“All right. Just a moment.”
Song Yu deducted 13 points from each of the three, then went to the kitchen and took three Tea Eggs and three servings of soy milk from the wooden cabinet. They were still steaming hot, as if they had just been made.
“Please enjoy.”
Song Yu brought the food to their table, then went outside and erased the Tea Egg option from the Small Menu Board.
There had only been five Tea Eggs in all, and now they were sold out.
There were still several cups of soy milk left, though.
He was starting to feel tempted. Perhaps he could try drinking a couple of cups himself.
Inside the shop, the other three also shifted their gazes to the Tea Eggs and soy milk before them.
“Hmm… not bad.”
Chen Tianhua took a bite of a Tea Egg and praised it.
But from his expression, Song Yu could tell that, based on taste alone, Chen Tianhua didn’t consider it top-tier.
Still, the Tea Eggs also had the effect of increasing Yin Power.
Sure enough, a look of surprise appeared on Chen Tianhua’s face, though he remained far calmer than Liu Feng and the other man.
As for Xia Tian, Song Yu estimated that he was two or three years younger than himself, around twenty, and rather lively by nature.
He had already finished the Tea Egg in two bites and gulped down the soy milk.
Then he suddenly froze, sitting motionless with his eyes closed to nurture his spirit.
Xia Ling ate slowly, but she didn’t savor the food as carefully as Chen Tianhua had.
Like Xia Tian, she had fallen into that strange state.
Chen Tianhua turned to the soy milk and examined it carefully for a while, but couldn’t make anything of it.
Only then did he begin to taste it slowly.
After finishing the soy milk, he glanced at Xia Tian and Xia Ling, who were sitting with their eyes closed, and his expression gradually grew solemn.
Standing behind the counter, Song Yu withdrew his observant gaze.
“Mr. Song, have you ever thought about changing careers?”
Chen Tianhua suddenly spoke.
Song Yu froze. “I’m just a cook. I don’t have any other abilities.”
“I mean, what if I invited you to work for the Special Affairs Bureau? We’d make you head chef, put you in charge of the entire kitchen, and give you at least the same benefits I receive.
“By the way, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Chen Tianhua, Deputy Director of the Liangcheng Special Affairs Bureau. I’m mainly in charge of Ghost Tamers.”
Song Yu said in surprise, “Deputy Director-level benefits? Seriously?”
They were moving far too quickly.
Liu Feng would certainly report what had happened here when he got back. So when these three came in and didn’t ask many questions, Song Yu had already guessed what was going on.
He just hadn’t expected them to be trying to recruit him—or to send a Deputy Director.
A secure job with Deputy Director-level benefits? A few days ago, he would have jumped at the chance.
But now, things were completely different.
“Besides the Deputy Director-level benefits, if you can keep making food like this—or even better—you’ll also receive special rewards.”
Song Yu shook his head. “Director Chen, I’d be happy to have everyone come eat at my shop. But working as a cook for the Special Affairs Bureau probably isn’t for me.”
“Is there something you’re worried about, Mr. Song?” Chen Tianhua asked after a few seconds of silence.
“There’s nothing I’m worried about. I’m alone, anyway. But I’ve gotten used to the freedom and ease of living on my own. I’d probably run into conflicts at the Special Affairs Bureau, so I’d rather keep things as they are.”
Song Yu waved his hand, making his stance clear.
“Sorry to have bothered you. But if you ever change your mind, you can contact me directly.”
Chen Tianhua took out a business card.
As soon as he finished speaking, Xia Tian came over.
“Boss, could you offer more kinds of food?”
Song Yu replied without a moment’s hesitation, “The menu will be updated every day. I’m also trying to develop more dishes, so it’ll gradually expand. There’ll definitely be more and more options.”
Xia Tian gave him a thumbs-up. “Boss, setting aside the fact that your Tea Eggs increase magical power, they taste better than what you’d get at eighty percent of restaurants.”
Song Yu thought to himself: Of course. I’ve been honing my cooking skills for two and a half years.
Chen Tianhua frowned at Xia Tian’s words and asked, “Increase magical power?”
