In September 1964, the sweltering heat of the past two months finally and reluctantly faded away, and autumn gently covered the sky. The wind at this time was not at all bleak; in fact, it was warm and lazy, lazily playing with the slightly yellowing ginkgo leaves.

Chen Kang stood in the back kitchen of the No. 3 canteen of Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill, flanked by cooks who were waiting with their arms crossed to watch the show. Sunlight streamed in through the exhaust fan, and the dust was mixed with the mottled smell of the old era.

Across from him sat a man with sloping shoulders and a crooked leg, looking nonchalant; this man had slanted eyes, a sallow complexion, thin lips, and a mean-spirited appearance.

His voice was also detached, with a particularly contemptuous and disdainful tone: "Chen Kang, right? That name is hard to remember. I see you're fat and chubby, so from now on, I'll just call you Fatty."

Chen Kang, now fat, didn't answer. His eyes were unfocused, as if he were in a dream.

The man who spoke was holding an enamel mug. He took a sip of the foamy mug, squinted, and said, "My name is He Yuzhu. I'm in charge of this little corner of the Third Canteen. I don't care who put you in here. If you want to learn under me, you'd better know the rules."

After saying that, he turned around and shouted, "MCA!"

Upon hearing this, Ma Hua quickly scooped a large spoonful of water from the pot next to him, walked in front of the fat man, and poured it on the top of his head.

A ladle of ice-cold water ran down his hair, past his eyes, nose, and mouth, and finally into the back of his collar, making the fat man shudder.

The onlookers burst into laughter, and then the second guy came up, looking amused: "Hey fat thief, here's your reward." He dumped a whole bowl of rotten vegetable leaves that had been torn off onto the fat man's head.

The laughter in the kitchen grew louder. Not to be outdone, the third guy grabbed a small bowl of damp flour and said, "Three years of apprenticeship and two years of service, this is your reward." He then dumped the whole bowl of flour on his head.

Flour was everywhere – all over his head, face, clothes, and pants…

Just then, a round-faced, round-armed, round-bodied middle-aged woman who looked like a puppet walked over and affectionately grabbed the fat man's ear: "Look how chubby the child is, isn't that good! Be good from now on, okay? Go out and shake him up."

The fat man quickly left the cafeteria and went to a place where he couldn't see anyone. His eyes slowly cleared up. Looking up at the clear blue sky, which was like an inverted mirror, and taking in his surroundings, he still felt an extremely unreal feeling.

Before I knew it, several days had passed, but everything still felt so unfamiliar.

Two worlds, two souls, seemed to be tearing each other apart. It wasn't until a bucket of cold water was poured over his head that he finally came to his senses.

Before embarking on the journey, Chen Kang and a few of his buddies took on a brand new profession: professional movers.

It provides a one-stop service: packing up belongings from the old home, moving them to the new home, and then restoring the new home to its original state, all without the customer having to lift a finger! It's called bSo.

This is a completely new profession. To achieve a 1:1 restoration, it even requires the use of virtual reality technology, or VR. It looks like they're doing the same work as regular moving companies, but they earn 5-10 times more!

Business was just starting to pick up, and he was on the verge of achieving his goal of owning a car and a house. The night before, he enthusiastically ordered milk tea, fried chicken, and crayfish, but before he knew it, he was overweight.

He Yuzhu is also known as Shazhu. Ma Hua is his apprentice. And then there's himself... Needless to say, this is a parallel world, the world of "Birds Fill the Courtyard".

1964! In the era he hadn't even lived through, this year was already being called the 1960s, the last century!

What can he do? If it were the 1990s, he could have gone into business and taken off by riding the wave of opportunity with his advanced knowledge and insight. Even ten years earlier, he could have made a living by dealing in sunglasses, selling bell-bottoms, or printing bootleg tapes. But what can he do now?

In this era, even shops were state-owned; public ownership was the dominant economic model. Furthermore, Chen Kang, though still called Chen Kang, was essentially the cunning, manipulative, and ultimately betrayed fat man from the TV series, who was later recruited by Yu Li.

Right now, in order to replace his father and cherish this hard-won opportunity to become an apprentice in the factory, he has to swallow his pride and silently endure letting Sha Zhu "set rules" for him.

The fat man dawdled as he cleaned himself up. He wasn't afraid of being slow; the longer he dawdled, the more satisfied they would be. Otherwise, if he went in in two minutes, how could they get the satisfaction of "bullying an honest man"?

The fat man took off his round-neck chef's uniform, shook off the flour, and then vigorously patted his blue canvas pants, which were the same width from top to bottom.

A buzz cut, a sailor shirt, military trousers or blue canvas pants, paired with a pair of old cloth shoes—this was the fashion trend of this era.

At 6 o'clock, the loudspeaker announced that everyone was off work on time. Sha Zhu packed his lunchboxes in a net bag and said to everyone, "Alright, everyone go now. Fatty is in charge of cleaning the kitchen inside and out today."

Everyone left one after another, laughing and joking, leaving only Fatty sitting in the chair that Silly Pillar had sat in before, quietly observing his future work environment.

It's not worth getting angry with Sha Zhu and his gang. Having witnessed the fates of most people, the fat man had already slowly drawn up a list in his mind: which of these people could be used, which were insignificant, and which he could fight for…

For example, you can't rely on Sha Zhu at all; you can't learn anything from him.

To be honest, Sha Zhu's cooking skills are really not bad.

But this guy was extremely selfish; in the original story, he kept everything he taught Ma Hua a secret. Later, he took Fatty to work for Yu Li, making Fatty think he had learned everything, only to find that Fatty couldn't even cook a dish without him...

Fortunately, soon after the fat man fully regained consciousness, he discovered that a system called "Stardew Valley" had been activated in his mind.

This is a casual game that the fat guy played in another time and space.

Inside is a small town with forests, beaches, farms, clinics, carpenters, blacksmiths, bars, and even a supermarket.

The system also released its first main quest: harvest parsnip once, rewarding you with basic cooking skills and recipes.

The system, ironically, has become his greatest asset.

Currently, the system has only unlocked the farm section, which is overgrown with weeds, jagged rocks, and trees thicker than a person can be seen everywhere... Apart from a small wooden house that is barely habitable, there is also a dog that was picked up the next morning.

This is a wolfhound, which Fatty named "Xu Jiang." He then cleared a patch of land outside and planted the parsnip seeds that the system had provided. He wondered what his basic cooking skills were roughly at. He looked forward to the rewards the system would bring, and also to the rest of his life…