Chapter 11

"Wait, if it was a car accident, why is the situation not that serious? The Book of Enlightenment didn't specify what would happen, could it just be hinting at an accident?"

Xu Mo's heart was filled with doubt and unease.

Just then, Xiao Chen said, "Walk properly, why are you swaying so much?"

Looking up, he saw that Old Li was swaying as he moved from one side of the SUV to the other, almost colliding with Xiao Chen as they passed. Xiao Chen patted his shoulder and scolded him with a laugh.

Old Li replied, "I'm not swaying." He didn't even realize he was swaying. He opened the passenger door, swayed in and sat down, still moving around.

Xiao Chen suddenly lowered his voice and asked quietly, "Hey! Did you take Dream Powder?"

Old Li hurriedly said, "No, I haven't. I've been with you, how could you not know if I took it? Besides, that stuff is so expensive, how could I afford it? I just had a little drink."

He seemed to want to control his voice but ended up speaking loudly.

Xiao Chen frowned, "How much did you drink?"

Old Li said, "Not much, just a small cup. I knew you were going back to the city and needed me to drive, so I didn't dare to drink too much."

Xiao Chen asked in confusion, "A small cup and you're drunk?"

Old Li reached up to scratch his head but ended up scratching his face, "I'm puzzled too. My tolerance isn't usually this low. Maybe there was something wrong with the alcohol. Damn, they dare to sell fake alcohol in the canteen. I'll settle this with them later..."

His voice grew softer as Xiao Chen started the car, turned it around, and drove away.

Liu Qian suddenly leaned over to Xu Mo and whispered, "Dream Powder is the name of the hallucinogenic drug that Shen Bancheng controls, as I mentioned to you before."

Xu Mo nodded. When he first heard about this drug, he had considered using it for his breathing meditation, wondering if it would have any effect.

Su Yan suddenly called out, "It's the white fuzz on the fruit. The white fuzz is toxic. The person who ate it without washing it got anesthetized and almost caused a car accident by driving into a ditch."

She looked down at the green fruit in her hand, as if avoiding a snake, and threw it away, then ran to the water well to wash her hands.

Liu Qian's body trembled when he heard this. He stared at the green fruit on the ground, his face suddenly becoming serious, and he walked over.

Xu Mo's heart stirred, and he followed, asking, "You suspect that the Dream Powder is extracted from the white fuzz on the green fruit?"

"Shh! Keep it down, don't let the others hear," Liu Qian quickly reminded him, glancing uneasily at Zhao Hongzhe and the others, who were not paying attention and were washing their hands at the water well. He felt more at ease and then showed an excited expression, "Just a suspicion, but if it's true, we'll be rich."

He bent down to pick up the green fruit, "Whether it's real or not, we'll know after a test."

Xu Mo also became excited: If it's true, he could try it in his breathing meditation.

The two picked up all the green fruits, and Liu Qian whispered, "Let's go somewhere no one can see us to test it."

Seeing Xu Mo nod, he then raised his voice and said to Su Yan and the others, "Xu and I have something to do, we'll be gone for a while. Stay here and don't run around."

Su Yan asked, "Where are you going?"

Xu Mo, quick on his feet, replied, "We're going to throw these green fruits away so no one picks them up."

Liu Qian smiled and secretly gave him a thumbs up, whispering, "Good, now that we've taken these green fruits, I was worried they might suspect something."

They could still hear Su Yan and the others talking from a distance. Guo Xia asked anxiously, "The fruit is toxic, will we be okay if we ate it?"

Su Yan said uncertainly, "Only the white fuzz on the outside is toxic."

Xu Tao said, "Why do I feel a stomachache?"

Su Yan glared at him, "It's probably just your imagination. I don't feel anything."

Xu Mo and Liu Qian walked several dozen meters away, hidden by trees, and stopped.

Liu Qian sighed with relief, his face showing uncontainable excitement, "Shen Bancheng made a lot of money from Dream Powder, which is why he became the boss of Huai City. The distribution and sales of Dream Powder are all under his control, and it can't be bought anywhere else. So, people have long suspected that he made it himself."

He held a green fruit up to his eyes, examining the white fuzz, "Dream Powder can be taken directly or rolled in paper and smoked, with the same effect. After using it, you feel like you're floating in the clouds. As long as you focus, the hallucinations are almost indistinguishable from reality. When I was with Brother Hu San, I had the chance to try it once. Hey! The feeling is amazing, you can play with any celebrity or have any woman you want, but after the effect wears off, you feel empty."

"If the white fuzz on the green fruit is really the raw material for Dream Powder, it should have the same effect, even if it hasn't been processed. The effect might be a bit weaker, but not much."

