As soon as his eyes opened, Lin Fang found his head in Li Liu's lap, lying in the backseat of a vehicle.
Zhi Yan was in the driver's seat with her eyes glued to the road. Li Liu stiffened the moment he stirred. "What the…" Lin Fang muttered in his hoarse voice. "Where are we?"
The car swerved slightly as Zhi Yan gasped, hitting the brakes slightly to slow down the car.
She turned around halfway, her face lit up with relief. "You're awake. Thank heavens… oh my god, I was starting to think…."
"Wait, wait," Lin Fang raised his hand groggily, slowly getting up. "What's going on? Why am I… in your car?"
Li Liu also let out a relieved sigh and leaned back. Casting a side-long glance, she said. "Long story short… We came to check on you to talk about something. You didn't answer when we knocked. Eventually, we opened the door… and found you unconscious, lying on the bed like you had just dropped dead. You didn't even respond to calls, water, or even slaps."
Lin Fang blinked. "I… what?"
Zhi Yan added. "We thought it was something that happened in the Spirit Valley in the morning, and you might have been affected by that evil spirit. So… we're taking you to the hospital."
"Wait… what? I'm fine," Lin Fang sat up straighter, adjusting the seatbelt. "I seriously am. I think I just… slept really deeply."
"One doesn't sleep that deeply, Lin Fang," Zhi Yan said firmly with her hands back on the steering wheel. "Anyway, sit tight. We are just a few minutes away."
Lin Fang opened his mouth to protest again, but then, from the edge of his vision, he noticed a glowing bar at the top-right of his system interface, still dormant in standby mode.
He frowned and thought, Open Notifications.
At once, the translucent interface slid into view.
Ding!
[First Training session completed.]
[+5% Cold Resistance (Passive)]
[New Passive Skill: Adaptation]
"Uhhh… what?"
His eyes widened as a new screen popped up.
New Side Quest Unlocked!
[Defeat the Guardian of Snow Villa Mountain: Frost Bear King
Reward: Snow Villa Mountain, Frost Bear Egg Token (Epic Grade), Twin Daggers of Xuanwu]
"Sh*t…" Lin Fang exhaled, barely above a whisper.
"Huh?" Li Liu turned to him. She blinked twice. "What happened?"
Zhi Yan also glanced at him through the rearview mirror.
"Nothing, nothing," Lin Fang quickly forced a smile, brushing it off. "I just… remembered something stupid from the dream." After a brief pause, he added. "By the way, you smell nice, is that Whisper Rain?"
"Eh?" Li Liu blinked in surprise while a faint blush crept to her cheeks. "Yeah, how do you know that? You use it too?"
Lin Fang rubbed his neck, realizing that he shouldn't have said that, but in the end, he replied. "No, it's just my ex used to wear. She was a bit particular about brands."
Li Liu was taken aback once again by his answer. "Your ex? Who was she anyway? First, the ice cream and now perfume, she seems to have the same taste as me."
Lin Fang shouted in his head. "Of course, she will have the same taste as you. It's because it is you." But then, taking a deep breath, he only smiled. "She is also a monster trainer like you too but not a high rank one."
"Oh?" Li Liu had a glint in her eyes, suddenly becoming curious about this ex-girlfriend of his. "What other things did she have in common with me?"
Lin Fang didn't need to read too much into her words to understand her playfulness. He was familiar with her, after all. He immediately took the opportunity to flirt, subtly. "Well, she has beautiful eyes, for one. Then, she has delicate fingers. But I should say her smile is the most beautiful thing." The actual Li Liu was sitting beside him, but as he described Li Liu from his past, he couldn't help but remember a few memories, and the images of Li Liu appeared in his head. "No matter how many financial struggles I had, how much stress I used to have, just watching her smile would have brought me relief." His smile turned sad as the memory of the breakup played in his head.
Beside him, Li Liu's facial expression also changed from blushing at the praise to conflict. "What happened to her? Why did you break up, if you don't mind?"
Lin Fang leaned back into the seat, releasing a slow breath as he closed the notification panel. "Well, I was only 20 then and not mature enough. I messed up after learning that she was Bisexual. By the time I got my senses, it was too late. She left abroad."
"Eh? Bi?" Li Liu's face froze like a statue. For a few seconds, she didn't even say anything. Meanwhile, Zhi Yan narrowed her eyes, but she too kept silent and continued to drive.
And then, eventually, the silence was broken by Li Liu as she quietly asked. "Do you still love her?"
Lin Fang shook his head with a smile. "It's been 4 years. Of course, I don't have feelings for her. But I decided on one thing back then. In the future, if I ever meet a girl that I truly like, and if she turns out to be the same, I won't make the same mistake."
Li Liu stared at him as her mind raced with several thoughts. Lin Fang glanced at her, thinking, "Good. The message was sent. Now, in the future, at the very least, she can't use that as a reason to reject me."
As the city blocks passed by in a blur, Lin Fang checked that his monster summons were automatically resting in the pet inventory. Once he confirmed it, he exhaled quietly and leaned back.
