Adorably Foolish

In the game, brewing a potion succeeded as soon as its progress bar filled up. But when she made potions in reality, she had to personally follow the instructional videos in her mind step by step. Sometimes, a single advanced potion took over an hour to brew—how to process the ingredients, how to control the temperature, when to stir, when to add the next herb...

Yet even when she believed she had replicated every step exactly, it still showed that the brew had failed. Occasionally, though, even a failed attempt gave her an extra one or two experience points.

She had never worked this hard even before the college entrance exams.

Engineering was much the same. The advanced level and the beginner-to-intermediate levels of these two professions were practically worlds apart.

Beginner and intermediate levels were like Western medicine: exact and systematic. Once you had learned the relevant knowledge and looked at the data, as long as you studied properly, no matter how difficult it was, the correct answer remained the correct answer. Once a disease was diagnosed, even the heavens themselves could not make it into anything else.

Advanced professions were like traditional Chinese medicine. Every doctor had a different answer. Sometimes their treatment plans were completely opposed, yet both could cure the patient, because the relationships between medicinal herbs were impossible to clearly explain. Sometimes, the videos themselves differed every time. This time, the teacher added twenty grams of powdered Demon Spirit Grass first. The next time she watched, she only added eighteen grams. The time after that, she switched to another herb because she had accidentally shaken in a little too much of a different herb earlier. But that was fine—replace one herb with another, and once the two herbs were balanced, the effect was the same.

At first, Yu Xunge had wanted to curse. This was too unrigorous, too unprofessional. What kind of bullshit was this?

But later, Yu Xunge even forgot about grinding experience. Sometimes she could spend an entire day watching the alchemy videos in her mind, so absorbed that she forgot to practice engineering. She felt that the female undead instructor in the videos was like an orchestra conductor, blending and commanding every medicinal property without being bound by rigid Recipes. Sometimes, slight mistakes became unexpected delights in her hands.

When July arrived, Yu Xunge completely stopped trying to brew advanced potions. She planned to relearn and brew every beginner and intermediate Recipe from scratch.

She could not help recalling an interview she had once seen. The player in it had spoken with a solemn expression. "The profession skills I learned during the closed beta were the real treasure of the closed beta. I can sew blue equipment and even purple equipment not because of talent, but because of the sewing knowledge I learned from teachers of other races. Yes, he will always be my teacher. Even if we meet again on the battlefield and fight to the death, even if you call me a traitor, I will still say it: that member of another race is my teacher."

However, on July 1st, Su Yitong suddenly said she wanted to treat everyone in the Yu Family to dinner. When the young miss treated someone, it was not an invitation—it was a notice. Yu Xunge tidied herself up and headed to the restaurant.

When she entered the private room, she was not even the last to arrive. Yu Qingshan and Yi Qiuguo were already seated inside.

Before coming, Yu Xunge had not only checked her Character Panel and put all her equipment and items into her bag, but had also stuffed both thirty-six-slot bags into the Magician's Denture. She now carried only a four-slot bag on her.

After another half hour, the bodyguard opened the private room door, and Su Yitong, wearing a monocle, entered first.

Yu Xunge, Yu Qingshan, and Yi Qiuguo rose with smiles to greet her.

Su Yitong had changed her hairstyle. Her former straight black hair that exposed her ears had become a side-parted wavy style. Naturally, the larger portion of those waves was meant to cover the empty right side of her head. Perhaps because she had been in a bad mood lately, her expression no longer held its former elegance and composure. Instead, it was somewhat gloomy, echoing the dark look on Yu Xunhuan's face beside her.

This was hilarious. The male protagonist had become a nine-centimeter warrior, while the female protagonist had become a one-eared woman. Who would still dare say they were not a perfect match?!

Yu Xunge did not deliberately look at Su Yitong's new glasses. She could guess with her ass that they were probably an item. Otherwise, someone who had lost an ear would psychologically reject glasses that needed to hook over the ears. Taking them off and putting them on again would be psychological torture every time.

Even if it was only a monocle.

Su Yitong's glasses really were an inspection-type item. Though they could not compare to the Soros Mask she had obtained before, they were still a B-rank item. Inspection equipment was rare to begin with; finding a B-rank one was the result of the Su Family's third branch privately gathering more than a dozen people to participate in the closed beta together.

In truth, obtaining an A-rank item during the first closed beta had been the real surprise. Her two older brothers... forget it. Better not mention the previous closed beta. Mentioning it only made her think of ears.

The moment she entered, she used Inspect on Yu Xunge. But all she saw was what Yu Xunge wanted her to see.

Character: Yu Xunge (Level 0, 0.001%)

God-Bestowed Talent: Unable to inspect

Race: Human

Racial Talent: Unable to inspect

HP: 100/100

Mana: 100/100

Strength: 5

Constitution: 7

Intelligence: 7

Agility: 7

Luck: ?

Charm: ?

How could Yu Xunge have known that Su Yitong's lousy glasses were this useless? Her series of smooth, cool actions had been like putting on a show for a blind man.

The moment Su Yitong saw the 0.001% experience, she believed over half of what Yu Xunhuan had said.

Yu Xunge watched helplessly as Su Yitong's expression softened, while Yu Xunhuan winked at her from the side.

Yu Xunge: Ew, gross!

Recently, neither Yu Xunhuan nor Su Yitong had been able to pry out any information through indirect probing. Yesterday, he had simply come clean and said that he knew about the game because Yu Xunge had told him.

He had originally intended to leave it there and had not planned to explain on Yu Xunge's behalf why she had not told Su Yitong. But unexpectedly, Su Yitong asked when Yu Xunge had told him, and Yu Xunhuan said it had been around the ninth or tenth.

Su Yitong's expression immediately eased. She said that on that day, Yu Xunge had messaged her and asked her to go to the hotel, saying she had something important to tell her and Yu Xunhuan. But Su Yitong had been busy and had not gone—her ear was gone, and half the gold in her home had vanished. How could she have been in the mood to meet the older sister of a live-in son-in-law?

Yu Xunhuan immediately said, "Yes, she said she invited you. She only trusted a few family members like us. Yitong, we're family, right?"

Because of this, Su Yitong had now completely let go of her grievances against Yu Xunhuan. Though she still thought he was a little foolish deep down—how could he tell such a thing to someone who had not even married into his family yet? Putting herself in his shoes, she had only told her own family and trusted confidants. Thinking about it that way, she found Yu Xunge adorably foolish. Yu Xunge truly regarded her as family.

She had come today only to confirm whether this person had been telling the truth. Though she had tested her months ago, she had not possessed an inspection item then.

Although she could not inspect Yu Xunge's God-Bestowed Talent, her experience was only 0.001%. It seemed that, just as she had said, she had not played much.

However, Su Yitong did not tell Yu Xunhuan that she had participated in the closed beta. Either such matters were not mentioned at all, or if the other party heard about them from someone else first, it would inevitably hurt their relationship to some extent. Though she did not think much of Yu Xunhuan, there was no need to seek out trouble.

As for whether Yu Xunhuan would discover one day that she had concealed something from him, the young miss did not care. She genuinely liked Yu Xunhuan's face, but that was all.