After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar] – CH117

Chapter 117

Xie Xingchen stubbornly argued, “Then the Thousand-Mechanism Umbrella I drew should be fully charged right now, right? How long will that energy last?”

System: “All weapons obtained from the capsule machine for the first time come fully charged. The Thousand-Mechanism Umbrella currently has 0/5 uses remaining.”

Only five uses?

Xie Xingchen tried to reason his way out of it. “Little Mo, listen—let me, uh, explain, okay? Look, you said this Thousand-Mechanism Umbrella can block ultra-large weapons. But realistically, most of the time it won’t need to block something that huge. So shouldn’t the extra saved energy carry over for the next use?”

This time, the system didn’t answer him directly. It asked a question instead.

System: “Dear player, can you guarantee the opponent definitely won’t use an ultra-large planet-class attack weapon?”

Xie Xingchen: “…” Sorry. He couldn’t.

With a single counter-question, the system ended the debate on the spot.

Because Xie Xingchen truly couldn’t guarantee that whoever attacked him wouldn’t use an ultra-large weapon. If he couldn’t guarantee that, then the size of the defensive output didn’t matter.

Big or small, the weapon’s core value was “absolute defense,” not “ordinary defense.”

The moment Xie Xingchen started drifting into a loophole, the system yanked him right back.

Thinking about “absolute defense,” he fell silent.

For the first time, he quietly set up a savings plan on his light-brain.

From his already-not-very-wealthy account balance, he forcibly carved out fifty million star credits and set them aside separately—then even put a password on it.

This was his emergency “recharge-and-save-my-life” fund, just in case.

Of course, fifty million was only the beginning. When he had more money later, he’d add more. ( :??? )

He put the capsule back into the system backpack. The Thousand-Mechanism Umbrella changed from a transparent capsule form into an oil-paper umbrella with an antique charm.

When Xie Xingchen took it out again, it was no longer a capsule at all—it had become a ink-wash-style oil-paper umbrella in his hand.

He put it back into the backpack again, eyes shining, and headed toward the Chang’an Workshop.

Heh heh. Now that he had such a gorgeous umbrella, shouldn’t he also make a few matching outfits?

Not for any other reason—just for “harmony”!

No matter what, the Thousand-Mechanism Umbrella was his ultimate secret weapon. If so, he’d better not let it look too out of place.

And the best way to stop something from being out of place… was to make it not out of place anymore.

So… should he make hanfu, or modified hanfu?

Maybe he could find good materials and make a few sets of practical, movement-friendly modified hanfu?

Perfect timing too—hanfu hadn’t started selling yet, so he could make as many as he wanted.

Because once sales started, if he ever listed even a few fewer sets one day, fans would probably chase him down crying.

Thinking of that, Xie Xingchen—who originally only meant to make a few sets for himself—slipped and changed “a few sets” into “100 sets.”

Not only would he make them for himself—he planned to give them out as perks to friends, family, employees, and subordinates!

Well… since he was making them anyway, he might as well make more.

Fans wouldn’t know, so he could do it boldly without worry!

Xie Xingchen started picking styles.

He picked for himself first. After that, he picked for others. By the time he was dizzy from all the options, he switched to random mode—finally putting together 100 hanfu sets (both men’s and women’s).

He did the same for jewelry and accessories: he chose what he liked or could use, then switched to random mode and filled up to a full 200 pieces of jewelry and accessories.

Then—he started feeding materials into the machines.

Because he wanted these hanfu and accessories to be functional garments, like protective gear, the costs were extremely high.

Just the new fabrics—beautiful and packed with powerful functions—made his heart tremble. The prices of the advanced materials made him hurt so much he wanted to cry.

After he put in enough materials to make 100 hanfu and 200 jewelry/accessory items… he went numb.

Are these hanfu? Are these jewelry? Are these accessories?

No. None of them.

These are all his money!

Staring in grief at the machines clanking loudly, Xie Xingchen’s gaze drifted.

