My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 51
by Little PandaAn On-Site Inspection
Ren Chenxi frowned, holding the pouch and carefully examining its every stitch—stitches she knew so well. Ah! But there was one part she didn’t recognize: a crookedly mended spot at the bottom, patched with yellow thread. Such terrible needlework could never have been done by someone like her, with maxed-out handicraft skills!
Who stitched this so haphazardly! They’ve ruined the whole aesthetic of my pouch!
Just as Ren Chenxi was frowning and inspecting every inch of the velvet pouch, Tang Ying and Lu Ping happened to drop by. The moment Lu Ping saw the pouch in Ren Chenxi’s hand, she asked in surprise, “Huh? Isn’t that Mu-xuejie’s candy pouch?”
“Her candy pouch?” Ren Chenxi raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, it’s Mu-xuejie’s!” Lu Ping answered with certainty. “Mu-xuejie bought it from another girl!”
“…” Heh. The chocolates I gave her, and she had to buy the pouch back from someone else? Is Mu Ning nuts? She gave the pouch away and then spent money to buy it back? Is she flexing her wealth?
Ren Chenxi had already guessed the pouch’s bumpy history, but Tang Ying didn’t know. She grabbed Lu Ping and pressed for details. “What happened? What happened? Why would Mu-xuejie need to buy a candy pouch from someone else?”
“It was back before the apocalypse, when school started. Ren-xuezhang wasn’t back at school yet, right? One day, Mu-xuejie saw a girl holding that pouch, using it as a coin purse. She chased after her and bought it for a high price!”
“Eh? It’s just an ordinary coin purse. Why would Mu-xuejie pay a high price for it?”
“I heard the other girls talking about it. Apparently, the pouch was originally a gift from Ren-xuezhang to Mu-xuejie. But she was in a bad mood that day and just gave it away. Then she probably regretted it, right? So she bought the candy pouch back.”
“Ooh! So it was a candy pouch from Ren-xuezhang! And Mu-xuejie bought it back for a high price… then why is the pouch with Xi-jie now?!” Tang Ying stared at Ren Chenxi, her eyes shining with the light of excitement and gossip.
“…” What do you mean, candy pouch? This mother gave her a whole bag of chocolates! Filled chocolates I made with my own two hands, in all sorts of flavors! It was only because I accidentally made too many that I made such a big velvet pouch for them!
Seriously, the pouch I used to hold chocolates has now become a crystal core pouch!
Expressionless, Ren Chenxi opened the velvet pouch, showing the 4th-order crystal cores inside to Tang Ying and Lu Ping. “Mu Ning was just giving me the deposit for the generator.” The pouch was filled with 4th-order crystal cores, each about the size of a piece of candy. There had to be fifty of them, right? In any case, a filthy rich woman like Mu Ning wouldn’t embezzle one or two cores from her… Wait! This pouch was supposed to contain the deposit for the generator from the base! When Qi Sheng gave Mu Ning the deposit, were the cores loose? Did Mu Ning have to find her own bag to put them in?
Just as Ren Chenxi was puzzling over this, Chen Gu came running up the stairs, panting. “Xi… Xi-jie, Qi Sheng is here in person. He said he wants to take a look at the Crystal Core Generator…”
Before Chen Gu could finish, Ren Chenxi cut him off. “Who exactly gave me the deposit in this pouch?”
“Ah… It… it was Qi Sheng…”
“Qi Sheng hasn’t given a deposit yet, has he? He wanted to come see what the generator looks like and then pay in full, right?” Ren Chenxi’s tone was completely certain.
“…” Chen Gu froze at Ren Chenxi’s sudden questioning. Then, flustered, he scratched the back of his head and stammered an explanation. “Ah, no, the deposit was from Qi Sheng… He… he… he…” He stammered on for a while before giving up and admitting it outright. “Alright, fine. The truth is, Boss fronted the deposit with her own crystal cores…”
Although Qi Sheng and their Boss had a decent relationship, and Qi Sheng held her in high regard, it was impossible to say he trusted her completely. Human nature was exceedingly complex. Even before the apocalypse, there were plenty of vile people who would smile to your face and stab you in the back, let alone now. Besides, for Qi Sheng to have built Nanhai Base with his own strength, his ability and intellect would never allow him to give his trust away so easily.
