Chapter 24: Your Shop is Suspected of Irregular Operations
After bidding farewell to Auntie Li, Jiang Ning dug up another sunflower, planning to send a pot to Ke Lai as well.
She took a maglev bus to the city center and, with one glance, saw the most conspicuous spirit tool shop in the commercial center.
Due to business expansion, Ke Lai’s family’s shop had also moved to the most prosperous area on Planet M412.
“You’re here,” Ke Lai said, looking up.
Today was the weekend. When Jiang Ning arrived at the shop, there were already quite a few customers browsing the spirit tools.
“For you,” Jiang Ning said, handing over the sunflower.
“Thanks,” Ke Lai sniffed and placed the flower in the most prominent spot in the shop.
“The quality of your flower is even better than those sold outside.”
“After all, I’m a professional,” Jiang Ning said, patting her chest.
Ke Lai tossed something into Jiang Ning’s arms. “This is for you.”
She caught it and saw that it was a spirit tool carved into the shape of a flower. “Boss Ke is very generous today!”
“It’s a matter of courtesy,” Ke Lai said. “Besides, this sunflower of yours isn’t cheap either.”
Jiang Ning went straight to the point of her visit today. “What price do you think is appropriate?”
Ke Lai lowered her eyes and thought for a moment. “It should be worth at least 500 star coins a pot. But I suggest you report a price slightly higher than 500.”
Those who could afford to buy ornamental plants were not short of money. As long as the quality was good, they wouldn’t mind an extra one or two hundred star coins.
“You said your sunflowers don’t wither?” Ke Lai turned her head and asked.
Jiang Ning said conservatively, “So far, they haven’t withered.”
She couldn’t make a guarantee, but the first one she had planted was already five and a half years old, and the sunflower plant was still in excellent condition, constantly in bloom.
“Then you can set your price even higher. After all, this is an advantage that other plants don’t have,” Ke Lai said.
Jiang Ning nodded.
She still had over fifty sunflowers. Just by selling them at 600 a pot, she could earn more than 30,000 star coins.
Moreover, her current psychic energy was very abundant. If she ran out, she could just summon more.
Jiang Ning finally set the price of the sunflower at 688 a pot.
Then she went to the Municipal Center to apply for a business license and registered a shop on the largest e-commerce website on the StarNet.
The purchasing power on Planet M412 was limited. There were only a few families who could afford to spend 600 on a pot of plants. But unlike a physical store, an e-commerce website’s reach was the entire interstellar space. On those major planets, there were many citizens who could spend a lot of money on plants.
After understanding the rules of the e-commerce website, Jiang Ning clicked on ‘Merchant Registration’, uploaded her business license and product information, and a pop-up window appeared.
【Please set your shop name】
Jiang Ning thought for a moment and named it 【Sunflower Sea】
Ding~
System prompt: 【Congratulations ‘Little Jiang Loves Farming’ for opening the shop ‘Sunflower Sea’. Please click on shop details to add products~】
Jiang Ning fiddled with it for a long time, decorating the shop and writing copy, busy until midnight.
Jiang Ning stretched, looked up at the full moon that had already climbed halfway up the sky outside the window, and prepared to go to bed.
The next morning, Jiang Ning opened the StarNet with full expectation, but there wasn’t a single view. The only one was the one she had clicked on last night.
She was disappointed for a moment but quickly cheered up again.
It was only the first day.
But for the next half a month, she didn’t sell a single sunflower!
Although the number of browsing customers was increasing every day, no one was buying.
Jiang Ning carefully looked at the product description details.
There didn’t seem to be any problem.
So where was the problem?
Jiang Ning continuously pulled down to refresh the shop interface. Suddenly, the screen went blank, and the interface displayed 【Your shop is suspected of irregular operations and has been closed by the administrator. Click to view details】
Jiang Ning: “???”
What the hell!?
Where had she violated the rules?
Jiang Ning was completely baffled and clicked on the backend interface.
A negative review was hanging in the complaint interface.
“Reason for complaint: The merchant is suspected of false advertising.”
“…”
Jiang Ning went back to the backend and carefully looked at her product description. Following the complaint details, she found the non-compliant description.
One of the phrases, ‘sunflower flowering period lasts for five years’, was marked in red by the system.
So this was what had misled the consumers.
Jiang Ning directly deleted this description and then re-listed the product. The system review time was three days. She logged out of the StarNet.
Good news came from the neighboring Li family.
Li Xiang had tested for an ability today.
For five years, Li Xiang had gone to the testing center for detection every month, but to his disappointment, for the past five years, the result had always been no psychic energy, not awakened.
And today, he went to the testing center for another test, and the result showed that he had D-rank psychic energy, a wood-elemental power ability.
Li Xiang excitedly told this news to his neighbors.
In less than an afternoon, the entire North District of the slums knew that Li Xiang had awakened an ability.
“Congratulations,” the neighbor he had greeted said awkwardly.
“Jiang Ning, come to my house for dinner tonight!” Li Xiang greeted Jiang Ning in a good mood.
Jiang Ning nodded.
Auntie Li had been busy in the kitchen since three in the afternoon. She had made a large table of dishes. Li Xiang had called Uncle Li, who was far away on a mining planet, in advance, and it just so happened that he was preparing to come home today.
Uncle Li booked the next flight and finally made it home before dinner.