Then, after a moment, he walked away.

Because that wasn’t machine noise.

That was the sound of his money disappearing.

That night, 100 high-end hanfu sets and 200 high-end jewelry/accessories were completed.

Xie Xingchen, face blank, loaded about one-third into his wardrobe and put the remaining two-thirds away separately.

He set aside two sets each for the old butler, Professor Ni, Ludwig, Little Randy, and Lu Fei.

From what was left, he took some and gave one set each to the two diligent model employees at Thorn Manor, then gave one set each to the full-time design department staff.

The remaining hanfu were stored away.

Saved for future benefits or prizes—

To boost employee motivation.

The two guys at Thorn Manor were easy enough. The two young men who had only recently learned who they were really working for were once again stunned by the Earth Commerce Guild’s lavish benefits.

But the design department was different.

When the full-time staff received the special-material Yonghua series hanfu, the part-time girls were jealous to the point of tears.

Waaah—Boss Xie, you have no heart! You never told us full-time employees got benefits like this!

If you’d said so earlier, I might not have signed a part-time contract!

“Waaah, I burst into tears. I kind of want to hit the boss—what do I do?”

“Boss Xie has no heart! He’s seriously too infuriating—why didn’t he tell us Earth Commerce Guild had benefits like this?”

“I’m so mad, so mad. If he’d casually mentioned it back then, I would’ve signed full-time immediately. Instead now—jealousy has distorted my face!”

“I’m dead. My soul is twisting…”

“…”

Watching their full-time coworkers happily holding the items and giggling while trying them on, the part-time coworkers—who had attended the video meeting but could only watch from the sidelines during the rewards—were internally injured from anger.

Waaah. They knew part-time and full-time benefits differed, but they didn’t know it differed this much!

If they’d told us earlier, we wouldn’t have gone part-time!

Honestly, they just didn’t understand Xie Xingchen’s personality. According to interstellar “common sense,” they assumed full-time jobs would be a hassle.

But after observing for a while, they realized: work really was a hassle—just not their work.

For them?

Working at Earth Commerce Guild was ridiculously enjoyable.

First, they didn’t need to sit in an office. As long as the work was done, their time was flexible.

Second, the boss wouldn’t assign you work that was obviously impossible to finish. And if the boss did give you a huge workload? Congratulations—what you were about to receive was money and benefits that made everyone envious!

Third, Earth Commerce Guild had no mandatory overtime. Even when things were busy, you could still choose an eight-hour workday.

If you didn’t want to work, then after-work hours were your private time—exercise, fitness, dates, meals, streaming, chatting—whatever. If you didn’t want overtime, Earth Commerce Guild wouldn’t force it.

Most importantly—Boss Xie not only didn’t mind them being streamers in their free time, sometimes he even boosted their traffic!

Ahhh, where do you find a boss this good?

And they had refused to become full-time employees?

Don’t ask how they felt. If you asked, their intestines were turning green with regret.

In the small part-time group chat with only seven or eight people, it was nothing but wailing.

[Song Jue]: @Wang Qianqian Should we talk to Ivy and Zhang Yu? I suddenly want to go full-time too, QAQ
[Adele]: Me too, I regret it! Waaah I want hanfu so badly. So, so badly. Is it too late if we go full-time now?
[Lorna]: Probably not too late? Boss Xie is so generous—if we sign full-time now, we should get those hanfu and jewelry too, right?
[Adele]: Ugh, what were we thinking back then? If we’d known, we would’ve signed full-time with Li Zi and the others. Look at us now—we’re basically clocking in every day anyway, but our benefits are clearly worse than full-time people’s!

Adele wasn’t talking nonsense.

After signing part-time contracts, they were checking the work group every day to see what they could do.

And they got along well with coworkers.

So although they were busier than before, everyone’s energy was way better than it used to be!

More importantly—this job made their inspiration explode.

That was the real reason they were willing to show up and “clock in” every day.

