He stared steadily at the profile of the woman not far away who was laughing happily while eating watermelon.
Her eyes were gentle and refined, and her personality was kind and lovely. Especially beneath those slender eyebrows were her large eyes. When she smiled happily, they shone like stars.
As he thought about this, a faint ripple stirred in his heart.
After pondering for a long time, Ji Yanting quietly made up his mind.
Only after Yan Jin and Bai Ruozhu finished eating all the watermelon on the table did he casually speak, as if it had just occurred to him.
“By the way, Boss…”
Only then did Yan Jin remember what Ji Yanting had said earlier. She replied cheerfully, “It’s nothing like troubling us. If it doesn’t work out, I can ask Brother Yu and the others to help inquire about things for you when they go out.”
“That’s not it. I just wanted to ask whether your inn is short on manpower. If you don’t mind, I could help out with some work,” Ji Yanting said.
Yan Jin froze slightly when she heard that.
“You want to stay here and work for me? You want me to hire you?”
Ji Yanting nodded.
Yan Jin thought about it. Now that the planting area had expanded so much, she and Bai Ruozhu simply could not handle everything alone. If he wanted to stay, she would naturally welcome it.
“That’s wonderful. Welcome aboard!” Yan Jin said brightly as she shook his hand.
Ji Yanting felt the softness of her pale hand and did not dare use much strength, afraid that even the slightest force might hurt her.
After a moment of silence, he continued, “I suddenly remembered that I actually have an ability. But now my ability is completely exhausted, and I can’t use even a tiny bit of it.”
Yan Jin’s eyes widened.
“What caused your ability to become exhausted?”
Could it be…
Ji Yanting lowered his eyes, as if suppressing the bitterness in his heart.
He shook his head. “I don’t remember. Perhaps someone abandoned me or framed me.”
Yan Jin clearly felt the sorrow hidden in his heart.
She held his hand tightly and comforted him, saying, “It’s okay. Your ability is only exhausted. Maybe it will recover soon.”
Even if she had no way to help, she believed the system would surely have a solution.
“Okay.”
Ji Yanting’s heart began pounding wildly, as if it were about to leap out of his chest.
…
“Sister, what is this?” Bai Ruozhu’s voice suddenly pulled them back to reality.
In front of them stood a white machine, its screen glowing faintly.
Bai Ruozhu observed it curiously.
Yan Jin explained, “This is a rice milling machine. Once the rice we planted in the courtyard is processed through it, it can turn into edible rice.”
Ji Yanting stared at Yan Jin in disbelief.
“Wow! That means we don’t have to eat sweet potatoes as our staple food anymore!” Bai Ruozhu said excitedly.
“That’s right. From now on we can eat rice every day,” Yan Jin replied with a bright smile.
“I’ll go harvest the rice in the field right now. Tonight we can finally eat rice!”
Before Yan Jin could say anything more, Bai Ruozhu had already disappeared.
Only Yan Jin and Ji Yanting remained.
They stayed silent for a long moment until Ji Yanting broke the quiet and said with a smile, “I’ll go help Xiao Zhu.”
This inn had given him far more surprises than he could have imagined.
At that moment, a notification sounded in Yan Jin’s ear.
[Ding. Mission completed: Recruit two employees.]
[Mission reward: 5000 gold coins.]
Yan Jin gasped. The system was being unusually generous this time, rewarding five thousand gold coins. But how were there suddenly two employees?
[Host, the wolf king you contracted also counts as one employee.] The system appeared at the perfect moment to explain.
Yan Jin understood immediately. So that was how it worked.
[Ding. Please assign positions to your employees.]
“Why do I have to assign positions as well?”
[Of course. We are building the greatest inn. Every talent must be assigned appropriately so their abilities can be maximized.]
She opened the interface window, and the first thing she saw was:
[Employee of Bieju Yige] Wolf King
[Attribute] Wind
[Constitution] 20
[Agility] 80+
[Luck] 30
[Other] Not yet unlocked
With such strong constitution and agility, the wolf king could only take on security duties.
In comparison, she was more curious about Ji Yanting’s attributes. However, when she thought about his frail body, she wondered what kind of job she could even assign to him.
[Employee of Bieju Yige] Ji Yanting
[Attribute] ???
[Constitution] 99?
[Agility] 20
[Luck] 99+
[Other] Not yet unlocked
Yan Jin’s eyes widened as she stared at the screen in shock. Someone actually had a question mark behind their constitution stat. What did that even mean?
And his luck was unbelievably high. She had always thought her own luck was already quite good, yet compared to his…
There were always people beyond people.
Could it possibly be…
Yan Jin felt a hint of unease rising in her heart. However, when she looked through the window at the man outside plowing the soil in the field, she fell silent for a moment and shook her head.
She must be overthinking things.
After all, the male protagonist should still be in the base fighting for power with the antagonists. Besides, Ji Yanting’s weak appearance was completely different from the suspicious and brooding personality of the protagonist in the original novel.
Having spent so many days with him, she had found him to be an easygoing person. His name also did not match. Perhaps he was just some unnamed supporting character in the original story.
…
Night.
Yu Chen and Qi Hua walked into the courtyard and immediately smelled a rich fragrance of rice.
When they entered the kitchen, they saw that the rice cooker was steaming a huge pot of rice.
Qi Hua’s eyes widened.
Rice!
It was actually rice.
Every day they ate roasted sweet potatoes with their dishes, yet it always felt like something was missing.
What they had been missing was rice.
Yu Chen asked excitedly, “Boss, how much are you selling the rice for?”
Yan Jin pointed toward the hall and said, “There’s a vending machine over there. Just swipe your room card. While you were out, I upgraded your rooms and added kitchen equipment. From now on, if you want to eat something, you can cook it yourselves.”
The vending machine looked just like ordinary vending machines elsewhere, except it only sold fruits and vegetables, and Yan Jin had to replenish its stock personally.
Yan Jin continued, “Since your rooms have been upgraded, the room fee will increase the next time you renew. It will go from 100 gold coins per day to 150 gold coins per day. But if you renew for a month, there’s a discount.”
“How much for a month?” Yu Chen and Qi Hua asked at the same time.
They had discovered that living here was even more comfortable than living in the base. They could do whatever they wanted and had no disputes.
In the base, people fought desperately over even the smallest amount of supplies. Many ordinary people without abilities could not hunt crystal cores and eventually starved to death.
“If you renew for a month, it’s only 4000 gold coins. Very affordable.”
After hunting mutated beasts several times nearby, their pockets had become much fuller. Without hesitation, both of them renewed for another month.
The two men happily took their room cards and walked toward the vending machine Yan Jin had pointed out.