Chapter 27: Incubator

Chapter 27: Chapter 27: Incubator

Feng Si’s eyes lit up.

She almost had enough coins.

’I have to buy the very best Incubator for my baby!’

Feng Si finished calculating in her head, then started planning what she needed to buy.

She had come to Nantong City with nothing.

For the coming cold season and the cub that would hatch in it, she needed to prepare food and clothing in addition to the Incubator.

Mao Qiu stacked two baskets together, easily slung them over her shoulder, and freed her hands to hold Mao Ge in her arms.

Once she was ready, she saw Feng Si standing there and asked, "Should I walk you home?"

Feng Si turned her head toward the market stalls. "Help me put the baskets in the alleyway. Leave the green potatoes we bought there too. I need to go buy a few things."

After giving Mao Qiu her instructions, Feng Si went shopping.

She went to her usual shops, browsed for a bit, and bought six thick, double-sided rabbit fur blankets. She also placed an order for two hundred jin of tender meat suitable for a cub and bought three rolls of soft cloth to make her own bedding.

She also got two hundred green fruits and some various wild vegetables she had never seen before. She wanted to taste the different flavors of the local food to make it easier to create new dishes later.

After asking the shopkeeper to help deliver everything to the elevator, Feng Si returned to the top floor. It took her a long time to slowly move all her purchases into her home.

She rubbed her lower back, then looked up. The room was piled high with her things, especially the dozen or so baskets of green potatoes sitting in the kitchen. It was as if they were calling to her, telling her to get to work.

And that wasn’t all. The things she had just bought needed to be put away, the blankets needed to be washed and dried, and she still had to make her own clothes. Plus, she hadn’t even washed the vegetables she needed to prep for tomorrow’s business.

And so on—the work was endless!

An idea flashed through Feng Si’s mind.

She needed a helper. Desperately!

...

When it came to finding help, Feng Si’s first thought was naturally the three familiar sub-females from the gathering team.

The next morning, Feng Si found the three and offered them a job: thirty coins a day to help her wash and peel the green potatoes she bought every afternoon.

They, of course, readily agreed.

On the day of their return from the next gathering trip.

Feng Si followed the crowd and waited on the ground floor for the Mountain Chief to settle the accounts and deduct the food that had to be turned in.

She was in line behind Mao Qiu and her friends. When it was her turn, Feng Si asked, "I didn’t collect much food and would like to keep it for myself. Can I pay the difference in coins instead?"

"Are you sure you want to use coins?" Bai Qingqing looked at Feng Si, her eyes showing some surprise. Between food and coins, coins were much harder to come by.

"Yes, please deduct it with coins," Feng Si nodded.

She had calculated it carefully. For a normal sub-female, the food gathered on one trip every three days was worth about twenty coins.

Bai Qingqing glanced at what Feng Si was holding—all green potatoes, and not many at that. "Let’s call it sixteen coins."

Feng Si counted out the coins, picked up her basket, and turned to find Mao Qiu and the other two. The three of them were standing nearby and hadn’t left yet. Feng Si pulled Mao Lian and Mao Hua aside,

while Mao Qiu, as instructed by Feng Si earlier, turned to the crowd and shouted, "Buying green potatoes! Two coins each! Come sell them here and save on stall fees!"

The crowd looked over. Hearing Mao Qiu’s words, some sub-females who wanted to sell their green potatoes gathered around and started trading with her.

Mao Lian looked at the growing pile of green potatoes and gasped in alarm. "So many green potatoes! They’ll all spoil once the rainy season starts."

Mao Hua added, "They’ll spoil. What a waste of coins."

Feng Si was as cool as a cucumber, not worried at all. "It’s fine. I’ll process them all today."

Now that she had helpers, she naturally wanted to make as much Green Potato as possible before the rainy season. Otherwise, where would she get more green potatoes once the rains began?

This time, Feng Si bought two thousand green potatoes in one go. Mao Qiu and the other two spent the afternoon at her place helping wash and peel them before heading home.

As for the remaining steps—boiling, cutting, and drying—Feng Si had to do it all herself, as she didn’t want to reveal her profitable method for making Green Potato.

The three largest iron pots she had bought were bubbling away on the stove. Feng Si buried herself in her work. ’Hard work leads to wealth.’

Over the next few days, Feng Si didn’t even miss a single gathering trip. She wanted to use the last few excursions before the rainy season to upgrade her space.

With an egg in her belly, she only appeared to bring a small basket on the gathering trips. She would fill it alongside Mao Qiu and the others, then spend the rest of the time resting on the grass. In secret, however, she always filled her space to the brim before heading home.

She didn’t sell the wild vegetables either, storing them all in her space’s cold storage.

By now, her space was about the size of a 1.5-meter-wide bed. It could hold a lot of food, and an ever-increasing amount of coins.

She didn’t know that, for the time being, no one had thought to scrutinize her business’s accounts. But that wasn’t to say there weren’t people watching her from the shadows...

「A few days later.」

After closing up and returning home, Feng Si put her things down. She took out all the cash from her space, and including her anonymous Coin Card, she had a total of about four hundred thousand.

Taking all her assets with her, Feng Si immediately headed for the address of the Incubator shop she had found online.

The East District and the North District were a two-hour drive apart.

The buildings there were spaced further apart. Instead of bare concrete, the roadsides were planted with hundred-meter-tall trees, which added a sense of privacy between the buildings.

The towering metal high-rises soared hundreds of meters into the sky. The buildings were layered, and their triangular design ensured that every floor received sunlight.

The commercial district was in the fifth building. Feng Si had set the shop’s location in her flying car before she left, and upon arrival, the vehicle automatically came to a stop on a balcony on the eighty-seventh floor.

Feng Si stepped out carrying a backpack. Following the instructions on a light screen, she paid the ten-coin parking fee, and the flying car descended toward the parking garage on the second floor.

She walked into the mall alone. The glass doors slid open silently, and a wave of cool air washed over her face.

The room was spacious, with glass walls and display cases filled with all kinds of Incubators. It was almost noon, so there were no other customers. Two sub-females were chatting.

"Young Master Jie is so handsome! He actually beheaded the Flame Tiger’s eldest young master! The Beast King of the Beihuang Empire was so scared he immediately sued for peace. We won!" a rabbit sub-female with long white ears said excitedly, leaning on the counter.

"Oh, Beast God, I wish I could meet Young Master Jie just once! He’s so gorgeous. I wonder which female he’ll end up choosing as his mate. I’m so jealous!" the other rabbit sub-female exclaimed, her eyes practically sparkling with hearts. Her tone was a mixture of envy and longing.

Feng Si’s gaze fell on a model that looked like a completely sealed wall, then she approached the sales clerks. "Hello, I’d like to buy an Incubator."

When they saw Feng Si enter, they didn’t move. They first scanned her attire from top to bottom: a black, high-collared, long dress, a black scarf tied around her head, and a face covered in dark spots—the only part of her that was visible.

The two rabbit-eared sub-females, dressed in white uniforms with gold trim, felt a sense of superiority swell within them as they looked at the drab, wolf-eared sub-female before them.