
Your parents gave their entire pensions to your younger brother, not leaving us a single cent. When your father broke his leg last month, who paid for his medication?
We couldn't afford a caregiver, so I was the one staying by his bedside all night, pulling all-nighters one after another. At six in the morning, I had to rush back to make breakfast for the two of you, and then squeeze onto the bus back to the hospital to clean up his waste.
When you made me do all of that, did either of you ever stop to think that I was pregnant?”
“If you didn't want to do it, you didn't have to. Nobody forced you,” Gu Yun's husband replied impatiently.
“Alright, alright, so you just don't want to cook, right? Why bring up so much ancient history and drag things out? If you just wanted takeout, couldn't you have said so?
Besides, why are you being so dramatic? Didn't the older generation get through life the exact same way?
Didn't I just give you two thousand yuan last month? It's only the beginning of the month, and you're out of money already? Couldn't you be a little more frugal instead of spending so lavishly?”
“If I didn't do it? If I didn't do it, was I supposed to live in a garbage dump like a piece of trash, just like you?”
Gu Yun sneered sarcastically:
“Do you even remember that those two thousand yuan were supposed to be my birthday gift?
Do the electricity, water, property management fees, social obligations, Congcong's tutoring fees, and daily living expenses pay for themselves? Don't the clothes, shoes, and socks on your body need to be bought new?
Rice, flour, cooking oil, fruit, snacks—and once the baby in my belly is born, formula, diapers, doctor visits, medication—which of those doesn't cost money?
Back when I was about to get promoted, you sabotaged the condoms so I’d get pregnant with Congcong.
Now, when I said I wanted to look for a job, you got me pregnant with a second child, saying you’d support me.
I was truly a fool to believe you—twice.”
“Honey, it's just your pregnancy hormones talking. Stop overthinking. It really was nothing. I was wrong, and I won't do it again, alright?”
The man suddenly sensed that something was amiss and hurried over to massage Gu Yun's shoulders. But she merely stared at her unfamiliar husband and her sneering son, suddenly overcome with utter exhaustion.
“Let’s get a divorce.”
Gu Yun concealed the jade plaque in her hand, feeling an inexplicable sense of relief well up inside her. Opening the security door, she said slowly:
“I don't want to live the way I used to anymore.”
“Let's get a divorce.”
“This apartment was bought for me by my parents before our marriage. Pack your and your son’s things, and get out.”
Her husband wore an expression of sheer disbelief.
“Mom! What’s that in your hand?!”
Mo Congcong, possessing sharp eyes, had just been wondering why his mother's temperament had shifted so drastically. But upon seeing the outline of the object, a possibility suddenly crossed his mind, making him gasp with excitement:
“Mom! Mom! Is it... is it an Ascension Token?! Wh-where did you—forget it, that doesn't matter! I'm going to be an immortal cultivator soon!!”
—The authorities had released images of the Ascension Token, and countless people had etched its appearance into their memories.
Although there were many counterfeiters, the faint, shimmering white luminescence radiating from a genuine Ascension Token was impossible to replicate.
“Really?! Honey! We’re rich!”
Gu Yun's husband's nostrils flared as he lunged forward, his face flushed red and his eyes glued to Gu Yun's hand, itching to snatch it away that very second:
“Someone offered a hundred million to buy one of these! If it's real, we're set for life, honey!”
“Whether it's real or not has nothing to do with either of you.”
Startled, Gu Yun instinctively pulled her hand back, but the motion only confirmed their suspicions.
“Mom! You can't do this! I'm your son—this belongs to me!”
Mo Congcong screamed, using his tall and sturdy frame to forcefully pin Gu Yun down, lunging to grab the Ascension Token from her hand.
Blinded by the temptation of astronomical wealth, Gu Yun's husband's eyes turned bloodshot as he threw a punch straight toward Gu Yun's lower abdomen to force her to let go—
Yet in the next second, a flash of white light erupted, and two bloody hands fell cleanly onto the floor with a wet thud.
“Aaaaah!”
“Aaargh!”
Piercing screams echoed through the residential complex. Mo Congcong and Gu Yun's husband howled like wild beasts, clutching their cleanly severed wrists.
Hearing the commotion, neighbors poked their heads out into the hallway, only to see the apartment splattered with crimson blood and the father and son rolling on the floor in agony.
On the ground lay two severed human hands.
“Heavens, someone's been murdered! Call the police!”
“What happened?! I thought I heard something about an Ascension Token—”
“Call an ambulance quickly! Someone's going to die!!”
Cradling her belly, Gu Yun looked on in utter bewilderment.
What just happened?
...
In Rio de Janeiro, at a factory dedicated to butchering demon beasts.
Bzzzz—
At the start of the conveyor belt, a massive fish-shaped demon beast lay beneath cold machinery. Sharp blades pierced into its flesh, causing pale-yellow blood to gush out.
Beneath the machine, massive containers collected the peculiar blood.
Forklifts shuttled back and forth across the factory floor. Huge slabs of demon beast meat were sliced with pinpoint precision and transported to various locations based on their grade.
The number of demon beasts escaping from secret realms was steadily increasing.
Yet compared to the seven billion inhabitants of Blue Star, the number of demon beasts was not even a drop in the bucket.
Under the suppression of heavy firepower, demon beasts had become a delicacy. Even Manggu, once ravaged by demon beasts, had now been turned into a stable demon beast breeding ground.
Demon beast meat was strictly graded.
The “Six-Eyed Flying Fish” monster being butchered today was no exception.
Grade 1 was usually the tenderest cut of meat near the fish's brain.
Its color resembled high-grade steak, even possessing a slight jelly-like texture. Consuming it was said to enhance beauty and slow aging.
Grade 2 was the belly meat.
Grade 3 was the dorsal meat.
Grade 4 was the tail meat.
...
Following this hierarchy, the lowest grade was naturally the internal organs of the demon beast.
Even these organs were not wasted. Factory workers would clean out the stomach contents and send them along with the blood to private scientific research institutions.
Demon beast blood was exceptionally valuable, often fetching a high price of one hundred and twenty dollars per gram.
Because humanity's understanding of demon beasts was still limited, unexpected accidents sometimes occurred during processing.
For example, last month, while the factory was butchering a frog-like carcass, the creature suddenly exploded. A kerosene-like substance inside its belly set half the street ablaze.
For days after that, the entire street smelled of burnt flesh.
Shan Lu’s job was to dissect the stomachs and wash the gastric contents under high-pressure water hoses to see if anything valuable could be salvaged.
Sometimes it was rare ores, sometimes undigested demon beast bones—all of which held significant scientific research value.
Although dangerous, the pay was high enough to justify risking her life.
Wait, what is that?
Shan Lu suddenly noticed a flash of white light among the stomach contents beneath the spray of the water hose.
Rate on N.U.
