AWACS - An American With A Chinese System
Copyright© 2025 by PT Brainum
Chapter 15
I was about to insist I didn’t have any peaches, then what she said clicked thru my mind, and everything came to a stop. I turned on my new passives, and three things popped up around her head.
The first was a big label hanging over her head: No Fraud Detected
There were two meters like a bar, both were full and labeled at 99.9%, the first was labeled No Exaggeration, the second labeled Complete Sincerity.
I triggered my forget skill just in case this went really bad.
“I inherited something on a recent trip to China. I did not know that the peaches were anything other than delicious.”
“I believe they are three hundred year peaches. Anyone who eats them will live for three hundred years. If they were three thousand year, or nine thousand year peaches then I would have reverted to a baby.”
“Ok, I did not know that there was such a thing.”
“They are part of our legends, and are not believed to actually exist.”
“What do you think will happen to your husband if he eats one of my peaches?”
“He will wake up tomorrow as a much younger man, as I woke up today a much younger woman.”
“Can you explain something to me, I don’t speak or read Chinese, and there’s something that would be helpful for me to understand.”
“I will do my best to answer any question you might have.”
I took a piece of paper and sketched out the four characters of the skill that gave me peaches.
世外桃源
“I know this phrase. It is the Garden of the Immortal Peaches. It comes from a story about a man who found a magical peach forest, and a happy perfect village living on a hill inside the forest, but once he left he could never find it again. Sometime this phrase is translated shangrila, or xanadu, it describes a utopia, but one that may as well as not exist as you’ll never truly find it.”
I set a peach on the table in front of me.
“What will you give me for this peach?”
“I will pay any price you ask for to have this peach, you must have the wisdom to not ask the impossible.”
“Please take a piece of paper, and write on it in Chinese. Write that you will pay any price I ask.”
She took a piece of paper, and wrote it out. Her label continued to say No Fraud Detected.
“Now please answer truthfully, how old are you?”
“I am 78, my husband is 81.”
“Please close your eyes and count to thirty,” I told her, and deactivated the forget me skill.
She opened her eyes, and looked at the peach, sitting on the table.
“I want you to look at the paper in your hand, and read it to me.”
She rattled something off in Chinese, so I asked her to translate it to English, which she did, “Su Li agrees to pay any price asked by Mr Roberts for one three hundred year peach.”
She studied the paper for a moment, “This is my handwriting, but I do not recall writing this.”
“I tested you. You passed the test, but you will not be allowed to remember the test.”
“Thank you Master Roberts. What price do you ask for?”
“Three hundred years were given to you for free, and you ask to pay for 300 for your husband. That’s six hundred years. I would require that you each act as my servants, doing any task I require for one hundred years. You will act as my servant for 100 years, then your husband for 100 years.”
“It will be difficult to be away from my husband for so many years, but I will do so, and I believe my husband too will agree to be your servant.”
“You misunderstand, I don’t want you to live with me, continue to live with your husband. I just want to be able to assign you any tasks I might choose, and know that you will perform them. After a hundred years, your husband can perform the tasks I provide. If you wish to share the tasks for two hundred years, then I have no objection. I’ve never had a servant before, so I don’t know what I might ask you to do, but I’m sure I’ll think of something. Think of it more as an on call assistant position.
“Also, you must never mention our arrangement, or the peaches to anyone. If that is acceptable, you may have the peach.”
She stood, and said something in Chinese, and bowed low, then she took the peach. She wrote down her contact information, and her husband’s information on the back of the promise, and then walked out the door with a single mindedness I didn’t really believe, despite the skill still showing 100% complete trustworthiness.
I took a quick photo of both sides of the paper, and then summoned an envelope to put it in, and sent it back.
I was pretty wound up, so I decided to get the casts off, and have a nice hot shower to get all the spots Gloria can’t clean. I made sure to lock the door first.
I was wondering if I needed to apologize to Mo, Bill, and Connor for turning them into little kids. I got out of the shower, and looked at myself in the mirror, Did look younger I wondered. Hard to be really sure, I had my hair still, it still had no gray. 31 isn’t old is it? Is there really much difference between 25 and 30?
I did some math, and figured that if Su Li was going to live to be 300 she had lived 26% of her life. It was reasonable that she would look 26 then, or somewhere around that age. I did the same math for myself, I definitely didn’t look like a ten year old.
Hopefully the other people I gave a peach to would be fine. I definitely need to stop giving them away, and maybe, stop eating them everyday. They were really delicious though. Had I noticed any other effects? I was feeling really good. Maybe a little forgetful? Was that a peach side effect? I didn’t know. I definitely couldn’t ask anyone.
Between the stories I wove and the peach sale, plus the woman bonus from the melons skill I had nearly another fifty thousand negative points. Why did giving the peaches bring negative points? I didn’t have answers.
I went ahead and leveled up twice:
0/120,000 (52) Level
13,880/1,200,000 positive points
69,013 neutral points
118,720/1,200,000 negative points
12/13 Active Skills
15/16 Passive Skills
47,605 Bonus Neutral Points
1 Free Spin