The Zhang family lived directly across from the Lu family.
It was still early in the day, and since several of the Zhang family’s laborers had not yet returned from the fields, only Auntie Zhang, her daughter-in-law Ye Ping, and her little granddaughter Zhang Xiuxiu were at home.
When Ye Ping saw Lu Qing, she enthusiastically poured her some water. “Why are you here? Come, have a drink.”
“Don’t trouble yourself, sister-in-law; I just came over to drop off a few things.”
Lu Qing placed the items she was carrying on the table in the main room. “Ah Xuan went to town and bought some pastries. He bought too much, and Lu Chen can’t finish it all by himself, so I brought some for Dafu, Xiaofu, and Xiuxiu to share. Also, Ah Xuan caught a wild rabbit, so take this to add to your meal.”
Ye Ping looked at the items on the table and frowned. “Chengming already brought back such a large pig leg at noon that Mother scolded him for half a day. You should just keep these for yourselves; I really can’t accept them.”
Lu Qing smiled. “The Zhang family has always taken great care of the Lu family over the years. This is just a small token of gratitude; it’s only right.” Without giving Ye Ping a chance to refuse, she quickly said her goodbyes and left.
“Hey! Don’t—”
Ye Ping chased her out to the courtyard, just in time to run into her mother-in-law, who had just returned from feeding the chickens in the back.
Madam Zhang Yang looked at her daughter-in-law in surprise. “What’s the matter?”
After Ye Ping explained what happened, Madam Zhang Yang sighed helplessly. “That girl, honestly, why is she so polite? Forget it; next time we’ll just send something over to the Lu family in return. Pushing it back and forth only makes things feel distant.”
After saying this, she spoke to her granddaughter, who was obediently playing with a cloth doll: “Xiuxiu, go call your two brothers back to eat some pastries.”
As soon as Zhang Xiuxiu heard the word “pastries,” her eyes lit up. She gave a crisp response and ran out quickly.
On the other side, Lu Xuan brought the pastries and the wild rabbit to the village chief’s house, using similar reasoning to explain the gift as Lu Qing had.
The village chief’s wife, Miao Jinfeng, tried to decline a couple of times, but being unable to refuse, she eventually stuffed a basket of eggs into Lu Xuan’s hands in return.
The viewers in the livestream were laughing as they watched.
[Why is it eggs again? Let’s calculate: the host must have seventy or eighty eggs in his house now, right? Can they even finish them?]
[Why wouldn’t they be able to finish? Didn’t you see the host have his sister cook ten of them at noon and finish them all? Seventy or eighty eggs is only a matter of seven or eight meals.]
[Are they making eggs for dinner today?]
On the way back, Lu Xuan replied, “There are too many eggs at home, and they spoil quickly in the heat. It’s best to finish them as soon as possible.”
The rabbit meat was gone, but there was wild pheasant, the pork belly he had bought, and spare ribs, which were enough for a hearty dinner.
When they arrived home, Lu Qing had just finished plucking the wild pheasant. Seeing him, she asked, “What else are we making besides the pheasant tonight?”
Lu Chen, who was helping to tend the fire, looked up with anticipation in his eyes.
Lu Xuan pondered for a moment and said, “Make the pork belly into braised pork, and slow-cook the spare ribs; add plenty of oil and salt. Also, stir-fry two vegetable dishes, make the portions generous. As for the staple food… didn’t we have a lot of lard residue left over after making the lard? Let’s make some lard-residue pancakes, and cook some high-quality rice—make about two catties of it.”
Lu Qing was stunned. “That much!?”
Usually, half a catty of brown rice was enough to feed all four of them for a meal. This was four times that amount. Could they actually finish it? Thinking of Lu Xuan’s appetite at noon, Lu Qing’s expression faltered—perhaps they really could finish it?
Lu Chen’s eyes also widened in shock, looking at Lu Xuan as if he were looking at a bottomless pit.
The viewers in the livestream were amused by the siblings’ expressions.
