Chapter 22: Side Business

Xie Sen looked at the neat and tidy comments. His fingers moved, and he actually had an urge to copy and paste. If he could even get first place in the exam, he also felt that the Plant Department was going to be finished. He blocked the repetitive comments, and continued to read. After reading for less than a minute, he got the information he wanted to know. The Plant Department, was indeed, the trash department of Star City University.

While the plant department was the worst department in all universities, Star City University’s Plant Department was still the best in Star City. The soil of the three main cities of Brandt Star wasn’t suitable for growing plants. Most of the edible and ornamental plants were extinct, and only a few grew in the research bases.

Almost all naturally growing plants were in the wild forests. Some were incredibly tall, some were highly poisonous, and there were also flesh-eating plants, all of which were avoided by Beast Star people.

Therefore, those in the Plant Department would learn almost all theoretical knowledge, with no opportunity to practice. Most of the plants could only be seen through illustrations.

As for finding a job after graduation, that was even more difficult. Except for the Institute, no one would recruit plant students. There were no plants for them to look after or grow. But plant research was vital to Beast Star people, so no matter which college, they opened a plant department.

Because of these practical reasons, the Plant Department had always been the department with the smallest number of students. Plant students were mostly females who were just hanging around, and very few of them really wanted to study plants.

No wonder there were so few people at the exam, Xie Sen thought. He was satisfied that he had gotten the information he wanted, and that his first place was not a mistake.

He was one step closer to his diploma!

He pulled out a stool, sat down, poured a glass of water, drank the plain water and ate the spicy jerky. He looked at the glass of water, and shook his head sadly. If only there was juice.

“Knock, knock…” 

Xie Sen hurriedly wiped his hands and his mouth with a paper towel. “Who is it? Wait a minute.”

He opened the door. Outside was a slightly gray haired grandfather with a smiling face that was easy to feel good about. The door was open, and the grandfather stretched his neck to look inside. Xie Sen blocked the door more solidly. “Grandfather, do you want something?”

The Grandfather swallowed his saliva and his eyes fell on Xie Sen’s face. “I live next door to you. What do you cook at your house? The smell is so appealing. I can’t stop smelling it.”

Xie Sen looked at his gluttonous face, like a child’s, and couldn’t help but laugh, but when he thought of the chili, he couldn’t say explicitly, and only vaguely responded, “Nothing.”

“You want to eat alone,” said the grandfather in a low voice, as he leaned his head in. “Is there a shortage of goods? You tell me quietly where to buy it. I’ll go buy it, and not bother you.”

Xie Sen cried and laughed. There were not even chili peppers here, so how can they be sold?

“Grandfather, it’s really not good.” He tried his best to be sincere.

The Grandfather stomped his foot. “You’re such a stingy kid. I said I don’t want your food. I won’t take advantage of you, just tell me where they sell it.”

Xie Sen was helpless. “No, really.”

“I don’t believe it.” The Grandfather was unfazed. The big man grabbed Xie Sen’s arm, and stretched his neck to look inside the house. “I’m so hungry, I’m itching to eat. You sell me some. I’ll buy it for double the price!”

Xie Sen was amused and angry. He was acting like a really old child, even more unreasonable than children.

But when he heard the words Grandfather said, his heart moved. He wasn’t short of money for the time being, but he couldn’t spend his whole life living in Maine’s house. He had to do good deeds instead of acting like a boy on vacation. The money he had wasn’t enough.

The money from this sale would be used to buy things, and do good deeds to collect energy. Wouldn’t that be a perfect cycle? After he thought about it, he raised his smile and whispered, “Grandfather, I’m not being cheap. There are very few of these things, and they are long gone. I only have a little on hand.”

Grandfather’s eyes lit up. “I told you you must have it!” He tugged at Xie Sen’s sleeve, and shook it. “Sell it to me. Sell it to me–”

“Okay, okay, okay.” Xie Sen raised his hand to stop his movement, then said with a serious face, “I’ll sell you a little, but the price is not cheap, and it must be confidential.”

Grandfather nodded. “I won’t tell anyone. Any price is fine.”

Xie Sen thought about it. He bought the meat for ten star coins a pound. Including the chili, it should be doubled at least a few times. Even though he used a chili, there was only three pounds of spicy dried meat.

“Three hundred a pound,” Xie Sen said. “I don’t have much left on hand, and you may not like it. Or else do you want to buy one or two first?”

“No,” Grandfather quickly spat. “You can’t sell it to me, you just want to eat it alone? Sell half a pound to me!”

The Uncle gave him a very good place to start. His action was quick and sharp as he transferred one hundred and fifty star coins to him.

Xie Sen had no choice. “Well, you wait a moment. Sorry, this isn’t my house, so I can’t invite you in.”

Grandfather reached out and pushed him. “Go get me something to eat. But don’t go back on your word, or I’ll keep knocking on the door.”

“No regrets.” Xie Sen closed the door behind him, filled a disposable food box with half a pound of spicy dried meat, then opened the door, handed it to the grandfather and instructed, “Keep it a secret. If people know and someone wants to eat it, you’ll have to sell it to them!”

The grandfather nodded seriously. “I won’t tell anyone. Thank you. Come to my house sometime.”

After sending the grandfather off, Xie Sen packed up the rest of the jerky. He surfed the Starnet for a while to learn about Beast Star, and waited until noon to make broth to eat with the jerky.

After the lunch break he went straight to the care center, and was called into the office by Yang Shun just after he clocked in. Yang Shun first asked him about his health, and made sure he was okay before he got down to business.