“Yeah. It does increase my magical power. Not by much, but if I ate it every day, I’d improve three or four times faster than with normal cultivation.”
Xia Tian said excitedly.
But Song Yu’s heart gave a jolt.
Something was off. They weren’t talking about the same thing.
Magical power?
Was it the same thing as Yin Power?
Was Xia Tian not a Ghost Tamer?
Chen Tianhua looked at Song Yu.
Song Yu returned a faint smile, his expression calm and inscrutable.
“Xia Tian, Xia Ling, let’s head back. Mr. Song, there’s one more thing I need to bring up.”
“Go ahead.” Song Yu nodded.
Chen Tianhua said, “Here’s the situation. Your buying up ghosts and monsters might make certain people uneasy. We’ve finally managed to stabilize things over the past few years, but ghosts and monsters keep appearing, and the situation is still grim. None of us wants any new complications, so I need to know why you’re buying them.”
“Why? I only want to cook.”
Song Yu replied seriously.
Sure enough, the Special Affairs Bureau wouldn’t let him buy up ghosts and monsters without keeping an eye on him.
Perhaps Vengeful Souls and other low-level ghosts were easy for them to handle, which was why they had let him have them.
“Cooking? You cook with ghosts and monsters?” Chen Tianhua asked in surprise.
Song Yu hurriedly shook his head. “Not at all. How could ghosts be used for cooking? That would be ridiculous. But I can guarantee that I won’t let a single ghost leave my shop, nor will I stockpile them or hatch some grand conspiracy. If anything, I’ll get rid of them. I just want to experiment with new dishes. I have no dream of becoming some great villain whom everyone hunts down.”
“That’s good. I hope we can get along well in the future.”
Chen Tianhua nodded, glanced at Song Yu, then left with the two young people.
As he was leaving, Xia Tian told Song Yu to come up with more tasty food, adding that points were no problem.
Song Yu watched the three leave. Thinking about how his account balance had just gone up by another 1,500, he immediately felt better.
“You really have to hand it to the Special Affairs Bureau. They’re loaded. Five hundred a month is pocket change to them.”
After a sigh, he returned to the kitchen.
Liu Feng and the other man had provided four Vengeful Souls that morning. With these six, that made ten.
After thinking it over, he ground five of them into Ingredients with the Stone Mill, one by one.
Two of them yielded a pound of flour, one yielded five eggs, and the remaining two unexpectedly yielded a combined two ounces of pork.
As for the remaining five, he thought for a moment, then poured them all into the Stone Mill.
But after he had poured in four, the Stone Mill seemed full, and the fifth wouldn’t fit.
After tying the bag shut, Song Yu was quite puzzled.
“Why can it only take four at a time? Is it because five won’t work?”
He wanted to see if a quantitative change could bring about a qualitative one.
“Four it is, then.”
With no other choice, Song Yu could only send those four for a transcendence ritual first.
As the Stone Mill turned and the screams died away, Song Yu eagerly opened the drawer beneath it.
A plucked, fully dressed chicken lay before his eyes.
But Song Yu immediately noticed that it was different.
The whole chicken was tinged pink against its pale skin, with firm, tender meat and a bright red comb. It lay quietly in the drawer like a work of art.
This was definitely no ordinary chicken. The Ingredients ground from a Vengeful Soul were indeed very different.
At the roadside outside the Alley, inside a car, Chen Tianhua looked at Xia Tian and Xia Ling.
“Xia Ling, did your Yin Power increase?”
Xia Ling was confused, but nodded. “Yes. And the soy milk really does nourish ghost creatures, making them much calmer.”
Chen Tianhua turned to Xia Tian.
Xia Tian seemed to realize something too and hurriedly spoke. “My magical power increased. The soy milk didn’t just increase it; it also made the cultivation technique inside me circulate a little faster. My mind feels calmer, and it seems… it seems like I can sense my surroundings more clearly. It’s as if I could never suffer Cultivation Deviation.”
After he finished, the three fell silent.
Chen Tianhua and Xia Ling were Ghost Tamers, while Xia Tian was a daoist disciple.