"Um, sir, are you looking for Lucky Boxes with that kind of pattern?"
Xu Nana forced down the strange expression that was almost appearing on her face. Still wearing a professional smile, she asked with a smile, though inwardly she was blushing as she cursed, Is he messing with me?
Tang Jian cleared his throat and put on an unconcerned expression as he nodded seriously. "Yes. Preferably... could you narrow it down a little more? I'd prefer dark purple boxes."
Xu Nana looked at Tang Jian's nonchalant manner and, after confirming that he was not teasing or harassing her, immediately nodded with a smile. "Certainly, sir. I'll filter them for you right away."
After saying that, Xu Nana no longer wanted to talk to Tang Jian. She had already categorized him as one of those rich second-generation heirs.
Feeling guilty and awkward, Tang Jian glanced at Xu Nana's back as she turned to adjust the screen, then swallowed.
MMP!
Back when he had been this age, he had definitely been a pure and innocent youth.
His face had always worn that youthful, ignorant look.
Knives, knives, knives.
What kind of knives were those?
Time was a butcher's knife.
Speaking of which, what kind of mindset had He Xun been in when he bought a Lucky Box in that style?
"Sir, I've filtered out the Lucky Boxes you requested. At present, our Green Fox Exchange only has the five above in this particular style."
After operating the large screen for a while, Xu Nana interrupted Tang Jian's wild thoughts and pointed toward the top of the display.
Tang Jian immediately looked up and saw that only five Lucky Boxes remained on the screen, all bearing clothing patterns.
As some customers passed by, they saw the scene and could not help giving the youthful-looking Tang Jian strange looks before shaking their heads and leaving.
"There are actually five purple ones."
"Let me see... this one doesn't look quite right. This one looks a little like it... uh, this one."
Tang Jian stared carefully at the Lucky Boxes on the screen for a while, looking as though he were agonizing over which one to buy.
But the longer he looked, the more conflicted he became.
The five Lucky Boxes were all roughly the same style. Two of them could probably be ruled out, since their patterns were slightly dissimilar and looked rather crude, but the other three looked very familiar.
Tang Jian racked his brains, yet he still could not determine which of the three Lucky Boxes was the one He Xun had bought in his previous life.
All three felt somewhat familiar, yet none of them seemed to be it.
That feeling of déjà vu mixed with slight unfamiliarity gave him a headache.
"Sir? Have you made your choice?"
Xu Nana looked at Tang Jian's conflicted expression. Though she was curious and frustrated inside, she still smiled on the surface.
Tang Jian let out a soft breath. "What are the prices of these three Lucky Boxes?"
Tang Jian pointed at the three Lucky Boxes he wanted to buy.
Xu Nana immediately lowered her head to check the product models and prices on the device in her hand. Then she smiled and pointed them out to Tang Jian one by one. "This Lucky Box contains one hundred cards and costs forty thousand. The one in the middle contains twenty cards and costs eight thousand. The last one contains five cards and costs only two thousand. If you buy them all, sir, I can give you a two percent discount!"
Xu Nana's smile was dazzling.
With a two percent discount, she would only be giving up 0.2 percent of her commission. If Tang Jian truly bought them all, she would make a killing.
"Shit! One of them is actually a Lucky Box with a hundred cards."
Tang Jian felt depressed.
He had no idea what size Lucky Box He Xun had opened in his previous life. The man had never said.
As long as a Lucky Box contained no more than one hundred cards, its size was the same.
Only Lucky Boxes containing more than one hundred cards, such as two hundred or three hundred cards, differed in size.
The three boxes before him were nearly indistinguishable, and he could not determine which Lucky Box He Xun had opened to obtain the Demi-human Beauty Girl. The safest course was to buy them all.
But buying all these boxes would cost fifty thousand. Even with a two percent discount, it would still cost forty-nine thousand. The expense was simply too great.
Besides, what if He Xun's Demi-human Beauty Card in his previous life had not come from a Lucky Box at all? What if he had deliberately lied through his teeth to advertise for the merchant and deceive everyone? Wouldn't Tang Jian, the idiot who had been reborn, be utterly screwed?
"The Demi-human Beauty Card starts as a white five-star Growable Card. Though it's only white five-star, among pet cards, its functions and power are comparable to a white seven-star card. And for the first few star levels, it's easy to find materials to recreate and upgrade it."
Tang Jian weighed the pros and cons in his heart before finally gritting his teeth.
