Xia Ze watched his neighbor leave resentfully and frowned slightly. Recently, these two had been trying to resell his potted plants. Had they discovered the greenhouse behind his shop?
After tidying up the store, Xia Ze went to check the back, confirming that the high courtyard walls completely obscured the view inside. Only then did he relax.
The quiet morning passed without a single sale not surprising, given that his shop barely made a transaction once every ten days or half a month.
Such was life on the garbage planet. People here had little money, resources were scarce, and few chose to stay unless they had no other option.
But moving to another planet required a hefty relocation fee something most couldn’t afford. Many had no choice but to hunt insectoids in polluted zones to exchange for supplies.
Xia Ze wasn’t discouraged. In the afternoon, as usual, he closed the shop and returned to his small greenhouse to tend to the plants and prepare for his evening livestream.
The physical store might not make money, but the online shop did!
And since no one online knew his real identity, the earnings didn’t draw unwanted attention.
Today, he had prepared ten small potted plants, along with a red trailing-fruit rose and a white DuPont rose.
The ten small pots were ready. Xia Ze picked up a delicate transplanting shovel and began transferring the succulents into their containers.
Each plant required different nutrients, and though they all grew in “soil,” modern horticultural potting mixes were far from ordinary dirt more like a blend of organic and inorganic materials.
Things like peat moss, perlite, sand, activated charcoal, and more.
Back in his era, these could be easily bought at any flower market.
But here, none of the familiar organic or inorganic materials were available. Xia Ze had to experiment bit by bit. Fortunately, while the garbage planet lacked many things, it had no shortage of random sands and minerals.
Once, he had braved the planet’s violent storms to collect the minerals he needed. Thankfully, that trip had yielded decent results.
Yet as he scooped the peat-like substance now, Xia Ze instinctively flinched.
Back then, desperate to cover his grandfather’s medical expenses, he had taken the risk. When the storm hit, he had curled up behind a rock, praying for the magnetic tempest to pass quickly.
But amid the swirling sand, that man had appeared again hauling him back to the settlement, his expression terrifyingly cold.
After learning what Xia Ze was after, the man’s face had darkened with some unreadable emotion before he turned and left. When he returned, Xia Ze found a mountain of peat-like material piled beside his greenhouse enough to last a decade.
Before, it hadn’t mattered. But now, with this fake marriage business, even the peat felt uncomfortably charged.
No, no, he couldn’t let his thoughts wander!
Xia Ze checked his communicator. Both parties had confirmed the marriage application, but beyond that, the device remained silent, as if nothing had happened.
Shaking his head, Xia Ze refocused. Better to concentrate on making money!
Next, he prepared different soil mixes for each plant. Though the pots were only palm-sized, every component inside served a crucial purpose.
Sand-like particles improved drainage, with varying coarseness for different effects. These were all substitutes Xia Ze had painstakingly discovered over the years to replace Earth’s soil and fertilizers.
Ensuring proper drainage, moisture, and soil looseness covered most of the work. A light watering later, the transplanting was complete.
Xia Ze removed his gloves and gently touched the plants’ leaves to check their moisture levels.
Watering was the most critical aspect of plant care, too much or too little could ruin everything.
Back on Blue Star, many people struggled to keep succulents alive, let alone in the harsher environment of the interstellar era.
Xia Ze did his best to ensure the succulents’ roots were well-established, simulating optimal light and temperature conditions so these little potted plants would still look vibrant upon delivery.
Of course, given the remote location of the trash planet he lived on with no access to premium delivery services many destinations were simply unreachable. Even if shipments did make it, the plants would likely die en route.
Creating small potted plants had become second nature to Xia Ze, but the remaining two rose cuttings were particularly important.
While potted plants could stay fresh during transport thanks to their soil, cut flowers were different. Without their root systems for protection, they’d wither and die long before blooming.
Even if flower buds were shipped out, most customers wouldn’t be able to nurture them to full bloom, making floral deliveries exceptionally challenging.
After much experimentation, Xia Ze developed a solution: first placing the trimmed flowers in airtight containers to create a vacuum environment, then carefully wrapping them with special materials to prevent damage from magnetic field contamination.
It took a full hour just to prepare a single rose.
Given that one such rose could fetch a fortune in interstellar currency, extreme care was warranted.
