Mu En had painted him a grand vision, but he couldn't enjoy any of it yet. For now, he could only make do with simple food.
He and Huo Yuhao walked side by side to the dining hall. After looking around, they decided they could only afford the cheapest options.
Huo Yuhao was doing all right, but Ji Siyuan was having a hard time. Before this, he'd been eating meals made by Rong Nianbing.
There had already been a huge gap in cooking skill, and now there was an even bigger gap in the ingredients.
"I suddenly feel like opening a restaurant." Ji Siyuan compared the dishes. Even the cooks who made them couldn't match his cooking.
"Sounds good, Siyuan. I can come help out then." Huo Yuhao blinked. She couldn't compare to Ji Siyuan, but she was still better than everyone else.
Tang San sighed helplessly. Could they really blame the kids for wasting their time?
No. It only meant that the adults hadn't done their jobs properly.
Now they even had to make the kids go earn money.
After discussing it, the two settled on what to make.
A full meal wouldn't work, since the school already provided those. They could only sell snacks.
And they'd have to keep them simple.
Ji Siyuan casually added, "It's a shame my Martial Soul is fire-type, not ice-type. Otherwise, I could sell chilled drinks. I'm pretty good at making drinks, too."
He'd never learned his father's bartending techniques, but he knew a thing or two.
He couldn't make top-shelf cocktails, but simple drinks were within his reach.
Huo Yuhao lowered her head and ate without daring to say anything.
Because her Second Martial Soul was ice-type.
So the two settled on mainly selling barbecue.
That was their specialty.
But they definitely wouldn't make much money selling that sort of thing.
He'd read the book. If they wanted to make it big, they'd have to do Soul Fights.
Selling barbecue was purely a way to earn their starting capital.
Otherwise, they wouldn't even be able to enter a Soul Fight. It cost ten Gold Soul Coins, and the two of them really didn't have enough.
He began plotting in his heart over whom he could swindle.
Some well-known rich fools would make good targets.
Unfortunately, rich fools were usually pretty strong, and he wasn't confident he could pull it off.
Huo Yuhao asked, "Siyuan, I'm done eating. Shall we go?"
Ji Siyuan had finished ages ago and was just waiting for Huo Yuhao.
The two tidied up and got ready to leave.
A young woman with pink-and-blue hair walked past their table.
Looking at her, Ji Siyuan suddenly wondered if she might be Wang Dong'er.
"Uncle, suppose you had a daughter about my age."
"Then you'd have already taken advantage of her."
"No, I mean, would you split her soul?"
"I'm a person, not a beast. Even a beast wouldn't do that to its own daughter."
"Then would you put a lock on her so her husband couldn't even hug her? Or would you only guard against her husband?"
"If I really had a daughter, you brat would've spirited her away long ago."
"Then take a look at this."
Wang Dong'er stood before Ji Siyuan. Tang San exclaimed, "Her father did this? Who's her father? What kind of beast would do something like that?"
Looking at that strangely familiar face, Tang San's mind filled with questions.
"She looks so much like Xiao Wu. She really does. Incredibly alike."
"She's probably [your] daughter. But Uncle Tang, you can see she's incomplete, right?"
Tang San said, "It's not that her memories are sealed. Her soul is damaged. That kind of loss is very difficult to mend. It's only because Divine Power is suppressing her injuries that she's been able to live in peace. As time passes, her injuries will only get worse. That Divine Power isn't just suppressing the injuries; it's also suppressing her soul's ability to heal itself.
"You're telling me the person who did this is her biological father? In other words, [I] from this timeline."
No one could accept it. How could [he] do something like that?
But the trident symbol hidden between the young woman's brows might fool everyone else. How could it possibly fool Tang San?
He was the Sea God himself, and he knew that Divine Power better than anyone.
"[Tang San] in this world is an absolute beast. Did he grow up without a mother or father and decide that children were just tools? His heart must've been eaten by dogs. She's his own daughter, and he still split her soul. Whatever the reason, this is unforgivable!
"This man deserves to die!
"One day, I'll kill him!"
Ji Siyuan said, "Uncle Tang, why do you see someone's daughter and immediately want to kill her father?"
"Why wouldn't I? She looks fine on the surface, but I doubt she's ever known a father's love. Or rather, the fatherly love she remembers was all a lie."
"There's a saying: 'If your parents gave you life but did not raise you, repaying them with a severed finger is enough.' But she's too pitiful. Her parents don't deserve to be called parents. I say she doesn't even need to cut off a finger—she can strike back whenever she likes! Vengeance should be the color of her soul."
Tang San kept denouncing her father, again and again.
Huo Yuhao nudged Ji Siyuan. "Siyuan, have you fallen for her?"
Hearing that, Wang Dong'er looked up at the two of them.
Ji Siyuan answered Huo Yuhao, "No. I was just checking what kind of meat the dining hall has. We could get our supplies from here."
Ji Siyuan tried to change the subject.
But Huo Yuhao wasn't having it. "But you kept staring at her face just now."
"Couldn't you have waited until we left to say that?"
Wang Dong'er said, "What are you two trying to do? If you want to judge me, go somewhere else. Don't ruin my mood."
Ji Siyuan said, "Uncle Tang, if she really is your daughter, I'll start fighting her over food right now."
Too bad she wasn't.
Tang San said, "If all else fails, find a way to win this girl over."
"What did you say?" Ji Siyuan couldn't help shouting aloud.
Wang Dong'er snapped, "I told you to get lost! Don't stand here! Just because you're eating here, you think you own the place?"
Ji Siyuan felt even worse. He hadn't been talking to her.
"Miss, if I told you I wasn't shouting that at you, would you believe me?"
"Do I care whether you believe me? Don't keep me from eating."
"Sorry."
The two left, and Huo Yuhao still seemed upset. "Siyuan, you haven't fallen in love at first sight with that girl, have you? We don't have any money."
Wang Dong'er looked like she was eating better than the two of them.
"If you want to pursue her, we can't afford it."
Ji Siyuan said, "She just looks a lot like one of my elders. It's not that I like her. Though if she and I had grown up together as childhood friends, that'd be another story."
"Are you the sort who falls in love over time?"
"No, I'm the sort who forgets his friends for a pretty face."
Huo Yuhao said, "Oh, so that's what this is about."
The two chased and tussled with each other, then started preparing all sorts of things.
In Ji Siyuan's mind, Tang San sighed over and over. "Siyuan, why do you think that person treated his child that way?"
"Want me to tell you?"
"Go ahead."
Tang San thought Ji Siyuan was about to offer a theory, but what he said was something else entirely.
"I found a book in the Divine Realm. It was a lot like what we're experiencing now, but there were a few differences. First, I wasn't in the book. Second, Huo Yuhao was a boy. Third, Wang Dong should be disguised as a boy right now.
"She's a trap [you] laid for Huo Yuhao, waiting for her to fall into it."
In that moment, everything became clear, including all the things Ji Siyuan had asked him earlier.
He didn't ask Ji Siyuan why he'd kept it from him. It was normal for a child to have secrets.
What enraged him was that he in this world was so shameless, so utterly devoid of humanity.
"Born without being raised, using one's own child as bait for a paltry gain—he deserves to die!"