Meanwhile, at Xiao Family Estate;
Jiang Feng's grip on his chopsticks tightened until a faint crack echoed out; one of them had snapped in half. His face twisted for a fleeting moment. "Tenant…?" he muttered. "I thought he was just a friend. Now, they live together under the same roof?"
Xiao Yun, his mother and the master of the villa, glanced at him from across the table with a frown. "Jiang Fei, what's with that expression? You've known Zhi Yan since you were children. Stop overreacting."
Jiang Fei didn't respond. He stared down at his plate, but he wasn't seeing food.
"Does he truly have that much potential that Master Li Chengfeng is interested in taking him in as a disciple? Mother, is he an innate soul?" he finally asked.
Madam Xiao tilted her head. "That's what Li Chengfeng suspects. The fact that one of the three Spirit Valley Kings is bonded to him indeed confirms it…" She trailed off as her voice turned uncertain. "However, the problem is that it is not a simple spirit king. It was an evil Spirit King."
Jiang Fei shot to his feet at once. His chair scraped harshly against the floor. "I'll handle it."
Madam Xiao's brows lifted. "Handle what exactly?"
Jiang Fei said calmly. "You know, talk face to face. If he's a threat… We'll nip it in the bud before it grows into a full tree."
His mother narrowed her eyes at him at that comment. "This isn't a competition over Zhi Yan, Feng'er. If he truly bonded with that spirit and he is in control and not the evil spirit, then you should do everything to bring him to our side, not go and suppress him."
He looked at her with an ugly expression, definitely not liking that suggestion. "Bring him to our side? That's not some divine spirit, Mother. That's an evil spirit king. How many hunters and tamers have managed to retain sanity after bonding with a spirit king? You can count them on your hand."
Madam Xiao Yun frowned as she stabbed the table with the chopsticks, "Feng'er, I warn you. Don't cause a situation that will force me to ground you. Unless Lin Fang is proven to be either a criminal or a member of a dark guild, you cannot hurt him. Just because one has the potential to be evil doesn't make them evil."
Jiang Feng pushed away the bowl and put away the chopsticks, not intending to finish the rest of the meal. "Don't worry, mother. I will not bring any trouble to the Xiao Family. You can be assured of that."
And with that, he walked off with his eyes gleaming with wounded pride. "Lin Fang…"
Later that evening, at a hotel in Hangzhou City, Southern Wu;
Steam clung to the bathroom mirror as Shang Wei stepped out in a fresh bathrobe, toweling his damp hair. His room was quiet, save for the faint hum of city noise beyond the glass.
On the bed, a baby luminous panda dozed, curled up like a ball of fluff.
As Shang Wei passed by, the panda stirred, opened its eyes, and clumsily climbed down the blanket. It stood on its hind legs and lifted its arms in a sleepy gesture like a child.
Shang Wei couldn't help but chuckle at its adorableness. "Pandas are supposed to be solitary, but I got a clingy one."
Scooping it up with practiced ease, he walked over to the desk and flipped open his laptop. With the baby panda curled in his lap, he navigated to NovaMart, opening his bookmarks.
There were a few seller names, but only one with no verification badge. It's Fang Fang Pets. He clicked on it.
The baby panda curled itself on his lap, continuing its nap. Meanwhile, he was focused on the screen. "Let's see how many Pandas you put up for sale, Mister."
In fact, Shang Wei was the sole buyer of Lin Fang's items, monopolizing the purchases.
During the past week, he was the one who bought the Panda eggs for 15k credits and sold them at a much higher price. Even when they were put at 25k credits, he still purchased all four of them and sold them for double the price to his acquaintances, a couple of them at Peking City and the other two in Hangzhou City, while on his business trip. And now, he is ready to purchase again.
But to his surprise, there was only one Luminous Panda, Blazing Panda, Terran Panda, and Electra Panda being put for sale, just as before.
However, they weren't the only ones.
Apart from those four, there are two more types of Panda eggs in the list. Hydro Pandas and Shadow Pandas.
"Uhh… Seriously? Six types of Panda Eggs? What kind of experimental breeding center did this owner have? Moreover, the prices are once again raised, this time directly to 40,000 credits. Ugh… I guess he might have caught up to my actions. But I won't make much money out of these. Hmm… what to do…"
As he clicked on the items one after another, the details were displayed on the computer screen.
"Hmm… all of them have the same potential, just their elements are different. Well, I made like 300,000 in profits just by reselling them so far, but if I buy them at 40k each, I can only gain like 5k on one, it doesn't seem that viable for reselling anymore… Hmm… wait a second…"
A sudden thought came to his head, and his eyes lit up. "Before, I only thought of reselling them, separately to different clients, but there are six types of pandas here. I can market it as a Panda Tamer, selling all to one client, for a higher price, like a package. Before that, I need to somehow find a way to contact this seller. He definitely has a breeding facility or atleast knows someone with one."