All Novel Full 8 Money Problems
When Xin Ruo and the children came out with their packed luggage, Ikasa realized he had another huge problem. Where in the hell was he going to host them?
He had a home where his bedroom, kitchen as well as living area was all in one room. But he couldn’t accommodate six more people in it!
So he would have to either purchase or rent a larger house with a big enough space for kids to train.
Renting a house meant he needed money. He checked all his pockets and the bag. Just 1 silver and 3 coppers; enough to buy food for seven people for a week but not enough to rent a house.
‘Do I really have to take them to the city? Wouldn’t it be better if they could stay here and still work for me?’
Ikasa’s thoughts wandered as he faced this predicament. But immediately he dismissed the idea of letting them stay in slums while they worked for him.
Firstly, City guards would always make things difficult for people who were coming to the city from the slums.
He could pay once to make guards look the other way but if he had to pay every time he needed Xin Ruo and kids in the City, the amount would quickly balloon. Combined with the troubles they would face, it wasn’t worth being a cheapskate.
Another and more important reason was reputation. He wanted kids to become models for his techniques and manuals. If his buyers realized that they would be practicing the same techniques as those living in slums, his reputation would suffer a huge blow.
While thinking, Ikasa realized it was not just him who wanted to bring Kids and Xin Ruo to the city. Even Feng Yan wanted Ikasa to bring them away. But that guy had ‘forcefully reminded’ him to look after Xin Ruo and disappeared.
‘If you wanted to marry your daughter to me at the least you could’ve given us a dowry to start a happy married life!’
But there was no use cursing Feng Yan. As an aspiring businessman, he had to find solutions to his own problems.
He smiled awkwardly as he met Xin Ruo’s expectant gaze.
“Um… I am sorry but I don’t have a place ready where I can accommodate you. So you will have to stay here for some time. I will come back to fetch you when I have made sufficient preparations.”
Before Xin Ruo could answer another voice chimed in.
“Can’t we just stay with you? I mean we have already packed our stuff and are ready to leave.”
Ikasa turned his gaze towards Luo Qiqi. He didn’t want to let these kids know that while he was showing them dreams of living in big houses and becoming rich, he himself was living in sub-par conditions.
“If it was just one or two people I could make arrangements easily. But since I have to make arrangements for six people…”
“Aren’t you rich? Shouldn’t your mansion have tens of rooms?”
Luo Qiqi looked at Ikasa suspiciously. When she saw him unable to refute her words, her eyes narrowed even further.
“Are you really rich? Or are you just…?”
“Enough, Qiqi!” Xin Ruo reproached the short girl, stopping her from completing her sentence. Then she turned towards Ikasa. With a complicated expression, she apologized.
“If me being by your side is going to cause troubles in your home, I’ll stay back.” She looked at Ikasa expectantly. But her words had stunned Ikasa into silence.
‘What troubles at home? I don’t have a wife?’
Before Ikasa could explain himself, Xin Ruo turned to leave. She had assumed the brief pause he took to sort his thoughts as him being silent.
His silence meant her assumption was correct. She had felt a spark when their eyes had met for the first time but it was not meant to be.
She meekly said, “You can take the kids away.” Then she looked at the kids and then at him dejectedly.
‘Eh, what’s with that look? Why are you looking at me like a wronged wife?’
Then he noticed the kids ready to create another scene upon hearing Xin Ruo’s declaration.
‘No, I have to clear up this misunderstanding. These girls can really make stuff up. One almost sussed out I am poor while another imagined I had wife problems…’
Ikasa stepped forward to hold Xin Ruo’s hand to prevent her from leaving.
“Wai..Wait! Don’t misunderstand Xin Ruo! I am not married and I don’t have a family. It’s just that my current place really can’t house so many people.”
Ikasa had no choice but to come clean. For some reason he really didn’t want to let this girl down.
The scene had suddenly become a bit dramatic. Like a husband was coaxing his disappointed wife. And then an innocent, ill-timed comment broke the atmosphere.
“I knew it! He is also poor! Hmph!”
Xin Ruo looked away shyly as Ikasa let go of her hand. But the kids and Ikasa all shot a stinky glare at Luo Qiqi who was still looking brazenly at Ikasa.
