Another day, Another Dollar

Fang Shi was pleased with the notification, and walked Yang Cheng to the doorway.

"Senior Yang, thank you for stopping by", Fang Shi remarked, "I promise to do my best and add new items in the future, so visit when you have time."

After Yang Cheng left, the store was quiet again but Fang Shi was getting hungry. He grabbed a grab of low quality spirit rice, and headed upstairs.

As he walked upstairs, he asked, "System, would it be possible to get a bottle of spirit water for myself now?"

'A bottle is waiting for you upstairs', Lujing responded, 'But something can not be attained for nothing.'

Fang Shi was about to ask what had to be done when the notification sound played in his ear. He immediately knew the purpose of the message, so he opened the panel as he reached the second floor. He selected the Task tab and saw:

[ New! Land Grab

A store must grow to survive, and in this day and age, the means expanding. The host must rent or buy the five properties surrounding his within the next 14 days. Every new property represents a new crop, orchard, garden, or livestock farm. Succes will allow the host to sell new products but failure will be punished. For every property not acquired past the deadline, the host will have to personally work the fields.

Objective: Rent or purchase 5 properties surrounding the host's home within 14 days

0/5

Reward: right to sell products produced by the expanded fields, Store remodeled, 1 qualification of 2 unlocked for a new business

Punishment for failure: Host required to personally work rice field. ]

Fang Shi wrinkled his nose as he read the details, it felt the task was not in proportion to a bottle of spirit water. It was too later now, so he grabbed the tall glass bottle that had appeared on his table and went to his wood stove. After some time, he had cleaned the rice, cooked it, and was preparing to eat it. He sprinkled a handful of salt on the rice since it was the only seasoning he currently had. The meal still tasted slightly better than average, but Fang Shi still missed the spices and condiments he had in his past life. After he was full, he noticed a decent amount of rice was still in the pot and he didn't want it to go to waste. He found some rather crudely made paper, scooped out rice, shaped each scoop into a triangular shape, and wrapped each rice ball in paper.

A sound notification rung in his mind, so Fang Shi checked the panel only to a '!' on the achievement tab. He selected the tab and saw a new achievement had appeared.

[New! Thinking outside the box]

He opened the new window, it displayed the following:

[Thinking outside the box

The host has introduced a product not known to this world.

Reward: product (Rice ball) will appear in the store tomorrow. ]

"If I had the time, I would have made mochi as well", he said as he stored the rice balls in a dark and cool place, "I'll have to eat these tonight or they will spoil quickly. Too bad I don't have refrigeration."

'Question: what is refrigeration?', the system posed a question to him.

"Ah, well, the longer food sits out, the faster it spoils", Fang Shi explained, "In my past life, we built things that were cold inside. It had two levels of coldness, the first was a temperature close to freezing, but not freezing, and it would allow food to last days without spoiling. The second temperature was slightly below freezing, and food could last weeks to months like this."

'Question: Can the host imagine these 'things' for the system to view?', Lujing requested.

Fang Shi complied, and thought about refrigerators and the units at convenience stores and grocery stores.

'The system can not replicate these items, but it's possible to adapt their design to this world', the system stated.

"Then please use the example with the glass door for the spirit water tomorrow, and a refrigerator for my kitchen upstairs", Fang Shi reminded the system.

Finished with lunch, he cleaned everything up, and went back downstairs. The rest of the day was mostly uneventful, more of his neighbors came to see his store, but most left when they saw the prices. He was actually thankful because something embarrassing had happened. After eating the spirit rice, he body had slowly warmed up before he eventually felt feverish. By the time the system closed the store, Fang Shi rushed upstairs to bathe. He really wasn't a clean freak, but he smelled terrible with his clothes smelling of sweat and other unpleasant things. When he thought about the result after his bath, he reasoned that by eating the spirit rice, his body had begun to expel impurities.

As Fang Shi dealt with his situation, another man was trying to take steps to regain his pride. Wu Jie was marching towards a fairly well decorated building, the city office. As he entered the building, he greeted the receptionist at the front counter.

