Early the next morning, Ji Rongxia and Gu Tangjin awkwardly planted the cucumber seeds in the ground.

They couldn’t possibly use up the entire small packet of seeds. Ji Rongxia patted the dirt off his hands and said helplessly, “Tangjin, should we just buy a piece of wasteland to manage for now?”

“We live in the county town. Even if we bought wasteland, we wouldn’t be able to look after it. Let’s wait a little longer,” Gu Tangjin was also feeling a bit troubled.

Their family was small. Although he had two uncles living in the village who had farmland, and Xia-ger’s maternal family also had quite a bit of farmland, they were outsiders after all. The things Xia-ger possessed were too astonishing. It was best for as few people as possible to know about them.

Ji Rongxia spread his hands: “If there’s really no way, let’s not plant for now. We’ll earn more money and then figure out a solution. What do you think?”

Gu Tangjin thought for a moment and said, “If the land isn’t enough, we can stop planting ginger and garlic. We can also buy some large flowerpots, fill them with soil, and manage with those. Then, when we harvest the seeds and buy land, we can have others plant the seeds we grew. This way, it won’t be too conspicuous.”

Although he wasn’t a farmer, he had read many farming books. He knew that if seeds weren’t carefully nurtured, planting them for generations could easily lead to a decline in quality. This was normally a bad thing, but for them, it was good.

Currently, their main focus was the eatery business, and they weren’t truly focused on farming. Moreover, the small patch of land they cleared in the courtyard couldn’t compare to proper farmland, let alone growing vegetables in pots. Planting this way would definitely result in produce that wasn’t as good as what Xia-ger took out, but it wouldn’t be eye-catching. This was the safest option for them. If they planted more in the future and carefully nurtured them, they could still grow good ingredients, which Xia-ger could then use for cooking.

“Right. Our courtyard is so big. Getting a few more pots won’t hurt. We don’t need to buy them from others. I’ll take a trip home and ask Dad to make a few wooden tubs. The family has plenty of leftover scraps. Just making something simple would be a wooden tub. Should wooden tubs be okay?” Ji Rongxia felt this idea had potential as soon as he heard it. Tangjin really had a way.

If he liked Gu Tangjin before, about seventy to eighty percent of it was because he was handsome and his character wasn’t bad. Now, he liked the person himself even more, especially when Gu Tangjin was coming up with ideas; he looked exceptionally handsome.

If the Cooking God System could communicate with Ji Rongxia now, it would tell him that he was an appearance-fetish with a little bit of sapiosexuality.

Regardless of what it was, Ji Rongxia found Gu Tangjin more and more pleasing to the eye.

“It should work, but we still have to give money. If not, take some food. It’s not good to take things from home for free,” Tangjin reminded him.

Although his parents loved Xia-ger, constantly taking things to their eatery could easily lead to trouble over time.

“Alright. How about I bring them some steamed taro? We can also eat that for breakfast. We’ll just keep a little bit as seeds,” Ji Rongxia didn’t intend to take it for free, but using money felt too distant. Using food was better.

Gu Tangjin heard him planning the use before even receiving the reward, but he didn’t discourage Xia-ger. Instead, he encouraged him, saying, “Done, we’ll take taro.”

Only after the two quietly finished their discussion did they begin their busy day.

Today, they still make chive flatbreads and fruit drinks. However, for their family’s breakfast, Ji Rongxia made coarse rice porridge and salted vegetables stir-fried with cured meat. Of course, because his parents liked chive flatbreads, Ji Rongxia also set aside a few pieces.

With the foundation and reputation built yesterday, many people came over as soon as they set up the stall today.

Liu Dalang also rubbed his eyes and came out groggily, carrying a basket.

Since he had been promised two flatbreads the day before, he didn’t want to make things difficult for them and woke up early to buy them.

Gu Tangjin gave him a little extra fruit drink.

The others saw that he was their next-door neighbour, so they couldn’t say much, especially since they weren’t shortchanged either.

Liu Dalang chuckled, said thank you, and hurried away with his small basket.

Many people bought chive flatbreads today. Ji Rongxia sold the flatbreads while telling people that he would change to a new variety in two days. He said he was just practising, and in the future, the breakfast items would change.

“You’re changing the items? I’ve never seen anyone do business like this before,” Lin Dongshan, the man who was the first to drink the fruit drink yesterday, asked while drinking.

It was truly something he had never seen before, so how could he not be curious?

“It’s just that I’m currently learning skills from my father. This is just practice. If I only made one kind of food for practice, how could I master all the skills? We don’t expect to make too much, nor do we expect to earn money from this. The goal is to master the skills so that everyone can enjoy eating comfortably when they come to our eatery in the future,” Ji Rongxia replied clearly while working.

Gu Tangjin also added, “We will still rely on everyone to support our business then.”

“So that’s it. That’s a way,” Lin Dongshan smacked his lips, thinking that this family was quite ingenious, but constantly changing the offerings might not attract regular customers.

However, thinking that if all their items were as delicious as the flatbread and fruit drinks, he would be happy to come and buy, even if he didn’t know what they were selling every day.

Knowing that the flatbreads wouldn’t be sold for much longer, people who came to buy now bought more.

