That Guy's Not Right

The items on these small stalls were decent, but not very practical. In reality, if one wanted to buy practical items, they wouldn't come here. People who came here were purely seeking novelty. If a senior student got some new and strange items they hadn't seen before and sold them here, many people would be willing to pay a high price.

Continuing forward, a stall selling plants caught Xilin's attention. Following Yuanye's teachings, Xilin always kept some green plants in his living space.

The stall had mostly flowers, some specially cultivated by flower enthusiasts, and some were seeds and cuttings they collected during their training expeditions off-world. The plants displayed were all ones Xilin had seen in books, but the seeds were a different story.

After a general observation, Xilin's eyes landed on a green vine sealed in an ecological membrane with nutrient solution. It was labeled "Giant Foot Climbing Tiger." Compared to ordinary climbing tigers, the Giant Foot Climbing Tiger had stronger climbing abilities and its radiation and drought resistance were more than ten times higher than ordinary climbing tigers.

Xilin looked at the price tag: 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 deter you. This is absolutely worth the money. This Giant Foot Climbing Tiger isn't like the ones you've seen before. We found this vine by chance during our training class off-world. Because time was tight back then, we didn't get much. It's not just rare on Seven Luminaries Star, it's uncommon throughout the entire Star System."

The stall owner said mysteriously, handing Xilin an infrared perspective viewer, and then placed the vine in front of him.

Seeing the image on the perspective viewer, Xilin was astonished. The image around the vine was very blurry, making it almost impossible to see the stall owner's face behind the vine!

"You see?" the stall owner said proudly. "This thing is absolutely worth the money. If you plant this vine and let it cover the walls around your dorm, it'll be hard for anyone outside to peep in. It has excellent shielding effects against night vision telescopes and the like!"

Before Xilin could respond, a voice interjected.

"I saw this thing yesterday at the botanical research institute in the Seven Luminaries research area. I heard that after this thing is separated from its main body, it can only live for at most ten days. Counting that, this is the eighth day?"

Andrelara Long!

Seeing it was this guy, Xilin didn't say much, just looked at the stall owner with a sympathetic gaze.

"Cough, it's not entirely true. If it's sealed with a biological membrane and nutrient solution, it can still be preserved for more than ten days," the stall owner said, feeling a bit awkward from Long's words. He hadn't expected someone who knew people at the botanical research institute to show up. What rotten luck.

Long didn't even look up, looking at the vine he picked up. "I heard that all fifty-plus samples used for research at the institute died. There are still a dozen or so that they didn't bear to use, and they're also preserved this way. Some teachers have gone to find the mother plant, maybe in a few days they'll be able to get a large batch..."

Five minutes later.

The stall owner, with a tearful expression, accepted the 80 star coins Xilin gave him. He looked at Long as if he wished he could be as far away as possible.

As expected of someone from the family that's "so poor they only have money left." Xilin thought.

"So, I helped you haggle down the price so much, what's my reward?" Long asked, fanning himself with a leaf fan, looking at Xilin with a grin.

Xilin cut to the chase: "State your demand."

People from the Andrelara Family never do good deeds for nothing, never do useless work, and never do losing business. So Xilin directly asked Long to state his terms. As long as it was within acceptable limits, it would be negotiable.

"Good, straightforward. As for the reward... if you manage to grow this vine, you have to sell the cultivation method to me first."

"You're so sure I can grow it? Even the people at the botanical research institute couldn't do it, why would I be able to? Besides, as the stall owner said, buying this is just for remembrance and fun."

"The reason... Andrelara's intuition." Long said smugly.

"Alright," Xilin said with a smile, waved his hand, and left the merchandise street.

Xilin wanted to buy a Flying Skateboard. It would make getting around more convenient later, as the teaching area was quite large. Flying Skateboards were much cheaper than Flying Cars. They looked like skateboards but could also be equipped with hand-controlled rudders. They also provided a good workout; to save energy, one had to pedal the Flying Skateboard themselves.

