After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar] – CH81

Chapter 81

Yuan Qi had social anxiety—real, textbook social anxiety.

To avoid too much contact with crowds, after graduation he worked hard to find a job with flexible hours and took a taxi to work every day.

At 10:00 a.m., most office drones were already at their desks.

That was when Yuan Qi, neatly dressed, strolled unhurriedly into the sky-transit station on the 90th floor.

He avoided the scattered pedestrians clustered on the left for some reason, and went to the platform to call a taxi.

His luck wasn’t great today. Most smart hovercars were sent for maintenance, the remaining small portion had been reserved, and the last few available were far away. By the rules, he’d have to wait at least fifteen minutes. If he didn’t want to wait, he could take the public hoverbus.

Socially anxious Yuan Qi: I choose to wait fifteen minutes.

Avoiding the hoverbus that had just arrived, Yuan Qi edged to a spot where he was less likely to be disturbed.

When he saw the laughing crowd on the left pile onto the public hoverbus, he quietly exhaled without drawing attention.

An empty sky-transit platform was simply delightful.

Just then, a gust of wind blew in.

It brought cold air—and a thick, unfamiliar fragrance.

Yuan Qi’s nose twitched. He immediately pinpointed where the smell came from.

He glanced over and found that several racks had been set up where the crowd had gathered earlier.

And that strange fragrance was coming from the odd items hanging on those racks.

Yuan Qi walked closer. When he got near, he realized there were quite a lot of those weird chunks of meat hanging there, and they were even covered by a small protective barrier.

He stopped, kept a safe distance from the barrier, and stood there sniffing the aroma in a daze.

Only when his smart car arrived did he snap out of his oddly aimless behavior.

Back at the office, Yuan Qi worked quietly. During the hard-won lunch break, he heard colleagues next door chatting about what they’d seen lately.

“This is insane. Today I realized the rooftop of my apartment building is covered in cured meats.”

“Tell me about it! Yours is just covered—mine was already full two days ago. Row after row of sausages and cured pork. The smell is unreal. Now every time I open the window at home and the wind blows, I can smell that cured-meat aroma!”

“Hahaha, it’s normal. It’s not hard, and anyone who watched the video probably wants to try. I checked the tutorials online and it looks pretty simple. Last night my neighbor asked if I wanted to apply for space together, and I said yes.”

Yuan Qi listened quietly for a long time and finally realized they were talking about the strange things he’d seen that morning at the sky-transit station.

“Anyway, I’m done talking. I’m using lunch break to hold a meeting with my neighbors and see where else we can apply for space.”

“….”

“Jingjing, you rich lady—how much cured pork and sausage are you planning to make? Weather suitable for this might only last about a month here. If you don’t do it now, the next chance is probably next year… unless you spend a fortune to modify the environment.”

“Damn, I didn’t even think of that! Forget it. I was going to buy 20 jin of meat, but now I’m buying at least 50 jin. Also, for the next two months, don’t invite me to any gathering that costs more than 50 starcoins.”

“Hahahaha, in your dreams. You still want gatherings in the next two months? Everyone’s broke out of their minds!”

“….”

Yuan Qi’s game studio paid salaries in three parts: base pay, over-completion bonuses, and project bonuses. His coworkers actually earned pretty well—at least 30,000 to 40,000 starcoins a month.

But food free of dark matter was absurdly expensive. Even though oink-beast meat was considered the cheapest “natural” meat, it still cost 600 starcoins per jin. Buying 50 jin was basically an entire month’s salary.

Listening to coworkers complain about how small this month’s project bonus was, Yuan Qi quietly closed the chat window where his boss had offered him a raise.

At 11:00 p.m., when most coworkers had already left, Yuan Qi finally finished his day’s work plan and got up to go home.

Like always: silently called a taxi, quietly went home, took a dull shower…

Just as he was about to sleep, the doorbell rang.

Yuan Qi heard it, but he didn’t open the door. He quietly waited for whoever it was to give up and leave.

No special reason—he simply didn’t want to talk to anyone.

But the person kept pressing the doorbell for nearly half an hour, as if determined to press it until the end of time unless Yuan Qi came out.

Yuan Qi frowned. A hint of anger appeared on his delicate, clean-cut face.

He waited a little longer. When the other person still wouldn’t stop, he gave up hiding.

He got out of bed and opened the door.

A tall, handsome man beamed at him. Acting like they were old friends, the man gave Yuan Qi’s thin shoulder a hearty pat and said brightly, “Hi, little neighbor! I live next door. Everyone on our floor is making cured pork and sausage tomorrow. We already got the space approved! Anyone on the 98th floor can join. Do you want in?”

Yuan Qi: ?

He forgot his shoulder pain entirely and stared at the social superstar in front of him.

