"Which is faster — earning money by selling wine, or just how broke were these guys?"
After dinner, Li Fei cast Cleanse to strip the bloodstains from her haul and sat with her chin propped in her hand, lost in thought.
Once she'd bundled up the staves, gold-smith vouchers, and other spoils and hauled them home, her Wealth had climbed from 273 to 517 — add in last night's reservation fees and her wine commission, and the total came to 528.
This led her to another discovery: the moment an ownerless item passed into her possession, the system awarded her Wealth based on the item's estimated value. Clean and simple.
Unfortunately, the tips guests pressed into the star courtesan's hands didn't count toward Wealth at all. Otherwise, Li Fei would have roped in a good friend to exploit the obvious loophole: you send me a hundred gold coins, I send them back to you, repeat ad infinitum — infinite Wealth, with a side benefit of single-handedly inflating Loxibrook's GDP.
What she truly couldn't wrap her head around, though, was this: how could the combined estate of five Sequence 9 Transcendents be worth less than a single month of her wine commissions?
"First," she reasoned aloud, "they obviously had fixed assets and savings back home — none of that would be on their persons."
"Second, they'd have spent a chunk of their income on knowledge, advancement elixirs, ritual materials, and general living expenses."
"But even so — it's still pathetically little!"
After all that analysis, Li Fei arrived at nothing but a helpless complaint.
Quality equipment was effectively a Transcendent's second life — weapons, staves, mage's robes, armor — no Transcendent with any sense would skimp on arming themselves. Which meant that Transcendents, or at least low-Sequence ones, didn't have it nearly as easy financially as she'd assumed.
In that moment, the star courtesan found herself thinking back to her days working under Ms. Roslyn. Only a month had passed, and yet she'd nearly forgotten what a gold coin was actually worth.
She remembered: before she'd proposed the solicitation-for-commission arrangement, the restaurant's staff earned twenty copper coins a day, meals included but lodging separate. The newly arrived star courtesan — who hadn't even been able to hold a basic conversation at the time — had needed her housing covered too, so her daily wage had been a mere ten copper coins.
"So... most people might not earn even a single gold coin in an entire year," she murmured.
"A Sequence 9 Transcendent's income doesn't fundamentally outstrip that of an ordinary person. Even if they earn ten times as much, that's still only a few gold coins a year. By that math, two hundred-odd gold coins is already a considerable fortune."
"Which means... my current income might actually be on par with some Sequence 8 — or even Sequence 7 — Transcendents? No, more than that — on top of my actual earnings, I'm also accumulating Wealth points separately. So does that make me... rich?"
"Women's money really is the easiest to earn..."
With that heartfelt observation, the star courtesan sank back into contemplation.
The guests she entertained on any given night could drop the cost of a few bottles of wine without blinking — a sum that would already exceed her entire monthly income. It was precisely their casual extravagance that had given Li Fei the mistaken impression that all Transcendents were swimming in gold.
When will I ever be as flush as them?
Having finally grasped the true shape of the wealth gap, Li Fei's eyes took on the particular hollow look of someone who has just checked their bank balance. Her resolve to make money sharpened considerably.
Motivated, she got to work sorting through the loot.
"This staff is garbage. Sell it."
"The chain mail doesn't fit, and it was worn by someone I despise. Sell it."
"This is supposed to be a blade? It's scrap metal. Sell it."
"Oh — this pendant is decent. Keeping it."
"..."
After all the picking and sorting, the only items Li Fei decided to keep were a single pendant and a collection of bottles and vials — an assortment of miscellaneous potions.
[Intelligence Pendant]
Equipment Rating: Firefly
Attributes: +1 Intelligence.
For Li Fei, Intelligence was one of those stats where more was always better — its benefits were simply too significant. Setting aside the improvements to memory and spell potency, even just the increases to her mana cap and regeneration rate were enough to make her heart leap. In fact, the reason she'd been hoarding her Potential Points and Gacha draws rather than spending them recklessly was precisely to pursue higher Intelligence and improve her rate of spell proficiency growth.
As for the potions — city people really did know how to live. Beyond the standard healing potions, antidotes, and sleeping draughts one would expect, there were quite a few... specialty items whose intended uses would only be understood by a certain kind of adult.
Li Fei naturally kept all of them. They might come in handy for interesting purposes down the line.
"Now the question is — where do I fence this stuff?"
She thought about it briefly, then pulled out her phone and sent her best friend a series of fill-in-the-blank questions.
Life's Greatest Joy Is Converting Straight Women: Her lips ___ (fill in the blank)
Warrior of Palpitations: Part
Life's Greatest Joy Is Converting Straight Women: ___ bell deer
Warrior of Palpitations: No
Life's Greatest Joy Is Converting Straight Women: Kagura ___
Warrior of Palpitations: Light
Life's Greatest Joy Is Converting Straight Women: ___ horn demon clan
Warrior of Palpitations: Street
Life's Greatest Joy Is Converting Straight Women:
Ba
___
Beauty
Warrior of Palpitations: Ma
Warrior of Palpitations: Shopping trip this afternoon?
