Chapter 47
When Lu Shu saw an entire wave of notifications coming into his records log, his eyes sparkled. When he first took out the stinky tofu, Lu Xiaoyu contributed just a few distress points to him and he did not think much about it.
But from the look of it, this thing here was exactly like a weapon of ma.s.s destruction!
Even though the distress points he earned from it were not very significant, but the points were coming in consistently at a high rate. Within just a minute, Lu Shu was able to harvest about 100 points. If he were to sell his products for 20 minutes, as usual, Lu Shu estimated that he would be able to harvest about 2000 points. Furthermore, he had just pushed out his cart and there were not many pa.s.sersby. When there would be more of them pa.s.sing by later, wouldn't his points explode out of control?
As such, Lu Shu did not need to fear that he would win something undesirable from the lottery. Even if his reward were to be stinky tofus, it would be sort of useful to his actual life......
It was considered really stinky but it wasn't that pungent that others could not endure the smell of it. Or else, the resentment they exude would not amount to just single-digit distress points. To put it simply, it was more of a mild, p.r.i.c.kling sense of suffering for the others.
Li Guoyang thought for awhile and with a mouth half-opened from some minor agony, cracked a half-serious joke, "Lu Shu… did Uncle Li do anything to you which you did not like recently?"
"No, no, definitely not," Lu Shu quickly waved and denied, "Uncle Li, who are you kidding."
Within this year or so, everyone knew that Lu Shu was a self-reliant orphan and had always looked out for him. Uncle Li used to sell Chinese marbled eggs at his breakfast store which tasted decent even though it wasn't as easy to de-sh.e.l.l due to him not bathing the eggs in cold water. It was still undoubtedly a favorite with everyone.
However, after Uncle Li had learned of Lu Shu and Lu Xiaoyu's financial situation, he had quietly stopped selling his Chinese marbled eggs.
Furthermore, there were two other stores which followed suit. As such, Lu Shu was the only one left selling eggs on the entire street, resulting in his booming business.
And whenever Lu Xiaoyu came out to sell the eggs on her own, it was these Aunties and Uncles who would look after her. No matter how intelligent she was, Lu Xiaoyu was still just a 10-year-old girl. There were many scoundrels out there and if anyone were to show even a hint of animosity towards her, there would always be these folks to come to her rescue.
Uncle Li and the rest would even group up and send Lu Xiaoyu home at times after they were done with their stores.
These heartfelt feelings slowly acc.u.mulated. Lu Shu had always felt that 'unconditional love' did not exist in this world since both Lu Xiaoyu's and his parents had abandoned them. If so, who else would show kindness to them?
At least, that was the mentality they had when they had
It was only after some time that Lu Shu slowly realized that there were indeed virtuous people in this world where true sentiments were present and not everything was corrupt and nefarious.
Lu Shu had thought about it and decided that if he were to get himself a good paying job after his university studies, he would help out these folks with whatever they needed a.s.sistance with. This was because, in his darkest, toughest period, they were the ones who showered him with the greatest kindness he had ever experienced.
To a 16-year-old who had just left the orphanage, these overwhelming warmth were like… the necessary help he had needed desperately.
Lu Shu was not one who unscrupulously antagonize others. At least for these folks, he would definitely not provoke them.
As such, when Uncle Li had said those words, Lu Shu internalized his words and felt rather embarra.s.sed having his distress points coming from them.
Lu Shu thought for a while and in one swooping motion, brought out a few stinky tofus and planned to hand them out to everyone to try, "Uncle Li, these are the stinky tofu which I made. Don't just focus on its stench, they are actually really delicious."
He wondered that if everyone were to try this stinky tofu, would their distress be relieved a little?
Compared to these people who displayed kindness towards him, Lu Shu would rather sacrifice a few distress points… since there were still other pa.s.sers-by… and also, his adorable cla.s.smates!
He brought along one portion for each person and each stinky tofu portion would cost him a little short of $5. Although Lu Shu was a calculative person, he was definitely not a petty one.
The only problem was that these folks did not accept his offer readily and were sitting on the fence. Thus, they doubtfully took a small bite out of the stinky tofu…
"Delicious!" Uncle Li was shocked the moment he ate it. This stinky tofu was surprisingly delicious and had a strong depth of flavor, "Shu, what great culinary skills. If you had such skill, why did you not bring it out earlier? I think that this would help you earn much more than the eggs you sell!"
Lu Shu peeked at his income records and Uncle Li's distress points had stopped coming in. This was considered a positive situation to Lu Shu and he replied, "I had just learned it and I only dared to bring it out to sell after I was confident that I have mastered it."
Of course, he could not mention anything about the lottery and had to provide such an answer.
After eating the stinky tofu, everyone's distress points had vanished together with Lu Shu's guilt.
"I will continue to sell this stinky tofu in the future so Uncle Li and Auntie w.a.n.g, you can carry on with selling your Chinese marbled eggs. I'm sorry for holding up your business this past year or so," Lu Shu stated while smiling.
"Look at you, sounding as if we're strangers," replied Uncle Li happily. It was a joy to see that someone had remembered the favors you've done for them. Initially, they had only decided to help these two siblings, Lu Shu and Lu Xiaoyu, as they seemed to have rather good characters. Or else, there was no reason to help out a total stranger.
Lu Shu had earned about 200 points and although he had lost a large sum of his possible income, he felt rather contented inside.
These folks of 10 over people had only consumed 3 portions of his stinky tofu and there were still more to sell.
The pa.s.sers-by in the streets slowly increased as those who needed to work or go to school made their way through this place. When they walked past this area, their nostrils would normally be attacked by the fragrance of the food being prepared here - baked pancakes, fruits, peppery soups, soymilk and various vegetable bundles…
But for today… everything seemed to have changed as there was only the smell of stinky tofu in the air!
Lu Shu cheerfully watched as people walked past him, causing his income records of distress points rise at breakneck speed!
As long as someone was to come within 50 meters of his stall, they would immediately contribute distress points to Lu Shu until they had left the vicinity.
Even though the area was not significantly huge, the main point was that there were mountains of people here! Humans for the win!
Just after 10 minutes, Lu Shu had earned 3700 points. If anyone ordinary were to see how irksome he was, they would surely cry deep inside knowing that information.
But Lu Shu was not an ordinary person… He only felt a great sense of contentment upon seeing the huge income of distress points… It felt as though Lu Shu had a ma.s.sive killer weapon in his grasp…
Haha, he is just someone carrying a box of stinky tofu and he could strike fear within others.
Previously, he was worried that the moment everyone had eaten his stinky tofu, they would slowly halt their distress contribution.
On second thoughts, that trail of thought was rather laughable and there was no need to worry.
There were thousands of people walking through this street but his limited portions of stinky tofu only amounted to a few tens of pieces. Even if one person was to purchase just one portion, there would be no end to the queue. As such, his current stock of stinky tofu seemed negligible compared to the number of pa.s.sers-by.