The previous night, Su Wenqi had logged off right at the entrance of the blacksmith shop, so when he logged back on today, he was in the exact same spot, saving him from wasting time on travel.
Calculating that the walk from the blacksmith shop to the carriage driver would take about four or five minutes, he logged on ten minutes early, only to find that the blacksmith shop’s doors were already open.
Stepping inside, he saw that Lin Feng had already packed up his things and was sitting behind the counter reading the newspaper.
As soon as he approached the shop entrance, the other man spotted him. Lin Feng put down the newspaper in his hand and greeted him, “Little brother, you’re quite punctual. Since you’re early, let’s head out a bit earlier too.”
Naturally, Su Wenqi had no objections. He helped Lin Feng pack the local specialties into his backpack, and the two of them went together to find the carriage driver.
Half an hour later, the carriage arrived at the entrance of Linlan Village.
Following Lin Feng as he hopped down from the carriage, the serene and peaceful village came into view, and the refreshing fragrance of wheat made one feel revitalized, causing him to stretch involuntarily.
Most of the villagers were elderly. Since the elderly tend to wake up early, everyone had gathered to chat under the large tree in the center of the village after finishing their morning meal.
Some sharp-eyed individuals spotted Lin Feng from afar and called out to him, “Little Feng, you’re finally back! Your mother has had your older brother mail you so many letters without seeing you come back. If you didn’t return soon, your mother would have thought something happened to you.”
Lin Feng explained, “Ah, haven’t a lot of martial arts heroes been coming to the city in recent years? With so many people, the demand for equipment has shot up, and with my shop opening early and closing late, I really didn’t have time to come back. But I hired a few more master craftsmen these past couple of days, so with the pressure off the others, I’ll be able to come back and visit more often.”
“That’s right, money can never be made all at once. Your mother is getting older too; come back to see her more often, it’ll make her happy.” Most of their children had also gone away and couldn’t return even once a year.
Lin Feng didn’t refute them; instead, he signaled Su Wenqi with a glance, and Su Wenqi immediately took out the local specialties from his backpack to hand to him.
Having received the specialties yesterday, Lin Feng had already sorted them out and now distributed them one by one to the elders: “Aunt Zhang, this is yours… um… and this is Uncle Li’s.”
The elders who received the gifts were overjoyed and showered him with praise for being sensible: “Oh my, look at you, bringing all these things back even when visiting.”
“It’s been so long since I was back, so I brought some for everyone. Hey, I see my big brother! I’ll be heading off first!” Lin Feng had spotted his older brother, Lin Wei, walking toward them from a distance.
“Alright, alright, go on then.”
After the two Lin brothers met up, they headed back home. Su Wenqi’s quest had already been completed upon arriving at the village, and seeing that Lin Feng didn’t have any follow-up quests to give, he turned and headed toward Granny Wang’s house.
Granny Wang had already finished her meal and was weeding her vegetable patch by the doorway. Seeing this, Su Wenqi hurried forward to take the hoe from her hands.
The old woman looked somewhat surprised: “Why are you back so early today?”
“I came back together with Uncle Lin Feng today. When I left the village earlier, the village chief gave me a letter to deliver to him, and yesterday he said he was returning to the village today, so I just came back along with her, ah, with him.” Briefly explaining the situation, he took out the dishes he had cooked himself along with the cloud-slice cakes he made yesterday and placed them on the table.
After sitting down, Granny Wang picked up her chopsticks and began tasting Su Wenqi’s dishes. Once she finished, she offered him some pointers, which Su Wenqi firmly committed to memory. Soon after, Granny Wang’s gaze drifted over to those presentation boxes.
Upon opening them and seeing the cloud-slice cakes inside, she paused for a moment before instantly guessing who had tipped Su Wenqi off.
“Hmph, it must have been that big-mouthed Li Lanxin who told you, right?” Granny Wang wore a tone of apparent annoyance, yet her eyes carried a smile. Su Wenqi had already grown familiar with Granny Wang’s contradictory temperament, so he simply smiled without speaking.
He finished weeding the field, thoughtfully brought the local specialties and the rest of the cloud-slice cakes meant for Granny Wang into the house, chatted with her for a bit, and then stood up to take his leave.
After visiting the village chief and other villagers who had a good relationship with Granny Wang to deliver gifts to them as well, he hurriedly logged off.
He had arranged for Jiang Yi to come over to his house for dinner today, so after logging off, he took Lulu along to the supermarket downstairs to procure ingredients.
Today, he planned to make four dishes and one soup, two meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, a soup, and some steamed rice on the side.
With Lulu’s help, the preliminary preparation work was finished very quickly. Since there was still a bit of time before their agreed meeting, he opened up the bookmarked game posts to review them, and indeed learned some useful practical tips.
“Wenqi, I’ve already left, I’ll arrive at your place in half an hour.” Jiang Yi’s message popped up. After replying to him, Su Wenqi began getting started on stir-frying the dishes.
He didn’t plan on making anything overly complicated or troublesome today. The two meat dishes were braised pork belly and boiled spicy pork slices; the two vegetable dishes were stir-fried tomatoes with eggs and hot-and-sour shredded potatoes; and the soup was a white radish, corn, and spare rib soup.
These were all dishes he had frequently made in the game over the past couple of days, so he could handle them with practiced ease, and the food was soon finished and plated.
Just as he turned off the stove and carried the soup to the dining table, the doorbell rang right on cue. He asked Lulu to open the door while he went back to the kitchen to dish up the rice.
