Chapter 60
“Boss lady, what are you doing?”
“These are Thunder Crystal and Wood Crystal; you should recognize them, right?” Lin Meiyu said.
From the beginning, she had sensed that these two youths were extraordinary. The fact that the Mountain Lord had taken them away in front of everyone only confirmed her suspicions.
She looked down at the two crystals in her hand.
These were collected by Wang Hu to send her to the fortress. He had heard that submitting three crystals would grant entry into the fortress, so he went to great lengths and expense to gather them, hoping to send her there.
He said that in the fortress, everyone had ample food and clothing. He said it was safe there, without fear of natural disasters or mutated creatures.
He said that with her ability, she could live well in the fortress.
Lin Meiyu had once longed for the fortress but couldn’t bear to leave Wang Hu.
She had long decided that if they couldn’t go together, she would stay at Jade Pavillion Inn for the rest of her life, staying by Wang Hu’s side…
Now that Wang Hu was in trouble, if these two crystals could save him, she wouldn’t hesitate to offer them—in fact, she had thought earlier about using these crystals as payment to seek help from the guards.
But having grown up in Jufeng Town, how could she not understand those people’s nature?
Once she revealed the crystals, not only would she not receive help, but she might also attract even greater covetousness.
Her “Speech-ability” ability only worked when words were spoken, but those thugs had ways to prevent her from speaking.
But these two youths were different.
They came from the fortress; they had no conflicting interests with her. More importantly, they had taken in the siblings Shi Tou and Xiao Cao the day before!
This morning, she had learned that even though Shi Tou stole from them, they not only didn’t blame them but also gave Xiao Cao medicine, taught the siblings how to repel insects, and even paid for their accommodation.
These two youths were different from the people of Jufeng Town!
Lin Meiyu looked earnestly at Tang Yu’an, as if grasping at the last straw. “As long as you can heal him, these two crystals will be your reward. Is that acceptable?”
Of course, it was!
One crystal was worth 200 points; two would be 400!
Moreover, crystals were energy stones, one of the materials needed for furniture upgrades. They were already useful at lv1, and surely more would be needed for future upgrades.
Having just spent 2,000 points on upgrades, Tang Yu’an’s eyes lit up at the sight of these two crystals.
“Yes, we can save him!”
Tang Yu’an paused and added, “But we can’t guarantee that we can completely heal him.”
Hearing him say this, Lin Meiyu felt even more reassured. At least they weren’t exaggerating their abilities for the sake of the crystals.
“Wait a moment.”
She hurriedly left and soon returned with a basket.
Inside were many fruits and wild vegetables. “If you’re willing to treat him, whether it works or not, these will be your thank-you gifts.”
“If you can save him, these two crystals will be yours!”
Lin Meiyu said seriously, “I am a Speech-ability user. I will fulfill any promise I make; otherwise, I will suffer backlash. Please believe me!”
So speech-ability users had such limitations?
Tang Yu’an nodded. “We believe you, but can you please step outside for a bit?”
When Lin Meiyu had left earlier to get the basket, Tang Yu’an had run back to grab his backpack, as a prop to avoid suspicion. Naturally, their treatment process couldn’t be seen by the boss lady.
Lin Meiyu hesitated, glancing at Wang Hu, but finally agreed. “Alright, I understand.”
She put down the basket, carefully put away the cloth pouch containing the crystals, then turned and left the room, closing the door behind her.
Then she squatted outside the door, hugging her knees, her eyes blank as she waited. She didn’t know if this would work, but she was doing the last thing she could…
Inside the room.
To be cautious, Tang Yu’an took out the Shading Umbrella to conceal their presence and sounds. Only then did he discuss with Zhou Qi and began to work.
Zhou Qi first gave Wang Hu a drop of the Basic Healing Potion.
This potion could stabilize his dwindling life force and slowly repair his internal injuries. As for the external wounds…
Wang Hu’s back, after being treated with herbs, was black and red in patches. The burst abscesses had open wounds, looking bloody and raw. If not treated promptly, they could easily become infected.
Tang Yu’an exchanged for alcohol, soaked cotton in it, and began to clean and disinfect his wounds.
“Brother Qi, should we try using the Mutant Lantern Fruit on him?”
The Mutant Lantern Fruit could treat burns and fire poison. Although Wang Hu’s fire poison had been removed, his back wounds looked like burns.
“Let’s try it. The Mutant Lantern Fruit also has anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects; it should help.”
“Okay!”
Tang Yu’an nodded. After cleaning the wounds on Wang Hu’s back, he took out a Mutant Lantern Fruit, mashed it into a paste, and applied it thinly over his back.
Although the Mutant Lantern Fruit could sell for 500 points in the Dimensional Store, since selling one, no one had been interested in the past few days, so Tang Yu’an didn’t mind using it.
