In the room, Yang Xiuyun looked at her daughter and asked with concern, "Zhizhi, is Deng Yan really going abroad just to retrieve the spores from her body?"
Deng Yan, also the real name of Madam Yu, hadn't been called that for a long time, except by Yang Xiuyun.
An Zhizhi frowned upon hearing this. "Mom, why are you asking this too?"
Yang Xiuyun sighed. "Mom is just concerned about you, isn't she?"
"Zhizhi, no one will find out about those spores, will they?" Yang Xiuyun asked again moments later.
An Zhizhi trembled slightly at the question but quickly regained her composure. She frowned and said, "Impossible. In the entire galaxy, no one else knows that mutated plants can also be controlled, except for our family."
Yang Xiuyun nodded, but still felt uneasy. "But the technology on the Empire's side is different. These spores, which can't be detected in the Federation, are immediately found in the Empire. Not only are they found, but they can also be extracted."
An Zhizhi said unhappily, "So what? That spore got into Aunt Yu's body, and by sheer coincidence, it was suppressed by the mutated purple orchid vine's virus and didn't sprout or grow. I didn't do anything!"
Yang Xiuyun paused upon hearing this, then thought it made sense. Zhizhi had originally taken that spore to secretly find an opportunity to place it inside Yu Nong's body.
Zhizhi could control some mutated plants. As long as that spore germinated in Yu Nong's body, Zhizhi could use the mutated plant to control Yu Nong, making him obedient for life, marrying her, and staying with her.
But who could have foreseen?
The spore they had painstakingly obtained accidentally entered Deng Yan's body.
Even if it entered Deng Yan's body, if it could sprout, Zhizhi might have been able to control Deng Yan's thoughts with the mutated plant, thereby influencing Yu Nong to fall in love with Zhizhi, marry her, and stay with her.
But damn it, the mutated purple orchid vine's virus just happened to inhibit the germination of the spore, rendering such a good spore useless.
After so many years, Yang Xiuyun still couldn't help but be jealous of Deng Yan.
She and Deng Yan had grown up together, and she was even more beautiful than Deng Yan. Why did heaven always bestow all the good fortune upon Deng Yan?
Senior Yu was so good, and she had fallen in love with him first, but in the end? Senior Yu fell in love with Deng Yan.
For twenty-five years, she still remembered the scene of her confession to Senior Yu and his rejection. It was so painful, so... humiliating.
She had been mentally prepared for someone as outstanding as Senior Yu to reject her. She could accept it.
But she never dreamed that the person Senior Yu liked would be Deng Yan. Just a month after her failed confession, Senior Yu, blushing, confessed to Deng Yan under their dormitory building.
She and Deng Yan were good friends, friends who had grown up together, classmates in elementary school, middle school, and university.
From childhood to adulthood, she was the one who shone brightly, the one with countless suitors.
Deng Yan was not unattractive, but her personality was gentle and demure, not at all radiant or outstanding. Standing next to her, she was always the foil, the backdrop.
Everyone who approached them noticed her first, then Deng Yan.
But all her pride shattered after Senior Yu confessed to Deng Yan.
She had thought countless times that Senior Yu, being so outstanding, would soon realize Deng Yan's ordinariness and leave her.
But he didn't. She, with her pretense, continued to be good friends with Deng Yan and personally witnessed Senior Yu's affection for Deng Yan. They got their marriage certificate after graduating from university.
The irony was that she was their bridesmaid at their wedding.
Later, she married An Xian. Unfortunately, both she and An Xian had their own thoughts and lacked love. Even sharing the same bed every night, they couldn't develop feelings for each other.
In their uneventful life, she thought it would go on like this forever until An Xian proposed that terrifying idea.
She must have been crazy to help An Xian do such a thing. Before that, she had been afraid, but after it was done, seeing Deng Yan widowed and suffering every day from the mutated virus, she felt immensely satisfied. It all felt so exhilarating!
In the beginning, she would still visit the Yu family to see Deng Yan. Seeing Deng Yan in pain made her feel good.
No longer did she have to live secretly in boundless jealousy.
But after a while, she calmed down a bit and became fearful, afraid that the matter would be discovered. If it was exposed, she would be ruined too.
So she rarely visited the Yu family afterward. She didn't want to see Deng Yan, because every time she saw Deng Yan, she would uncontrollably recall that incident from years ago.
Who would have thought that time would pass so quickly? Unconsciously, ten years had already gone by.
Ten years. Her daughter with An Xian had grown up, and the son of Deng Yan and Senior Yu had also grown up.
Actually, she liked Yu Nong and wanted Zhizhi to be with Yu Nong. This was because Yu Nong was so much like Senior Yu. If Zhizhi could marry Yu Nong, she would feel very content, as if she had married Senior Yu herself back then.
But who could have imagined that after all the trouble, Zhizhi still hadn't succeeded, and Yu Nong didn't like Zhizhi either. No matter what tricks they tried, he wouldn't agree.
Disobedient men were truly annoying.
But fortunately, Zhizhi was smarter than her and could control mutated plants. It took them a long time to come up with this plan, and they spent a long time searching for that spore.
Yet, such a precious spore was ruined by Deng Yan again. Every time Yang Xiuyun thought about it, she couldn't help but get angry. Heaven was always so biased, favoring Deng Yan in everything. Couldn't it favor her for once?
"Mhmm, don't worry, Zhizhi. Even if they find out anything, Mom will absolutely not let them touch you," Yang Xiuyun said, nodding.
"Then what will they do after they extract the spores?" Yang Xiuyun worried again.
Yang Xiuyun frowned and said unhappily, "Zhizhi, Mom heard that Yu Nong and that woman named Lu Wanqing have already cultivated the ancient Earth honeysuckle? And they have already picked a lot of honeysuckle."
"Once the spores are separated, won't they immediately use the honeysuckle to make medicine and start treating the mutated purple orchid vine virus?"
An Zhizhi glanced out the window and sneered, "It's useless."
"What?" Yang Xiuyun was stunned and looked at her daughter in surprise.
An Zhizhi sneered, "What they cultivated is not real ancient Earth honeysuckle at all. I just used some methods to temporarily suppress the mutated properties of those honeysuckles, making them undetectable by ordinary instruments. If they use those honeysuckles to make medicine..."
An Zhizhi and Yang Xiuyun were talking earnestly, completely unaware that the trash robot in the corner was silently recording all their conversation, including video and audio. When it was late at night, under the cover of darkness, it would stealthily transmit this data.