Prosperous Age Grand View, downstairs from Unit Two of Building Seven.
Today was the day the beast hides were due for inspection. Zhang Yaying had carried all eight hides she had processed last month downstairs, ten minutes ahead of the time agreed upon with her employer.
The eight hides weighed a hundred and thirty or forty jin altogether. Even though Zhang Yaying was used to hard manual labor, carrying them all downstairs in one go had left her drenched in sweat, strands of hair plastered to her forehead.
Old Man Lu sat on a bench nearby, puffing away at his tobacco pipe. At the sight, he could not help speaking up.
"Little Zhang, didn't I tell you last time? Give this old man a shout next time you need to move the hides. Why did you carry them yourself again?"
"Thank you, Elder Lu, but this is my work, after all. How could I trouble you?" Zhang Yaying wiped away her sweat and spoke with considerable respect.
"Then you could have carried them down in batches. Why insist on doing it all at once?"
Zhang Yaying wanted to carry them in batches too, but she did not dare.
Processing one hide earned her only five hundred, but a single hide was worth twenty or thirty thousand!
If she moved them in batches and someone slipped away with one while she was gone, she would have nowhere even to cry.
Even if the chances of that happening were slim, what if it did?
Zhang Yaying did not dare take the risk.
But she did not explain any of this to Old Man Lu. She merely smiled. "Doing it all at once saves trouble, and I'm used to it."
"Ah... having that boy Xu Yuan to deal with, you've had a hard lot in life..."
Old Man Lu sighed and said no more.
Soon, a small white pickup truck drove into the residential complex and stopped in front of Zhang Yaying.
A man and a woman got out. The man wore a gray work uniform with a blue employee badge hanging around his neck.
The woman was about Zhang Yaying's age and wore gold and silver jewelry. One look told you she had money, though not an especially large amount.
The man walked straight toward the hides after getting out, unrolled one, and began examining it carefully.
The woman approached Zhang Yaying all smiles, wearing an expression that said, "I have good news. Hurry up and ask me."
Zhang Yaying obliged, immediately asking with a smile, "What's made you so happy, Sister Wang?"
Sister Wang hurriedly waved a hand. "It's nothing big. My son just earned a little merit in the Divine Guard Army and got promoted to squad leader!"
A squad leader, or leader of ten, was the lowest-ranking officer in the Divine Guard Army, with ten men under his command.
"Don't you have to go out and clear out Weird Beasts to earn merit in the Divine Guard Army? Isn't your son in the City Guard Battalion?" Zhang Yaying asked in surprise.
The City Guard Battalion was the unit with the fewest prospects in the Divine Guard Army, but it was also the safest. Its soldiers did not have to go out to clear out Weird Beasts; their daily duties consisted of training and patrols.
Unless Weird Beasts broke into the city, soldiers in the City Guard Battalion could serve until retirement without any hope of earning merit.
"Now that's something you don't know. You can earn merit in the City Guard Battalion too!"
Sister Wang looked immensely smug. "Take my son. In one year of service, he cultivated from the skin tempering fourth stage to the skin grinding seventh stage. That counts as earning merit too!"
"Now he's not only been promoted to squad leader and become an officer, he's also qualified to cultivate at the Azure Cloud Martial Arts Base for free. He gets seven days there every month!"
As Zhang Yaying listened, her eyes suddenly lit up. "Then if our Yuanzi joins the City Guard Battalion, could he also..."
"Of course not!"
Sister Wang cut her off outright. "My son's a little genius with second-tier talent. How could your Xu Yuan compare?"
Her disdainful tone stopped just short of saying outright that Xu Yuan was unworthy.
Zhang Yaying was deeply embarrassed. "You're right, Sister Wang. I was getting ahead of myself..."
"You certainly are letting your imagination run a little wild. With your Xu Yuan's talent, even if he joins the City Guard Battalion, he'll probably be stuck patrolling for life."
Sister Wang continued, "Still, patrolling isn't bad either. There aren't many prospects, but if he serves until retirement, at least he'll earn enough to get himself a wife."
Zhang Yaying: "..."
I already took a step back. Why are you still chasing me down to hit me?
But she could not refute any of it. She could only force a smile, her eyes dimming.
Her son's divine talent really was not very good.
As for his martial arts talent, her son said it was good, but how good could it possibly be?
As she was thinking this, she heard her son's voice.
"Auntie Wang, you're here? Master Zhao, why are you checking so carefully? Could there possibly be anything wrong with hides my mom processed?"
Zhang Yaying froze, then looked up to see Xu Yuan walking over with both hands in his pockets.
"Easy for you to say when you're not doing the work. I'm responsible for accepting these. If I don't check carefully and something goes wrong later, that's on me!"
Master Zhao curled his lip, then paused after speaking. "Huh? You seem a little different from before, kid."
"More handsome, right?" Xu Yuan grinned.
Master Zhao: "???"
"Yuanzi, how did the assessment go? You didn't take any hard knocks, did you?"
Zhang Yaying hurried over, her face full of concern.
"What hard knocks could an assessment give me?" Xu Yuan did not know whether to laugh or cry.
"As long as you're all right! As long as you're all right!"
Zhang Yaying breathed a sigh of relief. "Then did you ask your teacher whether you could stay at school to teach? Or did you choose to join the Divine Guard Army?"
"Uh, I didn't ask, and I didn't join the Divine Guard Army either."