Life's Greatest Joy Is Converting Straight Women: Yes please ヾ(≧▽≦*)o
Warrior of Palpitations: You're skipping class this afternoon?
Life's Greatest Joy Is Converting Straight Women: As if I'd ever skip my wife's class. She finishes at four — I'll be at your place by four-thirty.
Warrior of Palpitations: Fine. I'll wrap up what I'm doing and head over.
Li Fei's smile lingered at the corners of her mouth as she shifted her attention to the System Panel.
[KNOWLEDGE TREE]
1. Nature Affinity:
Introductory Natural Magic (Unlocks "Basic Natural Magic" upon advancing to Sequence 9):
You may learn and use Tier-1 Natural Spells.
2. Chaos Affinity:
Introductory Chaos Magic (Unlocks "Basic Chaos Magic" upon advancing to Sequence 9):
You may learn and use Tier-1 Chaos Spells.
Now at Level 4, Li Fei had 2 Potential Points remaining and 3 Gacha draws banked.
The draws she'd save for now. She'd stockpile them and do a ten-pull all at once — surely that would guarantee something worthwhile.
"So how should I spend the Potential Points..."
She twirled a strand of hair around her fingertip, hesitating.
Nature-affinity magic excelled at summoning, while Chaos magic reigned supreme in raw destructive power. Mastering both schools would let her summon a wall of meat shields to soak damage up front while she hung back in safety and rained spells down from a distance — a tactic she'd mentally mapped out the moment she grasped the true value of Potential Points.
That was precisely why she'd chosen Introductory Chaos Magic yesterday — part impulse, part a desire to pull off something dramatic in the moment, but not an irrational choice by any means.
Now, she desperately wanted to invest in another school of Transcendent knowledge — but she was wary of running her Potential Points dry.
Each of the nine Transcendent knowledge schools comprised one core discipline, two subsidiary disciplines, and one special discipline. Take Nature Affinity as an example: its core discipline was Natural Magic; its two subsidiaries were Meditation and the Cycle Principle; and its special discipline was Summoning Magic. Chaos Affinity, meanwhile, covered Chaos Magic, Meditation, Pyromancy, and Hex Arts.
This meant that for every Sequence she advanced, Li Fei would need to accumulate at least eight Potential Points just to max out both schools. Setting aside the ever-increasing EXP requirements, what worried her even more was a question she had no answer to yet:
Would higher-tier Transcendent knowledge cost more Potential Points per upgrade?
If she had Potential Points to spare, she would gladly invest across all nine schools — enough to strangle a Behemoth barehanded up close or obliterate an angel with a single death-touch from a safe distance. But with her current scarcity, she was going to have to make hard choices.
"The Academy opens in two days. As a specially admitted student, access to resources for advancing to Sequence 9 shouldn't be hard to come by. I'll prioritize the Nature school and hold off on any other Transcendent knowledge until after I've crossed that threshold."
After weighing her options back and forth, Li Fei finally made her decision.
"System — allocate!"
A kaleidoscope of vivid knowledge flooded her mind, illuminating the mysteries and essence of nature, leaving her briefly disoriented.
When she came back to herself, the System Panel had already changed. The tender sapling representing her Nature Affinity knowledge looked noticeably sturdier than before.
[KNOWLEDGE TREE]
1. Nature Affinity:
Introductory Natural Magic (Unlocks "Basic Natural Magic" upon advancing to Sequence 9):
You may learn and use Tier-1 Natural Spells.
Introductory Cycle Principle (Unlocks "Basic Cycle Principle" upon advancing to Sequence 9):
Increases the effectiveness of Nature-affinity spells by 10%.
Introductory Summoning Magic:
Automatically summons one Nature-alignment unit loyal to you each day. (Quantity and tier depend on Summoning Magic level.)
2. Chaos Affinity:
Introductory Chaos Magic (Unlocks "Basic Chaos Magic" upon advancing to Sequence 9):
You may learn and use Tier-1 Chaos Spells.
Potential Points: 0
She'd originally intended to unlock Meditation alongside the Cycle Principle — but Meditation turned out to be locked, requiring her to either seek out the technique herself or purchase a "Meditation Method" from the Shop Panel.
The Academy opened in two days. Only a fool would buy something she could get for free.
With her Potential Points fully spent, Li Fei changed into a light camisole and a pair of shorts, laced her slender feet — wrapped in breathable white cotton socks — into a pair of ankle boots she'd just bought, and made ready to see her dear Mrs. Annie. High Charisma had its perks: she could wear whatever she liked, however she liked, without worrying about looking bad or offending anyone's nostrils.
...
The modest bedroom carried a faint, pleasant scent of wood. On the soft bed sheets, the gentle and composed young widow sat pressed close beside the vivid and bewitching star courtesan.
