Chen Xu believed that in the short term, the mouse demon in his house could serve as a fixed source for daily likes.
But this could only be considered a safety net; he still needed to develop new avenues quickly.
Just at that moment, the fragrant aroma of meat porridge wafted from the pot, and the child from the east neighbor started clamoring again.
"Granny, meat, meat scent! It's meat, the scholar's family is eating meat, it smells so good, Shitou wants to eat!"
The next moment, Granny Lai leaned over the wall, and her familiar voice followed.
"Scholar, Chen Shusheng, your family is eating meat? Oh, you're actually eating meat, Chen Shusheng, did you strike it rich?"
Chen Xu sat by the stove without going out, merely raising his voice to gently reply, "So Granny Lai knows, the way of a gentleman should be to avoid greed and anger, so please refrain from such remarks.
Otherwise, I will have to ask your son, Lai Erg, whether a family of potters can speak so carelessly."
Lai Erg was the old lady's only surviving son. At the mention of him, Granny Lai immediately retreated from making a scene.
She withdrew her head, no longer attempting to beg for porridge.
Little Shitou continued to cry on the other side of the wall, persistently saying that he wanted to eat the fragrant meat.
Chen Xu sat in the stove room, shaking his head in regret. It's a pity that ordinary people have a daily like limit of only 5 points, no matter how many times little Shitou shouted, he couldn't give him any extra likes.
However, although little Shitou couldn't add more likes, he might have other uses.
Chen Xu had a thought, and after the crying stopped on the other side of the wall, he propped himself up with a cane and walked out of the stove room.
He called out loudly, "Granny Lai, I have a business deal for you, would you like to hear it?"
"What is it?" Granny Lai immediately climbed up the wall again, poking her head out curiously saying, "The scholar wants to do business with an old lady? What business? Will it make money?"
Chen Xu walked to the wall, asking Granny Lai to lean her head closer, and he whispered, "You can take this meat porridge to sell for me, at one copper coin per bowl..."
Before he finished speaking, Granny Lai screeched in astonishment, "So cheap? Plain porridge already costs one copper coin per bowl!"
Chen Xu just said, "One copper per bowl, is it sellable?"
"Of course, it will sell, only a fool wouldn't buy it! Even I want some!"
"In that case, I've calculated, my pot can serve thirty-five bowls of porridge. Granny Lai, if you can sell them truthfully for me, just give me twenty-five copper coins in return, and the rest will be your salary, how about that?"
"How about it? That's great!" Granny Lai suddenly jumped up, so excited that she was about to climb over the wall into Chen Xu's yard.
Chen Xu quickly stopped her, and added, "When selling the porridge, make sure to ask the customers whether they think it smells good; only sell it if they say it does, don't sell it if they don't."
Chen Xu made this request, of course, to test whether if he wasn't present, and customers praised the porridge's aroma where he couldn't see, whether the Food Cauldron Celestial Book could provide feedback.
If it could, then his scope of operations would expand greatly.
Granny Lai, for her part, remarked, "Ha, scholars really have tempers!"
Afterward, Granny Lai brought a large wooden barrel from her home to hold the porridge, pushed a wheelbarrow, took the porridge barrel and a few coarse porcelain bowls, plus little Shitou, and left briskly.
Meanwhile, Chen Xu didn't forget to leave a bowl of meat porridge for the mouse demon, a bowl for himself, and even sent a bowl to little Shitou.
Next, he just needed to wait for feedback from Granny Lai's side.
Of course, Chen Xu didn't idle either; he went to South Market Street once more, this time with a plan to spend eight hundred copper coins to buy a batch of fresh ingredients.
On the street, he chatted with a familiar vendor, who said, "Mr. Chen, that cake you made this morning was really good, even now thinking about it tastes good, will there be more tomorrow?"
[Likes +1]
Piece by piece like this, he surprisingly added seven or eight more likes.
[Free Attribute Points: 4]
[Cumulative Likes: 200]
[Fireworks Value: 20]
Chen Xu felt like he had discovered a new path; it turned out that whenever diners mentioned how good his food was afterward, he could also gain likes.
