In the second half of the night, the drizzling spring rain kept lingering in the air, continuing until dawn.
Long Jun didn't know when he had fallen asleep. In his half-dreaming, half-waking state, he seemed to have a head full of bizarre dreams.
Sometimes he dreamed of achieving high honors in the imperial examinations, riding a horse through the streets, seeing all the flowers of Chang'an in a day;
Sometimes he dreamed of being taken by a demon into a cold, misty desolate mountain, where a fox girl forced him to marry her;
Then in a flash, he felt himself turn into a demon, breaking into the ghost market of the dark spring.
On the dim long street with floating ghost fires, demons and ghosts came and went, trading things like corpse oil, human skin, rotten maggots, bloody straw dolls. There were also ghost tears, human skin lanterns, skull wine cups...
Long Jun awoke with a start.
His heart pounded so hard it almost jumped out of his chest.
He leaned against the window, listening to the various sounds from South Market Street in the distance, as well as the quarreling of couples from neighbors, the clanging of pots and pans, the crying of children...
The greed, anger, and delusion of the mortal world actually brought him back to the human realm.
Long Jun let out a long breath, finally calming his emotions and clearing his thoughts.
It was a dream, thank goodness.
He took his cane and decided to go to the kitchen first.
To see if... there really were rat demons!
In the kitchen, everything seemed no different from how he had left it after preparing his evening meal yesterday.
Except that the stove was slightly warm, and in the bowl covered with bamboo strips on the stove top, the white porridge had completely disappeared.
And beside the empty porridge bowl, there was now a grayish-brown piece of tree bark about half a palm in size!
Seeing this piece of bark, Long Jun was startled at first, then immediately thought of what the rat demon had said last night: "Take this 'trouble-free skin' to the stove top."
So the so-called "trouble-free skin" was actually a piece of tree bark.
Just hearing the name before, Long Jun had thought it was some kind of magical treasure or garment.
But come to think of it, if the rat demons from that night were truly so powerful that they could casually give away magical items, how could they possibly be stealing... or rather, exchanging porridge at night?
Somehow, upon discovering that the rat demon's gift was just a small piece of tree bark, Long Jun wasn't disappointed but rather let out a light sigh of relief.
He leaned forward slightly to examine the bark, wondering how to handle this item, when suddenly another message appeared before his eyes.
[Trouble-free skin, bark from a century-old peach tree, carrying it on your person has a slight effect of warding off evil, grinding it into powder and consuming it can kill bacteria and remove filth.]
Long Jun blinked, and the message prompt disappeared. When he focused his attention and looked again, the message prompt reappeared.
Long Jun immediately realized he had gained an extraordinary ability. He quickly tried to examine all the items around him and concluded that this ability should be called [I Can See All Food Entries]!
Yes, all "food," including some unconventional edible items.
Like the salt in the jar, the entry prompt said: [Crude salt, salty, bitter, harmless in small amounts, toxic in large quantities.]
And the ash at the bottom of the iron pot, the entry prompt said: [Pot ash, poor quality Herb Frost, has a slight hemostatic effect whether taken internally or applied externally.]
Even pot ash had a prompt, showing the broad range of "edible" items covered by the entries.
Long Jun immediately had countless thoughts, and his previously depressed mood began to surge slightly.
But thinking that there might still be demons hiding somewhere in his home, he quickly controlled his fluctuating emotions.
He walked back and forth in the kitchen, pretending to be surprised and said: "Huh, where did the porridge go? Did I remember wrong?"
He casually tucked the tree bark from the stove top into his sleeve pocket and set the porridge bowl aside.
[Trouble-free skin], wards off evil, the rat demons were thoughtful.
Returning the favor, Long Jun immediately lit a fire to prepare breakfast.
With limited ingredients, Long Jun boiled another pot of white rice porridge.
Then he beat five eggs, grabbed a handful of flour, mixed it with water, added some salt and lard, and made ten thin, soft egg pancakes.
When the eggs and lard mixed together, they instantly released a wonderful aroma under high heat.
