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A well-made counterfeit bill

Jiang Feng did not take the money. He gave the burly, bald man before him, whose face was full of impatience, an apologetic smile. "Sorry, sir, but we don't have enough change. I can't break a hundred."

"Can't break it?" The customer pulled the bill back and reluctantly handed Jiang Feng a twenty-yuan note instead. Even after receiving his change, he kept grumbling and cursing for a few moments before leaving the little shop.

"Xiaofeng, isn't there change in the cash box?" Hearing the commotion in the shop, Jiang Feng's mother, Wang Xiulian, poked her head out from the kitchen in the back.

"He gave me counterfeit money." Jiang Feng deftly cleared the table and arranged the chairs, preparing to close up for the night.

"Counterfeit money?" Wang Xiulian's smile vanished instantly. Even her original triple chin became a double chin as her face tightened. "What little punk dared to trick my son? If he comes again, your mother will teach him a lesson!"

That made sense. With Wang Xiulian's build, a burly man of that caliber probably would not be a match for her.

"Our son is a college student. How could someone like that possibly fool him?" Jiang Feng's biological father, Jiang Jiankang, emerged from the back kitchen with his shiny bald head, carrying a plate in one hand and smiling broadly. "Come on, son. Your favorite Kung Pao Chicken."

A plate of Kung Pao Chicken mixed with sweat and grease

"I'm dieting." Jiang Feng refused expressionlessly, beginning to consider the important task of persuading his father to install an air conditioner in the kitchen.

At Jiang Jiankang's weight of 240 pounds, spending every day in a kitchen smaller than ten square meters during this season was truly hard on him.

"Why are you copying those young girls and dieting for no reason? My son wouldn't be fat even if he gained another hundred pounds!" Jiang Jiankang had always been proudest of having a tall, thin son who had improved the Jiang Family genes. His father had five sons, four grandsons, and two granddaughters. Other than his youngest brother's twin daughters, who were in middle school, only his own son weighed less than two hundred pounds.

Jiang Feng suddenly remembered how, every New Year at his grandfather's house, even seven people could not fit around one large round table. The women and grandchildren needed a separate table, and even that was not enough. He decided to remain silent.

"Come on, eat some meat!" Jiang Jiankang placed a huge piece of meat into Jiang Feng's bowl.

"Exactly, listen to your father. Does my son need to diet?" Wang Xiulian chimed in.

Fine. For the sake of fatherly love.

Jiang Feng resigned himself and picked up his chopsticks.

"Dad."

"Yeah?"

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

After dinner, the Jiang Family of three continued tidying up the shop and cleaning the back kitchen. Wang Xiulian and Jiang Jiankang stayed behind to take inventory of the ingredients, driving Jiang Feng home to rest.

Before leaving, Jiang Feng did not forget to glance at his family's signboard.

A signboard that had fallen into disrepair over the years

The moment he turned around, Jiang Feng could no longer see any note-like prompts.

Sure enough, he could only see them in his own family's shop?

After two days of testing, Jiang Feng had finally determined the range in which those strange notes appeared.

"Ding! Congratulations, player Jiang Feng, for activating the game. Game loading. Please wait."

The crisp female voice startled Jiang Feng so badly that he jerked.

About two minutes later, the crisp female voice sounded again. "Loading successful. Please check your interface, explore independently, and work hard to complete missions."

Jiang Feng noticed a tiny exclamation mark in the upper-right corner. On an inexplicable impulse, he reached out and tapped it. An attribute panel actually appeared.

Player Name: Jiang Feng

Level: 0 (0/100)

Remaining Experience: 0

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

Main Mission: ??? (Please explore independently.)

Side Mission: None (Activated after selecting a main mission.)

Achievements: None

Titles: None

Items: None

Evaluation: A novice fresh out of the gate

Game Instructions:

1. This game has an extremely high degree of freedom. Please explore independently.

2. This game will not interfere with any of the player's choices. Please work hard to unlock achievements.

3. The game reserves all rights of interpretation.

A game?

This attribute panel really did look quite like a game.

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

It looked rather interesting.

Explore independently...

Jiang Feng simply stood there outside his home, lost in thought.

Before he could sort out any clues, Wang Xiulian's booming voice pulled him back to reality.

"Xiaofeng, why are you standing there stupidly at the door?" Wang Xiulian asked from the stairwell. She and Jiang Jiankang stood one in front of the other at the bend of the narrow stairs, making it feel as though they had completely blocked the passageway.

"I forgot my keys." The excuse came out without thought.

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

"Oh, right, Dad. What do you think about what I said earlier about installing an air conditioner in the kitchen?" Jiang Feng let Jiang Jiankang enter first and asked as he closed the door.

