Wanjie Game Hall, I sent Kiana to Silent Hill

——The author has something to say——

Thanks to the book friends [Duck Butt is a Treasure], [Fish Killed by Meteors], [Wind-Chasing Slaughter], [zaku123], [Nebula Change], [Dark Star Thorn], and [Fire-Chasing Hero ~ 1] for their recommendation votes, and thank you for your support.

PS: Before she turned twelve, Rita thought she'd become a florist, but the devastation in London and Ragnar's rescue completely changed her life. It could be said that turning twelve was a turning point in Rita's life.

PS2: Twelve-year-old Ruth also happened to be heading towards a turning point in her life. She began to leave her father or mother and tried to learn to live independently. Of course, from the perspective of the game, it still depends entirely on the player's operation.

PS3: Also, I wrote such a long paragraph, Sister Tazi, I always feel that a large part of the reason is because of Rosemary, after all, she was once the Herrscher of the Throne (

Volume 165: : How about maid service instead of a gift?

Gaining something may not necessarily make people feel satisfied, but losing something will definitely make people feel empty.

After exiting the game, Rita realized that the sense of time accumulated in the game quickly disappeared, but the feeling of accompanying her daughter to grow up was still rising and falling slowly in her chest.

But that feeling is like the residual warmth left after a charcoal fire has gone out. Even if you hold it in your hands and absorb the remaining heat, it still cannot change the fact that passion will cool down and friends and family will eventually leave.

It's just a game... Rita let out a breath, raised her hand and rubbed her temples, trying to calm down the emotions surging in her heart.

She opened her eyes again and looked around. She saw Yulandel still sitting in her seat, wearing her gaming headset, clearly not yet finished playing. On the other side of the gaming area, two other people were using devices, but they looked unfamiliar. Rita concluded they were probably members from another world.

Where is the store manager?

Rita stood up and looked towards the rest area and the counter, but did not find Wang Xuanqiao.

She immediately thought of what Yulandel had said - the food cooked by the manager was also delicious and had a very friendly feeling.

Haha, it seems I need to ask for advice~ Rita immediately walked towards the aisle between the game area and the rest area, and followed the signs to find the stairs leading to the second floor.

Although the gate across the corridor was wide open, it still emphasized one thing to Rita - it was different from the game room on the first floor and was a private space.

Therefore, Rita, who visited the game hall for the first time, felt a little nervous. Would it seem impolite to enter someone else's home like this?

I didn't think it through. I should have prepared a gift first. Rita sighed softly in her heart.

How about... offering maid service as a gift for visiting someone? She suddenly had an idea.

After all, the store manager...seems to live alone. Rita's mind quickly became active. She sorted out her thoughts, crossed the gate, and continued to climb the stairs.

As soon as she reached the second floor, Rita smelled the aroma of stewed meat.

She fanned her face lightly with her hands to gather the faint aroma, and after a careful sniff, she roughly identified the spices used by the chef.

Surprisingly simple? Rita was a bit puzzled. She had also studied Chinese cooking, and stewing, in particular, was all about a good broth. Therefore, many Chinese chefs were keen to pile on the spices, bringing the richness of the broth to its fullest, thus tantalizing diners.

Although the amount of spices used does not represent a chef's level, those who dare to use simple spices are either true masters or people who have no knowledge of cooking at all.

Instead, Rita became even more curious, as if she was exploring the 'boundary between gods and ghosts'.

If the store manager really doesn't know how to cook, maybe... I will have a chance to show my abilities?

Rita suddenly became energized, as if the emptiness she felt after quitting the game was filled.

Wang Xuanqiao was marinating beef in the kitchen. He had originally had no interest in cooking, having only managed to boil instant noodles with vegetables and eggs. But then, after feeding Kiana, he discovered the joy of cooking and began to take it seriously.

I have to say that having a very supportive diner can indeed bring great satisfaction to the chef.

This was true for Kiana, and unexpectedly, Bianca was also like this. Wang Xuanqiao sometimes wanted to sigh that they really were sisters.

