Zhang Zifan. One of the billions of men in this world.
When studying, he was addicted to various novels, which led to his failure in the college entrance examination. His family could not afford college tuition, so he prematurely worked early.
On the assembly line of Foxconn, Zhang Zifan worked so hard every day and could only earn more than 2,000 yuan a month, barely enough for food and clothing.
His most significant interest was still fiction, and he always fantasized that he might be able to have the same adventure as the male protagonist in the novel and then slapped faces to the peak of his life.
《The Urban Treasure Hunting King》 was a novel that Zhang Zifan had read recently.
The protagonist, Yan Chu, was originally just an ordinary high school boy from an impoverished family. But because of a fortuitous meeting, he found a treasure in a small stall specializing in fake antiques. After accidentally dropping blood and getting recognized as the owner, he could identify objects and treasures.
Betting on stones, buying antiques, slapping the faces of those rich second and third generation, sitting on countless wealth, surrounded by beautiful women, Zhang Zifan felt that this was the life he longed for.
However, he also disliked some of the protagonist’s behavior. After he became rich, he chose to marry Bai Ling, an ordinary and beautiful childhood sweetheart, which made Zhang Zifan a little dissatisfied.
In the male protagonist’s harem, there were also other females. Long Ruofei was the only daughter of the boss of an underground gang in China, the Qinglong Gang. Jiang Qingdai, the prettiest girl at Qing University, her paternal grandfather was one of the most highly skilled practitioners in the country and the dean of the Beijing First Hospital. The White Formica67White Formicarefer to the fair-skinned, rich, beautiful women Jiang Qiao was born into the rich. And Du Ruonan, the third generation of the Red Army, was born in the compound of the military region.
All of these women were born better than Bai Ling. No matter the family background or appearance, it was enough to throw Bai Ling a few blocks away.
Zhang Zifan thought that if he were Yan Chu, he might be willing to leave a place in his harem for his childhood sweethearts, but he would never let her take the position of his primary wife.
Long Ruofei was not good either. After all, being born in the underworld was unpleasant to hear. Du Ruofan was the best. Jiang Qiao was also good at her birth. At least he could take her out after he had built an enormous business empire.
As for Bai Ling, what would she know? She was born just like the male protagonist before he made his fortune. Although her parents were a bit better than the male protagonist’s parents, they opened a small supermarket after being laid off and were barely a well-off family. But after the male protagonist made his fortune, the small and shabby shop became inconspicuous.
Did she know how to evaluate red wine? Did she know what the first-rate black truffles and highest-quality foie gras were? Did she know how to communicate with the upper class?
The original protagonist did not know these, and neither did Zhang Zifan. But wasn’t the novel just for delusion? Opposite how Zhang Zifan saw how Bai Ling lowered the male protagonist’s grade, he looked at the male protagonist who was happy with all the beauties at the novel’s ending. He also felt sorry for those White Formicas for unexpectedly letting a small family woman climb on his head.
Zhang Zifan thought he would never do such mindless things as the novel’s male protagonist.
Then he transmigrated when he just became the nth employee on the assembly line of Foxconn.
When he opened his eyes again, he actually transmigrated into the 《The Urban Treasure Hunting King》 but did not become the male protagonist. Instead, he became a rich second-generation, canon fodder man, also called Zhang Zifan, who got shot down in the middle of the novel.
In the novel, he was the fiancé of Jiang Qiao, who also was a second-generation rich woman in charge of the harem. The male leader gave him a cuckold, so they naturally regarded it as the same as fire and water.
Such as the routine in general novels, the cannon fodder like him did not survive more than twenty or thirty chapters. And finally ended up being expelled from the family and exiled abroad.
Zhang Zifan had no time to lament his fortuitous meeting. The first thing he did, going to where the male protagonist found the treasure recorded in the novel and bought all the jade items from the small vendor.
In the original novel, the male protagonist purchased a low-quality jade pendant cut by a cutting machine. It seemed to be sold in batches by a small factory, and it was not worth much money. There were many similar jade pendants at the small vendor, but the male protagonist liked that jade pendant at first sight and bought it.
Zhang Zifan, as a fellow male, could not communicate telepathically with the treasure. He bought all the things related to jade from the stall vendor. Anyway, he was now a rich second-generation man. He could easily spend hundreds of thousands a month on pocket money. He could still afford to buy such small things.
He could not wait to go home and try this treasure’s formidable power.
He, Zhang Zifan, was indeed the son of Heaven. In this life, he would replace Yan Chu as the wealthiest man in China and then take his former harem into his arms.
The high-spirited Zhang Zifan seemed to have seen his bright future. He had absolutely no idea that the man who just passed him at the stall was the original male protagonist of this world, and this male protagonist got replaced.
