CH005

"Eh, Xiao Xu, you're here, where is my mother?"

Lu Fan was somewhat surprised to see Xu Ling'er present but remembered that it was around this time when she was working to save up for college fees.

There were many poor families during this time, especially in towns and villages like this one. It was not rare to see young girls and boys working part-time to save money for something.

Xu Ling'er was working to save for tuition, and Han Fu was working to save for a game or something. It was not like there were other means that could make money quickly than this.

"Oh, good evening young master. The boss is up front looking at the books."

"I already told you not to call me young master. It makes me feel weird."

"Ok, young master."

*Sigh* this is what they mean when they say beautiful girls are trouble.

Lu Fan made his way to the front where he found a young lady busy writing on a ledger, trying to make those numbers balance.

"Mom, those numbers will never balance. Just make sure to keep a record of everything like I told you."

"Ah, Fan'er, it good that you came. Come and see what is wrong here."

This was something that Lu Fan had gotten used to. Her hands were covered in ink and he could see that she had been at it for quite a while now.

His mother barely had any education to speak of. The fact that she could read and write was a huge plus. Seeing her struggling with the same things that certified accountants struggle with was quite ironic.

It made him feel like there was no huge difference.

"Mom, I will take care of the books from now on. Just concentrate on cooking."

Lu Fan stepped forward naturally and embraced her as she was trying to get up and placed the boxed meal in front of her.

"I made you some food to eat. Eat first before it gets cold."

"Why did you make so much?"

"Today we will share with the others. Xu Ling'er, bring some extra plates and chopsticks."

Looking at the suddenly mature boy, Chen Lu did not know what to make of it. He had started looking more and more like his father.

It was not easy raising a child alone. And given her nature, she spent most of the time worrying if she did a good job raising him.

Seeing him take charge so naturally, her maternal love overflowed as she watched Lu Fan arrange everything properly.

In a couple of minutes, the table was set and the dishes were ready for serving. Lu Fan handed over the responsibility to his mother as this was her specialty.

Chen Lu opened the large lunch box and an enticing aroma attacked her. She could feel her mouth watering and her eyes started shining looking at the dishes.

Lu Fan had made a simple dish but it still managed to have such a rich fragrance. Just this was enough to make everyone want to eat it.

The bone soup was clear and were it not for its thin layer of oil, one would think that it was simple water.

Chen Lu served everyone and made sure that they got enough portions before she settled to eat.

"Let's eat."

Saying so, everyone started devouring their serving.

Lu Fan was no different. It was one thing to cook delicious food, and another to eat it. That was especially true since this was his first meal since his regression.

But more than that, it also made him realize that he still did not understand his Cheat very well.

Tags like the one that was above his mother's head [Cooking +54] did not mean the same as tags above his head.

To confirm his hypothesis, Lu Fan decided to add attributes to Chen Lu's tag [Cooking +60] making his cash deep down to [2140].

Lu Fan felt a pain in his heart. It was too shocking.

His attributes cost 10 yuan per attribute but if he wanted to add attributes to others, he had to spend 100 yuan. Adding that to the number of tags that he could see on his mother's head, Lu Fan felt a cold sweat forming.

Chen Lu had so many housekeeping skills and business skills that Lu Fan was flabbergasted.

Who said that his mother was uneducated? Did they see the skills she had? Or was this the classic example of those students who are good during lessons but forget as soon as the bell rings?

Lu Fan did not understand.

But this also made things easier.

It was harder to gain tags than to buy attributes for them.

Don't look at how he just took a book and read it to gain the [Reading] tag. What if we look at tags like [Engineering] or [Programming]? To get a tag, one had to have a certain threshold proficiency for the system to recognize it.

That was why his cooking tag started at +5 even while he had years of experience from his memories. And that was taking into consideration that his cheat gave him an advantage.

If it were others, they would need far more experience and proficiency just to get a single tag.

Indeed, things were never that simple. It would be too easy if everyone got the same treatment. He was already taking it for granted and he had not even spent 24 hours with his Cheat.

He could see himself getting carried away if things were too simple.

This also reminded him of the value of these tags and attributes. People worked for years for some of the tags that were out there. If they were so easy to come by, wouldn't it be too unfair? Not to mention dangerous.

Lu Fan could see himself doing some weird stuff if he could get his CPA certs through such a simple manner as tags.

Thinking up to here, it also raised another question, how were others affected by attributes?

I mean he had his cheat so attributes came with the necessary experience, knowledge, and wisdom to match them. What then changed in Chen Lu with the 6 attributes that he had just added? Did she also experience the same or was it different?

Lu Fan needed to investigate further if he was going to use this cheat more efficiently. But before that, he needed more money.

His pitiful change was too little for the system.