That wasn't all, when Chen Xu bought rice and flour in a grain store, a large number of like notifications suddenly emerged from the Food Cauldron Celestial Book.
[Likes +1]
+1+1+1...
Checking the Celestial Book records, it was obvious that these likes came from Granny Lai's side.
Indeed, Chen Xu's probe was correct: as long as the food he prepared was praised, the Food Cauldron Celestial Book could provide feedback, even if it wasn't directly in front of him!
Chen Xu returned with a full load again.
By mid-afternoon, Granny Lai had still not returned, but the number of likes accumulated on Chen Xu's Celestial Book plate had already reached [312] points.
It wasn't until evening that Granny Lai, pushing a wheelbarrow, returned happily with little Shitou.
She brought twenty-five copper coins to Chen Xu; as for her own wages, she had already deducted them on her own.
Though this old lady was stingy and liked small advantages, she did indeed adhere to the agreed rules.
Then she revealed a gap-toothed grin, asking Chen Xu cheerfully, "Mr. Chen, will you sell porridge again tomorrow?"
Chen Xu replied, "Not necessarily porridge, but if there's anything to sell, I will certainly ask Granny Lai for help."
Granny Lai returned contentedly, and so did Chen Xu.
At that moment, the data on the Food Cauldron Celestial Book reached a new high again.
[Cumulative Likes: 379]
[Free Attribute Points: 21]
[Fireworks Value: 132]
With a little more accumulation of fireworks value, Chen Xu could purchase the Fire Control Skill!
Of course, he could also choose at this time to spend one hundred fireworks value to enter the Fire and Smoke Kitchen to practice the Firewood Splitting Knife Technique.
At the same time, he could take advantage of the Fire and Smoke Kitchen's conveniences to digest newly acquired free attribute points.
After all, a quarter of an hour in reality is equivalent to twelve hours in the Fire and Smoke Kitchen.
In the Fire and Smoke Kitchen, although one could get tired, hurt, or feel pain, they would not feel hungry.
In this void realm, there was no need to worry about the inconvenience caused by a sudden rise in attribute points.
Chen Xu thought briefly, then immediately decided to enter the Fire and Smoke Kitchen once more.
A bird in the hand is worth ten in the bush; he could not wait for the Fire Control Skill. He needed to use all resources now, ceaselessly improving himself quickly!
At night, the spring rain started drizzling again.
The hustle and bustle of South Market Street had long sunk into the night along with this gentle rain, and Ping'an Lane was quietly immersed in dim light.
Occasionally there was the sound of snores, the grinding of teeth, rippling through the night rain.
In a corner of the rain-soaked alley, at an unknown time, a shadow, like a worm, slithered through the wet and muddy alleyway.
Inside the small house, Chen Xu lay in bed pretending to sleep.
He had been practicing the knife technique continuously for twelve hours in the Fire and Smoke Kitchen, during which time, whenever he felt fatigued, he would increase his attribute points.
Currently, his tri-attributes were as follows:
[Essence: 21+]
[Qi Blood: 21+]
[Divine Soul: 21+]
[Free Attribute Points: 4]
[Chopping Wood Level 1 (79/100)]
When it all ended, back in reality, Chen Xu spent quite a while adapting to the changes in his body.
It was late at night, and the whole world was enveloped in a thick, inky darkness.
There were so many questions worth pondering.
For instance, since this world has demons and evil, might there also be gods and immortals?
They all say a small hermit lives hidden in the city, a great hermit lives hidden in the court; if he wanted to cloak himself in official status to walk the path of cultivation, how should he proceed on this road?
He had once thought it an exaggerated legend that in this world of Jade Capital Celestial City, there were great scholars who could work miracles.
But now, he thought that he probably had seen too little to ever have really understood the vastness of the world.
The world... how vast is it really?
With his thoughts wandering far and wide, Chen Xu's mind became a bit hazy, as though he was about to fall asleep.
Suddenly, he realized the patter of the rain, the drizzling spring rain, had vanished without a trace.
The world around him fell into a complete ominous silence.
In that split second, Chen Xu even felt as if he had slipped into a vacuum.
In the pitch-black darkness, a sinister white blade suddenly slashed toward Chen Xu's head!