“Little Brother, look at the other things on my stall. They are all precious. Look at this, the big three-color porcelain plate of the Tang Dynasty has the signature of Tang Gaozong on the bottom, and this is the snuff bottle of Ming Shizong. The Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty also mentioned this courtesy name. It is a big treasure.”
The small vendor enthusiastically recommended his treasures to Yan Chu, and Yan Chu was shocked by what he said.
This era was slightly different from his original era. Without the Qing Dynasty, the monarchy was overthrown by the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, there was no subsequent invasion of China by the Eight Power Allied Forces, let alone the War of Resistance against Japan. As one of the earliest countries to reform and liberate, China has been at the forefront of the world’s economy.
But all the history before the Ming Dynasty was the same as what Yan Chu knew.
The Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty was supposed to be the grandfather of the Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty. If Emperor Xianzong could write on the snuff bottle of Emperor Shizong, it must be haunted.
But…
Yan Chu stared at the snuff bottle in the old man’s hand. The picture on the snuff bottle seemed to be a scene of a family dinner on New Year’s Eve. Not to mention the painting on the snuff bottle was quite good. The food on the snuff bottle seemed to be steaming hot, which made people have an appetite.
“How much is this snuff bottle?”
Yan Chu asked, pointing to the things in the vendor’s hands.
“This is a treasure. Look at the seal of Ming Shizong under this snuff bottle. Ming Xianzong also asked him a question…”
“Ming Xianzong is Ming Shizong’s grandfather.”
Yan Chu blocked the old man’s words with one sentence. He smiled a little in embarrassment, but he was used to his lie getting exposed and did not feel ashamed. He sorted out his expression and bragged again.
“That is a joke. Can I not know that Ming Xianzong is Ming Shizong’s grandfather?”
This vendor really did not know, but with this experience, he would not dupe wrongly next time.
“This snuff bottle is a fine imitation product of the late Ming Dynasty. If you want it, give 2,000 yuan.” The old man said with a look of “you’re taking advantage.”
“I only had 20. If you don’t want to sell, forget it.”
Yan Chu posed as an influential person and left.
“Hey, wait a minute! Who told you that you’re fated together with this snuff bottle?”
The old man stopped Yan Chu. He picked up the snuff bottle, which was supposed to be a good item. As a result, he took it to the antique shop for identification. The boss laughed and said it was a fake. The old man understood now, probably because the “Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty told Emperor Shizong” was a joke.
It was initially a worthless item. The vendor made a lot of money when he could sell it for 100 yuan. Especially, a spendthrift and foolish came here just now. He packed his 5 yuan low-quality jade pendants from the factory and took them away for 50,000 yuan. Today, he made a lot of money in this business.
Yan Chu stopped, took out 20 yuan, and took the snuff bottle in his hand.
Was the original self really the master of luckiness in this world? Although he lost a treasure, his luck generated another treasure for him. Yan Chu did not know what this snuff bottle was, but a voice in his heart told him that he must buy it, which seemed to be this body’s instinct.
“I just saw you go shopping in the old street. Have you bought anything? Tell Mom if you don’t have enough money.”
Just as Jin Xiujuan helped a white-collar woman who was going to work to pack a fried rice ball, she turned her head and spoke to her son.
She always felt that she and her husband owed this child a lot. Since childhood, she has not allowed her son to live a good life. The dual-earner family was very well-off when the public venue did not close down, but both husband and wife were the rare only child in that era. The four adults on both sides fell ill one after another, and the cost of treatment was a huge hole. After sending the elderly away one by one, they finally paid off their debts, and the public venue closed again, so they gave a sum of money to buy out their seniority.
What other people’s children had, their son never had, such as snacks and toys, was a very luxurious thing in Yan’s family. People ate meat now and then, while they almost always had cabbage with dipping sauce or added a spoonful of thick chili sauce to boiled noodles.
When their son was a child, he cried about why he could not eat candy like other children and dressed in old clothes of other children. When he grew up and understood, he did not say these words. He also obediently helped the incompetent parents do housework. He also helped them to set up shop together during holidays.
The more he was like this, the more Yan Zhonghua and Jin Xiujuan felt sorry for their child.
In particular, the older the child became, the more shut-in he became. Other children wanted to play during the holidays. But he stayed home every day to read the wuxia novels borrowed from the bookstore. He and Bai Ling occasionally went out to see movies. The couple looked and worried about him. They always felt that their son was abnormal.
Now the family had paid off all the debts they owed when they bought the house, saved the tuition fees for their son’s college education, and the business of the breakfast stall had gradually improved. Although there was still no big money, they absolutely could not unfairly treat their son like before.
