Chapter 98
When Tang Yu’an heard Little Hai Lan’s request, he couldn’t help but nod.
In fact, after the previous transaction ended, Brother Qi had already exchanged some wool fabric to make several blankets, which could be called wool quilts.
These quilts were double-layered, with all four sides sewn up except for one opening. Since there was no zipper, he made them with buttons.
This opening could be used to stuff cotton, which would make it warmer.
However, cotton had not yet been unlocked in the mall, and the Grocery Store didn’t sell cotton either. They might need to wait for it to be unlocked through the lucky spin wheel.
So for now there was only a quilt cover, but other things could be stuffed inside.
Of course, besides the wool quilt, Tang Yu’an had also spent 100 Points to unlock “down fabric”.
Just unlocking it was so expensive, buying it was even more costly – the price was 200 Points per meter.
Since he had plenty of funds, Tang Yu’an tried exchanging for one meter. The down fabric he received was very light, with small pockets filled with down feathers.
It had excellent insulation, but was just too expensive.
This time, Tang Yu’an again let the little girl choose for herself.
And Little Hai Lan’s answer was as usual: “Can I… can I have them all?”
Of course she could!
“I suggest you exchange for 2 meters of down fabric,” Tang Yu’an said.
A 2m x 1.2m piece of down fabric could be used directly as a down comforter, worth 400 Points.
One meter of down fabric plus a wool quilt cover would cost 320 Points, so it was better to spend a bit more and get the full thing at once.
It was skin-friendly.
Of course, if possible, a cover could be added to the down comforter, but there was no need to use wool fabric – cotton would be cheaper and softer.
However, Tang Yu’an didn’t try to upsell, partly to maintain the image of the Mysterious Merchant, and partly because the cotton quilt cover hadn’t been made yet.
“…………”
Although Little Hai Lan was excited, her dream remained stable, probably because she had done this many times now.
“Alright, as for food, I can give you five pounds of brown rice.”
Brown rice was very cheap, 5 Points per pound, so five pounds only cost 25 Points.
Worried that Little Hai Lan and her father might not recognize brown rice, Tang Yu’an added: “Brown rice can be eaten after boiling in water.”
“Okay……”
Finally, Tang Yu’an and she settled on the deal.
[You have completed a profitable transaction with a dream wisher. Points +200, Experience Points +6, Dream Fragment +1]
[You have obtained 25 pounds of coarse salt. Please select a delivery address]
[1. Peace Grocery Store warehouse]
[……]
Seeing the Points and coarse salt received, Tang Yu’an nodded with satisfaction.
However, this time after completing the transaction, Little Hai Lan didn’t immediately wake up. There were still 60 seconds left until the end of the dream.
So Tang Yu’an continued to talk with her: “You must store more salt, and improve its quality.”
“Salt… more salt…” Little Hai Lan repeated hazily.
“Yes, remember the method I told you.”
Tang Yu’an told her the method of sun-drying and filtering salt. This way, after one processing, the salt would look better than ordinary sea salt and could reduce the content of other metals.
“Did you remember?”
Little Hai Lan didn’t have time to answer before her light orb dissipated, leaving only an empty Drift Bottle.
Tang Yu’an had no choice but to confirm with her next time.
He plugged the cork of the Drift Bottle and threw it back into the dream sea before it disappeared, increasing the probability of catching it again to 30%.
As long as Little Hai Lan followed his instructions, they would have a stable channel for obtaining coarse salt in the future.
In the small house in Coastal Town.
Little Hai Lan was curled up in her father’s arms. Although it was warm under the blanket, as oxygen was gradually consumed, she soon felt stuffy.
At one point, her eyelashes fluttered and she opened her eyes.
After poking her head out of the blanket to breathe some fresh air, she drowsily closed her eyes again.
She seemed to have dreamed of the Mysterious Merchant. She couldn’t wake up, she had to keep talking to the Mysterious Merchant…
In this half-asleep state, dawn soon arrived.
When the first ray of sunlight shone through the window, the previously sound asleep Hai Jing suddenly opened his eyes. He sat up in bed, and only relaxed when he saw the child sleeping beside him.
Looking at his sleeping daughter, Hai Jing’s gaze softened. Just as he was about to pat her head, something caught his eye and he paused.
Next to his daughter, there was a neatly folded thick blanket, and beside the blanket was a jar of golden grains.
Hai Whale’s eyes widened.
Little Hai Lan rolled over, then opened her eyes to look at him, softly calling out “Papa”.
Hai Jing excitedly picked her up, pointing at the down comforter and brown rice, wanting to ask something, but too excited to get the words out.
Little Hai Lan was also stunned for a moment, then pounced on the down comforter.
The soft blanket was especially fluffy, very comfortable to lie on, warm and cozy in the still chilly morning.
After enjoying it for a while, Little Hai Lan suddenly remembered something and pointed at the salt jar with her little finger.
“Salt……”
“You want salt?” Hai Jing finally found his voice. He walked to the salt jar, lifted the wooden lid, and saw that half the salt in the jar was gone again.
“The Mysterious Merchant said, need better……”
Little Hai Lan tried hard to recall the conversation from the dream, “Use seawater, dry, dry until little water left, pour out… filter……”
She struggled to repeat what she could remember.
Hai Jing listened in confusion, only catching that they needed to dry seawater, then pour out some of the remaining water.
In any case, the Mysterious Merchant wanted high quality salt.
Looking at his thin little daughter, then at the thick down comforter, determination appeared in Hai Jing’s eyes.
No matter what, he had to figure it out!
“Then what are these yellow grains?” Hai Jing frowned, touching the rice grains that looked like sand.
“Food,” Little Hai Lan said happily. “The Mysterious Merchant said it can be eaten after cooking.”
With food, Papa wouldn’t have to go risk his life in the scary ocean!
After finishing today’s Drift Bottle communication, Tang Yu’an was about to go to sleep when he saw Zhou Qi frowning in thought while staring at Jin Lili.
“Brother Qi, what’s wrong?” Tang Yu’an asked.
Zhou Qi looked at him and said, “It’s dark now.”
So?
Tang Yu’an blinked, then suddenly looked sharply at the sleeping Jin Lili. Oh right, it was dark now, how was Jin Lili able to stay in the Grocery Store? Shouldn’t the protective barrier have sent her out?
His first thought was that the protective barrier had failed.
Zhou Qi naturally thought of this too, so they hurriedly went downstairs and looked outside the Grocery Store, only to find that it was still hidden in darkness. The protective barrier had not failed.
So what was going on?
Since the protective barrier hadn’t failed, that meant… the issue was with Jin Lili?
Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi returned to the Grocery Store. He thought for a moment, then quickly opened the business map, and found that there were actually three orange dots in the Grocery Store.
Orange dots represented pets. Black Pearl and Yuan Bao were still hibernating in the pet slots, Green Gem was in the swimming pool, and the Grocery Store only had Wang Cai and Yin Bi.
So that third orange dot…
Tang Yu’an zoomed in on the map and saw that it was indeed Jin Lili sleeping in the attic.
But how could Lili be classified as a pet? Was there a bug in the map?
Tang Yu’an told Zhou Qi about this anomaly.
Zhou Qi was also puzzled. They returned to the attic and confirmed multiple times that the orange dot was indeed Jin Lili.
“If it’s not a system issue, then Jin Lili must be special in some way,” Zhou Qi said.
“Could this be… her Ability?” Tang Yu’an suddenly thought.
Zhou Qi was stunned, then held Jin Lili’s small hand, carefully sensing before shaking his head: “I don’t sense any parasites on her.”
Old Li had said that Ability users could sense each other.
As his power grew stronger, Zhou Qi was gradually able to sense the fluctuations of parasites from other Ability users – of course, for now he still needed physical contact to sense them.
Tang Yu’an looked at Jin Lili, thought for a moment and said: “Never mind, it’s a good thing for now anyway.”
Otherwise, they would have had to take Jin Lili back to stay with Tie Jin.
As long as the protective barrier hadn’t failed, it was fine.