Despite the descriptions from the identification guide, they had to use it to truly understand its effects.
Now, Wang Hu was a perfect test subject.
As they treated Wang Hu, system prompts appeared.
[Employee ‘Zhou Qi’ completed a profitable transaction with a returning customer. Points +153, Experience +2]
The points came from the basket of fruits and vegetables. Just from these, they had already recouped their costs.
Once Wang Hu truly recovered, and they received the two crystals, they could earn even more points!
Naturally, Tang Yu’an was delighted.
After applying the medicinal paste made from the Mutant Lantern Fruit, Zhou Qi took out Basic Healing Bandages and wrapped Wang Hu twice, adding a total of 20% to his health.
After bandaging, Wang Hu’s complexion visibly improved, and his breathing strengthened.
Tang Yu’an estimated his health was at thirty to forty percent. Once the Basic Healing Potion took effect, combined with his own recovery ability, he might recover more than half by tomorrow morning.
Although they could use bandages to instantly restore his health to full, that would be too shocking; a gradual recovery was more prudent.
Seeing Wang Hu’s breathing gradually stabilize, both Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi sighed in relief, smiles appearing on their faces.
Successfully saving a life was a very gratifying thing for them.
Of course, facing an unconscious Wang Hu who was at their mercy, they still chose to “take advantage.”
Just like when they “made a deal” with the comatose Chi Hao before, Zhou Qi utilized the rule that “silence is also consent,” helping Tang Yu’an gain 6 experience points.
Now, he was only 2 points away from leveling up!
Tang Yu’an felt that since arriving at Jufeng Town, his leveling speed was like riding a rocket—it was awesome.
Indeed, it’s easier to do business where there are people!
He cheerfully packed up their things, ensuring nothing was left behind, then followed Zhou Qi to open the door.
The door creaked as it opened.
Lin Meiyu, hugging her knees on the ground, hurriedly stood up when she heard the sound, looking toward them.
Tang Yu’an said, “Boss lady, we’re done. You can go in and see him.”
At the critical moment, Lin Meiyu was somewhat afraid to enter.
She looked at the two youths, confirming, “How… how is he? Can he be saved?”
“We’ve done our best. Whether he survives depends on his own recovery.” Tang Yu’an still didn’t guarantee anything.
But Wang Hu was an ability user—in Jufeng Town, only ability users could become guard captains.
With his recovery ability, he should pull through.
“If anything else happens, you can come upstairs to find us.”
“Alright…”
Lin Meiyu took a deep breath, about to enter, when the young man took a fruit from the basket and handed it to her, smiling warmly, “Boss lady, this is for you. Try to relax.”
At this time, how could she possibly relax?
Lin Meiyu forced a bitter smile but still reached out to accept the fruit, saying thank you.
Holding the fruit, she watched the two youths leave before nervously returning to the room.
As soon as she entered, she could still smell the lingering scent of alcohol.
Unable to help herself, she quickened her pace and soon reached the bedside.
Wang Hu was still lying there. His back wounds had been properly treated, bandaged neatly. His breathing was noticeably stronger than before.
Did they really… save him?
As she stood there in a daze, she heard Wang Hu groan. Overjoyed, Lin Meiyu exclaimed, “Brother Hu, are you awake?”
“Water… water…” The man’s voice was weak, and he didn’t seem to have regained consciousness.
However, this response was enough to make Lin Meiyu cry tears of joy.
She hurriedly said, “Alright, I’ll get you some water.”
After pouring water and helping Wang Hu drink, she squatted by the bed, watching him intently. Seeing his complexion gradually improve, the heaviness on her face slowly dissipated.
Unconsciously, her gaze fell on the fruit placed casually on the bedside.
Lin Meiyu picked up the fruit. Though tears still clung to her eyes, a smile had already appeared on her face.
She bit into the fruit—this was also her first food of the day.
So sweet.
*
[Completed a loss-making transaction with a regular customer. Experience +1]
After returning to their room and sitting down for a short while, Tang Yu’an received this system prompt, and on the map, the boss lady’s light spot turned golden.
“Great! Only one more experience point is needed!”
Zhou Qi patted his head and then asked, “Has there been any change in the shop’s popularity?”
They had been studying how to upgrade the shop.
The shop upgrade conditions were different from the merchant level-up; the requirements were more varied and challenging.
For example, to upgrade the main shop to lv2, the merchant needed to reach level 10, the shop’s popularity needed to be 1,000, and in addition, 2,000 points were required, along with five pieces of lv1 furniture arranged in the main shop.
This level of difficulty was evident; upgrading the shop would be a longer process.
Tang Yu’an opened the shop’s popularity to take a look.
Previously, the shop’s popularity was 187. Before the system prompt appeared, he saw it was 192. Now, with an increase of 1 point, it became 193.
