Chapter 36

Early the next morning, Ding Ling left the internet café with her backpack slung over her shoulder.

She had not touched the big bag of snacks, packing them all up to bring back for Yao Beibei.

Stepping out of the internet café, she first found a large sports complex nearby and rented a locker tucked in the corner.

She spent all her points, first redeeming the alchemy furnace guaranteed never to explode, then getting a mid-grade cosmos bag. The cosmos bag could shift between three forms, which left Ding Ling thoroughly satisfied.

Those two items alone had cost two hundred and eighty mission points, so she simply traded for some spirit talismans and pills as well, spending every last point she had on hand.

Burning through them all at once earned her a glittering golden title: 【Cleaned Out】.

Ding Ling bore the title without thinking anything of it.

However, the people keeping tabs on her in the group chat immediately noticed the new symbol next to F’s name.

“F spent all those freshly earned points in a single night?”

“Can anyone see what was redeemed?”

“Is this what being rich feels like?”

Ding Ling did not feel rich in the least. For the sword she wanted, she would have to start saving up points from zero all over again.

Even so, the alchemy furnace and cosmos bag were indispensable right now. Having to watch over the old furnace to keep it from blowing up had drained far too much of her energy. Before every refining session, she had to make sure Auntie Liu, the dorm manager, was not around, and she even needed Yao Beibei to keep watch.

On top of that, not a single wisp of medicinal scent or smoke could be allowed to escape. Every time, Beibei would brew a bowl of braised beef instant noodles with a look of profound misery, leaving the lid wide open and doing her best to let the aroma drift out.

That way, even if the neighboring dorm caught a whiff and knocked on their door, Beibei could hold up the noodle bowl and claim she was sneaking a snack.

Beibei pinched the soft flesh on her stomach. “Look how much weight I’ve gained, all for that ancestral secret recipe of yours.”

Even with all that trouble, she could only manage to plug in the furnace once a week at most, which seriously held back her alchemy progress.

As long as she could take another high-grade spirit pill by the next full moon, she would have surplus spiritual energy to channel into her arm, allowing it to “shed its shell.”

She reached out to touch the hard, charcoal-black shell encasing her arm. In truth, flesh and skin had already grown back underneath in several spots; only the delicate joints of her fingers had yet to finish healing.

Once she got back, she would have to figure out a way to make the shell slough off bit by bit. Having the entire thing peel off in one piece felt too gruesome, even to Ding Ling.

For the delivery address, she entered the locker number at the sports complex.

Back at summer camp, she had watched a few old-school crime thrillers with Xiao Xu, the medical cultivator. Whenever the criminals in those movies wanted to keep the police from tracking their whereabouts, they would always arrange handoffs in places like this.

Ding Ling followed their example. Once the package arrived, she would come back to collect it.

By the time she reached school with her backpack, Yao Beibei was already waiting in the dorm room.

The second Beibei saw Ding Ling, her eyes widened. “Who did you spend the night at the internet café with?” Someone had definitely led her astray! Leading her into the bad habits of Class F!

“Was it Zhang Tianyu or Yi Ang?” Yao Beibei had never even set foot in an esports gaming room before. Had they played games all night? Why had they pulled an all-nighter without taking her along?

“I went by myself.” Ding Ling reached out and shoved the big bag of snacks into Yao Beibei’s hands.

Cradling the massive bag of snacks, Yao Beibei felt all her irritation vanish into thin air. Going alone? Going alone was fine, then.

Setting the snacks down, she said, “I’ve been waiting forever, terrified the ice cream cake would melt.” With that, she pulled an ice cream birthday cake from an insulated bag, followed by flowers and candles.

With the huge haul of snacks Ding Ling had brought back, they had more than enough for a little birthday party!

“What is this?”

“To celebrate your birthday!” It was still a few days early, but that fell on school days. Today was Sunday, when dorm management was less strict, making it the perfect time to bring back a cake and ribbons.

“Didn’t you notice the ribbons?”

Colored ribbons were wound around the beds and wardrobes throughout the dorm. It was clear Beibei had put a lot of effort into decorating.

Ding Ling had simply assumed it was a new decorative whim; Beibei had already swapped out her bed canopy three times since the start of term.

“Celebrate my birthday?”

“Yeah!” Beibei had learned Ding Ling’s birthday during their first week at summer camp. When everyone in the dorm shared their ages, Ding Ling turned out to be the youngest; even Yao Beibei had already turned sixteen.

“Back then, Cheng Lu and her lackey celebrated their birthdays together.” There had been no cake, so they had arranged cream cookies into the shape of one and stuck a small candle on top.

Beibei had seen it: Ding Ling had clearly looked envious.

When everyone talked about what they ate on their birthdays, Ding Ling had mentioned longevity noodles^[1].

She had never tasted birthday cake before.

“I don’t celebrate birthdays,” Ding Ling said. Indeed, she had stopped celebrating birthdays long ago; she had even forgotten which day her birthday actually fell on.

By the time she finally became an inner disciple^[2] of the Sanqing Sect and happened to pass by the mountain village where she was born during a sect mission, that thatched hut had already collapsed.

Only then did she realize that decades had already slipped by.

“Ah… so we’re not cutting the cake?” The ice cream cake was strawberry-flavored, Ding Ling’s favorite! Beibei had ordered it on Friday, picked it up early Sunday morning, and used a dozen ice packs to keep it cold until now.

The ice cream had melted just a little, reaching the perfect softness where it tasted best.

“I won’t blow out the candles.” Seeing the disappointment flicker across Beibei’s face, Ding Ling added, “It’s the custom where I come from not to blow out candles.”

She picked up the cake knife, sliced a piece, and handed it to Yao Beibei first.

Beibei brightened up immediately. In any case, eating birthday cake counted as celebrating a birthday.

The two of them split the small ice cream cake and quickly finished it. Beibei had also bought a birthday present for Ding Ling.

It was the very model from the commercials, a spiritually powered phone that never ran out of battery, with powerful voice recognition: “Even if you speak the Nanzhou dialect, it can understand you!”

This phone had completely cleaned out her savings.

Holding the phone, Ding Ling was momentarily at a loss for words. Beibei rambled on, “You’ve given me so many things, and that dress was already really expensive!”

It was a lace-trimmed dress with strawberry patterns, a newly released limited edition that she hadn’t bought at the time purely because it cost too much.

Watching Ding Ling unbox the phone, she casually reached into the snacks Ding Ling had brought back, pulled out a bag of chips in her favorite garlic flavor, opened it, and began munching away.

“By the way, what did you play at the internet cafe by yourself? Surely not Match-3… Oh! There’s a package for you!”

Yao Beibei had arrived at school more than half a day early. The dorm manager saw her and asked, “Where’s Ding Ling? Didn’t she say she was going to your home? Didn’t she come back with you?”

“She went to the school clinic to pick up medicine.” Yao Beibei broke out in a cold sweat. She had completely forgotten about that; she should have waited for Ding Ling so they could enter the school gates together!

“Wait!”

When Auntie Liu spoke up, Beibei was nearly scared out of her wits.

“This sea-mail package is for Ding Ling. Take it up for her.”

Beibei put down her chips, took out the package, and handed it to Ding Ling.

The moment Ding Ling took it, the long-dormant soul flame in her chest gave two gentle throbs.

The outer wrapping of the package was filthy and worn. Judging by the postmark date, it had drifted across the sea for over a month before finally reaching Ding Ling’s hands.

Chewing on chips, Beibei saw Ding Ling holding the package in silence and slipped into the bathroom, figuring she would just sit on the toilet for a while.

Ding Ling untied the hemp rope around the package. Whoever had sent it seemed terribly anxious, having wound layer upon layer of hemp rope around the outside.

As her fingers touched the coarse rope, wave after wave of warmth surged through her chest.

The hemp rope was hand-twisted, likely spun by “her” grandfather himself.

Inside the package was a pair of plain cloth shoes, with a bulging envelope tucked underneath.

Opening it, she saw small paper bills: five-jiao^[3] and one-yuan notes, all crumpled and smoothed out again. In total, the entire envelope held only eighty-five Yuan.

Ding Ling could barely keep her emotions in check. She immediately counted her breaths to regulate her qi, and only after a long moment did she calm down again.

She soothed the soul flame in her chest: Money, medicinal pills, we can send anything back.

The soul flame flickered gently before a wave of sorrow welled up in her heart. It’s useless. Even if we send it back, it won’t reach Grandpa’s hands. Who knows how he even managed to save this money.

There was another sheet of paper inside the envelope. It wasn’t proper stationery, looking like it had been torn from somewhere.

Only a few simple words were written on it.

“Happy birthday, Lingling. Grandpa.”

Yao Beibei felt enough time had passed and sneakily poked her head out. To her surprise, she saw Ding Ling wiping her eyes! Was she crying?

She quickly pulled her head back, gently shut the door, and sat back down on the toilet. Fortunately, she had been clever enough to bring all the snacks inside with her.

Ding Ling only felt a surge of heat in her eyes, and when she reached up to touch them, she realized they were tears.

Unable to comfort “her,” she simply held the piece of paper, letting “her” give in to her grief.

After a long time, “she” slowly felt better.

Ding Ling asked, Do you want to try on the shoes?

The shoes were too small, which was only to be expected. Over this past month, Ding Ling had grown rapidly in height, her skeleton, limbs, hands, and feet all lengthening. Naturally, the shoes prepared beforehand were too small.

Even so, Ding Ling opened the wardrobe and carefully tucked the shoes away inside.

Yao Beibei heard sounds from outside and knew Ding Ling was all right, but she couldn’t stand up; her legs had gone numb.

Ding Ling helped her out and asked, “Are there things for the elderly to eat, wear, or use?”

“Of course!” She tapped on her phone and opened a shopping website. “This one can ship directly to Nanzhou. It’s just expensive, and they only take spirit stones.”

As it happened, Ding Ling had just received ten thousand spirit stones.

She added health supplements for seniors, clothes, and shoes that looked good to her cart, then entered the Nanzhou address. It showed a one-month delivery time.

She told “her” in her mind again: When vacation comes, we’ll go back to see him. I’ll refine medicinal pills for him then to nourish his health.

In just a few more days, Ding Ling would come of age.

Once an adult, she could buy a house in Jiangcheng, and if Grandpa was willing, bring him over to the Central Continent.