Preparing dinner

The rented courtyard had stood unused for a long time, so cleaning it thoroughly would certainly take quite a while.

This was where he had to rely on Amber and Eula, who were now his friends. The weeds in the courtyard were so overgrown that they needed to be dealt with first.

If Li Qiuzhi had been doing it himself, he would rather have gradually trampled a path through them. As the saying went, there were no roads to begin with; roads appeared when enough people walked the same way.

After two or three months, he would surely have trampled all the weeds in the courtyard flat.

With Amber here, there was no need for all that trouble. As the holder of a Pyro Vision, she simply channeled Pyro energy to burn away the weeds patch by patch.

With Eula present, there was no need to worry about the fire getting out of control, either.

"Phew~ Finally done! Little Klee would have had a great time if she were here."

Amber wiped her forehead with the back of her brown-gloved hand, though there was barely any sweat. It was probably just a habitual gesture after finishing a job.

Miss Amber, that sounded rather dangerous. Li Qiuzhi silently quipped to himself when he heard her.

The rampant weeds throughout the courtyard had all been precisely burned away with Pyro energy, leaving only a little ash covering the dirt. That needed no further attention; a rain shower would take care of it.

A little later, Eula opened the front door of the two-story house using the same method as before and said she would bring him the key tomorrow.

The slight inconvenience was that the door would have to remain unlocked tonight.

Fortunately, Li Qiuzhi had nothing particularly valuable, so he did not need to worry about thieves sneaking in.

Since the doors and windows had been kept shut while the two-story house stood vacant, there was not much to clean inside. They finally finished after a little over an hour.

They had also put all the household necessities in place, and during that time, Li Qiuzhi had familiarized himself with the layout.

The courtyard property had been intended for rental from the outset, mainly to provide wealthy foreign merchants visiting Mondstadt on business with a reasonably comfortable temporary residence.

The surrounding wall had been built to keep the wealthy merchants staying inside from being disturbed.

Beyond its simple, tasteful exterior, the house had nearly every practical room one could need across its two floors. The front door opened into a living room, with a soft, pale-blue sofa on the right for receiving guests.

On the left stood a rectangular wooden dining table with four or five chairs, all with backrests.

Whether those wealthy merchants needed it or not, farther into the first floor was a kitchen fully equipped with a stove, chimney, and everything else. Beyond the kitchen was a combined bathroom and toilet.

Upstairs were two single bedrooms, a study, and a large balcony with plenty of sunlight, where flowers and other plants could be grown.

Of course, Li Qiuzhi had no interest in that sort of thing.

The more he looked around, the more Li Qiuzhi felt he had gotten an incredible bargain. Once he had more Mora to spare, he would find some excuse to compensate Eula. Even if she might not care, his conscience would not let him leave it at that.

By the time they finished, night had completely overtaken the sky. The moon was nowhere to be seen, but there were surprisingly many stars, like a glittering Milky Way.

Li Qiuzhi had not eaten dinner yet, and he knew Amber and Eula had not eaten either, so he wanted to cook for them himself to properly express his gratitude.

Amber reclined at the right end of the soft, pale-blue sofa for a short rest. Her legs, clad in white over-the-knee boots, stretched out naturally, with her toes lightly touching Eula's ankle.

Eula sat at the other end, her hands resting at her sides and her back against the soft sofa.

"This feels more tiring than a whole day of patrols..."

Amber rested both hands on her lower abdomen, which rose and fell gently with her breathing. Although her stomach was not growling, she was probably a little hungry after working for so long.

Li Qiuzhi took the opportunity to say with a smile:

"Amber, Eula, how about staying for dinner? I'd like to make a nice spread of Liyue dishes to treat you both and thank you properly."

"Liyue dishes, huh... Hmm, now that you mention it, I am getting a little hungry. What about you, Eula?"

Amber did not refuse. After all, she really had spent a long time helping Li Qiuzhi today, so it was only right for him to treat her to dinner.

"I'm hungry too." An interested look appeared on Eula's fair face. "I hear Liyue has thousands of years of culinary tradition. How good are you at cooking? If it isn't up to standard, I'll hold a grudge!"

"Don't worry. I know my way around a kitchen."

Li Qiuzhi answered with a smile.

Before coming to Teyvat, he had generally cooked for himself. He would not claim to be an outstanding cook, but he considered himself fairly practiced and could make most dishes that were not too technically demanding.

"I'll go buy some ingredients first. Wait here for a bit."

Li Qiuzhi headed out toward the Mondstadt General Goods store near Valberry Street. Shops like these needed to be easily accessible to customers, so they were generally located along the streets and were easy to find.

As for why he did not go to the meat and vegetable market, the main reason was that it had closed after dark.

Shopping did not take long when he knew what he wanted. Before long, Li Qiuzhi emerged from the Valberry Street branch of Mondstadt General Goods carrying two large bags.

Mondstadt General Goods worked with the hunters of Springvale, and some of their fresh game went straight onto its shelves.

When Li Qiuzhi had gone hunting with Draff before, he had often seen employees from Mondstadt General Goods arrive with horse-drawn carts to collect the goods.

He was lucky today: the fresh Wild Forest Boar delivered that afternoon had not sold out yet. Li Qiuzhi quickly bought the last two large racks of ribs, along with Great Lake Shrimp from Cider Lake, Black-Backed Bass, potatoes, chilies, and more.

He also bought all the essential seasonings. Worried that Amber and Eula might be getting too hungry, Li Qiuzhi walked at almost a running pace.

By the time he got home, the entire round trip had taken only a little over twenty minutes-less than half an hour.

"Did you buy anything good?" Amber came over and took one of the bags of ingredients from Li Qiuzhi, asking curiously.

"Just the usual things."

As Li Qiuzhi walked toward the kitchen, he said:

"Amber, Eula, I'll need you both to lend me a hand next. There are quite a few dishes, so the preparation will take some time."

"No problem. A dinner we all make together might taste even better."

A sunny smile spread across Amber's face, her lips parting slightly to reveal her white teeth.

"Then let's get started. No wasting time." Eula rose from the pale-blue sofa and lifted both arms in a stretch.

With all three of them working together, preparing the ingredients was easy. Since there was no firewood beneath the stove, they had no choice but to ask Amber for help.

As long as she carefully controlled a steady flow of Pyro energy, it could produce the same effect as burning firewood. This was something only a Vision holder could do, and he really envied it.

Come to think of it, could I find a way to wield elemental power without a Vision?

That thought reminded him that he did have formulas for two kinds of Elemental Potion. Although they relied on external aids, finding the ingredients and brewing them would still be rather troublesome.

Even so, they would give Li Qiuzhi more ways to deal with monsters and make farming Experience Points easier.

I'll have to study them properly tonight.

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