Chapter 18
Chapter 18: Some Rich Sucker Will Believe Us
The first thing Qian Qi did with her new money was buy the secondhand rock-crushing grinder she’d been eyeing.
Grinding, mixing, adding additives, grinding again, sifting—
Finally, she had it.
Hemostatic magic potion, in powder form.
She swirled the white powder in a glass cup and eyed it suspiciously. “This really stops bleeding in one second?”
System Panel: [Cut yourself and you’ll know.]
Qian Qi’s expression went blank. “…”
“I believe you,” she said solemnly. “If I cut myself, that would be disrespect. That would mean I don’t trust you.”
System Panel: [Heh.]
Qian Qi grabbed a handful of tiny sealed bags and measured out ten grams of hemostatic medicine powder into each one. She already knew where she wanted to sell.
Awakeners University students loved sparring. Sparring meant blood. Blood meant business.
She’d considered hawking it outside the school doctor clinic, but she didn’t feel like getting chased off by staff.
So she went straight to the crime scene.
Half an hour later, Qian Qi dragged a little stool to the duel plaza in front of the Skills Academy and set up shop.
If you wanted the highest bleeding-incident rate on campus, the Skills Academy duel plaza was number one with a bullet.
Awakened students fought here constantly to improve their strength. They also constantly forgot what pulling punches meant, so injuries were basically guaranteed.
More importantly: Skills Department students had money.
Qian Qi found a spot with perfect visibility and dropped her cardboard box on the ground. She’d fished it out of a trash bin behind the school doctor clinic. It was practically new and heavy enough to be worth a few coins on resale.
She sat, crossed her legs, and started shouting like a street vendor on steroids.
“Come look, come see! Qian Qi brand hemostatic medicine—one-second bleeding stop! Buyers all say it’s great!”
“Not 99, not 88—just 998! Take it home right now!”
“Earth-shattering jump-off-a-building discount! Classmate, even if your limb gets cut off, you can stop the bleeding instantly!”
A student slowed down, curious.
Qian Qi popped up at once, face bright with fake sincerity. “Classmate, you won’t lose out, you won’t get scammed. My hemostatic medicine stops bleeding in one second—perfect for home survival and emergency life-saving!”
“One second?” the student said flatly. “That’s a little too much, don’t you think? I don’t buy it.”
Qian Qi’s eyes flicked. She dropped back onto her stool, swung her leg, and put on her coldest expression.
“You’re clearly ignorant,” she said. “You don’t even know my name? In the Magic Plant Department, my hemostatic medicine is practically impossible to get. Even those big shots outside fight over it…”
She paused on purpose, letting the bait dangle.
“If I didn’t love my classmates so deeply—if I wasn’t willing to sell to you first…” She gave a little huff, like she was enduring hardship for the masses.
The student hesitated. “So… how much?”
“One price,” Qian Qi declared. “998. I’ll pack it for you right now.”
“…Are you insane?” the student blurted. “A thousand yuan for a tiny bag?”
He backed away and walked off shaking his head, muttering, “For that price I’d rather go to the school doctor clinic. One-second bleeding stop is obviously a gimmick.”
“This can save your life on the spot,” Qian Qi grumbled after him. “And you think a thousand is expensive?”
She turned and patted the air like she was comforting someone. “System, don’t be sad. It’s not our product. He just doesn’t know quality.”
System Panel: […Thanks. You’re the one who’s sad.]
“Some rich sucker will believe us,” Qian Qi said through clenched teeth. “I refuse to believe I can’t sell even one bag today.”
She kept hawking, changing pitches, making promises, exaggerating with a straight face. People gathered to watch the spectacle—then laughed the moment they heard the claims and the price.
“Money-hungry lunatic. That’s just regular hemostatic medicine dressed up as ‘one-second.’”
“Even with today’s medical tech, you can’t stop bleeding in one second. This girl’s all talk.”
“Oh, come on. Magic Plant Department is full of broke psychos. They really think we’re rich suckers.”
The Skills Department students laughed, then got distracted by a new duel starting nearby.
“Go, go, go!” someone shouted. “They’re fighting again—hurry!”
By evening, the duel plaza had been packed nonstop.
Qian Qi hadn’t sold a single bag.
System Panel: [Qian Qi, don’t be sad. It’s not our product—it’s them.]
Qian Qi: “…”
System Panel: [Some rich sucker will believe us.]
Qian Qi: “…”
System Panel: [We’ll definitely sell one bag.]
Qian Qi: “…”
One day, she was going to gnaw the System to pieces.
And she knew the truth: if she cut herself and demonstrated the effect in public, people would line up with money.
But—
One bag was 998 yuan.
She couldn’t stand the thought of wasting it on a demo.
She was too stingy. Too broke. Too traumatized.
And nobody wanted to volunteer as her Little White test mouse.
Damn it.
Could the sky please drop her a Rich Little White Rat she could cut once?
At the exact same time, the east gate of Awakeners University…
A pure black, wheel-less hovercar glided to a stop. A young man in black stepped out.
He was painfully handsome. A long black coat hung cleanly from his shoulders. Pale silver hair caught the sunlight like metal threads. His eyes were deep and dark, the kind that looked distant even when they met yours head-on. He wasn’t old, but the cold, killing pressure around him made people instinctively move aside.
A middle-aged man was waiting at the gate.
“Principal,” the young man greeted, voice calm.
“Finally.” The principal smiled, the sort of warmth reserved for someone you’d been worried about. “Zone D’s magic creature cleanup—finished? How did it go?”
“Completed,” the young man said, like he was reading a report. “All magic creature eliminated. Two D-rank awakeners dead. Eight E-rank awakeners dead. Seventeen ordinary persons dead.”
He spoke the numbers with the same indifference most people used for weather.
The principal’s smile faded. After a beat, he turned and led the young man into campus.
“This D-rank outbreak was sudden,” the principal said carefully. “Good thing you were nearby. Otherwise the casualties could’ve been worse. You… did your best.”
The young man nodded. “Principal, you don’t need to comfort me. I’m used to it.”
The principal gave a dry chuckle. Of course he was. Su Ang was his student. Su Ang had followed his father to the battlefield since childhood. Death was just part of the scenery to him.
The principal was about to change the subject when a voice suddenly ripped through the air like a loudspeaker.
“Classmate! One-second hemostatic medicine! No side effects! Absolutely genuine!”
“Only 998! Even King Yama sees you and pretends to be blind—!”
The principal’s face darkened. He turned toward the commotion, ready to see who was so shamelessly wrecking the school’s image.
And there she was.
Qian Qi had one arm locked around a random boy like she was dragging in a hostage, and she was trying to shove medicine into his hands.
“How did she end up in the Skills Department?” the principal muttered.
He recognized her instantly. Qian Qi skipped class like it was her major. She fought constantly. She’d even damaged classmates’ magic plants so often that several teachers had formally reported her.
He’d already called her in once and warned her: keep this up, and you’re expelled.
“Tch.” The principal frowned harder. “Fighting all day wasn’t enough. Now she’s openly scamming people.”
Su Ang’s gaze slid toward Qian Qi.
One moment, Qian Qi was praying for a Rich Little White Rat.
The next moment, a Rich Little White Rat had arrived, without wasting a second.
Qian Qi blinked, then immediately put on her most innocent, harmless face.