"Gently, Miss Annie — it hurts~"
Li Fei's wide, glistening eyes and her soft little cry of pain nearly melted Annie Teresa on the spot.
"Bear with it — almost done."
Mrs. Annie soothed her in a quiet, gentle voice.
The star courtesan lay back against her teacher's warm lap, her left arm extended and spread open, soft and boneless as a half-bloomed tulip — delicate and lovely. Annie cradled Li Fei's slender wrist in one hand and held a cotton swab in the other, carefully dabbing ointment along the wound.
For the past few weeks, Mrs. Annie had been maintaining a careful, unspoken distance from Li Fei — she'd even been planning to move their lessons from the bedroom back to the parlor. Naturally, she'd been pretending not to notice the bandages on Li Fei's arm. But yesterday, at the cost of her most precious Morality dropping from -4 to -5, the star courtesan had finally managed to ease open a crack in Mrs. Annie's carefully maintained composure — and since then, the two of them had grown closer than ever.
So this morning, before the lesson could even begin, Mrs. Annie had quietly produced her medicine kit and insisted on dressing the wound herself.
"How did you manage to hurt yourself like this, you careless child," Annie said, her voice soft with concern.
Underestimated the damage output of Dark Night while testing the spell and paid the price for my own carelessness?
The star courtesan, a true artist when it came to the craft of language, applied a light polish to the facts: "Miss Annie always goes to such trouble preparing lovely tea and biscuits for me — I wanted to make you dinner with my own hands as a thank-you. I got a little careless while prepping the ingredients and..."
Li Fei "accidentally" let it slip, then immediately pressed her fingers to her lips — her expression turning sheepish, then a little crestfallen. "I was going to make it a surprise."
"You..."
A gentle warmth bloomed in Annie's chest. For a moment she was speechless. When she finally spoke, her cheeks were faintly pink. "If you like my... baking, I'll prepare more for you going forward. For now, your job is to focus on your studies."
She couldn't bring herself to look at Li Fei. Her gaze locked onto the scratch — barely noticeable unless you were searching for it — and she went on dabbing ointment that had long since been evenly applied, tracing the same small arc over and over.
Li Fei noticed it clearly: the small, warm hand cradling her wrist had tightened, just slightly. The heat of two palms and the faint dampness of Annie's skin seeped through the fabric of the wedding band between them.
She said nothing more. Li Fei lay quietly in Mrs. Annie's arms, tilting her head back to gaze up at that serene, tender face.
Annie's chestnut-gold hair swayed with her movements, brushing across Li Fei's brows and lashes — a soft, ticklish sensation, and beneath it a barely-there fragrance; the pale curve of her neck and the tips of her ears had gone faintly pink, betraying the flutter of her heart; and those sapphire eyes, full of tenderness and something unmistakably maternal, filled Li Fei with a peace and comfort she couldn't quite name.
"A mature, thoughtful older woman really does know how to take care of someone..."
Li Fei let her eyes drift shut, dissolving into the drowsy, unhurried quiet of the afternoon. "Maybe someday, when I've tired of the excitement and I'm ready to settle down — marrying Miss Annie wouldn't be a bad choice at all."
The room held nothing but the steady rhythm of their breathing, and something pure and wordless quietly took root between them.
On the headboard hung a portrait, roughly waist-height — two women in simple white wedding gowns, fingers interlaced. Nestled against Annie's shoulder, the silver-haired bride in the painting bore the softest, most tender expression Li Fei had ever seen on her — and her face was set in its usual sweet, contented smile, as though she were gazing across ten years of warmth and quiet romance; or perhaps gently encouraging the one left behind to release her grief, and open her arms to the next warmth that came her way.
Because in this bed, there was no longer any trace of her left.
...
"Teinei teinei teinei ni egaku to~"
The exhaustion of the day fully shed, Li Fei hummed New Soul Island as she moved about the kitchen.
A glossy red broth rolled and bubbled in the pot, chili peppers and spices rising and sinking in the current, releasing waves of rich, heady fragrance.
With one eye on the clock, she fished out the spent spice bundle in a few quick moves, poured in a carton of unicorn milk she'd borrowed from the Golden Kumquat Tavern, and snapped the lid on with satisfaction. Then she collapsed onto the sofa to wait for her best friend.
The sun inched lower. Li Fei's expression shifted from sunny to cloudy.
She checked her phone. The look in her eyes turned predatory.
You have some nerve, Bai Mengtian!
I pretended not to catch Mrs. Annie's hint about staying for dinner. I spent all afternoon slaving over a hot stove. And you have the audacity to be late!
Knock. Knock.
The door finally sounded. Li Fei's lips twitched upward — then she smoothed her expression into something flat and cool, and pulled it open.
The moment she saw who was standing there, her expression darkened further.
In the doorway stood a young, handsome man with golden hair.
"Kenneth Mettis, calling upon you."
He bowed, offering a flawless aristocratic greeting.
____
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