Chapter 99: You Really Are Someone Full of Yourself
After several stubborn attempts, Yi Ning finally confirmed that her tolerance for bitterness had plummeted.
Even the caramel latte she’d grabbed from the fridge earlier felt too bitter to bear.
This couldn’t just be explained by decreased adaptability—her tolerance bar for bitterness had been reset to zero, and then filled with a value of -100!
Staring at the hand-ground coffee she’d painstakingly brewed, Yi Ning’s little face scrunched again like a chrysanthemum.
Too bitter to accept.
But after all that effort, she couldn’t bring herself to throw it away.
With no other choice, Yi Ning ran to the fridge and came back hugging a can of sugar.
One spoonful added.
She stirred the coffee and lightly licked the tip of the spoon.
“Mmm—”
Still bitter!
To minimize the suffering, Yi Ning dumped the sugar straight from the can.
She added a lethal dose of white sugar.
After burning through nearly a tenth of her sugar stash, Yi Ning finally confirmed—
This cup of coffee was now utterly undrinkable.
The overwhelming reinforcements from the sugar front had turned the taste into a cloying sweetness even she, now a slave to sugary things, found hard to tolerate.
And yet, the cunning bitterness hadn’t been defeated. It mixed with the sweetness, lying in wait, only to ambush her tastebuds the moment they let their guard down.
Yi Ning was struck down by a bullet from the shadows.
Bang!
She slammed the coffee cup heavily onto the table.
Drops of the dark brew splattered across the surface.
In that moment, all her accumulated frustration exploded.
“So annoying! Why do I have to endure this horrible taste alone?”
“I’m gonna make the whole world suffer with me! This pain… of slaving over a dish only for it to turn out as cursed cuisine!”
Dark thoughts began to swirl in her mind.
“That’s it—I’m going to invent a Super Invincible Turn-Your-Cooking-Into-Cursed-Food Machine! From now on, everyone will only eat cursed dishes!”
“Hehehehehe~”
As her twisted ideas spread, so did her creepy laughter.
Yi Ning picked up her coffee cup and wobbled her way toward the lab.
At the lab door, she finally “woke up,” glanced down at the black coffee in her hand.
Why am I bringing this thing?
She tilted her head and changed direction toward the bathroom.
This stuff belonged in the sewer.
No!
Wait!
Too wasteful.
She stopped mid-step, realization dawning.
Wasn’t there a better place than the sewer?
Lu Zheng’s face popped into her mind.
She’d soon have an important guest—how could she not “treat” him properly?
A sinister grin twisted her lips.
She veered to the fridge, tucked the cursed coffee inside, and—almost on reflex—grabbed two more bottles of coffee.
She’d probably need to stay up a bit tonight.
But as the fridge door closed, reality hit her.
She couldn’t handle bitter stuff anymore.
A faint sadness spread through her.
Goodbye, coffee I bought.
Even though half the box remained untouched.
Goodbye, coffee beans I still had.
She’d barely drunk three or four bags.
After a literary moment of poetic farewell to her coffee days, Yi Ning replaced the coffee in the fridge and took out two energy drinks instead.
Then she entered her storage room and dragged out a robot, quickly configuring a program to “welcome” Lu Zheng.
First, she would take her clothes from the locker and wash them. Then it would trick Lu Zheng into drinking her handmade coffee. Lastly, it would “gift” him all the undrinkable coffee.
“OK!”
Yi Ning stood up.
Even though she wouldn’t see Lu Zheng suffer with her own eyes, that couldn’t be helped.
She’d enjoy the footage later through the robot’s camera feed.
Yi Ning entered her lab, locked the door, and changed into her lab gear.
Only then did she recall something she’d forgotten.
Right… she still hadn’t built the trap for capturing Rigil.
Whatever.
She shoved the thought aside in an instant.
I’ll just get up early and deal with it tomorrow.
She pulled out her tools and began crafting her latest evil invention.
…
Elsewhere—
Outside Dr. Alien’s evil research base.
Lu Zheng stood at the entrance, moments away from being “generously treated” by Yi Ning.
A strange emotion stirred deep inside him.
“Can you bear the weight of another’s life?”
“‘I’m willing to do anything’—those words are heavy.”
“You really are someone full of yourself.”
He was still wrapped up in Yi Ning’s “lesson.”
After a long while, Lu Zheng finally let out a deep sigh.
Her words had stabbed into him like blades, one after another.
How could I ever bear someone else’s life?
He’d forgotten just how heavy those words really were.
So complacent.
Was it because he’d been transferred to the remote, peaceful D-City?
Or…
Was it because he’d found another friend from the “evil” side?
Lu Zheng slapped his cheeks, trying to calm himself down.
What’s done is done.
All he could do now was carry that past forward.
“Hah~”
He chuckled softly.
Carry the past and keep moving forward.
That he would be the one to say such grand words.
So pretentious.
If he truly had the resolve to carry the past, he wouldn’t have rejected Dr. Mandel’s help.
He would’ve accepted the punishment instead of coming to this early-retirement city called D-City.
And dragged Qiu Yu down with him.
Though she claimed she just wanted a slower-paced job, having grown tired of the intense work at the borderlands—
Lu Zheng knew.
That was just an excuse.
He’d heard from Dr. Mandel that the Hero Association had planned to assign Qiu Yu to the prestigious N-City as branch director.
But she turned it down to follow him to this backwater D-City.
And after learning all this, what did he do?
Nothing.
“Ha…”
Lu Zheng laughed at himself again.
Just like Yi Ning had said—
He really was someone full of himself.
He walked into the base.