Huang Wei expended an immense amount of effort to prepare a truly excellent breakfast. The main dishes were millet porridge paired with small, milky-flavored steamed buns, along with some side dishes and soup dumplings.
Just as they were eating the millet porridge, the soup dumplings finished steaming. When basket after basket of soup dumplings was placed before the players, Cheng Luyun, and Huang Chengcheng, not a single person could avoid showing an expression of shock.
After eating one, Auntie Wang couldn’t help but ask, “You made these yourself?”
Huang Wei nodded.
In modern society, if you wanted to eat soup dumplings, you basically either went out to buy them or just used semi-finished products. Young people who could make their own baozi from scratch were already rare, let alone soup dumplings.
Auntie Wang could only make regular baozi; soup dumplings were beyond her skill level.
And the soup dumplings Huang Wei made were truly delicious. Absolutely superb. The skin was thin, the filling plentiful, and the broth inside was exceptionally rich. When you picked up a soup dumpling with your chopsticks, the plump little dumpling rested on the sticks, the skin resilient enough not to break immediately, and you could still feel the broth rolling around inside. Once it reached your mouth, you’d gently bite a hole in the skin with your teeth, and the broth inside would burst forth.
The broth was scalding hot. After entering the mouth, it would inevitably burn. But opening your mouth at that moment would be impolite, making you look terribly uncouth. And the players, who hadn’t tasted delicious food for ages, and the ghosts, who weren’t afraid of the heat at all, had no desire to let the deliciousness in their mouths leak out. Instead, they took in another suck of the steaming broth.
The special savory richness of the soup dumpling, mixing pork fat and broth, flowed down the throat, warming the entire stomach. Together with the millet porridge just consumed, it slowly set the tired intestinal tract to work after the long night.
After sucking out all the broth, you’d take a big bite, swallowing skin and meat together. That was true comfort.
Huang Wei’s meat filling was seasoned deliciously—a touch salty, but not overly so, just enough to make you want a sip of millet porridge. She had made the soup dumplings not as a main course, but as a side dish to accompany the meal, with a hint of saltiness that encouraged everyone to drink more porridge.
The milky steamed buns alone had already struck the players, long deprived of fine food, as a revelation from heaven. Once the soup dumplings appeared, it made them down several more bowls of millet porridge.
Needless to say, Huang Chengcheng, seeing how popular the soup dumplings were, ran into the kitchen and directly scarfed down the ones Huang Wei hadn’t brought out yet. Fortunately, this little ingrate hadn’t forgotten her own mother and saved one steamer basket for Cheng Luyun.
By the end of the breakfast, the players all vaguely showed signs of being stuffed.
Huang Wei truly hadn’t expected this group of players to eat so much. She knew Cheng Luyun and Huang Chengcheng were both big eaters and had deliberately made a lot. She never imagined having to compete with the players for food. Both the soup dumplings and the milky steamed buns had been prepared the previous afternoon together and kept in the refrigerator, taken out this morning to thaw and steam.
Although eating them this way definitely wasn’t as good as steaming them right after making, if Huang Wei had to crawl out of bed early this morning to make them before the players got up—well, Huang Wei really couldn’t manage that.
If it were for Cheng Luyun, getting up that early would be worth it. After all, she was the person she liked. With her inner hopeless romantic kicking in, not to mention waking up early just for a breakfast, even pulling an all-nighter last night would have been a pleasure for Huang Wei.
After breakfast, Cheng Luyun went off to clean up. Huang Wei sat on her stool, head slightly lowered, discreetly observing the players’ faces, full of post-meal satisfaction. Auntie Wang felt rather embarrassed and wanted to help wash the dishes, but Huang Wei stopped her, telling her to just sit.
Huang Chengcheng moved a little stool over and sat close to Huang Wei.
Auntie Wang exchanged a glance with the captain and decided she would be the one to speak. “Brother Wei…” She called Huang Wei the same way the other villagers did. Auntie Wang wasn’t really used to calling a girl “Brother,” but didn’t know if it was a custom of Huang Family Village, so she could only do as the locals did.
Auntie Wang’s call made Huang Wei lift her head slightly, but her bangs hid her eyes, making it impossible for Auntie Wang to see her expression clearly. Auntie Wang paused, then continued. “We’ve been indebted to your care these past two days. We still don’t know how to get back and will probably have to trouble you for these next few days. Auntie doesn’t want to eat and stay at your place for free; it’s far too embarrassing. We’ve talked it over and decided to pay for room and board. We don’t have much else on us, just this—we hope you can accept it.”
As she spoke, she pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket and placed it on the table. She reached out and unfolded the four corners of the handkerchief, revealing a gold bracelet wrapped inside.
The players didn’t have this world’s currency, so they could only find some gold and silver as substitutes. Huang Wei took one look and knew that the two previous groups of players who had stayed at Huang Wu’s house had used a similar method to bribe Huang Wu into letting them stay.
Huang Wei glanced at the bracelet, then withdrew her gaze. Her fingers gently nudged Huang Chengcheng, and Huang Chengcheng snuggled closer to her, indicating she understood.
Huang Chengcheng was her insurance. Once she confirmed Huang Chengcheng understood her intention, Huang Wei’s heart settled somewhat.
Huang Wei looked at Auntie Wang and spoke. “No rush. I don’t need this.”
Auntie Wang paused, wanting to speak again, when she heard Huang Wei say, “Rather than giving me this for room and board, why not pay me in points.”
The players were all momentarily stunned. Auntie Wang subconsciously looked to the captain. The captain’s expression was deep, and he gave a slight shake of his head at Auntie Wang. Auntie Wang turned back to look at Huang Wei, only to see her pair of eyes hidden beneath her bangs, her dark pupils revealing no emotion whatsoever.
Auntie Wang felt a jolt in her heart… This was Huang Wei’s expression? Come to think of it, these past two days, Huang Wei had kept her head lowered, her bangs so long they covered her expression, so Auntie Wang could never clearly see her face or what expression she wore.
She had only judged Huang Wei’s mood by her tone, assuming she was a good person, and because of the intel gathered earlier, she’d lowered her guard against Huang Wei. The consequence of that was that Auntie Wang hadn’t figured out at all what kind of person Huang Wei was.
But now Auntie Wang was forced to probe; she had to know what Huang Wei meant.
“Points?” Auntie Wang forced a sheepish smile. Her gaze roamed over Huang Wei, trying to analyze what kind of person she was from the subtle traces of her expression and movements. Auntie Wang failed. From no angle could she discern what Huang Wei was thinking right now.
Her face was completely unreadable, making it impossible to know what was in Huang Wei’s heart at this moment. Auntie Wang could only continue to play dumb. “Brother Wei, what are you talking about? What points? Auntie doesn’t quite understand…”
“Since we’ve come this far, playing dumb is pointless.”
Huang Wei’s single sentence choked back all of Auntie Wang’s thoughts. Her mouth opened and closed, words seeming to be right on the tip of her tongue, yet in the end, she couldn’t utter a single one.
Auntie Wang looked at Huang Wei, truly unable to understand what the woman before her was thinking, what she meant. Those fine strands of hair blocked her eyes. Through the gaps in her hair, one could see her eyes.
Auntie Wang found this gaze hard to describe. Her eyes seemed to hold nothing, as if empty. In the homely environment, even with bright sunlight outside flooding in and scattering before her feet, she seemed to remain in the shadows, merged with the darkness. Only those eyes, devoid of any emotion, held a faint, weak light in the dark.
Auntie Wang subconsciously took a step back. It was then she understood one thing: this was the final instance. Every single NPC that appeared could not be underestimated.
She sighed and looked at her captain. The captain nodded at her, then stepped forward, standing about two meters in front of Huang Wei.
Sunlight fell on his legs, casting a patch of shadow on the ground.
The captain’s voice was very soft, carrying no threatening force. “You want points? I’m in no position to ask where you learned about them right now, but may I be so bold as to ask what you want points for?”
The other party was playing open cards with him. She seemed to know everything about them, while they knew nothing about her.
Under these circumstances, the captain didn’t feel he was in a position to bargain. He could only follow her lead.
Huang Wei thought for a moment, decided it wasn’t something she couldn’t say, and just said it outright. “I want the points to take my wife and child to the outside world. I don’t want to be trapped forever in this instance.”
Hearing Huang Wei’s words, the captain was filled with respect. He looked at his girlfriend, and she looked back at him right on cue. In this instance, whether player or NPC, their wishes were the same: to escape the Main God Space and go to the real world.
The captain thought it over, then sighed. “Alright. Can you guarantee we can successfully survive seven days? If we make it through, we get a large sum of points. If we die within these seven days, the losses outweigh the gains for us.”
Huang Wei glanced at him and nodded. “I understand. If you die, reviving costs the Main God a huge sum of points. I can’t guarantee anything else, but if you stay in my house, you definitely won’t die. If you go out looking for death at other times, I can’t protect you either.”
She was already barely managing to save her own skin, and it hadn’t been easy just to get Cheng Luyun to say “do as you please.”
Besides, she was just an ordinary person. Staying inside the house, Cheng Luyun might still indulge her a bit. If this group of players ran off to the Back Mountain, Huang Wei truly had no way to help.
The players looked at each other. The captain still agreed. “Fine. How many points do you want?”
How many points to ask for?
Huang Wei had actually thought carefully about it. She knew how vital points were in the Main God Space, how hard they were to earn. But this group of players must have a considerable amount, having made it all the way to the final instance. Even if there were some earlier instances they hadn’t cleared yet, they must have still amassed quite a lot.
Huang Wei spoke. “Seeing as you’re the first group of guests, I can give you a fifty-percent discount. Room and board is 100 points a day, so half off is 50. Breakfast is 50 points, half off is 25. Lunch and dinner is 100 points, half off is 50. Seven days’ room, six days’ breakfast, plus seven days’ meals and miscellaneous things… it comes out to 1200 points per person.”
Her price was a real conscience price. Clearing this instance would yield at least 5000 points. If they did nothing and just stayed put in her house, they’d still earn at least a net 3000 points. But if they stayed in the house doing nothing, they wouldn’t be players.
After hesitating a moment, the captain asked, “If we don’t stay the full seven days, can we get a refund?”
Huang Wei smiled. In the captain’s eyes, her smile was cold and full of sarcasm. “No. Payment upfront, stay later.”
