As Yu Zhile approached, she discovered two palm-sized puppies and felt a flicker of confusion.
She pushed the door open and saw Yu Yue and Yu Chi staring blankly at the pots and jars covering the floor. After questioning Yu Yue, she learned that the people from the Ditao Village side-line production group had loaded the cart and rushed to Haiyu Village immediately after she paid. By chance, they ran into some villagers and asked for directions.
Now, the entire village knew she had bought a cartload of “useless” items at the market, and Old Mrs. Yu was so furious she was cursing in the streets.
“Our family has money and coupons; use them as you like,” Yu Yue said, seeing her brow furrowed in thought.
“Let her curse if she wants. I was actually thinking about the iron pot,” Yu Zhile replied with a smile, rubbing his head. “Little Yu Yue really is a wealthy tycoon—so generous.”
Yu Yue, rarely embarrassed, lowered his head and stammered, unable to find words.
“Alright, time to give Yue and Bao their presents!” The smile on Yu Zhile’s face deepened.
Yu Yue and Yu Chi stared at her intently, expectation hidden in their eyes.
Yu Zhile gave each of them a puppy and said, “From now on, they will be your companions. Give them names.”
Yu Chi carefully cradled the small puppy and waved a mantis shrimp shell in his hand.
“Okay, Little Bao’s dog will be called Crawly,” Yu Zhile said, her expression softening as she watched him nuzzle the puppy with his face.
Yu Yue thought for a moment before saying, “Mole. My dog will be named Mole.”
Yu Zhile’s first instinct was to burst out laughing, but she quickly agreed. Afterward, she prepared some rice water for Crawly and Mole and began organizing her things with Yu Yue’s help.
Under the eaves, Yu Zhile scrubbed the jars and turned them upside down to dry. As she washed, she explained their purposes—pickling vegetables, soaking mud snails… she had already planned a destination for every jar of every size when she bought them.
While Yu Yue was organizing the items she had purchased from the market and the supply and marketing cooperative, his fingers brushed against some paper objects. He looked at Yu Zhile in surprise.
Yu Zhile happened to look up and met his gaze. “I stopped by the recycling station and just happened to find someone selling books.”
“Thank you, Sister,” Yu Yue said, his lips curling upward as he held the brand-new textbooks.
The items were quickly put away. Yu Zhile planted the flower seeds she had bought in the corner of the wall and then went inside to rest. Yu Yue tirelessly flipped through a chemistry textbook, while Yu Chi quietly watched the puppy lap up the rice water.
Estimating that the tide was about to go out, Yu Zhile picked up a new bamboo basket and headed toward the beach. The moment she stepped out of the backyard, she turned on her livestream, switching to the panoramic view as usual.
“The tide is receding heavily today. The tides will rise and fall drastically, so the variety of seafood will be richer and fresher, though the window for beachcombing will be relatively shorter.”
The livestream had just begun, and while the popularity was slowly increasing, the comments were still sparse. Yu Zhile began explaining the tidal information.
Before she even reached the shore, user xxxx entered the room and dropped twenty “Cloud Seas.”
[The boiled Mantis Shrimp was eaten; it was pretty good.]
“Steamed with garlic is also good. You can try that next time,” Yu Zhile replied casually, her eyes momentarily dazzled by the golden dialogue box.
[What is garlic?]
xxxx sent another comment asking, and he wasn’t the only one—others were asking too.
“It’s a type of seasoning from Earth,” Yu Zhile answered, thinking to herself that selling seasonings might be a way to make a small profit. At that thought, she immediately checked how much popularity she needed to accumulate to open a “Small Shop” feature.
To her surprise, she discovered that Cloud Live didn’t have that function at all, so she had to set the idea aside for now. Yesterday’s livestream popularity had surpassed 100,000; she only needed another 100,000 to unlock the “Synesthesia” function, which would allow viewers to smell scents.
While planning the development of her channel, Yu Zhile walked toward the sea and soon reached the rocky area.
