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[A Well-Made Counterfeit Bill]

Jiang Feng didn't take the money. He offered a slightly apologetic smile to the burly, bald, and impatient man in front of him. "Sorry, sir, I don't have any change right now. I can't break a hundred."

"Can't break it?" The customer took his money back and reluctantly handed Jiang Feng a twenty-yuan bill. After receiving his change, he grumbled a few more words before leaving the small shop.

"Xiao Feng, don't we have change in the box?" Hearing movement in the shop, Jiang Feng's mother, Comrade Wang Xiulian, poked her head out from the back kitchen to ask.

"He gave me counterfeit money." Jiang Feng skillfully cleaned the table and arranged the chairs, preparing to close up.

"Counterfeit money?" Comrade Wang Xiulian's smile vanished instantly. Even her usual double chin seemed to tighten into a single one due to the tension in her face. "What kind of lowlife dares to fool my son? If he dares to come again, Mom will teach him a lesson!"

Indeed, given Comrade Wang Xiulian's physique, the burly man from earlier probably wouldn't stand a chance against her.

"Our son is a university student, how could he possibly be fooled by someone like that?" Jiang Feng's father, Comrade Jiang Jiankang, with his shiny bald head, walked out from the back kitchen, a plate of food in one hand and a smile on his face. "Come, come, son, your favorite Kung Pao Chicken."

[A Plate of Kung Pao Chicken Mixed with Sweat and Oil]

"I'm on a diet," Jiang Feng refused expressionlessly, starting to ponder the important task of persuading his father to install an air conditioner in the kitchen.

Considering Comrade Jiang Jiankang's weight of 240 pounds, it must have been tough for him to spend all day in a small kitchen less than ten square meters in size during this season.

"Why are you dieting like those young girls? My son wouldn't get fat even if he gained another hundred pounds!" Jiang Jiankang's greatest pride in his life was having a tall and thin son who improved the Jiang Family's genes. His own father had five sons, and he had 4 grandsons and 2 granddaughters. Except for the twin daughters in middle school from his youngest brother's family, his son was the only one under 200 pounds.

Jiang Feng suddenly remembered the scene every year during Chinese New Year at his grandfather's house, where a large round table couldn't even fit seven people, and the women and grandchildren had to have a separate table, which also couldn't fit everyone. He decided to remain silent.

"Come, come, eat meat!" Jiang Jiankang put a large piece of meat into Jiang Feng's bowl.

"That's right, listen to your dad. Does my son need to diet?" Comrade Wang Xiulian chimed in.

Fine, for the sake of fatherly love.

Jiang Feng resignedly picked up his chopsticks.

"Dad."

"Yes!"

"It's too hot. Install an air conditioner in the kitchen."

After dinner, the Jiang family of three continued to tidy up the shop and clean the back kitchen. Comrade Wang Xiulian and Jiang Jiankang stayed to take inventory of the ingredients, sending Jiang Feng home to rest.

Before leaving, Jiang Feng couldn't help but glance at his shop's sign.

[A Dilapidated Signboard]

As soon as he turned away, Jiang Feng could no longer see any remark-like prompts.

As expected, he could only see them when he was inside his own shop?

After two days of testing, Jiang Feng finally confirmed the range within which these strange remarks appeared.

"Ding, congratulations to player Jiang Feng for activating the game. Loading game, please wait."

A crisp female voice startled Jiang Feng.

About two minutes later, the crisp female voice sounded again: "Loading successful. Please check your status panel, explore independently, and strive to complete tasks."

Jiang Feng noticed a small exclamation mark appear in the upper right corner. Impelled by some unknown force, he reached out and tapped it, and a status panel actually appeared.

Player Name: Jiang Feng

Level: 0 (0/100)

Remaining Experience: 0

Skills: Appraisal (Beginner): You can only obtain basic information.

Main Quest: ??? (Please explore independently)

Side Quests: None (Activated after selecting a main quest)

Achievements: None

Titles: None

Items: None

Evaluation: A novice who has just set out.

Game Instructions:

1. This game offers extremely high freedom. Please explore independently.

2. This game will not interfere with any of your choices. Please strive to unlock achievements.

3. All explanations belong to the game.

Game?

This status panel really looked like a game.

Jiang Feng reached out and tapped the exclamation mark in the upper right corner again, and the panel disappeared.

It seemed quite interesting.

If he had to explore independently...

Jiang Feng stood at his doorstep, lost in thought.

Before he could figure anything out, Jiang Feng was pulled back to reality by Comrade Wang Xiulian's booming voice.

"Xiao Feng, what are you doing standing there like an idiot?" Wang Xiulian asked from the staircase. She and Comrade Jiang Jiankang stood one behind the other at the turn of the small staircase, giving the impression of completely blocking the hallway.

"Forgot my key," he blurted out.

"You child, why didn't you call? How long have you been waiting?" Comrade Wang Xiulian stepped forward to open the door, and Jiang Feng quickly moved aside.

