Chapter 157: Bai Bai Mengmeng's Request

Inside the refining room.

Li Luo held Bai Bai Mengmeng's little hand, the two of them staring at each other wide-eyed. After quite a while, he finally spoke: "This thing can make you taste bitterness?"

Bai Bai Mengmeng nodded vigorously, her big eyes shining as she looked at Li Luo.

Although that flavor was utterly unbearable when Li Luo tasted it, for Bai Bai Mengmeng, who had not tasted anything in many years, it was simply a delicacy beyond compare.

If Li Luo had not held her back—and it really was too unladylike—she would even have wanted to lick the table!

"Calm down, restrain yourself!" Seeing her eyes, Li Luo hurriedly reminded her.

Then his gaze swept around. He spotted a plate of melons and fruits on a nearby table, took them out, and handed them to Bai Bai Mengmeng: "Try these."

Bai Bai Mengmeng took them, bit into one full of anticipation, then sadly shook her head: "No taste."

Li Luo scratched his head. It seemed that the thing he had accidentally whipped up only let Bai Bai Mengmeng briefly sense bitterness, but had not cured her strange "loss of taste" ailment.

"Then this stuff is pretty useless." Li Luo was a bit disappointed. He had thought he was really something—something he casually threw together could actually resolve Bai Bai Mengmeng's "loss of taste."

"No, Captain, this is still very useful!"

Bai Bai Mengmeng grew excited. With teary eyes she looked at Li Luo and said: "You can make me temporarily sense bitterness, so there's no reason you can't give me other tastes too. There must be something in this failed product of yours that can stimulate my sense of taste!"

"If—if we can find out what it is, there's no reason it can't possibly cure me!"

"Captain, Captain, please, help me!"

Bai Bai Mengmeng grabbed Li Luo's clothes, abandoning even her usual shyness, her voice urgent.

Seeing Bai Bai Mengmeng practically hanging off him, Li Luo was a bit embarrassed. Just as he was about to speak, he saw the refining room door suddenly pushed open. A shadow shifted, and Student Xin Fu's face poked in through the doorway.

And then he saw the two of them in the refining room, practically pressed together.

The atmosphere went silent for several seconds.

"Sorry, I heard sounds just now, so I came to check, but I didn't see anything. Please, carry on." Student Xin Fu said in a low voice, then slammed the door shut behind him with a bang.

He leaned against the door, patted his chest, and muttered: "They wouldn't want to silence me by killing me, would they?"

"The captain's amazing—how long has it even been, and he's already conquered Bai Bai Mengmeng?"

"But does Senior Jiang know about this? Or is this something Senior Jiang allows? The captain has already taken care of Senior Jiang too?"

"Holy crap, impressive—truly a model for us all."

Student Xin Fu kept sighing in admiration, shook his head, and left, while considerately locking the main door from the outside for the two of them.

"Did this guy misunderstand something?"

Li Luo stared at the tightly shut door and couldn't help muttering. The way Student Xin Fu had looked at him just now was as if he were looking at some kind of beast, which made him very unhappy.

Bai Bai Mengmeng, however, had no mind for any of this. She pleaded: "Captain, please!"

Li Luo forcibly pushed Bai Bai Mengmeng away, straightened his clothes helplessly, and said: "It's not that I don't want to help you, it's that I don't even know how this thing was refined myself. How could I possibly cure you?"

Bai Bai Mengmeng said: "Even if it was by accident, there must be a trail to follow. As long as we try bit by bit, there's always a chance of success!"

Li Luo felt a headache coming on. What an enormous workload such trial and error would be.

"Captain, as long as you help me solve the 'loss of taste' problem, I-I'll sell myself to you for four years!" Bai Bai Mengmeng knew her request was unreasonably excessive, and in her desperation, she was letting words slip without thinking.

Li Luo was stunned, staring at Bai Bai Mengmeng in alarm.

