【System Notification: An unwelcome guest has been repelled on your behalf.】

Zhao Xing speechlessly closed the notification. “If I remember correctly, this threshold is made from the scraps of something called Soul-seeking Wood, right?”

Soul-seeking Wood sounded like some legendary, divine material. And it was made into a threshold, whose first repelled “unwelcome guest” was… a mouse?

Well, at least he now understood how this threshold was supposed to be used.

After disposing of the mouse, he turned around to see the little orange kitten standing there, chest puffed out proudly, as if to say: You’re welcome. This is for you!

Zhao Xing was exasperated. “It’s bad enough you don’t catch the mice in my house, but you’re bringing mice from outside into my house? Is this how you repay kindness?”

The little orange kitten, thinking it was being praised, let out a coquettish, “Meeow~”

Zhao Xing took a deep breath. It’s kind of cute. No, I have to resist. This thing just had a mouse in its mouth…

The last time they met, the kitten wouldn’t let him touch it.

This time, however, it walked right up to Zhao Xing and demurely rubbed its furry head against his pant leg. It looked up at him with big, watery green eyes, clearly remembering that Zhao Xing had saved it before.

Zhao Xing sucked in a sharp breath.

The System said, unable to watch any longer, “Just go for it, Host. Pet it.”

Zhao Xing finally gave in and reached out his hand. Mmm, so soft!

He took out his last ham sausage and fed it to the kitten, watching it eat.

Casually closing the S-grade review panel for the kitten, he said, “I hear too much salt is bad for cats. I won’t feed you any more sausages. When I have money, I’ll buy you cat food. When I don’t, you can just catch your own mice.”

The kitten rubbed against his palm. “Meow~”

After a good while of petting, Zhao Xing finally got up to do what he needed to do.

He still had to make a trip to town. He needed to stock up on seeds, and Wang Fang-jie was bringing people over tomorrow, so he also had to buy tissues and snacks.

Now that he had the Delicious Iron Wok, he could also buy meat and vegetables to cook for himself.

…Even though he wasn’t much of a cook, a tool from the System had to have some special properties, right?

Thinking about the large amount of stuff he needed to buy today, Zhao Xing went to borrow Uncle Luan’s motor-trike again.

Before he left, he asked, “Uncle Luan, how much is this motor-trike of yours?”

If it wasn’t too expensive, he would save up and buy one for himself. After all, a private car was out of his reach, and a motor-trike was much more practical in the countryside.

Uncle Luan chuckled. “Not much, only four thousand. Whenever you want to buy one, I can take you. How about we go today?”

Only four thousand… Every word felt like a stab to the heart.

Zhao Xing silently shook his head, started up the motor-trike with a putt-putt-putt, and choked back a sob. “System, get out here! Have you ever seen a protagonist with a golden finger who can’t even scrape together four thousand yuan?!”

The System didn’t dare to speak.

Behind him, Uncle Luan was scratching his head. “What’s with the kid? Does he think it’s too cheap and he’ll lose face? There are more expensive ones, you know…”

---

Zhao Xing had been to town several times now and knew his way around. He efficiently bought everything he needed, then returned to the mountain and planted the seeds one by one.

He spent his summer vacations in the village as a child and often followed his grandfather to the fields. Although it was mostly for fun at the time, he learned a few things. With some advice from the villagers, planting common vegetables was easy.

The little orange kitten, not entirely confident in the two-legged creature’s wilderness survival skills, stayed by his side the whole time.

By the time he had finished planting the two vegetable plots and two small flower beds, Zhao Xing was drenched in sweat, and the kitten’s four paws were covered in mud.

Zhao Xing wiped it clean, then took a shower himself.

After some thought, he decided not to touch the fresh ingredients he had just bought.

Instead, he carefully selected a packet of pickled cabbage-flavored instant noodles from a pile and, full of anticipation, took out the Delicious Iron Wok.