[The sister’s expression—she obviously thinks the host is a bottomless pit.]
[Eating two catties of rice in one meal, that has to be at least a dozen bowls of rice, right? Eating that much in one sitting, how could he not be a bottomless pit?]
[Two years ago, I had a meal at a restaurant in the Capital Star. I remember one bowl of natural rice cost 500 star coins. Over a dozen bowls, plus a table full of meat dishes—it wouldn’t be less than tens of thousands of star coins. Just thinking about it makes my heart ache!]
[The person above is truly rich, being able to go to a restaurant to eat. I’ve grown up without ever eating real food in reality. I only get to taste flavors through sharing in some ancient-style streamers’ broadcasts and other gourmet channels. Sigh.]
[Being able to taste through the stream isn’t bad either. It’s a pity the host hasn’t enabled sharing yet; I can’t even smell anything. Crying.]
In the courtyard, while chopping firewood with ease as if he were cutting vegetables, Lu Xuan calmly analyzed the useful information from the scrolling comments.
Seeing that viewers could taste the food appearing in the stream through “sharing,” he couldn’t help but be lost in thought.
By the time dinner was ready, his brother-in-law, Lei Yan, had finally returned from the fields.
As soon as he entered the courtyard and smelled the rich aroma of meat, Lei Yan asked in surprise, “Are we having meat again tonight?”
Lu Chen, who was helping to serve the dishes, shouted, “Lots of meat! Big Brother bought it all!”
Lu Xuan, who had chopped a warehouse full of wood, looked up at Lei Yan.
The other man’s appearance wasn’t particularly striking, just decent, but his physique was strong and his personality was steady. He had a harmonious marriage with Lu Qing and had treated his brothers-in-law, the original owner and Lu Chen, very well after the marriage, never once looking down on the eldest brother-in-law, Lu Xuan, for being “simple-minded.”
Because of this, Lu Xuan had a very good impression of this brother-in-law.
“The food is ready. Brother-in-law, go wash up and we can start eating.”
Lei Yan was first stunned by Lu Xuan’s new image, complimenting him, “Ah Xuan, you look so sharp in your new clothes!” He then fetched some water and quickly washed up.
By the time he changed into clean clothes and returned, the food had been served.
Looking at the table full of dishes, Lei Yan was momentarily frozen. “This is way too much.”
The meat dishes included braised pork, slow-cooked spare ribs, and wild pheasant with mushrooms. The vegetable dishes were stir-fried chives with eggs, flash-fried baby bok choy, and a refreshing cucumber salad. Finally, there was a large bowl of bright-colored radish and bone broth.
The staple food was a large platter of lard-residue pancakes and a full wooden bucket of high-quality rice.
Lei Yan looked even more confused; the platter of lard-residue pancakes alone was enough for the four of them. Why had they cooked so much rice on top of that?
His family didn’t even eat this well during the New Year. The point was that with so many dishes and this much rice, there was no way the four of them could finish it.
Lu Xuan saw the thought in his eyes and said calmly, “Don’t worry, there won’t be any leftovers.”
Lu Qing and Lu Chen, having witnessed it at noon, nodded in succession.
“Alright, let’s eat!” Lu Qing distributed a pancake filled with plenty of ingredients to each of them and served Lu Xuan a full, large bowl of rice.
It wasn’t that she was playing favorites; it was simply because her brother had a huge appetite, and anything less probably wouldn’t last him two bites.
Because Lu Qing didn’t skimp on ingredients and the food was fresh and all-natural, even though she only used basic seasonings like oil, salt, and soy sauce, the flavor of the dishes was excellent.
Even though the three of them had already had a hearty lunch, they still ate without looking up, facing the table full of delicacies.
The braised pork was fatty but not greasy, melting in the mouth. The spare ribs were stewed until soft and tender; a simple pull with chopsticks would bring the whole piece of meat off the bone. Dipping it in soy sauce made it fragrant and delicious.
