"You can rest assured, sir. Our Liu Laosan Spirit Stone Shop has a thirty-year history here in Rongcheng. We guarantee the quality of every Spirit Stone we sell. Every customer who's shopped with us has nothing but praise for our store."
The beautiful sales associate gushed about her store, and Lin Li listened quietly, nodding occasionally in polite acknowledgment.
In truth, while this was Lin Li's first time buying Spirit Stones from a Spirit Stone Shop, he had done his homework. He'd looked up quite a bit of information online about the Liu Laosan Spirit Stone Shop.
His research confirmed that the shop's reputation was excellent, which was why he had decided to buy his Spirit Stones here.
"All right! Fifty thousand it is. I'll take ten Spirit Stones." 'This sales associate is a really smooth talker,' Lin Li thought. 'If I don't cut her off now, she could probably keep going for another ten minutes straight.'
"Ten?" The sales associate, who had been praising her shop to the high heavens, was stunned into silence.
She had assumed a customer so young would buy one or two Spirit Stones at most. She never imagined he would ask for ten right away. This was the biggest sale she'd made in two months.
"Please wait just a moment, sir. I'll draw up the invoice for you right now."
The sales associate was very efficient. She had the invoice ready in no time and led Lin Li toward the checkout counter.
"Ms. Li, could you please ring up this gentleman?" the sales associate said, handing the invoice to a cashier who looked to be in her forties.
"Sir, will you be paying by card or with your phone?" the cashier asked Lin Li after taking the invoice from the sales associate and glancing over it.
"By card, please." Lin Li pulled a bank card from his pocket and handed it to her. The cashier took it, quickly processed the transaction, and then passed the card reader to Lin Li for him to enter his PIN.
'Sigh, half of my entire life's savings... gone just like that.'
After keying his PIN into the card reader, Lin Li pressed the confirmation button. The machine began to print the receipt. As he watched the slip of paper slowly emerge, he couldn't help but feel a pang in his chest.
Just a few days ago, Lin Li had been thinking he could live out the rest of his days in comfort with his one million in savings and the income from his rental property.
But now? Who could have guessed that a single purchase would wipe out half his savings? Life was truly unpredictable.
'My heart aches!!!'
After paying, Lin Li followed the beautiful sales associate back to her counter.
He watched as she produced an exquisite gift box and used a key to unlock the glass display case.
She reached into the case and began placing the Spirit Stones—each the size of a pigeon's egg and perfectly translucent—into the gift box one by one.
Soon, all ten Spirit Stones were nestled in the box. With a dazed expression, Lin Li accepted the gift box she offered. After her enthusiastic farewell, he left the Liu Laosan Spirit Stone Shop.
Once the beautiful sales associate had seen Lin Li off, her colleagues immediately swarmed around her, their eyes green with envy as they congratulated her on landing such a huge sale.
"Five hundred thousand! I never thought I'd see the day I'd spend half a million all at once."
Lin Li muttered to himself as he stepped out of the Spirit Stone Shop, staring at the beautiful gift box in his hands.
He clutched the gift box tightly to his chest and scanned his surroundings. After confirming no one was following him, he hurried to the curb, hailed a taxi, and headed home.
...
CLICK.
THUD.
The door opened and closed. Lin Li took off his shoes in the entryway, slipped on a pair of house slippers, and walked into the living room. He carefully placed the gift box containing the ten Spirit Stones on the coffee table, then leaned back and crashed heavily onto the soft sofa.
"Phew..."
He let out a long breath, feeling himself relax considerably.
Even though Rongcheng's public safety was excellent, spending half a million on such a valuable item for the first time in his life had made him unavoidably anxious, terrified that he might get robbed.
Now that he was home, the anxiety from his trip finally began to subside.
RING RING RING...
He'd barely slept the night before, so he was feeling drowsy. Just as he was about to take a quick nap on the sofa, his phone rang.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and glanced at the screen. The caller ID showed the name of his college classmate, Zhang Dawei.
"Hey..."
"Lin Li, what're you up to?"
"Not much."
"Gaming, I bet?" Lin Li's college friend knew him pretty well. He knew that after graduation, Lin Li had no intention of finding a job and was instead planning to fully embrace the life of a slacker, basically just holing up at home and playing video games.
"Nope, not gaming. I didn't sleep well last night, so I'm about to catch up on some sleep. What's up? If it's nothing important, I'm gonna go. I'm really tired."
Zhang Dawei could hear the exhaustion in Lin Li's voice, so he quickly got to the point. "It's my birthday next week. I'm getting some of our other classmates who stayed in Rongcheng together for a party. You better show up..."
It had been two weeks since graduation. While many of their classmates had left Rongcheng—either returning to their hometowns or moving to other cities to start their careers—some had chosen to stay and find work locally.
Among them was Zhang Dawei, with whom Lin Li had been quite close during their university days.
"Okay. Just send me the time and address on WeChat." Naturally, Lin Li had no reason to refuse Zhang Dawei's invitation.
"Will do. See you next week... and don't stay up all night gaming. It's bad for you," Zhang Dawei reminded his friend before hanging up.
'It's not like I stayed up all night gaming...' Lin Li grumbled to himself, staring at the ended call on his phone.
Afterward, utterly exhausted, Lin Li closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep right there on the sofa.
It was now July. The arrival of midsummer sent the city's temperatures steadily climbing.
The clamor of cicadas would soon become the city's primary soundtrack.
A gentle breeze drifted in through the balcony, caressing the tips of the sleeping Lin Li's hair and brushing against the exquisite gift box of Spirit Stones on the coffee table.
The wheels of fate were slowly beginning to turn. This ordinary young man, who had planned to live an unremarkable life in this parallel world called Blue Star, was about to embark on his journey of cultivation.
...