Chapter 365: Eight-Zero Gourmet System (3)

"Dani? Dani?"

Liu Shen's soft call pulled Xie Yang's wandering thoughts back.

"Dani, if your head is still spinning, hurry up and lie down to rest. Shuisheng and his brother are coming to my house to eat in a bit, so just rest easy. I'll have Shuisheng bring your dinner over later, don't get up to cook."

Liu Shen remembered the kindness of the Zhang family; after the Zhang mother and son met with successive accidents, she was the first to step up and help the original owner.

Xie Yang accepted her kindness, nodded half a beat late, and said in a hoarse voice, "Thank you, Liu Shen."

"What's there to thank for that?" Liu Shen patted her hand soothingly, "Then you rest, I'm going home to cook."

Once Liu Shen left, Xie Yang lay back on the bed, closed her eyes, and summoned the Main System to ask about the whereabouts of the Sub-system that needed to be recovered in this plane.

This body of hers was indeed slow to react; it took forever just to open her mouth, though communicating via consciousness was a bit more nimble.

Main System: 【It is right here in the home of this body you are inhabiting, Host.】

Xie Yang:???

Could it be like the Seven-Zero Plane, attached to some piece of furniture?

【Not quite, Host. The Sub-system of this plane has already bound with a member of your family in this body, we are one step behind. But there is nothing to be done about that.】

After all, it is not easy to find a body that has just died and is still fresh, matches the Host's magnetic field, and is as close to the Sub-system as possible.

Xie Yang asked curiously: Bound to whom?

The Zhang mother and son had just finished their funeral, and the only "family" left were the two little "stepsons."

It couldn't be the Xie Family from Shangxi Village, could it? She would be sick to death if that were the case.

The original owner had finally managed to escape the Lao Xie family; would she have to go back for the sake of a Task?

【It is not the Xie Family, it is one of your 'stepsons'—Zhang Shuisheng.】

Xie Yang: As long as it's not someone from the Lao Xie family, that's fine. By the way, what is the name of the Sub-system that needs to be recovered in this plane?

【Super Gourmet System.】

The Main System explained to Xie Yang:

【This system was specifically developed by the Level Six Civilization, Universal Star, with the primary goal of collecting the gourmet culture of planets from various civilizations.】

【Of course, it doesn't collect for free. The Gourmet System provides certain rewards based on the Host's completion rate, such as rewarding ingredients for making gourmet food, recipes, and even secret formulas that the Bell and Tripod Family never pass on to outsiders.】

【Its previous host relied on various secret formulas rewarded by the system to become the richest person in the region.】

Xie Yang slowly raised an eyebrow.

It sounded like a very serious wealth-building system, but why would it choose to bind with a seven-year-old child who wasn't even as tall as a stove? Wouldn't it be better to choose an adult who excelled at cooking?

Main System: 【...】

The Host really hits the nail on the head.

This Sub-system bound with Zhang Shuisheng and indirectly ruined him.

According to the original world's plot, after Xie Dani fainted and didn't wake up, only the Shuisheng brothers were left in the Zhang family. But with one being seven and the other two, how could they survive in this world?

The Women's Director of the neighborhood office found the brothers' biological mother, Xue Lihua, and gave her a lecture:

"The two children are your own flesh and blood. Now that Zhang Li is gone, the other relatives of the Zhang family are either too far away or have too many children of their own and really don't have the energy to adopt them. It is wrong for you, as a mother, to ignore them!"

Xue Lihua found it annoying; she agreed with her mouth, but privately contacted a family that wanted to adopt a son.

She and her first love had overcome all difficulties to finally form a new family, and she was determined to have children for her first love; how could she let two "bastards" disturb her good life?

Originally, Xue Lihua wanted to give both children away.

Shuisheng overheard her conversation with her first love and took out the rewards he had obtained from completing tasks in the Gourmet System: Rice, flour, eggs, Pork... and begged Xue Lihua not to send them away.

"Mom, I can support myself and my brother, please don't send us away! If you really have to send us, send us both to the same family so I can take care of my brother."

When Xue Lihua saw the pile of food he conjured up, along with a recipe for scallion pancakes tucked among the food, her eyes turned green.

Seeing that she couldn't snatch the "system" out of his mouth, she locked him in the cellar and used "your brother needs food" and "your brother needs money for clothes" to threaten him into constantly bringing out ingredients and secret formulas.

Zhang Shuisheng was kept locked in the cellar by Xue Lihua and her husband like that, completely unaware that his brother had been sent away the very next day after he was locked in the cellar.

For the sake of his brother, he clutched a few old books Xue Lihua had found at the Recycling Station, such as "Dietary Culture" and "Suiyuan Shidan," and stumbled through completing the tasks issued by the Gourmet System.

He did tasks in the dark cellar, while Xue Lihua's family lived a wealthy life in the sunlight.

It wasn't until one day, six years later, that the son Xue Lihua had with her first love discovered the cellar while playing hide-and-seek with the neighbor's child.

Zhang Shuisheng learned from him that there was no such person as a brother in the house, so he took his half-brother hostage and forced the truth out of Xue Lihua, turning dark instantly.

He killed Xue Lihua and her husband, then jumped into the Fuming River...

Even the Main System, a Star Interstellar Product without a heart, felt a sense of sorrow at this ending.

When it came down to it, it was a bug in the Gourmet System's screening mode that led to this tragedy.

But it was better not to tell the Host about such product quality issues, lest she mock them for having so many systems in the System Realm and yet not being able to scrape together a few normal ones.

It must be said that after following her through several planes, the Main System had learned to be smart; this time, it actually didn't reveal the original world's plot to Xie Yang.

It wouldn't affect the completion of the Task anyway.

Better not let the Host know, lest she start complaining and implicate it, this poor innocent bystander.

【Host, since the Sub-system has already bound with Zhang Shuisheng, what do you plan to do next? It cannot be forcibly recovered at the moment.】

Xie Yang pondered for a moment: If even a Main System like you is helpless, what method could I possibly have? I can only take it one step at a time. By the way, first redeem a Physical Fitness Potion for me and see if it can fix my brain. My reactions are too slow, it's a struggle just to speak.

【...】

I think you 'speak' quite fluently.

But since the Host has plenty of points, if she wants to spend them, could it stop her?

There was no one at home; the two little ones had been taken out to play by Daniu, the youngest son of Liu Shen's family.

Xie Yang closed the doors and windows with peace of mind, prepared a change of clothes, drew a bucket of bathwater, and took the Physical Fitness Potion.

Sure enough, this body carried the most toxins of anyone she had possessed; before long, a thick layer of pitch-black sludge oozed out.

A single bucket of bathwater was nowhere near enough!

But there was no help for it; the Zhang family's house was in one of the oldest Tube Buildings.

Never mind that there was no toilet or kitchen inside the unit; there wasn't even one in the hallway.

To use the toilet, one had to go downstairs to the public restroom across the street; to boil water or cook, one had to go to the public stove area on the first floor.

Xie Yang shook the completely empty tin thermos: "..."

At this moment, she missed the unit bathhouse of the Seven-Zero Plane immensely.

The living conditions back then were more or less the same as now, but taking a bath was truly delightful!

Now, she could only make do with a sponge bath.

She pondered the first thing to do after settling down—moving!

She must change to a home with an independent toilet and kitchen!