Section 56: Utilizing Waste

As the holiday drew to a close, Sima took the kitten and spent the last few days staying overnight at Lu Youyou's place. They tacitly avoided mentioning Lu Yuan. Lu Youyou acted like a devoted, virtuous young wife, rolling out noodles, wrapping dumplings, steaming buns, and finding every possible way to cook delicious food for him. Sima, acting as the hands-off manager, spent his free time either petting the cat or drinking tea and reading. He felt completely relaxed, treating Lu Youyou's home as his own, which made her very happy. If they were a real married couple—the kind who registered their marriage, lived together, and raised children—friction and petty arguments would be inevitable. But since they were lovers, sweet as honeyed oil, they actually got along remarkably well.

Marriage is different from dating, and a husband and wife are different from lovers. Marriage means the alliance of two families; it means you marry the sum total of all her social relations, and likewise, she marries the sum total of all your social relations. Both parties must alter their original lifestyles, tolerate and accommodate one another, and invest time and energy into managing a household. It is much like two sets drawing close to form an intersection, sharing common parts while retaining independent parts. Intersection is both a test and a process of grinding away rough edges, much like Schopenhauer’s porcupines in the bitter cold, finally finding just the right distance to endure minimal pricks while gaining sufficient warmth. This is an imperfect yet ideal way of getting along—maintaining a shared intersection while still preserving a sufficient sense of self. However, women are irrational. They throw themselves into a man's embrace, yearning for the moment they can don a wedding gown, dreaming that marriage will knead both parties into a union. To use the porcupine metaphor again, they would rather prick each other until they are covered in wounds just to achieve maximum warmth—or even fail to gain much warmth at all, enduring the bloody wounds entirely to fulfill the perfect form of a union, while ignoring the other person's desperate need to preserve a sense of self.

Growth and maturity demand a lifelong price. From beginning to end, Sima remained clear-headed. He knew what he wanted; he chose Lu Youyou to be his lover and pushed Lu Yuan away, knowing that even if Lu Yuan regretted it, he would never look back. True, Lu Yuan was smart, pretty, and had a good temperament, and would surely make a virtuous wife and mother in the future. But he had no need for a virtuous wife and mother. He had too many things to do and neither the time nor the necessity to waste on a young girl.

Sima had brought along two thick volumes of *The Golden Bough* for amusement. When tired of reading, he would pet the cat and chat idly with Lu Youyou, enjoying the final days of the holiday and ultimate relaxation. Lu Youyou felt nothing was amiss. She liked having Sima stay at home, even if he sat quietly reading by himself. She didn't need to be coaxed, nor did she wish to become anyone's "princess." Things were just fine as they were: seeing each other every once in a while, cooking for him, sleeping by his side, and perhaps having a baby in a few years, living out the rest of her days guarding her son. This was Lu Youyou's life plan.

Though they chatted idly, it was not entirely without purpose. Lu Youyou brought up Li Xiazhi. The young girl was training very hard and was on the verge of qualifying as a national first-tier athlete, but she had pretty much reached her limit. Athletic competition also relied on one's "youth rice bowl" and was heavily dependent on talent—even more cruel than other industries that lived off youth. As for her studies, Li Xiazhi was simply hopeless; she practically failed all her professional courses. When she entered the examination hall, she only answered multiple-choice questions. While others had a one-in-four chance, she guessed one out of four blindly. Ah, if she had a daughter like that, she would surely have a terrible headache.

Sima couldn't help laughing. He had an impression of Li Xiazhi: good physical fitness and pleasant looks. With proper packaging to build a healthy, positive, and uplifting image, and by catching the right trend, she might be able to cash in on the dividends of the first-generation internet influencers. However, he didn't mention this to Lu Youyou. The uncertainties of that path were simply too high; the success of one general is built upon the bones of ten thousand soldiers. Li Xiazhi had a naturally gloomy disposition, and he didn't want it to ruin her in the end. Lu Youyou clearly cared about her a lot and genuinely wanted to hear his opinion. Sima thought for a moment and asked how much disposable cash Li Xiazhi had on hand, as he had insider information regarding some long-term investment and wealth management opportunities.

The look Lu Youyou gave him instantly changed. Sima had no choice but to give up, spreading his hands with a smile and saying, "If you don't believe me, forget it. Don't look at me like that. You make me look like a con artist, and the kind who just started out and is still clumsy at the business..."

Lu Youyou believed Sima wouldn't cheat her, but after thinking it over carefully, she decided not to interfere in Li Xiazhi's life. Investments carried risks, and she didn't have much money anyway, so she let it go. However, since Sima had brought it up, she jumped off the sofa, searched high and low through drawers and boxes until she found her passbook, and shoved it into Sima's hands. She earnestly entrusted him with managing her finances, hoping ideally to achieve "financial freedom." Sima didn't shirk the responsibility and readily accepted it. "Daqin Shipping" was currently still undervalued; failing to make 30 times returns, 20 times was absolute certainty. However, to achieve "financial freedom," just this one haul wouldn't be enough, and they would look for other opportunities later.

The two spent a wonderful three days and two nights together. They shared common topics of conversation, neither grew tired of the other, and the time came to a fitting and natural close. Sima left with the leopard cat, returning to his rented apartment and his own world. After tidying things up, he went to work on time the next day. The "jobs" at the Gu Insect Research Institute hadn't started yet, so Sima planned to sponge off the "special mess hall" meals for a few days and take the opportunity to consult Zhou Lingri about something.

On the first day back to work after the holiday, the "White Dove" did not show up as usual. Sima ran into Zhou Lingri, and they exchanged "Happy New Year" greetings before chatting idly and gradually getting down to business. He asked her how to solve the problem of insufficient essence and blood. Zhou Lingri guessed that he had been frequently driving his Gu insects and finally noticed his own "shortcoming." This truly was a tricky problem; the "special mess hall" was limited to daily nutritional replenishment and couldn't sustain the extra consumption of essence and blood by the Gu insects. She told Sima that the Second Division had a mature substitute plan, but the quantity was limited and reserved only for "Gu masters" going out on field assignments. If Sima had such needs, he could exchange for them using performance points.

Sima humbly asked for instruction, following her lead to probe further. Zhou Lingri told him that he could replenish his essence and blood using "large honeyed pills," which were by-products of artificially cultivating Gu insects—a rather long story. She intentionally kept him in suspense. Sima smilingly swiped his ID card three times and brewed her a cup of top-tier jasmine tea. Zhou Lingri lowered her eyelids, took a few sips, and then continued at a leisurely pace.

It turned out that in order to save costs, the Gu Insect Research Institute needed to promptly cull weak and dead Gu insects from the same batch. Someone had suggested that dead chickens, after high-temperature and high-pressure processing to kill pathogens, could be used as a fishmeal substitute in chicken feed formulas, yielding feeding results comparable to the original formula. Could these weak and dead Gu insects also be "upcycled"? After tinkering with them this way and that, and adding goodness knows what secret ingredients, they used honey as a binder to form pills. Pitch-black and the size of quail eggs, they looked identical to traditional Chinese medicine "large honeyed pills," and since the name rolled off the tongue easily, they simply kept it.

The "large honeyed pills" weren't meant for feeding Gu insects, but for the "Gu masters" to consume. Taking a single pill could rapidly replenish essence and blood, satisfying the demands of combat.