Chapter 250: All Exposed
Chapter 250
Old Pei wiped his face, his murky eyes filled with confusion.
After a while, he spoke, "I understand what you mean. Go back for now, and we'll discuss the rest when your elder brother returns tomorrow."
In the end, it was all because of the trouble caused by the thing in his hands.
Since they wanted it, sooner or later it would be given to them. There was no need to hold onto it tightly and wait for trouble to arise at home.
Once everything was divided, there would be nothing left to argue about.
What puzzled him was how Pei Jing's attitude towards the main house suddenly changed so dramatically.
Little did he know that only Pei Jing, with certain memories, knew how miserable a mother and child were in another world, victimized by Wang Yue's selfishness and malice.
With the two children in tow, Zhi Xia entered the room and saw Sister Zhang sitting on a stool by the bedside, amusing the children.
Seeing her return, Sister Zhang explained, "You were all talking in the living room just now, so I came here to have a moment of peace. These three little ones are very well-behaved. I just changed their diapers, and they're awake now. You can play with them while I go out."
Sister Zhang had been taking care of Old Pei for several years, so she was aware of the conflicts in the family. However, she knew her place and understood that there were certain things she couldn't ask or talk about. So when she sensed that something was off in their conversation, she quickly avoided it and had no interest in listening.
After apologizing to Zhi Xia and Sister Zhang, Zhi Xia watched her leave.
After playing with the three little ones for a while, Zhi Xia closed the door and kissed Chenye and Wanqing on their foreheads. "Mommy will go to the space for a while. You can play with your little brother. When Daddy comes back later, you can open the door. If someone else knocks or calls for Mommy, I'll be able to hear it, okay?"
Wanqing held her hand and said, "Mommy, I want to go inside and watch cartoons too."
Ever since she watched it once, she had been wanting to watch more, but Zhi Xia limited her time for the sake of her eyes.
Chenye, being more sensible, held onto Wanqing and said, "Mommy has something to do, so we have to watch over our little brother outside. They're all awake, and they'll get fussy if we don't play with them."
"Okay then." Wanqing pouted, looking as if she could cry at any moment.
Zhi Xia comforted her, saying, "Don't be angry. We'll let you play after dinner, alright? It's broad daylight now, and if someone comes looking for us later and finds that we're not here, it won't be good."
After soothing her, Zhi Xia went to the space.
Looking at her Trade Panel with only 30 Star Coins, Zhi Xia realized for the umpteenth time that she was truly poor.
It had been a long time since she received any orders from the Queen of the Bug Tribe, and her Star Coin income had been cut off. During this time, she had been busy with the kids, so she rarely dealt with these things.
Opening the Friends page again, she noticed that the profile picture of the Queen of the Bug Tribe had turned black.
She clicked on it and saw the three words "Deceased" below the profile picture.
No wonder.
Not everyone could possess a Trade Panel, so once they died, the Trade Panel would reset and wait for the next compatible owner.
Zhi Xia let out a sigh of relief. Advanced realms were already rare, and losing one meant losing a trader who could continuously provide Star Coins. It was somewhat regrettable.
In the post-apocalyptic realm, they had been developing interstellar spaceships and clearing mutated species on planets in recent years, resulting in less contact.
However, Zhi Xia still had many crystal cores obtained from previous trades. Except for the first batch sold to the trader, she kept the rest. Afterward, when I'm Not a Zombie figured out the multiple uses of crystal cores, she stopped providing them.
Zhi Xia took out the stored crystal cores and placed them on the table, taking one to contact the interstellar realm.
Young Rich Woman: "I need a large amount of Star Coins. Can I exchange this?"
Wandering Egg: "Wait a moment, let me check."
After a long time, he replied, "How many do you have? If they are all of this quality, I can offer 500 Star Coins."
A Level 1 crystal core trader would only offer fifty, but Wandering Egg offered a tenfold increase. The difference was astonishing. It made Zhi Xia feel regretful for selling those crystal cores to the trader.
Indeed, the trader was the most untrustworthy.
Zhi Xia, who had initially considered agreeing, had some reservations. "Can the price go higher?"
If it were any other item, she wouldn't mind since she had a large space and an abundance of flora and fauna.
But Star Coins were valuable, and crystal cores were not unlimited. Of course, she wanted to earn a bit more.
Moreover, she had five children, which was a huge expense.
Who knew what would happen in the future? There might be even more things that required spending Star Coins.
Wandering Egg: "If you have more than ten, I can offer 600, but I can't go any higher. If you have higher-quality ones, I can increase the price."
Zhi Xia only had Level 4 crystal cores of the highest quality, but she knew that I'm Not a Zombie definitely had higher-level ones.
Crystal cores were equally important to her, so she might not be willing to trade them in large quantities.
Of course, it was also because Zhi Xia had been providing her with a large reserve of food for these years.
Zhi Xia calculated the crystal cores she currently possessed. She kept a few spares of each level and had one hundred Level 1, eighty Level 2, fifty Level 3, and twenty Level 4 cores available for sale.
She took one core of each level to Liu Lang for appraisal, reminding him that the better the price, the more likely there would be future transactions.
The final prices she received were: Level 1 valued at 600 Star Coins, Level 2 valued at 1000, Level 3 at 3000, and Level 4 at 6000.
After securely storing the remaining cores, Zhi Xia looked at the 410,000 Star Coins she had just obtained and suddenly felt a sense of overnight wealth.
Indeed, the value of an item depended on the degree of necessity. Perhaps crystal cores were not considered high-level items for the realm trader, which is why they had a low price. But for Wandering Egg, the degree of necessity and value were different.
This also gave Zhi Xia an intuition that she shouldn't sell good items too cheaply to the realm trader in the future.
Low-level enhancement agents cost 1000 Star Coins, and since she had given them to Fourth Brother, she couldn't leave out Big Brother either.
She decided to get one for herself as well. After all, she had plenty of Star Coins and it wouldn't make sense not to treat herself.
She realized that she needed to prioritize her exercise routine going forward. She didn't want to push herself too hard and risk not being able to handle it.
But she thought, "Why not give it a try? Even if it has just a small effect, it would still be worth it."
Then, she spent some Star Coins to grant Pei Jing access. In that moment, as Pei Jing entered the room, he sensed something because he happened to be thinking about Zhi Xia in the space, so he followed her in.
Zhi Xia sensed that there was another person in the space and turned around to see that it was Pei Jing.
"Oh my goodness, she was still operating at the trading desk!" Now she had exposed all her secrets and left herself with no cards to play.