He listened as the man enthusiastically explained the whole story, start to finish, vividly describing how they outsmarted the building manager. Before he knew it, Yuan Qi even managed to say a couple of sentences.

In the end…

The handsome neighbor, clearly realizing Yuan Qi hated crowds, said kindly and naturally, “Oh? You don’t like lots of people? No problem. Tomorrow I can come to your place and teach you. When we’re done, I’ll take yours upstairs to air-dry it. Once it’s dried, I’ll bring it back down for you. That way you won’t have to be scared.”

Not having to face a crowd, yet still getting cured meats?

Yuan Qi was wildly tempted.

Seeing hesitation on Yuan Qi’s face, the neighbor immediately decided for him. “Alright, it’s settled. I’ll come find you tomorrow. Remember to prepare the ingredients. I’m sending the list to your light-brain right now—check it.”

Yes. In a mere ten-plus minutes, the extrovert neighbor had already added Yuan Qi’s contact.

Some of Yuan Qi’s coworkers who’d worked with him for years still didn’t have his contact.

Yuan Qi watched the neighbor leave in a trance, returned to his room in a trance, and when he finally fell asleep in a trance, he suddenly realized: extroverts could be terrifying.

The next day, Yuan Qi got up early and bought everything the neighbor had told him to get.

Right after the delivery arrived, the handsome neighbor came over.

With fast, practiced hands, he helped the kitchen rookie Yuan Qi make sausages and cured pork. Then, all by himself, he pushed a small cart he’d brought and hauled both of their finished products up to the shared drying spot the 98th-floor residents had secured.

From that day on, Yuan Qi got used to the extrovert neighbor dropping by every so often.

After Yuan Qi received his fully dried cured meats, the neighbor visited even more frequently, and Yuan Qi—like a frog slowly boiled in warm water—didn’t even notice what was happening.

Two years later, relying on the food guides provided by Boss Xie, the socially anxious Yuan Qi was completely “captured” by his extrovert neighbor, and the two became a beloved couple story.

But that was later.

Back to Xie Xingchen.

As the “founder” who had sparked this bizarre new trend, Xie Xingchen was genuinely stunned by these strange interstellar people.

Online, air-dried cured meats hung everywhere in the wind—normal courtyards, luxurious residential green spaces, unused rooftops, even sky-transit stations… all conquered by cured meats.

Just looking at it gave off an inexplicably rustic vibe.

Xie Xingchen laughed every single time he saw it.

He felt like he’d awakened some weird latent trait in them.

“I honestly never expected things to go in this direction. Humans really are incredible,” Xie Xingchen said with a smile.

But Ludwig, after listening in silence, refuted seriously, “No. Not just humans.”

Xie Xingchen froze for a moment, then, thinking of Ludwig’s personality, smiled and admitted honestly, “Right. Not just humans. People from other civilizations are incredible too.”

To be honest, Ludwig looked tall, refined, handsome, and cold on the outside. But once you actually interacted with him—especially once he considered you a friend—Xie Xingchen could clearly tell that, like other mechanical lifeforms, Ludwig was… a lovable, straightforward blockhead.

Ludwig had no idea Xie Xingchen saw him that way. He was simply sharing information he knew, very seriously.

“On my planet, many mechanical lifeforms are learning to make cured meats,” Ludwig said. “They even developed machines specifically for making them.”

Even with mental preparation, Xie Xingchen was still shocked.

Machines inventing machines made sense.

But lots of mechanical lifeforms learning to make cured meats?

That, he couldn’t understand.

Cured meats were food. Other civilizations learned because it was delicious and good for the body.

But mechanical lifeforms?

They couldn’t eat much natural food. Eat too much and it did more harm than good.

Not to mention the high cost of making cured meats—why spend money to suffer?

Xie Xingchen’s thoughts were written all over his face.

With one look, Ludwig knew he didn’t get it.

Ludwig didn’t explain. Instead, he told Xie Xingchen that mechanical masters were researching better mechanical stomachs, and that a first-generation product had already been developed.

Xie Xingchen found it mind-blowing—then suddenly understood why mechanical lifeforms were joining the cured-meat craze.

Xie Xingchen: This is the power of food.

But as they chatted, Xie Xingchen suddenly remembered something. “Ludwig, it’s summer on your side right now, isn’t it?”

Ludwig nodded. Understanding what Xie Xingchen was worried about, he said casually, “Don’t worry. They built a simulated cold-wind environment.”

Xie Xingchen clicked his tongue inwardly. Everyone really had their own tricks.

Competition within a civilization, competition between civilizations…

For something as simple as cured meats, Xie Xingchen somehow saw a strange competitive spirit.

If he knew the Insectoids were also making cured meats, he’d probably drop his jaw.

Ludwig picked a few interesting bits of recent news from his mechanical planet and shared them.

