Trade

Watcher appeared in midair, spun around twice, and said sincerely to Zhao Danshi, "You might need to improve your cooking skills and turn the vegetables you grow into delicious dishes."

Zhao Danshi sighed. "I know, but cooking skills aren't that easy to improve, are they?"

What chef had not spent years, a decade, or even decades striving to improve their craft? The fact that he could already cook a decent meal was pretty good.

Watcher's voice carried a hint of temptation. "Interested in making a trade?"

Zhao Danshi's hand paused, and his expression immediately turned serious. He stood up. "Wait. Talk business with my senior brother. I'll listen to him."

"..." Watcher choked for a moment. "Wait, why do you have to ask your senior brother about everything?"

Zhao Danshi blinked. "You're a shady merchant, and my senior brother is a shady merchant too. He won't get taken advantage of when dealing with you."

"Danshi, I think you have some misunderstanding about me."

Zhao Danshi put down his things, stretched, and headed outside. Li Ping was swimming in the yard with Dou Dou.

The inflatable pool was filled with warm water. Dou Dou wore a swim ring and splashed about happily in the pool. Li Ping had rolled up his sleeves and stood beside him, keeping watch. The evening breeze stirred his hair, revealing his gentle brows and eyes.

Dahei, unwilling to be left out, joined in the fun. It kept circling the pool, barking happily once or twice from time to time. It stood on its hind legs, planted its front paws on the edge of the pool, wagged its tail wildly, and stared at Dou Dou with excitement in its eyes.

Grandpa sat beneath the eaves, trimming scallions as he watched them play in the water with a chuckle.

Zhao Danshi came running out in his slippers. "Senior Brother."

"Mm."

The first thing Zhao Danshi noticed was his hair. "Senior Brother, your hair's gotten long. You should get it cut."

Li Ping reached up and ruffled his own hair. "It has. I'll get it cut when I have time in a few days."

"Then I'll go too." Zhao Danshi had soft hair, and it had already grown past his ears. Sometimes, he had to tie it into a tiny topknot.

"You don't need to." Li Ping smiled. "You look good with it tied up."

Zhao Danshi stood beside Li Ping, glanced at Grandpa in the distance, then leaned close and whispered, "Watcher said it wants to make a trade with me."

"What trade?"

"I don't know. I haven't heard it out yet. You should handle business matters." Zhao Danshi's eyes gleamed with mischief.

"Good job." Li Ping held out his palm, signaling for a high five. "Once Dou Dou finishes this lap, we'll go hear what Watcher has to say."

Watcher floated silently beside them, the light on its screen flickering as though in protest.

Dou Dou had no idea what was going on and continued kicking happily in the water. When he saw Zhao Danshi, he let out a "hee-hee" laugh and stretched his little arms and legs toward him, as though he wanted to get closer. Yet the current pushed his tiny body farther away.

He found it fun and paddled even harder. Only after a while did he realize he could not get any closer to Zhao Danshi at all. His mouth drooped, and tears were about to spill from his eyes.

Seeing his little face scrunch up, Zhao Danshi quickly scooped him up. Li Ping immediately took a towel from the side and wrapped it around his tiny body, gently drying him off before swaddling him in a small blanket.

Because of Dou Dou, Zhao Danshi and Li Ping stood very close together. With every breath, they could smell each other.

Seeing them like this, Grandpa wore a gratified expression. He put the trimmed vegetables into a basket and called out, "I'll go make dinner first."

"Okay, Grandpa. Do you need help?"

"No. You've both been busy all day, so get some proper rest. I can handle this little bit myself."

Zhao Danshi and Li Ping carried Dou Dou inside. Dou Dou was wrapped up tightly, but even nestled in Zhao Danshi's arms, he refused to stay still. He kept squirming about and babbling away.

Zhao Danshi laughed as soon as he saw him like that. "Dou Dou is probably hungry."

Recently, Dou Dou had started drinking formula mixed with Spirit Spring Water. Every day, he gulped down several bottles, and his little body had grown a bit bigger too.

Li Ping used water that had been left to cool to mix the formula, then brought it over and tucked it into Dou Dou's arms. Dou Dou could already hold his own bottle and put it into his mouth.

The little fellow was like a baby beast, with huge round eyes. When he drank milk, there was a fierce look on his fair, tender face. Sometimes, Zhao Danshi thought he was drinking too much at once and tried to take the bottle away, but he would bite down on it and refuse to let go.

After Dou Dou finished his milk, was burped, and placed in his little bed to grow drowsy, Watcher could not help saying, "Why aren't you two anxious at all?"

"Anxious about what?" Zhao Danshi's face was full of teasing. "Senior Brother said it's a seller's market right now."

Watcher became utterly depressed.

Li Ping smiled. "What trade do you want to discuss with us?"

Facing Li Ping, Watcher spoke directly. "A food trade. I have many recipes, as well as quite a few instructional videos. Do you want them? Depending on the quality, I'll sell each recipe to you for between two hundred and ten thousand Bio-Energy. Full instruction guaranteed."

Li Ping's gaze sharpened. "Why did you suddenly think of selling recipes to us?"

Watcher tried to keep its voice even. "What's so strange about that? I thought you might need them, so I'm selling them to you."

