After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar] – CH123

Chapter 123

“Bro… what’s wrong with you?”

Fu Yunsen couldn’t help asking when he noticed Fu Yunzhou seemed even quieter than before.

Fu Yunsen, who was doing final wrap-up work at their booth, looked far more mature than he had a year ago.

The young man who used to radiate arrogance and high spirits at all times had, in just one year, settled down. The once overbearing spoiled heir had become someone else entirely.

“I just ran into Xingchen,” Fu Yunzhou lowered his gaze and answered flatly.

The moment he heard that, Fu Yunsen—who had been about to say something—looked defeated and shut his mouth.

Back then, he didn’t understand.

Now he did.

What he’d done to Xie Xingchen… calling it “awful” almost felt too mild.

Maybe people really were trash like that—only understanding how to cherish something after they lose it.

Some people were like air: everywhere, always there, so you never noticed them.

But just like air, even though you couldn’t see or touch it, it was more important than anything.

In the past, Fu Yunsen—naive to the point of cruelty—never thought his family had treated Xie Xingchen badly. Influenced by outsiders’ talk, he even believed his family had already been benevolent enough.

After all, didn’t they give him a luxurious life after the Xie family collapsed?

Because of that, Fu Yunsen had even gotten angry—angry that his parents and brother didn’t love him, otherwise why was his allowance only half of Xie Xingchen’s?

Looking back now…

On the surface, yes, his allowance was half. But in reality… the money his family spent on him was far, far more than what they spent on Xie Xingchen.

True luxury couldn’t be measured in money.

Forget everything else—just Fu Yunsen’s cultivation resources for a single year were enough that Xie Xingchen would have needed twenty or thirty years of hard work to afford them.

But back then, Fu Yunsen didn’t see it. Or maybe he did, but he still wasn’t satisfied. He wanted more—more and more.

It wasn’t until Xie Xingchen left that Fu Yunsen began to wake up in a daze. And it wasn’t until Earth Trading House exploded in popularity—until he watched the same uncles who once praised the Fu family’s “virtue” quietly distance themselves, and even try to suppress them—that he truly grew up.

But after he grew up, he realized he’d lost the best friend he’d ever had since childhood.

“Bro, you shouldn’t go looking for him.” Fu Yunsen’s eyes were complicated.

He was young, but in that moment he looked like an old man, exhausted down to the bone.

This year had thrown too much at him—so much that in a blur, he felt like he’d lived ten years.

Xie Xingchen left. The Fu family declined. Xie Xingchen rose. The Fu family declined even harder.

As Xie Xingchen’s social standing climbed higher and higher, the Fu family’s once-unbroken chorus of flattery started to fill with contempt.

People said they were vultures picking a family clean. People said they were morally rotten… There was no shortage of it. As if overnight, what used to be “right” had all turned into “wrong.”

At first, Fu Yunsen couldn’t understand.

Later, he slowly did.

It was nothing but winners and losers.

In business, what they did wasn’t the most ruthless thing in the world. Countless people in the marketplace were far more ruthless than them.

But… the Fu family and the Xie family weren’t ordinary business partners. In outsiders’ eyes, the two families were the kind that could have become lifelong in-laws and allies. And yet the moment the Xie family fell, the Fu family moved.

They used their eldest son, boiled the Xie family’s only son like a frog in warm water, and without breaking a sweat, tricked the entire Xie family into their hands.

So what if they got cursed out?

Even if Xie Xingchen took revenge, they’d deserve it. Who told them to do something like that?

Once they chose it back then, there was no road back now.

After the arrogant, tyrannical Fu Yunsen woke up, he knew everything was already irreversible.

He lifted his head and looked seriously at his brother, stubbornly warning, “Don’t go looking for him.”

Fu Yunzhou sighed silently.

He was glad his younger brother had grown up—but looking at him like this, Fu Yunzhou couldn’t bring himself to say the word “glad.”

Thinking about everything that happened this year, even someone as capable as him felt his head throb.

His parents, who looked shrewd, were dragging them down at every moment. Meanwhile, the brother who used to seem like a disaster had become the one who hardened and grew.

But that brother now lived in guilt every day—and that guilt… had no solution.

When Fu Yunzhou didn’t answer, Fu Yunsen frowned and asked unhappily, “Bro, did you hear me?”

Fu Yunzhou nodded tiredly and said nothing.

Seeing he didn’t want to talk, Fu Yunsen shut up too.

Leaving the last bits of wrap-up to the staff, the two brothers walked out of the enormous venue in silence, one in front of the other.

After the stretch where only walking was allowed, they pulled out a hovercar in an open area and rode it back to the hotel.