Switching perspectives to Jiang Yi: the moment the front door swung open, an intoxicating aroma rushed over him, completely knocking him off balance.
He stood frozen in place, seemingly daze-bound and unable to snap out of it. Seeing that he wasn’t moving and remained standing outside the door, Lulu took the initiative to step forward, accept the gift he was holding, and pull him by the hand into the apartment.
Jiang Yi’s dazed expression snapped back to normal the moment Lulu pulled his hand, but he didn’t refuse the little robot’s kind gesture, allowing himself to be led right up to the dining table.
Seeing Su Wenqi bring over two bowls of rice, and looking at the lavish spread of four dishes and one soup on the table, he weakly asked, “Wenqi, did you cook all of this?”
“Huh? Yeah? Or did you expect our cute Lulu to cook it?” Su Wenqi cracked a small joke, stretching out a hand to signal him to sit down.
The two of them sat down and began eating, while Lulu conscientiously headed into the kitchen to clean up the battlefield.
“Don’t stand on ceremony. I made all of this myself, have a taste and see if it suits your palate.” Su Wenqi picked up serving chopsticks to place food in the other man’s bowl, asking him for a review.
Jiang Yi unceremoniously picked up the braised pork belly that had been tempting him the most. The texture of the braised pork belly was rich and mellow, its sauce thick and flavorful, leaving an endless aftertaste that lingered.
It wasn’t his first time eating braised pork belly, but he had never eaten one this delicious. Sob, sob, sob, sob. No wonder the leadership said ancient humans of Earth were the treasured gems of interstellar humanity; just this single bite of food was enough to make someone pledge lifelong allegiance.
The two of them ate without excessive conversation, primarily because Jiang Yi was wholly absorbed in burying his head and devouring the food, while Su Wenqi didn’t really know what to say, so he simply focused on eating as well.
After finishing the meal, they left it to Lulu to clean up as usual, and the two of them moved to the living room to chat casually.
“Wenqi, weren’t you fretting over what kind of job to look for earlier? After eating your cooking today, I finally know what you’re suited for!” The usually rigorous and dignified Director Jiang now seemed stuffed to the brim, lying across Su Wenqi’s sofa completely devoid of any image.
Hearing this, Su Wenqi asked curiously, “What am I suited for?”
“You’re suited to open a restaurant! Your culinary skills are miles ahead of Qianli Zhai. If you open a private-kitchen restaurant, you could definitely put them to shame.” Jiang Yi wasn’t deliberately flattering him; his skill was truly far superior to theirs.
It was within expectations. Ever since tasting the food in this world, he felt that his mediocre cooking skills back in his original world could practically pass as master-level here.
“Um, do you know the process for opening a shop? I want to understand it first.” He actually had this idea in mind as well, but since he wasn’t too familiar with this world yet, he could only turn to Jiang Yi for help.
Jiang Yi’s job description involved guiding newly arrived travelers to adapt to society, so he naturally possessed all these materials and immediately forwarded them to Su Wenqi.
Seeing the other person reviewing the documents, Jiang Yi spoke up, “If there’s anything you don’t understand, feel free to ask me. If you decide to open a shop, let me know, and I’ll arrange for someone to help you walk through the procedures.”
Hearing this, Su Wenqi looked up and said, “Is this… appropriate? You’ve already helped me out so much, won’t it be too much trouble for you?”
“Ah, what are you talking about? If I help you set it up successfully, I’ll have to become your very first member. The first member has got to have some special discounts~” Well, he wasn’t even pretending anymore, laying his little scheme right out in the open.
Su Wenqi couldn’t help laughing out loud, teasingly replying, “I haven’t even decided whether I want to open a shop yet, and you’re already preparing to top up your membership?”
“Haha, of course! But seriously, do I get any privileges or not?” Jiang Yi secretly hoped the other person would open a shop so he could keep eating delicious food, but the final decision still rested in Su Wenqi’s hands, and he wouldn’t force anyone against their will.
“I’ll think about it. Honestly, I’m not that short on money right now. Having to hustle for money every single day in my original world was just too tiring, so I want to take a break for a while first.” Su Wenqi shared his decision with Jiang Yi, though he didn’t completely shut the door on the idea, indicating that he might reconsider it later once he had rested enough.
Time slipped away unnoticed during their conversation. Since Jiang Yi had work to attend to in the afternoon, he bid farewell to Su Wenqi, and the two agreed to meet up again when they had free time.
Timing his login right on schedule, he reunited with Yitian Chi Shitong. As usual, Yitian Chi Shitong carried him through monster grinding while he and Batian Chi Shitong idled away.
This time, no wild bosses popped up, and three or four days passed just like that. True to expectations and living up to everyone’s hopes, Su Wenqi finally hit the max level.
With the death of the final monster, Su Wenqi’s experience bar finally filled up, reaching Level 100.
The light of leveling up shone across his body. Yitian Chi Shitong hurriedly dropped combat and ran over beneath the tree. Su Wenqi equipped the gear from his backpack and saw that his health and mana bars had thickened significantly.
The trio ended their monster-grinding routine and teleported back to the main city. Noticing he had unread mail, Su Wenqi bid the other two farewell and walked over to the post messenger.
It was a system mail rewarding max-level players with a faction outfit. Su Wenqi used it to switch his appearance with a single click.
Clad in a cyan brocade robe with his long hair tied up and matched with a cyan headband identical in color to his attire, he cut a lean and slender figure with a face as picturesque as a painting, truly looking like a jade branch and frost-touched tree of a person.