Zhou Qi nodded slightly. He let go of Jin Lili’s small hand, then laid out the bedding and lay down to sleep with Tang Yu’an.
“Great, we can build the branch store tomorrow!”
Tang Yu’an stared at the ceiling, too excited to sleep at the thought that the building reinforcement would be completed tomorrow and they could finally build the branch store.
“We’ll live on the top floor in the future, and use the first floor to sell things?” Tang Yu’an envisioned their future plans.
Zhou Qi nodded. He had already learned the reinforcement technique, so the other floors could be gradually reinforced in their spare time for future use.
“I wonder if the remote item retrieval skill will work in the branch store?” Tang Yu’an proposed a new idea.
If it did, with so many rooms in that building, they could use them all as warehouses, solving any space concerns.
Zhou Qi thought for a moment, but shook his head: “Not safe enough.”
This was indeed a problem.
The branch store building would be open to the public, and it was too conspicuous. Storing goods there would be like openly telling people there were valuable things to steal.
“Alright then, we’ll see later.”
Such a big building, they couldn’t live in all of it anyway. They’d have to see what new uses they could develop for it in the future.
Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi went to sleep peacefully.
The next morning, when Tang Yu’an woke from his dream, he suddenly thought of something and quickly looked to the side.
Thankfully, Jin Lili was still sleeping soundly in the attic, and hadn’t been sent outside the Grocery Store by the system while they slept.
Tang Yu’an breathed a sigh of relief, then checked the pet slots.
[Energy digestion in progress… 95%…]
Black Pearl and Yuan Bao were still hibernating, but judging by the energy digestion speed, they should wake up today.
As they got up, Jin Lili woke up too.
She struggled to get up and started folding her blanket, imitating Zhou Qi’s actions. Although her folding was messy, her earnest and serious expression was really adorable.
Zhou Qi went to make breakfast, while Tang Yu’an took Jin Lili to water the plants.
Remembering how he had marked the fish schools in the swimming pool yesterday, Tang Yu’an turned off the plant light dot blocking, preparing to mark the existing plants.
He quickly thought of something and blocked out the pet light points as well.
He wanted to see what Jin Lili’s marker would show on the map if he blocked out the pet light points – whether it would be hidden or turn into the gold dot of a regular customer. The result was…
The light point representing Jin Lili turned light green!
Huh?
Was Jin Lili not only a pet, but also a plant?
Tang Yu’an couldn’t help but doubt again, feeling that the system must have a bug. Otherwise, how could such a ridiculous thing happen?
He stared blankly at Jin Lili, who also looked back at him with pure, bewildered eyes.
Tang Yu’an shook his head.
Jin Lili was human, how could she possibly be a plant? Moreover, his pet slots were already full, so even if she was a plant, she couldn’t be his pet.
Tang Yu’an looked left and right, unable to figure out the reason, and could only set it aside for now.
During breakfast, he mentioned it to Zhou Qi.
Zhou Qi thought for a moment and said, “Could it be because she spent yesterday afternoon with Green Gem?”
Being both a pet and a plant, Green Gem was the first thing he thought of.
“There might be some connection there.”
Tang Yu’an agreed with this point. As for the subject of their discussion, Jin Lili sat in a high chair, gulping down milk while hugging the cup. A bowl of mashed potatoes was placed in front of her.
After the meal, Tang Yu’an said goodbye to his two pets and took Jin Lili with Zhou Qi to Granny Guo’s house.
When Kang Kang saw Jin Lili, he first looked at her with some confusion, as if he didn’t recognize her. Then he got excited, playing with her even more enthusiastically than yesterday.
While Zhou Qi went to change the activated carbon in Granny Guo’s water purifier, Tang Yu’an took the opportunity to ask Kang Kang.
“Kang Kang, do you think Lili is a plant?” he asked directly.
Kang Kang nodded.
Sister turned into a plant, he liked it!
He clapped his little hands happily, then took Jin Lili’s hand and led her to the Mutated Lantern Fruit and Qingliang (Cooling) Fruit trees, pointing at them to introduce them to her.
Of course, since he didn’t usually talk much, Kang Kang’s introduction wasn’t very fluent. In the end, it turned into babbling sounds – at least that’s how it sounded to Tang Yu’an.