Because the chives with eggs contained a generous amount of eggs, it was also very tasty. Although the flash-fried baby bok choy was a vegetable dish, it was cooked with freshly rendered lard; cooking a vegetable dish with meat fat made it equally unforgettable.
If they felt greasy from eating too much meat, they would take a bite of the crunchy, refreshing cucumber salad—it was simply wonderful!
The basin of rice looked like a lot, but Lu Xuan ate bowl after bowl, moving quickly.
When he got tired of rice, he switched to the pancakes. Taking a bite, the outer skin was crispy, and the pancakes, filled with the savory aroma of fried meat and green onions, were so delicious he couldn’t stop.
While the Lu family was eating until their mouths were glistening with oil, the viewers in the livestream were going crazy—they were crazily craving it.
[Ahhh! It looks so delicious! I want to eat it! Why am I not part of the host’s family? A family of four is so small; what would it hurt to add me in!]
[The meat looks so good, and the vegetables look so good too! Don’t eat so fast! Let me watch a little longer; I could eat an extra nutrient pack just by watching this mukbang!]
[Hungry! Want to eat! When will the host turn on taste sharing! Turn it on quickly! Don’t force me to kneel and beg you! QAQ!]
Lu Xuan asked as he ate, “How do you enable sharing?”
[Host, just keep streaming every day, and you’ll be able to open it soon!]
Lu Xuan raised an eyebrow. It seemed the conditions for enabling sharing were related to streaming time? He just didn’t know how “soon” actually was.
The food on the table visibly diminished. A quarter of an hour later, once it was confirmed that everyone else was full, Lu Xuan polished off the remaining food as usual.
Lei Yan was astonished. “Since when has Ah Xuan had such a big appetite?”
Lu Xuan wiped his mouth and said, “It’s always been this big.”
Lei Yan immediately thought the same thing as his wife, Lu Qing, his eyes filled with sympathy as he looked at Lu Xuan.
In ancient times, there wasn’t much entertainment. After eating and walking around a bit to aid digestion, Lu Qing and Lei Yan returned to their home next door. After Lu Xuan sent the yawning Lu Chen off to his room, he returned to his own.
He had been livestreaming since he went up the mountain in the morning, which added up to about ten hours.
Lu Xuan simply said goodbye to the viewers still in the livestream and mentioned he would be going up the mountain again tomorrow before closing the stream. He then opened the system notifications that had been flashing non-stop.
[Achieved the goal: “Reaching 10,000 concurrent viewers.” Reward received: 1,000 points, unlocked purchase permissions for some items in the store (please check the details yourself). Next stage goal: Reach 100,000 concurrent viewers. Reward: Unknown.]
[Achievement system unlocked. You can check the specific content in the achievement column.]
Lu Xuan raised an eyebrow and clicked on “My Dashboard,” finding that the achievement icon, which had previously been gray, had indeed lit up.
After clicking on the achievement icon, he could see several achievement categories on the newly appeared page.
Streaming duration, total number of followers, concurrent viewers, gift achievements, and points spent were all separate categories, each divided into different stages.
For example, the first achievement for streaming duration required 24 hours of streaming, and the requirement for total followers was to have 10,000 followers.
Gift achievements required receiving gifts worth 10,000 star coins, and points spent required spending 10,000 points in the store, and so on.
The two mukbang sessions, including the shopping trip in the afternoon, had caused a significant increase in the popularity of the livestream.
When the stream ended, the number of concurrent viewers had reached over 12,000, the number of followers had increased to nearly 3,000, and the total amount of gifts received was over 4,000 star coins.
[Do you want to confirm that you want to convert the gifts into system points? Please enter the specific amount.]
Lu Xuan chose to convert all of them as usual.
[Converted.]
[Current total points: 1,480.]
One thousand of these were from the achievement reward, and the rest were from his original account balance and the points just converted from gifts.
Thinking of the price of the storage space he had guessed not long ago, and looking at his account balance, Lu Xuan felt a spark of motivation and quickly opened the points store.