Chapter 170: Girlfriend Rating System

The next morning.

Dawn was just breaking. Soft sunlight streamed through the cracks in the window, casting a bright band of light across the small bedroom. The faint aroma of frying bacon drifted through the air.

When Lu Wei walked out of the small wooden cabin, yawning, he found Bai Ya at the stove, flipping bacon. She wore a self-sewn apron and hummed an unidentifiable tune, looking utterly content.

On a nearby clothesline, clothes smelling faintly of soap berries swayed gently in the breeze. The scent mingled with the aroma of breakfast, creating a strangely heartwarming scene.

After they got back last night, Lu Wei took a bath and went straight to sleep.

Bai Ya had bathed after him, and while she was at it, she also washed both their clothes. She was up until nearly midnight.

This morning, she had gone to the market before dawn to buy fresh ingredients. The coarse wheat bread in her basket still looked freshly baked.

It seemed she was already holding herself to the standard of a “wife” in every way.

However, Lu Wei seemed rather unappreciative of Bai Ya’s “volunteer labor.”

‘She just happened to wash my clothes while she was at it, and she just happened to make an extra portion of breakfast.’

‘Even without me, she’d still have to wash clothes and eat breakfast.’

‘It’s just like what those “sisters” from my past life used to say: even if a man marries someone else instead of them, he still has to buy a house and pay a bride price.’

‘So it’s really nothing to praise her for.’

‘At most, this is worth one point.’

Watching Bai Ya bustle about the stove, Lu Wei yawned and awarded her one point according to his newly established “girlfriend rating system.”

That’s right, it was a new idea he had come up with before falling asleep last night.

As a merchant, every decision he made needed to be backed by data.

Dating was no different.

So, he had invented this “girlfriend rating system” to quantify the “dating suitability” of Bai Ya and the others.

Currently, Bai Ya had 8 points.

The breakdown was as follows—

Is female: +5 points.

Not ugly: +1 point.

Can cook: +1 point.

Plus the 1 point just added, for a total of 8 points.

Meanwhile, the other two fortunate candidates on his list, Aryan and Mirana, had 32 and 20 points, respectively.

Therefore, Bai Ya was still an Aryan and a Mirana short of the 60-point passing score.

‘She has a long way to go.’

Muttering this to himself, Lu Wei turned back into the wooden cabin and began to sort through the loot he planned to sell that morning.

Meanwhile, Bai Ya, who hadn’t noticed him at all, was still bustling about the stove, humming.

Having bathed and changed, she finally no longer looked like a beggar.

Her long, brown hair was loosely tied back with a handkerchief, with a few strands falling alongside her neck, swaying gently with her movements.

The cotton dress she wore, though washed pale, fit her waist snugly.

The soft sunlight cascaded down, draping her in a warm, golden halo.

To be honest, while Bai Ya was certainly nowhere near as beautiful as Freya, any young man of age in Heitai Town would likely find this scene impossible to refuse—

The morning light, the cooking smoke, and a gentle girl making you breakfast.

Uh, well, the “gentle” part was still questionable.

No, actually, she wasn’t gentle at all!

Peeking outside through the window again, Lu Wei frowned and immediately adjusted her score.

‘Minus one!’

…

…

After breakfast, the two set off to sell the spoils from their adventure.

The weapons from the Bandit Group, the pile of “exquisite and fashionable trinkets” from Nick’s Treasure Chest, and their own cast-off old equipment.

It took them nearly two hours, visiting several different buyers, but they finally sold everything.

The total came to a little over 13 gold coins.

As per their arrangement, Lu Wei took his share and Mirana’s, which came to a total of 8 gold and 6 silver.

Bai Ya, meanwhile, received 2 gold and 2 silver.

Lu Wei was temporarily holding onto Furen’s share and would give it to him the next time he went to the Dome Pillar.

[Earn one hundred gold coins through mutually acknowledged, genuine transactions. (54.82/100)]

With that, the progress bar was finally past the halfway mark.