The base was in dire need of electricity. They had collected nearly every solar panel in the base and had even spent a fortune posting missions for espers to gather more from other cities. But that didn’t mean Qi Sheng would, on Mu Ning’s account, trust a Crystal Core Generator he had never even seen—much less prepay 50,000 1st-order crystal cores for it.
Even if… even if Qi Sheng was willing to risk prepaying the 50,000 cores for a 5th-order esper like Mu Ning in order to recruit talent, that didn’t mean Mu Ning had to accept that favor. If she truly accepted this kind of favor1 from Qi Sheng, she might find her feet tied by the obligation if she ever wanted to leave Nanhai Base in the future.
To avoid getting tangled in such troublesome favors, Mu Ning had simply fronted the 50,000 1st-order crystal cores herself. She didn’t understand why Ren Chenxi insisted on a deposit before providing the generator, but it didn’t matter. She had the cores, and besides… she found it truly difficult to refuse Ren Chenxi’s requests.
Since she was fronting the deposit, Mu Ning didn’t want to make another trip to Qi Sheng. She just had Zhang Tongqi deliver the deposit to Ren Chenxi and sent Chen Gu to tell Qi Sheng that a more cost-effective Crystal Core Generator was for sale, asking if he was interested.
Chen Gu was certain Qi Sheng would buy it. What he hadn’t expected was for Qi Sheng to be so impatient. The moment he heard about the generator’s low crystal core consumption, he had rushed over to see the miraculous device with his own eyes.
Well, since Qi Sheng himself had come, there was no need for Chen Gu to hide who had paid the deposit. After all, once Ren Chenxi and Qi Sheng met in a few moments, what needed to be known would be known, right? He might as well confess now to save himself from contradicting Qi Sheng later and making the situation even more awkward.
After hearing Chen Gu’s confession, Ren Chenxi hefted the “candy pouch” in her hand and managed to squeeze out a smile. “Where is Qi Sheng now? I’ll bring the generator over to meet him. He doesn’t know I’m a spatial esper yet.”
“Oh! I get it, I get it. Qi Sheng is in our guys’ building right now. Xi-jie, I’ll help you carry the generator over.”
“Okay, thanks for the trouble.” As she spoke, Ren Chenxi discreetly converted all the crystal cores in the pouch into crystal stones, then quickly entered the Apocalypse Mall and bought a Crystal Core Generator.
The purchased generator was automatically stored in her inventory, in the nearest empty slot. All Ren Chenxi had to do was take it out again.
A brand-new, small, and exquisitely crafted “generator” suddenly appeared on the floor in front of him. Chen Gu stared at it, then looked at Ren Chenxi with a skeptical expression. “Xi-jie, are you sure this is a Crystal Core Generator? Did… did you grab the wrong one?” This thing was less than half the size of their modified lightning generators!
“I didn’t grab the wrong one. This is it. Let’s go. You’ll see for yourself in a minute,” Ren Chenxi said, heading downstairs first.
Resigned, Chen Gu picked up the generator and followed her. As they passed the second floor, Mu Ning opened her door and came out. She glanced at Chen Gu, who was desperately trying to signal her with his eyes, then said calmly to Ren Chenxi, “I’ll go with you to see Qi Sheng.”
“…” Seeing the candy pouch she had once so attentively made for someone else was still a little awkward for Ren Chenxi. But since she was about to earn 50,000 crystal stones, she didn’t expose the fact that Mu Ning had fronted the 50,000 1st-order crystal cores. At the very least, without the 50,000 cores she’d paid, Ren Chenxi wouldn’t have been able to produce this generator.
