RIIDMDR chapter 74

 

Zhuang Wu’s sudden words made Nan Xu, who had been happily enjoying his barbecue, pause. He stared at Zhuang Wu for ten seconds, unsure of how to react or whether to continue eating the skewers in his hand.

“Did I say something wrong?” Zhuang Wu asked weakly, glancing at his elder brother.

Zhuang Si looked at the sky, the ground, and the blazing charcoal in the stove—anywhere but his younger brother’s pleading eyes.

If the fox came back and was upset about this, he could punish his brother however he wanted—but please, don’t drag him into it.

Holding his skewer, Zhuang Wu looked anxious and uneasy. His eyes were full of helplessness as he pitifully looked at Nan Xu. Finally, Nan Xu spoke. “You’re not allowed to eat meat tonight.”

Zhuang Wu: “Huh?”

Nan Xu: “After you finish the skewers in your hand, you can’t eat any more meat.”

Zhuang Si gave Zhuang Wu a look that said, “Be careful.” Zhixing pursed his lips to suppress a smile. Suddenly, Zhuang Wu’s expression turned bitter. There was still plenty of meat on the table. How could he be punished for not eating meat just because he said something wrong?

Zhuang Wu deeply regretted his words, but he didn’t dare disobey Nan Xu. Treasure the meat on the skewer in his hand, finish it slowly, and fix his longing gaze on the sizzling meat on the grill. Then, he poured all his grief into eating the grilled vegetables, stuffing himself until his stomach was round.

Since there was no beer, everyone toasted with refreshing watermelon juice. Of course, except for Nan Xu, no one knew what they were celebrating that night.

By the time they had finished eating and drinking, it was late at night. The courtyard was a mess. Nan Xu hadn’t stayed up this late in a while. He was lying on a recliner in the courtyard, lost in thought as he gazed at the nearly full moon and starry sky. Zhixing sat on the doorstep holding Guan’er. Zhuang Si and Zhuang Wu had left their stools and were lying on the bluestone floor.

The cool night breeze from the mountain blew in. After sitting in the breeze for a while, Nan Xu’s stomach, full from the feast, finally felt better. He stood up and kicked the two brothers lying on the ground. “Go back to your rooms. What are you doing lying around in my courtyard?”

Zhuang Wu climbed up and surveyed the messy yard. He said, “My brother and I will clean up before we leave.”

The two brothers moved quickly. By the time Nan Xu finished his bath, the courtyard was neat again. Zhuang Si and Zhuang Wu had already left, leaving only the faint aroma of barbecue lingering in the air. Nan Xu returned to his room and lay on the empty bed. Without Ting Chuan’s steady breathing beside him, he felt a strange sense of discomfort.

Fortunately, it was past his usual bedtime. Before he could feel the loss for more than a few minutes, he fell asleep, hugging his pillow. The window was left open, letting in the cold mountain wind. Nan Xu curled up in a ball and spent the entire night half awake.

When he woke up in the morning, he felt exhausted. He rubbed his eyes, reluctant to get up. But the vegetables in the garden needed watering, the chickens were eager to go out, and the sheep were waiting for fresh grass. There was so much to do that Nanxu worried even sleeping wouldn’t be a good idea. He could only rub his eyes and get up.

As he was leaving the room, he bumped into Zhixing. He looked at Nanxu and asked in surprise, “Did the owner not get enough rest last night?”

“Is it that obvious?” Nanxu asked. “I think the temperature dropped last night. I was a little cold while I was sleeping. I’ll buy a bed quilt later!”

Zhixing was even more puzzled. Dropped?

It was August, the hottest time of the year. How could it possibly drop now?

Nanxu didn’t notice Zhixing’s confusion; he couldn’t open his eyes, and he was squinting as he left the house.

You don’t know until you try. By the time Nanxu brought the chickens up the mountain, the sun was already high in the sky. He was hungry and exhausted. It turned out that while he was lying in bed every day, Tingchuan had been doing so much work.

After breakfast, Nan Xu walked around the house and outside. Earlier, he had casually stuck a wooden stick into the side of a grapevine. Now that the vine had grown to the top of the stick, he went back to the house and got some more wood. He began building a grape trellis in the yard.

Thinking he might be able to cool off under it next summer, he made it bigger. By the time he finished that evening, the trellis resembled a small pavilion, the only difference was that it didn’t need a roof.

Nan Xu wiped the sweat from his forehead. Despite moving toward cooler areas all day, his skin felt intensely burned and was probably darker. He looked at the finished grape trellis with great satisfaction. He planned to build a swing chair and place it underneath it later. With the autumn leaves turning yellow in the mountains, it would be pleasant to sit on the swing and enjoy the breeze and scenery.

Twenty-four hours passed, and the system in Nan Xu’s mind notified him that the upgrade was complete. Nan Xu sat on a stone bench, concentrating on reading the message.

[Main Mission 3: Upgrade the Inn.]

[Main Mission 3-1: Upgrade the Inn Buildings. Required materials: 30 wood, 300 kg stone, 200 tiles, 2 desks, 2 wooden chairs, and 2 wardrobes.]

