Chapter 401 - 203: This Line of Text Is Quite Authoritative
"Thanks to Momo, I get to try some foreign cookies too." Mrs. Zhao took one with a smile and examined it closely for a moment before nodding. "They really look nice. This box must have been expensive, right?"
"Brother, Dad, you have some too!" Zhou Momo took two more cookies and handed them to Zhou Yan and Comrade Zhou.
"Thanks, Momo." Zhou Yan accepted it with a smile. He tore open the wrapper, and a golden cookie fell into his palm.
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The top was imprinted with a lotus flower pattern. Tiny pores on its surface oozed a crystalline sheen of oil, giving it a tempting luster. The sweet aroma of butter wafted over, rich and lingering, and he couldnât help but swallow.
Zhou Yan wasnât much of a dessert person, but his meals had been too plain lately. He had almost no snacks outside of his three meals a day.
He took a small bite.
CRUNCH!
The sound was crisp. The cookie crumbled, its fragrance exploding in his mouth.
Its texture was crumbly and delicate, melting the moment it entered his mouth. A rich, buttery fragrance was accompanied by a milky flavor that lingered on his tongue, as smooth and intoxicating as silk.
He finished the cookie in two bites, but the fragrance lingered, leaving him wanting more.
âAs expected, humanity cannot live without sweets!â
âThis is the kind of thing that brings people happiness.â
âI just canât get greedy, though. Otherwise, the high calories will make me blow up.â
After finishing hers, Mrs. Zhao also looked amazed. "This is delicious! Itâs even better than the cookies we bought for the New Year. The milky flavor is so rich!"
"Brother, help me open this!" After trying and failing several times to tear open the plastic wrapper, Zhou Momo turned to Zhou Yan for help.
Zhou Yan smiled, tore it open for her, and placed the cookie in her palm.
The little girl held it up to her nose and sniffed. "This cookie smells like milk!" she exclaimed.
She held it with both hands and took small bites. CRUNCH, CRUNCH. She nibbled away like a little squirrel, clearly savoring every bite.
In just a moment, the cookie was gone.
"So yummy! Itâs so sweet and tasty!" Zhou Momo said, beaming, her eyes curving into happy crescents.
After she finished, she didnât ask for a second. Instead, she closed the lid on the cookie box and said in her sweet, childish voice, "Next time we go back to the village, Iâll bring three for Grandma and one for Little Uncle. Iâm sure theyâll like them too!"
"Your grandma will be so happy. She didnât spoil this sweet granddaughter for nothing," Mrs. Zhao said with a laugh.
After Mrs. Zhao got the little girl washed up, she fell asleep in her arms, mumbling, "Cookies... so sweet..."
Comrade Zhou went upstairs as well. He was tired after a day of feasting and a round trip of over thirty kilometers. He soaked his feet, and drowsiness hit him almost instantly. He still had to get up early the next morning to buy groceries.
Zhou Yan went upstairs with the ledger. He pulled the money box out from under his bed and put the five hundred from the red envelope and the dayâs earnings from the braised meat inside.
The wooden box was filled with rolls of cash, each secured with a rubber band. Each roll was one hundred yuan, made up of one-yuan, two-yuan, five-jiao, and one-jiao bills. It wasnât a huge amount of money, but it was certainly hefty.
This was his entire lifeâs savings.
Sitting on a small stool, Zhou Yan unhurriedly counted all the money.
8,621.2 yuan.
He was only about fourteen hundred short of the ten thousand he needed to buy the house!
As the restaurantâs revenue grew, his savings were accumulating much faster.
âFourteen hundred... I can save that much by next week!â
âOnce I get the Qiu Familyâs Old Mansion, even if I donât rush to tear it down and rebuild, Iâll have a proper foothold in Jiazhou.â
Zhou Yan had seen the inside of the Qiu Familyâs Old Mansion before. Aside from the two rather jarring storefronts that had been opened out front, the interior of the old house was beautifully restoredâsecluded and elegant. Situated right on East Main Street, it was an oasis of calm amid the bustle.
âAs long as I can withstand the initial pressure for demolition and wait a few years, it will become a culturally protected building that no one can tear down.â
âSo, I canât drag this out for too long, or I might not be able to do any rebuilding myself when the time comes.â
After writing the new total in his ledger, he gently closed the wooden box, snapped the lock shut, and pushed it back under the bed. A satisfied smile spread across Zhou Yanâs face.
This was much faster than he had originally expected.
âA huge sum of ten thousand yuan!â
âHe only earned four jiao from a bowl of Kneeling Beef, and three or four from a bowl of noodles. The entire family had to pitch in to save up this much, bit by bit.â
âIt was exhausting, but worth it.â
Lying on his bed, Zhou Yan opened his panel and glanced at it.
[Player: Zhou Yan]
[Profession: Chef]
[Wealth Value: 18921.36]
[Professional Skills]:
Knife Skills (Advanced): 9600/100000
Fire Control (Intermediate): 9488/10000
Seasoning (Intermediate): 9688/10000
Oratory Skill (Advanced): 89999/100000 (Pushing to the next level!)
[Mastered Dishes]:
...
Mapo Tofu (Advanced): 99999/100000
Fish-Flavored Eggplant (Advanced): 99999/100000
Snowflake Chicken Porridge (Advanced): 99999/100000
...
[Quests]:
[Side Quest: Zhao Shulanâs Trouble! Progress: 25%]
[Side Quest: Masterâs Obsession! Progress: 99%]
[Main Quest: The Breakout Plan! Progress: 66/200]
Zhou Yan scanned the panel. His Knife Skills, Fire Control, and Seasoning were all increasing steadily. His Fire Control and Seasoning, in particular, were close to breaking through to the Advanced level.
His gaze paused on the "Zhao Shulanâs Trouble" quest. âProgress: 25%... the goal is sixty jin, which means Huang Ying has lost fifteen jin this past month!â
And it wasnât like she and her brother were skimping on food, either. Their daily meal budget was 6.6 yuan, and they usually spent more, not less.
She usually wore loose clothing, though. Even though Zhou Yan saw her three times a day, he hadnât really noticed how much weight sheâd lost.
Fifteen jin might not sound like much for a person who weighed two hundred, but as a Chef, Zhou Yan knew exactly how big a fifteen-jin slab of pork belly was.
âNot bad. The quest is off to a very smooth start.â
Zhou Yan didnât expect to finish this quest in just a month or two. The fact that she was able to slowly lower her weight through cycling was much healthier than just starving herself.
Weight loss, to put it simply, was all about creating a calorie deficit. Three round trips between Jiazhou and Suji every dayâa journey of sixty to seventy kilometersâwould naturally burn a significant amount of calories.