Flowers ✓

Jingliu opened the forum and posted a question for the users browsing online.

One user replied instantly, sounding especially excited.

[Of course you can give flowers to men! Most men never receive any while they're alive. They only get a bouquet at their funeral!]

[Flowers aren't just for women. We need to reject stereotypes. What's wrong with giving a man flowers? If he likes you, he'll be happy with anything you give him! It's just a bouquet...]

[If he gets flowers and thinks carrying them down the street is embarrassing, you might as well give up on him now! He's just a jerk, not worth all that effort. Here, add me.]

The more Jingliu read, the more sense it made. Almost without thinking, she added the user.

The user's name was AAA Luofu Flower Delivery 24h.

They accepted her friend request instantly and sent over a dozen pictures of flowers, explaining their meanings one by one.

[Starcutter: My budget is 10. How much can I buy?]

For some reason, their tone immediately turned cold, and they sent only a picture of a sunflower.

Jingliu knew nothing about flower prices. She had always considered flowers utterly useless.

After reading the message, she couldn't help marveling inwardly. Dan Feng had been right: a budget of a hundred thousand Strale could only buy a single flower.

She asked the user another question.

[Starcutter: Can 100,000 only buy this one flower? Are there other varieties?]

They sent a row of question marks, then bombarded her with messages.

[How much?! Did I read that right?!]

[100,000?! Do you mean Credits or Strale?!]

[Starcutter: What kind can I buy with 100,000 Strale?]

[￥%#￥%#￥]

[Rich lady, don't be too strict about gender. Give me a chance TAT You don't need to buy me flowers. Just 10,000 and you can take me home...]

[Good heavens, that man had better be more handsome than a Knight of Beauty! What did he do to deserve a rich lady putting this much thought into him?!]

Jingliu: "..."

For once, she felt inclined to chat a little longer with a stranger online.

[Starcutter: In my eyes, he far surpasses a Knight of Beauty.]

There was an old Xianzhou saying: beauty lay in the eye of the beholder.

Jingliu did not consider herself someone who would lose her head and abandon reason over love.

Objectively speaking, Xianyu's face was flawless.

But what had first drawn Jingliu to him was his personality, not his looks.

He instinctively looked after women and children. When something unexpected happened, he could respond calmly and methodically, seemingly without experiencing any negative emotions.

Even when a drunken Baiheng spilled a cup of wine on him, Xianyu merely smiled, took off his wet coat, and draped it over his arm.

"What a waste of good wine. I'll have to wait until next time to drink it."

Once, Baiheng had taken Jingliu in a Starskiff to meet Xianyu for drinks, only to get into an accident.

At the time, Xianyu had yet to witness the destructive power of Baiheng, the "Starskiff killer." He hurried over as soon as he heard, breathed a sigh of relief after making sure neither of them was hurt, then reassured them:

"As long as you're both all right. It's nothing serious. Let's wait until the Sky-Faring Commission gets here."

Then, quite abruptly, Xianyu asked, "What would you like to eat?"

And so Baiheng, who had crashed countless Starskiffs, and Jingliu, who had watched the Sky-Faring Commission handle countless incidents, ate at the scene of an accident for the first time.

With milk tea in one hand and snacks in the other, the two women had Xianyu's company until everything was settled. Only then did he part ways with them.

Baiheng took a dazed sip of milk tea, then exclaimed, "Xianyu is so reliable and thoughtful!"

After crashing Starskiffs repeatedly and ending up on the Sky-Faring Commission's blacklist, the Foxian rarely had anyone spare a thought for her feelings. She was deeply moved.

"Sure, a pilot and the Sword Champion wouldn't be scared of an accident, but Xianyu didn't know that... He put himself in our shoes right away, worried we might be upset, and even found a way to distract us..."

He was like an elder who had lived for thousands of years and weathered countless storms.

That was how Baiheng put it.

When Jingliu later learned that Xianyu was only twenty, she was speechless.

The Sword Champion thought of Jing Yuan, who was always grinning and trading barbs with Yingxing.

They were about the same age, so why were their personalities so different?

Perhaps Xianyu had been through a great deal to become so emotionally steady and attentive.

Looking back now, she really had to be grateful that the Xianzhou allowed members of the long-life species over twenty to marry.