Before going to buy a Flying Skateboard, Xilin passed by a bookstore. The storefront was large and exuded an ancient aura, showing its age...

The store was having a promotion: its seventh centennial celebration.

Xilin couldn't take advantage of the member discount policy, but he could participate in the quiz open to everyone. The questions were sourced from public domain books, and those who answered all of them correctly would receive a reward of 10,000 Star Coins, ten free books of their choice from the store, and a VIP membership card. Those with a 90% to 50% accuracy rate would also receive corresponding rewards. Even those who couldn't achieve 50% accuracy wouldn't leave empty-handed; they would at least get an in-store discount coupon.

Since it didn't cost anything to participate, Xilin decided to give it a shot, especially since he had already read the books the questions were based on. They were quite basic.

Many people were participating. After swiping his Seven Radiance Card for verification, a store employee handed Xilin a quiz panel.

Most of the questions were multiple-choice, but about 20% were very detailed, asking things like which book, volume, and chapter a specific quote came from, and who said it; in which year a certain battle took place; or even the molecular formula of a particular potion...

Fortunately, Xilin's memory was extraordinary. He finished all one hundred questions in a short time and submitted them. The system immediately graded his answers.

"100 points! Congratulations on winning the first prize in the quiz!"

Following the instructions on the panel, Xilin presented his score and the quiz panel to the relevant person in charge. Someone then escorted him to the prize redemption area. Simultaneously, on the store's large screen, a scrolling list of winners and their prizes appeared: "Congratulations to Daongs Xilin for winning the first prize in the quiz."

People who saw this message couldn't help but exclaim, "To get a perfect score on such a difficult quiz, what a genius."

"Daongs? Someone from the Daongs Family?"

"Isn't this the second perfect score prize today?"

"Who was the first perfect score winner again?"

"I think their name was Ci something..."

Xilin was unaware of the outside chatter. He was busy collecting his prize. After the 10,000 Star Coins were transferred to his Seven Radiance Card, Xilin went to the display area to select his books. Some limited edition books weren't easily found elsewhere.

The premium display area was not open to the public today, but exceptions were made for those who won certain awards. Upon arriving at the display area, Xilin noticed that besides himself, another person was there to claim the perfect score prize and select books.

The person looked about the same age as Xilin, with a refined, scholarly air, standing quietly flipping through a book in front of a bookshelf.

"Jincheng, look, besides you, someone else managed to get a perfect score," the person who escorted Xilin said with a smile to the other individual.

"Oh?" The person's gaze shifted from the book in his hand to Xilin, a gentle smile on his face. "That's quite rare." He made no move to approach.

Xilin politely bowed and began browsing the books on the shelves.

A short while later.

"Hey, Jincheng, do you think that guy is a bit strange?" the person who brought Xilin over whispered to Ci Jincheng.

Ci Jincheng's gaze moved from his book again, looking at Xilin not far away. He frowned more and more as he watched.

He was too fast! He was flipping pages too quickly! The moment his eyes landed on a page, the next one was already there.

This wasn't an e-book; the speed of turning pages was impossible for the two of them to ignore.

"Jincheng, what do you think? Is that guy really reading it, or is he just putting on a show? His page-turning speed has been consistent for several books now."

"Who is he?"

"The information that showed up on the card when I transferred the money. Daongs Xilin. A freshman in this batch of Seven Luminaries, just like you. Not a special recruit, self-funded."

"From the Daongs Family?" Ci Jincheng was sure. He remembered everyone with a bit of fame from the Daongs Family, but he hadn't heard of this Xilin.

On May 21st, as I was cycling uphill, a lump of bird droppings fell from the sky and landed squarely on the third knuckle of my ring finger (the third knuckle from the palm).

My friend said, "Look, an angel is proposing to you..."

I was instantly flustered in the wind...