RIIDMDR chapter 11

 

While Nan Xu plucked the feathers, he picked a handful of mushrooms and soaked them. He planned to add them to the stew once the chicken was almost done.

The sun shone brightly in the yard, making everyone feel lazy. Nan Xu was in a good mood and hummed a tune that Tingchuan had never heard before.

In this harmonious atmosphere, Tingchuan yawned and slowly closed his eyes. When he woke up, the yard was filled with the aroma of chicken and mushroom stew.

Nan Xu carried a concave stone, about waist-high, out of the main room. Seeing that he was struggling, Tingchuan stood up. Without opening his eyes, Tingchuan walked over, took the stone from Nan Xu’s hand, and walked out, carrying it in one hand. Nan Xu was left stunned.

How could Tingchuan, with his thin arms, manage to do this so effortlessly? Could a demon have such free rein?

Tingchuan took a few steps with the stone, then turned and asked, “Where should I put it?”

Nan Xu stopped his internal rants and hurriedly replied, “Put it next to the log on the left.”

Tingchuan glanced around, found the spot Nan Xu had indicated, and set the stone down. The stone must have weighed almost as much as Nanxu himself, which made it difficult for him to carry it around the house.

Seeing the large stone in place, Nanxu turned back inside, scooped out a bamboo tube of rice, and poured it into the stone’s groove. He began to stir it with a wooden stick.

Tingchuan rested his arm on the back of his chair and supported his chin. He watched Nanxu work hard from a few meters away, his eyes narrowed.

“What are you doing?” Tingchuan asked. Nanxu’s arms ached from the exertion. He paused with his hands on his hips and replied, “Shelling it. The bird tribe eats rice in its husk, but we humans can’t stomach it that way.”

“They eat it in the husk?” Tingchuan chuckled.

Nan Xu felt like he was mocking him. Sure enough, a few seconds later, Tingchuan muttered, “The Bird Tribe is so stupid.”

Nan Xu: …

After a while, he figured the water in the pot was almost dry, so he put down his stick and went to the kitchen.

The moment he lifted the lid, a fragrant aroma hit him, and his eyes narrowed.

The chicken had been simmering slowly over low heat in a clay pot and was now tender and juicy. The broth had thickened when scooped up. The mushrooms were also tender and fragrant, making the dish even more appetizing. For Nan Xu, this pot was a visual and gustatory feast.

He could hardly wait to serve it and carry it out of the house. In the courtyard, Tingchuan was already seated at the table.

Without an invitation, his eyes were fixed on the plate of chicken and mushroom stew.

Nan Xu sat down and handed Tingchuan a pair of bamboo chopsticks. “Eat!”

The two sat across from each other and began to enjoy their lunch. The chicken was cooked to a tender, fragrant consistency. With a gentle sip, the meat slipped easily from the bones and slid down their throats without a single chew. Another bite of the mushrooms revealed the smooth, irresistible broth. They were so consumed with their food that they had no time to chat.

The pile of bones in front of them grew taller, and the mound of chicken on their plates slowly dwindled. By the time Nan Xu put down his chopsticks, he was leaning back in his chair, unwilling to get up, rubbing his stomach.

Tingchuan’s stomach was like a bottomless pit. He ate a lot without feeling uncomfortable, but it was clear that he preferred the chicken to the fish in the stream.

Nanxu didn’t rush to take a nap because his stomach was so full. Instead, he pulled weeds along the west side of the fence and loosened the soil. Then he went to the kitchen and got a few dried chili peppers. He cut open their skins, poured the seeds into his palm, and sprinkled them evenly over the plowed soil.

This spot was sheltered from direct sunlight, and the soil was fairly moist. If the chili seeds sprouted, he would transplant them to the vegetable patch behind the house once they were larger.

Nan Xu wondered if he could obtain a better variety of chili peppers from the system or another magical race in the future. For now, though, he could only do his best to improve his life.

Since the sun wasn’t as scorching today, Nan Xu took a nap in the shade of the courtyard. Before falling asleep, he thought about making a recliner when he had the chance. However, he figured Tingchuan would compete with him for it every day, so he’d have to make two.

When he awoke, as expected, he saw Tingchuan resting not far away. Nan Xu sat there for a long moment before regaining consciousness. The warm, comfortable afternoon breeze made him want to open every pore.

He suddenly remembered the box of eggs he had opened from the blind box yesterday. There had to be something special about them. He hadn’t been able to see them clearly last night due to the lack of light. Now that there was light, he took the box out and took a look.

The eggs looked just like ordinary eggs, with no special patterns. He turned them over and over on the table and held them up to the sun, but still found nothing.

Forget it, he stopped investigating and decided to have scrambled eggs for dinner.

Nan Xu stood up, preparing to finish tidying up the vegetable patch behind the house. The sound of the chair being moved startled Tingchuan, who was taking a nap. He looked over at Nan Xu. Nan Xu smiled and said, “Why don’t you get up and move around? Otherwise, you’ll sleep too much during the day, and you won’t be able to fall asleep at night. You’ll never adjust your sleep schedule.”