Jin Lili listened patiently, without any sign of impatience.
Seeing the two children getting along harmoniously, Tang Yu’an nodded inwardly, then couldn’t help but ponder Jin Lili’s situation again.
Since Kang Kang also agreed she was a plant, it meant this wasn’t a system bug.
Tang Yu’an thought for a moment, then pulled the two children together to play a trading game.
After the trade was completed, he looked at the light points displayed on the map again and found that the one representing Jin Lili had changed from orange to the gold color representing regular customers.
So Jin Lili’s status changed during the trade? In this state, could she still stay in the Grocery Store at night?
It was already past eight o’clock, and the protective barrier’s effect had worn off, so there was no way to test it now. They could only wait and see tonight.
If it didn’t work, they would have to take Jin Lili to stay at Tie Jin’s house, or stay at the branch store.
Next, Tang Yu’an kept an eye on Jin Lili’s light point, but until they finished trading with the Old Customers and arrived at the building to complete the handover with the Ba Shi brothers, her status didn’t change again.
The Ba Shi brothers had completed the commission ahead of schedule, reinforcing the building’s foundation, walls, load-bearing pillars, first-floor ceiling, and the top two floors.
As for stairs, naturally there were none.
Because many sections of stairs had collapsed, reinforcement spells alone couldn’t create them, and it would take longer than normal reinforcement.
It wasn’t impossible, but it would cost extra.
However, since Zhou Qi himself had mastered reinforcement and repair spells, he didn’t continue to commission them, as they were in a hurry to build the branch store.
After paying the final installment, they completed the handover.
After confirming there were no problems, Zhou Qi took out 10 black-gold salt notes.
“We plan to open a shop here, selling only salt for now. These are tickets for exchanging salt. Each can be exchanged for a spoonful of lower-quality salt,” Zhou Qi said. “As a thank you for completing the commission early, these 10 salt tickets are for you.”
Ba Shi took the 10 black-gold salt tickets, slightly dazed, then showed an expression of wild joy. He asked in shock, “You’re planning to open a shop in Desolate City?”
Zhou Qi didn’t deny it.
Standing behind Ba Shi, Ba Tu secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Salt was a consumable – although stealing once could last a long time, it would eventually run out.
But if Desolate City had a fixed Salt Merchant selling salt, that would be different! Moreover, he also really liked those whole wheat steamed buns, perhaps he could continue to exchange for them.
Ba Shi quickly suppressed his excitement and asked, “What about the salt that we exchanged this time? Can we exchange for that?”
“You can, but that kind is more expensive,” Zhou Qi said. “The things exchanged for one spoonful can be exchanged for two spoonfuls of lower quality.”
Hearing this, Ba Shi couldn’t help but hug the salt in his arms tightly.
“Can I see that lower quality salt?” he said. “Can I exchange this bag of salt for that kind?”
After all, they had been eating very poor quality salt for a long time, so it didn’t matter.
If they could exchange it, this salt from the transaction would be enough for the brothers to eat for another three or four months!
Unfortunately, the young man shook his head, “Sorry.”
The value of coarse sea salt was 25 Points per jin, while the coarse salt they brought from the original world was 30 Points per jin. Exchanging at a 1:2 ratio would definitely result in a loss for them.
Ba Shi could only nod in disappointment.
Although he wanted to exchange for more salt, reason stopped him.
In order to rush the reinforcement of the building, they had been working here almost day and night, with no time to hunt. Their food stores were almost gone.
They didn’t have to worry about salt for the next month or two, so naturally they couldn’t exchange more resources for salt and then go get more food.
Finally, Ba Shi and Ba Tu left with Big Black Dog.
After walking a distance, Ba Tu couldn’t help but look back, and saw the two young men quickly climbing up the outer wall of the building towards the roof.
After their speed increased later, they even ran straight up the outer wall.
His big brother’s guess was right!
That tall young man really did have Wind Ability, and the short one wasn’t simple either!
