Chapter 119: Fridge and Air Conditioner
Chu Linsheng drove home.
Shen Yuying grabbed him and asked, “Son, did your shop close down?”
Chu Linsheng nodded, “Yeah.”
Shen Yuying sighed, “Really closed down?”
“Yes.” It had been closed for a while now. Her news was a bit delayed. But it wasn’t really her fault—ever since Chu Linsheng started working at the wood carving shop, she hadn’t paid much attention to it. Even after it closed, he still went out early and came home late, so she hadn’t realized. With business doing so well, how could the shop have closed?
Chu Linsheng gave a bitter smile. “Business was too good. We couldn’t keep up with supply, so we shut down.”
Shen Yuying frowned. “I thought you guys would shut down because business was bad—not because it was too good.”
Chu Linsheng smiled, “Closing down isn’t so bad. Lately, with more superpowered people showing up, public safety’s getting kind of chaotic.”
Shen Yuying rolled her eyes. “Close down? What’s good about that? Now you’re out of a job!”
Chu Linsheng nodded. “That’s true.”
Shen Yuying: “You silly son. Can’t you be a bit more mindful?”
She rolled her eyes and grumbled, “What was your boss thinking? Business was booming, and he just closed shop?”
Chu Linsheng: “You’ll have to ask Brother Feng that. How would I know what he’s thinking?”
“Your boss is already strange, but the people buying from your shop are even stranger,” Shen Yuying said, shaking her head in disbelief. “Those wood carvings are so expensive—if they can’t buy them, then just let it go. But they even went to your place to ask when the store would reopen?”
Chu Linsheng chuckled, “Yeah.” Lately, he’d seen some online posts where people were trying to buy back the carvings from their shop—offering twice the original price.
A lot of people in the comments were bashing the shop for hyping things up, saying things like: Such crappy wood carvings sold at sky-high prices, and now you’re even hyping it more? That’s going to backfire badly—burnt to a crisp. Only idiots would buy that stuff.
But heaven knows, their shop really didn’t do any hype marketing. They were honestly being wronged.
Shen Yuying hesitated for a moment and asked, “Son, at that shop… do you get commissions?”
Chu Linsheng nodded, “Yes, I do.”
Shen Yuying was a little surprised. “So it’s true?”
She smiled—recently, more and more people had been coming to propose matches for her son. Many of them tried to discreetly ask whether her son earned commissions or made good money. When Shen Yuying told them no, their enthusiasm noticeably cooled. But some thought she was lying to keep others from poaching her son’s job.
Chu Linsheng nodded and said, “Yeah, altogether, it was over two million. I already bought a house.”
Shen Yuying was stunned by that. Housing prices had been rising rapidly. Several of her neighbors had bought houses recently, and she had been worrying about what to do about her son’s place. She didn’t expect that he’d quietly already bought one.
“You bought a house? That’s such a big deal—why didn’t you say anything?”
Chu Linsheng scratched his head and smiled awkwardly, “I was afraid you’d get too excited.”
At first, he had been pretty excited about buying the house too. But then the shop got busier and busier, and he got caught up running both the online and physical stores. After the initial excitement wore off, he forgot to mention it.
Shen Yuying said, “Your Brother Feng is the manager, right? If you made over two million, then didn’t he make even more?”
Chu Linsheng nodded earnestly, “Brother Feng made a lot more.”
Shen Yuying nodded thoughtfully, “That explains it. I heard he’s been spending money like crazy lately—so it turns out he’s been earning plenty too.”
Chu Linsheng: “Probably, yeah.”
Right now, Brother Feng was practically a top-tier rich guy. Those women who had looked down on him before? They really missed out. Passing up a golden bachelor like that—what a pity.
*
At Yinghua Academy in the capital
Chu Anzhi was staring at a book, lost in thought.
“Anzhi, I heard your recovery wasn’t because your body developed antibodies, but because you took some kind of miracle elixir?”
Chu Anzhi nodded, “Yeah. It was a elixir my cousin gave me.”
“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”
Chu Anzhi shook his head, “I didn’t know myself at the time. The elixir was from an old traditional doctor my cousin knew. When he gave it to me, I was still unconscious. He didn’t tell me. If I’d known earlier, I wouldn’t have let those guys keep drawing my blood like that.”
“That old doctor must have been incredible!”
Chu Anzhi nodded, “Yeah. But my cousin said he’s passed away.”
“I thought maybe you’d ability-users an ability too. So many people are awakening powers lately.”