“I just hang out.”
Yan Chu did not say anything about buying a snuff bottle. He was a little curious. What was the ability of this snuff bottle? And what was the origin of the man who got ahead of him?
The breakfast stall closed at ten o’clock. Today’s young people get up late. In the past, the breakfast stall usually sold out at half past eight.
The family pushed the breakfast cart back to their old public housing. Yan Chu’s house was on the first floor. When they divided the rooms, because the lighting on the first floor was not good, a large piece of open ground in front of the building could be divided. Yan Zhonghua blocked that space. On weekdays, drying clothes and stacking some sundries were carried out in this open ground.
Jin Xiujuan was a skilled housekeeper and especially asked her husband to pick up a lot of soil from other places and build a small flowerbed with garlic, shallots, peppers, and other spices, which was enough for her daily use.
They pushed the cart back into the yard. The husband and wife were busy cooking breakfast to sell tomorrow and making lunch. This kind of thing was out of Yan Chu’s turn.
He returned to his room and put the snuff bottle from his pocket on the table. He then looked at his fingertips, picked up the sewing needle, and gently pricked a small hole in his finger that was almost invisible to the naked eye.
Yan Chu was silent for three seconds, picked up the needle again, and stabbed it again at the original position, and blood beads soon came out.
After smearing the blood on the snuff bottle, Yan Chu put his finger in his mouth and quietly watched the change of the snuff bottle.
The blood beads slowly absorbed into the snuff bottle, and the pictures drawn on the snuff bottle became more colorful, and then in the next second, Yan Chu was sucked in.
“Welcome to Kitchen God’s Space, today’s course— braise.”
Yan Chu hardly regained his senses and yet forcibly entered a black and mysterious study.
He became a child. He watched that child recognize various spices from the age of three. At five, he followed his father to the stove, learning the ratio of diverse braised ingredients and mastering the heat control of braising.
He experienced the boy’s life of more than 80 years and felt the other party’s excellent skills in braising, whether it was the use of various spices or the control of the heat control, he had reached the pinnacle of excellence.
He learned red gravy, yellow gravy, and white gravy. Braising accompanied the child throughout his life, and Yan Chu, who seemed to be attached to the child’s body, followed him to control the braised recipes. The knowledge seemed to be engraved in his mind thoroughly.
When the aged braising master died, Yan Chu got kicked out of the so-called Kitchen God’s Space.
“In today’s small class, boil a pot of qualified gravy, make braised food, and get at least ten people’s sincere praise. Successfully carried out the next course— noodles. Failure deprived the great and noble Kitchen God’s Space.”
This voice was faintly arrogant and expelled him before Yan Chu could ask what kind of existence it was.
He did not rush to do the task assigned by the Kitchen God’s Space but quickly lay down on the bed and started calling 007 in the space of consciousness. After all, it said that this world was the compensation for the other party’s mistakes. Now there was an unknown character, which raised the difficulty of his mission altogether.
“That… this…”
007 appeared in front of Yan Chu with a guilty conscience. Initially, it wanted to pretend to be dead and did not hear him, but thinking that doing*24doing*from 干 [gàn] that can mean as to do or to f*ck (vulgar) so might affect its position in the heart of its favored host. After a long time of entanglement, it still appeared.
“From the system’s standpoint, I can’t tell you who the time-space destroyer is. But, this world is still good for you.”
“The time-space destroyer?”
It was the first time Yan Chu heard this name.
“It’s the reborn, the transmigrator, the book-transmigrator, and other characters, who destroy cause and effect. You have met those people in the previous worlds.”
007 explained to Yan Chu: “The existence of space-time destroyers is accidental. It is beyond the system’s control. Once the space-time destroyers appear, the system cannot help you, and you can only rely on yourself.”
This sentence 007 was more serious. Usually, the time-space destroyer was the most significant variable in time and space. Not all time-space destroyers were stupid, and some were geniuses. Dealing with those people was not easy. And many mission executors were defeated by those space-time destroyers.
Speaking of this, 007 thought of its No. 3 garbage host and wondered whether she could survive this time.
“Then what are the benefits you’re talking about?”
Yan Chu was not one of those people who felt sorry for himself. Since everything was already a fact, it seemed useless to blame the system.
“This is your golden finger as a stallion man this time. The golden finger that was supposed to be in your hand has been taken away by the time-space destroyer. Under the effect of the protagonist’s halo, you have another golden finger, which is The Kitchen God’s Space you just experienced. You cannot take it with you when you leave this world, but all the skills you have learned belong to you. You should know that there is a random cookbook in the system mall, and it takes 200 points to learn one. If you learn more, it takes far more than tens of thousands of points, and the cookbook doesn’t appear in the system mall often.”
