Food gives me an entry, I will be invincible if I stay alive

Chapter 1: The scholar cooks porridge, and the mouse praises it
In the eleventh year of Yonghui, the spring was chilly.

The alley had been windy and rainy all night, but in the morning, all I could hear was the tofu stall at the entrance. A clear voice was calling out, "Tofu is two cents a pound, and dried tofu is one cent a piece. They're all delicious!"

In the distance is the South Street morning market, with porters walking back and forth and vendors bargaining.

"This is a sheep that is not to be envied, and its bones are rotten. How can ten taels of silver be too expensive for one?"

……

Chen Xu suddenly sat up from the bed, breaking out in a cold sweat.

Not envying the sheep, but calling them rotten bones, these are not nice words, but slang for cannibalism!

He quickly stood up, limped to the window with difficulty, and put his ear to the window to listen to the sounds coming from the alley in the distance.

Before the sound came, various smells of food wafted into the air.

The aroma of meat buns, the smoke of fried fruits, the sweetness of tofu pudding... as well as the fishy stench of the slaughter market, the rotten smell of piles of food in the ditch, and so on.

Various, yet familiar flavors.

In the distance, the vendor was bragging about his sheep: "These are sheep raised on the farm over on Heilu Mountain. They drink dew and eat Polygonatum and ginseng. They were originally supplied to wealthy families. If you don't understand, don't talk nonsense and make a fool of yourself!"

Chen Xu heard it clearly and shook his head secretly: This vendor is really good at bragging.

I also breathed a sigh of relief.

It seems that he was half asleep and heard it wrongly.

Yes, it is the prosperous Yonghui era, a rare peaceful time in the world. How could there be such a thing as openly selling "Buxianyang" in the morning market?

Chen Xu stood by the window and clicked it shut to block out the various complex smells.

He gently regulated his breathing, but his thoughts were slowly settling.

He was not originally from this world. In his previous life, he was an internet office worker who died suddenly at his workstation due to excessive overtime.

It's a pity that he, a pure science student, traveled to this ancient world without technology and the Internet.

After sorting out the reality, I found that in this world, if children from poor families want to make a name for themselves, there is basically no other way except to study.

At that time, Chen Xu was seven years old and his family was considered upper middle class in the village.

But they still could not escape the various taxes, corvee labor, and levies imposed from top to bottom. Those things that arose because of class, each one of them was a suffocating mountain weighing on the people's heads.

Chen Xu made up his mind to take the imperial examination.

He spent a lot of effort to persuade his family to support his education. He started school at the age of seven and passed the imperial examination at the age of thirteen.

I have been studying hard for ten years and am now seventeen years old.

Unfortunately, his luck in the exams started from the year he passed the examination for Tongsheng, as if he was suddenly twisted into a rugged path by a huge force out of nowhere.

After that, he took the examination for the scholar for three consecutive years, but was always stopped from entering the examination hall due to various accidents.

Perhaps they fell ill due to acclimatization, or were choked by smoke when the inn caught fire, or were hit by falling tiles while walking.

This year was even more outrageous. At the beginning of the year, he went to the county school to register. When he was going down the mountain, he stepped on a rock and fell. The fall broke his right leg.

Chen Xu was so unlucky that he always failed in every exam, which made him feel discouraged for a while.

He reflected deeply and asked himself if he should take a different path. But if so, which path should he take?

What's more, after years of persistence, it is difficult to give up.

Finally, with the help of his classmates, Chen Xu rented a small courtyard in Ping'an Lane, not far from Nanshi Street, where he could temporarily live while recuperating from his injuries and studying.

Ping'an Lane is named "Ping'an", but it is actually not a quiet place.

The place is densely populated and noisy, but the only advantage is that it is cheap.

Chen Xu has been recuperating from his injuries for more than 20 days. Although he still walks with a limp, he can at least take care of himself without any problems.

But last night, another strange thing happened.

It was about 4:15 pm at 11:00 PM, which was about midnight.

A cool mist rose in the night. Chen Xu was woken by the cold and couldn't fall asleep, so he wanted to get up and go to the stove to heat up some porridge to warm himself.

He did not light a lamp, but walked slowly to the kitchen with his cane in the sparse moonlight outside the window.

In the darkness, the crackling sound of burning firewood could be heard in the kitchen, and a small orange flame reflected on the broken window panes.

Chen Xu stopped in his tracks all of a sudden.

He turned off the stove before going to bed, so why is the fire in the stove burning again now?
"Squeak!" Suddenly, I heard the low cry of mice, rustling and squeaking...

In the green shadows of the dark night, the firelight flickered faintly. Chen Xu heard the sound of mice in his ears, but his mind automatically converted the "squeaking" sound into human language.

"Oh, this scholar is so stingy when cooking porridge. He doesn't put anything else in it except white rice."

