All the heavens, starting as the ruler of the universe

In the eastern part of Xianyang, it was still dark.

Xu Che squatted by the roadside, with several bamboo baskets in front of him. The baskets were filled with white radishes, carrots, and Chinese cabbages, all fresh and glistening with dew.

He harvested these from the farm at four in the morning. They're freshly picked every four hours, so fresh you could squeeze water out of them.

"How much is this radish?" A woman squatted down, picked up a white radish, and looked at it.

"Three coins a pound," Xu Che said.

"So expensive? Other places only charge two coins."

"Are other people's radishes this big? This white? This crisp?" Xu Che picked up a radish, broke it in half, and handed it over. "Please try some."

The woman took a bite, chewed it, and her eyes lit up: "Give me five catties."

Xu Che weighed out five jin and collected fifteen coins.

The woman walked away carrying the radishes, and the stall owner next to her, envious, came over and asked, "Brother, where did you get these radishes?"

"I grew them myself," Xu Che said without looking up.

How much do you have left? I'll buy it all.

"The other dishes are also quite good, do you want to order them all?" Xu Che was more than willing, saving himself the trouble of setting up a stall here.

The stall owners next to them took a bite of each one, their eyes lighting up with each taste: "Brother, I'll take all of these, no matter how many you have!"

Xu Che weighed the remaining vegetables, calculated the price, and the stall owner next to him paid readily.

Having received the money, Xu Che left and returned to the small courtyard he and Gao Yao had rented.

Gao Yao works at a restaurant during the day, so Xu Che isn't worried about Gao Yao discovering his secret.

Today he has enough experience to upgrade the farm to level four, and at level four he can unlock garlic.

Xu Che waited in the yard as time slowly passed, and finally the cabbages in the farm ripened.

With a thought, Xu Che sent all the cabbages from the farm into the thatched hut, and then a tremor ran through the depths of Xu Che's soul.

Upgraded.

Not only did the farm upgrade, but Xu Che's body also underwent a slight change as a result of this upgrade.

The changes weren't significant, but enough to make him a little stronger than an average person.

Putting aside the changes to his body, Xu Che was even more pleasantly surprised by the new crops that came with the farm reaching level four.

【garlic】

It matures in 24 hours and can be harvested for one season, with a yield of 20 per season.

Although Xu Che's history isn't very good, he does know the importance of spices in ancient times.

In ancient times, spices were worth the same weight as gold! Sometimes they were even more valuable than gold!

Most importantly, garlic can not only be eaten as a spice, but it can also be used to make allicin, which is the easiest natural antibiotic to make.

Xu Che took a deep breath, bought 8 seeds from the store, and planted them.

He only needs to wait 24 hours to have 160 heads of garlic!

Xu Che is now considering how to dispose of the garlic discreetly.

Selling directly is too risky; it's easy for someone to target you.

"Maybe I could open a restaurant." Just as Xu Che was planning his future, Gao Yao returned.

Xu Che heard the courtyard gate creak and looked up. Gao Yao was wearing a short brown coat covered in soot, his hair was covered in ash, and he had a bright smile on his face.

He was carrying a small piece of meat in his hand, not very big, about the width of a palm and two fingers thick, tied with a straw rope, swaying back and forth.

In his other hand, he carried a pot of wine, an earthenware pot with its spout plugged with cloth. The aroma of the wine seeped out from the cloth, filling the entire courtyard.

"Where did the meat come from?" Xu Che stood up.

"It's only natural for a cook to steal vegetables." Gao threw the meat onto the cutting board, grinned, and said, "I've worked in this restaurant for so long, what's wrong with taking a few things?"

Xu Che looked at the piece of meat, swallowed hard; he hadn't eaten meat in a long time.

It's not that we don't have the money to buy it, but that there's just too little meat available these days; it's simply not available for sale.

Gao cut the meat into thin slices and placed them on a heated stone slab. The edges of the meat slices turned golden brown under the high temperature, and the oil seeped out, sizzling loudly.

Ironware was not very common in this era, let alone iron pots.

Gao poured the wine into two rough earthenware bowls and pushed one towards Xu Che. "Drink."

Xu Che picked up the glass, took a sip. The wine was cloudy, a little sweet, a little spicy, not strong, but warming. He picked up a piece of meat, put it in his mouth, and chewed for a long time.

"Does it smell good?" Gao Yao stared at Xu Che, his face beaming with joy.

To be honest, pork from that era wasn't castrated, so it still had a strong, unpleasant smell, but Xu Che ate it with great pleasure.

"Delicious!" Xu Che gave a thumbs up.

"That's right, let me tell you, Xiao Che, I, Lao Gao, may not have any other skills, but my cooking skills are top-notch." Gao Yao drank his wine and boasted about his cooking skills, and tears started to well up in his eyes as he spoke.

"You don't know, Xiao Che, Xiao Chuan and I went to see some kind of master before. He told us to go see her again after sixty years."

"I originally thought there was hope of going back, but," Gao Yao took a sip of wine, "a full sixty years, he told me to come back to him in sixty years."

"Thank goodness I met you, Xiao Che, you are the only two family members I have in this world!" Gao Yao wiped away his tears.

Xu Che knew that Gao Yao was a very sentimental person, and in the original story, he always treated Yi Xiaochuan as family.

In the original storyline, Yi Xiaochuan had done many things that wronged Gao Yao, but Gao Yao had always forgiven him.

"Let's open a shop," Xu Che suddenly said.

Gao Yao was taken aback: "Open a shop? What kind of shop?"

"A restaurant, a small restaurant." Xu Che put down his chopsticks. "I've saved up some money recently, enough to rent a shop. You're a good cook, I'll handle the supply, and we'll run it ourselves."

Gao Yao stared at him for a long time. "Are you serious?"

"Seriously."

Gao downed the wine in his bowl in one gulp, wiped his mouth, and said, "Okay, bottoms up."

Xu Che smiled, took out a cloth bag from his pocket, opened it, and inside was a string of copper coins and some loose silver. Not much, but enough to rent a small shop.

He pushed the cloth bag to Gao Yao.

"Alright, Xiao Che, don't worry, leave this to me." Gao Yao put away the cloth bag. "I know you're a very capable person, Xiao Che, but rest assured, I, Gao Yao, would never do anything to betray you!"

Xu Che paused for a moment, then smiled: "I consider you my brother."

Gao Yao didn't say anything more, picked up the bowl, and downed the rest of the wine in one gulp.

After finishing their meal, the two cleaned up their own things.

After finishing tidying up, Xu Che leaned back in his chair, looking at the moon in the sky. The moonlight shone into the courtyard and onto his face.

Gao Yao was washing dishes in the courtyard, and the sound of the dishes clattering together was particularly crisp in the night.

As Xu Che listened to those voices, he suddenly thought of Lin Yan, wondering what he was doing now and when he would come back.

But he knew that when Lin Yan came again, he could use the garlic he grew to cook a dish for Lin Yan.