29: Chapter 29 Mission Reward: -200

Xiao Huang Village was just a small village of a few dozen people. Including the fields, rivers, wasteland, and a small hill nearby, the territory wasn't very large.

However, that was only in terms of the game.

In reality, such a village was enough for the people living there to spend their whole lives.

As for Tang Yao, after buying the fashion item and briefly losing her goal, she gradually developed a second one—to buy a house in the village and live there for a while.

After asking the village chief about the price, she prepared to continue Harvesting pig grass to earn money.

After all, she was already a little expert at Harvesting pig grass. She believed that in less than two days, she would be able to save up enough money to buy the house.

Moreover, she remembered the village chief saying that no matter the job, as long as you kept at it, there would be surprises. Her Harvesting skill was already at level 7, and she was only 3 levels away from reaching the max level of 10. Just thinking about it made her a little excited.

But when she found the Pig Keeper, he pointed to the pig grass piled high outside the pigsty and said, "I can't fit any more pig grass here. Are you willing to help me boil them into pig feed to feed the pigs? I can pay you a reward of up to 500 copper coins for one pot of pig feed."

500 copper coins?

Why didn't he say sooner that there was such a good deal!

Tang Yao thought about how she had to work hard to cut a hundred catties of pig grass by the river and carry it back just to earn 200 copper coins, and she couldn't help but feel a bit depressed.

However, it seemed that the task of boiling pig feed could only be triggered once the pig grass was piled up.

Then, let's do it!

Tang Yao accepted the task, listened to a couple of tips from the Pig Keeper on how to boil pig feed—which were nothing more than adding water first and then the grass—and began her great pig-feeding career.

First, she boiled a big pot of water. She chopped up the pig grass, chopped up the sweet potatoes, chopped up the pumpkins, and threw everything in. Then she sprinkled in a handful of cornmeal and gave it a stir.

After waiting for more than an hour, the pot was bubbling away, and Tang Yao felt it was about ready.

She laboriously ladled it out and poured it into the trough in the sty. The pigs came crowding around, grunting, and without caring if it was hot or not, they reached out their snouts to root around.

Seeing this scene, Tang Yao couldn't help but laugh happily. "Feeding pigs is much more interesting than Harvesting pig grass!"

However, the pigs only took one bite, rooted at the trough twice, grunted a few times at Tang Yao, and went back inside to sleep.

They weren't eating?

Tang Yao seemed to see disdain in the pigs' eyes.

But wasn't that how pig feed was boiled?

"Little piggies, eat up. If you don't eat, how am I supposed to complete the task?"

Tang Yao coaxed the pigs by the side of the sty. But the pigs were too lazy to even grunt.

The Pig Keeper, who had come out of the house, saw this scene, rushed to the pot to take a look, and turned bright red with anger, stomping his feet and shouting, "Oh my, look at what you've done! You've completely ruined a perfectly good pot of pig feed!!"

"Don't even think about the reward. If it weren't for the fact that you helped me Harvest pig grass, I would really make you pay me back the 200 copper for the pig grass!"

[Pig Feeding Task Evaluation: Extremely Poor.]

[Task Reward Assessment: -200 copper.]

[Due to your poor performance, the Pig Keeper's favorability towards you has decreased by 10 points.]

Looking at the Pig Keeper's furious appearance and the three System notifications, Tang Yao understood that the pot of pig feed probably wasn't as good as she had imagined, so she asked in a low voice, "Then how should I boil it..."

The Pig Keeper seemed to have stayed with the pigs for too long and had picked up some of their habits. He grunted twice and said, "I'll demonstrate it for you myself. If the pig feed you boil is still something the pigs won't eat, don't even think about working for me again!"

Tang Yao struggled to clean up the pig feed that the pigs wouldn't eat and carefully learned how the Pig Keeper did it.

"Don't pour too much water, half a pot is enough. Once it's steaming hot, you can add the pig grass, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins."

"After putting them in, mix it a few times. Once the water is boiling thoroughly and the pig grass is soft, sprinkle in the cornmeal and keep stirring."

The Pig Keeper explained to Tang Yao while he worked.

"Be careful when stirring. If you don't use enough strength, you won't be able to stir it at all. If you use too much strength and miss, you might fall into the pot and scald your face with blisters!"