“So, completing a transaction adds 1 point of popularity.”
They had just completed two transactions with the boss lady and three with Wang Hu, totaling 5 points of popularity.
“Wait, no, it increased by 6 points,” Tang Yu’an said.
Where did the extra 1 point come from?
Zhou Qi frowned slightly, looking down at his notepad where he had recorded various system descriptions and values as told by Tang Yu’an.
After a while, he suddenly asked, “How many customers do we have now?”
Tang Yu’an opened the map to tally. Originally, they could count their customers on two hands, but after setting up a stall at the morning market, there had been explosive growth.
“Forty-one,” Tang Yu’an said.
“That makes sense.” Zhou Qi circled a number. “Our cumulative number of transactions is 152, right?”
Tang Yu’an nodded, then his eyes lit up. “Adding the cumulative number of transactions and the number of customers equals the shop’s popularity!”
“Exactly.”
“So that’s what shop popularity is!” Tang Yu’an said. “Then that’s easy.”
After all, to level up as a merchant, they needed to make transactions and attract new customers, so they didn’t need to do anything special—just stick to their original pace.
“So next, we should focus on earning points and upgrading all the furniture.”
Looking at his remaining points, Tang Yu’an felt that although he had quite a bit, he was reluctant to spend them.
He shook his head, not wanting to think about this distressing matter, and opened the last functional module unlocked after the shop upgrade—Personnel.
Clicking into “Personnel,” he could sort by shop or employee levels.
Since he currently only had two employees, it was clear at a glance.
The employee profiles and performance targets were the same as before, and the tasks hadn’t changed much. After looking around, Tang Yu’an finally found the newly added function in the corner—
Restrictions.
Yes, just like how he restricted Black Pearl and the others from attacking humans, after upgrading, he could impose restrictions on employees!
Seeing this, his eyes lit up, and he quickly read the rules.
These restrictions allowed him to specify what employees could and couldn’t do—for example, confidentiality clauses, prohibiting employees from disclosing their salary to others.
Moreover, he could customize these rules.
Excitedly, he edited a rule: “Employees are not allowed to reveal the existence of the Grocery Shop to outsiders.” However, after clicking save, it was rejected.
The system didn’t provide a reason for the rejection.
Was the wording too vague?
He revised “outsiders” to “anyone other than the Mysterious Merchant and other employees,” but upon saving, it was still rejected.
What was going on?
He had no choice but to seek help from Zhou Qi.
Zhou Qi frowned slightly, analyzing, “Since it’s a Grocery Shop system, the rules are likely based on typical shop scenarios.”
“For example, the shop has business hours, and during those hours, it should be open for customers, so the protective barrier won’t activate between 8 AM and 6 PM each day.”
Tang Yu’an nodded and began to analyze as well.
“If that’s the case, then anyone other than the Mysterious Merchant and other employees… are all customers?”
He felt like he understood the system’s logic and why his setting was rejected—
If customers didn’t know about the shop’s existence, how could they come to buy things?
Moreover, the system clearly encouraged them to promote the shop.
For example, previous task rewards included Referral Cards, side quests required them to repair roads, and the “Signboard” in furniture upgrades all had functions to attract customers.
As a shop system, this was understandable, but the problem was—they were in a papocalyptic world, and a perilous wasteland at that!
Currently, they didn’t have the strength to do business openly in the wasteland.
“Does that mean we really can’t impose restrictions on employees?” Tang Yu’an said unwillingly.
If they could impose such restrictions, they would have more freedom and wouldn’t have to worry about other employees betraying them.
Zhou Qi pondered for a moment and said, “Although that’s the case, there should be ways to circumvent it.”
After all, when they went out to trade, they didn’t advertise themselves as the Grocery Shop, but the system still recognized their transactions.
So…
He picked up a pen and wrote a line on his notepad.
After he finished writing, Tang Yu’an looked at it uncertainly and asked, “Will this really work?”
“Want to try?”
“Okay.”
So, Tang Yu’an selected “Custom” under Employee Restrictions and entered: “Employees are not allowed to reveal to customers that they are employees of the Peace Grocery Shop.”
After clicking save this time… it was accepted!
“Brother Qi, you’re so smart!” Tang Yu’an said happily.
Thinking about it, this indeed didn’t violate the logic of the shop doing business.
But in this way, when they hire more employees in the future, they might be able to use this rule to determine whether others are colleagues.
“It doesn’t affect us much,” Zhou Qi said.
As long as they didn’t expose Tang Yu’an’s identity as the Mysterious Merchant, there shouldn’t be any big issues.
Thinking it over, Tang Yu’an said, “I should add some related restrictions.”
He edited further: [Employees are not allowed to intimidate, threaten, or attack the Mysterious Merchant and other employees].
