“Thirty, twenty-nine…” Emily obediently closed her eyes and started counting.

Alex looked at Emily with gentle eyes, listening to her soft voice counting down. The ground trembled slightly, and there were occasional sounds of things falling behind him, but he didn’t turn to look.

The thirty-count countdown passed in the blink of an eye.

Emily opened her eyes, her little face full of anticipation.

“Now, let’s take a look at our new home.” Alex took the two sweet crispy cakes from Emily’s hands, held her small hand, and stood up, also turning with some anticipation to look toward the small building.

A warm beam of light shone from the doorway, landing perfectly on the two figures—one big, one small—standing at the entrance.

“Wow~~” Emily’s mouth opened wide as she stared in a daze at the house, which had suddenly transformed. Bathed in the light, it looked as splendid as a palace. After a moment, she turned to Alex beside her and exclaimed happily, “Father, did you really make this? It’s as beautiful as a crystal palace! And there are glowing stones! Father, you’re amazing!”

“Yes, from now on, this will be our home, and it will also be a restaurant.” Alex nodded with a smile. As expected, being admired by his little girl felt better than anything else.

It was still a two-story building, but now it had changed from a rickety wooden house into a European-style two-story villa. Facing the square were floor-to-ceiling windows, through which you could see the restaurant illuminated by a European crystal chandelier—comfortable and stylish.

However, the earlier shaking seemed to have caused a bit of a commotion. Alex took Emily’s hand and pushed open the door, saying, “Let’s go home first. I’ll tell you about those things later.”

“Okay! Father is the best!” Emily rubbed her head against Alex’s hand and happily hopped through the door.

Alex turned off the light outside the door. Just as the two entered, a bearded dwarf staggered out of the neighboring house, looking around drunkenly and muttering, “Which idiot troll came here to dance again! Damn guys, can’t anyone get some sleep…” With that, he stumbled back inside and slammed the door shut.

“Father… is this really our home?” Emily stopped at the entrance, looking at the magnificent restaurant. She looked up at Alex, still a bit in disbelief.

She had never seen such a beautiful house before: smooth, polished floors, dazzling crystal chandeliers, brand-new tables and chairs neatly arranged, a delicate cutlery box on the table, and further inside, a long counter taller than she was. Behind the counter was another room, but she couldn’t see what was inside.

“Of course.” Alex nodded with a smile and waved his hand. “This is our new home. The first floor can be a restaurant, and the second floor is where we’ll live…”

“Great!” Before Alex could finish, Emily had already run off, arms outstretched, running a lap around the restaurant. Then she sat down at the innermost table and waved to Alex, saying, “Father, let’s eat sweet crispy cakes here. Xiaomi is hungry.”

“Alright.” Alex laughed heartily. Food really was the most important thing.

“Restaurant ownership task complete. Because the host requested renovations outside the restaurant area, the task reward is offset. New system task: Learn the first dish—Yangzhou Fried Rice. Task duration: three days. When the host is ready, you may click to enter the God of Cooking Trial Field for the challenge. The reward for this task is +0.5 to physical attributes; failure will result in -0.5 to physical attributes.” The system’s voice sounded again.

Alex suddenly stopped in his tracks. In his mind, a door appeared, with four golden characters on it: Yangzhou Fried Rice. This must be the so-called God of Cooking Trial Field.

Of course, what Alex cared about most was the reward the system mentioned. What he most urgently needed to improve was his body. In his current state, let alone cooking, he could barely hold a kitchen knife. He hadn’t expected the system to arrange a physical enhancement reward so soon, and he felt a surge of excitement.

Although he didn’t know exactly what a +0.5 to physical attributes would mean, the system probably wouldn’t cheat him. It’s just Yangzhou Fried Rice—how hard could a bowl of fried rice be?

Back when he was in Yangzhou, he had tried several authentic Yangzhou fried rice places. He remembered being rather harsh in his reviews, but to be honest, the fried rice tasted pretty good. He just had a habit of nitpicking, and it was said that one old restaurant even closed for a while after his review. But things like that happened so often, he didn’t really pay attention.

“Father?” Emily looked at Alex, puzzled by his dazed expression.

“Coming!” Alex quickly suppressed his urge to open that door, sat down across from Emily, handed her one of the cakes, and said with a smile, “Here, let’s try Xiaomi’s favorite sweet crispy cake.”

Alex took a closer look at the sweet crispy cake. It was about the size of an adult’s palm and one centimeter thick. It seemed to be made by wrapping corn, mung beans, potatoes… a bunch of miscellaneous coarse grains in flour and baking them in a charcoal oven. Holding it in his hand, it felt like a rough tile.