ALL NOVEL Chapter 43 - A Big Reward
Mai Dongzi was unaware that the edible plants she “discovered” in the desert oasis had earned her considerable fame and credit coins, thanks to Officer Chen’s efforts. As a result, the attention her precious herb harvesting in the forest received was far greater than she had anticipated.
Meanwhile, as she slept comfortably, the survival game show crew was unable to rest peacefully. They were bombarded with messages and were increasingly anxious.
By morning, the entire crew, from the director to the workers, was exhausted, although some still had gleaming eyes. One of these was the female assistant who had previously interacted with Lucy Xi. She had been the one to pick Lucy up when she left the Xi family to join the survival game show, so she had Lucy’s contact number.
The director was constantly receiving messages. Some he ignored, while others he had no choice but to answer. After ending another message, he looked numb.
The female assistant tentatively suggested, “Director, should we contact Miss Lucy and ask her about the situation? Miss Lucy’s live stream room is in chaos.
The discovery of useful plants by Miss Lucy should have been a major promotional highlight, but strangely, it hasn’t made it to any trending forums, and there’s no related discussion even on the Huang Guo livestream platform.
Meanwhile, their crew’s messages have been bombarded with requests to help contact Miss Lucy and discuss collaborating on developing Water Blue Star’s greenery.
She received a message from a direct descendant of one of the top ten families of the Blue and Black Empire. The person promised 5 million in compensation if she could help them contact Miss Lucy within the next two days.
It’s hard not to be tempted by such a large sum of money, especially when the only request is to help contact Miss Lucy, with no other demands.
However, the assistant was not naive. She understood that the quiet surface and the undercurrent of activity, especially with major families involved and such a large reward offered, indicated that the situation was very serious.
She suspected that the plants Miss Lucy discovered might be more than just edible.
Though she wanted the money, she valued her life more. Nonetheless, she was reluctant to give up on such a large sum without trying, so she swallowed her reluctance and went to test the director.
If the assistant could receive such a high offer, the director’s potential reward would be even greater.
However, the director remained unmoved. He considered the assistant’s suggestion and the expressions of the other crew members, realizing that if they made a mistake, he could also be implicated.
He simply said, “Prince Arthur will send someone to handle this matter. Also, Miss Lucy is not someone to be trifled with, so don’t do anything you shouldn’t.”
The crew didn’t know about the private arrangements Prince Arthur had made for Mai Dongzi, but it was well-known throughout the Blue and Black Empire that Miss Lucy’s father was saved by Prince Arthur.
Hearing the director’s words, the crew’s agitation immediately subsided. They might have considered taking risks with someone else, but with Prince Arthur involved, they knew better.
Moreover, as the director said, Miss Lucy was definitely not someone to underestimate. Reflecting on the past few months of news labeling her as a failure, everyone realized that appearances could be deceiving.
Looking at the Xi family, it was rumored that they were in the process of changing the family head.
While people were disappointed, they recalled something: the director claimed to be a distant cousin of Prince Arthur.
According to the relationship chart, it was true, but there was a precondition—everyone believed it only counted if Prince Arthur acknowledged it.
Over the years, people thought it was unlikely that Prince Arthur would remember this distant cousin.
But now that the director had claimed to have private contact with Prince Arthur, the disappointment among the people faded significantly, and they looked at the director with renewed interest.
If the director was indeed recognized by Prince Arthur, then the status of those following the director on the Huang Guo live-streaming platform would also change.
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With the support of the mutated Gastrodia elata, Mai Dongzi was no longer afraid of excessive mental energy consumption and being unable to cope with crises.
She trained her mental abilities thoroughly at night and drank Gastrodia elata juice to recover her abilities, which was quite luxurious. However, the progress she made in one night was almost equivalent to ten nights of training before.
After eating and drinking her fill, Mai Dongzi descended from the tree house and chose the opposite direction from yesterday.
She estimated that someone might come looking for her today.
Her live stream room now had over a hundred million viewers, and such a high-profile display of valuable medicinal plants from yesterday would certainly attract attention.
Thus, the place where she had harvested the medicinal plants yesterday was likely already marked by someone.
Therefore, Mai Dongzi decided not to go back to the area where she had dug up the precious plants yesterday, even though there were still two ginsengs and several Polygonum multiflorum left there.
She observed the forest she passed through; although she was heading in the opposite direction, the surrounding geography and vegetation were similar.
Her wood-based abilities had upgraded to level three during the night, so she planned to experiment again today to see if her abilities could truly detect high-energy plants.
Indeed, after her wood-based abilities were upgraded, her sensing capability improved significantly. It wasn’t long before she entered the forest and detected weak energy fluctuations from a medicinal plant.
She checked and found it was a mutated ginseng. Her sensing range had improved from two meters yesterday to three meters today.
The mutated ginseng was very beneficial to Mai Dongzi, so she naturally wouldn’t miss it. She had only revealed one ginseng in front of everyone yesterday, so she wasn’t afraid of harvesting more in plain sight.
However, she couldn’t use the same method she used yesterday, or others would suspect her if they noticed that while the visible part of the ground was intact, the underground medicinal plants had disappeared.
Making a fortune quietly is something to do only once when the opportunity is rare; doing it continuously would be greedy and could lead to future problems.
Throughout the morning, aside from one mutated ginseng, Mai Dongzi found only one Gastrodia elata.
Perhaps due to Gastrodia elata’s “solitary” nature, its roots were larger and more numerous. When she dug it up, she found the energy concentration to be higher than the Gastrodia elata she found yesterday.
This cluster of mutated Gastrodia elata had twenty-seven pieces. Mai Dongzi took advantage of the situation and secretly collected ten pieces using her mental abilities, while only presenting a few to the live-stream audience.
This number wasn’t too excessive; she had been conservative with her harvest yesterday, only secretly collecting five extra pieces. Thus, the largest cluster of Gastrodia elata known to the public yesterday had twenty pieces.
In the afternoon, even though Mai Dongzi was focused, she only found one Gastrodia elata, a small cluster with only thirteen pieces.