A new level of the quest was issued. Although Nan Xu had prepared himself mentally, the long list of required materials and characters gave him a headache.

He opened the inn information:

[Name: Mountain Inn]

[Level: 2]

[Address: Zhuyu Mountain]

[Prosperity Value: 429]

[Coins: 3,246.

Inn Upgrade Requirements: Building Level 3/4, Courtyard Level 2/3, Vegetable Plot Level 2/3, Prosperity 429/800, Coins 3249/5000

Yesterday, Nan Xu spent two thousand silver coins to upgrade the hotel. He felt his heart ache as he watched his money drop abruptly.

Even though he owned an inn and a mountain — practically a hidden rich man — his stingy habits were hard to shake off.

Looking at the five thousand silver coins needed for the next upgrade, Nan Xu sighed, his heart aching even more.

He closed the inn information and went to the mall to buy a thin summer/autumn quilt. When he first arrived in the mountains, the weather was much cooler, and he relied on a mattress topper to stay warm at night. But who knew that, even as the days passed and the weather grew hotter, he’d still be fussing about his sleep?

Could it be that, without Tingchuan sleeping with him, the room temperature had dropped a few degrees?

Nan Xu couldn’t help but smile when he thought about it. He could already picture Tingchuan transformed into a round stove in his bedroom.

Nan Xu opened the mall and casually scanned the main interface before noticing something was amiss. He seemed to remember the mall having had more pages before.

As he clicked through the various functional sections, he confirmed that the mall had fewer items. Many of the items he had purchased were gone, and some of the bargains had been replaced with more expensive alternatives.

For example, the white T-shirts that used to cost 100 yuan for three were replaced by fashionable, printed, short-sleeved shirts for 399 yuan each. The spring shirts that used to cost 50 yuan each were replaced by beach-inspired, floral shirts for 499 yuan.

Nan Xu felt completely helpless. What kind of fashion did he need in these mountains? Especially the beach-inspire d style—it was truly eye-catching.

Games usually got better with upgrades, but his system seemed to work the opposite way. Was it suggesting that his lifestyle was now too good for cheap T-shirts?

After browsing the mall, Nan Xu examined the rest of the system’s features. He didn’t notice any significant differences except one: the recipe system, which he had never used before, now cost more. He was already reluctant to buy recipes, but now he was even more so.

Nan Xu wondered if he’d missed out by not buying a few rare recipes before the system upgrade.

His expression shifted so erratically that he didn’t notice two figures approaching the courtyard gate. Luo Yi, looking disheveled, saw Nan Xu and called out to him twice, but received no response. Zhixing, who was reading in the main room, heard the commotion and ran out instead.

Seeing the two demon sisters looking even more miserable than last time, Zhixing felt a surge of sympathy. “Want to eat?”

Luo Yi’s voice was so hoarse that it sounded like a duck in a pond. “Yes, is there anything I can eat quickly?”

The rough voice finally called Nan Xu out of the system. He shut down the system and saw Luo Yi and her sister sitting across from him. They didn’t look well, especially their hair. It had been shiny and black when they first stayed at the inn, but in just a few days, it had become dry and straw-like.

Perhaps after he and Tingchuan joined the formation, the two sisters joined it again, too.

Seeing Nan Xu’s gaze fall on her head, Luo Yi reached out and touched her hair, feeling like crying.

For mermaids, the most important things are their voice and their hair. Their voices are their weapons, and their hair represents their beauty. Now that she has lost both, she will be ridiculed by her tribe when she returns to the South Sea.

Nan Xu’s gaze lingered for only two or three seconds before tears fell without warning. A beautiful woman in tears is truly pitiful, even one with withered hair. Nan Xu panicked. He hadn’t slept well last night, and he had been working hard all day, so he was slow to react. He hadn’t meant to look at her hair; he simply hadn’t had time to look away. He hadn’t expected Luo Yi, a lively girl, to be so sensitive about her hair.

“Yes, I’m sorry. Don’t cry. I’m not…” Nan Xu’s mind was racing; he didn’t know how to comfort a girl.

Luo Yi cried and shook her head. Her voice was thick with nasal murmurs. “Wuwu, it has nothing to do with you, owner. I just…my hair is dry, and I’m going to go bald. My senior brothers will laugh at me when I return to the South China Sea. Wuwu, I won’t be the most beautiful mermaid anymore.”

Nan Xu: “Huh?”

Nan Xu asked, somewhat off-topic, “Were you the most beautiful mermaid in your tribe?”

Luo Yi hiccupped, paused for two seconds, and then burst into tears. “No, wuwuwu, I wasn’t like that before.”

If he had known, Nan Xu would have avoided asking. He looked at the woman in black for help. Even though her hair was dry, she seemed much calmer. For some reason, though, Nan Xu felt as if she exuded a coolness that dropped the temperature around him by several degrees.

The woman in black caught Nan Xu’s gaze and said succinctly, “Junior Sister is hungry.”

Nan Xu said, “Oh,” and got up to make food for the two of them in the kitchen. Having just been inside the formation, he was familiar with the situation. He knew that everything inside was illusory and that finding food was impossible. He had no idea how much food the two sisters had brought with them, considering how long they had stayed there.