After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar] – CH125

Chapter 125

So this is the Edelweiss everyone talks about, but hardly anyone has actually seen?

Xie Xingchen looked over with curiosity.

However—

All he could see were people. People everywhere.

Forget the Edelweiss—he couldn’t even see a single green leaf from Yu Cheng’s booth.

Xie Xingchen: [awkward.jpg]

There were simply too many people at Yu Cheng’s booth. After thinking for a moment, Xie Xingchen gave up on trying to squeeze in to see the Edelweiss.

It just wasn’t worth it to get crushed for the sake of watching the spectacle.

The moment he thought about how people had packed around Earth Trading House earlier, he couldn’t help shivering.

Forget it, forget it. He’d just wait a few days and read the StarNet news.

By then, he’d know what the Edelweiss actually looked like!

But… even so, that very human love of gossip made him linger not too far away—admiring other greenery while keeping an eye on Yu Cheng’s booth from a distance.

He saw Yu Cheng, with a few planters in tow, moving smoothly through the crowd, completely at ease.

Xie Xingchen suddenly felt a surge of emotion.

For some reason, the “plot” seemed to have changed for no apparent reason.

Yu Cheng—once a forced “universal heartthrob”—now radiated the unmistakable vibe of a single dog. No, wait. More accurately: the vibe of a career-route male lead grinding his way upward.

According to the original book’s setting, no matter where Yu Cheng went, and whether he wanted it or not, he’d always end up tangled up with various men.

But now?

Xie Xingchen watched for a long time and didn’t see a single man who looked like he had any ambiguous relationship with him.

And combined with how calm and drama-free the StarWeibo trending page had been lately, Xie Xingchen had a strong premonition—

This story’s direction had changed.

It had transformed from a dog-blood “pure love” romance wearing a “big male lead” disguise… into an actual big male lead, work-hard-and-rise career story.

Xie Xingchen muttered, “That’s good.”

Get-Rich didn’t understand. His owner said “That’s good,” but then put the plant he was holding back down.

He held it in, held it in… then finally couldn’t.

“Boss, didn’t you say it’s good? Then why don’t you want it anymore?”

It wasn’t just Get-Rich who felt conflicted—the plantation owner running this booth felt conflicted too.

Most of the foot traffic today had been “sucked away” by Yu Cheng. They’d finally gotten a big client, only for the guy to look like he was just browsing… and his eyes kept drifting toward Yu Cheng’s side.

Then—just as the booth owner was about to lose hope—this big client picked up a pot of Donghua and said “That’s good.”

Hope rose—

And then he put the Donghua right back down.

The booth owner instantly had no idea what to say.

With both the booth owner and Get-Rich looking at him, Xie Xingchen calmly thick-skinned his way through it and smiled. “This Donghua is great in every way—except the price.”

One pot of Donghua: 150,000 Star Credits!
Only 5% green-matter content.

Was he made of money? Did his hands burn if he didn’t spend it?

150,000 Star Credits for a flower—
and it’s only one bloom.

Xie Xingchen smiled: 🙂 The owner could’ve just robbed me outright, but instead he’s selling me a single flower!

How much did his own sunflowers cost?

Less than 10,000 a bloom!

Can’t afford it. Can’t afford it.
Goodbye. [goodbye.jpg]

The booth owner’s smile froze. After a long moment, he finally pointed at Xie Xingchen in disbelief.

“My god, Boss Xie—you’re Boss Xie! You think 150,000 is expensive? You’re so rich!”

Xie Xingchen replied righteously, “Boss, what does your expensive price have to do with whether I have money? Just because I have money means I have to buy expensive things?”

Booth owner: “……” No words.

To be fair, this booth owner had a good temper. Even after getting retorted like that, he didn’t get angry.

In fact, seeing Xie Xingchen being so stingy even made him feel a little fond.

Sigh—wasn’t this exactly how I was a few years ago?

Back when his plantation had just started growing, he thought even nutrient solution was expensive—let alone someone like Xie Xingchen, who had to develop an entire planet.

Anyone in the galaxy knew how hard it was to build up a planting planet in its early stage.

And besides, the Xie family’s foundation had basically been eaten clean by the Fu family. If Xie Xingchen wanted to rise, he could only rely on himself—so being short on money wasn’t strange at all.

As another human-civilization person, the booth owner knew a bit about the Xie family.

The planting circle wasn’t big, and since they were all from the human civilization, the Xie family situation had spread throughout the industry long ago.

Plus, Xie Xingchen had popped up on trending topics a few times—often as the one getting publicly slapped down—so people understood the Xie family story even more deeply.

Speaking of that—

The booth owner couldn’t control himself. His eyes sneaked onto Xie Xingchen.

Seeing that Xie Xingchen didn’t seem to mind, the owner guessed he was easygoing—so he got bolder.

Curious, he asked, “Boss Xie, didn’t you and Yu Cheng used to have beef? I remember your conflict went trending two or three times. Why aren’t you angry at all when you see him today?”

Xie Xingchen smiled and shrugged. “Eh, it was just school-era conflict. How big could it really be? Those trending clips looked serious, but if you dig into it, it was basically verbal squabbling. We’ve all graduated—who still holds onto that? Besides, Yu Cheng’s actually a decent person. He’s very clear about grudges and gratitude. As long as you don’t provoke him first, he generally doesn’t start trouble.”

The original owner had insulted Yu Cheng before and even tried to isolate him. But maybe he really was just cannon fodder—after all that, the result was that the people who liked Yu Cheng cursed him out… and he ended up isolated.

But in the end, the original owner hadn’t done anything even more excessive, and he’d already paid the price for the insults and isolation. So calling it “verbal conflict” wasn’t exactly sugarcoating.

The booth owner seriously recalled the old trending videos about Yu Cheng and Xie Xingchen. Sure, Xie Xingchen looked kind of stupid in them—but if you really dug into it, it truly was just arguing.

That kind of thing was less than nothing in business. Only students treated it like the end of the world.

The marketplace was basically a battlefield without smoke.

Insults? Who hadn’t cursed a competitor behind their back?

Forget behind their back—people curse each other to their faces too. And the moment there’s shared??? Suddenly they’re “brothers.”

Thinking that way, not just the booth owner, but even the nearby eavesdroppers felt like they’d been making a fuss over nothing.

Since everyone had graduated, grown up, and entered this complicated society—

Changing a little wasn’t strange at all.

It was just becoming smoother. A normal stage of life.

The booth owner nodded quietly. “That’s true. Small problems aren’t worth fussing over. If you’re both more generous, maybe you’ll even have a chance to cooperate in the future.”

Xie Xingchen politely disagreed on the inside.

He just smiled and didn’t respond.

Seeing he didn’t want to talk about it, nobody pushed. The people hanging around for idle chatter switched topics.

“Yu Cheng is about to make a killing. I heard with my own ears—the big planet lords over there already went from ten million up to one hundred million Star Credits.”

“Heh, more than one hundred million. That was minutes ago. It’s already at one hundred fifty million now.”

“I still think one hundred fifty million is low. This is a 20% green-matter Edelweiss. Even Yu Cheng said he might not be able to cultivate another one. If it’s under three hundred million, does he even need to sell?”

“……”

Everyone who came here either loved plants, cared about them, or had a need for them—so of course they watched Yu Cheng’s side.

Normal to what extent?

Even if most people didn’t have much money (compared to big planet lords), even if they couldn’t squeeze in, even if they were browsing other booths—most of their attention was still focused on Yu Cheng.

Many planet lords and plantation owners didn’t care, because—

They were the same.

In fact, most of the people wildly bidding were exactly those with fat wallets: plantation owners and planet lords.

“Sigh, it’s just that I’m broke. If I had money, I’d want to bid too.”

“Same. If we had money, we wouldn’t be standing here!”

Their envy practically overflowed.

Their eyes were full of desire, but also tinged with quiet disappointment.

Money isn’t everything, but without money you can’t do anything.

Like right now—they were suffering because of it.

“……”

“Yu Cheng is really something though. Only one year after graduation and he cultivated a plant this insane. If I said he was the best planting major student from our class, nobody would object, right?”

The moment someone blurted that out, he knew he’d said something wrong.

He awkwardly looked at Yu Cheng’s classmate—Xie Xingchen—with clear anxiety.

But Xie Xingchen just smiled. “How could anyone disagree?”

It was obvious—he genuinely didn’t care.

That kind of openness was impressive.

“Boss Xie really is a hero among people—what a generous heart.”

“No wonder he built such a huge business. Truly broad-minded.”

“……”

Xie Xingchen smiled again.

Then he decided to leave.

If he didn’t go now, who knew how many more “polite smiles” he’d have to manufacture.

In just twenty minutes here, he felt like a smiling machine.

Sure, he usually liked smiling—

But a sincere smile and an “I’m being polite” smile were completely different things.

Just as he stepped out of the booth, Yu Cheng suddenly walked over.

The spirited young man still looked slender, but he now carried the bearing of a future powerhouse—washing away that former fragile, willow-in-the-wind vibe.

Maybe because he’d truly stepped onto a career route, Yu Cheng no longer had that “cold but pitiful, everyone’s darling” aura described in the book.

His expression still wasn’t very animated, but he had a crisp, sunny youthful energy.

Yu Cheng looked at Xie Xingchen with a complicated expression and greeted him first. “Xie Xingchen. Long time no see.”

Xie Xingchen was genuinely shocked for a split second that Yu Cheng would come over to greet him.

After a moment, he forced himself calm again.

He nodded. “Classmate Yu Cheng. Long time no see.”

Then, naturally, Xie Xingchen congratulated him. “Congratulations on cultivating the Edelweiss.”

At the words “Edelweiss,” Yu Cheng’s brows and eyes softened.

Clearly, he was very proud of it.

Yu Cheng pressed his lips together, nodded modestly, and returned the compliment. “Thanks. Your Earth Trading House is developing well too.”

They weren’t friends to begin with, so there wasn’t much to talk about.

And Xie Xingchen didn’t want deep contact with the original story’s main “shou” protagonist, so after a few dry sentences, they fell into silence.

In the end, Xie Xingchen broke it.

“Yu Cheng, sorry, Earth Trading House still has some things going on. I might have to leave soon.”

Yu Cheng said “Okay,” and didn’t add anything.

But just before Xie Xingchen turned to leave, he suddenly—almost impulsively—said:

“Oh right. After Trade Day ends, I might hold a small auction in the Insectfolk Hotel. We’ll auction a special kind of cotton cloth. If you’re interested, I can send you an invitation?”

Yu Cheng stared, surprised, and blurted, “Didn’t you say Earth Trading House isn’t selling products?”

The moment he realized what he’d said, he shut his mouth.

Seeing the tips of Yu Cheng’s ears turn red, Xie Xingchen suddenly felt amused.

So it wasn’t just him paying attention to Yu Cheng—Yu Cheng was paying attention to him too?

Hah. So he really was kind of impressive after all.

Feeling proud for exactly one second, Xie Xingchen asked again whether he wanted the invitation.

After confirming he did, Xie Xingchen nodded. “Alright,” then turned and left.

In any book, the protagonists are the focus, and they all have turbulent, dramatic lives.

But Xie Xingchen didn’t want a matching turbulent life. He just wanted to quietly develop Earth.

So no matter what, he would keep distance and not get too close to Yu Cheng.

And besides—

In the original story, the original owner was cyberbullied by Yu Cheng’s fans and ended up committing suicide. That point still made Xie Xingchen feel uncomfortable.

It wasn’t Yu Cheng’s fault, but seeing him inevitably reminded him of that ending.

No matter how you spin it, it was hard to feel happy. Better to keep contact minimal.

Leaving the “Plant Zone,” Xie Xingchen deliberately took a detour on the way back, heading to the “Plant Supplies Zone.”

The plant nutrient solution, growth solution, disinfectant, and so on that Xie Xingchen used were all purchased through suppliers introduced by Professor Ni Kunqi.

Because those were her patented formulas, she knew many businesses licensed to use them.

But like Xie Xingchen, she didn’t personally manufacture—she licensed the patents to companies and collected royalties.

Those companies were willing to give her face, so they offered Xie Xingchen very low prices—barely making any profit.

So Xie Xingchen wasn’t here to buy the same liquids he already had. He wanted to see whether any new planting solutions had appeared.

Unfortunately, after browsing around, he didn’t find anything he absolutely needed— including the so-called “best of the best” plant growth solution developed by the plant civilization.

Objectively, it was good.

Its effect was 2–3 times the effect of Professor Ni’s growth solution.

But for Xie Xingchen—

The value-for-money was terrible.

The effect was only 2–3 times better, but the price was 20–30 times higher.

And for him, it was basically useless.

For ordinary plants, he could just use his teacher’s nutrient and growth solutions.

For rare plants, he could directly use his ability to accelerate growth.

And if that still didn’t work, he had the [Miraculous Planting Potion].

So for him, that fancy plant-civ solution was pure “chicken ribs”—not worth it.

He made a full round of the Plant Supplies Zone.

On the way out, Xie Xingchen hadn’t bought a single thing.

It wasn’t until he returned to Earth Trading House that he suddenly remembered—

Fertilizer!

Sure, nutrient solution could replace fertilizer to some extent, but it couldn’t completely replace it.

Short-term planting was fine, but if he was planting long-term (over three years), he still needed fertilizer to enrich the soil.

Xie Xingchen: Great. He’d have to make another trip later.

But it wasn’t urgent. Earth had only been developing for one year, and huge areas were still wilderness—they hadn’t even been reclaimed yet. They hadn’t even done a first full planting cycle. Fertilizer could wait.

Sinking into the sofa, the softness made Xie Xingchen sigh, “Comfortable.”

He picked up the fruit tea beaded with condensation and gulped down half a cup, finally feeling fully relaxed.

“I’m telling you, I just ran into a massive idiot.”

After resting a bit, Xie Xingchen couldn’t help complaining.

Li Xiao—who was “on duty” here—and the insect patrol members resting here both turned their eyes toward him.

Without waiting for anyone to prompt him, Xie Xingchen started rattling on.

He told the story from the beginning: going to the robot vendors to buy robots, trying to let Get-Rich bargain, and that clerk’s condescending, “robots are beneath me” attitude.

He complained from start to finish.

By the end, he let out a heavy, melancholy sigh and said with deep feeling:

“This is the interstellar age—so why does this kind of discrimination still exist? Are those utopian worlds in literature really only something that can exist in dreams?”

No one could answer him.

Because hearing that, everyone started thinking too.

Yeah. It’s the interstellar age.

Technology advances, medicine advances, culture advances—

But discrimination is still everywhere.

Xie Xingchen gave up. “Forget it. Let’s not talk about this bad-luck stuff. It’s not worth letting idiots ruin our mood!”

If someone asked him: a dog bit you—can you bite back?

Xie Xingchen would smile and say: No. That comparison insults dogs.

What did dogs do wrong to be humiliated like that?

It’s just a bunch of idiots. Not worth getting mad over.

Deep breath. Another deep breath.

Once his breathing truly calmed, Xie Xingchen turned to his three robot companions and said seriously:

“Get-Rich, Prosperity, Long-Life—you guys need to get it together. Hurry up and awaken into mechanical lifeforms and slap them in the face.”

Everyone: pfft—

The mood had been getting heavy, but Xie Xingchen’s sudden turn made everyone lose it.

A boss this stubbornly earnest was honestly kind of adorable.

And the fact that he loved his robots this much?

It was genuinely touching.

A person who could care this much about his robots had to be a kind person.

And having such a kind person as their boss / as an Insect Crest holder—people felt that was a good thing.

Xie Xingchen waved his hand. “Alright, enough of that. Let’s eat. I got so angry I’m hungry now.”

He pulled out a fresh-keeping box from his storage button and laid the food out.

After setting everything up, he suddenly looked up at Roder and said, “Captain Roder, there are fewer people around now. Want to let the two team members outside come in and eat lunch with us?”

Roder thought for a moment, then agreed.

When the two soldiers on duty entered, Xie Xingchen warmly greeted them. “Come, come—thanks for your hard work! Quick, have some iced milk tea first!”

He enthusiastically handed them two chilled cups.

The two soldiers thanked him solemnly, glanced at Roder, and only after Roder nodded did they start drinking.

Seeing that out of the corner of his eye, Xie Xingchen couldn’t help clicking his tongue.

After they’d each had about half a cup and sat down, the employees who’d run off somewhere finally returned.

There were too many people and not enough seats, so Xie Xingchen split everyone into two groups based on preference:

One group ate at the table.

The other sat cross-legged on the sofa with bowls and plates, eating like champions.

But no matter where they ate, their enthusiastic, hearty eating made people in neighboring booths—and passersby—swallow hard in unison.

Some species with strong senses of smell even caught the aroma and literally couldn’t move anymore.

They stood stupidly outside Earth Trading House, staring at the people inside.

Xie Xingchen: ?
Xie Xingchen: “……”

Um… do you people have some kind of illness?

How is anyone supposed to eat like this?

This is going to cause indigestion!

He put down his bowl and chopsticks, silently took out the small vision-blocking energy shield and—turned it on.

Honestly, it was the correct move.

Once the shield blocked outside sightlines, that “being stared at” feeling finally vanished.

It hadn’t been super intense before, but still—eating should be relaxing.

Being watched makes you digest poorly!

“Oh right—didn’t you say you were bringing your parents over? Where are they?”

Halfway through eating, Xie Xingchen suddenly remembered.

At that, Wang Qianqian, Zhao Xin, Lorna, and Adele all sighed.

“Ugh… they’re busy.”

“Just looking at goods and bargaining and stuff—it makes my head spin.”

“I don’t think they can make it over today.”

“……”

Trade Day pricing was basically determined by shipment volume. Unless there were special circumstances, it wasn’t easy to bargain further.

So a portion of people placed orders on Day 1.

But if you really looked closely, that portion wasn’t large.

And yet all four of his employees’ families belonged to that decisive group?

That was… unexpectedly impressive.

“Sigh, what’s so surprising? The price is the price. Order early, get your goods early.”

“Exactly. Trade Day prices are already low. Unless you have a huge long-term order, prices probably won’t go much lower.”

“Most things you’ll buy anyway. Buy early and you get more choices. Buy late and you might have to settle. Why bother?”

Everyone understood the logic.

But in reality, people still clung to luck and “maybe it’ll drop more.”

Or they just wanted to compare three vendors.

And often, by the time they finished comparing, all three were out of stock—ending with them buying nothing and feeling miserable.

They chatted and complained about that for a while, then shifted to what fun “spectacles” they’d seen at Trade Day.

Speaking of spectacles—Xie Xingchen suddenly remembered the Edelweiss commotion he’d seen, and what he’d said to Yu Cheng.

So he looked at Roder and the others with bright eyes and asked curiously:

“Captain Roder, I want to ask something. Um—can the large banquet hall in your Insectfolk Hotel be rented out to people from other civilizations for an auction?”

After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar]