Mu Zhongxi poked at the glistening braised pork belly in his bowl, turned his head to look at Ye Qiao, who was munching on a meat bun beside him, and sighed from the bottom of his heart.
“To be honest, this meal today is entirely thanks to me riding on your coattails.”
Beside them, Du Chun, who had his head down eating, seemed to sniff the scent of gossip and turned his gaze toward Ye Qiao.
Ye Qiao heard Mu Zhongxi's words, felt a bit puzzled, and asked, “What do you mean, riding on my coattails?”
Mu Zhongxi's mouth was stuffed with braised pork belly. He chewed indistinctly, answering as he ate.
“Fourth Senior Brother told me in advance that there would be meat to eat in the cafeteria today.”
“You have no idea. On normal days, the cafeteria only serves dry, bland white buns.”
Beside them, Du Chun also nodded repeatedly, chiming in to agree.
“That's right. Senior Brother Mu is right. Before you arrived yesterday, I ate buns for all three meals. They were so dry they could choke a person to death.”
Ye Qiao was taken aback. She turned to Mu Zhongxi and pressed, confused, “Then what does that have to do with me?”
Mu Zhongxi swallowed the meat in his mouth and explained, “How could it have nothing to do with you? Before, when Fourth Senior Brother told you that our Changming Sect has meat for every meal, that was all a lie.”
“After he brought you here, he paid out of his own pocket to have someone go down the mountain to buy meat. Today's braised pork belly and meat buns were all bought with his own spirit stones.”
“Look at that. Fourth Senior Brother is too good to you. I bet we'll have meat to eat every day now.”
Hearing this shocking gossip, Du Chun's eyes went wide, his face filled with shock.
Hearing this, Ye Qiao's heart stirred, and the little abacus in her mind instantly began to clack rapidly.
Spending his own money to buy meat... how many spirit stones must that have cost? Just hearing it made Ye Qiao's heart ache.
He might as well have given all those spirit stones to her. She would gladly eat buns every single day.
Ah—what would it hurt for the world to have one less poor person? Damned rich people!!
Seeing Ye Qiao's downcast expression, Mu Zhongxi thought she was feeling bad about the spirit stones Fourth Senior Brother had spent on her. He quickly reached out to pat her shoulder, comforting her.
“Don't worry, Ye Qiao. Fourth Senior Brother is super rich. He's an artifact cultivator, after all!”
Hearing this, the already impoverished Ye Qiao was once again deeply stabbed by the bitterness of being poor.
Beside her, Du Chun also took a direct hit to the heart.
Who could understand! Most sword cultivators were extremely poor because almost all of their spirit stones were poured into maintaining and refining their swords.
That was why a sword cultivator's wife was always their sword. There was absolutely no doubt about it.
Only Mu Zhongxi remained completely oblivious to the bitterness of the two. He turned to Ye Qiao and said, “Take your time eating, I'll head out first.”
With that, he stepped onto the Zhaoxi Sword and flew away with a whoosh, leaving Ye Qiao and Du Chun staring blankly at each other.
...
Inside the Green Bamboo Courtyard.
Luo Qingyu slumped exhausted over the stone table, calling out softly, “007, is the mission complete?”
【007: Ding~ Congratulations to the host for completing the main quest—Help Ye Qiao successfully enter the Changming Sect.】
【Rewards obtained: Card Draw x10, 500 Points.】
【Ding~ The System Mall has been unlocked.】
The moment Luo Qingyu heard that the mall was unlocked, she sat up abruptly, staring at the system panel before her.
The more she looked at it, the more outrageous she found it. She felt as though she had been set up by this crappy system from the very beginning.
Luo Qingyu questioned coldly, her tone full of annoyance.
“007, did you do this on purpose, you dog of a system? I had over forty thousand points before and couldn't even unlock the mall, but today, just because of an extra five hundred points, it suddenly opens?”
007's mechanical voice instantly sounded a bit guilty as it hurriedly explained.
【Not at all, Host! The condition to unlock the System Mall is to complete main quests related to the female lead. It cannot be unlocked simply by accumulating points.】
Hearing this, Luo Qingyu grew even more furious, her brow furrowing tightly.
“Oh, then why didn't you tell me earlier?”
“Because of you, I spent all that time just doing quests without cultivating, and I even got nagged by Elder Zhao for an entire day.”
【007: Please do not be angry, Host. It was my mistake.】
【I should have reminded you earlier, but I did not expect you to be so obsessed with activating the mall.】
007's tone carried a hint of grievance as it answered Luo Qingyu in a low voice.
Hearing this, Luo Qingyu was temporarily at a loss for words.
She couldn't very well admit that she had only been desperately doing quests out of sheer curiosity at the time.
But on second thought, she suppressed that notion.
No, this wasn't her fault at all. 007 was to blame; it was the one who failed to remind her first.
Yes, that was it.
Rate on N.U.
