Chapter 108
[I Am Rainbow-Colored]: Seriously, seriously—are there still people who don’t know that special stamps can be exchanged for different amounts of basic stamps now?
[Postcards, Here I Come]: Hahahahaha. This is why you should verify facts before you start being smug—otherwise you’ll get slapped in the face. I’m dying.
[Me, Grinding the Event]: Sigh. Being out of the loop is one thing, but refusing to listen when others tell you? Getting embarrassed is deserved. Also—I heard the highest exchange-rate special stamp has already been traded in. The one-and-only “Whale,” waaaah… That stamp can be exchanged for 1000 basic stamps! That little kid’s luck is insane. I’m so jealous!
[Ahhh So Weird]: Waaaah—shouldn’t we be jealous of his mom instead? “You tricked me into having kids again” series… This kid is totally worth raising! He plays games and still thinks of his mom!
Is there anyone on StarNet who isn’t tempted by Earth Commerce’s Hanfu?
Honestly, yes—but very few.
And now, the method everyone has been dreaming about to obtain Hanfu has finally appeared. Even if you can probably only wear it in the holographic marketplace, it’s still enough to make people drool.
But some “rational types” drew conclusions from scattered, incomplete info online, deciding that Xie Xingchen was only dangling these items to tease them—and that he’d never actually let players exchange for them.
Well—special stamps just slapped them in the face.
One special stamp can be exchanged for tens, hundreds, or even thousands of basic stamps.
What does that mean?
It means that if your luck is good enough, you might go in for just a few minutes and walk out with a set of high-end Hanfu.
At that thought, everyone’s blood started boiling.
They didn’t even have time to keep mocking those brainless “rationalists”—they rushed to log into the StarNet marketplace instead.
Seriously—why waste time arguing when you could be rushing the event?!
There were still a full two-plus hours left before the event ended!
With more than two hours remaining, who knows—maybe they could become the next “little brother” and carry out two top-floor outfits from the redemption tower!
Players already in mini Chang’an City were startled when Earth Commerce suddenly posted an announcement.
A fluorescent-green notice—so neon it hurt—hovered in the sky above the city. One glance made people’s eyes ache.
[Earth Commerce]: Dear players, hello! Due to a sudden surge in participants, in three minutes the event venue will be expanded. Please remain calm and wait patiently!
PS: If you are currently playing a game, please pause and continue after the expansion ends.
Everyone playing: ?
They all froze.
When they recovered, the chatter exploded:
“Wait… it’s already after midnight. Why are people still coming in?”
“People coming in isn’t weird. What’s weird is the surge!”
“…”
Half the event time had already passed—how could so many people suddenly flood in?
Someone immediately concluded: “Something must’ve happened that we don’t know. Otherwise this wouldn’t be happening!”
Right away someone replied: “Say no more. Let me check StarBlog. I trust StarBlog will have the answer.”
StarBlog really did have the answer.
Players switched to StarBlog, read the whole story, and couldn’t stop themselves from blurting:
“Holy crap—someone already redeemed high-end Hanfu and jewelry from the redemption tower, and it was a kid!”
“Ahhh you missed the real point! The key is that this kid collected enough stamps for two high-end Hanfu sets in just two hours by petting cats!”
“Waaah, I’m officially jealous. That ‘walking catnip who makes cats commit crimes’ physique is cheating. The cats absolutely adored that kid.”
Gasps rang out nonstop.
And the moment people heard what was happening, it spread instantly.
A lot of players had been completely absorbed in games since entering. At most, they’d only visited the redemption tower once to see what could be exchanged.
The announcement never explained special stamps either, so most people didn’t even know special stamps existed!
Now they learned: special stamps exist, and you can exchange them for basic stamps on the first floor of the central redemption tower at the spot marked with a cat paw.
In the next instant, many people rushed toward the redemption tower, not even caring that the expansion was about to start.
Just as others tried to follow, the ground suddenly shook like an earthquake. After about a minute of dizziness, the expansion finished.
