Chapter 239: Secretary Ning's Consideration

November 7th, after breakfast.

Chen Shu strolled along the seaside, checking the fish traps and the enclosed shallows one by one, turning a blind eye to the fish stranded in the shallows he hadn't enclosed himself.

Soon, there was a surprise.

Two of the fish traps had quite a large haul; one contained two small octopuses, and the other had one small green dragon. Additionally, he discovered a black porgy and two swimming crabs in an enclosed shallow; he hadn't eaten black porgy in all these days.

"Qingqing! Look!"

Chen Shu hurriedly ran over to share the good news with Qingqing.

He finally felt a sense of triumph.

To this, Ning Qing just looked at him very calmly: "Didn't you say we were going to catch a Sword Pig today to eat pork?"

"Hmm..."

Chen Shu paused for a moment; unwilling to give up the Twice-cooked Pork he had been longing for, nor willing to give up the prey he had obtained through his own wisdom, he quickly turned around to find a shallow pool not connected to the sea and put them all inside:

"I'll raise them and eat them when I want to."

Secretary Ning said nothing.

Let him be childish.

One hour later.

Chen Shu held his Long Sword, hacking through the brambles, while Secretary Ning carried a small basket on her back, following him calmly.

"There are so many small tomatoes here, Secretary Ning, take them; when we go back, I can make you tomato-sauce abalone and scrambled eggs with tomatoes." Chen Shu said while picking the small tomatoes, "The flavor of this kind of small tomato is quite good, richer and more sour than big tomatoes."

Ning Qing silently stepped forward and turned her back to him.

The small tomatoes fell into the small basket, clinking as they landed.

The two continued on their way.

There were always plants bearing various fruits by the roadside; Chen Shu would stop from time to time to pick one and put it in his mouth to taste it. Anyway, after reaching the Intermediate Stage, Spirit Power permeated every cell in his body; in the natural world, apart from Spirit Plants, no toxin could kill an Intermediate Cultivator.

The wine Chen Banxia drank didn't even contain alcohol.

And judging a Spirit Plant was also very simple; one didn't even need to touch it to feel its Spirit Power. Come to think of it, Spirit Plants more or less belonged to the category of heaven-sent treasures, and they weren't that easy to encounter; if one did encounter them, it was considered a profit, as they could be sold for money.

"This fruit is actually quite tasty, want to try some?"

"These bananas are okay too, take them, take them."

"This... ptooey! This is spicy?"

Chen Shu looked at a plant bearing red, bean-sized fruits, blinking his eyes: "Wild chili? There's actually wild chili here? Secretary Ning, you try some."

Ning Qing leaned back, avoiding his attempt to feed her.

"I'm not stupid."

"It's not very spicy."

"Not eating it either."

"Alright, I'll pick some for now."

Chen Shu picked some, put them into Secretary Ning's basket, and continued walking forward, searching for wild fruits and vegetables.

"This looks like shepherd's purse, let's get some, we'll make meatball soup when we get back."

"Dandelions..."

"Isn't this an Aralia tree? It's a pity it hasn't sprouted, otherwise, the Aralia shoots would be delicious too."

"Look, is that wild wood ear on that tree?"

"Is this a wild mushroom?"

"Is this a morel?"

"What kind of mushroom is this? It looks like it might be edible; I'll pick some to go back and court death, see if I can see little people."

Secretary Ning's small basket was gradually more than half full; she stopped to put everything into her Storage Space, continued following Chen Shu with the basket on her back, and even when Chen Shu praised her for looking cute carrying the small basket, she remained expressionless.

"Do you think the people at home will be very worried about us?"

"I've already arranged everything."

"What?"

"I've already arranged everything."

Ning Qing lifted her foot to step over an old tree root, keeping a distance of one or two meters from him: "No one will tell your uncle and aunt that you are on that Frigate. Xiaoxiao will use my spare phone to log into your Feixin account and post one or two updates at regular intervals. When the winter break starts next month, she will say that we have gone on a trip."