"There's no need. We've managed like this for years, so why would we need an air conditioner? The land where your second uncle's clinic was located got demolished, and he lent our family seven hundred thousand. I bought a shop near your school, and when school starts, your mother and I will move there too." Jiang Jiankang spoke casually as he began imagining their future life. "Think about it. How great would it be if your mother and I opened the shop there? You wouldn't have to eat in the cafeteria anymore. Your eldest cousin said college cafeterias are awful these days. Stir-fried tomatoes with mooncakes—are those even fit for people to eat? Your mother and I..."

Before Jiang Feng even had time to consider how Jiang Jiankang had managed to buy a prime shop near the school after merely borrowing seven hundred thousand from his second uncle, or just how rich his family really was—and whether that meant he could loaf around at home as a fat shut-in after graduating college—he heard the familiar female voice.

"Ding! One optional main mission discovered: The Advancing Little Shop. Raise Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant's reputation at A University to 100."

His family's current little shop was called Healthy Snacks.

"Dad, what are you planning to call the new shop?" Jiang Feng asked.

"The name?" Jiang Jiankang paused, then said with a chuckle, "Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant. What do you think? Not bad, right? Your mother thinks the name is tacky, but places like ours need simple, straightforward names. If you give it some overly literary name, customers won't want to come."

"Your eldest uncle helped us find this shop. It has two floors and a full 180 square meters. We originally didn't have enough money, and your mother and I didn't want a loan, so we were going to keep looking. But then your second uncle's demolition compensation for his clinic came through, and he lent us seven hundred thousand. It worked out perfectly. Isn't that a coincidence?"

A coincidence? It was far too much of a coincidence.

Jiang Feng was starting to suspect that this game had planned it all.

"Your second uncle also bought a shop beside our restaurant. This is great—we five brothers are all in the same city again. You don't need to worry about the new shop. Your eldest uncle is keeping an eye on the renovations and everything!"

Jiang Feng's uncles had originally all worked in this small city. The four grandchildren of the Jiang Family, including Jiang Feng, had attended the same elementary school, middle school, and high school. When they were young, Jiang Feng was the only one with a normal build. His three cousins were all tall and strong. Whenever the four brothers were together, the local hoodlums never dared provoke them.

Going further back, Jiang Feng's grandfather, Jiang Weiguo, had been a cook at the State-run Restaurant before retiring. Even in those years when supplies were scarce, he had been the most conspicuous fat man among a crowd of thin people. He had also fed Jiang Feng's grandmother, his father, and his four uncles into becoming famous fat people throughout the area. Even his youngest uncle's two daughters faintly showed the Jiang Family's distinctive traits.

Of the five Jiang brothers, only the third, Jiang Jiankang, had inherited Jiang Weiguo's profession. Later, after the State-run Restaurant closed down, he opened a small restaurant of his own. The eldest, Jiang Jianguo, was a tailor. Because business had been poor in this small city, he borrowed some money a few years ago and moved his tailor shop to A City, where it was now doing quite well. The second, Jiang Jiandang, ran a small clinic. The fourth, Jiang Jianye, and the fifth, Jiang Jianshe, had partnered up to open a pet shop in A City.

Thinking about how his uncles, aunts, three male cousins, and two female cousins would often gather at his family's restaurant in the future, Jiang Feng understood Jiang Jiankang's painstaking reasons for buying such a large shop.

In the living room, Jiang Jiankang had already begun fantasizing about his future grandson taking over Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant and carrying the business forward. Wang Xiulian, having finished washing up, came into the living room and interrupted him with a look of disdain. "Hurry up and shower, then go to bed. You owe your second brother a mountain of debt, yet you're still here bragging to your son!"

Look at how ambitious Wang Xiulian was.

Back in his room, Jiang Feng opened the attribute panel. It had changed to—

Player Name: Jiang Feng

Level: 0 (0/100)

Remaining Experience: 0

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

Main Mission: 1. (Optional) The Advancing Little Shop. Raise Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant's reputation at A University to 100. Choose: Yes/No

2. ??? (Please explore independently.)

Side Mission: None (Activated after selecting a main mission.)

Achievements: None

Titles: None

Items: None

Evaluation: A novice fresh out of the gate

Jiang Feng tapped Yes, and the main mission changed to:

1. The Advancing Little Shop. Raise Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant's reputation at A University to 100. Mission Progress: (0/100).

Mission Hint: Reputation is the key to developing a new shop. Reputation can only be gained from A University students and staff.

Mission Reward: Unknown

Students and staff...

Jiang Feng had experienced Jiang Jiankang's cooking firsthand. After all, he had once been the head chef of a State-run Restaurant. A University would begin classes in another month, and Jiang Feng felt that this main mission would be easy to complete.

As for "please explore independently," he still had a month to explore properly.