After thinking, he added: [Employees are not allowed to steal the Mysterious Merchant’s and other employees’ goods].
“That should do it!” Tang Yu’an said excitedly.
With these two rules, they temporarily plugged the loopholes, protecting the shop and themselves.
Zhou Qi nodded in agreement.
After a while, there was a knocking sound from downstairs.
Tang Yu’an went to the window to look and saw two guards standing in front of the Jade Pavillion Inn. One of them was holding a wooden box—it must be the token being delivered.
They hurried downstairs to meet them.
On the stairs, they encountered the somewhat flustered Lin Meiyu. Tang Yu’an waved to her, “Boss lady, the guards are here to see us; we’ll go down.”
Only then did Lin Meiyu breathe a sigh of relief and smile at them.
“We’re going down!” Tang Yu’an said and quickly ran downstairs.
The guard holding the wooden box was the captain who had been by Hong Li’s side earlier, evidently a trusted aide of the Mountain Lord.
Seeing Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi come out, he respectfully presented the wooden box with both hands.
“We are under the orders of the Mountain Lord to deliver this to you.” The guard captain opened the wooden box, revealing a palm-sized token inside.
The token was entirely made of metal, heavy in hand, engraved with patterns on both sides, and the word “Jufeng” in the center.
They hadn’t expected to see such finely crafted items in this apocalyptic world.
“Please keep it safe,” the guard captain said. “Within the boundaries of Jufeng Mountain, as long as you hold this token, no guards will trouble you. If you encounter any difficulties, feel free to seek help from the guards.”
Although literacy wasn’t widespread in the wasteland, remembering patterns was simple.
Under Hong Li’s rules, seeing this token was like seeing her in person, so the guards naturally knew what to do.
“Alright, thank you, big brothers!”
Tang Yu’an happily accepted the token and then asked the guard captain, “May I ask your name?”
The guard captain glanced at him and said, “Hei Xiong (Black Bear).”
“Captain Hei Xiong, thank you for bringing us the token. Here are some fruits for you.” Tang Yu’an casually handed each of them a fruit.
Hei Xiong looked at the young boy’s cute and enthusiastic smile and finally accepted the fruits.
“Thank you.” Then he left with his subordinate.
[Completed a profitable transaction with a new customer. Points +41, Experience +3]
[Completed a loss-making transaction with a new customer. Experience +3]
As these two prompts appeared, Tang Yu’an’s system panel was once again flooded with continuous messages.
[Experience full. Merchant level +1]
[Merchant level reached lv6. Mall has added Black Sesame, Toilet Paper, and Brown Sugar for exchange. For details, please check ‘Wholesale Market’]
[Business Map has added an ‘Attachments’ function. For details, please check ‘Business Map’]
[Special skill ‘Remote Retrieval’ upgraded to lv5. For details, please check the skill panel]
[Personal storage slots +1. Current slots: 10]
[Seven-Day Sale Refresh Card +1]
[Please choose a delivery address…]
He hadn’t expected that a casual gesture would yield such results! And this metal token was worth 50 points; not only did he gain 6 experience points, but after deducting the cost of the fruits, he earned an extra 40 points.
Tang Yu’an grinned from ear to ear.
Leveling up twice in one day, this rocket-like speed made him want to laugh out loud.
Of course, he held back.
He carefully reviewed the level-up rewards and felt they were all super useful!
The mall unlocked Black Sesame, Toilet Paper, and Brown Sugar. Seeing Brown Sugar, Tang Yu’an couldn’t help but light up.
As a sweetener, glucose wasn’t sweet enough, but Brown Sugar was different.
Many of the foods they made required Brown Sugar, and it was high in calories, which should be popular in the wasteland.
Then there was the ability to add attachments to map markers? Where would these images come from? Would he need to take photos?
Tang Yu’an clicked on the light spot representing Zhou Qi, wanting to take a picture. As he pondered where the camera was—
He saw a dotted line extending from Zhou Qi’s blue light spot, splitting in the middle and connecting to several images.
Those images… were clearly of Brother Qi in his memories, from childhood to now, covering every stage.
[Please select an attachment to confirm]
So, these attachments were generated directly from his memories?
Looking at the photos, he found that there was even one of Brother Qi at three or four years old!
Judging by the setting, it seemed to be in the grocery shop. His mother was holding him on a chair, and a chubby little boy was curiously peeking at him.
From the features, he could vaguely see Brother Qi’s appearance.
This must have been the scene when he and Brother Qi first met?
He didn’t remember, yet it could extract a photo!
Tang Yu’an couldn’t help but look at Zhou Qi, smiling as he said, “Brother Qi, you were so cute when you were little!”
Chubby and adorable, a little dumpling—you’d never imagine he’d grow up to be so handsome!