Tingchuan’s peach-shaped eyes looked particularly hazy when he was sleepy. Hearing this, he seemed to try to wake up. He straightened his back a little and looked at the box of eggs on the table, puzzled.

Nan Xu saw this and asked optimistically, “Is there something wrong with these eggs?”

Tingchuan shook his head.

Disappointed, Nan Xu was about to leave with the hoe in hand when he heard Tingchuan say, somewhat perplexed, “These eggs are quite large.”

Nan Xu was stunned for a moment, then realized that the eggs the system had delivered were no different from those he had seen in his previous world. Whether at the market or supermarket, they all came from domesticated chickens. In this mountainous area, sturdy pheasants were no bigger than domesticated broilers, so it was natural that Tingchuan had never seen eggs this large.

However, Nan Xu found it amusing when he thought about it. Tingchuan, a fox who loved eating chicken, would one day become suspicious of his own existence because of the size of the eggs.

Unable to explain the eggs’ origins, Nan Xu simply gave a perfunctory “hmm” in response.

“They can hatch chicks,” Tingchuan said.

Nan Xu’s chaotic thoughts suddenly cleared up at this. Unsure if Tingchuan was just saying that casually, Nan Xu asked uncertainly, “Are you saying these eggs are fertilized?”

Tingchuan nodded matter-of-factly. “Where did they come from? Did the bird tribe send them?”

Nan Xu couldn’t think of an answer to his question. As it turned out, his train of thought had been skewed. He had assumed that the light from the blind box signified the eggs’ extraordinary qualities. He had never considered that the system might simply be using the light to remind him that the eggs could be hatched.

This box contained about thirty eggs. With an 80% hatching rate, he could end up with twenty-four or twenty-five chicks, all of which would be broiler chickens capable of laying eggs.

“How do we hatch them?”

Nan Xu had seen chickens hatch eggs in the village when he was young, but he only had the thirty eggs sent by the system. Judging by the system’s fervent searching, the chances of opening this blind box again were extremely small, making these eggs very valuable.

Tingchuan was also stumped by Nan Xu’s question. The two of them exchanged bewildered glances. Even though Tingchuan was a fox, he had only eaten chickens; he had never raised them.

“Should I go to the mountains and catch a pheasant to hatch the eggs?” After a long pause, Tingchuan finally had an idea.

Nan Xu put down the hoe and sat back down at the table. He held the egg, rubbing the shell with his fingertips a few times. However, he was still uneasy about handing his precious egg over to a pheasant. “No, the pheasants in the mountains are smart and wild. If they pecked all the eggs out of revenge, it would be a loss.”

Tingchuan didn’t see any problem. “Then let’s go to the Taifeng Mountains and find a bird to hatch them.”

Nan Xu immediately rejected this idea. The bird tribe may be birds, but they are fairies who can transform into humans, after all. The thought of them transforming back into their true forms and sitting on a pile of eggs every day seemed inhumane to him.

In the end, Nanxu decided to use a trick he had seen as a child. He filled a dense bamboo basket with sand, half-buried an egg inside it, placed a small bamboo tube halfway filled with water inside the basket, and covered the basket with a solid layer of dry straw.

Tingchuan squatted beside him, watching him work and occasionally helping out. As Nanxu covered the basket with straw, Tingchuan asked, “Is that all?”

Nanxu wasn’t sure. “I think it should be fine,” he replied. “We’ll take it to the kitchen later. There’s good sunlight there, and the stove burns every day, so it’s warmer than elsewhere. You can go over there and flip the egg from time to time.”

Tingchuan nodded, accepting the assignment.

Nan Xu placed the basket by the stove and returned to the vegetable garden with the hoe.

After mowing the weeds that morning and clearing away rocks all afternoon, Nan Xu finally finished clearing the vegetable garden in two or three days.

The tomato seeds hadn’t sprouted yet, so Nan Xu didn’t rush to plant them. Instead, he piled the rubble around the garden to form a rough wall.

Once everything was finished, Nan Xu received the mission rewards.

[Main Missions 1-5 Rewards Distributed. Reward List: Weather Forecast, 2 Blind Boxes]

[Vegetable Garden Upgrade Completed. Current Level: Level 1, Prosperity +5]

[Main Missions 1-6: Garden Upgrade (Materials Required: 300 kg Stone, 3 Wood, 10 Bamboo).

Nan Xu was very satisfied with this weather forecast reward. Without the ability to read the skies like the bird clan, he could only rely on sayings he had heard before, such as, ‘If there’s a morning glow, don’t go out; if there’s an evening glow, you can travel a thousand li,'[mfn]“朝霞不出門，晚霞行千里” → an old Chinese proverb about predicting weather: 朝霞 (morning glow/red sky at sunrise) → usually means rain is coming, so don’t travel. 晚霞 (evening glow/red sky at sunset) → usually means fair weather, so it’s safe to travel far.[/mfn] to predict the weather and decide whether to travel far from home. Fortunately, up until now, he had been lucky—he had never been caught in the rain on his way back.

But luck is unpredictable, especially as summer approaches. Rainstorms can come at any time, leaving you drenched and helpless. He was most afraid of summer thunderstorms because they made traveling in the mountains unsafe. With this system, though, he’d have a lot less to worry about.