The two quiet men returned to their rooms and each closed their door—like shutting down the channel of communication.

The next day, Xie Xingchen’s group arrived early at the Earth Trading House booth.

From inside looking out, the venue was a sea of people.

These days, outside of Trade Day, you couldn’t see a scene like this anywhere.

09:55
Five minutes until the “Planet Lord Trade Expo: Trade Day” officially began.

Other booths had already removed their visibility-blocking energy shields, but Earth Trading House still hadn’t moved.

09:58
While other booths were rallying employees to hustle for orders, Xie Xingchen pulled sunflower seeds out of his storage button and set them on the table—while his employees argued over where to place the ice maker so it wouldn’t look out of place.

09:59
Outside, customers were already impatient, ready to surge in. Planet lords and estate owners were fully prepared to do business. And only now did Earth Trading House finally find the perfect spot for the ice maker and start making ice.

10:00
“Planet Lord Trade Expo: Trade Day” officially opened.

All venue gates opened at once, and the crowd poured in.

Hearing the footsteps, the Earth Trading House group finally, belatedly realized the doors were open and Trade Day had officially begun!

Damn—time passed that fast?

Everyone scrambled to put away the small energy shield.

The instant it vanished, gasps rose in waves.

Among all the cold, silver, metallic booths, there appeared a beautifully arranged “home”—with an obvious exotic flair, and an almost hilariously festive atmosphere. Above it, the holographic snow scene kept drifting down without pause.

Seeing that “home,” people couldn’t help widening their eyes.

They even wondered if they were seeing things.

They slowed down. Rubbed their eyes.

Close, open. Close, open.

The bright red, lively Earth Trading House booth was still sitting there quietly, unchanged.

“Am I hallucinating? Why do I see someone literally move their home into Trade Day?”

“Holy—whose booth is that? It’s so unique and eye-catching! I love it!”

“Oh my god… I see it. It’s Earth Trading House! No wonder it’s so weirdly different. The moment I saw their name, everything made sense!”

“…”

“Hey! I want to go check out Earth Trading House—stop pushing, let me through!”

“Who’s pushing you? You’re the one pushing us! Move, you stepped on my shoe!”

“I said stop pushing! The front isn’t moving—pushing me won’t help! What, you think I can magically make space for you?”

“…”

Everyone being crushed got furious.

And yet—

Once they saw that special booth, they still squeezed forward like maniacs.

No one knew whether they wanted to “experience the vibe,” or whether they wanted to be first to stock up before everyone else reacted.

Either way, they were aiming at the wrong thing.

Forget whether Earth Trading House even had goods for sale—just the “first come, first served” idea?

Yeah, no.

With this many people, how could that booth possibly fit them?

If Xie Xingchen dared to let people in for a “tour” right now, nobody would be doing anything else. From this moment on, everyone present would be stuck here maintaining order.

No one knew that Xie Xingchen had already decided he wouldn’t even allow “tours.”

As the crowd swelled, even people who weren’t anxious at first started to panic.

“People in back, stop pushing! There’s no room left—push any more and there’ll be an accident! And if there is an accident and the insect patrol comes, then what?”

This actually worked.

Because after arriving on Insect territory these past few days, everyone had already felt how unwelcome they were.

So even the most rebellious types quieted down.

Everyone: [ugly crying.jpg]
It wasn’t that they wanted to behave. They had no choice!

The insect people weren’t like other civilizations that worried about this or that. They didn’t care about your excuses. If you caused trouble, they’d slap you with their laws in seconds.

And insect law was famously the strictest of all. Getting sentenced didn’t feel good.

For example—

Everyone knew interstellar common law applied everywhere. But each major civilization also had its own local laws as supplements.

And among all civilizations, the insect civilization’s laws were the strictest.

So strict that if you tossed a piece of trash, you’d be thrown into jail for half a day.

And there were countless “small things” like that.

Many people had tried to memorize the rules before coming, but if you slipped up even once, you still got hit.

Who knew how many people had been forced to add “half-day tour of insect jail” to their trip itinerary!

The people in front wailed. The people behind heard what they were wailing about and hesitated too.

Clearly, plenty of people had already been “half-day toured.”

Honestly, it wasn’t that they didn’t want to squeeze forward—it was that nobody knew whether “crowd crushing” was allowed here, or whether it would get them tossed into jail.

After all—

This was the absurd civilization where even accidentally dropping a handkerchief could be treated as littering, get you reported, and earn you a half-day jail tour!

Hearing the complaints from the people trying to ask about goods, Xie Xingchen’s mouth fell open.

He and his employees stared at each other, suddenly feeling like they’d survived a disaster.