"In the final stage, you need to increase the heat, otherwise you'll just end up with a pot of soup," the Pig Keeper said, feeding wood into the fire while speeding up his stirring. "At this point, your movements must be faster. Wherever you see bubbles, you must stir that spot to break them up. If you're too slow, the uncooked cornmeal inside will form a lump, and the pigs won't even bother to eat it!"

Tang Yao listened attentively, and upon hearing this, her face flushed red.

No wonder the pigs didn't eat the pot of feed she had boiled earlier.

It turned out there were so many tricks to it.

Once the pot of pig feed that the Pig Keeper had personally prepared was done, before it was even poured into the trough, the pigs sleeping in the sty smelled it and rushed to the trough, oinking loudly. As soon as the Pig Keeper poured the feed into the trough, the pigs immediately surrounded it to fight for the food. They made "pia-ji" sounds while eating, and their little tails wagged non-stop.

Tang Yao watched this scene, and comparing it to her own pig feeding earlier, she felt ashamed. However, she was very competitive. After carefully watching the entire process of the Pig Keeper boiling a pot of pig feed from start to finish, she was confident that the next pot she made would definitely make these little piggies eat it all up!

After feeding the pigs, the Pig Keeper clapped his hands. "Alright, the pigs are full now. Come back and boil the next pot in an hour." With that, he went into the house to rest.

Tang Yao had no choice but to suppress her eager feelings, pulled up a stool, and sat by the side of the road.

There were few interesting things in the village, and sitting by the side of the road, there wasn't much scenery to admire. However, due to that special experience, she didn't feel bored. As long as there was light before her eyes and wind in her ears, she was already very happy.

As she sat there, a figure appeared in the distance. The person seemed to have seen her too and rushed over as if a dog were chasing his tail.

"Finally, I found you," the person ran over, hands resting on his legs, panting heavily.

"It's you? Sit down, quickly, sit down." Tang Yao stood up in surprise and offered the stool to Hu Gualing.

She recognized at a glance that this tall guy in front of her was the "game expert" she had met yesterday, Hu Gualing.

At that time, she had many questions she wanted to ask, but Hu Gualing kept dying after every Resurrection, giving her no chance to speak at all. After his last death, she waited in place for a long time, but she didn't see Hu Gualing come back online, and she felt quite disappointed. Meeting him this time, she had to ask him about the situation in reality!

Hu Gualing sat down and, without a word, took [A Bucket of Clear Water] from his backpack, held the wooden bucket, tilted his head back, and poured it into his mouth.

Seeing him like this, Tang Yao couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong with you?"

Hu Gualing, who was drinking water, glanced at her. To find Tang Yao, he had run all over the village and outside, and even went to that small hill. He never expected her to be at the pig farm!

After downing half a bucket of water, Hu Gualing put away the bucket and wiped his mouth. "Don't speak yet. I have a question to ask you. Are you a player?" Hu Gualing stared at Tang Yao nervously, waiting for her answer.

Seeing his nervous appearance, Tang Yao was a bit confused, but she still nodded and said, "Of course I am. Aren't you too?"

"Hiss—" Upon getting the answer, Hu Gualing took a breath and rubbed his jaw. "That's not right. Even so, it doesn't prove you're a player. I need to change to a more profound question!"

Listening to Hu Gualing's muttering, Tang Yao was even more confused. The only two players she knew of so far: first was herself, a vegetative patient; second was this Hu Gualing, who had a brain problem. Were the criteria for selecting players for Fantasy Jianghu this harsh?

Hu Gualing pondered for a while and threw out a second question. "Where are you from?"

Tang Yao replied, "I am from Jiangnan."

Hu Gualing pressed, "Which Jiangnan?"

Tang Yao thought for a moment. "Jiangnan, Jiangzhou, China."

"Hiss—" Hu Gualing rubbed his jaw again. "No, no, that's still not right. These are all things I know. Your answer doesn't count. How on earth can I prove whether it's real or not?"

Listening to Hu Gualing's words, Tang Yao gradually had some guesses and suggested, "Why don't you think carefully, is there any question where you only know the question itself but don't know the answer?"

Hu Gualing pondered for a moment, clapped his hands, and said, "Right!"

As long as he posed a question for which he himself did not know the answer, if Tang Yao could still answer it, then it would prove that she was a real player, and it would also prove that he wasn't dreaming, but had truly entered a holographic online game!

So, what was a suitable question? Hu Gualing thought for a long time, and suddenly inspiration struck. There happened to be such a question; he had absolutely no idea what the answer was, but he remembered the question stem very clearly!