The already-grand mini Chang’an City became even more magnificent after expanding again. Several wide new streets appeared, and near every game area, many new stamp exchange kiosks popped up.
As long as you stepped into one of those little booths, you could exchange special stamps into basic stamps right there.
Seeing those new kiosks, people silently offered condolences to the few who had sprinted to the central redemption tower earlier.
So this was Boss Xie’s plan!
“Waaah Boss Xie is so considerate, I love you!”
“Let me check if I have any special stamps—if I do, I’m getting rich, hahahaha…”
“I heard from that StarBlog post that fish-type stamps are all special stamps? Anyone have fish stamps?”
Since stamps couldn’t be stolen, everyone stayed relatively calm.
They were greedy for special stamps, sure—but you couldn’t? them, so the only way was to earn them yourself.
In the final two hours, countless people clenched their teeth and swore they’d get as many special stamps as possible.
Jiao Yu and Ba Yuqing exchanged a look and quietly slipped away, not joining the crowd at the exchange kiosks.
They already knew about special stamps—and they even knew some ways to get them.
Since entering the event, they’d resolved countless “event NPC” incidents, earned seven or eight “bravery” sachets, and because they were too “righteous,” the county magistrate of mini Chang’an City even awarded them the title of “Great Benefactor.” The magistrate also gave each of them a lucky bag, and inside were big-fish-shaped stamps.
They’d also learned from the child “Pei Pei” about gifts from cats.
So later, while playing, they focused hard on winning cat supplies—teaser wands, dried fish, cat climbing frames, whatever. After winning, they’d give them to the cats.
Sadly, neither of them was a legendary “catnip physique.” Some aloof cats did like the toys, but after playing they simply left. Only a small number of affectionate cats would pat them afterward.
And among those cats, 90% were big orange tabbies, with the occasional calico.
The other pretty cats were too “heartless”!
Especially that slim black cat—its condescending stare from atop the wall was burned into their memories. It looked at them like they were idiots.
Jiao Yu & Ba Yuqing: waaaah…
From this day forward, they declared: big orange tabbies and calicos are the kindest and cutest cats in the world. No arguing!
While Jiao Yu fed dried fish to an enormous orange tabby that looked like it could crush a heated bed, she worriedly said to Ba Yuqing, “Qingqing, what do we do now? I feel like once the crowd gets bigger, we won’t be able to find cats anymore.”
Cats are sensitive creatures. If everyone starts hunting for them, they’ll probably hide and stop appearing.
Even if they appear, she wasn’t confident she could compete with that many people.
Ba Yuqing’s usually cool face showed faint helplessness. She fed her last dried fish to a calico with an ugly-cute black patch on its eye and sighed softly. “Then we switch methods.”
There had to be other ways to get special stamps.
They just hadn’t been discovered—or nobody had said them out loud.
Jiao Yu stroked a cat with one hand and propped her cheek with the other. “Sigh… we finally learned about cat gifts from little Pei Pei, and we’ve only gotten a few special stamps. Now we have to abandon this route. What a waste.”
Waste or not, they both knew they couldn’t force the cat route anymore.
So after the two cats finished their dried fish, patted their left hands, and gave them stamps—when they saw more and more players flooding in—they decided to retreat.
While everyone else was searching for cats, they’d go do regular games!
There were so many standard game stalls—no way every stall only gave basic stamps, right?
Special stamps had to exist somewhere.
They were probably just hidden well.
After a quick discussion, the two set their sights on the biggest lantern-riddle stall on Vermilion Bird Street—the most dazzling spot in the entire mini Chang’an City.
Endless strings of lanterns lit up the night like fireflies along the horizon.
Normally, this should’ve been the most crowded place.
But right now, almost nobody wanted to stay.
Why?
Because this place wasn’t for “ordinary mortals”… and it was truly annoying.
[Tears (guess an idiom)] (1)
[Feather (guess an idiom)] (2)
[Red Hare (guess a Chinese character)] (3)
[Not granted even an inch of fief (guess a Chinese character)] (4)
You didn’t realize it until you looked—then you were horrified. What even are these?