Ren Chenxi had assumed that Qi Sheng, being a 5th-order esper like Mu Ning and a dual-system strength and speed esper at that, would be a towering, robust man. Instead, he was a slender man with glasses who looked as gentle and refined as a university professor.
The moment he saw Ren Chenxi, Qi Sheng was momentarily stunned, but he quickly broke into a smile and offered some pleasantries. “Ah, so this young lady must be the esper you brought back to the base today, Mu Ning? Welcome, welcome! Please, make our base your home. If you don’t mind, you can just call me Sheng-ge.2 If you have any problems in the future, just come find me~”
They were just pleasantries, of course, and Ren Chenxi knew how to play along. She replied with extra sincerity, “Sheng-ge, I’m Ren Chenxi. You must be the leader of Nanhai Base? Your bearing is truly extraordinary! I heard from Mu Ning that Sheng-ge is also a 5th-order esper. With a powerhouse like you as the base leader, I’m so lucky to have found such a safe and secure base~”
“Aiya~ Not at all, not at all. Nanhai Base is my life’s work, built through the blood, sweat, and tears of my brothers and me. Naturally, we have to do our best to make it better and safer!” Although he knew Ren Chenxi was just flattering him, what man doesn’t like to hear good things about himself? Especially from a beautiful woman like Ren Chenxi. The warmth on Qi Sheng’s face immediately became a few degrees more genuine, and he smiled as he extended his hands for a handshake.
“Qi Sheng, didn’t you come to see the generator? If you don’t want it, I’ll take it.”
Out of nowhere, Mu Ning’s sudden statement cut off the two’s smiling exchange of pleasantries.
“Ah! Right! The Crystal Core Generator!” Mu Ning’s icy interruption instantly reminded Qi Sheng of his purpose for coming. He turned anxiously to Ren Chenxi. “Sister Xi, where’s that Crystal Core Generator you mentioned? Can I take a look at it first? Don’t blame your big bro for being fussy, but I’ve only ever heard that the biggest survivor base in A City was researching these things. The results were never made public. But you, Sister, just happen to have a ready-made one on hand, so I…”
“I understand completely, Sheng-ge~” Ren Chenxi said, smiling as she cut off his explanation. Of course she understood his suspicion. But it also proved that there was no way she could have easily tricked—no, gotten—half the deposit from a base leader who had to personally come and inspect the goods. Luckily, a sucker had solved all these problems for her ahead of time.
She snuck a glance at the expressionless Mu Ning, then pointed to the generator still in Chen Gu’s arms. “Sheng-ge, this is the Crystal Core Generator. See? You open this lid, put the crystal cores inside, and the machine will start generating electricity. The power output works the same as any other generator. Oh, right, we can grab a mobile power supply to test the output…”
Ren Chenxi was about to ask Chen Gu to grab one of the two power supplies they used, but Qi Sheng just smiled and waved his hand. He then pulled a small mobile power supply from his own pocket. “This one has a capacity of exactly ten thousand milliampere-hours. The battery is completely dead. It’s perfect for a test~”
“…” This guy really is meticulous and hard to fool!
The author has something to say:
Wooden-head: I’m the one who mended the pouch. Do you see how carefully I’ve cherished it?
Xixi: It’s so ugly…
Wooden-head: …
I saw a cute reader asking about earplugs! As someone with experience, this author recommends the Ohropax green mini version!!! The women’s size S is just right for me! Any larger and my ear canals feel uncomfortably stretched. Of course, the soundproofing on the smaller size isn’t as good as the large ones, but for me, it’s good enough to make do.
Footnotes
- ‘Rénqíng’ (人情) is a Chinese cultural concept of social obligation and reciprocal favors. Accepting a major favor puts one in debt to the giver, which can be used as leverage later.
- ‘-ge’ (哥, older brother) and ‘-meizi’ (妹子, younger sister) are common suffixes used to show friendly familiarity between peers, not necessarily indicating a real family relationship.
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