Chapter 6
The viewers suddenly became excited. At first, they wondered why the live stream didn’t have a food tasting feature, but now it was here—ice-cold watermelon, thirteen-spice crayfish, just hearing about them sounded delicious!!
【Ding dong, you have a new mission issued】
【New mission: Live Stream continuously for 600 minutes】
【Mission reward: 10 points】
Xu Xiaozhi calculated in her mind—600 minutes equals ten hours, so she would have to live stream until around 6 PM.
The points store had already opened. She glanced through it and used 1 point to redeem the basic daily expenses for the farmhouse stay, including water, electricity, and food costs.
“This feature is great, no need to spend real money.” As long as points keep coming in daily, maintaining the farmhouse’s basics wouldn’t be a problem.
Watching the dense barrage of comments on the screen, Xu Xiaozhi carried the little kitten to the bedside and made a nest for him with a towel on the nightstand.
It was eight in the morning, and the temperature was about to rise soon, sleeping here should be fine.
“Xiaozhi, someone’s here!” Grandma Gui called out from the yard.
“Ah, they’re here!” Xu Xiaozhi gently laid the kitten down on the towel, pulling a corner of the towel to cover his belly.
The little cat, with brownish-yellow stripes, let out a soft meow and sank into the warm towel.
“Miaomiao, you’re the big sister now, stay obediently in the room and don’t disturb your little brother’s rest!”
Miaomiao was standing on the bed, holding onto the headboard, stretching her neck to look at the kitten.
Xu Xiaozhi cupped her head and kissed her several times, then walked out to the corridor.
【The streamer seems to have a few more animals.】
【Wow, that cat’s legs are so short, you can barely see it walk, so cute!】
【Who said that? Chouba is definitely cuter—handsome and saves the kitten, what use is that short-legged cat!】
The comment section was about to erupt into a cat vs. dog battle, even escalating to a debate on the superiority between beastmen, but Xu Xiaozhi had no interest in mediating.
Voices were noisily coming from downstairs. She leaned on the wooden railing and looked into the yard.
Suddenly, more than a dozen people appeared in the yard, all wearing matching uniforms, continuously carrying equipment in from outside.
The team leader stood in the middle of the yard, hands on his nearly invisible waist, pointing and directing his subordinates, “Move quickly, be careful, don’t break anything!”
Someone in the chat commented, “That team leader looks really fierce!”
Xu Xiaozhi went downstairs to greet them, “Hello, are you from the renovation company?”
The camera shifted to show the man’s full face.
His face was rough and burly, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted—describing this leader as a hulking brute was no exaggeration.
The man was tall and muscular. His round, chubby face had eyes so narrow they were barely visible. When he spoke, the flesh on his cheeks trembled, and his eyes almost squinted into a thin line.
His skin was tanned dark from the sun, with a pimple or two popping out here and there, his face marked with mottled patches. He gave off an impression of being sharp and sly.
【So scary! Doesn’t anyone else think this guy looks really bad?】
【Yeah, totally! He looks creepy just from his face. If I saw someone like him on the street, I’d just lower my head and run.】
Two people stood under the shade of a tree. Uncle Wang was standing not far behind Xu Xiaozhi, observing quietly. Grandma Gui had already set up a small dining table, waiting for their conversation to finish.
“Yes, we’re from Sudda Decoration and Renovation Engineering Co., Ltd. My surname is Wang,” the man said, pointing to the company name sewn onto his chest.
An employee passing by added, “This is our boss.”
“Oh, Boss Wang! What a remarkable man. At such a young age, you’ve built this business—this kind of project isn’t something just anyone can handle!”
Xu Xiaozhi bowed slightly, shamelessly flattering him with polite words and gestured for Boss Wang to come inside.
The viewers who heard the whole exchange, along with Uncle Wang and the passing employee, were stunned: !!!
“No, no, Boss Xu, you’re flattering me!” Boss Wang said with a smile he couldn’t hide, clearly overjoyed by the praise!
After just a few words with Xu Xiaozhi, he decided to make her an extra farmhouse signboard and replace the original “Cute Pet Farmhouse” sign at the entrance.
Xu Xiaozhi brought Boss Wang to the small dining table and sat down with him, “Boss Wang, sorry about this, you’ve seen the situation inside the farmhouse, I’m afraid we have to trouble you!”
“No problem!” Boss Wang was also a straightforward man. “I grew up in the countryside too. Every summer, every family would set up a table in the yard, and the whole family would eat together.”
“Now that conditions are better, the food doesn’t quite have the same flavor as before,” Boss Wang sighed.
“Boss Wang, why don’t you try some of our dishes?” Xu Xiaozhi quickly served him a bowl of porridge. “These are simple farmhouse dishes—I hope you don’t mind.”
Although he had already eaten five meat buns that morning, when Boss Wang smelled the thick rice soup, he couldn’t help swallowing hard.
“No…” Boss Wang watched as Grandma Gui brought out a bowl of “
[efn_note]“Yuqian wowo” (榆钱窝窝) is a traditional Chinese rural steamed bun made using 榆钱 (yúqián), which are the young, coin-shaped seed pods of the elm tree. These elm seeds are edible and are typically harvested in spring when they are fresh and tender.[/efn_note]
Yuqian wowo” (elm seed steamed buns), eyes wide as he stared at the buns. “Alright, I’ll try it then!”
