After playing with his pets for two or three hours, Shi Xiaolei finally remembered that he needed to go to the market the next morning to purchase ingredients for business.
Reluctantly, he left the ARK hidden in the dimensional gap and returned home with a pile of items.
Looking at the time, it was already past one in the morning.
Not daring to delay further, Shi Xiaolei quickly went to the bathroom to clean up and got into bed as fast as possible.
Perhaps it was because he had spent considerable energy playing with those large creatures, or perhaps because he had been excited for most of the day, leaving his mind somewhat fatigued.
Either way, before long, Stone Xiaolei entered dreamland, emitting steady snoring sounds.
When he woke up again, it was already the next morning.
Just like any other day, Shi Xiaolei was responsible for making breakfast, while 2B helped little Kanna organize her schoolbag and braid her hair.
After eating and drinking their fill, seeing that it was about time, Shi Xiaolei stood up, holding an empty bowl and chopsticks in one hand while patting Kanna head with the other.
"Are you full? Wipe your mouth, it's time to go."
"Okay~."
Nodding obediently, Kanna picked up her small bowl, jumped off the chair, and followed Shi Xiaolei into the kitchen.
Smiling, Shi Xiaolei took a wet wipe from the tissue box on the countertop and wiped the little girl mouth.
He called to 2B. "We'll wash these when we get back." while leading the little girl out.
"Hmm? Oh. Rock, are you going too?"
2B asked curiously.
"Yes, let's go together."
Shi Xiaolei nodded, picked up the small backpack from the sofa and helped the little girl put it on.
"After dropping off Kanna, I'll stop by the market. I plan to visit a hardware store to buy some things to bring back."
2B didn't say anything, but little Kanna jumped up happily.
"Xiaolei, Xiaolei, are you going to take me to school?"
"That's right~."
Bending down to pick up the little girl, he gently pinched her nose, earning a series of giggles. Shi Xiaolei said with a smile.
"I'm going to buy some new equipment and make you something delicious tonight."
"Really?"
The little girl became even more excited, her face showing an innocent and radiant smile, looking as cute as a doll.
"Of course it's true."
Pretending to look mysterious, Shi Xiaolei deliberately leaned close to the little girl ear.
"I'll tell you a secret, I've got a lot of really tasty meat."
"Meat, mmm~."
Recalling Shi Xiaolei braised pork, the little girl couldn't help but drool.
"You like it, don't you?"
"Yes, yes, I love meat the most~."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go. You listen carefully in school, and I'll go buy equipment. By the time you come home from school, you'll be able to eat delicious meat."
"Okay~~!"
Following behind Shi Xiaolei and watching their interaction, 2B felt a warmth in her heart, and her face unconsciously revealed a tender smile.
There's no need to elaborate on the journey.
In short, after a trip around the market, at around 9:30 in the morning, the two of them returned to the store with a pile of purchased items.
After parking the car, they went to the back and opened the trunk.
Taking out a cardboard box full of ingredients, Shi Xiaolei smiled and instructed.
"Sylvia, take these over. I'll carry the stove."
"Alright."
For convenience, Shi Xiaolei had parked the car at the store entrance, planning to unload all the purchased items first before driving the car to the back.
Monday morning, around 9:30 to 10:00.
Those who had to work were already at their workplaces, while those who didn't were still in bed.
There weren't many pedestrians on the street, nor many customers in the store.
As a result, the owners of the surrounding shops were quite idle.
Some were arranging goods in their stores, some were sweeping in front of their doors, and others weren't doing anything at all—just sitting outside their shops, sunbathing and cracking sunflower seeds.
This was Chinatown after all, and about half of the shop owners here had come from mainland China.
Seeing Shi Xiaolei carry a stove from the car, the owner of the neighboring handicraft shop couldn't help but approach.
"Brother Shi, where did you buy that grill? Are you planning to set up a barbecue stand?"
What Shi Xiaolei was carrying wasn't the round covered grill that Americans use for BBQ, but the long rectangular grill that can be seen in any food street in China—in simple terms, the kind of stove specifically used for barbecue skewers.
Perhaps because recycling skewers was considered unhygienic, or for other reasons, there weren't many barbecue skewer stands in the US.
Having been here for many years without being able to enjoy this particular food, it's no wonder this middle-aged man couldn't resist coming over to chat when he suddenly saw Shi Xiaolei bring back a grill.
"I got some good lamb meat yesterday and suddenly thought of this."
Shi Xiaolei greeted him with a smile.
"Whether I'll sell it or not, I'm not sure yet. Let me try it first. By the way, Brother Liu, are you free tonight? Why don't you come over and have some, and give me some feedback while you're at it."
"Haha, sure, I've been craving this."
The man surnamed Liu nodded without hesitation.
"I happen to have two bottles of good liquor that I bought when I last went back to China. I'll bring them over tonight, and we can have a drink together."
"Sounds good, let's have a drink."
Although they agreed to meet in the evening, by around 3 PM, Old Liu couldn't contain his eagerness. He left his shop in the hands of his assistant and sneaked over to Shi Xiaolei store.
Barbecue skewers need the skewers before they can be grilled.
2B had gone to pick up Kanna from school, and Shi Xiaolei was too clumsy and inefficient, which was unbearable to watch.
That's why Old Liu had left work early to come and help prepare the skewers.
"Wow, where did you get this lamb meat? Not bad at all."
"I ordered it directly from a ranch through someone. It's decent, right?"
Although the other party was a very enthusiastic fellow countryman who generally wasn't one to gossip, considering that he was an ordinary person, Shi Xiaolei didn't tell him the true origin of the lamb meat.
Actually, all this lamb meat had been brought out from ARK by Shi Xiaolei—like other supplies stored in his base, when he quit the game, Shi Xiaolei warehouse still had a pile of lamb meat left unused, meant for taming pets.
As for exactly how much... because he found the original game settings too complicated, he had specifically installed an item stacking MOD.
As a result, without realizing it, he had accumulated around forty to fifty stacks of lamb meat, with 999 pieces per stack.
At one kilogram per piece, that added up to about four or five tons.
If there were only two or three pieces, rotting wouldn't matter much, but with such a large quantity, if they all rotted and turned into spoiled meat as they would in the game, it would be too wasteful.
He didn't dare to bring dinosaur meat out indiscriminately, but these were lamb, so he thought there shouldn't be much issue.
Thus, for the purpose of mitigating loss, Shi Xiaolei took all the lamb meat out of the refrigerator and stuffed it into the inventory bag that had been activated along with his Barbarian bloodline.
Although the character built-in inventory in "Diablo 2" had no concept of time and could keep the lamb meat fresh, conversely, because the inventory slots were far fewer than in "ARK: Survival Evolved".
It wasn't a problem temporarily, but having so much lamb meat occupying his inventory space wasn't sustainable.
So, with the intention of freeing up inventory space, Shi Xiaolei racked his brain and came up with an idea to quickly consume all this lamb meat.
"By the way, why do you only have these meat cuts? Don't you have leg meat or rump meat?"
"Haha, it's the American way—they sell meat by parts here."
"True. It's just that using such good cuts of meat and chopping them into small pieces for skewers feels a bit wasteful."
"Either way it's all food, might as well prepare it how we like it best. I don't think it's wasteful, just a bit more work."
"Haha, that's because you're not used to it yet. After a few days of practice, it'll become second nature."
As the two were chatting, a burst of laughter came from outside the door.
The next second, little Kanna burst in energetically: "I'm baaack~!"
(T/N: Like the story fellow daoist?you can read 20 chapters ahead on my P@treon [p@treon.com/DaoistRongyi] Thanks for your support! 😊)