The child from the eastern neighbor had a particularly sensitive nose and actually called out from the wall: "Grandma, Grandma, Shi Tou wants to eat egg pancakes, the egg pancakes smell so good!"
Just as the shouting came out, a head with white hair appeared over the east wall of Long Jun's courtyard. It was an old woman calling towards Long Jun's kitchen: "Scholar, Scholar Long, how did you make these egg pancakes? How are they so fragrant?"
[Like +1]
[Like +1]
...
Long Jun was shocked in the kitchen.
So not only did rat demon likes get prompted, but ordinary people's praises also had prompts!
What was going on? What purpose did these likes serve?
Long Jun had a thought and immediately walked out of the kitchen, smiling at the old woman on the wall: "Good morning, Granny Lai. You say my egg pancakes smell good? Are they really fragrant?"
Granny Lai's eyeballs rolled around, the wrinkles on her face piling together, her tongue licking her mouth as she said: "They're fragrant, truly fragrant! So fragrant, Scholar Long, are you going to share a few pieces with us?"
[Like +1]
[Like +1]
[Like +1]
With three consecutive likes jumping out, on the other side of the wall, Lai's little boy anxiously shouted: "Grandma, I want some too! Fragrant egg pancakes, Shi Tou wants them!"
[Like +1]
[You have collected 10 likes, Blood Qi +1]
[Food Cauldron Scripture unlocked]
Long Jun's vision suddenly blurred slightly, and he immediately felt an ancient bamboo scroll, as if coming from another end of distant time and space.
It seemed both virtual and real, both true and false, and it slowly unfolded before Long Jun's eyes in the current void!
Long Jun was startled, but his first reaction was to turn and look at Granny Lai who was leaning on the wall.
He was worried that Granny Lai would see the Food Cauldron Scripture before his eyes.
But before this worry could be expressed, a strange sensing in the depths of his mind made Long Jun know: the Food Cauldron Scripture was his personal treasure, only he could know it, see it, and use it.
Granny Lai was still staring at Long Jun with greedy eyes, her saliva seemingly about to drip out.
Seeing that Long Jun wasn't answering, she hurriedly urged: "Scholar Long, your pancakes? My Shi Tou also wants to eat them!"
Under normal circumstances, Long Jun would definitely not agree to casually give pancakes to a neighbor like Granny Lai, who was like a leech.
But this time the situation was different. He turned and went into the kitchen, putting two egg pancakes on a plate and bringing them out.
He walked slowly with his limp, and on the way, Granny Lai kept calling: "Scholar Long, Scholar Long?"
Long Jun came to the wall with the plate, saying with a half-smile: "Granny Lai, there's no need to be so anxious. The road has an end, there's no need to compete on the snail's horns."
Granny Lai's eyes had long been glued to the egg pancakes, how could she hear what Long Jun was saying?
She anxiously clung to the wall, her neck stretching out like a hanged duck, her arm reaching out to grab the pancakes.
"What snail or earth cattle, scholars speak in such a difficult way to understand. Oh, these pancakes smell so good! Hurry, I can't reach them, Scholar, stretch your hand out more!"
[Like +1]
Long Jun moved his hand slightly away, keeping the plate half a foot away from Granny Lai's claw-like hand.
"Granny Lai, are the egg pancakes truly fragrant?"
"Fragrant, fragrant, fragrant! Hurry, give them to me!"
[Like +1]
Long Jun raised the plate higher, and Granny Lai finally stretched her fingers and swept away the two pancakes from the plate in an instant.
She used too much force and her body fell backwards over the wall. From across the wall, Long Jun heard a thump.
"Ouch!" Granny Lai fell to the ground but didn't care about the pain at all. Her voice was distorted with wild joy, "Fragrant! The pancakes are truly fragrant, delicious! Shi Tou, quick, quick, come eat the pancakes!"
Shi Tou happily rushed up and immediately started devouring them wildly: "So fragrant, so delicious! Awoo, awoo, delicious, delicious!"
[Like +1]
[Like +1]
...
On the other side of the wall, the grandmother and grandson were wild with joy. On this side of the wall, Long Jun was also wild with joy.
The golden finger had finally arrived, and he felt that he might be saved.