Until the young men’s figures disappeared on the top floor, Ba Tu turned his head, about to say something, when he saw Ba Shi stroking the black-gold salt tickets with a dazed expression.
“What’s wrong?” Ba Tu asked.
Ba Shi said thoughtfully, “The material of these salt tickets… is very special.”
Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi took Jin Lili and climbed to the top floor of the building together.
Because Zhou Qi had to carry Lili on his back, Tang Yu’an applied a lightness spell on himself. Halfway up, he discovered that the wall wasn’t completely vertical to the ground, so he tried it out and found he could actually run up the wall!
Under the effect of the lightness spell, he successfully achieved flying over eaves and walking on walls, which was absolutely thrilling.
Even after reaching the roof, Tang Yu’an was still excited. If it weren’t for his focus on opening the branch store, he would definitely play again.
After arriving on the roof, Tang Yu’an opened the system panel and clicked into the store to operate.
[You are establishing a branch store]
[Please designate the building]
[Note: You need to own the building or the building must be unclaimed]
A box appeared in front of Tang Yu’an. As his line of sight moved, the box followed. He looked at the building under his feet and selected confirm.
[No ownership of this building detected, meets conditions]
[Do you want to spend 2000 Points to set this building as a branch store?]
[Yes] [No]
Tang Yu’an was mentally prepared, so he clicked “Yes” directly.
Anyway, he had plenty of Points now. Even after deducting 2000 Points, his balance was still over 10,000. He wasn’t afraid!
As Tang Yu’an chose “Yes”, the store panel changed, and new system messages popped up.
[Points deduction successful, please name this branch store]
Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi had discussed this issue. They originally wanted to name it Desolate City Grocery Store, but if they hired employees in the future, it might directly expose them.
So after some discussion, they decided on a name for the new branch store.
[Naming successful, “Peace Grocery Store (Store No. 1)” established successfully]
[Completed main quest [Open a branch store], received reward Points +2000, Daily Quest Refresh Card +1, Traffic Attraction Card (24 hours) +1, Lucky Wheel Spin +3]
[Unlocked store function: “Build Teleportation Array”, go to store panel for branch store settings]
Great, the Points reward was the highest tier again, completely offsetting the Points spent on establishing the branch store!
Tang Yu’an always got the highest Points, making this random reward mechanism virtually meaningless for him.
After cheering, Tang Yu’an quickly opened the store panel and entered the management interface for “Peace Grocery Store (Store No. 1)”.
[Peace Grocery Store (Store No. 1)]
[Level: Lv0]
[Description: An empty shell of a Grocery Store with nothing but appearances, no goods at all. If dust could be considered goods, it would be quite full.]
[Cumulative Points: 0]
[Total Points Earned: 0]
[Branch Manager: 0/1]
[Employees: 0/2]
Functions: Protective Barrier (Not activated), Teleportation Array (Not activated)
Tang Yu’an blinked. So the branch store didn’t automatically come equipped with a protective barrier? He had a bad feeling about this.
When he clicked to activate the protective barrier, sure enough, he saw—
[Do you want to spend 2000 Points to activate the protective barrier for “Peace Grocery Store (Store No. 1)”?]
[Yes] [No]
As expected! Activating the protective barrier also required Points!
Tang Yu’an knew the importance of the protective barrier, so he still spent 2000 Points to activate it.
Then he clicked to activate the teleportation array.
Activating the teleportation array cost another 2000 Points. As for the location of the array – they left the roof and came to a suite on the tenth floor, choosing a master bedroom for the setup.
Soon, a circular pentagram array appeared on the ground, its complex patterns representing some unknown meaning, exuding an air of mystery.
[Do you want to spend 2000 Points to connect this branch store’s teleportation array with the main store?]
Tang Yu’an: …
Alright, the teleportation array needed two points to locate, so deducting Points was understandable.
So he clicked confirm, then excitedly stood on the teleportation array. A new panel popped up.
[Current teleportation array can teleport to: Peace Grocery Store, please select teleportation method]
[1. Deduct 20 Points per use]
[2. One-time deduction of 3000 Points to permanently unlock teleportation function]
Translator’s Note:
This system is such a scam haha XD