He would gamble!
Swing, swing—bicycle into motorcycle, unlucky bastard into lucky king.
"If I really buy all three, could you make it a little cheaper? How about a five percent discount?"
Although Tang Jian had decided to buy them, he naturally still had to haggle.
A fifty-thousand-dollar deal was nothing he would have blinked at when he had been a Three-Star Card Master in his previous life, but now those fifty thousand dollars were hard-earned money.
Making money was like eating shit—difficult. Spending money was like diarrhea—easy. Crude words, but true enough.
"A five percent discount?" Xu Nana looked troubled. "I can't reduce it by that much. I don't have the authority to give up that much profit."
In truth, she could directly offer him a ten percent discount. At worst, she would forgo her commission, but she would still make a sale.
But she was not lacking in sales performance right now, and Tang Jian was not her husband. Why should she give up so much profit?
"Come on, miss, this is fifty thousand dollars. A five percent discount should be negotiable, right? Look at how young I am, yet I can spend this much. If I come back in the future, your commission and sales figures will keep climbing. Can't you cut me a little more slack?"
Tang Jian immediately put his silver tongue to work and began bargaining.
Businesswomen might be shrewd, but when faced with a fresh-faced young man like Tang Jian haggling with them, they found it somewhat hard to resist.
After Tang Jian pulled her into a round of persuasion, Xu Nana could not help beginning to waver.
It was true. Tang Jian was so young and spent so freely. If she turned him into a long-term customer, she would not have to worry about her monthly sales figures in the future, and she could even earn a little more.
Although Xu Nana disdained Tang Jian's tastes and preferences, she still welcomed wealthy customers like him.
"Sir, that mouth of yours is really something. I've learned my lesson today."
"Fine, then. If you also buy that other box with five cards, I'll give you a five percent discount on all four Lucky Boxes. Let's make friends, and I hope you'll visit often in the future."
Xu Nana smiled like a wild chrysanthemum blooming brightly on a mountain slope.
"Is that so?" Tang Jian looked at the other Lucky Box, whose fabric pattern was slightly thicker, considered it, and nodded faintly. "That works. By the way, you accept card transactions here, right? I also want to sell a card here."
Since the Green Fox Card Exchange dealt in card trading, it naturally also purchased cards.
The profit margins in that business were quite good.
For example, for a card with a market price of thirty thousand dollars, they would offer at most twenty-five thousand here, perhaps even only half the price.
Then, after maintaining and beautifully packaging the card, they would sell it at market price.
Even so, people short on cash or holding surplus, useless cards often came here to sell their cards.
"Beep—"
Tang Jian swiped the White Jade Flying Serpent Card he handed over through the card reader.
The card reader immediately lit up, displaying a mass of appraisal data.
"Card: Pet-type auxiliary healing card: White Jade Flying Serpent Card (white quality, seven stars)
Performance evaluation: Below average;
Maintenance evaluation: Excellent."
"Mr. Tang, based on the appraisal data for your card, our exchange can only offer eighteen thousand dollars to purchase it."
A professional appraiser wearing a suit and leather gloves smiled as he spoke to Tang Jian.
Although Tang Jian's vitality did not seem strong to him, perhaps not even at the level of a three-star card apprentice, while he himself was a four-star card apprentice, money was what mattered. The professional appraiser showed no hint of contempt.
"Only eighteen thousand? Can't you offer a little more?" Tang Jian frowned.
The appraiser smiled and shook his head. "Eighteen thousand is already the highest price. You should understand that cards are priced according to performance. Your card's performance is only below average, and it cannot be improved further.
The healing effect of this White Jade Flying Serpent Card is about twenty percent worse than that of a card with superior performance.
A White Jade Flying Serpent Card with superior performance only sells for twenty-five thousand on the market. If your card had not been maintained so well, it would not even fetch eighteen thousand."
Cards also had performance grades. Cards of the same quality and star level did not necessarily have identical effects; their performance differences mattered as well. Naturally, higher-performing cards were worth more.
Tang Jian had no choice but to let it go.
After selling the White Jade Flying Serpent Card, added to the thirty-two thousand six hundred dollars he already had on him, Tang Jian had a total of fifty thousand six hundred dollars.
He paid immediately and bought the four Lucky Item Boxes, spending forty-nine thousand four hundred dollars. In an instant, he was left with only twelve hundred dollars.
