Chapter 220: The Third Promotion Task

Just then, Bai Ya walked in, holding a large bowl of leftover meat broth from last night.

“Time to eat! I heated up last night’s…”

Suddenly, her voice trailed off, and her jaw dropped.

Staring, dumbfounded, at the scene of the “happy little family” before her, she was completely stunned.

???

‘What are you guys doing???’

‘Did Aryan capture both of you in the time it took me to make a meal???’

To be honest, if the wooden bowl in Bai Ya’s hands had fallen to the floor right then, the scene would have been straight out of a soap opera from his past life—

The female lead stumbles upon an intimate moment between the male lead and the second female lead, is instantly heartbroken, drops whatever she’s holding, and runs off sobbing.

Unfortunately, Bai Ya was not the female lead. She didn’t drop the wooden bowl, nor did she “run off sobbing.”

Right now, she was just incredibly annoyed with herself for inviting Aryan over to eat.

But what was done was done; there was no use in regretting it now.

So, after standing there dumbly for a long moment, she could only shake her head in resignation.

“Sigh… Well, whatever. Let’s eat first.”

“…”

The atmosphere during breakfast was a little strange.

Lu Wei and Aryan clearly knew what Bai Ya was thinking, but neither of them said a word.

Aryan hesitated a few times, looking like she wanted to explain.

But, probably fearing she’d only make things worse, she kept her mouth shut and just ate quietly.

As for Lu Wei, he couldn’t be bothered with such trivial matters.

‘Bai Ya’s “girlfriend score” isn’t even half of Aryan’s right now. I have no idea what she’s so jealous about.’

Besides, all he could think about was selling the blind boxes and finding out what his final Promotion Task was.

“I’m full. I’m going to load the boxes onto the cart. You two hurry up.”

In less than five minutes, Lu Wei had swallowed his last piece of bread and gotten up to start preparations in the backyard.

The moment he left, the atmosphere in the room immediately grew even stranger.

After all, Bai Ya and Aryan both knew they were love rivals, yet for various reasons, they maintained a good friendship. This “frenemy” relationship was already delicate enough, and with the recent scene acting as a trigger, both felt they had to say something after a moment of silence.

“Aryan…”

A moment later, Bai Ya was the first to speak.

She put down her wooden bowl, looked at Aryan, and asked in a deadpan voice:

“Um, do you want more soup?”

“…”

Aryan froze, a flash of surprise in her eyes.

But she quickly composed herself and shook her head gently.

“No, thank you.”

“Oh…”

“Sister Bai Ya.”

“Hm?”

Bai Ya, who had just been about to pick up her bowl and continue eating, immediately looked up again, her face tense.

“W-What is it?”

“It’s about Brother Lu Wei. There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

Aryan sat up straight, her hands folded in her lap. Her expression was more serious than ever, and her tone was incredibly sincere.

‘Ah! Is this the showdown?!’

‘What do I do, what do I do?!’

On the other side, Bai Ya instantly grew more anxious, her hands twisting the hem of her clothes in a panic.

Although she had always been shouting ‘Bring it on!’ in her head, this was her first real “head-on confrontation” with a love rival. She was at a complete loss, and the composure she had forced upon herself moments before crumbled in an instant.

She could practically see Aryan formally declaring war on her, or perhaps even launching a direct attack.

But in the next second…

“Sister Bai Ya, Brother Lu Wei’s business is just getting started. I think we should be giving him more support.”

“Even if we can’t help much, we shouldn’t be a burden to him, distracting him with trivial matters and causing him unnecessary trouble.”

“So…”

Aryan asked earnestly in a soft voice, “Can we get along peacefully?”

“…”

‘Get along peacefully?’

‘I mean, I guess we can…’

‘But…’

Staring blankly at the sincere expression on Aryan’s face across the table, Bai Ya was stunned.

‘But why do I feel like I’m the one being lectured?’

‘Wait, aren’t I the older one here??!’

Lu Wei had no idea what kind of secret agreement Aryan and Bai Ya had reached.

In any case, by the time they set off, the two of them seemed to be back to normal… at least, Aryan was normal.

As for Bai Ya, she seemed a bit down.

But it wasn’t the helpless rage one would feel after being steamrolled by the second female lead.

It was more like she’d been put in her place.

He figured she had probably been crushed by Aryan’s superior emotional intelligence.

“Anyway, a so-called ‘blind box’ is a type of random prize where you don’t know what you’re going to get.”

“I said yesterday that they were an oracle from the Goddess of Fortune, with only twenty available each day…”

On the way to the small square, Lu Wei led the donkey cart and, in place of the distracted Bai Ya, began explaining the “origin and birth” of the blind boxes to Aryan.

Aryan listened quietly, occasionally asking a question or two. As soon as he finished, she praised him without reservation:

“That sounds like a very promising product!”

“Of course. They sold out in less than twenty minutes yesterday.”

Lu Wei said, quite pleased with himself, as he shared another secret: “The key is to make even the customers who get an Ordinary box feel like they haven’t lost out too much.”

“Mhm, I understand. Since it’s Equipment and Weapons, their prices aren’t immediately obvious.”

Aryan nodded, extrapolating from his point. “And if a customer gets a High Level box, you have to make them feel like they’ve made a huge profit, even if they might have only just broken even.”

“Exactly. That’s it.”

‘Wow, she’s a quick learner.’

‘Could it be from being Elder’s apprentice for so long? Maybe she picked it up from him?’