"Right, Dad, what do you think about what I told you earlier about installing an air conditioner in the kitchen?" Jiang Feng asked as he closed the door, letting the elder Comrade Jiang Jiankang go first.

"No need, it's been like this for so many years, why do we need an air conditioner? Your second uncle's clinic land is being demolished, and he borrowed seventy thousand yuan from us. I bought a shop near your university. When you start school, your mom and I will move there too," Jiang Jiankang said nonchalantly, beginning to imagine their future life. "Look, it'll be great if your mom and I open the shop there, and you won't have to eat cafeteria food. I heard your eldest cousin say that university cafeterias are terrible now. Tomato stir-fried with mooncakes, is that something people eat? Your mom and I..."

Jiang Feng didn't even have time to consider how Jiang Jiankang could afford a prime location shop near the university with only seventy thousand yuan borrowed from his second uncle, or how wealthy their family truly was, or whether he would graduate university and become a lazy shut-in, a matter of his future destiny, before he heard a familiar female voice.

"Ding, detected an optional main quest: [The Advancing Little Shop] Increase the popularity of Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant at A University to 100."

The name of their family's small shop was currently Healthy Snacks.

"Dad, what are you planning to name your new shop?" Jiang Feng asked.

"The name?" Jiang Jiankang was taken aback, then said with a chuckle, "Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant, what do you think? Not bad, right! Your mom thinks the name is a bit tacky. For a stir-fry restaurant like ours, we need a name that's easy to understand. If we pick something too fancy, customers won't come."

"Your eldest uncle helped us find this shop. It's two stories, a full 180 square meters. We didn't have enough money, and your mom and I didn't want to take out a loan, so we were looking for something else. Just then, your second uncle's demolition compensation arrived. He borrowed seventy thousand yuan for us, exactly what we needed. Isn't that a coincidence?"

Coincidence, it was too much of a coincidence.

Jiang Feng almost suspected that this game had planned it all out.

"Your second uncle also bought a shop next to our restaurant. Now, all five brothers are in the same city. Don't worry about the new shop; your eldest uncle is overseeing the renovation and everything!"

Jiang Feng's uncles all used to work in this small town. Including Jiang Feng, all four grandchildren of the Jiang family graduated from the same elementary, middle, and high school. When they were kids, apart from Jiang Feng, who was of normal build, his three cousins were all tall and strong. With the four of them together, the local bullies never dared to mess with them.

Going further back, Jiang Feng's grandfather, Jiang Weiguo, was a chef at a state-run restaurant before he retired. Even in those times of material scarcity, he was the only fat person among a crowd of skinny people. This led to Jiang Feng's grandmother, his father, and his four uncles also becoming well-known for being overweight. Even his youngest uncle's two daughters were showing signs of the Jiang family's physique.

Of the five Jiang brothers, only the third brother, Comrade Jiang Jiankang, took over Jiang Weiguo's position. Later, because the state-run restaurant closed down, he opened his own small restaurant. The eldest, Jiang Jianguo, is a tailor. Due to the sluggish business in this small town, he borrowed money a few years ago and opened his tailor shop in A City, and is now doing quite well. The second brother, Jiang Jiandang, opened a small clinic. The fourth brother, Jiang Jianye, and the fifth brother, Jiang Jianshe, opened a pet store together in A City.

Jiang Feng, thinking about how his uncles, aunts, three cousins, and two younger cousins would often gather at their family restaurant in the future, understood the thoughtful intention behind Jiang Jiankang's desire to buy a larger shop.

While listening to Comrade Jiang Jiankang in the living room fantasize about his future grandson taking over Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant and making it even more successful, Comrade Wang Xiulian, having finished washing up, entered the living room and disdainfully interrupted him, "Aren't you going to wash up and go to bed? You owe your second brother a lot of money and you're still bragging to your son here!"

See, how ambitious Comrade Wang Xiulian was.

Back in his room, Jiang Feng opened his status panel, which had now changed to:

Player Name: Jiang Feng

Level: 0 (0/100)

Remaining Experience: 0

Skills: Appraisal (Novice): You can only obtain basic information.

Main Quests: 1. (Optional) [The Advancing Little Shop] Increase the popularity of Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant at A University to 100 [Choose: Yes/No]

2. ??? (Please explore on your own)

Side Quests: None (Will be activated after choosing a main quest)

Achievements: None

Titles: None

Items: None

Evaluation: A novice who has just set out.

Jiang Feng clicked "Yes," and the main quest changed to:

1. [The Advancing Little Shop] Increase the popularity of Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant at A University to 100, Quest Progress (0/100).

Quest Hint: Reputation is key to developing a new store. Popularity acquisition is limited to students and faculty of A University.

Quest Reward: Unknown

Students and faculty...

Jiang Feng was well aware of Comrade Jiang Jiankang's cooking skills, after all, he was a former head chef at a state-run restaurant. A University would be opening in a month, and Jiang Feng felt this main quest would be quite easy to complete.

As for the part about exploring on his own, he had a month to do so.