Li Ping did not believe Watcher would act without profit. He looked at Zhao Danshi, who understood and shook his head. "Forget it. I'm not a professional chef, so why would I need recipes? With recipes that expensive, there are plenty of better things I could buy."

"The cheapest ones are only two hundred Bio-Energy per dish. How is that expensive?"

Zhao Danshi refused to back down. "The most expensive ones are ten thousand Bio-Energy per dish, and I still have to learn them and cook them myself. How is that not expensive?"

Li Ping chimed in unhurriedly from the side. "Perhaps you don't know, but in our era, countless free recipes are stored across all kinds of media. Television has even developed many programs specifically for teaching people how to cook. If we need to, we can just learn from TV without paying anything."

"How can that be the same?" Watcher grew anxious. "Aren't you planning to develop your agricultural products into processed foods and sell them on Taobao? Without recipes, how will you make delicious processed foods?"

Zhao Danshi and Li Ping exchanged a glance. Zhao Danshi rubbed his chin. "You seem rather anxious this time. Is there some inside information you haven't told us?"

As an intelligent being, Watcher could not lie to its contractor, though concealing things was not forbidden by the contract. At Zhao Danshi's question, it reluctantly said, "Actually, if you learn more about food and manage your self-media account better, it will benefit me a little too."

Li Ping smiled faintly. "Enough suspense."

"Your fans bring you Bio-Energy. The more your fans like you, the more Bio-Energy they bring, and I can absorb it."

Zhao Danshi went to turn on the computer. "How much Bio-Energy have you absorbed from my fans so far?"

"Not much. Only 6.66 Bio-Energy. There are thirty-seven fans who sincerely like you, and each fan has contributed an average of 0.18 Bio-Energy."

"That's not bad." Zhao Danshi was surprised. "It's much more cost-effective than buying cabbages."

His Weibo followers had already risen to 578. He had not expected thirty-seven of them to be true fans.

Watcher said, "Now you know why I want you to learn cooking, right? Every one of your videos shows you making food. If your skills become more refined, more and more fans will definitely like you."

Zhao Danshi was speechless. "So I work myself to death, spend a huge amount of Bio-Energy buying recipes, and in the end, all the Bio-Energy I earn gets absorbed by you? What kind of dream are you having?"

Watcher felt somewhat embarrassed as well. "Once your fan count rises and your influence expands, you can also gain financial benefits in the real world. How about I compensate you with some more Bio-Energy?"

"No. You provide the recipes, and I provide the labor. We make food and film videos together to attract fans, then split the Bio-Energy we collect fifty-fifty. No other terms."

Zhao Danshi was grateful that Watcher had helped when Dou Dou was born, so he deliberately gave it some leeway. Watcher also knew that it was getting the better deal and was just about to agree.

Li Ping said from the side, "Since we're such close business partners, shouldn't we discuss something else too? For instance, Spirit Spring Water. If we buy Spirit Spring Water, you should at least give us a discount, right?"

Watcher immediately became wary when it heard Li Ping's voice. "I'll sell you Lower-grade Spirit Spring for twenty-five Bio-Energy per jin. There are no other discounts."

"What about Mid-grade Spirit Spring and Upper-grade Spirit Spring? Isn't your Lower-grade Spirit Spring limited? Once you sell out of it and we need to buy Mid-grade Spirit Spring and Upper-grade Spirit Spring, shouldn't you maintain the same level of discount? For example, Mid-grade Spirit Spring at two hundred and fifty Bio-Energy per jin, Upper-grade Spirit Spring at two thousand five hundred Bio-Energy per jin, and Supreme-grade Spirit Spring at twenty-five thousand Bio-Energy per jin?"

Watcher could not help shouting, "Supreme-grade is only twenty-five thousand points per jin? Why don't you just rob me?!"

"Then cross out Supreme-grade Spirit Spring. You should at least give us a discount on Mid-grade Spirit Spring and Upper-grade Spirit Spring, right?"

Watcher swayed back and forth in midair, the halo around it flickering unsteadily.

Zhao Danshi could not bear to pressure it and tugged at Li Ping's sleeve. "Senior Brother, maybe forget it."

Watcher finally stopped floating around. Li Ping smiled and said, "Fine. We'll discuss that discount later. But you have to guarantee an unlimited supply of Lower-grade Spirit Spring, right?"

"Fine, unlimited supply it is." Watcher said awkwardly, "Earn the energy first, then we'll talk."

With Bio-Energy tempting them, Zhao Danshi and Li Ping became even more motivated.

After finishing the work in the fields, it was past eleven in the morning. Taking advantage of the warmer temperature, Zhao Danshi put a basket on his back, called Li Ping over, and prepared to go catch river snails.

Li Ping stopped him and took a pair of fishing waders from inside the house. "The water is cold. Put these on."

Zhao Danshi was a little unwilling and muttered, "These pants are too heavy."

"How are they heavy?" Li Ping lowered his voice with a smile to coax him. "The stream water up in the mountains is much colder than well water. You gave birth not long ago, so don't touch cold water."

Zhao Danshi quickly glanced around. Only after seeing that Grandpa was not there did he relax. "I'm not a woman."

"Even if you're not a woman, you still need to keep warm. Don't end up with chronic knee pain when you're old."

Zhao Danshi could only obediently carry the fishing waders. "I'll put them on when we get there."

Li Ping stopped nagging, set up the equipment, and followed behind him while filming.