Chapter 178

After Chen Mu finished washing up, he leisurely came late to the table; he and He Ying are usually busy in the morning, so they are generally the last two to arrive.

Qiming's breakfast is fairly casual; once the food is ready in the kitchen, people come and go in dribs and drabs, much like a buffet.

But today, being the newcomer's first day, everyone arrived relatively promptly.

But dinner is different.

If there's nothing special, no one may miss dinner, and they must eat together.

This comes from Dong Junwei's vision of turning Qiming into one big family; dinner is a proper meal, and in the past it was also the only meal the family could gather to eat.

Of course, this rule isn't written in the charter; it's merely Dong Junwei's personal wish that everyone do this, yet it's the rule most strictly observed.

Chen Mu was the last to sit.

But unlike before, today's breakfast everyone seemed low-spirited; if it were the past, by the time he and He Ying arrived, Wei Dalei and the others would have already finished eating and gone off to do other things.

However today, no one left their seat.

Moreover, everyone was pushing food around with chopsticks, showing no appetite; even Wei Dalei, known as a food machine, ate only half, completely lacking his former voraciousness.

Chen Mu picked up his chopsticks, but discovered he didn't feel hungry at all.

He suddenly understood.

Yu Yuan

On the way back, Chen Mu had already confirmed that as long as he stayed within a certain distance of Yu Yuan, he could absorb his 'nutrients', needing no food or water, and his body would suffer no nutritional issues; a typical example is Li Bo's saliva used to glue a door seam, which didn't dehydrate.

Of course, we currently don't know exactly what that distance is, and whether this 'parasitic' behavior will have adverse effects on Yu Yuan.

It's quite obvious.

After Yu Yuan joined Qiming, over twenty people suddenly parasitized him; the soybean that had already been nearly depleted by three people couldn't withstand the pressure.

Chen Mu is somewhat worried about this; on one hand, he worries that Yu Yuan might be drained of nutrients if he can't get replenished in time.

On the other hand, parasitizing others might be nice, but never feeling hungry seems to lose much enjoyment, especially when encountering something one really wants to eat but has no stomach for it, which seems a bit cruel.

"I really am not hungry at all; I can't eat anything—what should I do?"

Zhao Xiao Yan pushed her own breakfast portion to Wei Dalei.

Old Wei is, besides Yu Yuan, the only one still eating, though his eating speed has greatly declined, and after just two bites he was called away by Tang Jing.

When he returned, they saw Old Wei carrying a box of tomatoes.

These tomatoes were stored in the original wooden box; surprisingly, tomatoes thought to not last a few days still looked quite fresh after over ten days.

Yu Yuan's eyes lit up.

He had already eaten several people's portions, yet it didn't alleviate his hunger symptoms at all.

"Do we have to eat all of these?"

"Do you think you can?" Tang Jing asked.

"No problem."

"However, I can't eat too fast; I need to record a few time points in this process."

"Oh." Yu Yuan swallowed: "What do you need me to do?"

"You don't need to do anything; just start eating now, then follow my directions."

"Mm-hmm."

Yu Yuan walked to the side of the wooden box, picked up a tomato, looked around, gave a silly smile, then shoved it into his mouth.

His eating speed isn't particularly fast, at least far from Wei Dalei's peak, but after a few minutes everyone felt it was unreal.

Over a dozen tomatoes went into his stomach, yet Yu Yuan showed no sign of being stuffed.

Twenty minutes later, Du Jia Jia and others who had finished cleaning the kitchen also gathered around to watch Yu Yuan.

"How many?"

"Seventy or eighty, maybe."

"That's fast."

"Won't his stomach burst?"

"That doesn't conform to conservation of energy."

"Where did all the food go?"

"It's a shame this guy isn't doing eating broadcasts."

"At this extent, people probably wouldn't believe it; if I hadn't seen it myself, I'd think it was cheating."

"..."

Yu Yuan continued eating nonstop, his speed neither increasing nor decreasing, while Tang Jing beside him occasionally asked him a few questions.

"One hour later."

"Stop."

Tang Jing called out to Yu Yuan, who was still eating quickly.

"Any feelings?"

"None..." Yu Yuan wiped his mouth.

"Do you know how many you ate?" Tang Jing asked again.

"I don't know." Yu Yuan shook his head.

"223."

This startled Yu Yuan himself; although that soybean was big, it was only one, far lacking the impact of this number.

Tang Jing then said: "This big box of tomatoes is about 1500; you ate one-seventh."

Yu Yuan patted his chest: "Eating them all would also be fine."

Tang Jing laughed: "I believe that, but I want to ask, how long did you take to eat that soybean originally?"

"This..."

Yu Yuan was stunned for a moment, thought for a while, and said: "I didn't keep track of time, but it was quite long; I didn't finish eating in one day, rested overnight, and only finished it the next day."

"In that case, your way of eating is no different from that of an ordinary person, except that what you ingest is transformed into some kind of energy stored away, then continuously consumed, and at the same time it supplies those around you."

"Hmm."

"When you ate that soybean back then, were you full?"

"It was only when I was almost done eating that I felt full."

"So your appetite still has a certain limit; it's likely that back then a single soybean was already your limit."

"Mm-hmm."

Yu Yuan nodded while habitually picking up another tomato, but then realizing Tang Jing hadn't spoken, she put it down again.

"Keep eating."

Tang Jing watched as Yu Yuan once again ate with great enthusiasm and said: "Currently, Qiming will verify several key points for every special ability, namely: growth potential, functionality, quantitative expression form, and control."

"Take Chang Junyan as an example: his growth potential lies in the number, size, and speed of the sacs growing on his body;"

"As for functionality, it's simple: currently it resists physical injury and repairs wounds;"

"And the so-called quantitative expression form is relatively more complex: it refers to how big and thick the sacs need to be to withstand a certain amount of damage, requiring a specific reference value;"

"And control refers to how the ability user employs their power."

Yu Yuan listened with only partial understanding, her mouth full of tomato, continually nodding.