"Then are you planning to become an instructor at a martial arts hall?"
"I passed the assessment."
"That works too. They're all good options. Whatever you choose, Mom will support you..."
Zhang Yaying was still rambling when her eyes suddenly widened. "You... what did you say?"
"I passed the assessment. Here, my pass for the Azure Cloud Martial Arts Base." Smiling, Xu Yuan handed her the pass.
This was the best proof that he had passed the assessment.
Zhang Yaying took it in a daze and stared at it blankly, motionless, as though struck by an immobilization spell.
Was... was this real?
Her son had passed the assessment?
That couldn't be, could it?
How could someone at the skin tempering second tier pass the assessment?
"This is fake, isn't it?"
Sister Wang spoke up, disbelief written all over her face.
She had just finished showing off her son to Zhang Yaying and belittling Xu Yuan in the process. Now Xu Yuan was saying he had passed the assessment. Didn't that make her a joke?
Refusing to believe it, Sister Wang reached out, took the card from Zhang Yaying, and scrutinized it.
But the longer she looked, the more grave her expression became.
Why did this look so much like a real one?
It was practically identical to her son's!
But that did not make sense.
Her son had failed the assessment back then. How could this boy Xu Yuan have passed?
"Well, Auntie Wang? Does my pass look like the real deal?" Xu Yuan asked cheerfully.
"What real deal? You borrowed this from someone, didn't you?"
Sister Wang still refused to believe it.
"No, Sister Wang. It seems Yuanzi really did pass the assessment."
Zhang Yaying spoke as though murmuring in a dream.
"How is that possible..."
Sister Wang was about to argue further when she saw Zhang Yaying hold out a very old phone.
On the screen, which had a chipped corner, was a list: [Yang City No. 3 High School, 46th graduating class of martial arts students: students who passed the assessment].
Xu Yuan's name stood out plainly on the list. Moreover, he ranked ninth with a high score of 80.2.
Now Sister Wang fell silent.
Zhang Yaying's eyes reddened, and for a moment, she too could not speak.
She felt all the bitterness that had filled her heart just moments ago swept clean away!
She could finally hold her head high!
Still, she did not turn around and show off to Sister Wang. She merely slipped the pass out of Sister Wang's hand without fuss and tucked it into her own pocket.
"Mom will hold on to this for you. I'll make you a card sleeve tonight so you can put it on display."
"Aren't I already putting it on display?" Xu Yuan chuckled.
"Huh?" Zhang Yaying looked completely bewildered.
His mother did not get his joke, but Xu Yuan did not mind. He turned to Sister Wang. "Auntie Wang, your company's main product is leather armor made from Weird Beast hides, right?"
"Huh? Y-yes. Why?" Sister Wang seemed to have been left dazed by his showing off and had yet to quite recover.
"If I wanted a few dozen sets of first-tier leather armor in one order, how much of a discount could you give me?"
He had thought of those classmates who had panicked at the mere mention of hunting Weird Beasts.
If he pitched leather armor to them now, there ought to be a good market for it.
If he could get a substantial discount through Sister Wang, he might be able to make some money off the deal.
"A few dozen?" Startled, Sister Wang instantly came to her senses. "Are you serious?"
A set of first-tier leather armor cost around forty thousand. A few dozen sets meant a deal worth one or two million!
That was big business!
"First tell me how much of a discount you can offer."
"Well, that's hard to say. I'm not in sales. I'd have to go back and ask."
As she spoke, Sister Wang looked a little suspicious. "Do you really want that many? You're not joking, are you?"
"That's hard to say on my end too. It depends on how much of a discount you can offer, Auntie Wang."
Only a large enough discount would let him make money.
For instance, if Sister Wang gave him twenty percent off and he gave his classmates ten percent off, the ten-percent difference would be his.
If she could only give him ten percent off or even less, there would be no business to do.
After all, if he wanted all his classmates to buy through him, he had to offer a sufficiently discounted price. Otherwise, why should they give him their business?
"All right, I'll ask when I get back!" Sister Wang said.
By then, Master Zhao had finished inspecting all eight hides. After he confirmed that everything was fine, Sister Wang paid Zhang Yaying.
Master Zhao then carried several more rolled-up hides down from the truck. They carried a faint bloody smell and were clearly unprocessed.
"We won't need those. My mom won't be taking this work anymore," Xu Yuan said.
"Huh?" Master Zhao paused and looked at Zhang Yaying.
"I am! I am!"
Zhang Yaying spoke hurriedly, then turned to Xu Yuan. "Mom's still young. I can't just sit at home eating for free. Besides, they've already brought them over. Wouldn't refusing them cause trouble for them?"
"All right, then. Take one more batch this month, but no more starting next month."
Xu Yuan looked at Sister Wang and said in a tone that left no room for discussion, "Just come to inspect them next month. Don't bring any new hides over."
Somewhat helpless, Zhang Yaying could only give Sister Wang an apologetic smile.
Sister Wang said nothing either. There was no shortage of people willing to do this work. If Zhang Yaying stopped, she could simply find someone else to replace her.
But when she looked at Zhang Yaying again, a little sourness welled up inside her.
The son she took such pride in really did seem to have been outdone by Xu Yuan.
It was not just the assessment. Even his words and bearing seemed inferior to this boy's.
Thinking back on everything she had said earlier, Sister Wang was so embarrassed that her toes curled furiously.
What a slap in the face!