Wait—littering gets you jail time? Even cutting your hair on a celebration day gets you jail time?

It was only half a day, but still… wasn’t that way too weird?

Also, one more question—under laws like this, does their prison even have enough space?

Xie Xingchen: …this is hard to describe.

He was suddenly grateful he’d spent the last few days living a strict “two-point commute” between hotel and venue, and hadn’t gone anywhere else.

Otherwise, if one tiny thing went wrong, on Trade Day, Earth Trading House might not even have a boss.

Then people would chat: “Oh, the boss? He got taken for a half-day jail tour.”

Great. Then he’d definitely end up on StarBlog again as a top-tier entry in this year’s “dumbest viral moments” compilation.

His “hitching a ride to Trade Day” post was already enough to qualify. Add one more, and he’d practically be the center of the compilation.

Xie Xingchen thought blankly.

So tired. Love is dead.

Does this world actually exist?

Why does everything feel so surreal?

Later he still needed to roam other booths—so should he do some prep work right now?

Like searching: “Insect tourism taboos,” “Top ten things you must not do in insect territory,” “Don’t assume it’s small so it’s fine: insect edition”…

Seeing Xie Xingchen’s complicated, shaken expression, the big guy who had squeezed to the very front grinned.

He waved a hand and chuckled. “Ah, Boss Xie, don’t be scared. Stuff like this, worst case you get tossed in jail for half a day. It’s really nothing! Honestly, it’s kind of fun. Everyone in there did roughly the same thing as you, so you can all chat. Time flies—before you know it, it’s over. I wasn’t even done talking!”

He even looked regretful—like if the insect people weren’t so fierce, he’d be asking to “extend the session.”

Xie Xingchen: “…”

Yeah, okay. This was a true extrovert.

Not only could he chat in a prison environment, he wanted to pay extra for more time?

That deserved a silent thumbs-up.

The big guy could. Xie Xingchen absolutely could not.

In that environment, he’d die of social humiliation.

And half a day was more than enough time for him to die a thousand times and book an emergency ticket back to Earth that very night.

Because—

Sometimes fame was a real pain in the ass.

If he got dragged in over a small incident like everyone else?

He didn’t even need to think. He’d become a photo-op check-in spot.

And in under one second, the entire galaxy would know exactly what dumb thing he’d done.

Xie Xingchen shivered.

No. He needed to read the rules. He absolutely could not break the law—or he’d really be fleeing back to Earth overnight.

“Boss Xie, does Earth Trading House really not sell anything? Don’t judge me by how I dress—I’m actually rich!”

The big guy looked sincerely disappointed.

He’d guessed they probably came just to join the fun. But what if… what if they had goods?

Doesn’t matter what it is—Earth Trading House products were always a guaranteed profit.

Xie Xingchen shook his head apologetically. “I’m really sorry, but everyone knows this too—besides a few side items, most of Earth Trading House’s products are grown or made by us. And Earth has only been developing for a year. Even with lots of staff working together, we really can’t increase production capacity that quickly.”

When Xie Xingchen said “staff,” he meant his robots.

But everyone assumed “staff” meant other lifeforms—even cultivators or planters.

Because for a planet that had only been developing for one year, Earth’s output—especially plant output—was already huge.

Especially those special flowers. There was no way robots could grow those. It had to be the result of multiple planters working hard!

Hearing Xie Xingchen say that, someone listening closely couldn’t help asking, “So, Boss Xie… when are you expanding cultivation?”

“Are you hiring? My youngest son is a planter. He’s graduating this year. If you’re hiring, I’ll send him to work for you!”

“Boss Xie, if you’re hiring now, are the benefits the same as what your current employees get? If they are, I can recommend my second aunt’s youngest son’s second daughter—she’s an amazing planter too!”

“My great-uncle’s second aunt’s daughter’s son is also a planter! If Earth Trading House is hiring, I’ll tell him as soon as I’m back!”

Xie Xingchen: “…No. Please don’t.”

He suddenly felt like he’d gone to a park in his previous life and got surrounded by enthusiastic uncles and aunties trying to set him up on blind dates.

He wanted to retreat.

The onlookers were way too warm and friendly, and it was awkward—and he couldn’t exactly keep blocking them outside and pretend it was fine.

But as more and more people crowded over, besides keeping them outside, he had no idea what else he could do.

They wouldn’t listen. They wouldn’t leave. And he couldn’t be rude. He couldn’t ignore them.

So Xie Xingchen could only hope the crowd would disperse on its own—or… that the insect patrol would show up to drive people away.

But in reality, he had underestimated just how nosy everyone was.

Earth Trading House!

Boss Xie!

They’d finally run into him in person—how could they not come look?