"Mr. Tang, here are the Lucky Item Boxes you purchased. Please take them. This is a membership card for our Green Fox Card Exchange. You can receive this card simply by purchasing more than fifty thousand dollars' worth of goods from our exchange. With this card, you'll receive a five percent discount on any item you purchase from our exchange in the future."
Xu Nana beamed as she completed all the payment paperwork for Tang Jian, then handed him a leather bag with both hands. Her voice was sweet enough to melt a person.
Never mind whether Tang Jian had any unusual tastes. Customers were gods, and money was king. Xu Nana had initially assumed that a green youth like Tang Jian would spend only a few thousand dollars at most.
Who would have thought that he would squander nearly fifty thousand dollars in an instant? Although she had given up quite a bit of profit, she still earned more than two thousand dollars in commission. Her mood and attitude immediately rose to another level.
"Nana really got lucky!"
"Yeah, I noticed that young guy too. I thought he was just here to broaden his horizons, but who knew..."
"That's why moneyed people don't care about age, gender, or whether someone's young or old. So what if he's young? He has money."
"Hmph. I still prefer someone more mature."
Several store clerks watched Xu Nana and Tang Jian whispering among themselves. Some were quite envious, while others studied Tang Jian in surprise and silently memorized his appearance.
"This is my business card. My Weixin number is on it. Mr. Tang, if you have any needs in the future, you can contact me at any time."
As Tang Jian was leaving, Xu Nana handed him a business card.
Tang Jian nodded and accepted it casually.
Keeping her business card was not bad. If he needed anything in the future, he could contact her. Gathering materials was a troublesome task, and having an industry insider worry about it would save him from running around himself.
Tang Jian checked the Lucky Item Boxes in the leather bag. Once he confirmed that they were indeed the four boxes he had selected, he immediately left the Green Fox Card Exchange.
He was feeling extremely excited.
Though he had spent nearly all his money, he was about to get the Demi-human Beauty Card.
Demi-humans were miraculous new humans created through the genetic technology of Interstellar Humans. They had escaped the cycle of aging, sickness, and death, becoming immortal beings with exceptional constitutions.
Some powerful ones possessed unimaginable superpowers.
For example, resurrection. Or their mental will could release a substance known as "Invisible Black Matter," or IBM, producing effects close to invisibility, intangibility, and immunity to physical damage, though it could still be disrupted by liquids.
Tang Jian knew that the Demi-human Beauty Girl pet card He Xun had once obtained seemed to have the best possible performance. The beauty girl summoned by that card possessed such incredible powers, making it an exceptionally powerful Pet Card.
Imagine it: after summoning a pet, the pet itself was immortal and even possessed superpowers.
As long as the card master could continuously maintain the required energy, the pet would basically be impossible for enemies to kill. There would be no need to repeatedly summon it after its death and consume even more energy.
Such a powerful Pet Card was exceedingly precious.
Tang Jian could not help walking with a much lighter step.
He had originally wanted to sell the thick gold chain he had gotten from Mosquito today as well, but now he only wanted to hurry up and open the Demi-human Beauty Card. Rather than continue wandering the streets, he found a fairly decent hotel and rented a room by the hour.
Opening the cards back in his Jiangbei University dormitory would be far too conspicuous. Tang Jian planned to avoid prying eyes outside and open all the Lucky Item Boxes first.
The hourly room was comfortably and elegantly decorated, with mahogany furniture, soft sofas and carpeting. The windows were open, and the room was not stuffy.
Using the experience from his previous life, Tang Jian inspected the room.
After confirming that the hotel had no illegally installed cameras or other surveillance devices, he shut the doors and windows, locked the door, opened the leather bag, and took out five iron boxes of varying weights but identical sizes.
When he shook the iron boxes, there was not the slightest sound from within, as though they contained nothing at all.
But Tang Jian knew that this was because the iron boxes had all been filled with a foam-like material similar to floral foam. Each card was embedded inside it, so shaking the boxes would reveal no movement whatsoever.
Tang Jian took a deep breath.
His gaze first fell on the Lucky Item Box containing one hundred cards. The purple underwear pattern on the box looked somewhat mature and alluring, forming the symbol "§".
Tang Jian reached out and rubbed the surface of the box, his fingers trembling slightly.
A Lucky Item Box containing one hundred cards had a great chance of producing a Demi-human Beauty Card.
Even when he had been a Three-Star Card Master in his previous life, he had never possessed such a card. How could he not be excited?
Before you continue