Although Ai Hui hadn’t provided more “bunny hair” yet, Manager Li gave him a sum of money as a deposit without any hesitation. He was acting so generous that Ai Hui started to feel worried about whether he was shrewd enough to make money.
No profiteer, no money!
When she recognized the concern in Ai Hui’s tone, Mingxiu couldn’t help but burst into laughter. “Ai Hui, you are so…realistic. But if you think he is stupid, then you can stop worrying. He has been conducting business with our workshop for many years, and he is a very shrewd businessman. The reason why he is so generous is that we are taking a percentage of profit that is less than what he expected.”
“Less than his expectation?” Ai Hui’s eyes widened. He seemed to be prepared to rush out and get Manager Li back at any moment.
Mingxiu gave him a glance. “Do you think I’d let you suffer any loss?”
Ai Hui looked embarra.s.sed. “Of course not. I’m not an ungrateful person! And I always really appreciate your help. I’m sure this is good enough for me.”
In fact, Ai Hui was actually being sincere. Not even a single word he said was against his true feelings. Mingxiu would always help him as much as she could; sometimes, even Han Yuqin didn’t know what she did. He was clearly aware of this.
If one had a sister, she should be like Mingxiu.
Even Master Han Yuqin, who always wore a fierce look, was actually kind to him. She was only dissatisfied with Ai Hui just because he couldn’t be fully engaged in embroidery. She kept mentioning how much money he owed her, but she never hesitated to give him the materials he needed for training. His teacher was a good person, too—even if he was, admittedly, sometimes unreliable and a bit pedantic. He was only good at his theories and knew nothing about the real practice of training. He wasn’t perfect at all.
But still, Ai Hui believed that Master was the best teacher, his mistress was the best mistress, and Senior Mingxiu was the best senior he could possibly have in the entire world. They cared about him, they loved him, and they helped him in the best ways they could think of.
He was not an ingrate!
Duanmu Huanghun, who was far away from them, sneezed twice, oblivious to Ai Hui’s words.
Mingxiu could feel the sincerity in Ai Hui’s words. She smiled and patiently explained, “You’ll definitely have a bright future, Ai Hui. So, for you, this business is just the beginning. Of course, I can ask for a higher percentage of profit, but that isn’t necessary. Since you are only responsible for providing the Twilight Silk, if you take away too much profit, Manager Li will not be so enthusiastic. The production, sales, and channel development all depend on him. After a period of time, there will inevitably be conflicts between us. If so, he will either find someone else to counterfeit the silk, or he will start another business himself. But now, since you take only thirty percent of the profit, which is acceptable to any independent business, he won’t think he is working for you. Instead, he will regard it as his own business. In this way, he will not fall out with our workshop, and the business can go on for a long time.”
Ai Hui nodded. In terms of doing business, he was undoubtedly inferior to Mingxiu, who had been a.s.sisting in running the workshop for years.
“Although the proportion of profit we take is not large, your income will acc.u.mulate and increase as the business grows. Besides, you can spend more time on training. In the future, you will feel the benefit that a steady income brings to your training.”
Ai Hui was moved by Mingxiu’s patient explanation, and he replied in earnest, “I’ll keep that in mind.”
The unruliness and stubbornness in Ai Hui were gone. Instead, right now, he was like a lion that had retracted its sharp claws and teeth—he was as docile as a cat.
Ai Hui then left; Mingxiu didn’t ask him to stay. Every student would be extremely excited when they activated a new palace and anxious to try to open up the next one.
She glanced at the workshop, now in ruins, and was about to find someone to clean it up when she suddenly thought of something.
She realized that she had ignored an important question: why did the activation of Ai Hui’s new palaces lead to an explosion?
The activation of one’s palace would result in different consequences depending on their physical condition, but Mingxiu had never heard of anyone who opened up the new palaces with an explosion.
Explosion…
“Explosion?” Li Wei was surprised to hear what Mingxiu had told him, and he asked, “You mean both of his hand palaces were activated at the same time, and the explosion happened in this process, too?”
“Yes, the workshop was razed to the ground.” Mingxiu was a bit worried. “Is there any problem in Ai Hui’s training method?”
When it came to this question, Mingxiu thought for a while before she finally decided to ask Li Wei for help. Master was definitely accomplished in embroidery, but she was not very good at basic training. On the other hand, although Uncle was good at basic training, he only knew about the theory, and he had no idea about how to deal with the accidents that occurred during training.
Compared to them, Li Wei was much more experienced.
He was, indeed, experienced. He consoled Mingxiu, “Don’t worry, Xiu. This is not a common phenomenon, but it’s not unprecedented either.”
Mingxiu was relieved when she heard Li Wei. She was most worried about whether the explosion during the activation of both his hand palaces meant that the method of his training was wrong.
Li Wei looked unconcerned as if this was normal, but inside his heart, he was greatly shocked.
Generally, the higher the base level, the more fierce the consequences would be when a breakthrough was achieved. For some elementalists, their breakthroughs could lead to thunder and lightning—maybe even storms and reversed tides.
The students of the Induction Ground seldom made a fierce reaction when their palaces were activated because the elemental energy within them was too scarce to cause any abnormality.
But Ai Hui was different from others because he had the ball of elemental energy which contained more elemental energy than he could control. This was very likely to be the reason for the occurrence of the abnormality.
Although Li Wei didn’t know the reason for the explosion, he was more interested in what Ai Hui gained in return.
Li Wei had once heard that when these abnormalities occurred when one moved to the next level, there was a possibility that the elementalist would gain something unique. However, this seemed to apply only to high-level elementalists, instead of those who were still in basic training.
Ai Hui had only activated his hand palaces, but this had led to an unexpected explosion. What did this mean to his hand palaces?
Or was he overthinking? After all, this was a saying that usually referred to high-level elementalists. He wasn’t sure whether it would apply to students as well.
Li Wei mocked himself. He was almost sure that he was thinking too much just now. But anyway, Ai Hui had potential as he would always do things differently. This was what a potential youngster should do!
Even when he ate noodles, he was different from others!
When he envisioned the scene of Ai Hui eating noodles, Li Wei laughed and said, “If you want to know whether everything’s fine, there’s a simple method.”
Mingxiu was immediately attracted to his words. “What method?”
“Take him out and buy him noodles.” When he saw that Mingxiu didn’t appear to believe him, Li Wei said, “Last time, in the noodle house, I said I would buy him some noodles. He was sitting opposite to me, and he stared at me sincerely and kept saying ‘You"re so nice, Li Wei.’ And at first, I was thinking, ‘Okay, this is a good boy.’ But then I was totally shocked when I saw the bill. Do you know how many bowls we ate? Ten! That means he ate nine bowls of noodles himself! That was when I understood why he was so sincere. Yes, he was sincere because the noodles were delicious. So, if you want to know if everything is fine with him, take him to the noodle house. If he cannot have more than five bowls of noodles, then there must be something wrong…”
Mingxiu laughed out loud.