Chu Anzhi gave a dry laugh. “Probably not that many.”
“Online, it seems like they’re everywhere. Like it’s a superpower explosion. If you haven’t ability-users one, you’re already falling behind!”
But in real life, he hadn’t actually met any.
There were endless online claims of newly ability-users superpowered individuals. It was said that many big corporations were now recruiting people with abilities—offering annual salaries in the tens of millions, just waiting for people to show up.
Awakening a power sure seemed easier than slogging through college.
“Well, that’s not entirely fair,” someone else added. “Abilities vary from person to person. Some are basically useless. I know someone whose power is… not gaining weight.”
Anzhi blinked. “Not gaining weight? That’s a power?”
“You’re underestimating it! It’s real. I have a neighbor who used to weigh over 300 pounds—always eating, couldn’t stop, spent nearly a million trying to lose weight. Every time he lost weight, he’d rebound worse than before.
“Every time I saw him, he’d sigh and say, ‘If only I couldn’t gain weight…’ Then a few days ago, I saw him again—he’d lost over 200 pounds, and no matter how much he ate, he didn’t gain any back.”
Anzhi was stunned. “Seriously? That kind of good fortune exists? Are you sure it’s an actual ability, not just food poisoning?”
“There’s so much information online, you never know what’s real,” someone added. “Like this one kid who claimed he had the Death Note power. He said all he had to do was write someone’s name, and they’d die. He threatened everyone who pissed him off.”
The police were alarmed by his posts and moved quickly to detain him, fearing widespread panic.
But when they found him, he turned out to be a 13-year-old middle schooler—just a hardcore fan of Death Note. He’d been under a ton of pressure from homework and had posted the comment online as a joke.
He didn’t expect anyone to take it seriously. But when dozens of fully armed officers showed up at his home, his parents were terrified, and the boy himself burst into tears on the spot—totally different from the “menacing villain” he’d played online.
That wasn’t an isolated case. There were plenty of people faking powers online.
And there were also real ability users who kept quiet and pretended to be normal.
Lin Xie said confidently, “That guy’s power was definitely real. Otherwise, how could that kind of thing happen?”
Chu Anzhi nodded. “That’s like a dream come true for countless actresses!”
In the entertainment industry, many actresses looked glamorous on the surface, but in reality, they had to starve themselves constantly. They couldn’t eat this or that. What good was earning millions if you couldn’t even enjoy good food?
“Speaking of which, the entertainment industry has been turbulent lately too!” Lin Xie sighed. Competition among A-list actresses was fierce, and things were getting bloody. Lately, more and more superpowered individuals were trying to break into the industry.
If a celebrity had a real talent, it was always a bonus. Many celebrities crafted personas around their skills. Now, if their “talent” was actually a superpower? That would give them a huge advantage.
“There’s this doll-like child star who just debuted in the center position…”
Chu Anzhi furrowed his brows and asked, “Is that the little girl who can make dolls dance?”
Lin Xie nodded and replied, “Yeah! Her appearance fee for one commercial performance has already reached five million. It’s really something to be envious of!”
That little girl seemed to be only seven years old. At seven, she was already making money to support her family. When he was seven, he was still digging in the mud.
Zha Anzhi raised his eyebrows. That little girl’s name was Li Yangyang. She had loved dolls since she was very young. Some insiders said that the girl’s parents were very wealthy, but they were always busy with business and didn’t have much time to take care of her. However, even though her parents didn’t spend much time with her, since she loved dolls, they bought her a whole bunch of them.
She liked talking to her dolls and treated them as her best friends. Perhaps because of that, her dolls later started to seem as if they had come to life.
In the modern world, new ability users kept appearing one after another. Everyone’s attention was focused on these people. Now, the general public talked excitedly every day about which new extraordinary person had shown up where. At first, people were a bit panicked by their emergence, but within a few days, it became normal. Nowadays, having an ability user in the family was like having a student who scored top marks in the college entrance exam.
Chu Feng had just returned to the castle from the outside world and looked around—it seemed all the air conditioners had been installed.
Chui Shi nodded and said, “As you instructed, everything has been installed.”
“Pretty efficient,” Chu Feng said, squinting his eyes. Honestly, he didn’t understand much about circuits himself, but the dwarves, using a few circuit books he had brought, seemed to have completely figured out how electricity worked. With the dwarves’ help, turning this place into a brightly lit modern castle was no big deal.
Illya opened the fridge, stuck his head inside, and said, “It’s cold in here.”
Chu Feng replied, “It’s already so cold outside—can you still feel cold?”