He placed the wok on the stove, poured in the mountain spring water from the well, brought it to a boil, and then added the instant noodles and seasoning packets…

Tsk, this would be so fragrant it could kill a man!

Zhao Xing watched the noodles in the wok expectantly. “System, I’m about to eat the most delicious instant noodles ever. Aren’t you excited?!”

System: “…”

System: “So excited! The Host is so talented!”

Zhao Xing counted down in his head. “The optimal texture is achieved after boiling for three minutes. 10, 9, 8… 3, 2, 1! Okay, I’m…”

Before he could finish, the Delicious Iron Wok suddenly began to tremble. The rim of the wok, defying all laws of science, gathered into the shape of two lips, and then—

The wok: “Retch!”

The wok: “Heh—tui!”

Zhao Xing stared, dumbfounded, at the wok that had just vomited all over the floor. “What does it mean by that? It vomited before I even got to eat?”

System: “…Please check the item’s panel, Host.”

Baffled, Zhao Xing opened the Delicious Iron Wok’s panel and found an additional note under the description.

【Additional Note: If unclean ingredients are placed in the wok, the wok will exhibit symptoms such as vomiting, trembling, and refusal to heat.】

Unclean ingredients…

Zhao Xing was silent. Just how unclean did something have to be to make an iron wok vomit in disgust…

Zhao Xing silently cleaned up the floor, took out a few ingredients, washed them carefully three times, then chopped them up randomly, threw them into the wok, added some salt, and set it to boil.

From now on, he would eat his own cooking. It was safer.

However, when the terrible-looking stew was cooked and Zhao Xing took his first bite, his eyes instantly widened.

“This is too delicious!”

The vegetables and meat were just things he had bought casually; they could hardly be called fresh.

But with such ordinary ingredients, such a haphazard cooking method, and seasoning as simple as salt, the flavor was so intense that Zhao Xing almost swallowed his own tongue.

The umami wasn’t from any seasoning; it was purely the taste of each ingredient brought to its absolute peak. You could say it was the taste of the ingredients themselves, but it was the taste of ordinary ingredients transformed into top-tier ones, exceptionally delicious.

Next to him, the little orange kitten was eating the meat Zhao Xing had picked out for it, purring without even lifting its head.

Zhao Xing was moved to tears. “I was wrong. This wok is truly a great wok!”

System: Heh.

---

The next morning, a large bus was driving on the road to Immortal’s Rest Mountain.

On the bus were four children, four adults, and the driver, for a total of nine people.

These nine people were Wang Fang’s group.

Each child was accompanied by a parent, all of them heading toward the guesthouse full of hope.

Wang Fang took a bottle of water out of her bag and handed it to a white-haired old man in the back seat. “Professor Liao, have some water.”

The old man’s silver hair was neatly combed. Wearing glasses, he looked very much like a scholar. And he was.

The old man’s name was Liao Qingshan. He was a professor from X City University.

This time, he was here to accompany his young grandson for treatment.

He took the water from Wang Fang and thanked her kindly.

The children had all fallen asleep.

With nothing much to do, Wang Fang asked, “Professor Liao, are you adjusting okay? The climate here is a bit drier than in X City, and the food is a little different.”

Professor Liao smiled. “You don’t have to worry about that. I’ve been here before. I have a student who works locally, a very outstanding young man, now the deputy editor-in-chief of a newspaper. He invited me here for a tour once…”

Good teachers are like that. When they talk about their students, it’s no different from talking about their own children.

Wang Fang chatted with the old man for a bit, then rested for a while before the driver announced they were almost there.

The surrounding scenery became noticeably desolate. The greenery of early spring had not yet sprouted, and the mountains covered in withered grass weren’t very pretty.

One of the parents began to worry slightly. “Isn’t this place… a little remote?”

Wang Fang quickly said, “The location isn’t that remote. You can get directly onto the national highway from this road. But it is a village, after all, so there aren’t many people.”

The parents all nodded, though they still looked a little concerned.

