Chapter 32: What does it count for? Let’s just call it his hard work.

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“Cough, Fellow Daoist Zhang, would you like one?”

Jiang Yunhe’s gaze was anything but subtle, and at such close range, Zhang Xiu found it difficult to ignore.

He pulled out a pork knuckle and handed it to Jiang Yunhe. It looked generous, but his heart was bleeding.

The food from Boss Lu was something he truly did not want to share.

Still, if it allowed him to befriend a disciple of the Valley of Divine Physicians, it might not be such a bad bargain.

“No need.” Jiang Yunhe refused—not because he did not want to eat it, but because…

His gaze drifted downward, and his expression turned rather strange.

“There’s no need to be polite.”

Jiang Yunhe assumed the other man was still “putting up a last-ditch resistance” and was just about to tell him that he had plenty left when he realized that the weight of the food in his hand was wrong.

He looked down.

In an instant, his entire face flushed scarlet.

He wanted to kill someone.

“Who told you two to steal my pork knuckles?”

Zhang Xiu’s cry was even more agonized than his screams when he had been injured.

He had clearly bought ten pork knuckles. Now, aside from the one he had been about to hand to Jiang Yunhe, they were all gone.

The paper bag contained nothing but a shallow layer of meat juices.

And right behind him stood his two good little brothers, each holding a pork knuckle and eating with gusto. Several bones lay scattered at their feet.

“Mm-hmm.”

His second brother, Zhang Wei, did not put down the pork knuckle in the face of his furious elder brother. Instead, he grinned.

“Big Brother, this pork knuckle is delicious.”

Now that their eldest brother was fine, Zhang Wei—who had long since been unable to resist the temptation—naturally had to sample such a delicacy.

As for why he had eaten Zhang Xiu’s portion, that was simply habit.

The three brothers had always shared anything good among themselves.

His younger brother, Zhang Jun, felt the same way.

Faced with the two brothers’ utterly matter-of-fact attitude, Zhang Xiu flew into a rage. He ground his teeth, practically ready to pounce on them and tear them apart.

“Couldn’t you buy your own?”

He had wanted to save a few more for himself.

“Boss, give me five more pork knuckles.”

While the three brothers glared at one another, the Overthinker licked the sauce from his fingertips and spoke indistinctly.

He stood in front of the stall, his eyes burning with urgency.

At that moment, the only thing in his eyes was the pork knuckle.

At first, he had merely wanted to patronize the boss’s business out of guilt. But now, all he wanted to say was that he had been wrong—that he had wronged Boss Lu.

If he could, he was willing to make amends by buying every pork knuckle she had left.

Unfortunately, there were other hungry wolves around him.

Before long, the onlookers had gathered around the stall.

The aroma had nearly tickled their noses right off their faces.

If not for the Overthinker’s earlier antics, the entire pot of pork knuckles would probably have been gone before Jiang Yunhe appeared.

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“Coming right up.”

With business suddenly booming, Lu Wu beamed.

While packing the Overthinker’s order, she spitefully added a little less sauce.

The Overthinker seemed to notice. He cast her a surreptitious glare, but Lu Wu felt not the slightest bit guilty.

She was the boss. The right to interpret everything belonged to her.

Who had told him to annoy her?

“Divine Physician, how many would you like?”

Lu Wu cheerfully addressed Jiang Yunhe, who had arrived with the aura of a protagonist already blazing around him.

She thought of that fellow Qin Zhan.

Come to think of it, Big Yellow was here too. If Qin Zhan appeared, perhaps she might even get to watch a battle between a man and a dog.

Jiang Yunhe studied the few pork knuckles remaining in the pot for a moment, then held up five fingers.

“You want five as well? Would you like extra sauce?”

When Jiang Yunhe nodded, Lu Wu swiftly packed his order.

After filling those two orders, the pork knuckles in the pot were nearly gone.

She had originally made fifty. While at home, she had shared ten with Uncle Li and the two children.

Her regular customer Zhang Xiu had just bought another ten.

After counting the scattered portions sold earlier, fewer than twenty remained in the pot.