However, no one over there seemed to have noticed this yet. In that case, Wang Xuanqiao thought it would be best to just let it happen. Honestly, whether Bianca could recognize the Kiana sisters was just the icing on the cake, so there was no need to worry about it.

It’s not as important to cook the beef in the pot well.

Cooking wine, salt, sugar, pepper, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, cornstarch and a little bit of sesame oil, mix them all into the chopped beef, then put it into the oil pan, fry it until it is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, locking in the juice in the meat, and then stir-fry it in the pan. It will definitely make you eat it with your tongue!

Just then, Rita knocked on the kitchen door.

"Excuse me, Mr. Manager."

Rita walked into the kitchen with light steps.

"What do you think of that game?" Wang Xuanqiao turned his head to look at her, then put down the basin of marinating meat and went to the sink to wash his hands covered with sauce.

Huh? Are you asking about the game first?

"It was a very good experience," Rita replied with a slight smile. "It would have been better if the manager had used more precise words to describe it at the beginning."

"I spoke too quickly, sorry." Wang Xuanqiao also laughed. "There's no one else around right now, so please don't laugh when I tell you a few truths. I actually quite like this kind of game. I remember that it's very much in line with the needs of human development."

"Well, Mr. Manager, you should be talking about Erikson's eight-stage theory of life, right? Replacing real-life childbirth with the game of raising offspring to achieve the personality goals of this stage." Rita thought for a moment and replied.

"Probably?" Wang Xuanqiao didn't really understand these so-called theories, so he didn't expand on the topic. "In short, the creation of every game actually aligns with the development of human nature, so there's no need to be prejudiced against certain games."

"Similarly, we shouldn't be prejudiced against people who play these games."

Wang Xuanqiao washed the sauce off his hands and opened the pot of stew. The bubbling sound of the meat was immediately audible. He found a pair of chopsticks, dipped some of the broth into his mouth, tasted it, nodded, replaced the lid, and turned off the heat.

Wang Xuanqiao walked towards another pot of boiling oil. As the bottom fire heated up, blue smoke rose above the hot oil. Wang Xuanqiao grabbed the basin of marinated beef, scooped out the meat slices with a colander, shook off the excess sauce, and slid the beef into the oil pan from the edge.

For a moment, the oil pan, which had caught the foreign object and had become cold, began to bubble up and boil.

Seeing this, Rita walked over subconsciously.

Wang Xuanqiao glanced at her.

"Come to think of it, I remember you're also a famous chef," he said. "As for my cooking skills, they're all my own creations, so they're definitely not authentic. If there's anything that needs improvement, feel free to tell me directly."

"How could that be? Even Lady Youlandel has praised Mr. Manager's cooking skills." Rita shook her head slightly. "To be honest, Mr. Manager, I actually came here with the intention of seeking advice."

"Well... considering Bianca's usual healthy diet, her deliciousness probably doesn't hold much weight."

Wang Xuanqiao's face showed a subtle expression, which unexpectedly made Rita smile.

"Then I have a small cooking question for the manager," she said softly, raising the corners of her mouth.

"Ask me, I don't have any secret recipes that I won't tell anyone else." When Wang Xuanqiao answered, he saw that the bubbles in the oil pan became less, so he used a slotted spoon to scoop out the fried beef from the pan and placed it on a strainer aside to control the oil.

Then he scooped up the remaining beef, shook off the excess sauce, and put it back into the pan.

Rita watched Wang Xuanqiao quietly complete these tasks before she gently opened her lips again and asked, "Why did the manager only use three spices when stewing the meat?"

"Oh, you ask this!" Wang Xuanqiao seemed to have thought of something funny and laughed.

"The number of spices you use really depends on how many spices you have in your kitchen. You see, spices like star anise, cinnamon, and dried chilies are sold in large packages in community supermarkets, but spices with traditional Chinese medicinal properties like angelica and tsaoko are less common."

