Wanderer of the Pokémon World

Chapter 303: Strange Emotions

Just like now, most of the permanent residents in Pallet Town were middle-aged and elderly people, along with some children.

Pallet Town, like many smaller communities, was facing the same problem of a declining younger population.

"Forget it, let's not talk about this for now," Xiu said, steering the conversation away from land grants.

After hearing what Professor Oak said about the ease of acquiring land, Xiu momentarily gave up the idea of taking over the traitor's house. He turned the topic back to the situation in Viridian City and its surroundings.

At this time, Xiu heard a very important piece of information from Professor Oak: the Kanto League planned to thoroughly reorganize Viridian City and its sphere of influence, aiming to completely eliminate Team Rocket's presence and influence there.

Of course, in Xiu's opinion, this was just a convenient excuse. What the League really wanted was to reorganize and, essentially, fleece those companies and wealthy individuals who had fled from Celadon City during its crisis, to make up for the massive economic losses incurred this time.

These fleeing entities just happened to run into the League's "restructuring" efforts.

Even if this wasn't the explicit reason, the League would undoubtedly find another pretext. The reason the League was being so financially aggressive was, naturally, that it was desperate for money.

Faced with two consecutive major disasters, the Kanto region, particularly around Viridian and Celadon, was now in tatters.

In addition, the widespread riots and destruction in Viridian Forest had crippled one of Viridian City's foundational industries: the harvesting and processing of valuable forest materials.

Now, not only did the League have to find a way to make up for the losses caused by these two incidents, but it also needed a vast amount of money to rebuild and redevelop.

Professor Oak's face showed a hint of weary casualness as he said lightly, "These people did not follow official arrangements to evacuate in an orderly fashion during the critical moment of the Viridian crisis.

Instead, they fled on a large scale, causing widespread panic among the general populace. Now that Viridian City has a chance to recover and assert control, they will definitely be liquidated to some extent.

Even if their actions weren't strictly illegal, they will definitely have to pay a price. After all, the foundation of their wealth, their businesses, cannot simply escape accountability or contribution to the recovery effort."

Xiu listened to what Professor Oak said without having much to add. Who could get to a high level of wealth or influence without some questionable dealings?

It was just that no one had bothered to check too closely before. Now that the League desperately needed money, these "piggy banks" – the wealthy individuals and corporations – had to be smashed open, and the money inside taken out.

The truly big players, the corporate giants, could not be easily moved or broken, or they could simply afford the "compensations" and "fines."

But the small and medium-sized enterprises were not necessarily so fortunate. It was even darker than that; the big players would likely form alliances to divide up the assets of the struggling small and medium-sized businesses.

You want money, I want resources. It was a familiar pattern.

Fortunately, Xiu was now in a position to benefit from this "big situation." His prior arrangements and actions in Viridian City had allowed him to avoid the most critical, damaging moments, yet he had retained and even strengthened the opportunity to cooperate with the Joys.

In this incident, he had stood firmly on their side and spared no effort to provide crucial help. Then, when the "cake" of assets and opportunities was divided afterward, he, through his association, would likely be one of the beneficiaries.

So, naturally, he felt no particular mercy for those who would be "liquidated."

But then he remembered that Chen's family seemed to have a small business in Viridian City. He made a mental note, but didn't dwell on it, continuing to discuss other matters with Professor Oak.

At this moment, however, someone came and interrupted their communication. Xiu looked up to see Daisy approaching and tactfully shut his mouth.

"Grandfather!" Daisy called out.

"Ah, Daisy," Professor Oak said, walking over to her with a warm smile.

Watching the two of them talking, Xiu had no intention of eavesdropping and turned back towards the warehouse. He had work to do.

He had left many of his own research tasks and responsibilities to Daisy and Xiaochun these past few days, and now he had to take them back and catch up.

Everything was proceeding according to plan, more or less.

After finishing his work at the research institute, Xiu came to the botanical garden. He still needed to communicate with Chen and his family about some matters, particularly regarding Sol's unique abilities.

But when he knocked on the door, he found that the person who opened it, Rinko, looked a little strange, her expression unsettled. This immediately aroused his vigilance.

