Chapter 293: So You’ve Finally Decided to Eliminate Your Rival and Steal Your Beloved?
Chapter 293: Chapter 293: So You’ve Finally Decided to Eliminate Your Rival and Steal Your Beloved?
By the next afternoon, Shen Lu and her staff were hard at work washing and chopping radishes.
She had bought half a ton of daikon radishes to make spicy pickled radish and dried radish strips. The entire back kitchen reeked of the sharp scent of daikon.
Xiao Lang had a keen sense of smell, and he could smell the overpowering, sharp scent of radish even in his dorm room.
Simply deactivating his superpower wasn’t enough. After a few tries, Xiao Lang surprisingly managed to teach himself how to block his sense of smell.
No longer smelling the pungent radish, Xiao Lang let out a long sigh of relief and resumed his training in the living room.
The weather was bad, so it wasn’t good for exercising outside. Huo Qian had taught him a routine he could practice indoors, and Xiao Lang would do it whenever he had free time.
When he finished, he’d go out on the balcony for a bit to watch the woman digging in the yard.
Yang Jing had a scarf wrapped around her head, covering her mouth and nose, leaving only her eyes visible. She dug slowly, having to take a break after just a short while.
The soil in the backyard was hard. The first strike usually only chiseled a shallow mark on the surface; it took a few more blows to break through to the earth below.
But Yang Jing dug very diligently, without a hint of impatience.
Inside the tin-plated house, Liu Yaozu felt his broken arm and leg, extremely irritated.
"How long until I can get these things taken off?"
Liu Qiang kept his head down, sorting seeds. "The doctor said they can come off in a month. But they say a broken bone takes a hundred days to mend. It’ll be over two more months before you’re fully healed."
"That’s too long. Is there some kind of miracle drug?"
"I don’t know, I didn’t ask the doctor." Liu Qiang looked up. "Even if there was, we don’t have the money to buy it."
"Just because we don’t, doesn’t mean Shen Lu doesn’t," Liu Yaozu said, his thoughts smoothly turning to her. "Dad, I hate to say it, but why do you always have to pick a fight with Shen Lu?"
Liu Qiang’s eye twitched. "I don’t."
"Still denying it? Take us moving into this tin-plated house. Shen Lu has come over twice, and you’ve started a conflict with her each time."
"I didn’t start a conflict with her! She’s the one who doesn’t respect me as her father!"
"So what if she’s disrespectful? Why do you care so much about useless things like that?" Liu Yaozu just couldn’t understand his father’s stubbornness.
"I’m her father! She’s supposed to respect me!" Liu Qiang said obstinately. "Isn’t the Shen Family supposed to be rich? How did they raise her to be like this? She’s not even as obedient as Shen Lan!"
"Oh, give me a break. That little bitch Shen Lan..."
"Yaozu, don’t always talk about Shen Lan like that."
"Dad, are you out of your mind?" Liu Yaozu couldn’t stop himself from swearing. "Shen Lu is my actual sister! Why do you always take Shen Lan’s side?!"
Not wanting to argue with his son, Liu Qiang just glared at him for a moment before returning to sorting his seeds.
Liu Yaozu rolled his eyes and screamed internally.
’Fuck, how many more of these boring days do I have to endure? I really don’t want to live with these two old farts, it’s so fucking boring!’
Shen Lu packed the radish chunks, now mixed with chili paste, into a crock. She covered the opening with plastic wrap, put on the lid, and poured water into the outer rim to create a seal.
Now, she just had to let time do its work.
Wang Daguo and Xin Yu carried the crocks into the pantry one by one, lining them up neatly against the wall.
[Host, are you really not going to the banquet?]
The system suddenly asked.
Shen Lu took off her gloves. "Why? Got a friendly tip for me?"
[It’s not exactly a tip...]
[Has the Host forgotten about the newly unlocked Mysterious Mall?]
Shen Lu said, "I haven’t forgotten, but reputation value is too hard to get. I’ve only gained 8 points since unlocking the Mysterious Mall."
[That’s why I’m saying the Host should consider going to the banquet. You have to go out more to have a chance of gaining reputation value.]
Shen Lu grimaced. "I’m afraid I might not make it back alive."
She had a very bad impression of the people from the Commerce Association. Her policy was to avoid dealing with them if at all possible.
[Fine~]
The system didn’t press the issue and quietly went dormant.
Xue Can sent a message, asking if she wanted to go to the banquet with him.
Shen Lu didn’t know how to reply, so she pretended she hadn’t seen it.
Outside the shop, the Wang sisters and Fang Ming arrived to deliver materials.
With the current bad weather, it wasn’t as easy for the trio to go to the junkyard. They had changed from delivering once a day to stockpiling materials and bringing them over in larger batches.
Shen Lu had no issue with this and reminded them to be careful.
After receiving the materials and paying the trio, Shen Lu suddenly noticed her reputation value had increased by three points.
Hm?
A thought flashed through her mind, but it was gone before she could fully grasp it.
When Fu Cheng returned from his rehabilitation session, he saw Shen Lu spacing out at the shop’s entrance from his vehicle.
The girl seemed to be lost in thought. A tuft of her hair was sticking straight up, making her look so dazed and blank that it seemed like anyone could just walk up and lead her home.
Fu Cheng maneuvered his wheelchair out of the vehicle. As he entered the shop, a gust of wind slipped in with him, ruffling her hair and creating a second stray tuft on her head.
"What’s wrong? Did something happen?" Fu Cheng asked softly.
"Huh?" Shen Lu snapped out of it. "You’re back."
"Mm."
"I..." Shen Lu didn’t know where to begin. "Do you think I should go to the banquet?"
Fu Cheng glanced at the invitation she handed him. "What are you conflicted about?"
"I don’t know if anyone besides Boss Jin knows about my situation."
"They probably don’t. If they knew, it wouldn’t just be Boss Jin coming after you."
Speaking of which, Fu Cheng was again struck by how a series of coincidences and accidental decisions on Shen Lu’s part had helped her evade so many deadly risks.
What surprised Fu Cheng the most was that, before he’d pointed it out, Shen Lu had been completely unaware that the ingredients she sourced could heal and soothe one’s Spiritual Sea.
’What a scatterbrain.’
Fortunately, fortune favors the foolish. Not many people had discovered this, so the situation was still manageable.
"So, should I go check it out?"
She wanted to run a shop in the Lower City District, so she couldn’t avoid the Commerce Association forever. Provided her safety was guaranteed, she also wanted to get a closer look at what kind of person this newly appointed Commerce Association president was.
"I’ll go with you."
"Okay."
Shen Lu went upstairs to change into a clean set of clothes. She quickly tied her hair into a ponytail and came back down without any makeup.
She was very self-aware. At this kind of banquet, she was just an inconspicuous presence; there was no need to put effort into dressing up.
Besides, that’s just how things were in the Lower City District. Aside from those with assets who could afford high-end evening gowns, most ordinary merchants were probably just like her.
Another message came from Xue Can.
Xue Can: I’ll come pick you up?
Shen Lu: No need, Fu Cheng and I will head over together. He has a vehicle. Let’s meet at the hotel entrance later?
Xue Can’s reply, typed through gritted teeth, was a single word.
Xue Can: Fine.
"FUCK!"
Having sent the message, Xue Can let out a vicious curse.
Sitting in the driver’s seat, Mo Bei was completely baffled. "Boss, what’s wrong?"
’Weren’t things fine just a moment ago?’
"Tell me, do you think I could just go and murder Fu Cheng?"
Mo Bei shot him a sidelong glance. "Boss, have you finally decided to cut down your rival and steal the girl? I’m all for it!"