"Brother, are you still my real brother?"

Lu Xiaoyao told Lu Gui what she had just said, and all she got in return was a soft chuckle from her older brother.

"Sorry... pfft~"

Unable to hold back any longer, Lu Gui sat under the pine tree in the courtyard, pulled Lu Xiaoyao to sit on a small stool, and said while suppressing a laugh, "I know you mean well, but if I didn't know... I would have thought you were sowing discord behind Mu Chen's back... oh no, I mean sowing discord in front of him."

"Brother, it hurts!"

As Lu Gui spoke, he poked her forehead with his finger again until Lu Xiaoyao cried out in pain and covered her head in protest, at which point he stopped.

"Besides, the window faces south and gets a lot of sunlight. You know that, do you think Mu Chen doesn't?" Lu Gui said, glancing at Lou Jia's residence, which was separated from theirs by only a wall, and added, "Lou Jia has been helping Mu Chen purify a grapevine these past few days."

Wow! Does that mean we'll be able to eat grapes from now on?

"Next year then." Lu Gui didn't want to remind Lu Xiaoyao that they should leave the game when the grapes ripen next year.

"That's good!"

Speaking of Lou Jia, Lu Xiaoyao asked curiously, "Brother, why didn't Lou Jia join you guys? He's pretty good... even if he's not, he could at least join our team, or team up with someone from our school. Why does he go it alone?"

When Lu Xiaoyao refers to being a loner, she doesn't mean he's actually all alone; she just means that Loujia doesn't like to interact with players.

When Lu Xiaoyao first met Lou Jia at the base, she was quite startled.

The other person seemed to be shrouded in a black mist, making it impossible to see their facial expression, and they looked extremely gloomy.

If it weren't for the fact that he single-handedly adopted five children who had lost their parents in the sudden apocalypse, the oldest being 15 and the youngest only one year old.

Even after adopting a child, Lou Jia's gloomy temperament remained very obvious.

If it weren't for the fact that the children he adopted were still doing well—though not exactly chubby and healthy, they all seemed to be in good spirits—Lu Xiaoyao would have suspected that he was only raising the children on the surface and might have been doing something else behind the scenes.

Even though he's kind to children, he's still hard to approach. Both Mu Chen and Lu Gui extended olive branches to him, but he refused them both.

In the end, he led five children to form his own team, and no one expected this kind of operation.

Who knows?

Lu Gui smiled and shook his head in response to Lu Xiaoyao's question.

As for what Lou Jia encountered in the game, you can find out by asking him a little, since he wasn't the only one who encountered something like that.

However, this matter is not suitable to be discussed, especially not to Lu Xiaoyao.

He didn't doubt that his sister wouldn't feel sympathy after hearing this; he just couldn't trust her to talk. _(:3」∠)_

...

"I can now make 15 boxed lunches a day. I made 12 this morning, but Zhen Hu took two out, and I forcibly confiscated one. I can still make 3 more today~"

"After lunch, I'll take you to the kitchen to cook."

"Hmm, could you also tell your friends to come and buy some, and say that you have several servings every day? Hmm, wouldn't that make it seem like I have a lot of takeout?"

"Won't."

Mu Chen reached out and touched Mingmei's soft hair, saying, "Do you know how expensive your boxed lunches are on the market? Even so, there's no market for them. But the higher-ups still withhold those boxed lunches and give them to some 'insignificant' people."

"The way you're talking... it's like there are no good people on the base."

Mingmei stared at Mu Chen and smiled wryly.

The arrival of the bright sunshine signified that their team was now completely complete. Zhen Po, who always valued supplies more than her own eyes, surprisingly pulled out a few hams and instant noodles this time.

After everyone had a delicious meal, Mu Chen sent someone out to deliver a message, while he stayed in the kitchen with Mingmei to make boxed lunches.

"How about I do it, and you inject your superpower at the end?"

After watching Mingmei cook, Mu Chen pondered how to speak in a way that wouldn't be so provocative.

After all, the boxed lunches that Mingmei made bluntly told people that she was not a good cook.

LOL, shouldn't he have known that back in the newbie village?

What is he expecting here?

"I don't know... I haven't tried it and it won't work." Mingmei didn't want to make lunchboxes either; cooking is so tiring!

Mingmei still doesn't realize that she has absolutely no talent for cooking.

"All I know is that when I'm making food, I concentrate my superpowers in my hands, and the finished lunchboxes have special functions. Is what you're saying really true?"

【Gui Gui, is it okay?】

Gui Gui: [What are you dreaming about? →_→]

Gui Gui ruthlessly shattered Ming Mei's fantasy. Just as Mu Chen was about to suggest giving it a try, he heard Ming Mei reply, "It doesn't seem like it will work."

"I see..."

Hearing the regret in Mu Chen's tone, Mingmei belatedly seemed to realize something, looked at Mu Chen, narrowed her eyes, and asked, "Are you complaining that my cooking isn't good?"

Mu Chen: "..."

"No, I just feel sorry for you suffering in the smoke and fire in the kitchen."

Hearing Mu Chen say this, Zhen Po, who was actually tending the fire on the other side of the stove, couldn't help but twitch the corner of her mouth.

Does nobody care about him?

...

As Lu Xiaoyao's brother, Lu Gui received the news that Mingmei had extra boxed lunches to sell immediately. He came to Mingmei's place that afternoon and paid four crystal cores for a boxed lunch without even haggling over the price of two crystal cores before leaving.

When Mingmei saw these four crystal cores, she couldn't help but sigh. At first, the higher-ups were charging her two crystal cores for ten meals.

She never expected it to be so expensive when she sold it.

So she read out the price for the boxed lunches, which immediately drew disdain from the other people.

"If they can distribute the boxed meals properly, a lower price is acceptable." Mingmei's face didn't look happy either. "The problem is that those boxed meals are controlled by higher-ups and used as bargaining chips in power struggles, which I don't like."

Mingmei had been recruited before, but the things the recruiters said made her uncomfortable. Because of this, she was ostracized and unhappy in the cafeteria for a while.

"It's alright. For the sake of the base, someone will eventually take care of those corrupt officials." Mu Chen comforted Mingmei, and the certainty in his tone made Mingmei look at him a few more times.

...Outside the game...

"The game company is really bold..."

As Julian's homeroom teacher, Xin Bailu stared blankly at the NPC standing opposite Julian in the live broadcast camera. Wasn't that the face of their Federation's president?

They put all of these in?

"Does our president know about this?"

Xin Bailu looked around at the teachers with a puzzled expression. The principal next to her coughed softly and said, "They must have gotten permission. They won't smear our president in the game."

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