I Have a Dream

On the third day, the answers to the college entrance exam were released.

Lu Yuan checked his answers briefly, with mixed results.

He had done quite well in math and the comprehensive science exam, estimating his scores at around 110 and 200 points respectively.

Guo Huai had locked Lu Yuan up for a month, and in his cell, he could do nothing but devote himself to studying. Outside, Lu Yuan would inevitably have been distracted by all sorts of things. At least as far as these two subjects were concerned, Lu Yuan owed Guo Huai a kowtow.

With those two subjects alone, Lu Yuan could already be sure of reaching Cultivation University's passing threshold, because he still had 210 bonus points.

The bad news was Chinese and foreign language: he had been soundly defeated in both!

For the 150-point foreign language paper, Lu Yuan had chosen C for every question with four possible answers, A, B, C and D. By a simple calculation of probability, he should have gotten thirty or forty points.

But this year was an "A" year, and most of the multiple-choice answers were A.

As a result, Lu Yuan had scored only 22 points in the common language subject. It was too awful to look at!

Lu Yuan had performed about average on the Chinese exam, but because his essay had gone off topic, he estimated his total score at only around 80 points.

One thing had to be made clear here: the essay going off topic was not Lu Yuan's fault, but the world's.

The essay topic for this year's Chinese entrance exam was "Why was Qu Yuan great?"

Lu Yuan had poured out more than a thousand words, praising Qu Yuan's great character: his concern for his household and country and his unwavering resolve. He thought he had written it exceptionally well, performing far above his usual level-and doing so with a knife sticking out of his chest. He had nearly moved himself to tears.

After the exam, Lu Yuan had still felt uneasy, so he had made a point of looking up the Divine Land world's records of Qu Yuan.

What he found chilled his heart through.

According to the Divine Land world's records, Qu Yuan was not only a great poet, but also a powerful cultivator.

At the time, a wicked dragon was wreaking havoc in the Miluo River, tormenting the people. When Lord Qu Yuan passed by the river, the people begged him to help rid them of the dragon.

But the people were poor, and the only gift they could offer him was flatbread. Qu Yuan did not look down on it. He ate their flatbread and praised it for being delicious.

Afterward, Qu Yuan took up a divine sword and fought the wicked dragon for three days and three nights. In the end, they perished together, on the fifth day of the fifth month.

Grateful for Lord Qu Yuan's protection, later generations made the fifth day of the fifth month the Dragon Boat Festival and ate flatbread on that day to commemorate him.

Thus, in the Divine Land world, Qu Yuan represented the cultivator's spirit of helping the weak without fearing powerful enemies.

It had definitely gone off topic!

Regret was useless now. Checking the answers could not change an exam paper that had already been handed in.

After that, Lu Yuan lay around at home for two days, living a life where he only had to stretch out a hand for clothes and open his mouth for food.

After receiving Xikangnuo, his mother Xu Yongmei was in much better health. Although the first injection would only protect her for two years, she already looked healthy.

Mindful that her son had only just begun recovering from his injury, Xu Yongmei bought a lot of nourishing bones and planned to make him bone soup every day.

But Lu Yuan refused. He said:

"Mom, I want tomato and egg soup, and stir-fried shredded pork with green peppers."

Xu Yongmei was delighted to hear that. She boasted to Lu Wenkai and Xiao Bing:

"You all said there was no longer any need for me to cook, but Dabao still wants to eat my cooking."

"Oh, no. I'm sick of eating that..."

Xiao Bing actually wanted to eat her big brother's cooking. Lu Yuan had spoiled her palate. But considering that he had only just recovered, she could hardly ask him to cook.

Their mother's cooking was actually average, but Lu Yuan ate with relish. Partway through the meal, he made an excuse about a phone call and slipped into his room to wipe a few tears from the corners of his eyes.

Lu Yuan had often eaten those two home-style dishes as a child, and at the time he had not thought them special. During the decades after his family had been destroyed in his previous life, Lu Yuan had often dreamed of those flavors in the middle of the night, then woken with tears streaming down his face.

Food sometimes represented more than just filling one's stomach. It carried the taste of home.

As he wiped away his tears, Lu Yuan suddenly thought of something.

That evening at the Food Flavor Pavilion during the Dragon Boat Festival, quite a few customers had suddenly burst into tears while eating zongzi. Lu Yuan had been astonished and puzzled at the time. Now that he thought about it, had they, like him now, tasted the flavor of home?

On the third day, Lu Yuan stopped lying flat.

For one thing, he had fully recovered. For another, Xiao Bing was clamoring for something tasty; she didn't want to eat stir-fried shredded pork with green peppers anymore.

Lu Yuan decided to go big. The family had reunited after weathering one calamity after another, and they ought to celebrate with a reunion meal no matter what.

As a chef, he couldn't possibly take a casual approach to a family banquet, but he had no kitchen assistants. After some thought, Lu Yuan called Jia Xuanxuan's father, Jia Shengnan.

The two had an oral agreement over the zongzi recipes. Jia Shengnan had paid more than 1.5 million, and Lu Yuan had previously given the Food Flavor Pavilion the four main zongzi recipes as agreed.

During this time, Jia Shengnan had opened several branches in nearby cities. Their flagship product, egg yolk and meat zongzi, had opened up the market, and business at the new stores was booming, giving him boundless confidence.

So when he received the call, he sounded exceptionally enthusiastic.

