RIIDMDR chapter 23

 

“Dad?” The child called out weakly again, catching sight of his father’s expression.

The man wiped his eyes, crouched down, and patted his son on the head. “It’s okay. Come eat.”

He wanted to share his joy with his tribe members, but when he turned his head, he saw that they all had the same expression.

In the kitchen, Nan Xu was still rolling out dough for dumplings. They had served the previous ones to the guests, and he and Tingchuan hadn’t eaten yet.

Tingchuan imitated Nan Xu and made a few dumplings. They looked strange, and some didn’t even contain filling. Realizing his clumsiness, Tingchuan silently went back to the stove to heat water for the pot.

Nan Xu watched from the corner of his eye, trying to suppress a smile. Once Tingchuan had walked away, Nan Xu finally broke into a silent grin. Thinking that Tingchuan, who had lived for thousands of years and seen many storms, had become frustrated by such a small matter, Nan Xu felt an indescribable sense of happiness and good fortune.

After the dumplings were cooked, Nan Xu placed Tingchuan’s dumplings on the steaming rack with his own, covered the pot, and collected them.

The two of them sat in the kitchen eating dumplings. Tingchuan didn’t seem to like the smell of wild boar, but he particularly enjoyed the dumplings’ unique texture. Most importantly, these were Nan Xu’s dumplings, and Tingchuan didn’t waste a single one.

Nan Xu, on the other hand, was eating with great relish. When he was little, he thought that once he grew up, he would eat lots of dumplings. However, those childhood wishes were gradually forgotten amid the busyness of adulthood for various reasons. Now, even after coming to another world where life was still hectic, that wish had unexpectedly come true.

The canine tribe in the courtyard also discovered the subtle spiritual energy contained in the dumplings. Although it was not as rich as that in the small green vegetables, they were particularly sensitive because they lived in a marginal area where spiritual energy was depleted.

“Hey…” A tall, thin man said to their leader. “Chief, the food in this inn is imbued with spiritual energy. I wonder what the owner’s origins are. Will he agree to our request?”

“It’s hard to say,” the leader replied. “But if it succeeds, it will be a turning point for our Canine Tribe and benefit future generations! After lunch, take your tribe down the mountain. I’ll talk to the owner and meet up with you tomorrow.”

There was no other way, so the man nodded.

After lunch, they said they wanted to leave. Recognizing their difficult migration, Nan Xu symbolically accepted two hundred silver coins for lunch money for the dozen or so people.

The bustling courtyard quieted down considerably after the group left. Only the leader and his young son remained; the son had insisted on staying.

Nan Xu wondered why he hadn’t left with the rest of the tribe. Ting Chuan watched and raised his eyebrows slightly, but remained silent.

The man said, “My son and I would like to stay here for another night.”

Naturally, Nan Xu wouldn’t kick his guests out. He nodded and said, “The room rate is 200 per night, including a meal tomorrow morning.”

[Main Mission 2-2: Accommodate Ten Guests. 2/10]

Seeing the main quest show up so late nearly made Nan Xu cough up blood. Just a moment ago, the courtyard was full of demons, but the system pretended not to notice. Now that only two remained, it suddenly remembered this matter.

The man immediately gave him the money. Remembering that the cucumbers in the vegetable patch behind the house hadn’t been planted yet, Nan Xu told him where the hot water source was and went back to work.

He certainly didn’t expect Tingchuan to help with the reception. As an employee, Tingchuan was already showing great respect by always following his orders.

After sowing the cucumber seeds, Nan Xu sat on a rock beside the patch and browsed the online store. There were too few vegetables in the patch right now. Since the online store system had been released, he had to use it to buy seedlings and other items.

He hadn’t looked closely this morning, but now he was startled. In the crop section, a single seedling was priced at 99 silver coins. How was this any different from robbery?

Was this the legendary “giving me a vegetable seedling even though I could have just snatched it?”

Nan Xu suppressed his anger and continued flipping through the pages until he reached the last one. There, he finally found the seeds among the seedlings. A packet of seeds was also priced at 99 silver coins—a steep price—but after looking at the seedlings for so long, Nan Xu found it acceptable.

Thanks to his hard work, the vegetable patch now contained greens, bok choy, peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers. After eliminating these, Nan Xu began purchasing other seeds.

Including today’s earnings, he only had 1,710 silver coins. He couldn’t afford everything he wanted, so he chose four seeds: winter melon, pumpkin, cauliflower, and cowpeas.

As Nan Xu was about to check out, he saw the watermelon seeds and became particularly excited. On such a hot summer day, biting into a piece of watermelon was pure, heavenly indulgence.

However, fruit seeds are more expensive than vegetable seeds. Watermelon seeds, for example, cost 299 silver coins. Nanxu wanted them but couldn’t bear to spend the money.

After a long struggle, he finally gave in to the allure of a summer watermelon and added the seeds to his cart.

He gritted his teeth and paid. The balance of silver coins in the upper left corner suddenly dropped by 695, and Nanxu felt a sharp pain in his heart.

