Zhou Li and Brother Nan sat in the shop, one on each side of an Eight Immortals table, pondering the menu on the wall to choose dishes.
"Three pounds of mutton, two pounds of assorted sheep offal, plus one plate of sheep's blood and one order of baby bok choy," Brother Nan said.
"You two can't eat that much," the owner said.
"There are three of us."
"Three people can't finish it either."
"We'll pack the leftovers for my parents."
Soon after, Huai Xu walked in from the entrance and casually took a seat. "Have you ordered yet?" he asked.
"We have," Zhou Li nodded.
"Is the teacher strict?"
"You didn't let me go!" Huai Xu complained bitterly. "I was playing games at home this afternoon. In one game, I encountered two AFK players, and in another, two people who had been quarreling since the last round joined just to throw the game. I was so mad!"
"Oh." Zhou Li wasn't interested.
"I've encountered that too!" Brother Nan chimed in, interested. "It's the most annoying thing!"
"Exactly! No matter how hard I tried to carry, I just couldn't," Huai Xu said, utterly discouraged. "I failed to reach King rank again."
Brother Nan fell silent.
Fortunately, the owner promptly brought over the mutton soup. Brother Nan quickly distributed chopsticks to the two men and helped them ladle soup, saying, "Give it a try. Yours truly, Brother Nan, has personally tested this—it's the best mutton soup in Quanyan City, bar none."
Zhou Li picked up a piece of mutton first.
The texture was delicate and the flavor delicious; it wasn't gamey even when eaten plain.
Dipping it into his personal dipping saucer, the taste immediately became rich and full-bodied. It was already quite delicious.
Then he scooped a small spoonful of soup, blew on it to cool, and cautiously tasted it. Instantly, his entire palate was filled with the delicious flavor of the mutton soup. This flavor spread from the tip of his tongue to the very back, a wide reach that slightly surprised him.
Facts always proved that when it came to food, following Brother Nan was never wrong.
"Delicious!" Huai Xu's eyes seemed to shine. He took a large gulp, unafraid of the heat, and then asked, "Brother Nan, didn't I help you reach Gold rank the other day? How did you drop down again?"
"...Add some scallions; it tastes even better."
"Oh yeah, sure thing!" Huai Xu immediately grabbed a handful of chopped scallions from a nearby bowl, tossed them into his soup, and stirred vigorously. "It's a pity the meat isn't that great," he lamented. "The mutton here just doesn't taste as good as in those other places."
"Which places?" Brother Nan asked. "Qingjiang Xixia?"
"Exactly! Last time, Aunt Jiang had a friend send over some Tan lamb. Now *that* was flavorful! Too bad it's all gone now."
In the end, the three of them ate enough for eight people. Judging by the owner's gaze, they had clearly made a lasting impression.
After eating, Huai Xu headed back, while Zhou Li and Brother Nan went for a walk by the river. During their stroll, Zhou Li kept looking around, trying to spot any figure that might be lurking in the shadows and spying on them, but to no avail.
Maybe the Old monster has truly turned over a new leaf. Maybe.
「By the time they got home, it was almost 9 o'clock.」
Zhou Li noticed Tuanzi seemed a bit unhappy, so he casually walked over. "Has Lord Dumpling woken up?" he asked.
He became somewhat puzzled. He walked closer and asked with concern, "What's the matter? Are you feeling unwell? Just this afternoon, Lord Dumpling was sleeping so soundly I couldn't even wake you. Are you sick?"
"Really! You might be sick. When I'm sick, I also sleep very soundly and get a fever; nothing can wake me up."
"Did you call for Lord Dumpling, MEOW?"
"Oh, you mean that? Of course. I wanted to invite Lord Dumpling to go out and play with me." Zhou Li thought for a moment. "Ah, I know! Was it because you got caught in the rain last month? Do you have a cold now?"
"Lord Dumpling doesn't catch colds," Tuanzi stated, though she hesitated. "But Lord Dumpling does feel very hot when sleeping."
"What kind of hot?" Zhou Li sat beside her, touching her forehead and then his own. Indeed, a forehead covered with fine fuzz was more comforting to touch than a smooth one.
"It's like... like basking in the sun," Tuanzi murmured.
"Because you *were* sunbathing!" Huai Xu couldn't watch anymore.
"Does Lord Dumpling remember how you fell asleep?" Zhou Li frowned, his expression serious as he ignored Huai Xu's remark.
"Lord Dumpling was just lying down and... somehow dozed off."
Zhou Li thought for a moment. Not wanting to scare Tuanzi, he said, "Lord Dumpling might just be too tired. It's normal to feel lazy and want to sleep after eating too much and basking in the sun."
