Chapter 718: The Universal Mining System (9)

"Xie Yang!"

"Xie Yang!"

While Xie Yang was still marveling at the purchasing power of the interstellar citizens—the other party had likely bought one out of curiosity, found it delicious, and then cleared out the stock in minutes—she was hesitating over whether to list more when she heard Xie Ma's voice.

"Oh, my poor Xie Yang, I've finally been waiting for you to come back!"

"……Mom, why are you here?"

"The Federation news released the word that you all were leaving the Mining Star. I heard from your Uncle Andewa that he saw you in the news. Your dad originally wanted to come pick you up, but a batch of garbage just arrived this morning and he couldn't get away, so he sent Mom to pick you up instead. How are you, child? Were you okay on the Mining Star?"

Su Moli hugged Xie Yang with slightly reddened eyes, then looked her up and down: "You've lost weight."

Xie Yang sighed inwardly: it seems mothers all over the world are the same; the first thing they say upon seeing children they haven't seen in days is full of heartache.

The second thing she asked was whether she was hungry, and while asking, she took out several Nutrient Solutions with different packaging: "I asked your Uncle Andewa to help me get these new flavors."

"I'm not hungry, but how did you get here? The spaceship ticket couldn't have been cheap, right?"

"Speaking of that, I was quite lucky," Su Moli said with a smile in her eyes. "Your dad was just planning to borrow some Star Coins from his colleagues to buy me a ticket, but a cargo spaceship delivering garbage happened to be returning, so they gave me a ride. The captain for the return trip was also kind enough to help us arrange another cargo spaceship. No need to wait, we can leave right now. Come on! It's right over there!"

As she spoke, Su Moli picked up the travel bag at her daughter's feet, took her daughter's hand, and walked toward the cargo terminal, asking all the way about her life on the Mining Star—was it dangerous? Did she go hungry?

"Mom knows even without you saying it. What kind of good job could mining be? It's both tiring and dangerous. It's a pity your dad swallowed his pride and contacted everyone he could, but they all said there was no way to take your place, so you had to suffer... But your dad has been tinkering with some Mining Tools using scrap metal these days; take them with you next time, you might find them useful."

"And your brother, on the days you weren't home, he often went to your room to sit and stare blankly. After staring, he would compete with that Sweeping Robot you cobbled together to do chores. The floor in your room has been polished by him until it's almost like a mirror; he won't listen even when I tell him to stop..."

Along the way, Xie Yang listened to Su Moli chattering about daily life at home, nagging about her husband after finishing with her son, and nagging about herself after finishing with her son, complaining that the Nanny Robots on the Garbage Star were becoming increasingly cheap, and unless one knew some craft that robots weren't good at, there was no hope of snatching work from them.

A craft that robots aren't good at?

Xie Yang's heart stirred: "Mom, do you know traditional Cooking? You know, turning natural ingredients into delicious food?"

"Sigh, how would I know how to do that? The Nanny Robots know a few of the traditional dishes you mentioned; I heard the robot company spent hundreds of millions of Star Coins buying the recipe copyrights from the Chef Association."

Recipe copyrights are that expensive?

No wonder the Octopus Balls she made were so popular.

It seems this dish shouldn't be in the Nanny Robots' Cooking programs.

The opportunity to get rich has arrived!

In fact, she didn't even need to show off her skills; the surplus ore she brought back was enough to make the family wealthy.

Just look, the captain of the cargo spaceship, upon learning she had just returned from the Mining Star, rubbed his hands and said with a chuckle: "I heard the ore from that place has a much higher purity than the ore from the fringe stars. If you want to sell it, you can find me; I have a relative who specializes in the ore business."

Xie Yang shook her head: "After I fulfilled the quota Task, I didn't have many pieces left. I want to take them home first to show my dad and brother."

The captain was not surprised in the slightest upon hearing this.

In his view, for a young girl like Xie Yang to fulfill her quota Task and earn a three-day break was already impressive; she couldn't have brought back much ore, so he smiled to show his understanding:

"If I had drawn a mining spot and had the chance to bring ore back, I would definitely want to take it home first too. After all, it's the fruits of victory from you digging for a month day and night there; it's not easy."

Although she didn't give him any ore, Xie Yang took out a few Octopus Balls and gave one each to the captain and his two deputies to thank them for being willing to give them a ride home.

As for the captain of the other cargo spaceship, she would thank him when there was another chance in the future.

"This is natural food I managed to snap up in the mine, but I don't have many Star Coins on hand, so I only brought back this much. Please don't mind."

"Not at all, not at all! This natural food smells so fragrant!"

"Exactly! You can't even eat natural food usually! Many thanks!"

"You can buy natural food in the mine? Did someone bring it in?"

Xie Yang blinked: "I'm not sure. Maybe it was a reward from digging up a Blind Box."

"Dug up from a Blind Box? No wonder the freshness-locking technology is so good!"

"You can even dig up Blind Boxes? That's it! Next time, even more people will definitely sign up for mining! The chance of being selected will be even lower!"

"It won't be harder than the annual Contribution Value lottery, will it?"

"Hard to say."

"Looking at it this way, the first batch of people to sign up were the luckiest! If I had known, I would have signed up back then!"

"A hundred billion Star Coins can't buy foresight!"

"……"

The captain and the two deputies were chattering away in a heated discussion, while Xie Yang followed Su Moli to sit in a relatively clean little corner behind the cargo hold where garbage was piled.

Cargo spaceships are fast and don't require transit stops, so the time taken is much shorter than passenger spaceships.

Su Moli hadn't finished chatting with her daughter yet when the spaceship arrived at the Garbage Star docking point.

Today's docking point was livelier than ever. The Star Citizens of the Garbage Star, some having seen the news and some having heard others talk about it, all swarmed over to pick up their relatives whenever they had drawn a mining spot.

However, as soon as they saw that it was a cargo spaceship arriving, they all withdrew their gazes in disappointment.

"When will the Garbage Star's passenger spaceships have more shifts?"

"The shifts are few and they are often delayed; I'm really fed up!"

"Next time the Federation holds an election, whoever increases the passenger shifts for our Garbage Star, I'll vote for them!"

"Forget it! Those politicians on the Imperial Star, how many of them care about the opinions of us bottom-tier Star Citizens who are so poor we can't even afford a new flavor of Nutrient Solution?"

"Once my child's dad comes back from the Mining Star, we'll be able to afford it!"

"Stop dreaming! There are hardly any people who dug up rare ore in the first batch. Most of them don't have any valuable ore left after fulfilling their quota Task. There are even people who dug for three years and still haven't come back! Do you really think mining is like the gold rush of the Weilan Star era?"

Taking advantage of everyone arguing about whether the mining job was an opportunity or a risk, Su Moli hurriedly pulled her daughter and blended in among several Transport Robots to get off the spaceship and return home.

She didn't know if others had dug up rare ore, but her daughter had!

She had just secretly shown her a glimpse of it; that blue, shimmering rare ore was truly beautiful!