RIIDMDR chapter 19

 

During dinner, Nan Xu’s system notified her of a successful update and said it needed to be restarted. The installation continued into the night. Before going to bed, Nan Xu finally saw the progress bar fill up. After a few seconds of a black screen, the system page reappeared.

[Main Mission 2: Upgrade the hotel.]

[Main Mission 2-1: Upgrade the Hotel Building. (Required Materials: 20 Wood, 3 Desks, 3 Wooden Chairs, 3 Wardrobes)]

As soon as Nan Xu saw this small task, he knew the second-level tasks wouldn’t be easy. He clicked on the hotel information.

[Name: Mountain Inn]

[Level: Level 1]

[Address: Zhuyu Mountain]

[Prosperity: 58]

[Coins: 1310]

[Inn upgrade requirements: Building: Level 2/3; Courtyard: Level 1/2; Vegetable Plot: Level 1/2; Prosperity: 58/300; Coins: 1310/2000.]

Having completed the previous major mission, Nanxu remained calm this time. However, as a nonprofessional carpenter, he wasn’t sure when he would be able to leave his post.

That night, Tingchuan slept beside him again. Nanxu was much more accustomed to it than the previous night and fell into a deep sleep after about two hours.

The next day, Tingchuan could sense Nanxu’s busyness. He had chopped down all the trees outside the yard and asked Tingchuan to bring them back. He dug out a bunch of tools, sat in the yard, and sawed wood to make boards. He was never idle; even cooking was perfunctory, and he didn’t bother to pack up the fish cages.

After eating wild vegetables for two days, Tingchuan was tired. He looked at the dying chicken in the corner of the yard and fell into deep thought.

The next morning, Nanxu found a prepared chicken in the kitchen basket. He couldn’t help but smile. He had been so busy making boards for furniture the previous two days that he hadn’t noticed the stubborn, half-dead chicken. He had been planning to deal with it during the day.

Nan Xu was somewhat pleased to save himself the effort. He had also begun to understand Tingchuan’s style. He would be lazy if he could, but if he couldn’t wait, he would still do it himself, even if he felt bad. Judging by the clean chicken skin, Nan Xu knew Tingchuan was a meticulous craftsman who wouldn’t skimp on a task just because he didn’t feel like it.

Nan Xu looked at Tingchuan, who was still looking sage in the yard. It was hard to imagine him squatting there, plucking chicken feathers after Nan Xu had gone to bed last night.

Who would have imagined that a fox would go to such lengths just to eat chicken?

To reward Tingchuan for his diligence, Nan Xu stewed a chicken early in the morning, simmering it in a pot over low heat. This way, it would be extra tender and flavorful by lunchtime.

Nan Xu didn’t make any more furniture today. The bowls and plates he’d hung out to bake were almost done. He opened the clay kiln yesterday, and the charcoal inside was burning quite well.

After placing the dried bowls and plates on the hearth of the stove, he poured charcoal in and added firewood to fuel the fire. Then, he took his bamboo basket and went to the stream to dig up clay. He fired another kiln of charcoal and made a few more pottery jars to dry. If this kiln was successful, he would continue firing pottery and strive to create a collection of useful vessels.

Meanwhile, in Zhuyu Mountain, two wild boar demons lay panting under a towering tree.

“Brother, we’ve seen this tree eighteen times now,” said the younger wild boar demon.

The eldest wild boar demon gnawed at the bark with a grimace on his face, his stomach empty. “This looks like a formation set up by a great demon. I’ve heard my grandfather mention it before.”

They used to only eat once a month, but for some reason, hunger came on quickly in this formation. It was as if everything they had just eaten disappeared in two hours. This was somewhat similar to an innkeeper’s eating frequency.

The young boar demon was terrified upon hearing this. His voice trembling, he asked, “So we can’t get out?”

The eldest boar demon brother was also bewildered. He didn’t know how things had come to this. He had come to the mountains to find an inexpensive inn and restock his supplies. How had that fox demon dragged them here in the middle of the night? The two brothers couldn’t find any birds or animals to eat, so they could only gnaw on wild vegetables and tree bark. He didn’t know how many more days they could survive.

“If only we hadn’t targeted the innkeeper. If only we hadn’t planned to steal the sweet potatoes. If only we had stayed in the inn, we could have eaten the innkeeper’s cooking the next morning and maybe bought some spiritual fruit.” The younger brother of the wild boar demon muttered. He was filled with regret. Every bite of bark reminded him of the innkeeper’s delicious meal, something he hadn’t tasted in centuries.

“The innkeeper wasn’t as kind as you claim. We were just fighting for what we wanted. If we hadn’t been discovered, all those spiritual fruits would have been ours,” said the wild boar demon’s eldest brother through gritted teeth.

—

After a day and night of firing, the first batch of pottery emerged from the oven. Aside from two pieces that were set aside—one damaged and the other with a chipped hole—the rest were all perfectly formed.

After cleaning them with water, they produced a crisp sound when struck—a sound Nan Xu found incredibly beautiful.

This was his first time firing pottery. When he passed by handmade pottery shops in the past, he would only watch through the glass as couples or children kneaded clay. The employees would then take the clay and fire it into exquisite objects like those displayed in the window.

