Chapter 325
Tang Yu’an took out a Seven-Day Special Refresh Card, and soon, a new list of items appeared.
[Seven-Day Special Sale (Time Remaining: ???)]
- High-Grade Healing Potion (5/5): 1,000 points/bottle
- Smart Housekeeping Robot (2/2): 6,688 points/unit
- Space Stone (4/4): 48,888 points/piece
- Vending Machine (2/2): 188,888 points/unit
When he saw the fourth item, Tang Yu’an’s eyes lit up.
“Wow! It really appeared!” he exclaimed excitedly. “And there are two of them!”
System: …
Zhou Qi: Used to it now 🙂
“It’s just that one costs nearly 190,000 points…” Tang Yu’an muttered. “It might take a long time to make that back.”
Even so, he didn’t hesitate to make the purchase.
With more and more customers arriving, relying solely on human staff wasn’t going to cut it anymore.
Take the refugee camp in Qingmu Fortress, for example. Even though the people had already been divided into 5,000 squads, just trading with the 5,000 squad leaders every day was exhausting.
What’s more, with Hong Li and Xie Zhaori continuing rescue missions deeper into the fortress, more and more survivors were entering the camp through the secured corridors—the refugee population was surging.
Although they had hired three new staff members at Qingmu grocery store based on Xie Zhaori’s recommendation, easing Chi Hao’s burden a bit, it still wasn’t enough manpower.
Tang Yu’an planned to place one vending machine at Qingmu grocery store, and the other in the original world.
After all, the teleportation array had already been made accessible to Chen Jianjiang and others. People from the original world who wanted to visit the Desolate City Haven could simply buy teleportation cards themselves.
Handing the vending machine over to the military was essentially giving the government control over teleportation access—and Tang Yu’an felt perfectly at ease with that.
Even though the officers at the Northern City Shelter didn’t exactly represent the entire government, the fact that they’d held on for over half a year in the apocalypse and protected over 100,000 people earned Tang Yu’an’s respect.
Besides, once anyone entered the Desolate City Haven, they’d be subject to the Overnight Stay Pass rules. There was nothing to worry about.
Speaking of the original world, Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi had also discussed future business strategy.
In the end, they decided to continue operating under the banner of the Peace Trade Association, minimizing the visible presence of the Merchant God Sect, whether for business or rescue operations.
After all, employees from the original world could only use the shop and nearby communication channels. They had no access to information from the Wasteland world, so communication between the two sides was very limited.
And up until now, their only contacts with the Northern City Shelter had been his parents. If they could handle it, then Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi wouldn’t need to show their faces.
This would both reduce the chances of being exposed—and avoid awkwardness.
After all, it was one thing to put on a persona in the Wasteland. But doing that in the original world too… Tang Yu’an shuddered at the thought.
Let Mom and Dad deal with the official side of things! Adults should handle adult matters. Besides, his parents’ activities would likely stay focused on the original world anyway.
As for the Wasteland world…
His dad had said their country always approached other cultures with a spirit of understanding and respect.
Even if they encountered the Merchant God Sect in the Wasteland, they probably wouldn’t interfere. Most likely, they’d take a “unity in diversity” approach and aim for win-win cooperation.
Tang Yu’an thought that was ideal.
Even though the Wasteland people spoke almost the same language as them, it was still a different world. It was better for the two worlds to remain distinct and separate.
If Grandpa Li and the others were asked to submit to another world’s rule, they probably wouldn’t accept it either.
“Hehe, I hope more vending machines show up in future refreshes!”
Even though one machine was expensive, he had plenty of points now—and the convenience it brought was undeniable.
“Now there’s only one problem left,” Zhou Qi said.
“What is it?”
“Do you have enough inventory space?”
“Let me check,” said Tang Yu’an. “Right now I’ve got 47 inventory slots. After subtracting the ones I’ve shared with employees, I’ve got 42 left.”
He had shared 11 slots specifically with Zhou Qi.
“These three vending machines—can they share the same inventory?” Zhou Qi asked.
“They each come with their own 20 cubic meters of storage, and they can all link to the same personal storage.”
Tang Yu’an realized the issue too—he could only spare 10 cubic meters of his personal storage for the vending machines. That meant each vending machine could have a maximum of 30 cubic meters—and 10 of that was shared space.
Thirty cubic meters was about the size of a small storage room (5 meters long, 3 meters wide, 2 meters high)—not much, really.
“System, can the vending machines be upgraded?”
[Yes]
Tang Yu’an’s eyes lit up. He immediately checked the detailed info and found that the vending machines were classified as magical furniture!
They were currently Level 2—and still upgradable. Most of the materials were easy to obtain, except…
“Two Space Stones?”
And the upgrade would increase the storage space by 100 times!
Tang Yu’an blinked, opened the Seven-Day Sale list again, then happily said, “Perfect! There are four in stock—just enough to upgrade both machines!”
Zhou Qi paused, then nodded. “So considerate.”
System: … qaq
So, Tang Yu’an went around and set up all the interdimensional cabins. Aside from the first one he and Zhou Qi built together, he moved the teleportation arrays outside the others and opened them up for vending machine sales.
Then they returned to the first cabin, handed over the traded purple Thousand-Layer Leaves to the housekeeping robots, and had them dry and grind them into powder.