Tuanzi remembered then; that was exactly how it was. Every time she ate her fill and basked in the sun, she would become drowsy.
Afterward, Zhou Li took a bath. Upon returning, he held Tuanzi and resolutely picked up his book to read again.
He was two-thirds of the way through the second book.
The Carving Technique is an important and indispensable auxiliary tool for carving-type Spells, but it's still just an auxiliary tool. The real core remains the process of imbuing these carvings with mystical abilities.
Similarly, this is also an application of Spiritual Power.
But unlike most Spells, the Carving Technique requires tools from start to finish: a medium, a carrier.
Take the initial carving process, for example. Heavenly Masters don't use ordinary carving knives. Instead, they use specially made ones with better Spiritual Power conductivity to facilitate the transfer of that power. If ordinary iron were used, one might input dozens of units of Spiritual Power, yet only a single unit would remain on the carving. Who could afford such a massive loss of Spiritual Power?
Zhou Li could afford it.
He had considered this before: he couldn't make the specialized carving knives used by Heavenly Masters. He couldn't even forge a regular kitchen knife. So, he had three potential solutions to the carving knife problem.
Ranked in order of preference—
1. Coax Sister Hong Ran. He could quickly get an excellent set of carving tools that would be his forever.
2. Borrow from Mr. Jiang. His ancestors would naturally have left carving tools behind, likely high-quality ones. Zhou Li felt that if he asked, Mr. Jiang would certainly lend them.
3. Make do with ordinary tools.
Since Hong Ran had been very busy recently, Zhou Li chose the third option—he really didn't want to borrow from Mr. Jiang.
Borrowing from Mr. Jiang meant he'd have to ask first. He found the very idea of 'asking' to be a troublesome matter, something he'd agonize over and procrastinate on for a long time before finally making up his mind. Before asking, he would also need to figure out how to phrase his request and mentally rehearse the conversation...
A couple of days ago, he'd skipped the third book and flipped through the fourth, which described a relatively simple Spell.
He figured he could master it in half a month.
He should be able to.
「At eleven o'clock, he finally turned off the light.」
「Time continued to move onward, slowly and uneventfully.」
Zhou Li often went to Old Master Ma's house to practice carving, though not every day. He usually didn't go on Mondays and Tuesdays. On those days, he had to attend full-day online classes for his major subjects, making it inconvenient for Huai Xu to substitute for him.
They still carved their own separate pieces.
Old Master Ma carved high-end pieces, while Zhou Li worked on basic ones. During this process, they exchanged ideas, discussed techniques, and there was guidance, teaching, and learning.
For the first few days, Brother Nan would still go with Zhou Li to Old Master Ma's, where she'd fiddle around, creating odd and incredibly ugly things. But after Zhou Li told her that her carvings were ugly, she stopped going. She only came by occasionally to take a look, likely because she was annoyed.
She did, however, actually bring Zhou Li food sometimes.
This year, the weather warmed up exceptionally late.
Zhou Li's carving skills advanced rapidly. Old Master Ma's assessment of him changed from 'very talented' to 'a genius'.
One afternoon, Zhou Li arrived at Old Master Ma's house as usual. He found Old Master Ma and Brother Nan sitting under the eaves outside the door. A low table was set up with a plastic chessboard spread out for a game of Chinese chess. Another old man stood by, watching them play.
Brother Nan was looking at her phone while intently watching the board, a pleased expression on her face, her cowlick sticking straight up.
Old Master Ma, however, was frowning in deep thought, continuously sucking in his breath.
Zhou Li walked over and glanced at her phone. "What made you decide to play chess with Grandpa Ma today?"
"I'm in a good mood today."
"I've saved up enough for another Populus euphratica tree!"
"Populus... You mean in Ant Forest?"
"I think I planted a saxaul tree once."
"PFFT! You dare bring up a mere saxaul tree?" Brother Nan scoffed. "I start with cypress trees, at the very least!" Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹•𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑒•𝙣𝙚𝙩
"Can't compare to you."
"Xiao Zhou, you go on ahead and get started. I'll join you after I finish this game," Old Master Ma said.
"He'll take two hours to finish," Brother Nan said.
"It'll be quick, it'll be quick..."
"Come catch crayfish with me in a couple of days!" Brother Nan suggested. Seeing Old Master Ma make a move, she mirrored it on her phone, then played the computer's suggested counter-move on the board. "Crayfish should be plentiful by the end of April."
Zhou Li walked into the living room, grabbed his carving knife and some wood, and sat down right by the doorway. He began to carve while watching Brother Nan playfully tease the old master.