"Lu Yuan! How did the written exam go? I heard you were injured? Are you all right? Should I send Jia Xuanxuan over to take care of you for a few days?"

"No need, thanks!" Sweat covered Lu Yuan's forehead. Jia Shengnan had gotten into the habit of selling off his daughter.

Jia Shengnan had only heard about Lu Yuan's injury through the grapevine.

Taking an exam with a knife in his chest should have been newsworthy enough to make headlines, yet the media had carried no reports about it. The Cultivators' Federation was pretty good at controlling public opinion.

"I'm preparing a family banquet today and need a few extra hands."

"Send a few capable people over."

"How much they learn will be up to them."

On the other end of the line, Jia Shengnan immediately understood. "Lu Yuan, give me a firm price. If it's acceptable, I'll pay you right now."

Lu Yuan had previously earned more than 1.1 million from him, and now he had new dishes. Presumably, they wouldn't come cheap.

But Jia Shengnan didn't feel he was getting a bad deal. Over the past month, zongzi had brought him far more than 1.5 million in profit. As long as Lu Yuan's price wasn't outrageous, he would be happy to pay.

But Lu Yuan himself hadn't thought of that at all. He had simply wanted to find a few kitchen assistants.

An opportunity to make a fortune for nothing was right in front of him, yet Lu Yuan hesitated. Of course, he could put on a merchant's face and haggle to squeeze out the greatest possible profit, but was that really the life he wanted, the person he wanted to become?

The line remained silent, and Jia Shengnan waited patiently.

"No need. I won't charge you." Lu Yuan finally made up his mind.

Jia Shengnan was surprised. "Huh? Lu Yuan, that's no way for a businessman to act."

"I was never a businessman to begin with, but you have to agree to one condition."

"What condition?" Jia Shengnan went pale with shock. "You want me to marry my daughter off to you? Please let me think about it!"

"..."

"All right, no more jokes. State your condition, as long as it's not too outrageous."

Lu Yuan took a deep breath. At that moment, he was thinking of the happy, satisfied expressions people showed when they ate traditional food.

"Uncle Jia, to be honest, I have a lot of new dishes that you can't find anywhere else."

"The eight great cuisines have twenty-six schools. I can't claim to excel at every one of them, but I can make them all reasonably well."

"Besides that, I've also studied all kinds of snacks, pastries, drinks and desserts."

"I haven't counted them, but there are at least seven or eight hundred dishes you can't find on the market."

"I can teach you all of them for free when I have time. I have only one condition..."

"Wait a moment, Lu Yuan." Jia Shengnan interrupted him. "If what you're saying is true, before you state your condition, I hope you understand how much profit this could generate."

Lu Yuan smiled. "Of course I understand how much profit there is in it."

He had studied diligently at culinary school and been its best student. After graduating, he had spent decades working his way through the restaurant industry, gaining considerable experience.

Lu Yuan was essentially offering to pass on the entire culinary heritage of the Hua People, holding nothing back. With these things, one could easily build a restaurant empire in the culinary desert that was the Divine Land world.

Jia Shengnan had joked about marrying off his daughter at first, but now he was seriously considering it.

He continued, "Lu Yuan, I know you'll certainly become a cultivator, perhaps even a great cultivator. But you need to understand that cultivators aren't free from money troubles. Cultivation requires a great deal of money too."

"I've heard as much."

"In that case, state your condition."

"I have only one condition," Lu Yuan said seriously.

"My purpose in teaching you these things is to revive the traditional food culture of the Hua People. The Food Flavor Pavilion must work to advance that goal and must not prevent others from learning to make or using these dishes."

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. Lu Yuan's condition was far beyond Jia Shengnan's expectations. If Lu Yuan had asked him to completely cure his mother's illness, Jia Shengnan wouldn't have found it strange.

But Lu Yuan had made a very peculiar request.

His request wasn't excessive; one could even say it was meaningless. In the restaurant industry, it was difficult to maintain a long-term monopoly on a newly developed dish. Once a restaurant had been in business long enough, chefs would inevitably leave for other jobs, taking the cooking methods with them.

What made the condition peculiar was that Lu Yuan stood to gain nothing from it.

"I can agree, but may I ask why? You clearly know how much profit is involved, and your family doesn't seem wealthy. I don't believe there's anyone in this world who truly regards money as dirt," Jia Shengnan said.

"I do need money, and I want to make a lot of it, but I can't make money from this. Last time, I took more than 1.5 million from you only because I was desperate to save my mother."

"What I'm teaching you isn't mine. It's the crystallized wisdom of countless generations of the Hua People's ancestors."

"Our ancestors once created a splendid civilization. At the same time, they also created so many delicious dishes. I was fortunate enough to receive a portion of that heritage, but I wouldn't dare monopolize it for my own profit."

"I want to return these delicacies to their rightful owners: all the people of the Hua People. I hope countless families can have more variety on their tables and smile as often as my little sister does when she eats."

"I hope everyone can enjoy the precious legacy our ancestors left behind. That's what I ask."

After listening to Lu Yuan's words, Jia Shengnan scratched his head, heedless of how he looked.

"Damn it, I've been a businessman all my life, and a student like you has gotten my blood boiling," he said with a laugh. "Looks like this is going to be a great undertaking. I'll head back to Ning City right away to talk to you in person."

Jia Shengnan hung up with a snap, leaving Lu Yuan not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

I only wanted to borrow a few kitchen assistants. How did it turn into this?