They had looked it up before coming. The guesthouse was located in a village, but they hadn’t expected this kind of village. They had thought that if a place was able to open a guesthouse, it must have some kind of scenic spot, right?

Who would have thought that someone would open a guesthouse in a place with no tourist attractions!

The bus followed the road into the village, then, following Wang Fang’s directions, headed up the mountain, finally coming to a slow stop in front of the guesthouse.

When the parents saw the dilapidated exterior of the small building, they all gasped.

“H-how can the outer walls be so shabby…”

“Yes, and I can see a hole in the wall…”

“And there’s no sign. Is this really a guesthouse?”

“I heard there’s no electricity or internet either…”

“No wonder Xiao Fang kept emphasizing that the conditions were poor. They really are a bit poor…”

Zhao Xing, who had come out to greet his guests, heard their discussion and gave a dry cough.

It’s true there’s no sign, because I have no money to install one, he thought, but I do have water, electricity, and internet!

The parents were flustered for a moment, but then they remembered they were here for treatment, not sightseeing.

More importantly, they were already here… So they started gathering their things and getting off the bus.

They carefully woke the children and lined up to disembark one by one.

Seeing that they had arrived in an unfamiliar place, some of the children’s faces were already showing expressions of distress, as if they were about to cry at any second.

This was the nature of emotional dysregulation disorder.

Parents couldn’t avoid taking their children to new places, because the more they avoided it, the worse the child’s resistance and adaptability would become. But when they did take them, they had to be prepared for the child to lose control.

Just as all the parents were on edge, they suddenly heard a scream from inside the bus.

One child burst into tears.

The moment the crying started, the parents’ hearts sank. As expected, the other children were instantly affected by the sound and also lost control, starting to wail and struggle.

The shrill cries nearly blew the roof off the bus!

The first lesson parents of children with emotional dysregulation disorder learn is not to let children having an episode gather together, because their emotions will influence each other, and the situation will only get worse.

The parents immediately picked up their children to comfort them, but it was completely useless.

Wang Fang was also flustered for a moment, then she immediately picked up Baozhu and shouted, “Quick, get inside the guesthouse! It’ll be okay once we’re inside!”

With that, she dashed toward the entrance.

One of the parents cried out in desperation, “What do you mean it’ll be okay once we’re inside? How is that possible?!”

Once an emotional dysregulation episode starts, there’s no such thing as it stopping immediately.

They had come to this guesthouse with the hope that it might alleviate the condition, not with the extravagant expectation that a child having an episode would stop the moment they walked in.

What was the difference between that and asking a dump truck speeding at eight hundred miles per hour to stop on a dime?!

Professor Liao, who was at the back, stood up, holding his grandson, and said calmly, “I trust Xiao Fang’s judgment. She is not the type to resort to desperate measures. Let’s go inside first. Even if the fragrance in the guesthouse doesn’t work, we can use the rooms to separate the children and then slowly calm them down.”

The old man’s composure quickly influenced the other parents, and they had to admit his words made a lot of sense.

So, the parents picked up their respective children, not even bothering with their luggage, and one by one, stepped through the somewhat dilapidated main door of the guesthouse.

A magical scene unfolded.

As they stepped through the door, the refreshing scent of wood washed over them.

One by one, as the children entered, they fell silent…

It wasn’t the kind of silence born from fear or shock, or from being too stunned to react.

It was a normal, calm silence that comes after emotions have settled.

It was the silence of starting to observe one’s surroundings, to take in information from the outside world!

It was the peaceful, harmonious silence that the parents had always longed for!

The parents felt as if they were dreaming. They looked around and saw the same dumbfounded expression on everyone else’s face.

After about a dozen seconds, someone finally reacted, stammering, “I-it actually works! This fragrance, it really works!”

In an instant, there was an uproar at the entrance.

And so, Zhao Xing, who was coming out with a pot of freshly brewed rock sugar water, was met with the sight of a group of parents staring at him with wide, green eyes.

He was so startled he instantly took a step back.

Wait, this scene looks a little familiar!