"Sir, rest assured. Our Old Third Liu's Spirit Stone Shop has been open for thirty years here in Rong City. Every spirit stone we sell is guaranteed to be high quality. Anyone who has ever shopped at our store gives us a big thumbs-up."
The pretty saleswoman sang the praises of her shop to Lin Li without pause. Lin Li listened quietly, nodding from time to time and politely responding now and then.
Actually, although this was Lin Li's first time buying spirit stones from a spirit stone shop, he had done his homework. He had looked up plenty of information about Old Third Liu's Spirit Stone Shop online.
After investigating, he found that the shop's reputation was indeed excellent, which was why he had chosen to buy his spirit stones there.
"All right, fifty thousand it is. Give me ten spirit stones." This pretty saleswoman really knows how to talk! Lin Li thought. If I don't interrupt her soon, she could probably keep rambling for another ten or twenty minutes.
"Ten?" The pretty saleswoman, who had nearly blown her family's shop to the heavens, immediately shut her mouth when she heard Lin Li.
She had assumed that a customer this young would at most buy one or two spirit stones. She had never expected him to ask for ten the moment he opened his mouth. This was the biggest sale she had made in the past two months.
"Sir, please wait a moment. I'll prepare the order for you right away."
The pretty saleswoman was extremely efficient. Before long, she had prepared Lin Li's order, then led him toward the cashier.
"Sister Li, could you please take this gentleman's payment?" The pretty saleswoman handed the order in her hand to a cashier in her early forties.
"Sir, will you be paying by card or phone?" The cashier took the order from the pretty saleswoman, glanced at it, and then asked Lin Li.
"By card." Lin Li took a bank card from his pocket and handed it over. After the cashier swiftly processed it, she passed the card reader to Lin Li so he could enter his password.
"Ah, half of my entire fortune is gone just like that."
After entering his bank card password, Lin Li pressed the confirmation button on the card reader. The machine began spitting out the receipt. As he watched the slip slowly emerge, his heart clenched.
A few days ago, Lin Li had still been planning to rely on his one million yuan in savings and the rent collected from the apartment he had leased out to live out the rest of his life in peace.
But now? Who could have expected that a single purchase would use up half of all his savings? Truly, the world was full of surprises.
My heart aches!!!
After paying, Lin Li followed the pretty saleswoman back to the counter she was responsible for.
He watched as the pretty saleswoman took out an exquisite gift box, then unlocked the glass cabinet with a key.
She reached into the cabinet and placed spirit stones the size of pigeon eggs, crystalline and translucent, into the gift box one by one.
Before long, all ten spirit stones had been placed inside. Lin Li accepted the gift box from her with a wooden expression, then left the spirit stone shop called Old Third Liu under her enthusiastic escort.
After seeing Lin Li off, the pretty saleswoman's colleagues immediately gathered around her, their eyes brimming with envy as they congratulated her on landing such a huge sale.
"Five hundred thousand! I never thought I, Lin, would live to spend five hundred thousand yuan in a single purchase."
After walking out of the spirit stone shop, Lin Li looked at the beautiful gift box in his hand and muttered to himself.
He then hugged the gift box tightly to his chest, glanced around, and confirmed that nobody was following him. He hurried toward the roadside in the distance, flagged down a taxi, and returned home.
"Click."
"Bang."
The front door opened and closed. Lin Li took off his shoes at the entrance, put on his slippers, and walked into the living room. He gently placed the gift box containing the ten spirit stones on the coffee table, then leaned backward and crashed heavily onto the soft sofa.
"Phew..."
He let out a long breath, and his entire body relaxed considerably.
Although Rong City had excellent public security, this was the first time in his life he had spent five hundred thousand yuan on something so valuable. It was only natural for him to feel uneasy, afraid that someone might rob him.
Now that he was home, the tension that had plagued him throughout the journey finally eased.
"Ring ring ring..."
Because he had barely slept at all the previous night, Lin Li was feeling drowsy. Just as he lay on the sofa and prepared to take a short nap, the phone in his pocket rang.
He pulled out his phone and glanced at it. The caller displayed was his university classmate, Zhang Dawei.
"Hello..."
"Lin Li, what are you doing?"
"Nothing much!"
"You're playing a game, aren't you?" Zhang Dawei knew his classmate quite well. He knew that after graduating from university, Lin Li had not planned to find a job. Instead, he intended to become a complete couch potato, basically staying home and playing games.
"I'm not playing a game. I didn't sleep well last night, so I'm going to catch up on some sleep. Did you need something? If not, I'll hang up. I'm really tired."
Zhang Dawei could hear the sleepiness in Lin Li's voice and quickly got to the point. "It's my birthday next week. I've invited some of our classmates who stayed in Rong City to get together. You'd better come out too..."
It had already been half a month since university graduation. Although many classmates had chosen to leave Rong City—some returning to their hometowns, others going to different cities to seek opportunities—some had chosen to stay and find work locally in Rong City.
Among them was Zhang Dawei, who had gotten along quite well with Lin Li during university.
"All right. Send me the time and address for the gathering through WeChat later." Lin Li naturally had no reason to refuse Zhang Dawei's invitation.
"Okay, then I'll see you next week... And don't stay up playing games every night. It's bad for your health." Before hanging up, Zhang Dawei reminded his friend.
Hey, I didn't stay up late playing games last night... Lin Li grumbled inwardly as he stared at the phone after the call had ended.
Soon, Lin Li, who was unbearably sleepy, closed his eyes and fell asleep right there on the sofa.
It was already July, and the arrival of midsummer had sent the city's temperature gradually climbing.
The noisy chirping of cicadas was about to become the city's main melody.
A breeze blew in through the balcony into the living room, gently stroking Lin Li's hair as he slept on the sofa, and gently caressing the exquisite gift box containing the spirit stones on the coffee table.
The gears of fate turned slowly. This ordinary young man, who had originally planned to live an ordinary life in this parallel world called Blue Star, was about to embark on the path of cultivation.
Before you continue