Auntie Li had made a large table of dishes to celebrate Li Xiang’s ability awakening.
“You’re here. Have a seat. Dinner will be ready soon,” Auntie Li warmly greeted Jiang Ning.
As soon as Jiang Ning sat down, she noticed that the leaves of the sunflower next to the sideboard were dry, and the petals were withered, showing signs of withering.
Logically, there was a window in the dining room of Auntie Li’s house, and the sunlight could shine directly on the sunflower. It shouldn’t have withered because it couldn’t get enough sun.
Auntie Li came out of the kitchen. Seeing Jiang Ning’s gaze fixed on the pot of flowers on the ground, Auntie Li said embarrassedly, “I don’t know if it’s because I’m not good at raising it, but this flower has been like this for a few days.”
Jiang Ning went to look at the sea of flowers in her mind. That sunflower also showed signs of withering.
“…”
The sunflower she had given to Auntie Li’s family was Plant No. 50, a sunflower that had just bloomed not long ago.
How could it enter the withering period so early?
After dinner, Jiang Ning returned to her garden and carefully checked the condition of each sunflower.
She found that except for the one in Auntie Li’s house, which had entered the withering period, all the other sunflowers were growing well.
Jiang Ning didn’t believe it and went to inspect her mind again. This time, she found that not only had one sunflower’s leaves withered, but another one’s leaves had even shriveled, and its stem and leaves had withered.
That was the No. 10 sunflower she had given to Ke Lai.
It seemed that Ke Lai’s plant was in a worse condition than the one in Auntie Li’s house.
The first thing Jiang Ning thought of was a problem with the maintenance method.
So the next day, she first went next door to consult Auntie Li on what she usually did, and then she went to Ke Lai’s family’s shop to ask Ke Lai.
Ke Lai was not at home, and the sunflower had always been taken care of by the shop assistants.
But after asking, she found that both Auntie Li and the shop assistant had followed the method Jiang Ning had taught them, watering it once every 3 to 5 days and usually placing it in the sun to get enough sunlight.
The method was the same as the ones in her garden.
Excluding the maintenance method, Jiang Ning was at a loss for a moment.
Ke Lai propped her chin with her hand and suddenly mentioned a strange thing, “But recently, customers who have come to our shop have given feedback that the quality of the spirit tools in our shop is getting better and better. They feel that their psychic energy has loosened a bit after buying them.”
“They are clearly the same models as before, with no difference,” Ke Lai shrugged.
Jiang Ning: “That is strange.”
After a round of inquiries with no results, Jiang Ning could only attribute it to an occasional problem and stopped worrying about it.
A few days later, her shop was finally released.
Jiang Ning was full of confidence this time, but she was soon brought back to reality.
“A plant from a numbered planet? And it’s so expensive?”
Another negative review was blatantly hanging below her shop.
A numbered planet was a contaminated planet. Not only was the soil quality poor, but plants were also very rare.
People simply looked down on plants from numbered planets.
The system prompted her whether to lower the price.
The stereotype of the interstellar people towards numbered planets could not be changed in a short time. To sell, she could only sell cheaper than other merchants to have a competitive advantage.
But in that case, she couldn’t even recover her costs.
In the end, Jiang Ning still clicked ‘Yes’.
She adjusted the price back to the normal range of 500 star coins.
Then she closed the StarNet.
And didn’t look at it again.
A week later, Jiang Ning received an invitation. Li Xiang invited her to team up and go to the western suburban uninhabited zone to hunt mutated beasts.
This was their first hunting operation after the western suburban uninhabited zone was reopened, and it was also Li Xiang’s first operation after awakening his ability.
After Ke Lai found out, she offered to go with them.
Her school had recently assigned a final task, which was to hunt at least one B-rank mutated beast by any means to pass.
After years of nourishment from spirit tools, her current ability level had also reached the B-rank level. It was only after being promoted from D-class to B-class that she got this task.
Uncle Li and Auntie Li were old, so Li Xiang didn’t let them go with him this time.
And after Ji Fan’s family in North District 1 learned that they were going to the uninhabited zone, they begged them to take Ji Fan with them.
The three of them were all ability users. Although the ability Jiang Ning had awakened was very weak, it was still better than Ji Fan, who had nothing.
On the day of departure, Ji Fan’s parents were afraid that they would leave Ji Fan behind, so they had him wait near the maglev station early in the morning.
“Here!” Ji Fan enthusiastically waved to the two of them.
Five years had passed. Ji Fan’s other abilities had not improved, but his temperament had become more and more pretentious.
He had his hands in his pockets, a currently popular hairstyle, and was dressed in a set of fake designer clothes that looked quite decent.
“Li Xiang, you have to protect me when we get into the uninhabited zone. You’re the strongest among us now,” Ji Fan said.
Li Xiang was very pleased with the words ‘strongest ability’. He snorted arrogantly, “Then you have to stick close to me.”
Li Xiang glanced at the indifferent Jiang Ning beside him and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll cover for you too.”
He always remembered that Jiang Ning was just an F-rank, plant-based ability user, an ability even more useless than an ordinary person’s.
If they really encountered a high-level mutated beast, he and Ke Lai would have to be the ones to take the lead in this group.
Sigh~
Thinking of this, Li Xiang felt a great deal of pressure. The responsibility he bore was really heavy!
He couldn’t help it. With great power comes great responsibility!