For the first time, Fu Zhu found that having a "cherry-sized mouth" could be truly inconvenient. Take Firefly, for instance. He had been holding the milk bucket in the same position for nearly five minutes, and she was still taking tiny sips. If he moved the bucket with any more force, the milk would spill from the corners of her mouth and drench her clothes.
Firefly, sipping the milk, sensed Fu Zhu's predicament and saw his arm holding the bucket steady. She desperately tried to drink faster, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't speed up much.
Several minutes later, Firefly's stomach was slightly bloated, and the entire bucket of milk was finally declared finished.
Fu Zhu immediately put the iron bucket away and stared intently at the status bar below Firefly's health bar. Silver Wolf, meanwhile, rushed over to Firefly, who was now clutching her stomach and hiccupping in pain.
"Firefly, how do you feel?"
Firefly frowned in discomfort. "Silver Wolf, I feel a little sick..."
Hearing this, Silver Wolf immediately grew anxious. She turned to Fu Zhu, who was still staring intently at Firefly, and demanded, "Fu Zhu, why does Firefly feel sick? Isn't your tool supposed to be able to cure even the Mara-Struck?"
"What's your hurry? A normal person would feel bloated and sick after chugging a whole bucket of milk, let alone Firefly."
Fu Zhu stared at Firefly's status bar for a good while before sighing. "The milk wasn't useless. For a split second there, the Entropic Dissolution Syndrome was actually cured."
"A split second?"
Silver Wolf was confused. She asked, "Cured is cured, right? How can it only be cured for a second? What's going on?"
Fu Zhu wanted to explain, but he didn't know how to articulate the issue with the game's mechanics, so he just gave a casual explanation.
"The healing range of the milk is limited. It can only cure illnesses that aren't part of the body's original makeup. But you said Firefly's syndrome is due to a genetic defect. So, the moment the milk cured it, the genetic defect caused it to relapse."
After hearing Fu Zhu's explanation, Silver Wolf's eyes dimmed, and she slumped down beside Firefly in dejection.
She never imagined that after going through so much trouble, even bringing in the incredibly capable and unfathomable Fu Zhu, there was still no way to cure Firefly.
Seeing Silver Wolf looking so dejected, Firefly quickly reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, comforting her softly, "It's okay, Silver Wolf. I feel much better after drinking the milk. See, I can even jump around now!"
To prove her point, Firefly quickly stood up from the sofa and bounced on the spot a few times. But after just a few hops, she couldn't help but clutch her stomach with one hand and her mouth with the other, a pained expression on her face.
Fu Zhu shook his head with a speechless sigh. He placed a hand on Firefly's shoulder and pushed her back down onto the sofa.
"A patient shouldn't be jumping around. What if you jump yourself to death right now? Then I'd have to consider reviving you with a different method."
Hearing this, Silver Wolf froze for a moment, then shot her head up to look at Fu Zhu. "You still have other methods?"
"Who do you think I am?"
Fu Zhu crossed his arms and grinned. "Besides the milk, I have three other strategies to try."
As he said this, not only Silver Wolf but also Firefly looked over at him with expressions of astonishment.
Fu Zhu raised one finger first. "I think all three of these methods are pretty reliable, so I won't bother ranking them as upper, middle, or lower."
A spark of hope rekindled in Silver Wolf's eyes. She had been paying close attention to Fu Zhu's activities, and she had seen in Elio's scripts that every time the Astral Express crew encountered a problem, Fu Zhu would always propose his upper, middle, and lower strategies to help them break the deadlock.
She hadn't expected Fu Zhu to propose three strategies this time as well! And from the sound of it, all three seemed to be upper-tier strategies!
"Fu Zhu, hurry up and tell us!"
"Relax. First, there's the combination of a Golden Apple and a Potion of Weakness. This treatment can restore a creature to its healthiest state. Second, there's the Totem of Undying I gave you before. I'm sure you gave it to Firefly. As long as the totem is triggered, it will also clear the negative status effects on her body. Third, I know a genius who specializes in the field of biology. She might have a solution. You can choose from these three."
After hearing Fu Zhu's three strategies, Silver Wolf instinctively wanted to choose the third one. Given Fu Zhu's power and status, the genius he knew had to be from the Genius Society. With the help of such a genius, Firefly's illness could surely be cured.
However, she didn't make the choice. Instead, she turned to look at Firefly.
"Firefly, you choose."
Firefly thought for a moment, then looked up at Fu Zhu. "Mr. Fu Zhu, can I choose the first one?"
"Oh?" Fu Zhu looked at Firefly with some surprise. "The third strategy involves a genius from the Genius Society, you know."
After hearing this, Firefly still shook her head. "Yes, I believe a person as outstanding as you must know someone equally outstanding. But I've already caused you so much trouble. It wouldn't be right to put you through the great effort of introducing me to a genius just to treat my illness."
---o---
Although Firefly didn't know what price Silver Wolf had paid to get the "enemy" Fu Zhu to agree to help her, she didn't want to add any more trouble.
"Fine."
Seeing Firefly's firm attitude, Fu Zhu didn't say anything more. He directly took a splash potion of weakness from his inventory and smashed it on her body.
The splashing potion instantly soaked Firefly's thin clothes. The sudden chill made her gasp, and she subconsciously moved her hands to cover the sensitive parts of her body, looking up at Fu Zhu with a blush of embarrassment and indignation.
"Mr. Fu Zhu, isn't this potion supposed to be for drink—ngh!"
Before Firefly could finish her sentence, she suddenly felt an unprecedented wave of pain from within her body. The numerous lines from her Entropic Dissolution Syndrome, which had been faint, now crawled across her pale face.
"Firefly!" Silver Wolf cried out anxiously, then looked toward Fu Zhu.
Fu Zhu calmly took a golden apple from his pocket and held it to Firefly's mouth. "Eat this."
Weakened, Firefly wanted to open her mouth, but the pain made her subconsciously clench her jaw shut, making it impossible for her to eat the apple.
Seeing this, Fu Zhu had no choice but to try another method. He first took a small bite of the golden apple himself, then pinched the small piece between two fingers and carefully brought it to Firefly's lips.
Firefly's eyes were squinted from the pain. Seeing the piece of apple Fu Zhu offered, she managed to force her mouth open and eat it.
During the feeding, Fu Zhu's fingers inevitably touched Firefly's lips, causing a faint blush to spread across the pale-faced girl's cheeks.
Several minutes later, with Fu Zhu's help, Firefly had finally eaten the entire golden apple. Her whole body began to shrink back on the sofa, trembling uncontrollably.
Watching this, Silver Wolf asked Fu Zhu worriedly, "What happens next?"
"All we have to do now is wait. Don't worry, the shivering is a normal reaction."