After coming to an agreement, they continued eating their cucumbers.
Soon, they each finished the half-cucumber in their hands.
"Want more?" Li You asked Ling Xiaoru.
Ling Xiaoru shook her head. "I've had enough. I actually feel a little full."
Li You nodded. Then, he stepped into the vegetable patch.
Even though they weren't eating any more, he still had to pick the few cucumbers that were ready.
Otherwise, they would get old on the vine.
He walked over to a few of the cucumbers and reached out to pick one.
"Ingredient: Cucumber.
Quality: Superior."
'Superior again.' Li You was pleasantly surprised.
"Congratulations to the Host for harvesting an ingredient from the vegetable patch for the first time. Side quest triggered.
Quest Name: Expand the Vegetable Patch.
Quest Objective: Expand the vegetable patch to two fen.
Quest Reward: Two lottery chances, one pack of vegetable seeds (random variety)."
Li You was overjoyed to hear the voice again.
'Finally, a new quest.'
And what's more, the quest's objective was something he had already been planning. He was going to expand the vegetable patch anyway.
Now he was getting a quest reward for free. It was a fantastic feeling.
Expand the vegetable patch to two fen. The current area was one fen. That meant he just needed to expand it by one fen to complete the quest.
'That's easy.'
'What a great surprise!'
Though Li You was thrilled, his hands didn't stop moving.
He picked another cucumber.
"Ingredient: Cucumber.
Quality: Medium."
It was medium quality this time. 'Looks like not all of them are superior quality.'
It was a little disappointing, but no big deal.
It was like he'd thought before: as long as he could get some superior-quality ones, that was more than enough to be satisfying.
Soon, Li You had picked the remaining three cucumbers.
Including the one Ling Xiaoru had picked earlier, four of the six cucumbers were superior quality. The remaining two were medium quality.
'The worst should be medium quality. It's probably impossible to get low quality.'
A superior-quality rate of sixty-six percent was plenty.
Li You was already very satisfied.
Stepping out of the vegetable patch, Li You said to Ling Xiaoru, "I plan to start expanding the garden as soon as possible."
Ling Xiaoru said, "We can start whenever. We could even start right now."
"Really?" Li You said. "In that case, I'll really start now."
"No problem. It's a good thing I'm wearing long pants today. Go get the tools—the hoe, machete, hammer, chisel, and gloves," Ling Xiaoru said.
Li You laughed after hearing her. "You're quite the professional."
Ling Xiaoru said proudly, "But of course."
Li You gave her a thumbs-up, then walked into the kitchen. He put the five cucumbers into the Storage Pavilion and took out a hoe, machete, hammer, chisel, and gloves.
The reason he went into the kitchen to do this was naturally to avoid being seen. He couldn't just pull these tools out of thin air in front of Ling Xiaoru, could he?
He carried the tools outside the restaurant's entrance.
Ling Xiaoru picked up a pair of gloves, put them on, and grabbed the machete. "I'll start by clearing the weeds. I'll just clear the area next to the current patch, right?"
Li You nodded. "Thanks for the hard work."
"Don't mention it, Boss."
With that, Ling Xiaoru walked to the edge of the vegetable patch and started clearing weeds.
Li You also put on his gloves and started working with the hammer and chisel.
He needed to break up some of the larger rocks first to make them easier to move.
"CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!"
Li You began to chisel the rocks while Ling Xiaoru continued clearing the weeds. Even though it was just the two of them, the scene was bustling with activity.
Time passed slowly. Just before 11:00 AM, a customer arrived to eat.
Seeing Li You and Ling Xiaoru clearing the land, the customer seemed very interested and said, "Boss, are you planning to expand your vegetable patch?"
Li You nodded. "That's right! Making it a little bigger so I can grow more vegetables."
The customer said, "You definitely should expand it. The current patch is a bit small. Besides, Boss, you're quite the green thumb. We've all been saying the vegetables in your garden look incredible."
Li You laughed and said, "Just planted them randomly."
He then put down the hammer and chisel and took off his gloves.
Since a customer had arrived, it was time to take a break from work.
At the same time, he called out to Ling Xiaoru, "Miss Xiaoru, let's take a break. We'll continue this afternoon."
Ling Xiaoru replied, "I'll rest after I finish up this section. Boss, you go ahead and take care of the customer. Don't keep them waiting."
Li You nodded. "Alright, I'll get to it then. You should rest soon, too."
"Okay!"
Li You went into the kitchen and started cooking for the customers.
More customers arrived one after another.
It wasn't until 12:30 PM that Li You finally had a moment to spare.
'Ling Xiaoru must be resting outside. I should bring her some plums.'
Li You took some plums from the Storage Pavilion and arranged them on a plate. Then, he carried the plate outside the restaurant.
He didn't see Ling Xiaoru.
'Where is she?'
Li You turned his head and saw that Ling Xiaoru was still busy working in the field.
She had already cleared all the weeds in a certain area. Now she was moving the small chunks of rock that Li You had chiseled earlier.
'This girl is such a hard worker!'
Li You walked over and said, "Miss Xiaoru, come and rest. We can continue this afternoon. There's no rush with this work. I brought you some plums. Come and have some."
Ling Xiaoru said, "It's fine. This work isn't tiring."
However, for the sake of the plums, Ling Xiaoru stood up, took off her gloves, and walked over to Li You.
As she got closer, she said, "These plums must be delicious. They look delicious."
Then she picked up a plum, popped it into her mouth, and took a bite.
After swallowing, she said with excitement, "These plums really are delicious! It's rare to find any with such a great texture. Boss, where did you buy these? How much per jin?"
Li You said, "I grew them at home. If you like them, I'll give you a few jin to take with you when you leave."
Ling Xiaoru's eyes lit up even more upon hearing this. She said again, "Boss, you grow plums at home too? How many trees do you have? Did you get a good harvest this year?"
Li You smiled. "Just one tree. But it's very big, and it fruits well. I should be able to harvest at least 300 jin of plums."
"Over 300 jin? That must be a really big plum tree," Ling Xiaoru said. "I never would have guessed the plums from your home would be this delicious, Boss."
Li You said, "They are pretty good. Eat some more. After you're done, we'll have lunch. What do you want to eat?"
He was definitely going to treat Ling Xiaoru to lunch today.
Ling Xiaoru thought for a moment and said, "Smashed cucumber salad, and spicy crayfish."
Li You nodded. "No problem."
'Even though I don't have a recipe for smashed cucumber salad yet, it's fine. With superior-quality cucumbers, I'm confident I can make a delicious version even without a system recipe.'
'After all, it's not a very technically demanding dish.'
"Come on. Let's go rest. You can eat plums while you relax," Li You said.
Ling Xiaoru nodded.
The two of them returned to the front of the restaurant.
Ling Xiaoru leaned back in the rocking chair, resting and continuing to eat plums.
Meanwhile, Li You went into the kitchen to get busy again.
It wasn't until one in the afternoon that Li You was free again.
He could finally make lunch for himself and Ling Xiaoru.
'She wants spicy crayfish? That's easy.'
After a flurry of work, Li You had a pot of six jin of spicy crayfish ready.
'This should be enough for both of us.'
Then, he took out two superior-quality cucumbers.
After washing them, he smashed them with the side of his knife. Then, he seasoned them with minced garlic, Thai chilies, aged vinegar, light soy sauce, and white sugar.
A serving of smashed cucumber salad was ready.
'Time to eat.'
...