He smiled as he took out a bag of star anise from the cupboard and showed it to Rita. It was indeed a large package, and even the empty bag could be used for a while.

Looking at the bag of spices, Rita suddenly understood why Yulandel said that the dishes cooked by Wang Xuanqiao tasted very familiar.

Because the dishes he made actually had nothing to do with his cooking skills, they were just ordinary home-cooked meals.

If your family finds they are missing one or two essential spices while cooking, will they deliberately turn down the heat to replenish them? No, unless it is essential food, such as firewood, rice, oil, and salt, then they are very tolerant.

So that's how it is... Rita understood everything, but she couldn't help but think of another thing, something that could breed strange emotions in her heart -

Does he treat Lady Yulandel like a family member?

But why?

——The author has something to say——

In fact, cooking is a matter of personalities. Some people are born to be more serious, so they may strive for consistency in recipes when making home-cooked meals.

But I believe this situation is definitely a small part of the population. Just like some people are more imaginative and good at "thinking on their own", they will make personal innovations in recipes. This situation is definitely there.

Personally, I think that most people cook for themselves and their families, as long as the saltiness and taste meet their requirements. This is what I understand as the taste of home. It may not be delicious enough to meet the standards of a gourmet, but it must be full of friendly and casual flavors, so it is the taste of home.

Ahem, but I didn’t write this plot to promote any messy values or blah blah. I wrote this mainly for Sister Tazi, hey!

Volume 166: : Those who are willing will take the bait

Wang Xuanqiao was not aware that Rita's thinking had entered a vicious circle.

Treating each other as family is actually a very subtle way of saying it, especially in an era when neighbors still supported each other and made progress together, and similar feelings were everywhere.

There is no need for large houses connected together. In the countryside, there are fences next to each other, and in towns, there are residential buildings with shared bathrooms. Every morning, adults and children from different families wake up one after another, first seeing their families and then their neighbors, and they are very close to each other.

Even the children went to the same school and were in the same class. Sometimes, when an adult in one family had something urgent to do, they would ask a neighbor to attend the parent-teacher meeting on their behalf, which made the teacher at the time wonder why an adult answered "present" twice even though the two children did not have the same surname.

We can only say that this is a conceptual error caused by cultural differences.

Unfortunately, Wang Xuanqiao, who was able to resolve Rita's misunderstanding, did not know that there was something wrong with her thinking and was still preparing to stir-fry the beef that had been fried.

He first poured the oil in the pot into a special oil basin with a narrow opening and a wide body for storing oil, then put the empty pot into the sink to clean it. Then he heated the oil in the pot again, poured in the prepared minced ginger and garlic, and then added the bell pepper slices. After frying until fragrant, he added the beef that had been oiled and stir-fried it together.

There is nothing special about this set of movements. Rita's Chinese cooking teacher did it even better than him.

But Rita inexplicably felt that the way Wang Xuanqiao cooked was unexpectedly... friendly?

She suddenly remembered the first time she met Wang Xuanqiao. She was on a mission at the time, still plotting against Gray Snake, but Wang Xuanqiao had inexplicably appeared, interfering and disrupting all her plans.

But he left me to observe the entire transaction from beginning to end without missing a thing. At the end, he even jokingly asked me to pass the message to Otto and pay for the information.

Whenever Rita recalled that scene, she couldn't help but feel a bitter taste in her mouth. It was a feeling of being completely ignored by the other party. The other party didn't take her seriously at all!

Rita accepted the fact that she was weaker than Wang Xuanqiao, but she was unwilling to accept from the bottom of her heart that she could only be used as a mouthpiece at best.

But Rita never expected that when Kallen came back to life, she would no longer be qualified to be a mouthpiece when she met Wang Xuanqiao for the second time. Although she didn't know what Wang Xuanqiao had done at that time, it was not difficult to see that Kallen's resurrection was related to him.

And...it was obviously he who was responsible for the death of Otto, the then Archbishop of Heavenly Providence.