No wonder nobody wanted to linger!
Staying here felt like being mocked for your IQ.
Forget the answers—they couldn’t even parse the prompts!
Jiao Yu and Ba Yuqing smiled politely, put the riddles down, and tried to find easier ones.
And then—
Was this already the easiest?
[At the bridgehead, a beauty bids farewell (guess a Chinese character)] (5)
Jiao Yu’s face fell. She gave up.
She looked at Ba Yuqing with watery eyes. “Boo-hoo… Qingqing, this…”
Before she could finish, the handsome stall owner—richly dressed with a scholarly vibe—suddenly clapped and praised her:
“Miss, excellent literary talent! You guessed it! The answer is the character meaning ‘cherry’ (pronounced ying). Congratulations, miss.”
Jiao Yu, who had been “guessed correctly”: ?
Ba Yuqing, who witnessed this unbelievable event: ?
What the hell?! This was absurd!
Jiao Yu’s “boo-hoo” sound was not the “cherry” the stall owner thought he heard!
They stared in stunned silence as the rich-and-handsome stall owner smiled warmly, handed them a beautiful palace lantern, then casually picked a stamp from the row and carefully stamped it onto Jiao Yu’s left-hand stamp mark.
When they saw the weird-looking “swordfish” stamp, they fell silent—then made a decision:
They weren’t leaving.
This place… might actually… be a luck exploit?
And… the stall owner gave a big fish stamp!
A big fish!
That single stamp probably beat their hard work outside for half an hour.
They didn’t know how many basic stamps it would exchange into—but a swordfish stamp that unique should be worth a lot, right?
Both of them instantly perked up.
They experimentally picked up other riddles—ones that sounded tongue-twisting even just to read—and “answered” them using random filler sounds and particles.
For some reason—maybe the stall owner was just kind—they didn’t get kicked out.
When they acted silly, he only smiled and watched them mess around.
Like chaotic punches knocking down an old master, they somehow lucked into two more correct “answers.”
Now they were fully fired up.
Then they used their “brilliant brains” and started guessing with numbers.
And the riddle answers were weirdly “honest”—the moment they began guessing with “one,” they guessed three or four riddles correctly.
Jiao Yu: Hahahahaha—
Ba Yuqing: There really is a special method for lantern riddles!
They stayed at the riddle stall for nearly an hour, until they’d brute-forced their way through every available riddle. Finally satisfied, they left with five special stamps each.
Checking the time—it was almost 2:00 a.m.
There were only 80 minutes left until the event ended.
Not long, not short.
They looked around and saw the crowd getting thicker and thicker.
Even the riddle stall had attracted a lot of “luck-collision” players because of their chaotic success.
But lantern riddles were one-time. The easy ones had been used up by them—everything left was not easy.
Jiao Yu scanned the area. There were terrifyingly many people.
Then she noticed the food stalls nearby were actually empty, so she suggested, “How about we stop and eat a bowl of yuanxiao?”
Once she said it, hunger hit hard.
Since entering, they’d spent all their time collecting stamps.
Ba Yuqing nodded. “Okay. Let’s go over there.”
She pointed to the same spot where they’d previously met little Pei Yi.
It was a small vendor cluster—an entire row selling food.
Not only small wontons and yuanxiao, but also dumplings, fried dough sticks, soy milk, meat buns, scallion pancakes, and more.
But among those stalls, only the small-wonton stall was big enough for lots of dine-in customers.
The others only had two or three tables—once a few people sat down, there was no space.
Because everyone was stamp-grinding, there weren’t many people eating, which made it perfect for Jiao Yu and Ba Yuqing to buy their way down the row.
After buying seven or eight foods, they finally arrived at the wonton stall.
They each ordered a bowl and ate quickly, but still neatly.
When they finished everything, they smiled at each other.
Then—suddenly—they froze.
Because they saw tiny points of glowing light rising from the bowls and chopsticks they’d used.
The sparkles floated over and landed on the stamp marks on their left hands.