If the Xianzhou forbade members of the long-life species under two hundred from dating, an adult like her would probably end up behind bars.

Jingliu thought this with an expressionless face, then lowered her gaze to her Jade Abacus.

[Rich lady, if you choose a common rose variety, 100,000 Strale is enough to send him a bouquet every day for an entire year TAT]

With the user's explanations, Jingliu gained a rough understanding of flower prices.

After weighing quantity against variety, she chose variety.

[Starcutter: What about uncommon varieties?]

[A bouquet costs around 1,000 Strale QAQ]

Jingliu frowned slightly.

She usually saved wherever she could, and her daily expenses were minimal. As long as she had enough clothes to wear, that was fine. She ate almost all three meals at the Cloud Knights' mess hall.

Part of her monthly Strale payment went toward two troublesome friends.

Baiheng, the pilot with the most fines and the most accidents.

Even Baiheng herself probably had no idea how many Starskiffs she had wrecked. She earned money quickly, but got into accidents even faster. She spent every last coin each month, relying entirely on loans from others to keep her finances afloat and pay her debts.

Yingxing was an artisan who paid out of his own pocket to forge for the Luofu. Any capitalist would have been delighted, and his dedication to toiling late into the night would have brought anyone to tears.

As a member of the short-life species, Yingxing had initially endured plenty of scorn at the Artisanship Commission. Whenever he applied for reimbursement, the staff always dragged their feet and refused to approve the funds.

Overtime pay was even further out of reach.

Before his promotion, Yingxing had never received a single coin in overtime pay. Only afterward did he receive proper compensation.

Sheer passion had kept him going.

After becoming the Master Forger, Yingxing gained access to rarer materials, and there was no stopping him.

He was too proud to ask others for loans, and sometimes he was so broke he could barely afford food.

As for the Artisanship Commission's free cafeteria for artisans... Yingxing, the ultimate workaholic, managed to miss all three meal periods.

Seeing this, his friends from the long-life species were thoroughly alarmed. They feared the Luofu's rising artisan would starve to death on their own turf.

Jing Yuan first ruled out Baiheng, who never had any money left, then privately approached Dan Feng and Jingliu to suggest helping Yingxing.

The deep-pocketed Imbibitor Lunae offered to cover all the expenses and hire eight people to look after Yingxing's daily needs. When Jing Yuan objected, he had to revise his offer to four people.

Jing Yuan said, "The number of people isn't the problem! What? Two? It doesn't matter how many!"

Under Jing Yuan's reasoned insistence, Imbibitor Lunae could only reluctantly abandon the idea of hiring people to look after Yingxing.

As her disciple chattered away beside her, Jingliu realized that the proud Yingxing would never feel comfortable accepting his friends' help. She suggested, "Let's speak to the staff at the Artisanship Commission's cafeteria."

They could at least save him some food, rather than let their friend from the short-life species starve to death.

Dan Feng covered most of the cost, while Jing Yuan and Jingliu contributed a little more, and they handed the money to a cook at the Artisanship Commission. The cook did what they paid him to do and kept his lips firmly sealed, never revealing a thing to Yingxing. Besides saving meals for him, he could occasionally make him something special.

In his spare time, Dan Feng would find all sorts of excuses to treat the other four to meals, improving the diets of the two perpetually broke friends along the way.

Unlike Dan Feng, Jingliu had no interest in fashionable clothes or expensive accessories. Apart from what she spent helping her friends, she saved the rest of her monthly Strale payment from the Luofu. Even by Luofu standards, she was well-off.

She had always thought Dan Feng was overly particular, demanding the finest in everything he ate, wore, and used.

Yet today, looking at the bouquets in all their different colors, she found herself understanding the High Elder a little.

[Starcutter: Are there any more expensive varieties?]

[Most flowers on the market are around this price. If you want something more expensive, rich lady, the only options are the proposal bouquets of 999 or 9,999 roses. You can choose roses in any color, and they cost 10,000 and 100,000 respectively.]

A proposal... Surely it was too early to be thinking about proposing.

Though in Luofu romance novels, the man usually took the lead in moving the relationship forward, and it was usually the man who proposed...

Thoughts swirled through Jingliu's mind. By the time she came back to her senses and glanced down at her Jade Abacus, she had already sent the payment.

Jingliu: "..."