After that, it was the final battle against Honkai. Rita never saw Wang Xuanqiao again, and only vaguely pieced together bits of information from others. For example, the final battle was actually a test he had set for Earth civilization, and he had also brought back those powerful warriors from the former civilization.

All the information about Wang Xuanqiao had almost formed the image of an omnipotent god in Rita's mind. Her rationality had already accepted the neglect, but her emotions had become even more stubborn.

If you are really so omnipotent, why do you treat me like that?

Day after day, Rita followed her rational choice and pushed Wang Xuanqiao into the depths of her memory. But she never expected that this peaceful situation would be accidentally opened by Youlan Daier...

When she arrived, Rita had a certain desire to argue, to find some comfort. But upon meeting Wang Xuanqiao again, she was surprised to discover that he actually knew her quite well. His name was fine, but information like his birthday was quite personal.

Not only that, Wang Xuanqiao even knew about her and Ragnar!

Rita began to feel conflicted. Her petty temper seemed to have lost its meaning in an instant. If she insisted on continuing the argument, the only thing left was Yulandel's evaluation of her cooking skills.

But now, there was no point in competing in the culinary arts. Wang Xuanqiao's skill wasn't his forte, so if they were to compete under these circumstances, Rita felt it would be better for her to cook a meal herself and conquer his stomach.

Family...

Rita thought of this word for no reason. Then, Ruth's innocent smile appeared before her eyes, evoking a warm feeling in her heart.

If I had a daughter...

Rita was startled and quickly shook her head to get rid of the thought.

"What's wrong?" Wang Xuanqiao turned off the stove and looked at her strangely. "Did you not cook the food overcooked enough?"

"Ah! No..." Rita quickly put her hand back in front of her lower abdomen, subconsciously assuming her most accustomed posture, "I just thought of something and lost my composure a little."

"I thought there was something wrong with my cooking," Wang Xuanqiao grinned. "Luckily it wasn't, otherwise I'd definitely ask you to explain it."

"I think Mr. Manager is being modest on this point," Rita shook her head slightly. "Actually, the field of cooking is quite free. Recipes and rules are merely standardized products for the convenience of teaching. They do allow people to learn cooking techniques in a relatively systematic way, but for a chef like Mr. Manager who already has an understanding, they're no longer important."

Hearing this, Wang Xuanqiao laughed heartily.

"I wish Fu Hua could be as good at talking as you," he said. "That was my first time trying to cook, but she gave me a huge blow."

"Lady Fu Hua? I have the impression that Lady Fu Hua is quite strict when it comes to cooking Chinese food." Rita smiled slightly. "In fact, even I have been criticized by Lady Fu Hua before. Mr. Manager, don't worry about it."

"That's right. It's useless to be angry with Fu Hua. Sometimes she can't figure out why you're angry. Even if she does, she might not be able to come up with a proper way to deal with it."

Wang Xuanqiao chatted as he plated the dishes. Since there weren't many people dining, he didn't prepare many dishes. Zhongli and Xianyun both agreed not to interrupt, so the only one eating was Bianca.

A stew, a stir-fried beef, blanched vegetables, white rice, and some fruit at the end, that's actually enough.

Seeing this, Rita stepped forward to help.

"By the way, Mr. Manager," she suddenly said while accepting the dishes, "I didn't bring any gifts this time. Please allow me to help you clean your house as a token of my gratitude for your hospitality. Is that okay with you?"

Wang Xuanqiao's expression became a little subtle.

He was silent for a moment, then said in a slightly embarrassed tone, "It doesn't really matter whether it's a gift or not. If you care about that, you can bring it next time. Besides... the key is that my house doesn't seem to need much extra cleaning."

Rita was stunned. She subconsciously walked out of the kitchen and carefully looked at the environment in the hall. She found that what Wang Xuanqiao said was true. The environment here was indeed kept very clean.

How, how could it be?

Rita suddenly felt a sense of crisis, which in turn aroused the stubbornness that remained in her sensibility.

No, no! Housekeeping and cleaning are the pride of a maid, I must prove myself here!

"Manager, please let me do this."