It didn’t matter, though. At worst, he could save the seeds from this year’s watermelon harvest and plant them again next year. Besides, Tingchuan probably hadn’t tasted this kind of fruit yet.

On his way back to the inn’s warehouse for seeds, Nan Xu watched through the main hall door as several people went about their business in the courtyard. Tingchuan was taking his usual nap, the Canine tribesman was working with wood, and the little boy was playing with a puppy.

By the time he had planted the newly purchased rapeseed seeds, it was already evening. Nan Xu returned to the courtyard. There was still a lot of pork left. Fearing that it would spoil quickly in the heat, he saved a small portion and cut the rest into strips. He smeared them with salt and hung them under the eaves in a cool, ventilated area, away from the sun.

The four of them dined that night. Nan Xu cooked a few dishes, which, when paired with fragrant rice, offered a unique flavor.

The group didn’t talk during the meal. Tingchuan and Nan Xu were used to eating this every day, but the two canine demons, one large and one small, had rarely tasted such dishes before. They were embarrassed to call what they had eaten before “food.”

The puppy ran around anxiously. Nan Xu tossed it a bone, which it happily gnawed on.

After eating, everyone sat in the courtyard and enjoyed the cool evening breeze. Nanxu brought over the candles he had made a few days ago and began peeling off the membranes. Looking at the puppy, which was still gnawing on the bone, Nanxu remembered the previous lesson about the bird tribe mistaking it for Ning Sui. Nanxu asked, “Is this one of your children?”

The two canines were stunned, but Tingchuan laughed out loud.

Nan Xu looked over, bewildered. What had he said wrong again?

Meeting his puzzled gaze, Ting Chuan suppressed a smile and said, “It’s just a puppy, not a demon.”

Nan Xu: …

He smiled awkwardly at the man. He hadn’t expected someone to fall into the same trap twice. Fate always seemed to turn in the opposite direction of his expectations.

He had said that a little impulsively.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. I just didn’t see it,” Nan Xu said sincerely.

That was the good thing about him. He never thought saving face was important, so he apologized without hesitation.

The man waved his hand dismissively. It was unusual for canines like them to bring out an ordinary puppy, but sensing a demonic aura was almost subconscious. They hadn’t expected the innkeeper to lack such a basic skill.

Upon closer inspection, the innkeeper was strikingly handsome. His bright eyes added to his vibrant presence, making him seem like a young man ignorant of the world’s sufferings. Yet his tanned skin betrayed his natural fair complexion.

Their canine tribe had always been sensitive and able to sense subtle demonic auras, but they couldn’t discern the innkeeper’s true nature. At first, he simply assumed it was due to the legendary Zhuyu Mountain formation. Later, when they ate the innkeeper’s cooking, they discovered it was imbued with spiritual energy. They assumed his spiritual attainments far surpassed theirs. Now, however, it seemed there was a secret within him that they hadn’t yet grasped.

Nan Xu tacitly dropped the subject as his hands moved to carefully pour a full candle from the bamboo tube. Perhaps because the impurities had been filtered more finely, the candle wasn’t as rough as he had imagined. Nan Xu lit the candle, and the flame slowly illuminated his entire face, growing faint and strong.

Unable to stop the candle from going out right away, Nan Xu put a slate on the bamboo table, poured some wax onto it, and pressed the candle’s base into the wax to secure it.

The gentle evening breeze made the flame flicker, but it didn’t extinguish it. Nan Xu didn’t have translucent paper, otherwise he could have made a lampshade.

Though this object was familiar to Nan Xu, it caught the attention of several others in the courtyard. Such a small object actually acted like a torch and burned for quite a while without consuming much energy.

Nan Xu continued to mold the other candles. Perhaps now familiar with the courtyard, the
Canine tribeschild was no longer as reserved as he had been at first. He leaned in to smell a candle and caught a faint scent of wood. “Brother, what is this?”

The child’s voice was sweet, and Nan Xu couldn’t help but smile. He replied softly, “It’s a candle made of pine oil, used for nighttime lighting.”

The child nodded thoughtfully. “That’s amazing.”

Nan Xu smiled, unable to deny it.

The Canine tribesman had borrowed a few tools from Nan Xu that afternoon and had been working on a piece of wood ever since. Because he held it in his hand the entire time and it was small, it was hard to tell what shape it was.

When he finished and handed it to the child, Nan Xu could clearly see that it was a small storage box. The lid was a sliding one. Although the workmanship was a bit rough, it was due to time constraints. Compared to Nan Xu’s carpentry, however, it was far superior.

Nan Xu was surprised; he had never expected this man to be so skilled.

The child pulled the lid of the small wooden box a few times and happily ran around the yard.

“My son saw a lot of wildflowers when he went up the mountain and said he wanted to take some seeds with him. So I made him this small wooden box,” the middle-aged man explained, noticing Nan Xu’s gaze on the box.

Nan Xu looked away. “The box is beautifully made.”

The man sheepishly rubbed his leg. “We, the Canine Tribe, love doing chores. After the trees in the mountains withered, we moved back and created some things. We figured it out ourselves. Practice makes perfect.”