Boss Wang’s small eyes blinked quickly. “And there’s Yuqian wowo too?”
【What’s Yuqian wowo? The yellow-green color looks so tempting!】
【Forget that, how can plain porridge smell so good? I can almost smell it through the screen!】
“This is really something only us countryside folks have eaten!” Grandma Gui picked up one of the buns and handed it to Boss Wang.
Boss Wang eagerly took a bite.
Just one bite, and the fresh, fragrant aroma of the elm seeds hit him right in the head. For a moment, he seemed to see his childhood again.
Every spring and summer, his elders would have him climb the old elm tree by the front door, while they laid a sheet on the ground.
He would swing on the tree as his younger siblings happily ran and played beneath, shouting loudly, “Elm flowers are falling! Elm flowers are falling!”
Clusters of elm seeds fluttered down from the sky, spinning as they danced, and everyone was immersed in the fresh scent—a truly carefree and happy time.
Boss Wang took a deep breath, thinking of his brothers and sisters scattered across the country, and tears welled up in his eyes. But his eyes were so small that no one noticed as he quietly enjoyed the food.
He quickly finished a large bowl of porridge and the bun, then hurriedly stood up saying he had to go supervise the work.
【Streamer, streamer! The boss is crying!】
【Look, look! He’s crying because the food is so good! Streamer, you have to try it too!】
Crying? Xu Xiaozhi saw the comments and only then realized it. Under the anxious urging of her viewers, she picked up a bun herself.
“How good could these buns be? I know how they taste—I’m not like you guys pretending you can eat through the screen!”
On the very first day, Xu Xiaozhi got to enjoy Grandma Gui’s cooking. The elm seed steamed bun had a sweet aftertaste, and even long after eating, a fresh fragrance lingered in her mouth.
Viewer: We get to eat this!!!!
That said, Xu Xiaozhi still responded to the chat’s requests and took a bite of a bun.
【Whoa!!!】
【What is this flavor? Made from rice flour, but it tastes this good!】
【Such a unique taste, very refreshing!】
Some new viewers, seeing so many people praising the food and watching the streamer eating it, began to doubt if the comments were real.
【The streamer probably bought it. Why is everything suddenly “so delicious”? Keep in mind, every species in the galaxy has very different tastes—night and day differences. What food could get so many people to say it’s delicious at once?】
【Upstairs, carnivorous beastmen really don’t accept it well. The chat is mostly filled with herbivorous animals. If you’re a herbivore, just try it yourself and you’ll know!】
Xu Xiaozhi picked up two buns and stepped out of the yard. When Uncle Wang heard she was going to catch crayfish, he even gave her a carrying basket.
Looking at the chat, she said, “So many people are vegetarian? Friendly reminder—meals should have a balance of meat and vegetables.” Saying this, she took another bite of the elm seed bun.
The previously doubting viewer suddenly fell silent!
This time Xu Xiaozhi brought a shrimp cage. Grandma Gui, seeing her eager to catch crayfish and knowing the renovation crew hadn’t left yet at noon, suggested she catch a lot to bring back.
Anyway, crayfish were everywhere in the creek. As long as a raw chicken leg was placed inside the cage, the segmented shrimp net would soon be full.
“Clap clap” she patted the gray cage in her hands. “All set. Now we just wait till noon to eat crayfish.”
“Next, let’s go to the place where Chouba found the kitten and see if we can find anything.” Xu Xiaozhi slung the basket over her shoulder and followed Chouba back into the dense forest.
“Wow, there’s a bamboo grove here.” She hadn’t paid much attention before because they walked quickly, but this time, entering the forest, she noticed a bamboo grove not far away, with wild bamboo shoots sprouting from the ground visible even from a distance.
【Is this all part of the farmhouse experience? Can we try digging bamboo shoots and catching crayfish?】
Ren Wan happened to be a local from Yucheng. Seeing Xu Xiaozhi’s live stream out of boredom, she thought the beautiful mountains and rivers near the farmhouse would be a nice place to spend a weekend with her husband and kids.
But after checking online for reviews about the “Cute Pets Farmhouse,” she found nothing, which made her hesitate again.
“Of course! The land everyone sees with their own eyes all belongs to the farmhouse. I still haven’t stepped outside the farmhouse boundaries,” Xu Xiaozhi said this with a hint of inexplicable pride.
Although the farmhouse was shabby at first, and there was only a small yard, and…
Alright, but the advantage is that our place is big.
As soon as she opened the app, she could see her location—still within the farmhouse’s gray area, with exploration progress not even reaching 5%.
Walking along the small path, she spotted some familiar mushrooms and picked two. “These wild mushrooms are the freshest. I’ll make soup with them when I get back.”
Seeing the live stream viewers slowly leaving after watching the kitten, she asked, “How about we give the kitten a name while we walk?”
The number of viewers in the live stream began to rise again.
Viewer: Great! This is their specialty!