The things at these little stalls were all pretty good, but not very practical. People who actually wanted to buy practical things wouldn't come here. Most visitors were just looking for something novel. If upperclassmen managed to get their hands on unusual items they'd never seen before and sold them here, plenty of people were willing to pay a high price.
As he continued down the street, a plant stall caught Xilin's eye. Thanks to Yuanye's influence, Xilin always kept some greenery in his living space.
The stall had mostly flowers. Some had been specially grown by flower enthusiasts, while others came from seeds and cuttings collected during off-world training exercises. Xilin recognized all the plants on display from books he'd read, though he couldn't identify every seed.
After looking them over, Xilin set his sights on a green vine sealed in ecological film with nutrient solution. Its label read "Giant Foot Climbing Tiger." Compared with ordinary climbing tiger, it had a much stronger climbing ability, and its resistance to radiation and drought was more than ten times greater.
Xilin checked the price: 8,000 Star Coins. It was really expensive.
The stall owner was a third-year student. Seeing Xilin frown, he explained, "Junior, don't let the high price put you off. It's absolutely worth it. This Giant Foot Climbing Tiger isn't like any of the varieties you've seen before. We stumbled across this vine during an off-world training course. We were in a hurry, so we didn't manage to get much. It's rare not just on Seven Luminaries Star, but throughout the entire star system."
The stall owner spoke mysteriously as he handed Xilin an infrared viewer, then held the vine in front of himself.
Xilin was amazed by what he saw through the viewer. The image around the vine was so blurry that the stall owner's face behind it was almost impossible to make out!
"Get it now?" The stall owner looked smug. "It's absolutely worth the price. If you grow the vine and let it cover the walls around your residence, people outside won't be able to spy on you. It works great against night-vision binoculars and the like!"
Before Xilin could respond, another voice cut in.
"I saw this stuff at the plant research institute in the Seven Radiance Research Area yesterday. I heard it can only survive for ten days after being separated from the main plant. So, by my count, this is day eight?"
Andrelara Long!
Seeing who it was, Xilin said nothing. He simply looked at the stall owner with a sympathetic expression.
"Ahem. That's not entirely true. If it's sealed with a biological film and nutrient solution, it can last for more than ten days." Long's words had left the stall owner a little embarrassed. He hadn't expected anyone here to know people at the plant research institute. Damn bad luck.
Long didn't even look up as he examined the vine in his hand. "I heard all fifty-odd samples the research institute was using for experiments died. They still have more than ten they didn't want to use, so they're preserving those the same way. A few teachers went to look for the parent plant. They might get a whole batch in a few days..."
Five minutes later.
The stall owner took the 80 Star Coins Xilin gave him with a face on the verge of tears. He looked at Long as though he wished he could get as far away from him as possible.
No wonder people call his family 'so rich they have nothing left but money.' Xilin thought.
"So, what do you think? I helped you haggle the price down by that much. Don't I deserve a reward?" Long shook his leaf fan and grinned at Xilin.
Xilin didn't beat around the bush. "Tell me what you want."
People from the Andrelara Family never did things out of pure goodwill. They didn't do pointless favors or take a loss. So Xilin simply asked Long to name his price. As long as it was within reason, they could work something out.
"Good. I like a straightforward person. For my reward... if you manage to grow this vine, sell me the growing method first."
"What makes you so sure I can grow it? The people at the plant research institute couldn't, so why would I be able to? Besides, as the stall owner said, people buy this stuff just as a keepsake or for fun."
"Why? Andrelara intuition," Long said, unbearably smug.
"Fine," Xilin said with a smile. He waved goodbye and left the shopping street.
Xilin wanted to buy a flying skateboard to make getting around easier. The Teaching Zone was huge, after all. Flying skateboards were much cheaper than flying cars. They looked like skateboards, but could also be fitted with a manual control rudder. They were good exercise, too. If he wanted to save energy, he'd have to propel the board himself.
On his way to buy one, Xilin passed a bookstore. It was spacious, with an old-fashioned air about it. It looked like it had been around for a long time...
The store was holding a promotion: its seventh centennial anniversary.
Xilin couldn't take advantage of the membership discount, but anyone could enter the quiz. All the questions came from a few books available to the public. Anyone who answered every question correctly would win 10,000 Star Coins and could choose ten free books from the store, as well as receive a VIP membership card. There were prizes for scores between fifty and ninety percent, too. Even those who scored below fifty percent wouldn't leave empty-handed; at the very least, they'd get a store discount coupon.
It was free, so why not give it a try? Besides, Xilin had read all those books. They were pretty basic.
There were plenty of people taking part. After the staff scanned his Qiyao Card to verify his identity, they set Xilin up with a quiz panel.
The questions were mostly multiple choice, but nearly twenty percent were extremely detailed. For example, which book, volume, and chapter a particular sentence came from, and who had said it; what year a certain battle had taken place; even the molecular formula of a particular drug...
Fortunately, Xilin had an extraordinary memory. He finished all one hundred questions in no time, and the system graded them as soon as he submitted his answers.
"100 points! Congratulations! You've won first prize in the quiz!"
Following the instructions on the panel, Xilin showed his score and quiz panel to the staff member in charge. Someone then escorted him to the prize area. At the same time, the winners and their prizes appeared on the store's big screen. One entry read: "Congratulations to Daongs Xilin for winning first prize in the quiz."
People who saw the announcement couldn't help exclaiming, "He got a perfect score on questions that difficult? What a genius!"
"Daongs? Is he from the Daongs Family?"
"Isn't that the second perfect score today?"
"By the way, who got the other perfect score?"
"I think his name was something like Ci..."
Xilin had no idea what people outside were saying about him. He was busy collecting his prize. After the 10,000 Star Coins were transferred to his Qiyao Card, he went to choose his books in the display section. Some limited-edition books weren't easy to find just anywhere.
The premium display section was closed to the public that day, though winners of certain prizes were an exception. When Xilin arrived, he found someone else there to collect a perfect-score prize and choose books.
The person looked about Xilin's age and had a scholarly, refined air. He stood quietly in front of the bookshelves, leafing through a book.
"Jincheng, look! Someone besides you actually got a perfect score," said the person who had brought Xilin over, greeting him with a smile.
"Oh?" The young man lifted his gaze from the book in his hands and looked at Xilin with a warm, elegant smile. "That's quite rare." He made no move to approach.
Xilin returned the greeting politely, then began browsing the bookshelves.
A little while later.
"Hey, Jincheng, don't you think that guy's acting kind of strange?" The person who had brought Xilin over leaned close to Ci Jincheng and whispered.
Ci Jincheng looked up from his book again and glanced at Xilin in the distance. The longer he watched, the more his brow furrowed.
He was turning pages too fast—far too fast! Almost as soon as his eyes landed on a page, he'd already moved on to the next.
These weren't e-books. The two of them couldn't dismiss the speed at which he was turning the pages.
"Jincheng, do you think he's actually reading, or just pretending? He's been turning pages at that speed through several books now."
"Who is he?"
"The information on his card when he made the transfer said Daongs Xilin. He's a first-year at Seven Luminaries, like you. He wasn't admitted through Special Recruitment; he's a self-funded student."
"Someone from the Daongs Family?" Ci Jincheng was sure he knew every member of the Daongs Family with even a little fame, but he'd never heard of anyone named Xilin.
On May 21, while I was riding my bike up a hill, a blob of bird poop fell from the sky and landed on the third joint of my ring finger (the third joint is the one closest to the palm).
My friend said, "Look, an angel's proposing to you..."
I was instantly left reeling in the wind...
Before you continue