"Tsk tsk..." Chen Shu clicked his tongue, "Secretary Ning is truly amazing, I'll give you a raise when we get back."

"I want to eat minced meat with pickled peppers and shredded meat with pickled mustard greens." Ning Qing's tone held no emotion, "I also want to eat the rabbit with pickled peppers from a few days ago."

"What's wrong? Is the seafood not good anymore?"

"Anything sour is good."

"I'll make it for you once I catch a rabbit."

As Chen Shu spoke, his footsteps paused; he picked a few thorny wild flowers from the roadside and handed them to Ning Qing:

"For you."

Ning Qing took them casually, her expression steady.

About half an hour later, Chen Shu found the previous Sword Pig and its gang members. He picked a smaller one from this Sword Pig herd; as for the one he had previously marked with a Tracking Mark, Chen Shu just updated the mark on its body to prevent the Spirit Power from fading, without hurting it.

One must still uphold the code of the jianghu.

On the way back, he caught two wild chickens along the way.

The entire day was spent on this.

Chen Shu didn't know how to slaughter a pig, mainly because he didn't know how to butcher it; fortunately, this Long Sword was incomparably sharp, so after a chaotic round of cutting, it was just passable.

He placed the slabs of meat and bone into the ice cellar.

By the time he finished his work, it was already dusk.

Chen Shu began preparing dinner.

He hadn't eaten pork for a long time, and he was full of anticipation for it.

Deciding to stir-fry some shredded pork with wood ear mushrooms, shredded pork with pickled mustard greens, roast some cumin pork chops, and his own favorite bracken stir-fried with Twice-cooked Pork, and finally a shepherd's purse pork ball soup, Chen Shu was already drooling just thinking about the texture, which was completely different from seafood.

"Sizzle..."

The pork belly slices went into the pan and were stir-fried until they changed color; the aroma released in that instant intoxicated Chen Shu.

Pork itself is actually very delicious; the pork usually bought in supermarkets focuses too much on meat yield and has a growth period that is too short, leading to a decline in texture. Anyone who has eaten pork raised in the countryside knows that the texture between the two is completely different, and traditional breeds of pork are even better than the crossbreeds raised in the countryside, while the meat quality of any conventional breed could never be as good as Sword pig.

Chen Shu couldn't help but pick up a piece and put it in his mouth; it had just been stir-fried until cooked, and even without adding salt, it was already very delicious, with no gamey smell at all.

Qingqing stood quietly beside him.

Chen Shu turned around and casually fed her a piece as well.

It was already dark by the time the meal was ready.

The western sky presented a pale blue color, with a hint of fiery red remaining, somewhat close to the time of dawn; a crescent moon had already appeared above the volcanic peak in the east, thin and curved.

Qingqing brought the dishes to the table one by one, steaming hot.

Chen Shu continued to draw Luminous Rune on the bamboo poles and lit up each house in turn; only after the beach was enveloped in warm light did he walk to the dining table and sit down, and at this moment, Qingqing was placing a coarse pottery vase he had made a few days ago on the table and inserting the wild flower she had picked today into it.

"In this setting, one should drink some wine, but unfortunately, there is none."

"Drink some soup."

Secretary Ning did not forget her status; she served him rice, handed him a pair of chopsticks, and asked indifferently, "Do you know what this flower is called?"

"I don't know, I only know it's from the Rosaceae family." Chen Shu looked at the flower, "It looks a bit like an edible rose, but it isn't."

"An ancient variety of Chinese rose; it has already degenerated quite severely."

"Chinese rose?"

Chen Shu knew that Chinese roses, roses, and multiflora roses were not essentially different; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they were the same thing, it was just that there were many varieties, and different varieties exhibited different habits and traits, leading to classifications, but this boundary was very blurry.

Especially between Chinese roses and roses, the boundary was quite blurry.

"Mm."

