Moving House

Yu Xunge was so moved that tears welled up in her eyes—from holding back a yawn. She was truly exhausted. "Let's go home. I found someone who might be a player, though I didn't make contact. You might even know him."

On the way, she told him what she had "learned." "It's not something you can openly ask about. Everyone's hiding it too. We never actually met the person I saw this time; we were both wary of each other. Later, I looked into whether any strange things had happened, and I found something."

"Do you know a game streamer called One Snow Knows Winter? Has his gaming skill suddenly become incredibly good lately?"

Yu Xunhuan's eyes lit up. "Yeah. We're good friends and have known each other for a long time. Not long ago, people in our gaming group were talking about him, saying it was like he'd suddenly had an epiphany."

Yu Xunge said, "Mm. The player I spoke to later also brought up Ye Dong. They suspected he had some kind of sound-related skill. I watched recordings of his streams. Whenever he shouted things like, 'Stand up!' 'Hold on!' or 'I believe in you!' his team would suddenly become much stronger."

Yu Xunhuan: What the hell?

Yu Xunge explained, "I told you about god-given talents, right? They come in all kinds. I can control someone's luck for a short period of time, so other players might be able to use their voices to influence people too."

After telling Yu Xunhuan about Ye Dong on the way home, Yu Xunge left the matter alone. Yu Xunhuan was still an ordinary person. This time, the ordinary person standing before Ye Dong had changed from her to him. Whether he could turn his friendship with Ye Dong into a brotherhood would depend on his own ability.

Yu Xunge did not let Yu Xunhuan take her back to the little villa. She did not like outsiders setting foot in her territory. She planned to sell the villa after a while and buy a small apartment where a dungeon entrance would appear.

Whether she traded it to the authorities for resources or kept it to run dungeons herself, either option would be good.

After having a meal at the Yu Family home, she declined Yu Xunhuan's offer to drive her back to the villa and went home alone.

Then she began studying in seclusion.

She could only say that she had not been a top student before because she had never found the right major.

For the next while, Yu Xunge earnestly, almost devoutly, went through every beginner and intermediate alchemy formula. Each formula came with a potion-brewing video, and she worked hard to memorize every movement of that undead instructor.

After finishing all four hundred beginner and intermediate formulas, she started over from the beginning for a second viewing. That was when she discovered that the undead female instructor in the videos would occasionally offer a sentence or two of explanation.

Yu Xunge: Teacher, you're helping the enemy!

Perhaps, to a true scholar, Blue Star humans were no different from races other than the undead. Just as goblins cared neither for war nor glory and only cared about money and business, once their professional skills reached the Legendary level, all they saw was the inheritance of their craft.

She did not dwell on it and instead treasured everything she was given.

Whenever she hit a dead end, she cooked a meal for the cats outside. Meow Meow Inn truly lived up to its name. Cats came and went, but not a single one stayed for long. At most, a cat would remain for no more than three days. There were resident stray cats in the villa district, but they only came by occasionally for food and never settled down.

Yu Xunge liked cats, but she had no plans to keep one. She was too busy and had to go out and cause trouble from time to time. Where would she find the time to raise a pet that needed constant care?

This kind of relationship was quite nice. All she had to do was make a little extra meat with less salt and seasoning whenever she practiced her cooking skill, then leave it outside. She had different cats to pet and cuddle, without needing to take responsibility.

An open cat-keeping relationship.

Although the food she made for the cats used only the most ordinary meat from the real world, it still provided buffs after being eaten. Some cats temporarily gained strength, while others gained movement speed. It all tasted good, and both the cats and Yu Xunge liked it.

Although skills learned from another world also played videos in one's mind to teach them bit by bit, it was still different from watching a video and following along yourself. The former was projected directly into a person's mind, eliminating a reaction delay while constantly reinforcing the memory.

In less than half a year, Yu Xunge went from someone unskilled in cooking to a master chef proficient in hundreds of recipes.

Once she understood the principles, everything else followed. Now, even without following recipes, dishes she casually combined and stir-fried still tasted good. They simply had no buffs.

She had not ordered takeout in a long time, because her own cooking tasted far better than anything sold outside. Moreover, several dishes had the effect: "No matter what you do, you will become more focused." Even though the effect only lasted a few minutes, she found that her studying efficiency during those minutes was far higher. She could easily spot details in the alchemy videos that she had previously overlooked.

Yu Xunge simply spent half a day baking over a thousand little cookies that increased focus when eaten, studying while she ate them.

In August, Yu Xunge also found time to return to the company and formally terminate her contract before posting a statement announcing her retirement from the industry.

Given her current situation, it was better to stay out of the public eye. What she had told Yu Xunhuan about Ye Dong being noticed for his unusual changes had not exactly been a lie. After all, weren't people in Yu Xunhuan's gaming group discussing Ye Dong's changes too?

Ordinary people might gossip about such changes for a sentence or two at most, but players could quickly connect them to the game.

She suspected that Ye Dong's sudden move to S City to find Yu Xunhuan in her previous life might have been because someone had noticed him. So he had gone to join forces with a friend he still somewhat trusted.

News of Yu Xunge's retirement caused a stir online for several days. People dug up the recent incident where someone had died at her management company and her agent had been implicated. Some speculated that she had suffered some kind of harm.

Yu Xunge answered whichever questions she could. Not caring about empty fame was one thing, but that did not mean she was willing to inexplicably shoulder a bad reputation or let people speculate about sleazy things.

"I'm fine. I haven't been harmed. I'm just tired and want to rest for a while, to live the life I truly want."

"I didn't suddenly get rich, and I didn't marry into a wealthy family. I just calculated my savings and realized I have enough to spend."

"Yes, I'm the person in that photo selling designer bags. I never liked those things to begin with; they were only necessary because of my job as a celebrity. Now that I've left the industry, I can naturally sell the things I no longer need."

"If I were really so short on money that I couldn't live, I wouldn't have left the industry. Thank you for your concern."

"The company is great. We parted on good terms."

"I don't have a rich second-generation boyfriend. I don't plan to date or get married. I have no interest in spending someone else's money, and my own money is only enough for me."

Yu Xunge sounded completely righteous, as though she had not been the one who had gone to the Su Family to snatch gold not long ago.