Repetitive tasks like this were perfect for robots in interdimensional space.
After that, they returned to the RV and re-entered the main grocery store.
Tang Sheng and Tang Xueyun had already gone back to the interdimensional space, but they had left a sticky note on the table.
Written in Tang Xueyun’s handwriting:
[There’s sweet soup in the fridge. Don’t forget to drink it.]
Tang Yu’an cheered and ran to the kitchen to open the fridge.
Although he and Brother Qi had grown up, aside from the original goods in the grocery store having been mostly used up, almost nothing else had changed.
Seeing the note from his mom, Tang Yu’an felt like he was back in his childhood.
He took two bowls of chilled red bean soup out of the fridge and sat at the table with Zhou Qi to enjoy them.
“So delicious—just like I remember!”
Zhou Qi quietly savored it too, taking a rare moment to slow down and enjoy the peacefulness with Tang Yu’an.
After finishing the red bean soup, Tang Yu’an went to the warehouse, took out the vending machines and upgrade materials, and finally placed a bottle of freshly brewed wheat beer on top.
They had long run out of beer, so Zhou Qi had asked the interdimensional housekeeping robots to brew a new batch. Now it was finally time to use it.
[Points deducted successfully!]
[Furniture Sprite Bobo is reviewing the order…]
[Sprite Bobo has accepted the order!]
[Bobo: “Vending Machine” upgrade in progress. Estimated time: 72 hours. Please be patient.]
The gray-blue figure of the furniture sprite Bobo appeared above the vending machine.
He fluttered his wings and sprinkled stardust over the machine.
“Bobo, long time no see!”
Looking at the adorable little sprite, Tang Yu’an couldn’t help but message his family, telling them to come by when they had time.
Bobo glanced at Tang Yu’an, but was quickly distracted by the glass placed on top of the vending machine.
He excitedly flew over, sniffed the wheat beer, then turned his attention to a smaller cup beside it that was releasing an extremely rich aroma—
That was top-grade white wine Tang’s dad had traded for in the original world!
Tang Yu’an figured Bobo would love it, so he sneakily poured him a small glass.
The little sprite did love it. He eagerly flew over, took a tiny sip—then started giggling foolishly.
He floated into the air and began dancing again.
Only then did Tang Yu’an remember—though Bobo was a little booze-lover, his alcohol tolerance was terrible. A bit of beer was fine, but white wine? That got him drunk fast.
This time, Bobo’s dance was even wilder than before. Tang Yu’an couldn’t resist pulling out his optical brain to record the performance.
And then, notifications started popping up on his panel—
[Bobo is bursting with energy and dropped tons of furniture stardust. Upgrade time reduced by 30 minutes.]
[Bobo is bursting with energy and dropped even more furniture stardust. Upgrade time reduced by…]
The messages kept coming—twenty in a row—until the upgrade time had been shortened by a full 10 hours!
So that previous 100-minute reduction wasn’t even Bobo’s limit…
Both Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi were surprised. Even the system admitted it had just learned something new.
Weren’t these furniture sprites all supposed to be hard to deal with, aside from Yaya, who had a decent temper?
How could just a little bit of alcohol reduce the upgrade time that much?
Bobo quickly tired himself out from dancing. He let out a satisfied burp, curled up next to the glass, and fell into a deep sleep.
Tang Yu’an carefully checked Bobo’s status to confirm he was just sleeping, then left the warehouse with Zhou Qi.
*
“Aww, that sprite is so cute!” Tang Yu’an couldn’t help saying. “Hey, do you think the booze really tastes that good?”
He’d tried beer before—it was just okay to him. Only the chilled kind felt refreshing.
As for white wine, it was too strong—he hadn’t tried it yet.
“I’ll wait until my birthday.”
Tang Yu’an turned to look at Zhou Qi, grinning. “Brother Qi, I’m about to turn eighteen!”
Zhou Qi froze for a second, then gave a small nod.
Tang Yu’an leaned closer and hugged his arm, his eyes sparkling with anticipation. “Then you’ll finally be able to kiss me.”
Even though he’d already stolen kisses from Zhou Qi many times, Zhou Qi had never once kissed him on his own—always stubbornly sticking to their agreement.
Tang Yu’an really wanted to see Zhou Qi take the initiative. He’d been looking forward to that moment for so long.
Zhou Qi lowered his gaze to him, his eyes falling on Tang Yu’an’s smiling lips. Then he quickly looked away.
His throat felt tight. He swallowed before replying, “We have to tell Uncle Tang and Aunt Tang first—get their permission…”
“Then let’s tell them! Just pick a time, and we’ll do it together.”
Tang Yu’an didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. He and Zhou Qi had grown up in the apocalypse, without the chaos and mess of the wider society. They didn’t understand all those complicated social norms.
All he knew was that he liked Zhou Qi—and Zhou Qi liked him back—and they wanted to stay together, forever.
Zhou Qi opened his mouth slightly, about to say something—when they heard a noise from the front of the house.
He froze, quickly stepped around the shelves, and saw—
Tang Sheng, Tang Xueyun, and Tang Yuxin had somehow appeared in the grocery store without anyone noticing.
“Uncle Tang… Aunt Tang…”
Tang Xueyun didn’t react much, but Tang Sheng looked completely stunned. He stared at them in disbelief, his voice trembling:
“You… you were about to say what?”
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