First Pot of Gold!

In the shade beside Shrek Plaza, Jiang Ming and Dai Yueheng, who had already finished their laps and completed the so-called first assessment for new students, sat on a bench. Each held an Ice Pattern Melon that looked delicious, waiting for the others to finish running.

A class should have this kind of team spirit!

"This melon is pretty good. Where did you buy it? I'll buy a couple later too."

After eating the Ice Pattern Melon Jiang Ming had handed him, Dai Yueheng immediately took a liking to it.

Compared to ordinary watermelon, this Ice Pattern Melon was a whole level better in terms of coolness, juiciness, texture, and sweetness!

"You can't buy this melon here. Only I have it."

Jiang Ming glanced at the other new students, who were nearly done running, put down his book, and spoke softly.

"Hm?"

Dai Yueheng looked at Jiang Ming, his eyes filled with slight confusion.

"Hehe, this melon took our Clear Water City a full five years to cultivate. It took a lot of effort. At the moment, it should only be sold around Clear Water City."

That was right. The Ice Pattern Melon had been cultivated in Clear Water City—more precisely, by Jiang Ming's entire family!

Because of Clear Water City's location, it was relatively close to the Far North and the border between the Heaven Dou Empire and the Sun Moon Empire.

Back then, Jiang Ming had no idea what had possessed him, but he suddenly wanted to crossbreed perfectly good watermelon with another plant that grew in the Far North.

Jiang Ming had only been seven at the time. Nie Heng and his wife had merely treated it as playing along with a child and helped him with it.

At first, the crossbreeding had not been very successful, but it had shown some promise.

So, the City Lord's Mansion had officially established it as a project.

After five years of continuous selective breeding, they had finally produced the current Ice Pattern Melon!

"If you want to eat them, you can buy them from me. We're roommates, after all, so I'll give you a ten percent discount!"

Jiang Ming's eyes suddenly lit up, as though he had discovered another way to make money.

"Uh, then... give me one. How much is it?"

Dai Yueheng froze when he heard Jiang Ming's words, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

He had thought Jiang Ming would give him a few for free out of consideration for their being roommates. He had not expected to have to pay.

"That's right! You reminded me!"

Hearing Dai Yueheng's words, Jiang Ming suddenly had a flash of inspiration!

Then, he took out another two Ice Pattern Melons from his Storage Ring, deftly cut them into several slices, and walked toward the new students who had just finished their laps with a beaming smile.

As an ice-element Soul Master, Ling Luochen was not actually good at running. Jiang Ming and Dai Yueheng had rested for nearly ten minutes before she finally finished the hundred laps.

At that moment, she saw Jiang Ming, whom she had dealt with a few times before, walking toward her.

He held an icy blue fruit that looked like a work of art, a gentle smile on his face.

Ling Luochen's heartbeat sped up slightly.

In just two or three steps, Jiang Ming arrived before Ling Luochen.

He handed her a slice of Ice Pattern Melon and said with a smile, "Tired from running? Have a slice of melon to cool off."

That gentle smile, tender tone, and the cool, gorgeous Ice Pattern Melon in his hand, like a work of art, struck right at Ling Luochen's heart!

She nodded shyly, then put the slice of Ice Pattern Melon into her mouth and took a small bite.

The moment the Ice Pattern Melon entered her mouth, Ling Luochen felt the heat radiating from her body after running vanish in an instant!

Cool without being icy, full of juice, with a grainy texture—it was very, very sweet.

"Is it sweet?"

Jiang Ming asked with a smile.

Ling Luochen nodded and softly said one word.

"Sweet!"

The smile on Jiang Ming's face became even brighter.

"Then, one Silver Soul Coin per melon?"

"Okay—hm?"

Ling Luochen instinctively followed along with Jiang Ming's words, but only after the word "okay" left her mouth did she realize what he meant. She looked at Jiang Ming in confusion.

But Jiang Ming did not care about that. He directly took out a soccer-ball-sized Ice Pattern Melon from his Storage Soul Tool and placed it in her hands before she could react.

"One Silver Soul Coin, please!"

Seeing Jiang Ming's outstretched hand, Ling Luochen stared blankly, completely unable to understand what he was doing.

"What, no money? Then I can't give it to you. Even if you're pretty, you still have to pay!"

As he spoke, Jiang Ming reached to take the Ice Pattern Melon back.

But Ling Luochen had snapped out of it by then and immediately hugged the Ice Pattern Melon to her chest.

"No! One Silver Soul Coin, right? I'll pay!"

As she spoke, Ling Luochen took out a money pouch from her Storage Soul Tool, directly handed Jiang Ming a Gold Soul Coin, and generously told him not to bother with change.

Jiang Ming was laughing inwardly, wondering whether he had set the price too low.

Although the Ice Pattern Melon looked rather rare, Clear Water City had already mastered a method for large-scale cultivation. Over the past few years, as production continuously increased, the price of Ice Pattern Melons in Clear Water City had fallen to five Copper Soul Coins each!

Selling them for one Silver Soul Coin meant he had already doubled the price, yet this foolish beautiful lady before him had actually paid one Gold Soul Coin!

Sigh, I really don't have the talent to be a profiteer!

Or perhaps these new students of Shrek Academy were simply too rich!

Jiang Ming silently reassessed the wealth of these new students, then headed toward the next customer who had just finished their laps!

More than ten minutes later, Jiang Ming had ten Gold Soul Coins and more than a dozen Silver Soul Coins in his hands.

Of those ten Gold Soul Coins, seven or eight had come from suckers like Ling Luochen, who had directly paid one Gold Soul Coin for one melon.

The other two or three had come from those who bought four or five melons at once and also said not to bother with change.

The remaining Silver Soul Coins came from more practical new students, who paid one Silver Soul Coin per melon.

Of course, Jiang Ming knew that more than half of the several dozen students in the class had bought his melons not only because the Ice Pattern Melons were genuinely good and they had just finished running, but also because they wanted to build a good relationship with him and were somewhat afraid of him.

After all, even though this was only the first day for new students, Jiang Ming's name had already become deeply ingrained in everyone's minds!

A ruthless guy who had fought on the day of enrollment, a powerhouse who had arrived nearly twenty minutes late yet finished a hundred laps more than half an hour before them!

Oh, and a profiteer who took the chance to sell melons! Although Jiang Ming had thoughtfully provided melon-cutting services, the new students had already branded his act of selling melons during class as that of a profiteer!

Jiang Ming's image had already been established in the minds of his many classmates. It was somewhat negative, but Jiang Ming did not care!

"Ahem!"

Zhou Yi, who had watched the entire time, gave a light cough and strode over when she saw the final person finish running and most of them begin eating melon.

"You all."