Chapter 24
On the way, she shared the information she had "snooped" out: "It's not easy to ask about these things openly; everyone is keeping quiet. The person we met this time, we didn't really meet face to face. We were both on guard against each other. Later, I changed my approach to inquire if anything strange had happened, and I found out something."
"Do you know a game streamer named Yi Xue Zhi Dong? Hasn't his gaming skill suddenly improved a lot recently?"
Yu Xunhuan's eyes lit up. "Yes! We're good friends; we've known each other for a long time. Just recently, we were talking about him in our gaming group, and it was like he suddenly had an epiphany."
Yu Xunge nodded. "Right. When that player chatted with me, he also mentioned Ye Dong, suspecting he has some skills related to sound. I watched his livestream replay, and every time he shouted things like 'Stand up and hold on, I believe in you!' their team suddenly became incredibly strong."
Yu Xunhuan: What on earth?
Yu Xunge explained, "I told you about divine gifts, right? Divine gifts can be all sorts of strange things. I can control people's luck for a short time, and other players might be able to use sound to influence others."
On the way home, Yu Xunge tossed the matter of Ye Dong to Yu Xunhuan and left it at that. For now, Yu Xunhuan was still an ordinary person. This time, the ordinary person in front of Ye Dong had switched from herself to him. Whether he could transition from being friends to close brothers depended on his own abilities.
Yu Xunge didn't let Yu Xunhuan accompany her back to the villa. She didn't like outsiders stepping into her territory. She planned to sell the villa in a while and buy a small apartment that had an entrance to a dungeon.
Whether exchanging resources with the official side or keeping it for herself to farm dungeons, both were good options.
After having a meal at the Yu family home, she declined Yu Xunhuan's offer to drive her back to the villa and returned home on her own.
Then she began to shut herself away to study.
Let's just say she wasn't a top student before; it was simply because she hadn't found the right major.
For the next period, Yu Xunge diligently and almost reverently went through all the beginner and intermediate alchemy recipes. Each recipe came with a video of the alchemy process, and she worked hard to memorize every move of the undead mentor.
After finishing a total of 400 recipes, she started watching them again from the beginning and noticed that the undead female mentor occasionally explained a thing or two.
Yu Xunge: Teacher, you're giving me an advantage!
Perhaps in the eyes of true scholars, there was no difference between the Blue Star people and other races besides the undead. Just like goblins, who cared little for war and glory, focusing instead on money and business, once professional skills reached a legendary level, they only saw the transmission of craft.
She didn't dwell on it but cherished everything instead.
Whenever she hit a dead end, she would cook a meal for the cats outside. The Meow Meow Inn lived up to its name; cats came and went, but none stayed for long. The longest any cat lingered was just under three days. While there were feral cats in the villa area, they only came by occasionally for a meal and never stayed.
Though Yu Xunge loved cats, she had no plans to adopt one. She was too busy, often going out to stir up trouble. Where would she find the time to care for a pet that needed constant attention?
This arrangement was just fine. All she needed to do was prepare a bit of low-salt, low-seasoning meat while practicing her cooking skills, leaving it outside for the various cats to enjoy. She could pet and cuddle them without any responsibility.
An open relationship with cats.
The food she made for the cats, while made from the most ordinary meats in the real world, still had beneficial effects. After eating, some cats would experience a temporary boost in strength, while others would gain increased speed. The taste was quite good, and both the cats and Yu Xunge enjoyed it.
Although the skills learned from another world were also taught through videos playing in her mind, it was still different from following along while watching. After all, the former was directly projected into her brain, eliminating reaction time and continuously reinforcing her memory.
In just half a year, Yu Xunge transformed from someone who was not skilled in cooking into a chef proficient in hundreds of recipes.
Everything was interconnected; now, even if she didn't follow the recipes, the dishes she casually threw together still tasted great—just without any beneficial effects.
She hadn't ordered takeout in a long time because her own cooking was far better than anything she could buy outside. Moreover, some of her dishes had effects like "no matter what you do, you will become more focused." Even if the effect lasted only a few minutes, she found that those few minutes significantly boosted her learning efficiency, allowing her to easily notice details in the alchemy videos that she had previously overlooked.