Lu Wu had assumed she would not sell them all today, but now she was filled with energy.

“Next!”

She called out, and in the blink of an eye, Zhang Xiu appeared before her.

“Boss Lu, is there a purchase limit this time?” he asked in a lowered voice, winking at Lu Wu behind the backs of the other customers waiting in line.

“There’s no limit for now, but…”

She looked past Zhang Xiu at the other customers craning their necks in anticipation. There was no way she could sell everything that remained to him.

Zhang Xiu was deeply disappointed.

He turned around and counted the people behind him, then gave a sly chuckle.

“Boss Lu, I’ll have eight more pork knuckles.”

He would eat three, and save the remaining five. They would certainly come in handy later in the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons.

Everyone present had already silently acknowledged that these pork knuckles could neutralize poison. Keeping a few on hand could save their lives.

Just like that, even fewer remained in the pot.

Lu Wu glanced up and discovered that the number of customers left matched the number of pork knuckles remaining exactly.

Clearly, this had been Zhang Xiu’s little calculation.

He had taken just enough to leave one for everyone else, which was already the height of consideration. Whether the next customer would show him the same courtesy was no longer within his control.

The remaining diners quickly saw through his little scheme.

“Oh? The numbers match perfectly. Then let’s have one each.”

“Exactly. One apiece is fair.”

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Those at the back immediately surrounded the stall. They spoke one after another, seemingly discussing the matter with Lu Wu, but in truth, they were threatening the customer at the front with murderous glares.

Fellow Daoist, take our advice and behave yourself.

Under their ferocious intimidation, the unfortunate customer could only swallow his anger and yield.

In the end, every remaining pork knuckle was divided among them.

Even the last bit of rich broth at the bottom of the pot was ladled away.

If Lu Wu had not intervened with all her might, she suspected the group would have licked the pot clean.

With today’s goal accomplished, Lu Wu felt wonderfully relaxed. But when she lowered her head, she saw the sorrowful look Big Yellow was giving her.

“Woof!”

The Heaven-Proud Hound was very clever. He had seen that the humans had to pay in order to eat the pork knuckles.

He did not eat for free. So, could she please save some pork knuckles for him next time?

He would pay.

Understanding his gaze, Lu Wu nodded with amusement.

As long as the customer could pay, she would sell to them regardless of what species they were.

“How can that be?”

“How could I fail to understand?”

“Why is there nothing special about it?”

Behind Lu Wu came a stream of muttering. It belonged to Jiang Yunhe.

The gentle, jade-like man held a pork knuckle between his pale, slender fingers. He did not seem to mind the grease coating it. He stared at it intently, as though he had encountered an exceptionally difficult problem.

Jiang Yunhe genuinely could not understand.

As the most outstanding disciple of his generation in the Valley of Divine Physicians, he had been unable to determine what allowed this pork knuckle to neutralize poison.

His tongue was extraordinarily sensitive. He could identify every spice Lu Wu had used.

But they were all perfectly ordinary spices. How could ordinary spices neutralize poison?

Faced with such a conundrum, Jiang Yunhe continued muttering, his brows drawn tightly together as he pondered.

Just as Lu Wu thought he might become hopelessly fixated on the problem, she saw him take a bite of the pork knuckle and begin savoring it carefully.

“Forget it. I’ll go home and ask Master. He’s so capable—he must know.”

His tone was so self-righteous that Lu Wu could not help thinking that he was yet another excellent disciple who lived off his master.

Having tossed the problem aside in an instant, Jiang Yunhe immersed himself in the flavors dancing across his tongue.

The pork knuckle’s clearly defined layers of meat opened up an entirely new world to him.

He asked himself what all his former years of ascetic cultivation had amounted to.

Well… at least they had been hard on him.

As though remembering something, Jiang Yunhe took out his Realm Link and began fiddling with it, the corners of his mouth curling into a faint smile.

In the space of a heartbeat, the man who should have been a gentle, refined gentleman transformed into a dark and crafty fox.

Lu Wu could only marvel at his astonishing ability to change faces.