If nothing else, at least taking photos and posting on StarBlog was mandatory, right?

Otherwise wouldn’t this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity be wasted?

That’s what everyone thought, so no one wanted to back off.

Even if the insect patrol came, they didn’t want to back off!

Yes. Exactly!

And because Earth Trading House was trending again, even people who didn’t know before now knew.

After they knew, not everyone came—but a huge wave did squeeze their way over.

Sigh. They didn’t want to, but—

That refined, cozy little house with actual “human warmth” was too attractive.

Not to mention the surrounding “bare booths” made a perfect contrast.

Even in modern times, this kind of booth design would be fun.

Let alone now.

It completely crushed everyone else.

If you didn’t come take a photo, you’d feel like your entire trip to Trade Day was pointless.

On StarBlog:

“Today is insanely crowded, seriously”
“Heh. I’m at the venue, but my whole body is numb. What’s happening up front? Why aren’t we moving again?”

“Little fish doesn’t want to lack water or oxygen”
“I’m mad. Not only did I fail to squeeze to the front, I got shoved backward too. Now I can’t even see Earth Trading House’s sign from far away. Incredible. The front is nothing but people.” [cat sigh.jpg]

“Official account info is not trustworthy”
“I’m completely stunned. Some ‘official’ accounts keep saying people in the Alliance don’t like going out, and keep calling for citizens to go outside and breathe fresh space air. This is what you call ‘few people go out’? Lol.” [pic 1] [pic 2]

At the venue. Crushed by the crowd.

It was a uniquely brutal experience—one most people would never experience in their lifetime.

However—

The people there were suffering, sure… but the netizens who weren’t there laughed with absolutely zero mercy.

“Laughing like a goose”
“Hahahaha I’m dying. That’s what you get for showing off!”

“Bleh bleh bleh”
“I told you. People can’t get too smug. The moment you get smug, something bad happens. See? Instant karma—hahahahahaha…”

“Cackling cackling cackling”
“Come on~ keep making us jealous! You’ve got the nerve, do it again! Hehe. Let’s see how you do it now! What? Got squeezed, huh? Can’t get up there, huh? All you can do is stand there and stare, huh?”

Because the people at the venue had bragged way too hard before, the moment netizens found out those people were stuck there but couldn’t squeeze their way to Earth Trading House, the schadenfreude was endless.

But before they could even finish laughing, another bomb dropped—

“Daily reporter is back”
“Report: reliable info from the front. According to an insider, squeezing is pointless today! Even if you reach Earth Trading House, you still can’t buy anything, and you can’t go inside to ‘experience’ it. At best you can only stand in front of the booth and stare longingly inside!”

Everyone: Pffft…

Now they wanted to laugh even harder.

Hahahaha—Earth Trading House really was something else.

What a glorious piece of human comedy.

Serves them right. It should be exactly like this!

Netizens who couldn’t attend in person got so excited they even “requested” a song for the people trapped at the venue—an excerpt from Xie Xingchen’s livestream, the song he’d passionately (and unintentionally) performed: “Good Days,” dedicated to those “friends” who were stuck.

StarBlog was so cheerful it was like everyone collectively got paid.

Ahem. Maybe that’s not a nice thing to say, but… watching them suffer made people happy.

Hahahaha. Old saying really holds up: until the very end, you never know how it’ll turn out.

While the netizens were laughing, the insect patrol finally arrived.

The moment the patrol—wearing uniforms and carrying weapons—approached, the crowd that had been aggressively trying to push forward instantly turned into obedient little chicks.

Whether they liked it or not, under the patrol’s firm, orderly commands, everyone moved away from the Earth Trading House area.

Thankfully, the venue was huge and the pathways were wide. After twenty minutes of directing traffic, the flow finally became smooth again.

Xie Xingchen—who’d been squeezed to the point he could barely breathe—was so moved by the sight of the thinning crowd that he almost wanted to cry.

And when he realized the patrol didn’t leave, but instead took up fixed guard positions right in front of the Earth Trading House booth…

Xie Xingchen’s gratitude became a raging river.

He quickly stepped forward.

Looking at the patrol captain, he thanked him sincerely: “Captain Roder, thank you so much today. I don’t really know your patrol rules, but you can move around, right? How about you rotate in batches and come inside our booth to rest? It just so happens today our booth is running an event for staff, family, and friends: unlimited food and unlimited milk tea!”

Staff? Event? Unlimited food and unlimited milk tea?

He understood every word, but strung together like that, the sentence somehow made no sense at all.

Roder—who had no idea Xie Xingchen had zero intention of closing deals at Trade Day—looked at him with the strangest expression.

After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar]