After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar] – CH38

Chapter 38

[Woodpecker Who Loves Food: Holy shit, holy shit!! After waiting forever you finally opened the shops! Boss Xie, I love you to death!!]

[Miserable Puppy Who Never Gets Flowers: HAHAHAHAHA there’s so much stuff this time—flowers are literally ten times more. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m charging in!]

[SunshineAndDew: I’ve bought greenery for years and honestly Earth Shop is the best deal. Other shops charge ten times the price and still don’t have as high a green-matter content. I’m a loyal fan for real. Perfect timing—buying a new light-brain tomorrow morning, then rushing in at night.]

“……”

[SingingLoudly: Hehehe… not me! Honestly, I want flower tea more!]

[TailTooBigTooHeavy: +1. I’ve never had flower tea in my life. And Earth Shop’s flowers smell so good, and the green-matter content isn’t low. Flower tea dried from their flowers must be effective—just don’t know if it’s expensive. Anyway, my savings only allow me to spend under 100,000 star-coins.]

[OnlyWantToMakeMoney: +1. You only realize you’re broke when it’s time to spend! Wuwuwu I’m truly jealous of rich babies—buy whatever you want without even thinking about the price!]

There were lots of people who liked fresh flowers. After all, Xie Xingchen’s daily listing of 5,000 stems had already made Earth Shop famous. But surprisingly—

There were even more people who wanted flower tea?

Thinking about it, it made sense.

Compared with a single stem of flowers, flower tea was obviously more cost-effective.

To put it bluntly, Earth Shop’s flowers had fame, but not to the point of having countless diehard fans. After all, they only listed 5,000 stems a day—far too few for the entire Star Alliance. After you subtract repeat customers, the number of people who actually managed to buy was tiny. And that meant people who’d never gotten flowers were naturally more interested in drinkable flower tea!

After all, everyone was an adult. People liked Earth Shop not because they’d bought its products, but simply because it was cheap enough that they could afford it.

As the saying went, such a low price alone was already a massive gimmick.

So up to now, the number of people who had truly bought Earth Shop’s flowers was small, but the number of fans who wanted to buy was huge.

Even if many of the fans who did manage to buy occasionally posted about it online—and their praise was so over-the-top it sounded like paid marketing.

But—

It was only one or two hundred star-coins!

What more do you want?

This was the kind of purchase where you couldn’t lose and couldn’t be scammed.

Because it was so cheap, even though a large portion of people didn’t believe Earth Shop’s products could be as amazing as everyone claimed, they still rushed in anyway.

But, again—

Too little stock. Rushing in was pointless. You simply couldn’t grab any flowers.

And thus the vicious cycle continued.

Didn’t get flowers ? couldn’t become a loyal fan ? didn’t become a loyal fan ? didn’t have the obsession to keep fighting for flowers…

And since you weren’t a loyal fan anyway, now there was flower tea dried from flowers, clearly “better”—

Everyone: Of course we’re rushing the flower tea ?

Waiting with bated breath, preparing to charge.

Looks lively, but no real loyalty.

If another shop sold greenery in large quantities at the same price today—even if it only had 1% green-matter content—it could probably split Earth Shop’s hype.

But unfortunately, for over a hundred years, pricing for greenery had been tightly controlled by the Plant Association. Everyone wanted to make more money; no one was willing to give up profit.

Not only did they refuse to give up profit, but they also saw Xie Xingchen, the one person willing to do it, as an enemy. They even thought he was breaking industry rules and was a sinner of the trade.

Xie Xingchen: 0.0
Not only doesn’t care—kind of happy, actually.jpg
No one dares compete, so all the heat is his!
Xie Xingchen: Hehe, stay jealous [smug bunny.jpg].

Seeing everyone talk and talk without even mentioning the food, Xie Xingchen was completely confused.

But honestly, it wasn’t the netizens’ fault.

Food was enticing.

They just didn’t get to experience much of it.

And most of the “food” they could access was often just flashy—pretty on the outside.

Looks delicious, but once it hits your mouth, it’s just… meh.

Sure, it tasted better than nutrient solution, but saying it was heavenly would be a lie.

And what about those “light” dishes that existed in interstellar society?

Yes, those did exist.

But first, the ingredients were insanely expensive, and second, the chefs who could make them were top-tier.

If you wanted to eat that kind of food, you had to go to high-end restaurants. Want to buy the same food online?

You’d probably get it faster in a dream~

Some Earth Shop diehard fans did hold out hope that the food Xie Xingchen planned to sell would surprise everyone in both taste and effect.

But compared with food of unknown taste and effect, people clearly preferred greenery that was already proven.

Because even if everyone thought Xie Xingchen’s marketing was good, the streamers recommending Earth flowers had shown certifications!

High-end greenery with a full 2% content.

With that level, even if the effects weren’t amazing, they couldn’t be terrible.

Netizens chattered nonstop, cracking their knuckles and planning to fight for flowers and flower tea.

However—

Some of Earth Shop’s older customers had already set their sights on the food.

They couldn’t help it—they were tempted.

Sure, there were more flowers and tea, but that meant more people fighting too. Getting them still wouldn’t be easy.

But barely anyone was talking about the food!

If they went for the food first, wouldn’t they definitely get it?

They believed so.

Snatching items wasn’t something you could do just by wanting them. Even if the stock looked abundant, with this many people, it would still sell out instantly. This was exactly when strategy mattered.

As Earth Shop’s very first customer—and the first streamer to push Earth Shop into the spotlight—Alice had a complicated relationship with it: love and hate.

She loved how effective it was and how much attention it had brought her.

She hated that it was too effective—so effective that now she couldn’t even grab any herself.

What? Her priority purchase cards?

Heh. Cards like that had to be saved for when things were even harder to grab!

Right now, she could still manage sometimes, so why waste a priority card? That would just burn an opportunity.

Alice’s little abacus clicked merrily.

When Boss Xie posted those two StarBlogs, honestly, she’d set her eyes on the priority card immediately.

With a priority card, whether she managed to get flowers or tea this time wasn’t even the most important thing anymore. What mattered most was—

She had to get into the first 100 payments for one of the three shops.

As long as she landed first 100 in any shop, she’d get a priority purchase card!

And if her guess was right, Boss Xie’s priority card wouldn’t be limited to one shop—it would be usable across all shops under his name.

Don’t ask how she knew—Boss Xie was too lazy to set it up with fine distinctions!

That was basically like gaining ten guaranteed purchase chances with one card—ten purchases you could definitely make.

Thinking of that, Alice smiled.

She immediately found her younger brother and explained the strategy: go for the food to secure the priority card.

Her brother’s eyes lit up. He nodded hard and decided to charge in with her.

He knew it—his sister had four priority purchase cards.

He’d been jealous to death before. Now he finally had a chance to get one.

Insane. Not charging in would be inhuman!

Meanwhile, StarNet was filled with discussion about Xie Xingchen’s Earth Shop.

And that instantly sent the Fu family’s newly marketed greenery shop straight into an icy valley.

By gnawing away at the Xie family’s resources, the Fu family had successfully established themselves in the planting industry over the years.

But their output had been small before, and most of it went to customers with existing family business connections. Only in the last two months did their planting planet’s output increase substantially.

Seeing their ex-daughter-in-law explode in popularity on StarNet Mall, Fu’s parents got jealous. They wanted to open a shop too.

Not a hard request. Fu Yunzhou considered briefly and agreed.

After all, sales channels shouldn’t be singular. For a business, more channels were always better.

Fu Group had plenty of employees, so opening a shop on StarNet Mall was fast.

From deciding to open, to marketing, to launch—Fu Group only took one month.

But unfortunately, they didn’t dare imitate Xie Xingchen’s ultra-low pricing. They wanted to survive in the industry, so they only dared sell at the lowest “acceptable” price under the industry’s unwritten rules.

Even so, many netizens considered Fu Group’s prices reasonable.

Thanks to marketing, Fu’s greenery shop had a booming opening day—within half a day, netizens cleared all their prepared stock.

On the second day, just as Fu Yunsen was gearing up to list double the goods, Xie Xingchen—who hadn’t posted in a while—suddenly appeared.

And in that moment, Fu Yunsen realized this once unremarkable friend had become incredibly eye-catching.

He had only posted two simple StarBlogs!

Those two posts didn’t even include product descriptions. He merely told everyone the shop would open tomorrow and how many items would be listed.

He didn’t even mention prices.

And yet it still rocketed to the main-board trending list?

#EarthShopNewOpening
#WuwuwuThanksBossXieSoManyFlowersThisTime
#SoAnxiousIWantToRushInEarly

Seeing those three trending tags, the Fu family’s expressions darkened.

They had spent tens of millions of star-coins on marketing and only reached the human-civilization sub-channel trending list.

Xie Xingchen?
Didn’t spend a single coin—and made it to the overall main channel.

“He’s that capable now?” Fu Mother frowned, her tone full of regret.

If she’d known Xie Xingchen would be this capable, she wouldn’t have let her son divorce him so quickly.

Even now, she still believed Xie Xingchen couldn’t live without her son. She turned to look at her eldest son, who hadn’t spoken a word, and cautiously suggested:

“Yunzhou… how about you go talk to Xie Xingchen?”

Fu Yunzhou pressed his lips together, his eyes showing clear resistance.

Seeing his resistance, Fu Mother fell silent for a moment, then sighed helplessly.

“I know it’s unfair to you, but it’s for the family… ah, forget it. Xingchen too—once he married into the family, we were all one family. Having that kind of ability and still hiding it… really not proper.”

Fu Father agreed. Already stern-faced, he furrowed his brows even deeper.

“People like that can’t be raised to be close. Always distant from us—you know that too.”

Their parents’ words left Fu Yunzhou speechless.

He wanted to say something, but he knew anything he said would be useless, so he stayed silent.

He never considered himself a good man. He married Xie Xingchen for two reasons: first,??—benefit; second, Xie Xingchen loved him, and he didn’t dislike him.

But reality proved that marriage couldn’t be sustained by “he loves him” alone. In the end, they divorced.

After the divorce, Fu Yunzhou first felt relieved—then, slowly, a vague emptiness began to swell.

He started unconsciously paying attention to Xie Xingchen’s news. He began feeling lonely in the dead of night. He even began reflecting on his parents’ behavior—and his own.

Just now, his frown wasn’t because he was annoyed by Xie Xingchen. He felt uncomfortable because of how casually his mother treated the matter.

He had vaguely sensed before that his parents’ fondness for Xie Xingchen might not be real fondness. He only thought it was because Xie Xingchen wasn’t their child, so they treated him with a kind of polite “guest courtesy.”

But now…

Fu Yunzhou stood up and suddenly said, “There’s something at the company. I’m going back to deal with it. You two rest early.”

It was already after three in the morning. If their StarNet Mall shop hadn’t just launched, the Fu family would’ve gone to bed long ago.

Fu Mother looked worried. “Can’t it wait until tomorrow? It’s so late.”

Fu Yunzhou shook his head, grabbed his coat, and left.

Fu Mother wanted to say more, but Fu Father stopped her.

In the end, they could only watch their workaholic son leave the Fu home.

Fu Mother sighed anxiously. “Sigh, Yunzhou being this busy isn’t a solution. He’s a person, not a machine—he needs rest. How about… I find him a capable helper at home?”

Fu Father took a sip of tea, then nodded noncommittally—essentially agreeing.

Seeing her husband agree, Fu Mother instantly beamed, muttering about what kind of daughter-in-law to look for, her mind already racing through a list of “equal-status” marriage candidates.

Only Fu Yunsen remained.

He sat there quietly, watching his mother happily plan to find his brother a new wife.

He opened his mouth as if to say something… but in the end, he said nothing. He only murmured “Good night,” then dragged his heavy body back to his room.

The moment he shut the door, guilt washed over him.

He didn’t know what was wrong with him, but he felt like he had wronged Xie Xingchen.

He’d never known his parents were like this!

If he had known…

Leaning against the door, Fu Yunsen gave a bitter smile.

If he’d known earlier, maybe he wouldn’t have cared either.

After all, Xie Xingchen was just an “outsider.” Even if he was his best friend, compared to family, he was still only an outsider.

He fell asleep after three. A little after ten in the morning, friends dragged him out again.

At the villa where a friend’s gathering was held, Fu Yunsen’s face looked pale—the pale of someone who hadn’t slept enough.

But when others saw it, they assumed he was pale from anger.

And so, certain low-tier people—thinking they were clever—came over to “comfort” him.

“Young Master Fu, did you see Xie Xingchen’s StarBlog last night?”

The moment those words left his mouth, people listening nearby felt suffocated.

This was truly “the one topic you don’t bring up.”

Suicide by words wasn’t supposed to be like this!

But the speaker didn’t think he was courting death. He thought he was brilliant.

Afraid someone would steal his moment, he rattled on—pa pa pa—without stopping.

When he finally finished with great satisfaction, he realized Fu Yunsen was staring at him expressionlessly.

“Y-Young Master Fu… what’s wrong?” the man asked weakly.

His earlier swagger was gone.

Fu Yunsen rolled his eyes hard and sneered without mercy.

“What’s wrong? I’m watching an idiot.”

Fu Yunsen had never understood the meaning of “endure.” He always spoke directly.

For people he didn’t like, he didn’t just clap back—most of the time he couldn’t even be bothered to look at them.

He said coldly to the man, “Move. Good dogs don’t block the road.”

The group who’d just been mocked as dogs immediately looked like someone had dumped a palette of paint on their faces, but they still didn’t dare say anything. They moved aside.

Fu Yunsen, annoyed, walked over to the party host and complained with a dark expression:

“Amu, your gathering is way too low-end. Any random cats and dogs can get in.”

The young man called Amu shrugged, unconcerned. “What can I do? They’ve got the skill to get invites. I can’t be bothered to deal with it.”

Fu Yunsen glared at him and curled his lip. “Hah. Isn’t it because you handed out invites too casually? If you’d been careful, nobody would’ve gotten in.”

Amu shrugged again as if to say he was powerless.

Organizing a party was tiring enough—now he had to prevent people from bringing plus-ones too?

Heh. Even if he could do it, he still wouldn’t bother.

It was obviously a suggestion that would waste time for little gain. If so, he might as well lie flat.

Amu’s “dead pig not afraid of boiling water” attitude nearly made Fu Yunsen explode—but he couldn’t bring himself to speak harshly. In the end, he just irritably avoided the idiots and went to the balcony.

He switched to several hidden balcony corners in a row, finally escaping everyone’s gossiping eyes.

But escaping their stares didn’t mean escaping their whispers.

“Fu family’s embarrassed and furious this time, huh?”

“Looks like it. Who would’ve thought Xie Xingchen could still thrive after being kicked out? Seeing it now—he really is a Xie by blood.”

“Did you see Fu Yunsen’s face just now? Heh, I’m dying. That was so dark.”

“Come on, of course it would be. That’s Xie Xingchen. The Fu family’s ‘eating the inheritance’ behavior was ugly as hell. If Xie Xingchen rises again, anyone would fear revenge.”

“…”

“Honestly, I think the Fu family wasn’t that bad. At least they returned part of the assets to Xie Xingchen.”

“Heh. Returned? Don’t make me laugh. They outright snatched the Xie family’s golden-egg-laying hen.”

“Exactly. Not to mention, Xie Xingchen entered the marriage with Xie family assets and resources. And at their social level, who divorces without splitting hundreds of billions? Xie Xingchen even brought assets, resources, and channels—yet he still walked away with barely anything.”

“…”

Fu Yunsen, who had always believed his family hadn’t treated Xie Xingchen too badly even after the divorce, had nothing to say.

Hundreds of billions sounded like a lot, but for their class it was… just okay. Not enough to seriously hurt them.

That was why he’d always felt his family was “decent”: even after divorce, they still gave Xie Xingchen a lot of money despite him “not contributing” and “only causing trouble.”

But hearing others talk now, Fu Yunsen’s face burned like it had been slapped.

And that wasn’t even the worst part. The worst part was that Yu Cheng arrived—and not only arrived, but openly shared his view of the Fu family and the Xie family.

On a hidden balcony corner—

Fan Yimeng and Yu Cheng stood quietly by the railing.

Afraid someone might eavesdrop, the balcony curtains were half-open—enough to hide them from view, but still let them spot anyone approaching.

However—

They didn’t notice that someone else had arrived long ago, sitting in the blind spot of the neighboring balcony.

Fu Yunsen sat lazily on some random small stool, leaning against a railing covered in greenery. His eyes were empty as he stared outside, not caring who came or went next door.

Fan Yimeng asked curiously, “Yu Cheng, you really won’t work for the Fu family?”

Yu Cheng nodded casually. “Won’t.”

Fan Yimeng looked confused. “Why? Fu’s offer is really good.”

It was—among all his invitations, Fu’s was the best. But—

“The Fu family likes to swallow other people’s inheritance. I don’t dare get too close to people like that. Once you get close, it’s hard to get out,” Yu Cheng said frankly.

He was realistic and smart.

Good at observing, he’d already learned this lesson from what happened to Xie Xingchen.

So he would never let himself sink into it.

Fan Yimeng choked, unable to refute him.

Because Yu Cheng was right.

Outsiders might be fooled, not knowing the specifics. But they were different.

They weren’t just students in First Academy’s planting department—they were also classmates of Xie Xingchen and Fu Yunsen.

More importantly, they were in the same industry as the Xie family, surrounded by well-informed classmates.

Add that all up, and anyone even slightly informed knew the Fu family and Xie Xingchen inside out.

Xie Xingchen trusted the Fu family so much, loved Fu Yunzhou so much—yet in the end, the Fu family just tossed him some assets and sent him away.

And those assets weren’t even the Fu family’s. They were Xie family leftovers that the Fu family hadn’t fully digested or had put on display as “decorations,” returned for appearance’s sake.

How to put it…

Shameless.

Fan Yimeng sighed. “Yeah… if they can treat their own daughter-in-law that ruthlessly, how would they treat you, a subordinate? Forget it, I won’t give advice. You decide.”

Seeing his friend so down, Yu Cheng chuckled and patted his shoulder comfortingly, saying nothing more.

They didn’t stay long—about half an hour—then left.

After they left—

Only then did Fu Yunsen, who had overheard every word by accident, quietly stand up.

His expression was extremely complicated, his eyes full of disappointment.

Finally, he couldn’t help murmuring, “So… so this is how everyone sees our family.”

Like a wandering soul, he drifted to a corner of the party, grabbed a cup of “alcohol,” and downed it in one go without thinking.

Fu Yunsen’s abnormal behavior drew concern from the host, Amu.

Amu: “What’s wrong with you? Drinking so much juice this early?”

Fu Yunsen: Juice?

Fu Yunsen: Even juice is bullying me.

He suddenly didn’t want to talk at all.

Amu: “Don’t tell me you’re still hung up on Xie Xingchen?”

Amu knew Xie Xingchen too, but they weren’t close—just acquainted.

Fu Yunsen didn’t answer.

After a long pause, he finally said quietly, “Were we… really that bad to Xie Xingchen?”

Amu stared at him in shock, then bluntly said, “Damn. You’re only realizing that now?”

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