Ning Qing nodded and was the first to reach her chopsticks toward the shredded pork with pickled mustard greens; she had already tasted these dishes once while cooking them, as from childhood to adulthood, whenever Chen Shu cooked and she and Xiaoxiao were watching from the side, they would be constantly fed.

"And it is not a wild Chinese rose; it is a variety that has undergone preliminary breeding, and the breeder is the Shengzu you are most interested in."

"Yueyuehong?"

"Yes, he called it Yueyuehong."

"Yueyuehong..."

This name truly made one feel nostalgic.

Secretary Ning continued to explain: "Our country is the place of origin for the Chinese rose, and Yueyuehong is the first type of Chinese rose, as well as the ancestor of many modern Chinese roses. Later, the Yu Dynasty Imperial Family also liked Chinese roses, so they cultivated more varieties and planted them in large numbers in the palace. With more varieties, fewer people grew Yueyuehong. By now, there are too many excellent modern Chinese rose varieties, and few people still favor these ancient varieties."

"So this means that at least several thousand years ago, there was interaction with ancient China here?"

"High probability it was the Xia Dynasty."

"It is..."

If this place was not far from Nanzhou Island, then the closest continent to it would be the western part of Zhongzhou, which was the territory of the early Xia Dynasty.

"Eat."

Secretary Ning reminded him in a low voice.

"Okay."

Chen Shu also lowered his head to pick up food.

He took a bite of the Twice-cooked Pork he had made himself.

"Emmm..."

Just two words: moving.

Although there were no green peppers, garlic sprouts, or cabbage, the bracken stir-fried with Twice-cooked Pork was also quite good, and Chen Shu had brought almost all the ingredients, missing only garlic slices, but the lack of garlic slices didn't have much impact on the taste of this dish; the texture and aroma of the fresh Sword pig meat itself could make up for everything.

Especially the Sword pig killed today; the faint Spirit Power in the meat had not yet dissipated, and the texture was excellent.

"Boom..."

The sound of a thunderstorm came from the distance again.

Chen Shu looked back; the outline of the volcano was outlined once more.

It didn't rain today, and the forest had dried out a bit.

I'll go take a look after eating.

While thinking this, Chen Shu handed his bowl to Qingqing: "Secretary Ning, help me serve a bowl of soup, we'll split the meatballs half and half."

Ning Qing silently took his bowl.

She scooped most of the meatballs to him.

It wasn't modesty, it wasn't gentleness, it wasn't virtuousness, it wasn't that she wanted him to eat more; there were no such complex emotions, it was purely that she wanted to eat less.

Nine o'clock in the evening.

Chen Shu climbed the volcano again.

Looking back, the sea was deep black, and the faint points of light on the beach seemed so warm; channeling Spirit Power into his eyes to zoom in, he could still see Qingqing, full after the meal, sitting quietly on the swing, not cultivating, waiting for him to return.

Chen Shu withdrew his gaze and looked toward the southeast.

That "Thunderstorm Cloud" obscured everything, not even letting starlight through, but occasionally bright lights flashed, and loud noises came from far away.

The bright light struggled to shine through the "Thunderstorm Cloud"; it was no longer possible to see what color it originally was, but it definitely wasn't lightning, because sometimes the light could even last for a minute before slowly dimming.

The rhythm of the light and the sound did not match at all.

Chen Shu held his breath and focused his attention.

The light had a rhythm, and so did the sound; the interval between them should be the same, and by comparing them, a rough delay time could be obtained.

"It won't work..."

The delay is truly too long.

Too long, far too long.

I cannot capture the pattern of the intervals.

Chen Shu sat for a long time, watching that direction the entire while, until the night at the mountaintop grew colder and colder; only then did he turn around and leap down toward the specks of light on the beach.

Ning Qing was still sitting on the beach, her gaze calm, as she said to him:

"One hundred and sixty kilometers."

"What?"

"About one hundred and sixty kilometers."

"Hmm..."

"Do not feel inferior."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."