It didn’t take that long to get back to the street he was looking for. Surprisingly someone walked up to him as he arrived. As he was talking with them a few other people began to walk over also. Looking at the small crowd of people around him, he decided to address them all.

“Looks like some people came back, it’s good to see you all again. I will be doing the same thing as yesterday. 1 Iron coin and I will divine your talent. Keep in mind that what your talent is, might not be what you are expecting it to be. There are no refunds.”

The handful of people just nodded their heads like it was to be expected. The first man to approach him, pulled out a coin and handed it to Zhi. Zhi pretended to place it in his robes before taking the man's hand and flipping it over. Running his fingers over his palm lines a few times, Zhi says. “This is interesting, Zhou Niu means The Ox, right?”

The man is a little shocked but nods his head in reply and says, “Yes that is correct, my father always said it was because he wanted me to be as strong as an ox.”

“Well Niu, your talent lies in woodworking. I would suggest finding someone to apprentice under. Or possibly start doing it in your free time.” A pop up flashes in the corner of Zhi’s vision after he speaks.

[For using the skill [Appraising Fate] correctly. You have gained 5 Experience and 1 Mystifying Diviner Point]

Niu looks a little disappointed, but says thank you. Before stepping back out of the way to watch the next person have their talent divined. The next person steps up and hands him a coin, Zhi takes their hand and begins to examine it.

That is new, is there a reason that it gave me points now and not yesterday?

[System upgrade, you will now get points for using your skills correctly.]

Well that is nice. Now I won't have to wait for quests. Can you save the pop ups till I am finished though and just add all the points together so I only get one box and not ten plus?

[Setting display messages to non distraction mode.]

Thanks. Could you also set a chiming alarm for when it is 4pm.

[Chime tone alarm set for 4pm]

After the first handful of people, more have joined just like the first day. Most are just watching as Zhi tells people their talents. But after the first batch a few more people line up to have their talent divined for them. Some of them are really happy, a few are disappointed. A couple of them are really confused because they have no idea how they will practice their talent.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Mo Pengfei was not having a good day, it actually started last night. But he wasn’t informed till early this morning. Last night one of his lieutenants Xu Hui and his men were robbed when they were trying to collect on an unpaid debt. But if they were robbed how come they looked completely fine? Apparently it was by a cultivator, one who made a weapon appear out of thin air. Who then kindly let them leave after taking their money pouches. Which were in turn his money pouches!

When he found out he was angry and pointed out a simple fact to his stupid men. Cultivators that can make weapons appear from thin air, don’t rob mortals. They kill them and if they want, they might take money from the dead bodies. The simple fact they were alive with not a scratch lends heavy proof to the fact that the man was no cultivator. So after disciplining his men, he sent out other men to find info on this person who robbed his men.

While there is a very slim chance the man is a true cultivator, Mo Pengfei didn’t get where he is being stupid. He would investigate the man and the Hai family for a while and see if anything seems off. If nothing stands out, he would get his money back plus interest. If the man doesn’t have it, well with the right connections it isn’t hard to sell a person.

Unfortunately the men trailing the man, lost him a little after noon today.

“What do you mean you lost him? Give me a full report of what happened today.”

“Well sir, we followed the man and the Hai boy to the Blue Jewel restaurant. They met the owner and began to help unload one of the deliveries. After that, they went inside the kitchen. And we saw nothing else of them, till the man came out a little before noon. He was alone and had changed clothes into some kinda monk outfit.” The man glanced to his left at the other man who was tracking the man with him.

The man nodded, before saying. “He traveled around town for a bit before he got to the open air market near the dock. He looked like he was shopping, but we lost him in the crowd. We didn’t want to get too close in case he noticed us. After we lost him, we rushed back to the restaurant to observe the Hai kid. We saw him bussing tables. It seems like he and the man work at the restaurant. They were both wearing the same clothes this morning when we trailed them.”

Both men bowed their heads slightly and waited. Pengfei was silent for a while before he said, “I want you two to get a few more men and set up a watch on the Hai house, and the Blue Jewel restaurant. Be careful around the restaurant since it is not our turf, no force is to be used on the other employees. But if you can bribe a worker there for info on the man, do it.”

Turning around from his men he begins to walk away towards another room of his compound. While saying, “You are dismissed for now. Report back in a week and give me an update.”

The two men reply with, “Yes Boss Pengfei!”

----------------------------------------------------------------

A gentle chime can be heard as a message pops up in front of Zhi’s face. Which he quickly dismisses.

[The time is now 4PM]

Releasing the woman's hand that is in front of him, he quickly tells her of her talent and what she might do to practice it. Afterwards he then informs the people watching that he is done for the day and if they wish to have their talent divined to come back here tomorrow a little after 1PM. The people gathered around, thanked him for his time and a few promised to be back tomorrow to get their talent divined.

Walking away, Zhi makes his way over to the Hai's house. Alright, show me what I earned from that and include the first person also please.

[For using the skill [Appraising Fate] correctly. You have gained 140 Experience and 28 Mystifying Diviner Point]

It doesn’t take long before he is in front of the house. Opening the door, he walks down the hall and into the kitchen area. He walks over to the dining room table first and pulls out an intricately carved wooden box. Placing it in the middle of the table, he turns to look at the stove and smiles at what he sees. It reminds him of when he visited rural China when he was a young man, they still used a traditional fire fed stoves in most places without access to electricity or gas. Looking over he also notices the rice cooker they have. Also powered by firewood. It boils the water and steams the rice to cook it. The first thing Zhi does is prep the stove and rice cookers fire pits.