He pulled Illya away and scolded, “Why are you sticking your head into the fridge? Aren’t you afraid you’ll catch a cold?”
Illya just smiled and said, “I won’t.”
Chu Feng shook his head. “I know you’re tough, but still, take care of your health.”
Illya nodded and replied obediently, “Alright, I know.”
Seeing Illya’s half-hearted response, Chu Feng could only shake his head again.
Chu Feng walked into the air-conditioned room, which was already packed with people. The air conditioning was on.
“Brother Feng, this machine is amazing. Once it’s turned on, the room gets really hot! We don’t even need to wear clothes anymore!” someone exclaimed.
Chu Feng smiled. “Yeah.”
All the little brats inside looked like they wanted to strip completely.
Chu Feng glanced at Lan Hu. The room was full of kids—Lan Hu was the only adult. He couldn’t figure out how this guy had managed to sneak in.
Lan Hu was staring up at the air conditioner, eyes gleaming with awe. Chu Feng watched from afar and felt that Lan Hu looked like he was about to drool just from staring at the air conditioner. His gaze was so focused, he didn’t even notice Chu Feng approaching.
Chu Feng thought to himself: Is Lan Hu really a noble? Maybe he was swapped at birth…
Lan Hu, still staring at the AC, was thinking: There really is a machine that can puff out warm air like this. Staying in this room feels just like summer. When Gray mentioned it earlier, I thought he was exaggerating—but it’s real! This Crescent Village is amazing. Even the imperial nobles can’t enjoy such divine comfort.
“What are you thinking about?” Chu Feng asked as he approached.
Startled, Lan Hu quickly plastered on a grin and said brightly, “If I could bring one of these back to the capital as a wedding gift, all the ladies in the capital would fight over me!”
Chu Feng snorted. “The noble ladies in the capital are that easy to please? One air conditioner is all it takes? You know they ask for houses and cars when they get married now, right? One AC really isn’t much.”
Lan Hu suddenly realized something was off, turned his head, and was shocked to see Chu Feng. He immediately stammered, “I was just talking nonsense. Don’t worry—I’m not planning to escape.”
Chu Feng chuckled. “I’m not worried.”
Even if Lan Hu wanted to escape, he wouldn’t get far. The guy had gotten fatter again. At this rate, even if he wanted to run, he probably couldn’t even walk properly.
Looking at Lan Hu’s round figure, Chu Feng sighed. “Eat less. It’s not good for your health.”
Lan Hu nodded perfunctorily, “Got it, got it.”
Got it? Did he really get it?
“How do you nobles keep warm in winter?” Chu Feng asked curiously.
Lan Hu pretended to think. “We use silver-threaded charcoal.”
So it was just regular charcoal? Chu Feng had thought there might be some special method.
Lan Hu added gloomily, “There’s also flame stones.”
Chu Feng’s eyes lit up. “Flame stones? Are those stones that give off heat?”
Lan Hu nodded. “Yes.”
“Are they expensive?”
Lan Hu nodded again. “Very.”
“Do you have any?”
Lan Hu shook his head with a sigh. “No.”
Flame stones were rare treasures, too expensive for most nobles to afford. His parents each had one. His eldest brother also had one. His second brother made a scene with their mother, and out of pity, she gave him hers. Lan Hu also tried to make a fuss with his father—who responded by beating him and assigning him even more schoolwork. Later, his friends all laughed at him.
So unfair! he thought. He and his second brother did the same thing, yet he got punished. So unlucky.
Chu Feng looked at Lan Hu’s gloomy face and thought: If even Lan Hu doesn’t have one, it must be hard to get.
“But now that you have this machine, why do you still want flame stones?” After all, this strange device could blow both hot and cold air—much more convenient than flame stones.
Chu Feng said, “An air conditioner is an air conditioner. A flame stone is a flame stone. You can’t compare the two. How long do flame stones last anyway? Can they keep producing heat forever?”
He asked Illya curiously.
Illya shook his head. “Flame stones have a limited usage period. Depending on their grade, a single flame stone can last from a few years to a few decades.”
Chu Feng nodded. “I see.”
Lan Hu rolled his eyes and said, “Flame stones can’t be controlled. In winter, putting one at home makes it nice and warm, but in summer, it’s pure torture. Every summer, we have to figure out how to seal up the flame stone, and we can’t let anyone find out either.”
Chu Feng: “…That really doesn’t sound as convenient as an air conditioner. You can turn an AC on or off whenever you want, get warm or cool as you like.”