Clearing his throat, Ikasa tried to dispel some of his embarrassment.
“So, as I was saying, I really can’t accommodate all of you guys at once. I’ll make arrangements for you within seven days. But for now please wait for my return here.”
To show his commitment he handed the silver coin to Xin Ruo. Then he resolutely turned and walked towards the city.
“Do you think he will come back?” Yan Xiao asked others while smiling foolishly.
Surprisingly it was Pei Yuan, the quietest of all, who answered, “He will.”
-x-x-x-x-
The very first thing Ikasa did, after returning to his home, was connect to the Printer. Instead of drawing a random technique, he copied the cultivation manual in his possession.
He now had two [Dumb Belle’s Guide to Strength] and zero Battle techniques in his possession. Why two? Because he had set aside one manual for Wang Mei at home. Including the one he just copied, he had two.
‘Now I need to set aside 5 Cultivation Manuals for Xin Ruo and Kids. But Cultivation Manuals alone can’t be shown off. There will be no big phenomenon at Path Forging Realm when one exercises according to cultivation manuals. So I need to pair them with Batte Techniques.’
‘Guess I shouldn’t have left all the Battle Techniques back at Xin Ruo’s.’ Ikasa smiled ruefully.
‘Anyways since I have already gifted them, don’t think about them. I can always use points if I need to print more of them.’
Then he glanced at the points.
CP: 51
BP: 50
The Cultivation Points had increased by one!
‘Wonderful! So my cheat really does work as it says in the manual.’
Ikasa stopped thinking about the mechanics of how it worked and focused on the part that it did work.
“Regretfully, Fei Yu didn’t use my manual. That’s one more manual wasted.”
Fei Yu was the chubby girl he had tried to take as his disciple. But her father had chased him away to the slums.
Before he closed the interface, the Battle points had also increased by one. But it went unnoticed.
He had hurried home in order to use his free chance for today. Now that he had used it up, he could feel the built-up fatigue. He had ignored his throbbing bruises to walk as fast as he could. Now the pain was back with vengeance.
He washed up, had some warm gruel, and reapplied Xin Ruo’s gooey medicines. As he lay in bed, he started to devise ideas that could earn him enough money to rent a large house.
‘Should I take more jobs for copying books?’
But he quickly scrapped this idea. Copying books was time-consuming work. And it did not pay so well every time.
He had promised Xin Ruo seven days. And he had to gather at least 500 gold within this time to be able to afford the kind of house he wanted.
‘How about Draft work? It pays well but it’s not in my hands.’
Only if City Lord’s manor wanted to assuage the other major powers would they let a third party draft the law or agreement. But recently, Ikasa has been getting fewer and fewer of these kinds of jobs.
‘It seems the City Lord has firmly become the strongest one in Sal City.’
As he went through his skillsets that could help him earn gold, Ikasa was feeling distressed. None of his skills could earn him 500 gold within a week.
When he turned his head the printer on the table covered his vision. The more he looked at it angrier he got.
‘The cheats of other transmigrators lower the difficulty level and make their lives easier. My cheat increased the difficulty from normal to hell-mode!’
As he looked at the printer the faces of all the people who criticized the manuals appeared.
“Are you calling all the female cultivators Dumb?”
The heated question of the very first customer to peruse his manuals.
“Next time you want to peddle some fake manuals, prepare a good backstory and use aged paper if you are going to claim it comes from an ancient ruin.”
The ‘good natured advice’ of the extra inquisitive Sword Cultivator.
And then the last but the most annoying one, Master Jin Ping who pretended to be a sage and ruined his business.
As the three faces continued to flash across his mind, Ikasa was suddenly struck with inspiration.
‘Since people have problems with ‘Name’ and ‘Material’, what if I change both?’
A devious grin formed on Ikasa’s face. He had already formulated a plan which would help him earn money as well as get revenge.
‘Hehehe, Master Jin Ping, I am coming for you.’
He was going to use the actual cultivation technique in the Original [Dumb Belle’s Guide to Strength] and write it down on an aged paper. Since its appearance had changed, it needed a new name as well. And he had already thought of one.