“It’s spring now, so there are many things to eat on the mountains. In a couple of days, I’ll do a ‘mountain-combing’ livestream to introduce you to some plants on Earth. You’re all welcome to watch.”
The audience was still hung up on the garlic issue. Between laughter and sighs, Yu Zhile suddenly came up with new content to keep them hooked while pulling their attention back to the current stream. Her sharp eyes spotted a silver line breaking the surface of the shallow water, swimming forward.
“I see something.” Yu Zhile moved quickly toward the direction the fish was swimming and reached out, catching a hairtail.
The hairtail was still flopping around, its eyes pitch black and its silver body shimmering with light. She held it by the tail to introduce it: “This is a hairtail. It’s still alive; it’s rare to see a live one.”
[So beautiful! I want to keep it in my fish tank!]
[How do you eat it?]
The comments from Fish Tank Master and xxxx hung at the top of the screen. Yu Zhile remembered Fish Tank Master; she was the second-highest donor in the room and had given many gifts. She was also the one who said she wanted to collect Mantis Shrimp last time.
“This is a deep-sea fish. It won’t live long after being stranded, so it can’t be kept in a tank.”
“Hairtail can be pan-fried or braised. Pan-frying is simple: after cleaning, cut it into sections and marinate it with scallions, cooking wine, and ginger. After a few hours, pat it dry, coat it in a layer of starch, and fry it in a thin layer of oil until golden brown. The skin will be crispy, and the meat tender. It’s delicious.”
Yu Zhile answered their questions one by one while searching for more seafood. Suddenly, she pointed to two holes about half a meter apart and said, “Two holes connected like this usually belong to a Mantis Shrimp. Mantis Shrimp taste best in the spring.”
As she spoke, she reached out to poke one of the holes. After just a few pokes, a Mantis Shrimp crawled out of the other hole.
“When catching Mantis Shrimp, be careful of the spikes on the sides; it hurts a lot if they prick your hand.” Yu Zhile pinned the shrimp down, pinching its head and tail so it couldn’t move. “Mantis Shrimp can be blanched or made with salt and pepper. Delicious!”
[I want to eat it. The host’s planet has such rich resources.]
[Ahhh, why wasn’t I born on Earth? I don’t want to eat nutritional supplements anymore!]
Countless similar comments floated by. Yu Zhile didn’t have time to look; she had discovered a group of sea hares and caught them one after another. This season was the perfect time to eat sea hares; they were all incredibly plump and full of roe.
In a short while, she had caught half a basket before showing the sea hares to the audience. In the water, the sea hares appeared translucent, with tentacles on their heads spreading out like flowers—small and cute.
[Beautiful! Cute! I want to keep this in a fish tank too!] Fish Tank Master commented.
“They can be blanched, stir-fried, or braised in sauce. They’re delicious no matter how you cook them,” Yu Zhile said, anticipating xxxx’s question.
xxxx immediately dropped another twenty “Cloud Seas,” sending Yu Zhile to the platform’s homepage again.
Yu Zhile walked toward the mudflats; she had another goal today—mud snails. At this time of year, mud snails were highly productive and their meat was tender. They were perfect for taking home to pickle into fermented goods, ideal for stimulating the appetite during the hot summer.
“These are mud snails. The transparent balls next to them are full of baby mud snails; if they stay stranded for too long, they’ll melt in the sun.” Yu Zhile picked up a mud snail with one hand and tossed a transparent ball back into the water with the other. “Usually, when we see them while beachcombing, we make an effort to throw them back into the sea.”
After gathering nearly half a basket of mud snails, she wandered the beach for a while longer and caught a dozen more Mantis Shrimps.
“Alright, the tide is coming in. I’m getting ready to head home,” Yu Zhile said, checking the sky and preparing to end the stream. “Friends, see you at the next mountain-combing livestream.”
