I! Li Huai! Am Not a Stonemason!

Gu Xiaobei: "Big Boss, do you have a lot of Enamel Jars?"

Lan Qingyou: "Yes."

Gu Xiaobei: "Could you sell me a few?"

Lan Qingyou: "Sure, take them and use them."

Enamel Jars?

Lan Qingyou turned her head to look at the pile of washed Enamel Jars and stone slabs in the corner of the room.

She then walked over, grabbed twenty-something of them, and tossed them over.

The nightmare of cleaning tools today taught her a lesson: having too many things isn't necessarily good. Keeping a stock of a hundred is enough to pull out and use whenever she needs to practice.

Gu Xiaobei: "Thank you, Big Boss! Thank you, Big Boss! Wait for me a moment."

In a stilt wooden house backed against a mountain in a corner of the Abandoned Forest.

Gu Xiaobei held the Enamel Jar she had just received from Lan Qingyou and looked it over.

There were still water stains inside; it must have been washed not long ago.

However, at this stage, the only thing available for washing is stream water.

So, for safety and peace of mind, she stood up and went to the fire pit in the wooden house, picked up the kettle hanging over the fire, and poured some hot water into the Enamel Jar to rinse it out.

Afterward, she went to the stove in the wooden house, opened a steamer half a person tall, used a towel to protect her hands as she lifted out a wooden bowl, and walked over to the Small Screen.

With a snap, the wooden bowl shattered into two pieces.

"As expected, wooden bowls really can't be used for steaming."

Gu Xiaobei muttered to herself, then carried the Enamel Jar to the Small Screen and traded the contents of the jar over.

Although Lan Qingyou said to just take them and didn't mention payment, as an adult, Gu Xiaobei couldn't bring herself to freeload off a kind person.

Lan Qingyou waited less than a minute before receiving the Enamel Jar.

Gu Xiaobei: "Big Boss, this is something I made. It's a bit hot, so eat slowly."

Looking at Gu Xiaobei's message and then at the jar of food, Lan Qingyou fell into deep thought.

One must always be on guard; she should use the Small Screen to appraise it first.

[Silverfish Potato Noodles (E-)]

[Effect: Restores 1 point of mana per second for 10 minutes.]

[Description: A delicacy made with a broth base of silverfish, Ascetic Herb, and Yellow-Tail Flower, served with fish slices, potato noodles, Yellow Flower Grass, Green Jade Seedling, salt, Sichuan peppercorn powder, and black pepper. Although still crude, it is delicious and fragrant.]

This... this is...

Seeing the appraisal result on the Small Screen, Lan Qingyou couldn't help but widen her eyes.

Good heavens, doesn't this effect equal 600 mana points?

Eating this is equivalent to 60 times the natural recovery rate?

Lan Qingyou: "What is the situation with this dish?"

Lan Qingyou asked out of curiosity.

Gu Xiaobei: "My family runs a restaurant. After seeing that you could make potions yourself, Big Boss, I wanted to give it a try."

Gu Xiaobei: "I originally wanted to make Crossing-the-Bridge Rice Noodles, but I didn't have any rice noodles, so I had to use the potato noodles I opened from a chest instead. This is what came out."

Looking at Gu Xiaobei's explanation, Lan Qingyou didn't know what to say, so she could only slowly type out one sentence.

Lan Qingyou: "I would like to call you a genius."

Gu Xiaobei: "Hehe, enjoy your meal, Big Boss. I made several bowls; I'm going to clear them out and sell them so I can almost upgrade to a Level 2 Shelter."

Lan Qingyou: "You wanted the Enamel Jars just to hold food?"

Gu Xiaobei: "Yeah, the wooden bowls I open aren't durable enough."

Lan Qingyou thought for a moment: "I know a pretty good stonemason here. Maybe you could ask him if he can make stone bowls."

Gu Xiaobei: "Really?!"

Lan Qingyou: "Yes, his name is Li Huai. You can search for him. If you say I referred you, he should add you as a friend."

Gu Xiaobei: "Okay, okay! Thank you, Big Boss."

After saying that, Gu Xiaobei went to contact Li Huai.

Meanwhile, Lan Qingyou was left staring at the jar of potato noodles, feeling troubled.

She wanted to slurp the noodles, but she didn't have any Chopsticks.

She looked at the stack of Material Treasure Chests in the corner.

There was no other way; she had to get up, dismantle a Self-Heating Pot, and take out the chopsticks that came with it.

Rewinding time slightly.

As night was about to fall, a man wearing a well-tailored Anuni suit and polished leather shoes returned to his shelter, carrying two rabbits in one hand and two Material Treasure Chests in the other.

The man looked to be around thirty years old, sporting a slicked-back hairstyle and dressed in a clean, professional manner.

Li Huai felt great today.

Thanks to his trade with Lan Qingyou this morning, he had obtained nearly 50 Mana Potions, meaning he no longer had to stop and start constantly while hunting monsters like he had in the past few days.

He then used a dagger left behind by some idiot who had tried to rob him to dress two rabbits before starting to roast the meat.

Although he could also obtain food and water from treasure chests, he preferred to save where he could, storing away long-lasting food for emergencies.

Once the food was roasted, he sat at his Desk, sprinkled some seasoning packets from Instant Noodles onto the rabbit meat, and began to eat while browsing the Chat Channel.

This had become a daily routine for him, and indeed for almost all Transmigrators.

After all, humans were, at their core, social animals.

No matter how much of a lone wolf one might be, one still needed to know about the situation outside to make necessary adjustments.

As it happened, he saw people in the channel discussing potions.

"+30, huh? A bit low, but not bad, and the quantity is high."

With that thought, he immediately bought 100 of them.

While three thousand basic resources was a bit painful to part with, it wasn't as if he couldn't afford it.

Of course, the main reason was that he had finally tasted the luxury of having abundant mana today.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

A notification sounded.

Li Huai saw it was someone he didn't recognize, but since they were introduced by Lan Qingyou, he added them as a friend, and then...

Gu Xiaobei: "Excuse me, are you a stonemason? I'd like to order some Stone Bowls."

Li Huai: ...

Li Huai was filled with question marks.

A stonemason? Since when did he become a stone...

Oh, right, he had made quite a few stone slabs for Lan Qingyou today; surely that woman didn't mistake him for a stonemason because of that!

He! Li Huai! The owner of the S-Rank Talent 'Storm Monarch'!

Reduced to a stonemason?

Li Huai felt a bit angry; this was a provocation, and for someone like this, he had to take serious...

Gu Xiaobei: "[Silverfish Potato Noodles (E-)]"

Li Huai: "What are your requirements?"

Upon seeing what Gu Xiaobei had sent, Li Huai let it go.

He only wanted to say one thing: "It smells so good."

Gu Xiaobei: "I need ten-centimeter and twenty-centimeter Stone Bowls, one hundred of each. What's the price?"

Li Huai: "May I ask, how did you obtain this food?"

Gu Xiaobei: "I figured out how to make it myself."

Very good, it seemed she was a technical talent just like Lan Qingyou.

Since that was the case...

Li Huai: "How much of this food can you make?"

Gu Xiaobei: "Materials are limited, so I can't make much, but if I had enough materials, I could probably make thirty or fifty a day, though I'm not sure."

Li Huai: "How about this: I can make the Stone Bowls for you, as many as you need, and I'll even provide you with meat daily. In exchange, all you have to do is provide me with 10 portions of this mana-restoring food every day."