Jiang Qin knew that right now, everyone in the Jiang Family was probably at the hospital, cursing her name. But she didn't care anymore.
At this time in her previous life, she had also gone to the hospital.
There, she watched as her family members repeatedly hurled vicious words at her for Jiang Ruming's sake.
She tried to explain that she hadn't pushed her down the stairs, but no one was willing to believe her.
They were convinced that having grown up on a Barren Star, she had picked up all sorts of bad habits.
Lying, stealing, jealousy, and maliciousness—these were the labels they slapped on her.
Back in her room, Jiang Qin calmly packed her things.
At this point, she had only been back with the Jiang Family for a month, so she really didn't have many belongings. All she had were the initial gifts given to her by her biological mother, Jiang Yulian, and her partners.
As for her three half-brothers from the same mother, they didn't accept her, so naturally, there were no gifts from them.
Jiang Ruming had also given her a necklace. It had some scratches on it and was supposedly an heirloom from her own mother.
And she, coming from a Barren Star, had nothing of corresponding value to give in return, so after explaining this, she didn't accept it.
But this was twisted into her being hostile toward her older sister and thus unwilling to accept her gift.
'But none of that mattered to me anymore.'
Jiang Qin left the Jiang Family carrying a very light bag.
Inside were the few things she had brought with her when she first left the Barren Star.
As for the things that belonged to the Jiang Family, she didn't take a single one. She only took a bracelet left to her by her biological father.
***
「Tai Street.」
This was the bar district of Langor City.
Unlike the red-light, debaucherous bars of Earth, Interstellar Bars were the only refuge for males who lacked the soothing of a female.
Here, there were many females who chose to work because they had committed crimes. Every night, they would perform large-scale spiritual power soothing.
Interstellar People were divided into three types:
The first type was purebred humans with no spiritual power, defined as trash and pets.
Their physiques were fragile, and the volatile factors in the air caused them to live in a perpetually sickly state.
The second type was Half-beastmen, a class of people with incomplete genes. They possessed some beast-like abilities but had very poor physical stability and generally didn't live past one hundred years old.
In a world where Beastmen could live up to three hundred years, dying before one hundred was considered a premature death.
The third type was the fully evolved Beastman.
Both males and females possessed spiritual power. Males could transform into their beast forms to fight, while females had the ability to soothe and purify spiritual power.
This class of people dominated this vast universe.
'Perhaps in this interstellar age, no one is destined to die of old age.'
Beastman males—or rather, everyone except females with spiritual power—would be eroded by a type of volatile factor in the air.
After entering the body, these factors would accumulate. Once they reached a critical point, the person would lose their sanity, go berserk, and ultimately explode and die.
The only solution was to regularly drink Inhibitors and receive spiritual power soothing from a female.
The drinks sold at the bars were alcohol-flavored Inhibitors. Paired with a female's soothing, they offered these males a moment of relief.
Therefore, every night, this street would become incredibly lively.
However, it was now daytime. Only a few quiet bars were open, and it was very peaceful.
Jiang Qin stopped in front of a slightly old-fashioned bar at the end of the street.
On the light screen at the entrance was a notice:
[Hiring Female Staff. Monthly Salary: 1 Million Star Coins. Level Requirement: C-level or higher.]
Females in the Interstellar era were precious. Of course, purebred and Half-beast females didn't count. At most, they received slightly better treatment, but they couldn't be compared to Beastman females.
This was because there was a ninety percent chance that the children they bore would awaken as purebred humans or Half-beastmen.
Therefore, the only preferential treatment they received was due to the huge disparity in the male-to-female ratio; their social status wasn't very high.
As for females with spiritual power, even those of the lowest D-level, they would not be sentenced to death in the Interstellar era unless they committed the most heinous crimes.
The sentencing options were very humane.
The first option was to enter a breeding center. After being assigned a male, they could be pardoned of all crimes once they gave birth to a female or several males.
The number of children required depended on the crime committed and the severity of the sentence.
The second option was to work in the rear echelons of the military. The duration depended on the crime, but it was generally a very long time.
The third option offered a reduction in sentence time, allowing for a quicker pardon, but it was very dangerous because the work was located on a Barren Star.
The last option was to work in a bar.
This was the only way for a criminal female to remain on her home planet, but the sentence would be correspondingly long.
For example, a crime that would earn a three-year sentence on a Barren Star would require at least eight years of work here.
However, females generally didn't commit crimes, so in reality, many bars on any given planet had no female staff.
No female would willingly come to a place like this to perform spiritual power soothing.
They were all high and mighty, preferring to wait for males to come begging at their door. If they found one they liked, they would take them as a partner; if not, they generally wouldn't be willing to offer soothing.
This was because their spiritual power was also limited.
The lower the Level, the weaker the soothing effect.
The soothing work in a bar was already a large-scale, diluted effect. Even when paired with Inhibitors, it wasn't very useful.
Therefore, D-levels need not even apply.
A C-level could provide a tiny bit of a soothing effect; the higher the Level, the better.
But if not for criminal females, these bars couldn't even recruit C-levels, let alone anyone higher.
When Jiang Qin was three, she had been sent for her awakening, and her spiritual power was exactly C-level, just enough to meet the threshold.
'Other females might look down on a million Star Coins, but I certainly don't!'
Back on the Barren Star, she never dared to reveal she was a Beastman female, constantly disguising herself as a purebred human male to survive by scavenging.
Even though she knew she could earn a lot of money, she didn't dare try.
Because the laws and regulations on the Barren Star were chaotic, and it was filled with people living one day at a time.
They were completely unbound by the law.
It was a place where people couldn't get enough to eat, couldn't live well, and where Alien Beasts periodically attacked the settlements. Many people who were alive one day might disappear the next.
No one would care about things like that.
No one would investigate, so if you died, you died for nothing.
So even though she had left the Jiang Family, she could never return to the Barren Star.
If she worked at the bar, not only would she have money, but she could also directly obtain residency on a Second-level Planet.
This was also a benefit the Federation offered to encourage females to work in bars, though the highest residency they could obtain was for a Second-level Planet.
Residency for Level 1 planets and the Main Star had other requirements.
Since she had made her decision, Jiang Qin didn't hesitate. Carrying her bag, she walked straight into the bar named Moonlight.
"Hello, I'd like to apply for the soothing master position."