Otherwise, no matter how much they liked the job, they still had to be responsible to their followers. Only after confirming streaming topics would they spend time elsewhere.

[Li Xiao]: How about we send a representative who’s close to Ivy to ask?

Someone else popped up with a suggestion.

Then—

[Zhao Xin]: Obviously @Wang Qianqian is closest to Ivy. Before, those two worked together on the “Liuxian” series hanfu and accessory production.

At this point, everyone felt it was kind of surreal.

The daughter of the interstellar super-rich—Dawang Apparel—was actually in their group? And she had an amazingly good temper?

Speak of the devil.

They were just talking about Wang Qianqian, and she appeared.

Along with her appearance, she posted a “little girl tossing flowers everywhere” sticker.

The smart ones immediately had shining eyes.

Sure enough—

[Wang Qianqian]: Hahaha I already handled it! [wiggle-butt.jpg]

Without making them wait, Wang Qianqian posted what she “handled.”

[Wang Qianqian]: I just talked with Boss Xie—us part-time employees can all switch to full-time. And as long as we switch, we’ll get the same full-time benefits!
Also, the overtime issue everyone cares about most—Boss Xie said clearly: EARTH COMMERCE GUILD DOES NOT DO OVERTIME!
So we can keep building our own careers after work. And Boss Xie also said if we contribute and draw great art, he’ll @ us on StarBlog to boost our traffic and followers!

The whole group exploded.

This wasn’t some unspoken rule that could change anytime—this was a direct guarantee from Boss Xie.

All their worries instantly stopped being worries.

[Adele]: I’m going. Leaving first, everyone.
[Song Jue]: Hahahaha I’m out too. See you in the main employee group!
[Zhao Xin]: +1 +1 Let’s see who gets into the official group the fastest!
“…”

Wang Qianqian laughed loudly, then posted a very punchable line.

[Wang Qianqian]: Hahaha obviously me! I’m already in. Slowpokes—come hit me when you get here!

Staring happily at the official employee group already in her list, Wang Qianqian felt bliss bubbling up.

When she saw familiar names being invited one by one, she felt even happier.

Their part-time group had seven girls total, so Xie Xingchen jokingly called them the “Seven Fairies.” Now the Seven Fairies reunited in the official employee group, and everyone tossed celebratory stickers to welcome them!

But this bunch of goofballs didn’t do any heartfelt emotional stuff with them at all.

The moment they entered, each one acted like a husky off its leash.

They spammed weird meme stickers and loudly shouted that “even if someone else’s hanfu is missing, ours can’t be missing—we came here for hanfu.”

Their carefree, happy young-girl energy made everyone laugh so hard even their speech got childish.

“You’re late. We already told Boss Xie to confiscate your hanfu.”

“Yeah, not giving it to you! We won’t post it either. Nyeh-nyeh-nyeh—come hit me!”

The next day, at the Wang family villa.

Wang Qianqian carried out bag after bag of her employee benefits and showed off to her parents.

Her pretty face was full of pride and confidence.

After a grand display, she announced loudly, “Dad! Mom! Look—this is what our boss gave out. Isn’t it amazing?”

She held up a fairy-like hanfu set against herself and looked smugly delighted.

Anyone who knew would know it was just a beautiful outfit.

Anyone who didn’t might think she was showing off a private planet.

But for her family, it honestly wasn’t clear whether showing off a gorgeous outfit or a gorgeous planet would be more enviable.

After all, as the founders of Dawang Apparel, her parents’ pursuit of beautiful clothing was basically written into their DNA.

Watching their daughter twirl as the hem fluttered, her father admired the ethereal “Wide-Sleeved Liuxian Dress” with a look of genuine appreciation.

“Qianqian, your dress is really beautiful!” her parents praised in unison.

Wang Qianqian laughed like a happy little bird. “Hahahaha, so I didn’t lose by joining, right?”

Her dad and mom gave her a thumbs-up.

Not “didn’t lose”—this was a massive win!

