Gu Xiaobei: "Do you have a lot of enamel mugs over there?"
Lan Qingyou: "Yeah."
Gu Xiaobei: "Could you sell me some?"
Lan Qingyou: "Sure, take them."
'Enamel mugs?'
Lan Qingyou glanced over at the corner of the room where freshly washed mugs and stone slabs were stacked neatly.
She walked over, grabbed about twenty, and sent them through.
Today's nightmare of cleaning tools had taught her a valuable lesson: more wasn't always better. She'd keep a hundred on hand — enough to pull out whenever she needed to practice.
Gu Xiaobei: "Thank you so much! Wait one second!"
In a corner of the Abandoned Forest, inside a stilted wooden cabin built against a mountainside.
Gu Xiaobei examined the enamel mugs she'd just received from Lan Qingyou, turning them over in her hands.
There were still water marks inside — they'd clearly been washed recently.
Of course, at this stage, the only water available for washing was creek water.
So to be safe, she stood up, walked over to the fire pit in the center of the cabin, picked up the kettle hanging above it, and poured some boiling water into the mugs to rinse them.
Then she moved to the cooking hearth, opened a steamer that was half her height, and used a towel to pull out a wooden bowl from inside. She carried it over to the Small Screen.
With a crisp crack, the wooden bowl split clean in two.
"Figures. Wooden bowls just can't handle steaming."
Gu Xiaobei muttered, then grabbed an enamel mug, brought it to the Small Screen, and sent its contents through as a trade.
Lan Qingyou had said to "just take them" without any mention of payment, but as an adult, Gu Xiaobei couldn't bring herself to freeload off someone's kindness.
It took less than a minute for Lan Qingyou to receive the mug.
Gu Xiaobei: "This is something I made. It's a little hot, so take your time eating!"
Lan Qingyou read Gu Xiaobei's message, then looked at the mug full of food. She fell into thought.
'Better safe than sorry. Let me appraise this first.'
"Silverfish Potato Noodles (E-)"
"Effect: Restores 1 Mana Point per second for 10 minutes."
"Description: A soup made from silverfish, Ascetic Grass, and Yellow Tail Flowers, served with sliced fish, potato noodles, Yellow Flower Grass, Green Jade Sprouts, salt, Sichuan pepper, black pepper, and other seasonings. Still quite crude in execution, but the taste is superb."
'This... this is...'
Seeing the appraisal results, Lan Qingyou couldn't help but widen her eyes.
'Good lord — doesn't that effect add up to 600 Mana Points?'
'Eating it would be equivalent to sixty times the natural recovery rate?'
Lan Qingyou: "What's the deal with this dish?"
She asked, curious.
Gu Xiaobei: "My family runs a restaurant. After seeing that you could make potions, I wanted to try something too."
Gu Xiaobei: "I was originally going for crossing-bridge rice noodles, but I didn't have rice noodles, so I substituted with potato noodles from a supply box. And this is what came out."
......
Reading Gu Xiaobei's explanation, Lan Qingyou was at a loss for words. In the end, all she could manage was a single line.
Lan Qingyou: "I hereby crown you the GOAT."
Gu Xiaobei: "Hehe! Well, enjoy, take your time! I made several bowls. I'll sell the rest — that should be just about enough to upgrade to a Level 2 Shelter."
Lan Qingyou: "You wanted enamel mugs just to serve food?"
Gu Xiaobei: "Yep. The wooden bowls from the supply boxes can't take the heat."
Lan Qingyou thought for a moment: "I know a pretty good stonemason. Maybe you could ask him if he can make stone bowls."
Gu Xiaobei: "Really?!"
Lan Qingyou: "Yeah. His name is Li Huai. Search for him and mention that I sent you — he should accept your friend request."
Gu Xiaobei: "Got it, got it! Thank you so much!"
With that, Gu Xiaobei went off to contact Li Huai.
Meanwhile, Lan Qingyou stared at the mug of potato noodles, faced with a dilemma.
She wanted to slurp the noodles, but she didn't have chopsticks.
She glanced at the supply boxes stacked in the corner.
No choice — she got up, cracked open a self-heating meal kit, and pulled out the disposable chopsticks that came with it.
......
Time rewind — just a little.
As dusk crept in, a man in a sharp, well-tailored Armani suit and gleaming leather shoes returned to his shelter, one hand carrying two rabbits and the other shouldering two supply boxes.
He looked to be around thirty, with slicked-back hair meticulously combed into place. Clean, sharp, efficient.
Li Huai had a great day.
This morning's trade with Lan Qingyou had netted him nearly fifty mana potions. Out in the field, he no longer had to fight in the stop-and-go, mana-draining slog that had plagued his previous days.
He then used a dagger left behind by some idiot who'd tried to rob him to dress and butcher the two rabbits, and started grilling.
Sure, supply boxes could yield food and water, but why waste them when he could hunt? He'd stashed all the shelf-stable food for emergencies.
Once the meat was done, he sat at his desk, sprinkled some instant-noodle seasoning over a rabbit leg, and ate while scrolling through the chat channel.
It had become part of his daily routine — and really, every transmigrator's daily routine.
Humans were social creatures at their core.
No matter how much of a lone wolf someone was, they still needed to keep tabs on the outside world to adjust accordingly.
That's when he happened to see the channel buzzing about potions.
'+30, huh. A bit less, but not bad. Especially in bulk.'
With that assessment, he bought a hundred on the spot.
Three thousand base units stung a little, but it wasn't beyond his means.
Besides, the main reason was that today had given him a taste of what it felt like to fight with a full mana bar.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
His friends list pinged.
Li Huai checked — he didn't recognize the name, but the person had been referred by Lan Qingyou. So he accepted the friend request, and then...
Gu Xiaobei: "Are you a stonemason? I'd like to order some stone bowls."
Li Huai: ......
Li Huai was covered in question marks.
'Stonemason? Since when did I become a stone—'
'Oh. Right. The stone slabs for Lan Qingyou today. Did that woman seriously label me a stonemason because of that?!'
He! Li Huai! Bearer of the S-rank talent "Storm Monarch"!
A stonemason?!
Li Huai was a little angry. This was a provocation, and for this kind of person he needed to bring the full force of—
Gu Xiaobei: "[Silverfish Potato Noodles (E-)]"
Li Huai: "What are your requirements?"
The moment he saw what Gu Xiaobei had sent, Li Huai's anger evaporated.
All he wanted to say was: 'Irresistible.'
Gu Xiaobei: "Stone bowls in 10 cm and 20 cm. A hundred of each. How much?"
Li Huai: "If you don't mind me asking — how did you make this food?"
Gu Xiaobei: "I figured it out on my own."
'Good — another skilled specialist, like Lan Qingyou.'
'In that case...'
Li Huai: "How many of these can you make?"
Gu Xiaobei: "Materials are limited, so not that many. But with enough ingredients, maybe thirty to fifty a day? Not sure."
Li Huai: "Here's what I propose. I'll make the stone bowls for you — as many as you need, whenever you need them. I'll even supply you with meat daily. In return, you give me 10 servings of this mana food per day."