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Chapter 128

At Yuehai Pavilion.

Ganyu finished her work and finally had time to rest, reaching for the food box on her desk.

This was what Yaoyao had brought earlier.

Ganyu opened the box containing vegetarian almond tofu specially made for her by Mr. Xia.

A rich almond fragrance wafted out, tempting her appetite.

Ganyu gazed somewhat lost in thought at the snow-white, exquisite dessert.

Almond tofu was a famous Liyue dessert, but Ganyu had never eaten it in all these years because it contained milk.

In fact, she hadn't tried most of Liyue's famous dishes.

Being a vegetarian living in a city with so much delicious food was both fortunate and unfortunate.

Ganyu lifted the still-cool bowl out, finding a clean porcelain spoon thoughtfully placed under the food box.

Mr. Xia must have worried she wouldn't have utensils in her office.

Ganyu picked up the spoon, an involuntary faint smile appearing on her face.

Taking a careful bite, she found it smooth and sweet, melting instantly in her mouth. The unique rich almond flavor blended perfectly with the light sweetness of coconut milk, making her feel as if she were lying on a beach filled with almonds.

Ganyu squinted her eyes, feeling the day's work fatigue seemingly fade away.

So delicious!

She put down the spoon and glanced at the small qilin doll on her desk.

She thought, this is wonderful.

--

"Boss, what's mahjong?"

"It's a game played with tiles. I'll teach you how to play once I finish carving them."

"Okay!"

Xia Zhi held the carving knife, cutting the freshly revealed snow cream jade into perfect squares as easily as cutting tofu.

Each piece was exactly the same size, without the slightest difference.

The two girls watched with amazed expressions, but for a Sculpture Grandmaster, this was just routine.

Then Xia Zhi switched to a smaller carving knife and began engraving characters on the small squares.

Circles, bamboo, characters, East-South-West-North-White-Green-Red, dice.

He changed the Han characters to Liyue script.

After finishing carving a complete mahjong set, it needed coloring.

Xia Zhi made an excuse to go upstairs and bought three bottles of supernatural dye from the [Shop] for 3 points - red, black, and green.

These dyes were very difficult to fade, only removable with special potions.

While these special potions' ingredients were also sold in the [Shop] for just 1 point, they couldn't be found in Teyvat.

In other words, these dyes were effectively permanent in this world.

Xia Zhi colored the mahjong set and also carved two small seals.

[Summer Shop], [Collection Complete]

These two seals were preparation for future takeout business.

The first seal would be stamped when selling, the second when customers collected all seven different cups. Both using special dye, this would prevent customers from trying any tricks.

After finishing, Xia Zhi put away the remaining jade material. If tiles were accidentally damaged or lost in the future, he could carve replacements.

"Done. I'll teach you how to play mahjong. Normally it's played with four people."

"Boss, we only have three people!"

"That's fine, three can play too. Let me first teach you to recognize the tiles."

Xia Zhi casually picked up a tile, ran his fingers over its surface to feel the engravings, then turned it over.

"This is Three Circles. See, it has three round circles, easy to recognize, right?"

"Yes (Mm)!"

"This is Four Bamboo. See, it has four vertical strips, also easy to recognize, right?"

"Yes (Mm)!"

"This is Seven Characters. See, it has Liyue numbers on it, right?"

"Yes (Mm)!"

"This is the North Wind tile. If we play Sichuan mahjong we don't use these wind tiles, but they're needed for Japanese mahjong."

"Sichuan mahjong? Japanese mahjong?"

"These are two different mahjong rule sets. Sichuan is simpler, Japanese is more complex. I'll teach you Sichuan first."

"Oh!"

In a few minutes, Xia Zhi taught them the basic rules of chow, pong, and winning, then played two rounds together.

"How was it?"

"Pretty fun (Not bad)!"

"Good that you've learned. Let's stop for tonight, we can play again tomorrow when we have four people. In the future, if the weather's bad, instead of walking outside at night, we can stay in the shop and play mahjong."

"Mm! Boss can play this too! I'll go boil water!"

After his bath, Xia Zhi saw the two girls standing at the bathroom door just like last night.

"I'm going to rest. Though tomorrow's a day off, someone still needs to get up early to buy ingredients at the market."

"We remember! Good night, Boss!"

"Good night."

Xia Zhi returned to his room, lit the incense, and took out the [Hourglass of Time] and [Enhancement Crystal].

He attempted enhancement five times in a row, all failures again.

A 1% evolution success rate was indeed too low; he could only slowly accumulate attempts.

Xia Zhi put them away, made two [Euphoria Incense], went to bed, and entered the dream world to collect supernatural materials.

When he entered his eighth dream bubble of the night, he suddenly heard the system prompt:

"Progress bar has reached 100%, obtained Gold treasure chest reward."

Xia Zhi paused, then realized it must be the ghost lady's gold progress bar in the real world finally reaching full.

The nightly incense hadn't been wasted.

The system could be used in the dream world too. Xia Zhi took out the gold chest from his inventory and chose to open it.

A string of wooden beads appeared before him.

[Bodhi Beads]

Quality: Gold

Type: Auxiliary Item

Property: Meditation

Effect: Rotating the beads calms the mind, can eliminate inner demons and karmic obstacles

Hidden Effect: +20% damage to evil spirits

The beads' effects were similar to [Soul-Calming Pill] but more powerful.

Not only could they calm the mind, but they also had Buddhist effects of removing inner demons and karmic obstacles.

For those burdened with karma from excessive killing, this would be considered a treasure.

Xia Zhi checked the [Shop] - it sold for 300 points.

Quite expensive.

But for him, besides calming the mind, it had no other use currently.

Xia Zhi took out the [Hourglass of Time], reversed time to restore it to a chest, and opened it again.

A shining coin appeared before his eyes.

[Revival Coin]

Quality: Gold

Type: One-time Item

Property: Revival

Effect: When receiving fatal damage, can consume this item to revive on the spot with full status

Hidden Effect: None

Actually a rare item that could revive.

Xia Zhi checked the [Shop] again - this item could also be bought there for 500 points, much more expensive than the previous [Bodhi Beads].

Pretty good, better keep it.

Xia Zhi put it away and continued exploring the dream world.

Having this coin was like having a second life. If he had enough points, he could buy more from the [Shop], making his development phase more secure.

----

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