He hadn’t imagined that he could succeed. While his creation wasn’t as beautiful as the objects in the display window, he had made it from start to finish without any help. This sense of accomplishment couldn’t be achieved simply by kneading clay.

Tingchuan had witnessed Nanxu crafting ceramic bowls and plates, and now, seeing the finished products, he couldn’t help but marvel. Could those clay objects, simply heated by fire, actually become such shaped bowls and plates? This plate was much more beautiful than the large bamboo soup bowl.

“How is it?” Nanxu asked, unable to let go. He toyed with it for a long time before handing it to Tingchuan.

Tingchuan took it and held it steadily, imitating Nanxu. He had just seen Nanxu carelessly throw a cracked ceramic bowl to the ground, instantly shattering it. If Nanxu had dropped something he had worked hard on, he would probably be upset.

“Beautiful,” Tingchuan praised.

Nanxu felt a bit guilty when Tingchuan praised the plain bowls and plates, but he was delighted by the compliment, especially seeing how carefully Tingchuan handled them.

After finishing the first batch of pottery, Nanxu waited two days for the next batch. He wasn’t in a hurry to make furniture; he was still thinking about raising rabbits. Seeing that the greens were ready to eat and the Chinese cabbage had sprouted, he could finally start raising rabbits.

After telling Tingchuan to catch a pair of rabbits, Nanxu took his axe and went to the back mountain to cut bamboo for a cage.

As promised, Tingchuan brought back two gray rabbits that night. Nanxu had just finished weaving two cages. Seeing how quickly Tingchuan worked, Nanxu remembered reading that it was difficult to tell the gender of rabbits apart. He asked with some doubt, “Are they really one male and one female?”

Tingchuan stood in the middle of the yard, holding the rabbits. He was speechless after hearing this. After a long silence, he replied, “Yes, the female is pregnant.”

Nanxu’s eyes widened.

Do foxes know how to take pulses, too? Complaints aside, Nan Xu still trusted Tingchuan—after all, he had lived for so many years.

Knowing the female rabbit was pregnant, Nanxu put the two rabbits in separate cages in a corner of the yard. Then, he went to cut some greens and weeds to feed the rabbits.

“I haven’t even tried the vegetables I grew yet, so I’ll let you try them first,” Nanxu muttered as he fed them.

The rabbits were already in place, but Nan Xu wasn’t in a hurry to build the chicken coop. Thinking the newly hatched chicks were fragile and best kept under his watch, Nan Xu recalled his past experiences in the countryside. Using leftover bamboo strips, he wove a fence about six or seven meters long into a circle. He placed it against the west side of the kitchen wall in the yard. Once the chicks hatched, he would cover the circle with dry grass and raise them in the yard.

After finishing the household chores, Nan Xu was away for two or three days straight. The wooden planks that he had been busy making the previous few days were left there, neglected. Tingchuan asked, “Didn’t you say you were going to make tables and chairs?”

Nanxu thought, the week is almost over, and I haven’t used my ten encyclopedia searches yet. I’m afraid I’m wasting them, so I’m rushing out!

But Nanxu still gave Tingchuan a mysterious smile. “You don’t understand. My priority right now is exploration.”

Tingchuan was even more confused by humans.

Despite his doubts, he knew they were unaware of the forest’s dangers. Concerned, Tingchuan sacrificed his valuable time to catch up with Nanxu and follow him out.

Tingchuan watched as Nanxu stuffed his backpack with everything he found, occasionally squatting to examine the grass. After half a minute, an expression of either joy or disappointment would appear on his face. After a few such occurrences, Tingchuan squatted down as well, though he couldn’t figure out why.

From his observations, Tingchuan noticed that if Nanxu was pleased, he would pick up a shovel and start digging. Then, he would put the soil, including the roots, into the backpack.

If Nanxu looked disappointed, he would pat the dirt off his trouser legs and continue walking without a word.

Quite interesting, Tingchuan thought.

On the first day, they returned home with a bountiful harvest. Their backpack wasn’t big enough, so they still had to carry a sapling. The next day, Nan Xu stuffed a bamboo basket into Tingchuan’s hands before leaving the house and asked him to carry it on his back. Tingchuan, a fox with an air of ethereal grace, refused to carry it on his back, so he simply held it in his hands.

“In our human legends, accomplished immortals possess small storage spaces called realms that can hold many things. Do you demons have such storage spaces?” Nan Xu asked.

Tingchuan pondered for a moment, then shook his head. “I’ve only heard that some rats have a pocket in their bodies that can hold things. But they don’t have the small storage devices you’re talking about.”

Nan Xu felt a little disappointed. It seemed that the myths of immortal cultivation among demons differed from those of humans. He recalled that when he first met Tingchuan, he had nothing.

“What if you go out without an umbrella or a raincoat? What if it rains?” Nanxu asked.

Through his daily interactions with them, he had learned some of the demon tribe’s customs. For instance, an advanced demon like Tingchuan could go long periods without food. But would they still rely on spiritual energy to survive in a thunderstorm? Wouldn’t they be afraid of being struck by lightning and enduring a catastrophe?

Besides, they always say the demon world’s spiritual energy is weak these days. Wouldn’t sheltering from the rain require a lot of energy?

Tingchuan was surprised by this and asked, “What’s an umbrella? When it rains, you naturally find a cave to rest in.”

His tone was so matter-of-fact that Nanxu was speechless for a moment.