After setting both of them up, he uses the flint and steel from his inventory to light them both. Once the fires are going, he collects the water basin and water bucket. Taking them outside he fills them with water and carries them inside. Setting up the water basin over the rice cooker base, he checks out the rice basket. Finding it clean, he takes out a bag of white rice and fills it up halfway. Then set the rice basket on top of the water basin, before securing the whole thing with it’s lid.

Looking over the pots and pans he has to work with, he picks up the biggest frying pan and pours a little water in it. After giving it a quick once over he sets it over the fire pit, letting the water slowly boil off. Pulling out a couple fresh chickens, he expertly debones them both in a matter of minutes. Looking over he sees that the water is now boiled off, so he cleans his hands before changing the firewood around a little. Making the flames a little less intense, he takes the frying pan and fills it halfway with vegetable oil. Setting it back over the heat, he pulls out flour and seasonings.

Grabbing a big pot since he can’t find a proper container, Zhi pours flour and some of the seasonings into the pot. Taking another big pot, he takes out milk and a few eggs. Pouring milk, seasoning, and the eggs into the new pot. He begins to whisk the mixture around for a minute, setting the pot down. He then takes the chicken and carefully pulls back the skin before rubbing the seasoning into the meat of the chicken. Afterwards he covers the meat back up with its skin, before placing them into the milk pot.

As he lets them soak in the milk, egg, and seasoning mixture. He takes a small bit of water and makes a small seasoned flour ball before setting it into the pan of oil. Watching it react to the temperature of the oil, he smiles a little. Then removes the chicken from the milk pot and into the pot of seasoned flour. Before completely coating the chicken in the seasoned flour. Once coated, he removes them and adds more till all the chicken is properly coated in seasoned flour. Afterwards he uses tongs and removes the flour ball from the oil, before beginning to place some of the chicken inside the pan.

As it cooks, he stores everything he is no longer using into his inventory. It barely fits, his inventory is almost full at this point. Closing his eyes he looks over all the items in his inventory and realizes something. Walking to an empty corner of the kitchen he begins to remove all the crates and containers from his inventory. Once finished his inventory is still pretty full, but he could easily fit a few more things inside without worry. Walking back over to the stove he begins to flip his first batch of chicken.

While he cooks the chicken, he cleans off the counter he used to prep the meat. After it’s cleaned he begins to pull out a few items from his inventory. As he is doing this a voice is heard from down the hallway. “Honey, what smells so good?” From the hallway in walks Qiang, he stops as he sees Zhi in the kitchen cooking. His face is still purple over most of it, but his lips and eyes are no longer swollen up to comic proportions. As he is paused in the hallway, another voice rings out, “Who is cooking? Is Zhi teaching Zhao how to cook?” Hai Ya walks in behind her husband.

Pushing him forward out of the way, she walks into the kitchen area and sees only Zhi there cooking. She walks over to Zhi and says, “Zhao must still be at work, do you need a hand with anything?”

Zhi shakes his head and says, “Zhao should be here in a few minutes, I will have him help me once he is here. If you still want to help, please prepare some tea for dinner.” Nodding her head in reply she begins to use another area of the stove and starts making a pot of tea. Qiang for his part just quietly sits at the table and watches them work. It’s not long before another voice is heard from the hallway, “Aunty Ya, are you cooking? Whatever it is smells good.” Zhao walks into the kitchen and sees Zhi cooking and his aunt next to him making tea.

Zhi turns around and says, “Zhao good you are back. Come over and prepare these vegetables. I want the carrots sliced thin, julienne style. The cucumbers are just sliced, the cherry tomatoes cut into quarters and the onion slices extra thin. The romaine lettuce you can dice up into pieces, but not too small and the spinach just needs to be cleaned. Once that is done, set it all into a bowl and mix it together.”

Zhao walks over without a word and begins to clean the vegetables. It doesn’t take long for Zhi to finish the rest of the chicken and Zhao to make up the salad. Ya is almost done setting down plates at the table while the tea pot is still heating up. Zhi hands a big plate full of the cooked chicken to Zhao, before pulling out some red wine vinegar and some seasonings. As Zhao takes the plate to the kitchen table, Zhi pours the vinegar over the salad. After he adds the seasoning and mixes it all together. Taking that and placing it on the table, he goes to check the rice. Finding it done, he removes the basket and sets that on the table also.

Sitting down at the table he waits for Ya to pour everyone tea before he says, “Before we start, I would like Qiang to open the gift I bought him today. It is my apology for yesterday, I hope you like it.” He points at the box sitting in the middle of the table.

Everyone looks at the elaborate wooden box in the middle of the table. While Qiang says, “You bought me a gift? I thought this was for Zhao.” Ya also says, “I actually thought it was for Zhao also.”

“Zhao will get a gift once he completes his training.”

Qiang reaches over after that and picks up the box. Setting it down in front of himself, he slowly opens the box. The lid hides the item from the rest of the table, but as it opens fully a look of bewilderment comes over his face. Staring at the contents of the box, his eyes go through a wide range of emotions. Confusion, shock, displeasure, before settling into irritation, then his head slowly turns to look at Zhi before slowly looking back at the box's contents. After a minute of silence, he states with no emotion in his voice. “I don’t understand.”

Zhi has a big smile on his face as he says, “What don’t you understand? I think it is pretty straight forward, honestly.”

Qiang slowly reaches into the box and with a shaking hand he pulls out an elegantly carved piece of bamboo with some holes evenly placed along the length of it. He inhales deeply before almost yelling, “What kind of apology gift is a bamboo flute!”