"Wanting, all dressed up so pretty, are you going out tonight? Take me with you?"
In the girls' dormitory at Agricultural University, Xiaoxiao peeped down from the top bunk, her chubby hand covered in potato chip crumbs as she brushed her bangs aside, revealing a cut-down version of her greasy, shiny face.
Chen Wanting applied lipstick to her soft, red lips.
bo~
Her lips touched up and down, turning into a bright, fresh red.
She suddenly looked radiant.
"Can't take you today~ I have serious stuff to do."
"Are you going shopping? Grab me some chips while you're out."
"Shopping? Sort of, I'm planning to clear out my shopping cart."
"Can you add a big fun pack to your cart for me?"
"Depends on my mood~"
Chen Wanting picked up her purse and walked out of the dorm gracefully, her stunning figure and beautiful clothes making many commonplace girls envious along the way.
Some girls, plain-faced, weren't necessarily any less attractive than Chen Wanting, but with makeup, the difference was night and day.
Just a light makeup made her a campus beauty; no wonder Yang Genshuo had surrendered without much resistance back then.
It's just like a popular question online.
Girl: "I heard that if any fairly pretty girl makes a move on you guys, you can't resist?"
Boy: "I'm not like the others, I can't resist the ugly ones either."
It sounds like a joke, but there's some truth in it.
Girls in the next dorm spoke sourly, "Dressing all flashy, doesn't look like a student at all, who knows what she's up to, hmph~"
"Look at that coat, I'm so jealous, I tried it on last time I was at the mall, but couldn't bring myself to buy it, designer stuff, over 2000 a piece!"
"Ah? Didn't she apply for a hardship subsidy in her freshman year? Spending like this? Should someone report her?"
"She hasn't applied for financial aid for a long time now, what's there to report, ever since she found that sugar daddy, from Cinderella to a princess, instantly becoming the department's darling among those disgusting boys."
"Psh, still can't hold a candle to their dorm's Liu Anhe, she's naturally beautiful~"
"Being better than you is enough, jealous much?"
"Ah ah ah~ I'm gonna kill you!"
"Eh~ don't grab that! Stop it!"
Beautiful and daring girls like Chen Wanting are always a topic of conversation.
...
"Ridiculous..."
Yang Genshuo rolled his eyes, ignored Chen Wanting's message, and turned off the notification for linking her WeChat to his bank card.
Then he went to the bank to pay off his loan, quickly completing the process.
"Only 40,000 left, should I buy something for Yang Shi?"
Nowadays, Yang Shi was his cash cow, as long as Yang Shi kept developing the Yang Family, he'd have plenty of ways to capitalize.
"Last time I was in a rush sending supplies, bought them from the supermarket and wasted quite a bit of money, this time I'll just order directly from JD."
Next-day delivery is pretty reliable.
On the taxi ride home, Yang Genshuo browsed the online mall and saw the promoted compressed biscuits.
He pondered slightly, recalling the Ge Family from the world of Immortal Cultivation searching for the recipe.
"Why would a cultivator want these? What's special about them?"
Yang Genshuo's understanding of the rules and knowledge in the world of Immortal Cultivation was mostly from what he heard from Liao Cao, and Liu Wuheng also mentioned a thing or two while training Yang Shi.
"I know both cultivators and mortals need to eat, but whether it's the lowest Fetal Breathing Stage or a Qi Cultivation Immortal, even a Foundation Establishment Great Power, they all consume spirit food, absorbing spiritual energy from the food as part of their cultivation."
The progress of cultivators who eat spirit food and those who don't differs significantly.
So, he was even more puzzled as to why the Ge family of cultivators would be interested in these things.
"Could it be they want to make their own and sell them? Doesn't make sense though... selling 20 jin of hybrid spirit rice earns 20,000 silver taels, whereas Yang Shi would have to sell 2000 packs of compressed biscuits to make the same."
"Can't figure it out..."
Yang Genshuo faintly felt that he might have misconceptions about Cultivators.
"Let's not sell these Grain Avoidance Cakes for now, just get some milk tea, coffee, candy, and such. They're cheap, plentiful, and tasty."
After placing the order, the driver had already brought him to his front door.
Ding ding ding~
Cheng Bo is calling.
"Master, don't go yet."
The DiDi driver was thrilled; the fare from the city to the suburbs was a solid 40 yuan, and if he could head back to the city, it would be absolutely fantastic.
"Stepfather, take me to get a foot massage again, please, I'll pay!"
"Did the medicine kick in again?"
"Hmm..."
"A few knocks and it will settle down, I'm busy now," Cheng Bo sighed.
"Damn! I'm worried about hurting my hands. What kind of medicine is this? I've never heard of traditional medicine being so powerful—one pill lasts two days? If this thing goes international, it would immediately create a top 500-world pharmaceutical corporation."
"Stop your nonsense, just take it and exercise more, sweat it out. Bye now, I've got things to do."
"Hold on, hold on! I've got something important to talk about."
"Go ahead."
"Those few Spirit Rice plants you gave me, I need the original soil they grew in. I need to analyze its components before I can prepare a suitable growth medium."
"Oh... then you come by tomorrow to get it. By the way, the yield of this type of rice is very low, only 430 pounds per acre. Any idea how to increase it?"
Last year, Yang Shi harvested the first batch of Spirit Rice.
How should I put it... if sold, it could fetch 21 low-grade Spirit Stones, which is equivalent to 420,000 silver Tael.
Even Zhao Kuangfeng, the Half-step Innate master, only had five low-grade Spirit Stones in savings, which looks quite a lot.
But ... these 430 pounds of Spirit Rice weren't enough for Yang Shi and Jiang Xiaobai to eat.
Both of them had huge appetites, consuming a total of 2 pounds of Spirit Rice each day.
After setting aside 10 pounds for Yang Genshuo, the remaining rice would only last them 210 days.
They couldn't even eat for a year, let alone save some to trade for more Spirit Stones or money.
Keep in mind, this was an acre of Spirit Rice that had been nurtured with Spiritual Rainwater and careful tending for a year!
Not being able to feed just two people was a bit unreasonable.
Cheng Bo said over the phone, "Hmm... I've noticed that too. This rice produces few panicles and the grains aren't full enough. It's just a standard low-yield wild rice variety. But, no big issues, our hybrid rice technology is now very advanced. Once I get the soil it grew in from you, I can breed a new variety for it. Doubling the yield shouldn't be a problem."
"Just doubling?"
Yang Genshuo almost thought his phone speaker was broken.
"Doubling it, 430 pounds would only be 1290 pounds, which is just the usual standard... Do you know what's the highest yield per acre achieved by our state-of-the-art hybrid rice is now?"
"Hmm?"
"2500 pounds!"
"Crap! No wonder the internet culture has been so poor lately!"
"Huh?"
"Everyone's eating too well! Alright, go exercise, I'm busy."
"Stepfather... are you sure you don't want to go for the foot massage?"
"Get lost!"
After hanging up the phone, Yang Genshuo saw the DiDi driver's face, expectantly looking at him through the rolled-down window.
"What? Not taking any more rides? Earned enough money?"
Then he slammed the door shut.
DiDi driver: "?"
Grumbling, he drove away.
Yang Genshuo truly had no time to take Cheng Bo for a foot massage, his house was still piled up with uneaten offerings!