Yu Xunge even spent half a day baking over a thousand cookies that could enhance focus after eating, munching on them while studying.
In August, she also took the time to formally terminate her contract with the company and issued a statement about her withdrawal from the industry.
For now, it was better for her to stay out of the public eye. What she had told Yu Xunhuan about Ye Dong being discovered for his oddities wasn't entirely untrue. After all, wasn't the gaming group discussing Ye Dong's changes?
To ordinary people, such changes might be mere gossip, but for players, it quickly connected to the game.
She suspected that in her previous life, Ye Dong's sudden move to S City to find Yu Xunhuan might have been due to being discovered, seeking a trusted friend for support.
The news of Yu Xunge's withdrawal from the industry stirred up quite a buzz online for a few days. People dug up the recent incident where someone from her agency had died, and her manager had been implicated, speculating whether she had suffered some harm.
Yu Xunge answered the questions she could, not caring much about the superficial fame, but that didn't mean she was willing to bear any baseless bad reputation or have people speculate about sordid matters.
"I'm doing well, not harmed at all. I'm just feeling tired and want to take a break to live the life I truly want."
"No sudden wealth, no marrying into a wealthy family. I just calculated my savings, and it's enough for me to live on."
"Yes, the person selling the bag in the picture is me. I never really liked these things; I only had them because of my career as a star. Now that I'm stepping back, I can naturally sell off these unnecessary items."
"If I were really in such dire financial straits, I wouldn't have withdrawn from the industry. Thank you all for your concern."
"The company is great; we parted on good terms."
"I don't have a rich boyfriend and don't plan to date or marry. I'm not interested in spending someone else's money; my money is only enough for me."
Yu Xunge spoke with conviction, as if the person who had recently gone to the Su family to snatch gold wasn't her at all.
**Chapter 30: Withdrawal**
In less than two days, Yu Xunge's news was overshadowed by other events.
This was exactly what she wanted to see.
A few colleagues she had worked with reached out to check if she was okay, and Yu Xunge handled their inquiries one by one.
Among all the people she knew, the ones most anxious were surprisingly Yu Qingshan and Yi Qiuguo. They thought her earlier mention of work troubles was just a temporary setback. After all, in the entertainment industry, sometimes you could be out of work, but when the buzz returned, so did the opportunities. They never expected Yu Xunge would actually withdraw from the industry.
That evening, the two of them, along with Yu Xunhuan, rushed to Yu Xunge's villa. When they found they couldn't get in with their fingerprints, they exchanged displeased glances but held their tongues. Once inside, they were only concerned about what she would do next.
Yu Xunge took the initiative to explain the fingerprint lock situation: "The investment I mentioned earlier was me listening to a friend's advice to buy a villa in the suburbs. The location is a bit remote, and they said there were plans for development, but nothing has come of it. I don't have any money on hand right now, so I'm planning to sell this villa to get some cash. The real estate agent has already brought people to see it. You all know I'm quite frugal; the money I've earned over the years, plus the money from selling this villa, will be enough for me for a while. I want to focus on finding players to see if I can find a cure to help Xunhuan."
After she said this, the expressions of the three of them softened. Yu Xunhuan felt a bit better, realizing how much Yu Xunge valued her situation. He thought his sister was truly sensible when it came to important matters.
They asked about the villa's address, and Yu Xunge didn't hide it. If she was going to say something, she wouldn't tell a low-level lie that could leave her vulnerable.
The villa was indeed quite remote, almost touching the sea.
Yu Xunhuan pondered for a moment and said, "Although it's a bit out of the way, the people living in that area are not ordinary." He had previously wanted a house there; even the cheapest one cost over fifty million. While it seemed shabby compared to the nearby estates, it was still close to the water.
Even if he would move into the Su family after marrying Su Yitong, he wanted to keep a backup plan for himself.
Yu Xunge even cooked a meal for them, claiming it was a cooking skill she learned in the game. To avoid serving the same dish as Yu Xunhuan, she portioned out the food and soup before bringing it out, with four plates—one for each person, so no one could take from another's plate.
After a round of persuasion, Yu Qingshan had come with the mindset of "this kid won't just become a jobless wanderer for me to support," but left after giving Yu Xunge 500,000 yuan as pocket money.
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