Setting everything else aside, just the fact that the job exposed her to new things and sparked her creative inspiration was enough to make people rush toward it.

So as her parents, they not only wouldn’t stop her—they were happy to see it.

Her parents, who had fought their way up from a remote planet, understood:

In this world, most things are hollow. Only strength, knowledge, and talent truly belong to you.

And Xie Xingchen—someone who could casually pull out so many shocking things—having their daughter learn at his side was simply the right decision.

Wang Qianqian was satisfied, and her parents were just as satisfied. So when the weekend came, the household was full of laughter.

And such a harmonious scene probably could only happen in the Wang family.

This “nouveau riche” family that people mocked as “still having mud on their legs” was actually very wise.

If it were any other family with similar wealth, they likely wouldn’t let their daughter go work for someone else. But not only did they allow it—they even made it easier for her.

And that helped Dawang Apparel collaborate more closely with Earth Commerce Guild, and helped Dawang Apparel steadily become bigger and stronger.

With a wave of part-timers converting to full-time, Xie Xingchen felt even more relaxed.

Those “Seven Fairies” were seriously strong.

Strong enough that one person could do the work of two.

Even though his daily task assignments still weren’t heavy, these considerate employees always found things to do on their own.

And most importantly—they were ridiculously talented!

Xie Xingchen nodded, satisfied. “Worthy of being top-tier artists on the star-net.”

People who could stand out among tens of billions—?? hundreds of billions—were genuinely incredible.

With their official addition, the number of “Chang’an: Impressions” postcards Xie Xingchen wanted increased greatly.

The postcards were mainly split into two major lines: The ancient city series; the personified ancient city series.

Within the ancient city series, there were “Childlike Chang’an” and “Solemn Chang’an.”
Within the personified ancient city series, there were “Scholar Series” and “Beauty Series.”

The total expanded from 4 postcards to 12: six in each big line, two per sub-series—every single one breathtakingly beautiful.

Every time Xie Xingchen posted high-resolution base art of the new postcards on StarBlog and @-mentioned the illustrator, StarBlog would explode in a wave of hype, and the employees who drew those postcards would (painfully but happily) gain a huge surge of followers.

Especially the newly converted full-timers—watching their follower counts climb rapidly, their faces turned red with excitement.

God. This boss is actually insane.

He’s so, so, so, so, so, so generous!

What other boss would share traffic with employees?

Most bosses wouldn’t even give employees a crumb of their traffic!

They’d probably even PUA employees to stop them from quitting: “Your work is popular because of our company blah blah blah…”

So when the hashtag #ImmortalBoss# started trending, every Earth Commerce Guild employee enthusiastically joined in.

Waaah—what is an immortal boss?

This is an immortal boss!

Boss Xie is an immortal boss!

When Xie Xingchen saw he’d been inexplicably crowned “Immortal Boss,” he panicked. He stopped pretending not to notice and immediately rushed to StarBlog to deny it three times.

[Xie Xingchen V]: I’m not. I didn’t. Don’t talk nonsense!

After posting, he wiped imaginary cold sweat from his forehead.

Thank goodness he saw it and denied it.

Otherwise, how would he “squeeze” his employees in the future?!

No. He absolutely could not let that title stick to him!

His “avoid it like the plague” attitude toward the title made netizens laugh like crazy.

[Meme Star, Meme Person]: Hahahahaha I’m dying—he panicked, he really panicked!
[Happily Going to School No]: Never thought I’d see the day a boss would step up to refuse that title—hahahahaha…
[Green Bamboo Sleeve I Want It]: What do I do? The more Boss Xie says that, the more I feel he must be an immortal boss ??
“…”

Xie Xingchen meant to deny it.

But because he denied it so openly—and even commented that he couldn’t accept the title because he planned to “squeeze” employees later—those words, while unhinged on the surface, basically cemented the “Immortal Boss” label even harder.

