"T-Thank you, Manager!" Mei Xing accepted the spirit stone with a bright smile on her face, and then she bowed to him.
"I promise you that I won't betray your trust!"
Su Yang nodded, "Go home. I will see you again tomorrow."
Mei Xing then left the massage parlor, but since she still had plenty of time before midnight, she decided to visit an exchange store to see how much the high-grade spirit stone was worth.
These exchange stores were known as Spirit Stone Grand Exchanges, and people can exchange their spirit stones for a different grade of spirit stones. For example, one could exchange a single medium-grade spirit stone for 10,000 low-grade spirit stones, or they can exchange 1 low-grade spirit stone for some mortal such as silver and gold.
Fortunately for Mei Xing, she didn't have to travel far to find one of these stores since there were multiple of these stores in every district.
"Hello, I'd like to exchange this for gold." Mei Xing showed the woman working behind the counter her high-grade spirit stone.
The woman raised her eyebrow when she saw this, and she said, "I'm sorry, but I cannot do that."
"What? Why not?" Mei Xing asked.
"Because we don't have enough gold here to exchange for the high-grade spirit stone. You're simply asking for too much from our small store, young lady. However, if you want to exchange it for medium-grade or low-grade spirit stones, we have enough."
Mei Xing was speechless. This spirit stone was too valuable to exchange? This is her first time experiencing such a situation.
"How much is this spirit stone worth?" She couldn't help but ask.
The woman then pointed to the chart behind her and said, "Check for yourself."
Mei Xing then looked at the chart, and her eyes immediately widened with shock.
"A single high-grade spirit stone is worth 10,000 medium-grade spirit stones… And a single medium-grade spirit stone is worth 10,000 low-grade spirit stones… As for a single low-grade spirit stone… They're worth 100 gold coins?!"
Mei Xing immediately began doing calculations inside her head.
'If a single high-grade spirit stone is worth 100,000,000 low-grade spirit stones… How much gold is that worth?!'
Mei Xing quickly realized that she was unable to calculate the number simply because it was much more than her knowledge! As intelligent as she was, she never had the chance to study maths properly, so she only knew numbers up to millions.
However, while she cannot tell exactly how much this high-grade spirit stone was worth, she knew that it was too much for someone like her!
A single gold coin can feed their family good food for a whole week, and she would normally only get a couple of silver coins for an entire month of work.
To suddenly obtain such a massive amount of wealth overwhelmed Mei Xing.
'The Manager is giving away this much money for a month's worth of work?!' Mei Xing became even more shocked when she realized that she would be getting this much money every single month if she continued to work for Su Yang.
Then she made another realization— that even if they worked around the clock for an entire month straight that they'd not be able to earn enough to make any profits!
Not including the newly introduced priority system, if Su Yang worked around the clock, he'd be able to massage 48 people every day, which would amount to 240 medium-grade spirit stones, and if multiplied by 30 days, he'd earn 7,200 medium-grade spirit stones in a month, which is definitely a lot of money for a mere massage parlor.
But if a single high-grade spirit stone is worth 10,000 medium-grade spirit stones, then he would be short nearly 3,000 medium-grade spirit stones every month!
'How does the Manager make any profit if he's paying me this much money while earning less than? That doesn't make any sense!' Mei Xing was puzzled.
What is the purpose of the massage parlor if he's not there to earn money— even losing money?
'Maybe the Manager is earning money through other means that I am not aware of? Oh! Maybe the customers tip him enough for a profit!'
Mei Xing realized that she didn't account for the tips since some customers would give extra money if they were overly satisfied with the service, and that was the case for every customer in the Heavenly Massage.
'Still, the Manager is extremely generous to give someone like me so much money…' Mei Xing sighed inwardly, feeling as though that she didn't deserve so much money for the amount of work she'd put in.
'Mother was right. Cultivators are extremely wealthy. Now that I think about it, spending 5 medium-grade spirit stones on a massage is too much money! Why are cultivators so rich?!'
Now that she'd experienced first-hand how rich cultivators were, her desire to become one grew.
"Do you still want to exchange your spirit stone?" The woman suddenly asked her, snapping her out of her thoughts.
"N-Not anymore. I apologize for the inconvenience." Mei Xing took back the spirit stone and began making her way back to the massage parlor.
And now that she was aware of the spirit stone's value, she made sure to keep it out of sight, afraid that someone might try to steal it from her.
After all, as intelligent as she was, if someone wants to steal from her, it would be as easy as taking candy from a baby.
"M-Manager! Are you still here?" Mei Xing called out to him when she returned to the massage parlor.
"Yes, I am. Did something happen?" Su Yang said to her from the massage room.
Mei Xing nodded and showed him the high-grade spirit stone that he gave to her not long ago.
"What about it?" He asked.
"It's too much money, Manager! I cannot even exchange it for gold coins at the exchange! And I cannot accept so much money from you with the amount of work that I am doing!" she said.
'What an honest girl,' Su Yang chuckled inwardly.
