Chapter 18: Make Money, Make Money, Make Money

Wearing a hair-drying cap, Yao Beibei had just stepped out of the bathroom when she saw Ding Ling still standing inside the large vat on the balcony.

It had startled her the first time she saw it, and looking again now gave her a second shock.

Was Ding Ling performing some sort of mysterious South Polar Continent ritual?

She sat down at her desk, tilting her head to towel-dry her hair while secretly observing Ding Ling in the mirror.

Ding Ling had both feet planted in the soil, her face turned toward the moon and her eyes shut tight. Her chest rose and fell evenly. She looked just like a spirit or immortal from a historical drama absorbing spiritual energy, appearing more enigmatic by the second.

Yao Beibei could not help letting her mind wander. People said that unlike the folk of the Central Continent, who had preserved more of human civilization’s advancements, those from the Four Polar Continents lived in far harsher conditions and thus retained more primitive human customs.

At least, that was what her history textbook seemed to say. She only remembered the general idea.

Had Ding Ling suddenly grown back her eyebrows and hair because of this bizarre ritual? Could burying your feet in soil make you fairer, too?

At the thought of getting fairer skin, Yao Beibei felt tempted to give it a try.

She was fair, but hers was a warm fair tone. It was nothing like Ding Ling’s. When Ding Ling first arrived at the summer camp, she had cool porcelain-white skin; even her knuckles and joints were pale, without a hint of uneven pigmentation.

Too bad she had ended up charred to a crisp afterward. Who knew if her skin could ever recover to that state?

Sensing Yao Beibei watching her, Ding Ling did not turn around. With eyes closed, she asked, “Do you want to try?”

“Can it make my skin whiter?” Yao Beibei asked, full of hope.

Ding Ling considered it for a moment. “No.”

If the goal was simply whitening the skin, it had no such effect. But taking in more spiritual energy would naturally expel bodily impurities and foul waste, cleansing the internal organs and strengthening bones and nerves.

“Forget it then,” Yao Beibei declined. If it could not make her skin fairer, she had no desire to stand pointlessly in the dirt. The girls from Class D next door were already laughing at them.

When the girls next door walked past their doorway and saw Ding Ling standing inside the large vat on the balcony, their expressions clearly said “she really has gone crazy.” They even cast a pitying look at Yao Beibei; sharing a dorm room with a lunatic was just too miserable.

Yao Beibei sneered right back at the girl. “A four-person room must be pretty cramped, huh? Waiting for the bathroom and shower must be a real pain, right?” With that, she slammed the door shut with a loud bang.

She had heard the argument in the dorm next door earlier. Hmph!

Smoothing a whitening sheet mask onto her face in front of the mirror, Yao Beibei moved her lips as little as possible. “Who actually gave you those extra spirit stones? Does even Director Chen not know?”

The students who went to the supermarket after gym class had all seen the extra spirit stones on Ding Ling’s campus card. School had only been in session for one day, so everyone only had the initial spirit stones issued by the academy.

Even those who earned the most bonus points could not possibly make ten spirit stones in a single day, yet Ding Ling had five hundred on her card! Where did the extras come from?

The young teacher at the campus card service center had checked the records and shaken her head. “It’s way too many, and they were all transferred at the exact same time…”

“Could you…”

The middle-aged male teacher behind her took a sip of tea. These students always found ways to stir up trouble over nothing. “What, want us to print out a statement for you? Do you think this place is a bank?”

Rebuffed by the teacher, Yao Beibei suddenly had a flash of inspiration. “I know!”

Dragging Ding Ling back to Class F, she marched straight up to Zhang Tianyu’s desk the moment they entered. “Zhang Tianyu!”

Zhang Tianyu held a calculator in one hand and a small ledger in the other. His business of buying and selling spirit stones had blossomed in just one day, expanding all the way from the first-years to the third-years.

In this kind of trade, you had to be quick on your feet. The sooner you made your move, the more resources you could gather to sell. By the time others caught on, most of the available supply would already be bought up, leaving them helpless even if they wanted to get in on it.

That would leave him holding the entire monopoly.