Because—bosses who truly like exploiting employees never admit they exploit employees. They even think they’re??, claiming they help employees “find self-worth” and “build ability,” and they believe they’re the immortal boss.

Meanwhile, bosses who keep saying, “I’m a black-hearted boss, I’m going to squeeze employees,” are ironically more likely to be good bosses.

If you meet a boss like that, cherish it.

Of course—if that boss changes later, then leave when you should leave.

After all, workers are the real big brothers.

If conditions allow, you still have to have a backbone.

Xie Xingchen flopped.

He realized a truth: sometimes people just shouldn’t speak.

The phrase “silence is golden” was way too real.

When he saw the trending tag #Stubborn-but-softhearted Boss Xie#, he didn’t feel happy.

He felt a faint sadness instead.

They say eight or nine out of ten things in life don’t go your way. Maybe this was just another one of those.

The backlash result was right there—so now Xie Xingchen truly didn’t dare talk nonsense anymore.

Sigh. Let netizens say whatever. He just wouldn’t acknowledge it!

He wasn’t someone who cared about empty reputation. As long as he didn’t accept it, their praise couldn’t affect him!

He exited StarBlog, feeling a headache.

Sighing, he slowly stepped onto his hoverboard. Only when he arrived at the delivery base station did his expression finally brighten.

After a full day of hard work, the base station—once extremely empty—now had quite a bit of equipment inside. Some was already installed, but most was still being set up.

From the entrance, the base station was so huge you couldn’t see the end at a glance. To tour it all, you’d even need a vehicle.

Honestly, when the Mechanical Trade House crew arrived, they were kind of speechless.

Because Xie Xingchen had bought a lot of machines—but once installed, they would, at best, fill only a tiny corner of the base station.

It gave this “using a sledgehammer to kill a chicken” vibe.

The Mechanical Trade House workers couldn’t understand:

Why did this guy have money to build such a gigantic delivery base station, but not money to buy more equipment?

But considering Xie Xingchen was the developer of multiple newest, most popular flavors of energy fluid in mechanical civilization, all mechanical lifeforms shut up and didn’t bring it up—afraid he’d get embarrassed and cut off their supply.

But Xie Xingchen wasn’t a block of wood—he could read faces.

And mechanical lifeforms weren’t great at hiding emotions.

So once he realized what they were thinking, he felt a bit awkward.

But his skin was thick. If you ignore it long enough, it stops being awkward.

And eventually, he wasn’t just un-awkward—he even felt like he was so good at living!

He didn’t need that many things anyway, so why buy so many machines? Buy them to collect dust?

Wouldn’t that be a waste of resources?

So the current setup was perfect!

Xie Xingchen didn’t know how to install machinery, but as the buyer, he could give opinions—limited to one thing:

Where to install each machine.

Which counted as “some participation,” more or less.

After “working hard” (watching others work hard) for two hours, Xie Xingchen told them to take a break, then handed out the newest energy fluid he’d developed: papaya milk flavor.

Seeing how happy they looked, Xie Xingchen felt his friendship with these mechanical lifeforms deepen!

Just as he was about to say something, the system notification sounded.

System: “Ding-dong. Your travel companion Fei Fei has returned! It seems to have brought you something very useful!”

Xie Xingchen’s eyes lit up. He swallowed whatever he was about to say, waved goodbye to everyone, and zipped away on his hoverboard.

Back at the Xie residence, he asked eagerly, “Little Mo, what did Fei Fei bring back for me?”

If he’d heard right, the system had said “very useful,” right?

If the system judged it “very useful,” then it should be really useful, right?

System: “Ding-dong. Your travel companion (Fei Fei) brought back a bag of magical spice seeds.”
System: “Ding-dong. Congratulations! You have obtained ‘Magical Spice Seed Lucky Bag’ ×1.”
Magical Spice Seed Lucky Bag: “As the name suggests, it’s a bag of magical spice seeds! The lucky bag contains many different spice seeds—and these seeds have astonishingly strong vitality!”

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