Lu Wei’s personal savings had now reached 32 gold coins!

A shocking figure!

‘Holy crap, I’ve saved up this much without even realizing it.’

‘And that’s even after I already paid the construction team’s full fee upfront.’

‘Plus, Mirana still owes me 5 Gold Coins.’

Tucking the heavy money pouch carefully inside his clothes, Lu Wei had expected this amount… after all, he’d been passing the time on his night watches by counting his money.

Still, it felt a bit unreal.

After all, just over a month ago, when he’d gone to get goods on credit from Old Yor, he couldn’t even scrape together twenty copper coins.

He’d nearly fainted from shock when he saw that the [Soul Pendant] was worth 37 gold coins.

Who would have thought that now, even without selling the Pendant, he already had 37 gold coins in savings?

Of course, this money hadn’t come for free.

The price was that he hadn’t gotten a single piece of High Level Equipment from this adventure.

He had given up on all of it, whether it was the [Petrifying Lizard Hide Armor], the Mage Badge, or the later [Judge’s Longsword] and the Ranger’s Three-piece Set.

It wasn’t that the equipment was bad.

It was just that he had more important uses for his money.

“Alright, I’m going to check out the Black Market. You go do what you need to do.”

After leaving Old Yor’s general store, where he placed another order for goods worth 3 gold coins, Lu Wei planned to head to the Black Market to find Sebas.

“Okay, I’ll go find Aryan then. I want to ask her to go clothes shopping with me.”

Bai Ya nodded and asked, “By the way, are you coming back for lunch?”

“No, I’m going to see Clara for lunch.”

“Huh? Do you know where she lives?”

“No, but that kind of thing isn’t hard to find out.”

“Oh, I see…”

They exchanged a few more words outside the general store and then went their separate ways.

Bai Ya went to find Aryan for a shopping trip.

Lu Wei, meanwhile, headed straight for the Black Market, his heart filled with excitement.

He went from the west side of town to the south, expertly ducking into a small alley. At the end, he turned left, and the familiar little marketplace appeared before him.

As mentioned before, the Black Market in Heitai Town was really just a tax-free rural bazaar.

It had nothing to do with mystery or danger.

Here, stall owners hawked their wares as loudly as peasant women selling vegetables, desperately trying to make a sale.

The customers, on the other hand, were like visitors at an antique market, hoping to find a hidden treasure but usually ending up with fakes.

“Powder of Oblivion from the Eastern Islands! Instant results!”

“High Level Boots with three attributes! Last one in stock!”

“Giant Troll Eye! Got it from a source inside the Adventurer Association! Only 5 gold coins!”

The calls of the hawkers rose and fell. Since there was no one in charge, the stalls were laid out haphazardly, and walking through the market felt like navigating a maze.

It took Lu Wei quite a while to finally find Sebas’s stall in a relatively quiet corner.

However, there was a customer at the stall buying something.

As luck would have it, it was none other than Geluo, the Dwarf from Marcus’s team.

“Good morning, Uncle Sebas.”

Walking up to the stall, Lu Wei first greeted Sebas, then turned to Geluo with a smile.

“Hey, Geluo.”

“Mr. Lu Wei?”

Geluo looked surprised. “You’re back?”

‘What a stupid question.’

“Yeah, we just got back last night. What about you?”

“We came back five days ago.”

“Is that so? Are Marcus, Urzha, and Andrew all doing well?”

“They’re all fine. Thanks to you, we can take a longer break this time.”

“Haha, so when is Marcus buying us a round of drinks?”

“The captain said anytime.”

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Geluo glanced at Sebas and asked in a low voice:

“Mr. Lu Wei, you and this stall owner…”

“Oh, we’re friends,” Lu Wei answered truthfully.

“I see.”

Geluo hesitated for a moment before making an embarrassed request:

“Since that’s the case, could you help me ask if he can go any lower on this hammer?”

“I really don’t have enough money on me.”