Just as she finished speaking, she spotted a large piece of kelp not far away and decided to pick it up before signing off. Walking through the water, she pushed aside the two-to-three-meter-long kelp, only to see a person lying on the sand.
The man had tanned skin, rugged features, and a sturdy build. His tattered clothes could not hide his eight-pack abs and the smooth muscle lines of his arms.
“Host, the robot housekeeper has been delivered. Please check and receive,” Xiao Yun suddenly appeared.
Oh? Could this be the robot housekeeper provided by the platform?
Yu Zhile stared at the man before her with great interest. She reached out and poked his arm; it was elastic and didn’t feel like the rock-hard intelligent robots she knew. However, the probability of finding a person on the beach two days in a row was too low, and Xiao Yun had given a specific reminder.
At this moment, the comments were a screen full of question marks.
[????]
[The host found another person?]
[Wow, this one is exactly my type.]
Initially, everyone was joking, but soon discordant voices appeared. Someone questioned if Yu Zhile was faking it for popularity, sending a dozen comments in a row. xxxx dropped fifty “Cloud Seas” without a word, the special effects burying the nitpicking comments.
[Host, hello. What is this thing? Can it be eaten?]
For the first time, Yu Zhile heard a series of chiming sounds. With a reminder from Xiao Yun, she learned it was the unique background music for fifty “Cloud Seas.”
“This is kelp, a type of seaweed that is very nutritious. It can be served as a cold salad, cooked in soup, or dried for preservation.” She gave a brief introduction before suddenly adding, “It can also be cooked into a sweet green bean and kelp soup. It’s incredibly refreshing when chilled!”
In the next second, she remembered that xxxx’s planet didn’t even have garlic, which brought her back to the “Small Shop” issue. She asked Xiao Yun directly, “Can Cloud Live do livestream sales?”
“Sales?” Xiao Yun encountered this new term for the first time and was somewhat confused, as was the audience.
Yu Zhile briefly introduced her to 21st-century livestream commerce and the concept of video bloggers having “Small Shops.”
“Host, Xiao Yun will feedback your suggestions to the superiors. Developing new functions takes time. Please be patient,” Xiao Yun answered mechanically.
“Fine,” Yu Zhile replied.
The audience, however, grew excited. The feature Yu Zhile proposed was very attractive to them, as it meant they might be able to taste food from different planets. They desperately needed this function! Consequently, everyone began discussing it fervently in the comments.
Yu Zhile ended the stream, leaving the audience to their discussion. She couldn’t carry the “robot housekeeper” and still needed to solve the problem of starting him up.
She felt from the back of the robot’s head to his face, then moved down from his face, pressing his Adam’s apple and touching his pectoral muscles. Next, she poked the man’s abs, over and over again.
Suddenly, a pair of hands with distinct knuckles grabbed her wrist. Yu Zhile’s eyes lit up—the startup was successful! The button was the abs!
“Hello, robot housekeeper. I am your master—Yu Zhile.” She smiled as she met the man’s eyes.
Zhou Yuesheng’s dark eyes revealed no emotion; he remained guarded. He had been on a mission in Hai County with his comrades to track down enemy agents but had accidentally fallen into the sea. He weighed Yu Zhile’s words; this beautiful girl claimed to be his “master” and used unfamiliar terms, which was highly suspicious.
“Eh? Is it broken? Or is there another startup key I need to press?” Seeing that he didn’t react, Yu Zhile reached out to grope his abs again.
Zhou Yuesheng stopped her movements once more and stated his name. His deep, magnetic voice made Yu Zhile’s ears feel tingly.
Her first reaction—thin waist, long legs, abs, and a great voice. He was her total catch!
“Zhou Yuesheng, come home with me.” Yu Zhile smiled broadly as she stuffed the kelp, which was taller than she was, into Zhou Yuesheng’s hands.
She didn’t notice the flickering figures on the other side of the beach, nor did she know that by that evening, a rumor about her would spread throughout Haiyu Village.