Even though his voice barely rose or fell, he still made Xie Xingchen laugh until he leaned sideways.

After that lighthearted conversation, the atmosphere between them became relaxed and pleasant.

Not wanting to break it, Ludwig took a long look at Xie Xingchen laughing uncontrollably and decided to talk business tomorrow instead.

But just as he was about to end the call, Xie Xingchen suddenly said, “Ludwig, didn’t you say you were interested in coconut-flavored energy fluid? Are you still interested?”

To mechanical lifeforms, energy fluid was as essential as nutrient fluid was to humans.

It was a crucial energy source they couldn’t live without.

Back when Ludwig first learned that Xie Xingchen wanted to develop other flavors of energy fluid, Ludwig had said that if Xie Xingchen succeeded, he wanted to buy those flavors—or buy the patent and produce them himself.

Only because Ludwig trusted Xie Xingchen’s cooking ability. Someone who could make such delicious food wouldn’t fail spectacularly at flavor research for energy fluid.

And Ludwig was right. Xie Xingchen didn’t fail. In his spare time, he created coconut-flavored energy fluid that robots loved.

Today, Ludwig’s original purpose in calling was to buy coconut energy fluid or purchase the patent.

But the earlier chat had been too cheerful, so he didn’t want to pivot. He planned to handle business tomorrow.

He didn’t expect Xie Xingchen to throw a direct question at him.

Well… the truth was simple: Xie Xingchen felt short on money.

Trade Day was less than half a year away. He had to earn like crazy.

And earning money took time.

So it wasn’t strange that he’d reach out to Ludwig now.

Since Xie Xingchen brought up energy fluid, Ludwig immediately leaned into it, openly expressing how much he wanted coconut flavor.

That openness also came from Ludwig understanding Xie Xingchen’s character—he knew Xie Xingchen wasn’t the kind of merchant who would jack up prices on the spot. Otherwise, Ludwig would’ve masked his intentions so no one could read him.

Xie Xingchen thought for a moment. “If you want it, of course I can sell it to you. What kind of cooperation model do you want?”

Ludwig’s dark eyes were full of sincerity. “I can accommodate you.”

Xie Xingchen grinned, not bothering with verbal sparring. “Then let’s do a patent licensing deal. Your side has plenty of energy-fluid factories. Once you buy the patent, you can produce it locally.”

Ludwig agreed. “How do we calculate the patent fee?”

A glint flashed in Xie Xingchen’s eyes. Confident and straightforward, he said, “You know I’m short on money right now, so the patent fee can’t be low. For the first phase, I’ll charge 0.5 starcoins per bottle produced. After two years, the fee can be reduced.”

0.5 starcoins per bottle wasn’t dirt-cheap, but it was still clearly on the inexpensive end for patents.

Compared to those high-and-mighty patents that charged three to five starcoins per bottle, Xie Xingchen’s price could practically be called “excellent value.”

And Ludwig knew how good the flavor was, which made him ask extra questions instead of bargaining.

Between the lines, he meant: if Xie Xingchen needed money, he could raise it to 1 starcoin per bottle, and Ludwig would still happily pay.

But Xie Xingchen shook his head and refused.

After they finalized the coconut-flavored patent, Xie Xingchen added, “Oh, and I also developed mango-flavored energy fluid recently. That one’s really good too—my robots love it. Do you want that patent as well?”

Ludwig nodded with mild surprise.

Xie Xingchen’s licensing model was extremely favorable to the buyer.

He charged purely per unit produced and set no minimum production requirement. In other words, if you produced just one bottle, you paid patent fees for just one bottle—no giant upfront base fee like most business deals.

So if Ludwig produced one bottle, he paid Xie Xingchen 0.5 starcoins. If they stopped producing, they paid nothing at all.

So an extra flavor wasn’t a burden—it was basically a hidden perk.

After they confirmed the terms, Xie Xingchen and Ludwig signed the contract with lawyers witnessing.

The moment they signed, the agreement took effect.

The next second, in Xie Xingchen’s patent section, both flavors showed an authorized user name: Ludwig.

Ludwig was the kind of leader who acted immediately.

He got the coconut and mango authorizations in the morning, and by night he was already procuring materials based on the formulas.

Once the supplies arrived, he personally produced a batch and personally tested the taste and performance.

Only after the test report came back did he hand this serious, meticulous work to his loyal subordinates.

And it was only then that Xie Xingchen truly realized how rich Ludwig was.

Even at 0.5 starcoins per bottle, once you added raw materials, production, labor, machinery, and other costs, producing a new-flavor energy fluid was not cheap.

In fact, the cost price alone was almost on par with the retail price of some ordinary energy fluids. The final selling price definitely wouldn’t be low.