"I'll try it first." He brought the green fruit to his mouth, lightly licked the white fuzz, and then closed his eyes.

Xu Mo asked nervously, "How does it feel?"

Liu Qian's body suddenly trembled, and his face turned red. After a while, he opened his eyes, looking extremely excited. He jumped up from the ground and laughed, "Ha! This isn't just the raw material for Dream Powder, this is Dream Powder. Shen Bancheng's Dream Powder is made by scraping off these white hairs, grinding them into powder, and that's it, no processing at all."

He jumped and shouted, "We're rich, we're rich, Brother Xu, we're rich."

Xu Mo also became excited and asked, "How is the effect?"

Liu Qian smiled awkwardly, "The effect? It's the same as Dream Powder. Damn, after I tried it, I immediately saw that girl. I wanted to take care of her right there, but since Brother Xu was with me, I had to let her go for now. And I only licked it, so the effect wasn't strong enough and will wear off soon. I didn't have time to comfort her, hum! I'll talk to her again when I have more time tonight."

Xu Mo didn't care about his thoughts and wanted to try it in his breathing meditation but was worried about getting addicted. He asked cautiously, "Will you really not get addicted after using Dream Powder?"

Liu Qian patted his shoulder, "Of course not, why would I lie to you?"

Xu Mo hesitated for a moment and then said, "Give me a few."

"Half of them," Liu Qian generously divided the green fruits and gave half to Xu Mo, then said, "Let's go ask Su Yan where these green fruits came from. There must be more in that place."

Xu Mo smiled, "The key isn't the green fruits, but the plant that grows them. If we can transplant one of those plants, we'll really be rich."

Liu Qian slapped his forehead, "You're right, you're smart, you think faster than I do." He sighed, "Reading more books is really beneficial!"

Xu Mo thought about his own situation and found the comment a bit ironic.

Liu Qian looked at the green fruits in his hand and frowned, "This stuff can't be put in a pocket. If the white fuzz is rubbed off, it won't work, and we can't take it back like this and be seen."

He took two pieces of paper from his pocket and gave one to Xu Mo, "The effective part of the green fruit is the white fuzz. We'll scrape it off and wrap it in the paper."

A few of the green fruits had no white fuzz, and the two assumed Su Yan had rubbed it off, feeling very regretful. After finishing, they returned the same way.

When they asked Su Yan, the plant that grew the green fruits was in a small valley nearby, no more than half a kilometer away.

Liu Qian wanted to go pick them right away, but Xu Mo stopped him, "If we go now, won't it make people suspicious? The plant won't run away. We can go after work tonight."

Liu Qian agreed, but the work for the day was not very productive. Zhao Hongzhe and the others were just lazy, so the progress was not much better than the previous half day.

When the tall and thin Xiao Chen came back to check their progress, he was very dissatisfied and scolded them harshly, warning them that if they didn't work properly, they would be fired.

Xu Mo and Liu Qian agreed verbally but were not really convinced. After dinner, they eagerly went to the small valley where the green fruits grew.

"Found it!"

As soon as they entered the small valley, they saw a patch of green plants growing by the mountain wall at the entrance.

The plants were less than half a meter tall, with large, palm-shaped leaves. Each plant had a few green fruits hanging sparsely. It was a wild plant, but neither of them recognized it.

They checked the green fruits on the plants and were surprised to find that most of them had no white fuzz. They found only a dozen or so with a small amount of white fuzz covering the surface.

Only a few green fruits were completely covered with white fuzz.

Liu Qian wondered, "Could it be that the white fuzz only grows after the green fruit matures? These without white fuzz are probably unripe."

Xu Mo nodded, "That's possible."

Liu Qian said, "Let's pick the ones with white fuzz first. We can deal with the unripe ones later. We have plenty of time, and the part-time job will last a few more days. We can come back to dig up the plants before we leave."

Xu Mo carefully observed the unripe green fruits and asked, "These unripe green fruits look similar to the ripe ones we handled this morning, and some are even larger. Is the only sign of maturity the growth of white fuzz?"

"I don't know," Liu Qian replied with a laugh, "There will be more ripe ones in the next few days, and we can observe them."

Xu Mo suggested, "We should dig up one plant and transplant it nearby to see if it can survive. Otherwise, if we dig it up when we leave and it doesn't survive, that would be a problem."

Liu Qian immediately agreed with this suggestion and picked up a sharp stone, bending down to dig up the plant at the edge.

However, before his hand touched the plant, something suddenly fell off and slithered into a crack in the rocks.

The two were startled to see a small green snake, about twenty centimeters long and as thick as a chopstick, slither away.