"What happened?" he asked directly.

After saying that, he walked into the house without waiting for her reaction, his eyes quickly scanning the living area.

After a quick glance, he saw that Chen and his family were not in the living room. Xiu couldn't help but look back at Rinko with a questioning gaze.

Rinko also noticed Xiu's keen reaction and knew that he might have misunderstood something. She quickly explained, "I'm fine. They are in the room upstairs, studying with Sol."

"Is there anything… special?" Xiu pressed, sensing her underlying unease.

Rinko frowned and pondered for a moment before whispering, "Sol is… amazing. She can finish reading a book very quickly. She can basically remember the contents at a glance and understand the meaning almost immediately.

She finished reading the several illustrated Pokémon encyclopedias and basic care books you left behind in just one night."

As she spoke, a trace of fear and profound confusion appeared on Rinko's face. "I was thinking of teaching her, helping her learn. But it turned out she was the one teaching me, pointing out nuances I'd missed.

Now, I can only get her more advanced books, some on botany, to read, just to keep her occupied."

Xiu immediately understood why Rinko had become like this. It was very simple. She obviously had not expected that a child who was only nine years old would possess such a terrifying, almost prodigious learning ability.

Sol's performance far exceeded Rinko's normal cognition and expectations.

Simply put, it was the sense of disconnection, of bewilderment, caused by the mismatch between her expectations and the startling reality.

At the same time, when Rinko faced this extraordinary ability, she would involuntarily compare it with her own situation.

It would take her a lot of time and dedicated energy to fully understand a complex book, but Sol only needed to take a quick glance and turn the page.

This complete, overwhelming difference in ability made her feel frustrated, inadequate, as if everything she had diligently insisted on, her own scholarly efforts, had become somewhat meaningless in comparison.

Together, these two feelings – bewilderment and inadequacy – extended to the most direct human emotion: fear of the unknown, of something so far beyond her comprehension.

After understanding the reason for her distress, Xiu knew how to relieve Rinko's emotions.

"Look at me," Xiu said gently, placing his hands on her shoulders and making her face him directly. "The source of your emotions is…"

After carefully analyzing and articulating her feelings back to her, Xiu finally began to counsel her. "The difference between people is huge, Rinko.

In front of true geniuses, those with extraordinary innate talents, we often have to admit that we are just ordinary people in comparison.

But admitting this gap does not mean that we are inferior to those people in our own right. There are far more ordinary people like you and me in this world than there are prodigies."

He continued, his voice calm and reassuring, "You are you! You are no worse than the average person; in fact, you are still Rinko Murasame, who is far superior to most ordinary people when it comes to your knowledge of plants and botany.

Knowing this, understanding your own worth and unique strengths, you can naturally remain true to yourself when facing these unsettling emotions."

After being guided by Xiu's words, Rinko fell into deep thought. After a moment, she smiled bitterly and said, "I'm sorry, Xiu. I made you worry."

"Hehe," Xiu let go of her shoulders and added, "In fact, it all comes down to the simple fact that you have not met enough different kinds of people and have not seen enough of the world's strangeness.

When you have seen more, experienced more, and have witnessed all sorts of incredible things, it will be easier for you to accept phenomena that originally seemed magical, impossible, or even frightening."

Rinko had been trapped in the relative isolation of the botanical garden for so many years, and there were only a few people she could regularly come into contact with.

Naturally, she had comparatively little worldly experience, a narrower vision of what was possible, and perhaps a lower psychological endurance for truly paradigm-shifting encounters.

This was just a small episode. It was natural that Rinko, who possessed a fundamentally good and resilient character to have lived here alone for so long, would recover.

After thinking it through, she became more free and easy in her demeanor.

"Hey! I almost forgot to record my observations on those new plant specimens this morning!" Rinko suddenly remembered the work she had put down, and she looked a little anxious.

"Okay, I'm going to go find Chen and the others for something, so I'll go upstairs first," Xiu said. Seeing that Rinko had recovered, he was too lazy to continue with unnecessary platitudes.

The two of them separated at the door. As Rinko headed towards her botanical labs, Xiu's expression changed slightly, a thoughtful, almost puzzled look on his face.