“What’s up? Burned through all fifty that fast?”

Yao Beibei had gotten to know Zhang Tianyu well enough to know that despite his fierce look, he was actually a decent person. Back when Ding Ling was lying in the infirmary, Zhang Tianyu had even asked her to deliver food to Ding Ling once.

“Who was the one who transferred those spirit stones to Ding Ling’s card?”

Zhang Tianyu crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “That’s confidential client information. I can’t disclose it.” He had taken Ye Yibai’s hush money, so he could not breathe a word about this.

No matter how Yao Beibei probed, Zhang Tianyu refused to talk. Instead, he beamed at Ding Ling and asked, “Big spender~ Sister Ling, how about it? Want to sell some spirit stones?”

When dealing with clients, Zhang Tianyu was more than happy to respectfully call her “Sister.” If Ding Ling was willing to sell, that would be getting three meals out of one fish^[1], and he would make a massive profit!

“One to one point three, how’s that sound?”

Ding Ling turned and walked away.

“Hey! Sister Ling! One to one point four, I can’t go any higher or I’ll take a loss.” Zhang Tianyu hurried after Ding Ling, trying to talk her into selling some spirit stones.

Wasn’t she dirt poor?

When Ye Yibai had come looking for Zhang Tianyu, Zhang Tianyu had looked him up and down.

Ye Yibai had worn an arrogant expression. “I hear you sell spirit stones.”

“Sure do. One to three.” Zhang Tianyu was not usually this extortionate; he simply disliked Ye Yibai. Fifty spirit stones probably were not enough for the young master to blow through anyway, gone after treating his friends to a single meal.

Dislike aside, developing a long-term client was never a bad idea.

“Deal.” Ye Yibai had not bargained, nor did he care that Zhang Tianyu was ripping him off. “How many do you have?”

“How many do you want?” It was only the first day, so Zhang Tianyu had not stockpiled all that many yet.

“However many you have right now, I’ll take them all.”

Zhang Tianyu had done the math in his head. He could not sell off his entire stock; even for a major client, he could not dump everything in one go. So he said, “Around four hundred or so. Want them?”

Ye Yibai took the whole lot, buying them at a rate of one to three, and transferred every single one to Ding Ling.

Zhang Tianyu looked at Ye Yibai in a new light. He had assumed Young Master Ye bought the spirit stones just to squander them, never expecting they were all meant for Ding Ling.

What was this? Feeling guilty toward Ding Ling?

Zhang Tianyu immediately sensed something was off. The school’s official announcement claimed that the spell formation in the cave had exploded, but how was it that one person walked away completely unharmed while the other had her spiritual root completely destroyed?

Looking at it this way, Ye Yibai definitely owed Ding Ling.

Ding Ling’s spiritual root was ruined, and who knew if her arm would ever fully heal. What did a tiny bit of compensation like this even count for?

Still, business was business. Zhang Tianyu promised, “Don’t worry, my lips are sealed.”

And his lips truly were sealed. No matter how Yao Beibei asked, he never revealed who had given Ding Ling the spirit stones.

Ding Ling did not ask. She turned and headed for the dean’s office. Before she could state why she had come, Chen Dahai said, “Just in time. I was just about to head to your classroom to look for you.”

“Regarding earlier…” Chen Dahai still found it difficult to bring up. He cleared his throat. “The compensation from the Ye family has arrived.”

It was a substantial sum, after all. It was enough to buy a small two-bedroom apartment in Nancheng, and if used to buy a house in North City, it could get something even larger.

Chen Dahai had racked his brains over how to handle this money.

If he transferred it to Ding Ling’s grandfather, it was hard to say whether the old man could keep it safe. It might very well end up entirely in the pockets of Ding Ling’s uncle and aunt, especially since Ding Ling had a cousin who was a year younger than her.

“I checked into it, and you’ll turn sixteen in another month.” Under the laws of the Central Continent, sixteen was considered adulthood, meaning Ding Ling could manage the money herself.

Chen Dahai was a middle-aged man in his forties. In his view, this money was meant to secure Ding Ling’s future.

And to secure her future, buying a home was the first step; with a home, she would take root in the Central Continent.

“This is a large amount of money. Even though you’re nearly of age, I still hope you’ll plan properly. If you trust me, I have a few suggestions…” Chen Dahai was actually a very stern dean of students. His gentle demeanor toward Ding Ling was partly because he was the one who had recruited her.

He could not forget the look in Ding Ling’s eyes when she learned she could come study in the Central Continent and change her fate.

The other reason was that he pitied the child. A door had opened for her, only to close again.

“I don’t want it,” Ding Ling said flatly.

The flame that had long lain dormant in her chest suddenly flared up, resentment searing across her heart once more until even her spiritual manor felt scorching hot.

“What?” Chen Dahai froze.

“I don’t want this money.” Ding Ling’s tone remained completely unchanged. Her voice was as calm as her expression, as if she were discussing something that had nothing to do with her.

Chen Dahai frowned. “You child, you…” She still did not understand what this money meant for her.

“You’re still young.” Chen Dahai let out a long sigh. “I understand what you’re thinking, but you have to consider your future. Didn’t you say you wanted to bring your grandfather out of the mountains to live in the Central Continent? And get treatment for his legs?”

As Chen Dahai said this, the flickering flames in Ding Ling’s chest paused for a moment.

“She” hesitated.

“With this money, you can fulfill your wish and bring your grandfather over.” Chen Dahai had already thought it through. When winter break came, he would accompany her on a trip to Nanzhou.

Once the child was settled, he could feel that his conscience was clear.

Is this your wish?

Ding Ling asked “her” in her mind.

The flame stirred ever so slightly.

All “her” wish amounted to was leaving Nanzhou, getting away from her uncle and aunt, and letting her grandfather stop farming and enduring hardships.

It was nothing more than a humble, ordinary wish in the mortal world.

I understand.

Ding Ling looked up. “I don’t want this money. I will fulfill this wish myself.”

If she took this money, how could she demand payment from the Ye family?

What Ye Yibai owed Ding Ling was not something a mere sum of money could erase in terms of karma. Besides, “she” did not want the money.

Chen Dahai’s brows furrowed tightly; he wanted to persuade her further.

Ding Ling spoke again. “Since I’ll be of age in a month, I’ve decided not to accept this money.” As for the extra spirit stones in her card, she didn’t know who had provided them, and she wouldn’t touch them.

Chen Dahai knew Ding Ling was stubborn. Seeing that he couldn’t sway her, he sighed. “How about this: whenever you want it, come and tell me.”

The situation outside was worsening by the day. She was still too young and had yet to step beyond the school gates to see the world. Once she did, she would understand.

Just as Ding Ling was about to leave the office, a thought struck Chen Dahai. By refusing the money, did she still want to seek justice herself? Not even Chen Dahai could honestly say that the Ye family and the school had given Ding Ling justice.

The moment the thought surfaced, he chuckled and shook his head. How could that be possible?

How could a young girl like her stand against the entire Ye family?

Chen Dahai picked up his tea mug, blew on the tea, and let out another chuckle, murmuring under his breath, “Impossible.”

On the dorm balcony, Ding Ling shifted into another posture to “plant” herself, lost in thought as she did so.

Fulfilling “her” wish and obtaining a new body would both require money.

Yet currently, she only had the fifty spirit stones issued by the school on her card. These spirit stones could only be used within the school.

No, forty-eight now. She had offered to buy Yao Beibei a drink, and Yao Beibei had picked the cheapest mineral water.

Yao Beibei finished blow-drying her hair and pulled out today’s homework.

Thinking about how she didn’t even have anyone to copy homework from anymore, she felt she was really going downhill. Opening her notebook, she saw three large characters she had written: “Take a look,” followed by a plump, round exclamation mark.

But take a look at what? She hadn’t written that down.

Ding Ling walked past, glanced over, and reminded her, “Chapters one through three.”

“Oh, right!”

Ding Ling stepped into the bathroom and turned on the shower.

How to make money? Better stick to the old method for now.