Immerse in his world of plants and flowers, Xia Ze remained unaware that elsewhere, his actions had already sparked a storm.
Main Planet, Royal Assembly Hall.
Qi Jing leaned back casually in his chair, enduring the uproar around him even normally dignified nobles were jumping onto tables, shouting in outrage.
Why?!
Why did you register for marriage?!
And why did you have the interstellar marriage office approve the application the moment they opened?!
How desperate could you be?!
But that wasn’t the main issue.
The real question was:
Who is that Omega?
Who?!
Who is Xia Ze?!
Why wasn’t it one of their carefully selected Omegas, or even the Omega from the Queen’s own family?
The name “Xia Ze” exploded like thunder from clear skies. Rumor had it the Queen’s nephew had been crying inconsolably at home, he’d been certain of becoming the General’s spouse, only to be upstaged by this unknown name.
The moment Qi Jing’s marital status changed, he’d been besieged by everyone until finally sitting down at the Royal Assembly that afternoon.
The questions all boiled down to a few points:
“Who is this Omega? Why have we never heard of him?”
“Why him? What’s so special about him?”
“Can’t this be changed? You’re the Empire’s youngest General, commanding the entire military, why marry someone completely unknown?”
Qi Jing replied calmly, “Didn’t you all say I couldn’t go to war unless married?”
The chaotic Assembly Hall fell silent instantly. The nobles who’d abandoned all decorum closed their mouths, guilt written across their faces.
It was true, Imperial soldiers heading to battle were always encouraged to leave descendants. The more formidable the Alpha, the greater the imperative to preserve those superior genes.
From the Emperor and Queen down to these nobles and officials, they’d all tacitly agreed to use this matter to pressure Qi Jing.
Despite knowing the decisive battle against space pirates loomed, they’d seized this opportunity to rush through the General’s marriage arrangements.
After all, this was Qi Jing we’re talking about!
The youngest Imperial General, when his father fell to the hands of space pirates, the entire empire believed the pirates would devour the nation whole. Even the pirates themselves thought so, going so far as to collude with the Zerg to seize imperial planets.
Yet at just seventeen, Qi Jing shouldered his father’s responsibilities and crushed both the pirates and the Zerg with thunderous force.
No one knew just how much power this galaxy’s top Alpha still held.
But one thing was clear: marrying one’s Omega to Qi Jing would bring eternal glory to any family!
Even the Empress had chosen her own nephew for the alliance let alone the nobility.
The Empress’s maternal family had deep ties with the media, even leveraging it to hype up her nephew.
All of it every last scheme was for the sake of becoming the General’s wife, for securing a marriage alliance with Qi Jing!
And now?
He’d found his own spouse.
Someone none of them had ever heard of.
Xia Ze?
The royal families of the Core Worlds and the nobility of the A-grade planets scoured every aristocratic faction. There were indeed a few noble houses with the surname Xia, but none of them had anyone named Xia Ze.
The thought that their relentless scheming had paved the way for some unknown Omega made them seethe with resentment.
Yet the man at the center of the storm remained unshaken, watching their theatrics with cold detachment. Though he sat while others stood, it felt as though he was looking down on them all.
Qi Jing said calmly, “The wedding will be held in two months. By then, you’ll know exactly who he is.”
“He is, without question, the best.”
A flicker of warmth passed through Qi Jing’s eyes before vanishing just as swiftly. He rose, his military boots pressing into the plush carpet of the Royal Assembly Hall with a lethality that sent chills down spines. “No underhanded moves.”
“Or else.”
He left the threat hanging, but the nobles in the Assembly Hall were already drenched in cold sweat. The slightest release of Qi Jing’s Alpha dominance was enough to make many present struggle to stay on their feet.
A bone-piercing cold forced them to instinctively bow their heads in submission.
Only after Qi Jing and his subordinates departed did the temperature in the Assembly Hall begin to rise again.
It seemed Qi Jing’s power had grown even stronger.
Stepping out of the Assembly Hall, Qi Jing glanced at his communicator, where a notification popped up:
[The streamer ZeZe you follow has gone live! Come watch now~]
The corner of Qi Jing’s lips curled. He’d been busy all day, yet this little troublemaker was still streaming so very in need of a kiss.
