Chapter 18: Sudden Wealth

Chapter 18: Chapter 18: Sudden Wealth

"Oho!"

Boss Tang looked down and was pleasantly surprised.

Half a bucket of dried nuts was quite a lot! He quickly found a piece of cardboard and spread it on the ground. "Come, come, pour them out and let’s sort them. Different nuts go for different prices."

Huai Yu gave a sound of agreement and quickly tipped the red bucket over.

With a pleasant RUSTLE, Boss Tang’s chubby body struggled to squat down as he began picking through them.

"These peanuts look quite plump... but there are too few of them. I doubt there’s even half a kilogram—oh, exactly half a kilogram! I’ll give you 12 Contribution Points for these."

"The apricot pits are nice!" He picked up a dried pit and shook it. Hearing the CLACK CLACK sound from inside meant it was obviously plump. Satisfied, he picked them all out and weighed them. "Oh yo! 1.15kg. 38 points. How about that?"

Next were a few chestnuts. Unfortunately, they had all been eaten by bugs, so Boss Tang regretfully tossed them aside. "I can’t take these."

The rest were basically pine nuts, exactly the same size as the ones he had just eaten, with plump kernels. He put them on the scale. 10.7 kilograms!

Boss Tang bared his teeth, clicking his tongue. He looked at Huai Yu, noting her calm expression, fair skin, and tender hands. Finally, he gritted his teeth and offered a generous price. "50 points a kilogram! How does that sound?"

Before Huai Yu could answer, he hastily explained, "Little Sister Yu, you can ask around the entire market, and absolutely no one will give you a higher price than this! The main thing is that pine nuts are just a snack.

"Those without money can’t afford them, and those with money only treat them as a luxury... Don’t be fooled by the fact that my shop sells luxury goods. We might not make a sale for half a year, but one sale feeds us for half a year. I’m taking a bit of a risk buying these for 25 points."

Huai Yu kept a straight face, but inside she was actually thrilled! She nodded. "Deal."

After a pause, she added, "I’ll come find you next time."

"Great!" This was exactly what Boss Tang was waiting for. "I’m Old Tang, Tang Hongji. What’s your last name, little sister?"

Huai Yu smiled. "My name is Huai Yu. ’Yu’ as in elm."

"Alright, Little Sister Yu!" Boss Tang was very accommodating. "Come on, where’s your trading bracelet? I’ll transfer the points to you right now."

A trading bracelet?

Huai Yu silently took out the official temporary transfer card. Under Boss Tang’s puzzled gaze, she said shyly, "I haven’t gone out before. My brothers said they... Ahem, anyway, I only have this temporary transfer card."

Oh!

Boss Tang instantly understood. No wonder the little girl looked so delicate and weak; she had indeed been protected far too well by her family. To be able to protect someone in this day and age to the point where she didn’t even have a bracelet, her two brothers—she did mean two, right?—must be incredibly powerful!

His expression instantly became even more enthusiastic. He simply pulled a box out from under the counter.

"Here, this trading bracelet is much more convenient than a temporary transfer card. With that temporary transfer card, you have to go to an official bank window to transfer the points to your name. It can be very inconvenient for private transactions.

"These bracelets aren’t expensive either. They’re distributed for free if you have over 300 Contribution Points. Little Sister Yu, you don’t have any Contribution Points yet, do you?

"Come, pick one! I’ll give it to you for free."

"Really?" Huai Yu smiled like a naive little girl. "You’re so smart, Boss Tang. I really don’t have any points."

She happily picked through the differently colored bracelets in the box. Suddenly, she asked, "Can this bracelet send messages?"

"No, it can’t," Boss Tang replied. "This is just a temporary modification made by the officials after the world changed. It’s good enough that it can transfer points. If you want to send messages, you have to buy a cell phone.

"I have cell phones here too, but they’re expensive... Didn’t your family buy you one?"

Huai Yu shook her head melancholically. "My brothers said the news outside is a complete mess..."

She didn’t say anything else, afraid that the more she spoke, the more mistakes she would make. However, it was exactly this evasiveness that made Boss Tang believe her completely.

She was a little princess from the Ivory Tower! There were people like her both before and after the cataclysm.

Huai Yu quickly selected a trading bracelet. Under Boss Tang’s guidance, she bound it to her ID card and set up the fingerprint recognition. Then, she asked casually, "So, Boss Tang, do you know where they buy wild vegetables? The Mutant Value should be around 11 too. My brothers said they found them in the mountains..."

Wild vegetables...

Truth be told, they didn’t quite fit the vibe of Boss Tang’s shop. But with a Mutant Value of 11, and considering he had quite a few wealthy customers, what if one of them wanted a taste of spring?

Boss Tang nodded. "If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t take them, but since you’re the one asking, Little Sister Yu, I definitely will! It’s just that the price can’t be the same as the retail price on the market.

"How about this? If they really have a Mutant Value of 11, I’ll pay 16 points a kilogram. How does that sound?

"Wild vegetables can’t be kept for long, so buying them all at once is risky for me."

Huai Yu remembered the pile of leeks she had seen earlier with a Mutant Value of 12, on special sale for 12 points. Selling them herself would certainly fetch a higher price, but she was short on time right now! Therefore, she nodded decisively. "Okay."

Boss Tang then pretended to ask casually, "Little Sister, your brothers can get their hands on quite a lot of things. Did they go into the mountains? Or are they out in the Wilderness?"

Huai Yu paused. "They probably went into the mountains. My brothers rarely talk about it..."

HISS! Boss Tang took a deep breath. "Incredible! No wonder they have the strength to protect you so well. Going into the mountains is risking one’s life. It’s even more dangerous than the Wilderness in the border regions!"

Huh?

Huai Yu furrowed her brows. "Is it that dangerous?"

It shouldn’t be, right? Her trips into the mountains had been entirely mundane. Furthermore, unless she exhausted her abilities, the flowers, grass, and trees paid absolutely no attention to her. Only the Rose Corridor was the most obedient... Though, of course, when necessary, she still had to kowtow to it.

"How could it not be dangerous?" Boss Tang looked solemn and sighed. "You know our Flower City is safe only because the wild Rose under the old wall of Sanqing Palace mutated.

"Its mutation was far too ferocious. The Wu Yue Guard Officer of our Alien Plant Defense Army exhausted his abilities during that incident, barely surviving by the skin of his teeth, to tame and catalyze the growth of the Rose Corridor, successfully protecting Flower City.

"This effort directly blocked off the highly dangerous Sanqing Mountain and the vast Wilderness below it.

"Think about it! That mountain is covered in plants. If they all mutated, our entire Flower City wouldn’t be able to withstand it!

"Now it’s fine. With the Rose Corridor acting as a barrier, as long as people don’t go into the mountains, everything is perfectly safe.

"That finally gave us a chance to catch our breath and properly clean up the city and its suburbs...

"But while the city is safe, if someone goes into the mountains...

"Sigh."

Boss Tang went off on a tangent. "In the early stages, our Defense Army sacrificed a lot of people trying to clear out the alien plants on those mountains..."

Huai Yu fell silent.

After a while, the cheerful automated voice of the calculator broke the silence.

She put on the bracelet and watched as Boss Tang punched the numbers into the calculator again. "793 points, Little Sister. Hurry over once you’ve gathered those wild vegetables!

"If you have any other good stuff, I’ll take that too."

Huai Yu touched the smart bracelet. Thinking about the 793 points inside, she felt as if she had become rich overnight.

But when she remembered that a multi-purpose shovel alone cost 350 points, she became instantly depressed again.

Points were far too easy to spend!