"Miss Lin, I wonder if the deacon is in today, and has a few minutes to speak?", he said to her.

Lin Junlei was a late Body Perfecting stage cultivator like him, but since she worked for the city, Wu Jie had a more polite tone when speaking.

Lin Junlei politely smiled, "I will ask on your behalf Mr. Wu."

She left her seat, and went towards the room behind here, and as soon as she was sure Wu Jie couldn't see her, the smiled disappeared. She knew Wu Jie would leer at her when she walked back, and could only feel disgusted for the man.

Lin Junlei knocked on the door when she reached it, and entered when the man inside answered her.

"Deacon Zhang, Mr. Wu Jie has asked to speak with you", Lin Junlei explained, "Are you available? Or should I let him know you are busy?"

"It's fine Miss Lin", the deacon answered, "Please allow Mr. Wu Jie in."

Lin Junlei exited the room with a bow, she didn't like the deacon either, but she hid it well. Deacon Zhang Binzhi was a late stage Qi Gathering cultivator that was close to the end of his life. His strength was sufficient to control the poorest part of the city, but he was definitely do his best to enjoy his last few years. He would go out drinking often, visiting brothels, or inviting leaders of this community to his home for meals, and she was fairly certain he was bribed often.

"Mr. Wu Jie, the deacon is able to see you", she informed the farmer, "Follow me."

She escorted Wu Jie to the deacon's office, opened the door for him, and then left the two men alone.

Wu Jie approached the deacon's desk, and placed a bag down before greeting him, "It's my honor to meet the deacon again, please forgive this poor farmer for disturbing your important work."

"I always have time for the people", Deacon Zhang said as he pocketed the bag, "What can this poor deacon do to serve the people today?"

Wu Jie started to narrate his experience of visiting Fang Shi's store while twisting the events to make himself more sympathetic.

"Deacon Zhang, I believe Fang Shi invited a Qi Gathering stage cultivator to his shop as a backer, and they intend to scam the people of the outer city with fake products at high prices", Wu Jie lied to the deacon.

Deacon Zhang had already saw through Wu Jiu's act but he was also contemplating what he heard real now. As a late stage Qi Gathering cultivator, he shouldn't have any problems suppressing an early stage Qi Gathering cultivator. He decided to suppress the store from doing business, keep it isolated, and then visit to harvest the high quality spirit rice. Even if he couldn't break through with the rice, he could sell it or trade for a pill that could be his chance to ascend.

"I'm glad you have reported such a vile business, you've done the right thing", Deacon Zhang said, "Please be at ease as I will handle this affair from now on."

Wu Jie was somewhat regretful now because he knew that the deacon was going to take everything from the shop, but he had hope that he could still benefit from his relationship with the man. The two men walked out of the office, and when Deacon Zhang saw Lin Junlei he said, "Miss Lin, please put a notice out that the Heaven and Earth pavilion owned by Fang Shi is to be shut down, and it's deed recovered. We will no longer deal with this man, and I will personally visit his house in a few days to enforce this decision."

Lin Junlei sighed as she took notes, and Wu Jie was pleased as he left the city office.

The next morning, Fang Shi followed the routine set by yesterday, awake before dusk, finish eating the rice balls, and walk down to the shop. Everything looked the same except for a new addition, a large cabinet that looked similar to the refrigerated shelves in a convenience store, with a door that slide open. Inside were three different products: bottled spirit water, rice balls, and mochi. Fang inspected the rice balls and mochi, and discovered that they were wrapped in a rice paper and tied with twine produced from rice stalks. On top of the new cabinet was a sign that listed all the prices of the goods inside.

Since it was still relatively early in the morning, and Fang Shi felt no one would come here so in the morning, he decided to go to the city office to try and rent one more field. He knew he still had thirteen more days, but he figured if he could get another field now, the number of goods he could offer would increase quickly. So he locked up the store, and left to go to town. An hour later he returned angrier than he had ever been in his life.

"Who has the gall to accuse me of selling fake goods?", Fang Shi recalled what happened at the city office.

Not only did they refuse to rent him extra fields, they demanded his land deed back.