They opened their stamp albums in shock and discovered they’d gained a new stamp shaped like bowls and chopsticks.
“Eating food gives stamps too?!” they blurted in unison.
Jiao Yu wondered, “But I wonder which foods give stamps?”
Ba Yuqing offered a new idea: “Or do we have to eat everything sold here to trigger it?”
Jiao Yu blinked, then looked at the stall owner.
She stood up.
Why overthink?
Just ask the NPC!
Maybe it wasn’t even a secret—maybe it was common knowledge if you asked.
Social-butterfly Jiao Yu activated maximum action.
She walked up smiling and asked politely, “Uncle vendor, can I ask—do you have special foods here? Like, food that gives stamps when you eat it?”
The NPC uncle didn’t turn cold. He gave a simple, honest smile and answered warmly:
“Of course! This is Lantern Festival blessing. It’s a little surprise from the Tower Master, and it appears randomly in food.”
Then he kindly pointed to the yuanxiao stall next door.
“Since this is a Lantern Festival event, yuanxiao has the most blessings. If you want the Tower Master’s blessing, you can eat more yuanxiao.”
Yuanxiao… Lantern Festival…
Jiao Yu got it—then suddenly remembered something. Without explaining, she grabbed Ba Yuqing and sprinted toward Vermilion Bird Street.
Ba Yuqing frowned. “What is it?”
Jiao Yu said excitedly, “Qingqing—do you remember the Vermilion Bird Restaurant on Vermilion Bird Street?”
Ba Yuqing nodded.
Jiao Yu continued, “Li Qianqian told me the restaurant has a yuanxiao dish that’s only given to ‘blessed’ people. They give it out once on the hour—100 servings each time. If you want it, you line up.”
Now Ba Yuqing remembered too.
They checked the time—five minutes to the hour. Without hesitation, they ran faster.
When they reached the restaurant, it was exactly the hour. The waiter let the line enter—only the first 100 could get a bowl of the restaurant’s yuanxiao.
Since most people were busy grinding, the line wasn’t long. Even with Jiao Yu and Ba Yuqing included, it was only in the 80s—there were still more than ten slots.
Jiao Yu cleverly grabbed the waiter and said she wanted to pay to buy yuanxiao.
And—somehow—it worked!
Not because the waiter was greedy, but because they had the “Great Benefactor” title from the magistrate.
They never expected that “worthless” title would unlock such special treatment.
Ba Yuqing immediately connected the dots: “So the lantern stall owner and the wonton stall owner were so nice to us… was that also because of the title?”
Jiao Yu thought briefly and said firmly, “I think so!”
Then the two entered a private room and ate 16 bowls of yuanxiao. With good luck, they got 7 special stamps from those bowls—Jiao Yu got 4, Ba Yuqing got 3.
Setting down their bowls, Jiao Yu said eagerly, “There are 59 minutes left—should we go check the redemption tower first?”
Ba Yuqing nodded.
They left the restaurant.
Vermilion Bird Street was close to the central redemption tower. Even after the expansion stretched distances, running there still took only seven or eight minutes.
When they arrived, they saw quite a few people.
Nobody was dumb.
Everyone knew that in the final minutes it would be a human stampede, and the items they wanted might run out—so many people came early to exchange.
They chose a cat-paw spot and stood in place.
Then a private Earth Commerce message appeared, visible only to them.
[Earth Commerce]: Detected that player ID [1] possesses 31 special stamps, exchangeable for 1102 basic stamps. Proceed? [Yes] [No]
Jiao Yu: “Yes.”
[Earth Commerce]: Congratulations to player ID [1] for exchanging for 1102 basic stamps. Your current basic-stamp total is 1236. Congratulations—you may proceed to the top-floor redemption area for grand prizes!
Jiao Yu’s eyes lit up.
1236 basic stamps—very solid!
But Ba Yuqing was even crazier.
During games, Ba Yuqing had randomly gotten a unique Ocean Sunfish stamp and another unique Luoyang Peony stamp (the “king of flowers” beloved by an empress). So just exchanging her special stamps alone gave her 2130 basic stamps. With her existing basics, her total reached 2311.
