NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4 - Disappearance
Ruo Manni was born out of wedlock, and Teresa Du never told her who her father was; she only had her mother as her family growing up.
Therefore, it’s easy to imagine how devastating the loss of her mother was for Ruo Manni—it was as if the sky had fallen.
Lin Kexin, trapped within the jade pendant, “watched” as Ruo Manni completely broke down after losing her mother. If it weren’t for Ruo Manni’s mentor, who stayed by her side for a full ten days after Teresa Du’s incident, Ruo Manni might have cried herself into unconsciousness.
However, Mentor Fang had a husband and children, along with her responsibilities at the school, so her time to accompany Ruo Manni was limited. When she wasn’t there, it was the friendly neighbors of Teresa Du who looked after Ruo Manni.
The two were mother and daughter, living as orphans; Teresa Du was an emotionally intelligent woman. After settling down, she made a conscious effort to befriend the neighbors on the same floor, hoping that when she was unavailable, someone could look after her daughter. After all, distant relatives are not as helpful as close neighbors.
As a pharmacist, it was easy for her to get along with the neighbors, so the other five households on the thirtieth floor had harmonious relationships with Teresa Du and Ruo Manni. After years of interaction, there was a bond, and after Teresa Du’s incident, the neighbors took good care of Ruo Manni.
Aoi Dan’s home was right next to Ruo Manni’s, making her a true neighbor, and they were also classmates in different classes at Mingxin Intermediate Academy.
If Lin Kexin remembered correctly, according to the timeline in the novel, Teresa Du had gone missing just a few days before Aoi Dan was reborn.
Lin Kexin watched as Aoi Dan, the top female supporting character after her rebirth, skillfully befriended Ruo Manni, who quickly came to see her as a confidante, and they soon became good friends.
Lin Kexin was almost driven to desperation by Ruo Manni’s actions, as Ruo Manni and Aoi Dan were of similar ages, neighbors, and classmates, which should have made them close friends already.
However, Teresa Du had never liked Aoi Dan from the start and constantly found excuses to keep Ruo Manni away from her, preventing the two from playing together.
But Ruo Manni was just a naive girl; she didn’t notice her mother’s dislike for Aoi Dan. With her mother gone, Aoi Dan’s sweet words and comforting talks made her see her as a good friend.
Lin Kexin thought about Ruo Manni’s nature and wondered if Teresa Du could ever close her eyes after her death. But with Teresa Du gone, what difference did it make whether she could or couldn’t? In the novel, there was no more news about Teresa Du.
The reason for Teresa Du’s disappearance was her stubborn hope that Ruo Manni would graduate from the intermediate academy and be accepted into the prestigious Xuan Gu First Military Academy on Capital Star.
In the Gus Empire, where the average physical potential is rated at 3A, Xuan Gu First Military Academy has very high enrollment standards. For applicants to the Mecha Combat Department, their physical potential must be at least C-level, and they need to have a martial arts level of at least level four to apply. Those who meet these criteria at the age of fifteen or sixteen are considered local prodigies.
Among all the departments at Xuan Gu First Military Academy, the one with the lowest physical requirements is the Mecha Manufacturing Department. Even so, it still requires applicants to have a physical potential of at least B and a martial arts level of at least level two, which is even higher than the requirements for the combat departments of regular military academies.
Moreover, the Mecha Manufacturing Department also stipulates that applicants must have at least C-level telekinetic potential, with a minimum telekinetic level of four to qualify. These conditions meant that, out of the one billion people in the Gus Empire, there might not even be a hundred candidates each year.
Ruo Manni had excellent telekinetic potential, reaching a genius-level 2C, which is why Teresa Du had such high hopes for her.
Ruo Manni did not disappoint her mother; she had already advanced to a level four telekinetic master a year ago. Additionally, Ruo Manni showed promise in mecha manufacturing, having become a level-one mecha manufacturer two years prior. She was even capable of successfully creating the most basic model of a level two mecha online.
However, the trouble was that Ruo Manni’s martial arts potential was slightly below the requirements of Xuan Gu First Military Academy, rated at an ordinary 3A.
Due to the limitation of her martial arts potential, along with Ruo Manni’s lack of enthusiasm for martial arts training, she had not managed to advance to level two, and it didn’t seem likely that she would this year.
As a result, Ruo Manni did not meet the qualifications to apply to Xuan Gu First Military Academy.
Teresa Du, being a pharmacist, had been nurturing Ruo Manni’s health all these years. With the application deadline for Xuan Gu First Military Academy approaching, and with no hope for Ruo Manni to reach level two martial artist in time, Teresa Du was forced to consider other options.
In addition to regular training, martial artists can also take potions to advance. However, using potions can damage one’s foundation, making future advancements difficult. Generally, this method is only chosen when one is in dire circumstances.
There was another option: for young people between the ages of twelve and eighteen, taking a level six enhancement potion had a high chance of increasing their training potential by one or two levels.
Although the enhancement potions have a random success rate, they have at least an 80% success rate with minimal side effects and do not impact future training. This makes them highly sought after. However, these potions are not only expensive but also quite rare.
In the Gus Empire, despite their exorbitant prices, enhancement potions are often available only in name. They are quickly snatched up as soon as they hit the market. Unless one comes from a wealthy or influential family, it’s nearly impossible to obtain one, making it out of reach for someone like Teresa Du, a single mother.
However, Teresa Du is not an ordinary civilian. Shortly after she advanced to a level four pharmacist three years ago, she was fortunate enough to spend a fortune online to acquire the formula for the enhancement potion.
Over the past few years, Teresa Du has tried every possible way to purchase enhancement potions, but unfortunately, she has failed each time. Now that Ruo Manni is already fifteen, time is of the essence. Teresa Du is preparing to go out and find the spirit plants needed to create enhancement potions, hoping to enlist the help of high-level pharmacists from the Pharmacists’ Guild.
Fortunately, Teresa Du has been making preparations for the past two years. She has been collecting all the auxiliary spirit herbs and main ingredients for the enhancement potion. Currently, the only major ingredient she has yet to find is the elusive Wu Shen ( Ginseng).
The rarity of enhancement potions is not due to the difficulty of their preparation, but rather because the five main ingredients are all quite scarce, particularly Wu Shen, which is extremely rare.
Unlike the other four main ingredients, which are limited by quantity, Wu Shen requires plants that are over a thousand years old. It cannot be cultivated artificially and must grow in remote, untouched forests, with a required age of over a thousand years for harvesting. Consequently, the yield of usable Wu Shen is incredibly low.
Moreover, enhancement potions are hot commodities. Due to the extreme scarcity of Wu Shen, the supply of enhancement potions consistently fails to meet demand.
With only six months left until the application for Xuan Gu First Military Academy, Ruo Manni’s situation had not changed at all.
Just as Teresa Du was feeling anxious, she received news that adventurers had discovered Wu Shen on a desolate planet. Overjoyed, she decided to personally hire a team of mercenaries to search for Wu Shen in the wild forests of the desolate planet.
In the book, Teresa Du went on this expedition and was never heard from again.