"Fang Yuan?"
Right before Fang Yuan was about to start, someone knocked on the wooden frame leading into his dorm room.
"Do you mind if I come in?"
Fang Yuan didn't appreciate the distraction, but if he didn't say something, the distraction would continue. "Come in."
The boy was one of his classmates, though one of the D-grade ones meaning that he had basically no aptitude mainly like Li Mei. Fang Yuan did not even remember the boy's name, that was just how irrelevant he was.
"Good afternoon, Fang Yuan, I'm Gu Yue Yu Sai," the boy said.
"Good afternoon, you want something?" Fang Yuan asked.
"Indeed, I uh, don't know if you know me, we're in the same class together," the boy said, flashing a smile and Fang Yuan, who was unfazed.
"Again, you need something? I'm rather busy right now," Fang Yuan said.
"Right, uh, yeah, in that case I'll get to the meat of the matter," he said. "I uh, still am having trouble refining my Moonlight Gu. I know that you helped Li Mei out, so I was wondering if you could lend me a hand too..."
Li Mei had made such a passable impression on Fang Yuan that he had already forgotten her name, especially given her original purpose in his mind (aka future bear chow) was now rendered pointless. However, context was king and he could figure out who he was speaking of.
He sighed inwardly. People often spoke about how a negative reputation could harm oneself, but they seldom mentioned how a positive reputation often had its drawbacks.
Much like this. He would have random people asking him for favors, and would often have the people whom he had helped asking for even more favors! As it was said, 'Help people out and they will surely remember it - when they happen to need your help again!' You'd also get entitled people like Yu Sai who just wanted to take advantage of what they perceived as weakness (kindness).
Fang Yuan's eyes flashed coldly. "May I see your Moonlight Gu?"
"Sure," Yu Sai said.
"I can refine it for you," Fang Yuan said, and Yu Sai became overjoyed before the next words. "But it'll cost you 4 primeval stones."
Yu Sai's face fell. He knew that Fang Yuan had done it for Li Mei for free. 'Did she pay you back in some other way?!' he wanted to shout out, but as it was, he was asking Fang Yuan for a favor after all.
Yu Sai had already come to terms with the fact that he was going to basically accomplish nothing in life given he only had 20% aptitude, unlike Li Mei who still had some hope. His parents had high expectations of him, but he knew that there was no point in even trying to meet them.
His lot in life was just to stay on the sidelines while people like Fang Yuan soared to heights, he had already understood that. Matter of fact, he could refine his Moonlight Gu with some more effort as it was not as stubborn as Li Mei's, he just didn't want to and was looking for an easy way out of the issue. He thought that Fang Yuan would be easy enough to butter up to get some benefits out of from what he had heard.
It did not fit in with Fang Yuan's earlier reputation as a cold, detached genius, but enough people had talked about how virtuous and kind he was that Yu Sai believed them. Here though, standing before Fang Yuan, he saw the cold, calculated person he thought Fang Yuan was. That did not match up with the stories of his kind deeds at all.
Did he just catch Fang Yuan at a bad time? It looked like he was busy. Maybe that was it.
"Ah, Fang Yuan, you helped Li Mei out for free didn't you?" he finally got out.
"That was before, and this is now, I have a big need for primeval stones to feed my gu worms," Fang Yuan snorted coldly. Inwardly, he also had an ugly expression as his impression of Li Mei fell - why was she going around telling everyone what he had done?
What he didn't know is that Yu Sai hadn't actually been told it by Li Mei - at least, not willingly. He had seen that she had somehow overnight managed to refine her gu, and then pressed her about it. She declined to answer, but he could see the doe eyes she was shooting at Fang Yuan and put two and two together. He then confronted her about it and she then caved about what had happened.
"Still, isn't four stones a bit too much...?" Yu Sai asked. 'You already have 500 stones and you'll get 10 a week once you're president - why are you eyeing my small stash?' Yu Sai thought those words but didn't say them.
As the son of ordinary people, with low-grade talent, the only way he could get support and resources is if he managed to find a Sugar Mommy - but he lacked the looks to do so. That, or he could become the lackey of someone like Fang Yuan. As for finding a Sugar Daddy, he preferred his chrysanthemum intact, thank you very much.
"If so, you can take it to someone else," Fang Yuan said, returning the Moonlight Gu to him.
"No, no, that's fine," Yu Sai said. Since he had given up, he still had some primeval stones with him. "I only have three with me though..."
"Pay me the rest next week," Fang Yuan said. Yu Sai sighed and agreed - it was still cheaper than trying to refine it himself. "I'll have this done the day after tomorrow."
"That long?" Yu Sai asked. "Weren't you able to refine Li Mei's rather quickly...?"
"She was already done," Fang Yuan said. "This worm is only halfway finished!"
Yu Sai had a feeling that Fang Yuan was lying (he was) but there was nothing he could really do to refute him.
As it was, Fang Yuan could refine the gu worm instantly, but he needed to play up the difficulty so that he could extract the maximum payment from Yu Sai. Who would pay a lot of money if he did it in an hour? It was different for the daily quest, where he only made an effort to make it look like he had taken just a short while before getting his reward.
Yu Sai agreed eventually and left.
As Fang Yuan considered what had happened, a new idea flashed in his mind.
He could continue to offer such services of refining gu - even selling it as his 'talent' which made him good at it. There were many Rank 2 Gu Masters who would pay a reasonable sum to have their gu refined, particularly the more stubborn ones.
He had seen such a service in Shang Clan City in his prior life, so was it worthwhile to replicate it here in Gu Yue Village?
He would need to put in a lot of work to make it seem like it took a lot of work. He would have to demand three or four days to refine each gu worm, and could not take on too many jobs at once.
The best part about such a business was that it would cost him nothing upfront, meaning whatever he managed to get would be pure profit.
However, it made the odds of the Spring Autumn Cicada being discovered slightly higher, which is something he wanted to avoid.
Of course, if he could get his parent's inheritance, he would have no need for such a business. And if he could get to Rank 3, he could extract quite a number of primeval stones before leaving Gu Yue Village.
He dismissed this business idea as it was not worth it for him.
Next, he turned his attention to his primeval aperture.
It was time to break through!
He sent his primeval essence against the walls relentlessly, the Liquor Worm greatly helping him in this progress.
The three stones that Yu Sai had left and three more on top of that were steadily consumed as the clock ticked past midnight, but the results were steadily evident as the light membrane turned into a water membrane.
The primeval essence that now began to fill his aperture was of a darker, more concentrated green even without the Liquor Worm's help. The Liquor Worm did not stop though, concentrating even this further.
He had finally reached Rank One Middle Stage!