Without a word, they sprinted up to the top-floor redemption area.
One of them spent 1700 basic stamps to redeem the “Green Bamboo Set”—including clothes, boots, a bamboo hairpin, and most importantly: a sword!
The other spent all 1236 stamps to redeem the “Flowing Light Skirt” plus “Flowing Light Embroidered Shoes.” She didn’t have enough stamps left for the fan, shawl ribbon, hair ornaments, and jewelry.
Ba Yuqing glanced at her best friend’s excited face, then used her remaining 430 stamps to redeem a round fan and a shawl ribbon for her.
The remaining hair ornaments were at least 100 stamps each. Three would cost 500. Ba Yuqing had only 80 left.
Meaning: they needed to collect 420 more stamps in the remaining time.
With 45 minutes left, they exchanged one look and dashed out to hunt stamps.
The final 45 minutes were a sprint.
Everyone went insane searching for stamps.
Stepping outside, there were people rushing everywhere, scanning left and right.
Not a single person stopped moving. Even those who’d been strolling slowly earlier got infected by the urgency and started panicking.
When only 10 minutes remained, huge waves of people surged into the redemption tower—and only then did many realize that plenty of players had already collected massive stamp totals. A full one-third of the top-floor prizes had been exchanged away.
Everyone: cat crying.jpg
Everyone: “So I’m the clueless one…”
When only 5 minutes remained, the lower-floor prizes were almost wiped out, and the top-floor prizes were down to only one-quarter.
With 3 minutes left, an even bigger wave of people sprinted in. Now the lower floors were completely emptied (except a few special items), and the top-floor prizes fell to only one-tenth.
In the final one minute, a bright red countdown appeared at the tip of the central redemption tower.
Jiao Yu and Ba Yuqing finally made it back.
With 630+ stamps, they redeemed three gorgeous items: a filigree-gold headdress inlaid with gems and pearls, a collar necklace, and an armlet.
After they finished redeeming, the countdown had 10 seconds left.
At this point, not many people were still exchanging, and about one-twentieth of the top-floor prizes remained.
10, 9, 8… 3, 2, 1!
The countdown ended.
Then, every player who had earned a title during the event saw a lottery box appear.
[Earth Commerce]: Dear player, congratulations on receiving the title “XXX” during the event. Title holders receive one random draw. The prize is: one draw from the pool of unredeemed prizes remaining after the redemption-tower countdown ends.
Jiao Yu and Ba Yuqing’s eyes blazed!
They’d seen it clearly—most of the unredeemed prizes were top-floor prizes!
Meaning they might get a free high-end Hanfu or jewelry piece!
Hahahahaha…
So satisfying—titles really are overpowered!
They both reached into the lottery box, silently thinking, “Boss Xie, please bless me,” and drew a slip.
[Earth Commerce]: Congratulations to player ID [1] for drawing: Earth Commerce Priority Shopping Card x1
[Earth Commerce]: Congratulations to player ID [789] for drawing: Weapon: Gold-Thread Soft Whip x1
Jiao Yu: satisfied.jpg
Ba Yuqing: super satisfied.jpg
Not just them—everyone who had titles was satisfied too.
Especially one unbelievably lucky player: they directly drew the 2000-stamp phoenix crown and nearly died of happiness.
When that news spread, lemon-eaters (jealous people) spawned in waves.
And something even scarier came after.
The next day
Xie Xingchen finally logged onto StarBlog after a long time away.
[Xie Xingchen V]: Congratulations on the successful completion of the Lantern Festival event! Starting today, all prizes will be shipped out in batches. Winners, please log into the StarNet marketplace and fill in your shipping address within one week, otherwise your redeemed prizes will be void.
PS: Players who redeemed Hanfu and jewelry, please be patient—Hanfu and jewelry will be shipped in the final batch.
Everyone: ? HOLY CRAP!
No way… is it really like we thought? Boss Xie is sending the real physical goods?!
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