Yet Ludwig wasn’t afraid of inventory at all. He had already stockpiled millions of boxes, and he was still producing more—without even running ads.

Clearly, that amount of goods was nothing to him.

Xie Xingchen: rabbit gritting teeth.jpg

So jealous. Ahhh, Ludwig, you ridiculously rich man!

Compared to Xie Xingchen’s “toothpaste squeeze” sales pace, Ludwig was the true GOAT.

But knowing that changed nothing… Xie Xingchen still had to keep squeezing toothpaste.

Starting from scratch felt inspiring, but it also truly slowed progress—especially for someone like Xie Xingchen, whose entire starting point was basically one seed.

It was depressing.

Starting with one seed meant that even the most capable person in the universe couldn’t turn it into a massive planting empire in a short time.

So Xie Xingchen knew he couldn’t rush. He had to stay steady and grow step by step.

He absolutely couldn’t compare himself to people with deep resources and strong backing.

He wanted to become a self-made first-generation rich man.

He wanted to be the most admirable pioneer in the galaxy.

He wanted to be proud of pioneering.

Xie Xingchen: Proud my ass. Pioneering is exhausting. I just want an easy win.

Starting with one seed was brutal.

And of course, the universe loved irony.

Right after Xie Xingchen finished complaining to Get-Rich, Prosperity, and Long-Life that he never wanted to start planting from one seed again, his partner Feifei—who’d been away for over a month—finally returned.

[System: Ding! Your partner Feifei is back! After more than a month of long-distance travel, it seems a little tired! But Feifei is very happy, because during the trip it discovered a Peach Blossom Spring. There were crisscrossing paths, the sounds of chickens and dogs carried on the air, and countless peach trees growing there. It was so beautiful that Feifei couldn’t help staying for a long time.]

[System: Ding! Feifei, who loves traveling and loves the Peach Blossom Spring, also brought you a bunch of souvenirs!]

[System: Ding! Congratulations! You received Bunny’s travel souvenirs: Four-Leaf Clover (Legendary) x1, Cucumber Seeds x1, Loofah Seeds x1, Aloe Seedling x1.]

[Four-Leaf Clover (Legendary): A perfect, extremely rare legendary four-leaf clover. It is said that if you wear it when you go out, it will definitely bring the traveler good luck!]

[Cucumber Seeds: A plain-looking yet vibrant cucumber seed. Bunny picked it up casually from a field ridge in the Peach Blossom Spring. Its plump, fresh look delighted Bunny, so Bunny decided to bring it back as a gift for its beloved partner!]

[Loofah Seeds: During its time living in the Peach Blossom Spring, Bunny suddenly fell in love with the taste of loofah! To let its human taste loofah’s deliciousness too, Bunny searched the entire Peach Blossom Spring and finally found a particularly precious mutant loofah seed.]

[Aloe Seedling: When Bunny was leaving the Peach Blossom Spring with its backpack, it spotted a small aloe seedling by the roadside that looked like it was about to die of dehydration. After thinking, Bunny decided that its partner—who liked weird and unusual things—might enjoy this strange plant, so it happily picked it up and tossed it into the bag to gift to its partner.]

Xie Xingchen: ?

Xie Xingchen: !

He didn’t even have time to celebrate. After reading the aloe seedling description, he hurriedly took it out.

When it appeared, the aloe seedling was already yellowing—on the verge of dying.

Xie Xingchen reflexively began channeling mental energy into it.

Wave after wave, for over ten minutes. When he finally stopped, the aloe seedling shifted from yellow to green.

Then he watered it, and it visibly became more lively and plump.

Only after he was relieved did he have the mood to look at the other items Feifei had brought back.

The more he looked, the wider his smile grew.

Feifei had done beautifully.

These items looked unimpressive at first glance, but they were all good stuff.

The legendary four-leaf clover didn’t even need explanation. Anything labeled “legendary,” no matter how trashy it looked, couldn’t be bad.

As for the loofah seed, cucumber seed, and aloe seedling Feifei brought back—those were even more amazing.

These three were incredible: not only edible, but also cheap, plentiful raw materials for beauty products.

From what Xie Xingchen knew, they could be made into toner, face cream, face masks, and more.

They didn’t provide anti-aging, wrinkle reduction, or whitening, but with strong extraction techniques and good formulation, their hydrating effect would absolutely be powerful.

Thinking of the fans who constantly wailed about not being able to afford skincare, Xie Xingchen had a feeling they’d soon be able to stand tall again.

If they couldn’t buy expensive products, they could buy affordable ones.

And whether it was loofah, cucumber, or aloe, these were hardy plants. As long as he saved seeds early, he could expand planting on a large scale later.

Just thinking about it made Xie Xingchen want to post on StarBlog to celebrate.

Click here to download the full novel. (EPUB & PDF)