"This has to be the work of Wu Jie, it's exactly how it would go in a novel", he reasoned, "System, place Wu Jie on the blacklist. I'll never allow a petty vindictive man like that near the store again."

'It has been done', Lujing confirmed

After a few hours, Yang Cheng entered the shop, but he was not alone. He arrived with a woman, several children of various ages, and several families.

"Good Afternoon, Owner Fang", Yang Cheng happily greeted Fang Shi as they walked in, "I hope you don't mind, but everyone here was so impressed with your rice, they begged me to bring them here today."

"You are always welcomed, my friend", Fang Shi responded, "I'm just embarrassed to hear you flatter my humble shop."

After exchanging pleasantries with everyone, the customers started looking around the shop. Today's attraction was not the rice, but the cabinet, and Fang Shi was overwhelmed with questions.

"How does it stay cold? Is that real spirit water? What are the other two products inside?", Fang Shi had to quiet the multitude of questions being asked.

He answered everything as well as he could, "The artifact uses arrays to keep the air cold. Yes, the spirit water is real. The top shelf is rice balls, and the bottom shelf is mochi."

Feeling more questions were about to be asked he continued, "The price for the spirit water is as stated on the sign, and mochi is a sweet snack made from rice. I recommend if you buy and eat it, have something to drink close by, and don't feed to small children."

Realized they had been seen through the group of neighbors made their purchases before leaving the shop.

For the next couple of days, Fang Shi had an increase in business because of his neighbors. But towards the end of the third day, something happened. It was almost dusk and time to close the shop when a man walked in.

"Welcome to the Heaven and Earth pavilion", Fang Shi greeted his customers like normal.

"That's strange, I had ordered this shop closed a few days ago", the man said, "Why haven't you returned your deed as ordered?"

Fang Shi immediately understood who this was, and what was happening. He glared at the man, and instructed the system to suppress him.

Zhang Binzhi was feel something was wrong today. Earlier, he had Wu Jie escort him to the store but when they reached the property, Wu Jie was acting strange saying he couldn't see the store despite it being right in front of him. It had been a rather hot day, and made Zhang Binzhi sweat, but when he walked inside the store, he felt such a pleasant feeling. And when he saw and felt the aura of the rice and spirit water inside the store, he quickly made the first move to take the store. He couldn't move which meant he was being suppressed by a cultivator of a higher stage, which could only mean a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator. He was afraid as he watched the young man that tended the store walk over to him.

"You're the Deacon of this part of town, right?", Fang Shi shouted at the man, "What? Did you think you could come here and try to take my things like Wu Jie tried to?"

Fang Shi waited to hear an answer from the deacon before he realized that he suppressed the man too much. He commanded the system in his mind to allow the deacon to speak.

Deacon Zhang felt things change, and knew he could speak now, "Young friend, it seems there was a misunderstanding and you were falsely accused. Could you free me so I can return my office and make things right?"

"Yeah right", Fang Shi retorted, "As soon as I free you, you will attempt to attack, or escape and return with someone stronger. I should probably deal with you, and bury you 10k feet underground so that they never find you."

Deacon Zhang was shocked, he had considered both of those actions when he got free, but this kid seem to know.

He gritted his teeth, "Then what can I do to show my sincerity to you, young friend?"

He watched as the young man stood there, probably taking instructions from his backer before he heard, "Take an oath against your life and soul that you fix everything back to normal. Otherwise, don't think about leaving today."

"Fine, fine", Deacon Zhang agreed before reciting an oath that was very specifically worded by Fang Shi. When the oath finished, and Zhang Binzhi felt it take hold, he was terrified. By the agreed wording, if he decided in his heart to leak the events of today, or refuse to restore Fang Shi's rights, his life would end, and his soul would scatter unable to reincarnate.

Immediately the pressure that held him down lifted, and he heard, "Please browse my wares if something has caught your eye, or if your business here is done, have a safe trip home."

He turned to see the young man smiling at him, so he quickly bought a bag of high quality spirit rice, a bottle of spirit water, and quickly ran back home.