The tone was sharp and old, and it sounded clearly in my ears, but it seemed to come from some distant crack.

"Squeak!" The response was still the sound of a rat, which also automatically turned into human speech in Chen Xu's mind. "It's delicious. The white porridge is delicious too. It's fragrant and sweet!"

"Silly child, you've never eaten anything good, yet you think even a bowl of plain porridge tastes good." The old voice paused, then sighed, "But now that we've reached this point, being able to eat a bowl of plain porridge... plain porridge is good too."

[Rat Demon likes +1]

【+1】

Chen Xu froze at that moment. He suspected that he was hallucinating, and then he felt a buzzing in his head, as if something strange exploded in his mind and turned into a sky full of stars.

Chen Xu's head was buzzing and his worldview was impacted.

And the rat's whispers continued in the middle of the night: "Master Jiu, white porridge is delicious. It would be even better if we could eat it every night."

[Rat Demon likes +1]

Chen Xu closed his eyes and opened them again.

His vision was extremely clear, and he was completely awake.

The strange prompt text continued to pop up in the void in front of his eyes, and the rat chattering in his ears continued.

"If you think it's delicious, that's fine. We can't move now, so we can only eat with this scholar. However, this scholar is unnaturally unlucky, and his aura is dark and gloomy. I'm afraid he won't live long."

"Squeak!" The mouse said anxiously, "He won't live long? Master Jiu, how long can we eat his porridge?"

The old voice was silent for a moment, then said helplessly, "How can you say that? Look at the musty smell on him, it's so thick it's almost dripping with water. I'm afraid he's been stolen and taken away by someone. He won't live long."

"Squeak, squeak!" The mouse was suddenly disappointed. "He cooks porridge sweeter than others, but he's almost dead. What a pity."

[Rat Demon likes +1]

The old voice said softly, "Human hearts are full of twists and turns, and there are always many unpredictable things. This is the difference between being human. Well, although we are rats, we cannot eat human food for nothing. Ah Shi, please take this Wuhuanyi to the stove. It will be your food allowance for the next few days."

Then, there was another rustling sound.

Maybe this is the "Worry-Free Clothes" that the rat demon came to give!

Chen Xu's heart was in turmoil. He had an urge to rush into the kitchen immediately to see with his own eyes whether the rat demon really existed, and then carefully inquire whether the rat demon's words "he will die soon" were true or not. He was also worried that his mortal body could not withstand the danger of the demon.

Although the words of these two rat demons seemed to be more sensible and reasonable than some humans, they did not seem like evil demons.

But if it really is a monster, who knows how credible its words can be?

Chen Xu gritted his teeth and finally stood firmly in the shadow of the moonlight.

My mind was turned upside down, my worldview collapsed and was rebuilt, and I almost didn't know what day it was.

It was not until the fire in the kitchen went out again at some point and all the rustling sounds faded away that Chen Xu woke up from his dream, feeling a piercing pain in his injured leg.

He didn't dare to say anything, but just moved quietly and slowly retreated to his room.

I went back to bed and wrapped myself tightly in the quilt, but the coldness couldn't be dispelled.

Chen Xu tossed and turned in bed, thinking a lot.

After ten years of studying hard, I thought all I had to go through was the difficult road of taking the imperial examination as a farmer's son. Who could I have imagined that there would be monsters in this world!

Now that the monster has appeared, what are his ten years of hard study worth?
He has been plagued by bad luck ever since he passed the Tongsheng exam. He originally thought that it was just his bad luck, but now he thinks that such bad luck is beyond common sense. Is it possible that some villain has cast a sorcery on him in secret?

Stealing money, stealing money, just sounds creepy.

Chen Xu recalled his past experiences.

In his previous life, he had been a science student, and after traveling through time, he had preconceived notions that he rejected the existence of "supernatural powers." Furthermore, he came from a rural farming family and had never heard of any cultivation practices in the surrounding area.

There were some strange stories circulating in the countryside, like a witch in the next village who scatters rice to summon spirits and even call back the souls of children. Chen Xu had heard a few of these stories, dismissing them as ignorant superstitions by the villagers and never drawing any conclusions from them, thinking the world was abnormal.

But what if this world is really abnormal?

Chen Xu lay on the bed, feeling cold all over.

He seemed to have figured out many of his questions, but there were many more questions that he couldn't figure out.

Finally, what he couldn't understand the most was the information that kept floating in his mind just now, the so-called [Rat Demon Likes], what exactly was it?
I'm releasing my new book. After many twists and turns and numerous changes to the subject matter, inspiration finally struck me, and the image just formed in my mind. The opening and the 10,000-word outline flowed seamlessly together. I hope this has been an engaging story for everyone. Please read, vote, comment, and interact. Thank you so much!
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(End of this chapter)