After closing the stall early, Gu Tangjin and Ji Rongxia told Gu Cunchai and Yao Tianlan, who had just gotten up, that they wanted to plant some other vegetables in the courtyard land.

This wasn’t a big deal. Yao Tianlan casually said, “Plant whatever you want, but you have to wait until this batch of ginger and garlic is used up. You can’t just dig them up when they are growing well.”

Ji Rongxia: “Mom, don’t worry. We would never do that.”

The matter was settled in just a few words.

At night, Ji Rongxia couldn’t wait to sleep and enter the System Space.

Taro, I’m coming!!!

The Cooking God System didn’t even have time to greet its Host before seeing the Host quickly slip into the stove room.

The Cooking God System didn’t dare to speak or disturb the Host, only watching Ji Rongxia grunt as he peeled the taro skin.

The method of holding the knife and applying force for peeling was indeed quite different from cutting things. Ji Rongxia worked while pondering, occasionally glancing at the demonstration video. Finally, just as the half hour was about to pass, he heard the familiar alert sound.

[Ding! Detection confirms the Host has mastered the method of cleanly peeling taro skin within one minute; the steaming method cannot be used]

“Host, do you want me to put the mission reward in your bedroom?” The Cooking God System finally found an opening to speak.

Ji Rongxia rubbed his slightly sore shoulder and said, “Just release ten jin. Store the rest for now.”

“Yes, Host!”

“Mission reward successfully issued.”

“Give me a new mission,” Ji Rongxia said, shaking his arm.

The Cooking God System paused: “Um, Host, your speed is actually already very fast. You should pay attention to balancing work and rest.”

It was worried when the Host didn’t want to be bound to it, and now that the Host was so competitive, it was also worried. It was better to take things slow and steady.

Ji Rongxia: “???”

Ji Rongxia: “You want me to rest after just this much? There should still be a quarter of an hour left, right? I can still do it. Hurry and give me a mission.”

He had only worked for half an hour. When the carpentry shop was busy, he, his parents, and his elder brother all had to work extremely hard. It was common to work for ten hours straight.

Especially during the winter off-season, there were only a few auspicious days for weddings. Everyone crowded together to hold wedding ceremonies, making cabinets and beds. That was truly strenuous labour.

The Cooking God System felt despised. It wasn’t its fault! As far as it knew, the gers in this world weren’t as strong as men!

Alas, it seemed it knew nothing about the strength of the working people in this small world.

[Ding! Basic Skills Module Primary Mission: Cut Taro Chunks. (Demonstration Tutorial Video Attached)]

[Mission Requirement: Please cut the taro into chunks of similar size.]

[Mission Reward: Twenty jin of premium taro.]

“Wow, still taro,” Ji Rongxia tied up his sleeves and saw that the taro he had peeled haphazardly was gone, replaced by basins of already-peeled taro.

Cutting into chunks was something he was familiar with.

However, raw taro was genuinely hard. The few pieces that weren’t as hard were still much harder than ordinary vegetables. Cutting this was also strenuous labour.

With some of the large taros, the knife would get stuck after one cut, and he couldn’t even pull it out!!!

Fortunately, the knives here were not their eatery’s real knives, or cutting like this would seriously damage the blades, and Ji Rongxia would be heartbroken.

Time was too tight. He failed to complete this mission and was ejected from the System Space as usual.

Ji Rongxia was somewhat used to it when he opened his eyes again.

“I’m out again!” Ji Rongxia stretched. “Where’s our taro?”

“It’s under the bed. I see there are seven kinds of taro here. These two large ones weigh over a jin each. These small taros are five kinds of small taro mixed together.” Gu Tangjin used a small basket to store the taro. These taros were quite clean, as if they had been washed.

“Let’s secretly roast two and eat them,” Ji Rongxia looked eagerly at Gu Tangjin. He finally got a reward, so he definitely had to taste it first!

Gu Tangjin looked at him, thinking it was still early and there was no rush to sleep, and he subconsciously nodded.

The two quietly went to the stove room, not daring to use the large stove, as that would waste too much firewood.

They found a copper basin used in winter, lit a few pieces of firewood, but didn’t let the fire get too big, for fear of burning the small taro. They buried the small taro in the half-extinguished firewood. A faint aroma soon emerged.

Gu Tangjin and Ji Rongxia sat on small stools in the courtyard, not daring to get too close to the basin. After all, the weather was too hot, and even with a cool breeze at night, they couldn’t stand the heat of a fire!

They simply waited in the courtyard. Gu Tangjin held a large cattail fan, casually fanning himself and Xia-ger, and simultaneously shooing away the mosquitoes and flies buzzing around at night.

They finally waited until the small taro was cooked. Ji Rongxia used a chopstick to pierce the taro. One for himself, one for Gu Tangjin.

Ji Rongxia and Gu Tangjin sat under the moonlight, each holding a chopstick, huffing and blowing on the scalding hot small taro on the end of the chopstick.

The two inadvertently met each other’s eyes and almost burst out laughing when they saw each other’s appearance.

Especially Ji Rongxia, he had never imagined seeing Gu Tangjin like this.

Finally, Ji Rongxia couldn’t help but laugh softly: “Hahahahaha, little scholar, you are so cute. Let me blow on yours for you.”

Gu Tangjin helplessly bent his fingers and tapped Ji Rongxia, who was laughing heartily, on the forehead.