007’s voice became more and more high-pitched. Why did it just feel guilty? It clearly gave Yan Chu a great advantage. If it was not for sending him to this world, and then there happened to be a plane destroyer, would the other party have the chance to get such a golden finger?
It was simply the system with the most successful host in the system class. Usually, such a system was still very prosperous, 007 proudly thought as it turned its round metal body.
“It seems useless to learn so many dishes?”
Yan Chu was actually satisfied with 007’s explanation, but he did not reveal anything on his face.
“Why is it useless?”
007, proud and without any guilt, was excited: “Do you know how much my other hosts would envy you if they knew that you had such a happy encounter? People who spend a lot of points may not necessarily be able to improve their cooking skills to the level of Master Chef, but you can have so many Master Chef-level recipes for free and have Master Chef’s cooking experience. Besides, who knows in which world you will be the young wolfdog or handsome male companion again? Improving your cooking skills is your basic quality as a young wolfdog and handsome male companion.”
007 spoke boldly, and then Yan Chu kicked it out of his space of consciousness.
As if nothing had happened, Yan Chu sorted out some braised recipes in his head. He saw a recipe whose ingredients were easy to find, intending to put theoretical knowledge into practice.
The original self’s pocket money was not much, mainly because he was embarrassed to ask his parents for money. Yan Chu turned over the iron box where he had hidden the money, and the pieces in it added up to more than 300 yuan.
But the money was enough to buy some spices plus some braised food.
“Chu’er, where are you going? It’s almost time to eat.”
Jin Xiujuan watched her son going out and asked curiously.
It really occurred to Yan Chu that he was acting on a momentary impulse. Yan Chu laughed. He almost forgot that it was mealtime. At this time, even if he went to the vegetable market, he might not be able to buy any good ingredients.
From the original self’s memory, he learned that the vegetable market near his home would have vegetable vendors coming one after another after 2:30 in the afternoon. After lunch, he could buy some spices to cook the gravy first, then reconsider the ingredients.
“Mom, I saw a braised recipe in the book. I’ll buy some ingredients in the afternoon and try to make it. I feel like eating braised pig trotters and braised bean curd.”
Yan Chu helped Jin Xiujuan with the food and asked.
“If you want to eat braised pig trotters, go to the deli food store in the vegetable market to buy ready-made ones. How troublesome is it to make them yourself.”
Jin Xiujuan thought her son was quite good at cooking home-cooked dishes on weekdays, but this was the first time making braised food for the whole family. If merely reading the braised recipe in a book could make delicious braised food, the braised food business would not be so good.
“Mom, I just want to try.”
“Okay then.”
Her son rarely had a request. Jin Xiujuan thought it would be troublesome to tidy up the kitchen at most, so she agreed.
“Mom will give you money then. Don’t buy too much meat. There are only three people in our family. It’s hot now, and it’s easy to get spoiled if you can’t store it.”
Jin Xiujuan felt that her son could not make any delicious braised food. She was afraid of spoiling things but worried it would irritate her son. She was embarrassed to say so directly.
“Mom, don’t worry. Who is your son? The braised food is guaranteed to be delicious. I’ll send some to Uncle Bai when it’s finished.”
The Uncle Bai in Yan Chu’s mouth was Bai Ling’s father. Their family still lived in the old public housing, just upstairs from Yan Chu’s house.
The parents of the two families were good friends. A duo of good close female friends married a pair of good brothers. It happened that they were pregnant almost simultaneously. When the two children were still in the womb, they agreed to knot an arranged engagement of their children.
The conditions of the Bai family were better than the Yan family. A few years ago, they bought a suite in the newly opened building, but they could not bear the old neighbors of their old public housing. In addition, their daughter Bai Ling’s school and the supermarket the couple opened were near their public housing, so they never moved. The house they bought was installed and rented to a young university graduate girl who was newly working. The Bai family’s parents thought that if the Yan family could not afford to buy a house by then, that house would be just for the children’s wedding home.
The Bai family did not dislike the Yan family’s conditions, and Yan Chu was almost what they saw. The boy was obedient and filial, in addition to the feelings of childhood sweethearts. They did not ask him to become wealthy in the future, and he was sure not to mistreat their daughter. Besides, the relationship between both parents was good. When the children marry in the future, they no need to worry about problems such as mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.
“Go and fetch your dad first. It’s time to eat.”
Jin Xiujuan pondered in her heart that her son was so confident and how to comfort him if the braised food ended up ruined.
After eating, Yan Chu could not wait to get the money and go outside. He really wanted to taste the recipe developed by the person acclaimed as the Braised Master Chef.