Only then did Bai Bai Mengmeng come to her senses. Her little face flushed red as she said: "No no, I mean—I'm saying that all the Spirit Water Odd Light formulas I've researched over these four years, I'll give them all to you! Captain, I can tell you're quite interested in Spirit Water Odd Light formulas!"

Only then did Li Luo breathe a sigh of relief, but then his heart began to race a little at Bai Bai Mengmeng's words, because it had struck right at his weak point. This girl must have seen through his thoughts just now—turns out she wasn't stupid after all.

Given Bai Bai Mengmeng's special research methods, the results of four years' work would absolutely be an enormous fortune, its value even exceeding that of the entire Xiyang House.

Li Luo was silent for several breaths, then said with a bitter smile: "You silly girl, don't you understand your own worth?"

Bai Bai Mengmeng's eyes were perfectly clear. She said earnestly: "I understand, but... I really want to know what sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy feel like. I don't want every meal to be like chewing wax. Captain, you haven't lost your sense of taste, so you can't understand why a bitterness that you find hard to swallow is something I savor so eagerly, so joyfully."

Li Luo looked at the longing in Bai Bai Mengmeng's eyes, and for a moment his feelings were complicated. It turned out she knew everything all along. But just as she said, anyone who had not personally experienced this feeling could not understand her longing.

"Bai Mengmeng, I do need high-grade Spirit Water Odd Light formulas right now. The conditions you've described are simply impossible for me to refuse."

Li Luo's expression grew serious as he said: "But you don't really need to 'sell yourself' for four years. I'm Li Luo, and I'm not so greedy as to have no bottom line."

"I'll do my utmost to try and see if I can help you recover your sense of taste. And if I really succeed, all I hope is that if you research a high-grade Spirit Water Odd Light formula, you'll sell it to me first."

"In terms of value, I'll pay you according to market price, but there's one condition—because of the situation at House Luolan Mansion, I can't pay that much all at once, so I might compensate you with a fixed percentage of the annual total sales of this Spirit Water Odd Light going forward. I think in the long run, what you get won't be less than the value of a direct sale."

"Really? Captain, you're really willing to help me?" Bai Bai Mengmeng's little face was full of excitement and joy.

Li Luo said somewhat helplessly: "You don't seem to have noticed the conditions I mentioned."

"Okay, okay, Captain, whatever you say, I'll go along with it!" Bai Bai Mengmeng hurriedly replied.

Li Luo was speechless, but knowing Bai Bai Mengmeng was too excited right now, he didn't press the point with her. Instead he said: "In that case, let's first analyze this defective product together and try to figure out what materials are in it and what changes occurred."

After saying that, he gathered up some of the dark green liquid on the table. The two of them huddled together and began researching bit by bit.

Unaware of the passing time, several hours went by.

But in the end, the two of them only managed to identify some of the materials. These materials, honestly, weren't rare, nor did they have any particularly strange properties, so for the moment neither of them understood why combining them would stimulate Bai Bai Mengmeng's sense of taste.

"Let's stop here for today. We'll continue the research later." Li Luo said.

Bai Bai Mengmeng's eyes were also a bit weary. Although she could keep going, she didn't want to keep Li Luo with her the whole time, so she could only nod.

Creak.

Just then, the refining room door was pushed open again. Instructor Xi Chan walked in, eyeing the two of them suspiciously. "Are you two planning to spend the night here?"

She raised the chain in her hand: "And the door was locked this tight? What were you two planning to do?"

Bai Bai Mengmeng's little face turned beet red, and she lowered her head and ran off in embarrassment.

Li Luo, meanwhile, cursed: "It must have been Student Xin Fu!"

He said solemnly to Instructor Xi Chan: "Teacher, we're innocent!"

Instructor Xi Chan leaned against the door, her gaze fixed on Li Luo with a half-smile. "Li Luo, don't tell me you've even resorted to a honey trap? I really did underestimate you."

Li Luo glared and let out an anguished roar.

"I'm really innocent!"