“Your health isn’t good, so the evening shift definitely can no longer be for you. Manager Sun was looking for me to ask you to move. I originally didn’t want to let you go, but their department wages are higher than ours, at twenty-five per hour during the internship period. I know you want to make more money, so I wanted to ask your opinion.”

“Let me go to Manager Sun’s department?”

“Yes.”

Xie Sen was silent and thought about it. He had to say that the salary on Sun Mao’s side was very attractive to him, and he had received one energy from Qi Shao, which meant that the male beast masters could also give back energy to him.

“I’ll go,” Xie Sen said, “I’m an employee of Gold Medal. You can always call me if there’s something on your side too.”

Yang Shun smiled gently. “That’s natural. Go and report to Sun Mao. Most of the contract beasts there are fierce, but you should be safe.”

Xie Sen said gratefully, “Thank you, Manager.”

He went to Sun Mao, who patted him on the shoulder with a smile on his face, “You’ll feed the contract beasts for two days first to get familiar with them.”

Xie Sen nodded. Sun Mao asked before he left the office, “What happened to you yesterday? I heard that you jumped into the pool by yourself? Did Mr. Qi kick you in?”

Xie Sen hurriedly waved his hands. “No, it was Mr. Qi who saved me in time.” He found a more credible excuse. “I got cramps when I stood up, and accidentally fell into the water.”

“Your body is too poor, but that’s okay. Exercise more in our department, eat more regularly, and your body will be strong.”

Xie Sen was panting and dragging a large bucket of animal food. As he thought about Sun Mao’s words, his mouth deflated. While doing such high-intensity work every day, becoming strong wasn’t going to be difficult.

“You’re new here, right?” A green uniformed feeder came out of the contract beast room in front of him, took three or two steps to Xie Sen, and easily lifted the bucket. “I’ll take it in for you.”

“Thank you.” Xie Sen said gratefully, and quickly followed behind the man.

As he walked to the door, the feeder swiped his card to open the door, and Xie Sen looked at the section. Snow Wolf Beast.

“Let’s go!” Only two steps into the walk, the feeder took a step back in panic. Xie Sen bumped into his back and quickly apologized. “What’s wrong?”

The feeder took a step to the side, and allowed Xie Sen to see the inside of the room. It was extremely large, and decorated like a winter wilderness. With some pseudo-plants dotted around inside, it was beautiful.

If Xie Sen ignored two rows of a dozen green snow wolves’ eyes that were looking at him, it was definitely a beautiful place.

Xie Sen’s heart tightened. He subconsciously stepped back, but the feeder pulled him forward. “Don’t be afraid. The snow wolf beast is a B class contract beast. They are very smart, and won’t hurt anyone.”

Xie Sen wanted to cry. Even if he knew they wouldn’t hurt people, they were still scary!

Besides, who had just backed off?

“They are very clean, and like to eat on their own. Look.” The feeder pointed to the large pots scattered around. “They each have their own food bowl. You can just scoop the meat in one by one.”

Xie Sen tilted his head. “What about you?”

“This bucket isn’t enough. I’ll go get another.” The feeder put down the bucket, and turned around to leave through the door.

Xie Sen hurriedly moved to follow, but only took one step and then stopped. He turned back to face the wolves.

This was his job, and he had to face it all the time.

He plucked up his courage, and kept hinting to himself that they wouldn’t hurt anyone. He smiled at the wolves. When he looked closely, they were really beautiful!

With this thought, he relaxed and grabbed the bucket to go inside again. The snow wolves in front of him waved their tails, glared, tensed their hind feet and pounced straight at the food bucket. This action was like a drop of water in the frying pan, and the snow wolves next to him immediately made a move, and pounced on the food first.

Xie Sen’s heart almost stopped for a moment. The food bucket was in his hand, so when they pounced towards it, in his vision, they were pouncing towards him.

“Boss, will nothing happen?” the feeder, who went to grab more beast food, asked Sun Mao with a worried face as he looked at the monitor.

“Snow wolves won’t hurt people.” Sun Mao wasn’t worried.

“They won’t hurt people, but they like to grab the food! I feed them every day but get rampaged into a leather ball!” the feeder said with a sad face.

“So I found a helper for you.” Sun Mao patted his shoulder, and pointed to the monitor. “Look.”

“Huh, how?!” The feeder moved his head closer in surprise, and stared at the monitor.

Xie Sen was so scared that he let go of the food bucket. One snow wolf was fastest, and pounced at the same time he let go. He took a step backward, but the touch of the snow wolf’s white fur brushing his hand still remained.

The snow wolf that was ready to jump on the food bucket and bury its head in the meat gave a start. It turned its head to look at Xie Sen, released its front paws from the food bucket, and walked to Xie Sen with a step. It raised its paws to touch Xie Sen’s hand.

Xie Sen was relieved to see its reaction, and carefully held its paw and shook it. The snow wolf’s emerald eyes became brighter, and its head rubbed against him.

“Awoo–”

Xie Sen let go of its front paws and rubbed its neck. As he glanced at the other dozen snow wolves that had abandoned the food bucket to look at him, he rubbed their fur one by one.

“Okay, now I’ll give you guys a share of the food.” Xie Sen finished kneading all the snow wolves, and started to divide the animal food.

“You are really great!” The feeder came in with the food bucket, and put a hand on Xie Sen’s shoulder, as he thought of the past days where he was like a leather ball. “Oooh. In the future with you here, my days will be heaven.”

Xie Sen looked at the 1 Energy gift in front of him, and smiled. “They are very good, but I still have a lot to learn from you.”

“You don’t even need to learn. You were born to be a feeder!”

The corners of Xie Sen’s mouth twitched. There were so many professions that he was born to be.