Chapter 103 Are You Still My Dear Brother?

"Bro, are you really my own brother??"

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

"Sorry... *pfft*~"

In the end, he couldn't hold it in. Lu Gui sat under the pine tree in the yard, pulled Lu Xiaoyao to a small stool beside him, and, suppressing his laughter, said, "I know you mean well, but someone who didn't know any better... might think you were trying to stir up trouble between Mu Chen and him behind his back... oh no, I mean stirring up trouble in front of his face."

"Bro~ That hurts!"

As he spoke, Lu Gui poked her forehead with his finger until Lu Xiaoyao protested, clutching her head in pain. Only then did he withdraw his hand.

"Besides, you know that windows facing south get the most sunlight, do you think Mu Chen doesn't?" Lu Gui said, turning his gaze to Lou Jia's residence, only a wall away from them, and added, "Lou Jia has been helping Mu Chen purify a grapevine these past few days."

"Wow! Does that mean we'll have grapes to eat in the future?"

"Next year, maybe." Lu Gui didn't want to remind Lu Xiaoyao that they would be leaving the game when the grapes ripened next year.

"That's great!"

Speaking of Lou Jia, Lu Xiaoyao curiously asked, "Bro, why didn't Lou Jia join you guys? He's pretty strong... If not, he could join us, or team up with someone from our school. Why does he always go solo?"

Lu Xiaoyao was referring to the fact that Lou Jia didn't like interacting with other players.

When Lu Xiaoyao first saw Lou Jia at the base, she was scared out of her wits.

The other man seemed to be shrouded in a cloud of black mist, his face was unreadable, and he looked very gloomy.

If he hadn't been single-handedly raising five children who had lost their parents in the sudden apocalypse, the oldest being fifteen and the youngest only one year old...

But even with the children he adopted, Lou Jia's gloomy temperament was still very obvious.

If the children he adopted weren't doing well—though not exactly chubby, they all looked to be in good spirits—Lu Xiaoyao would have suspected that he was only raising them on the surface, and who knows what he was doing in secret.

But even though he was good to the children, he was still unapproachable. Mu Chen and Lu Gui had both extended olive branches to him, but he had refused.

In the end, he formed his own team with the five children, which no one had expected.

"Who knows?"

Faced with Lu Xiaoyao's question, Lu Gui shook his head with a smile.

He could find out what Lou Jia had encountered in the game with a little inquiry, after all, he wasn't the only one who knew about what happened to Lou Jia back then.

But it wasn't appropriate to talk about it, especially to Lu Xiaoyao.

It wasn't that he doubted his sister wouldn't feel sympathy, he just didn't trust her mouth _(:з」∠)_

...

"I can make fifteen lunch boxes a day now. I made twelve this morning, Zhen Hu took out two, and I forcibly kept one. I can still make three more today~"

"I'll take you to the kitchen after lunch."

"Okay, you can let your friends know that I'm selling them, and say that there are a few available every day. Hmm, won't that make it seem like I have a lot of lunch boxes?"

"No."

Mu Chen reached out and touched Mingmei's soft hair, and said, "Do you know how expensive your lunch boxes are on the trading market? They're still hard to come by even at that price. But the higher-ups are still keeping those lunch boxes for some 'unimportant' people."

"The way you put it... sounds like there are no good people in the base."

Mingmei smiled wryly at Mu Chen.

Mingmei's arrival meant that their team was finally complete. Zhen Po, who always valued materials more than his own eyes, actually broke out a few sausages and instant noodles for once.

Everyone had a treat. After lunch, Mu Chen asked someone to spread the word while he accompanied Mingmei in the kitchen to make lunch boxes.

"How about I do the cooking, and you inject your special ability at the end?"

After watching Mingmei's entire cooking process, Mu Chen was thinking about how to say it without being too hurtful.

After all, the lunch boxes that Mingmei made plainly told people that her cooking skills were not good.

It was hilarious, shouldn't he have known that since the novice village?

What was he expecting?

"I don't know, ,,Ծ^Ծ,, I haven't tried it before to see if it works." Mingmei didn't want to make lunch boxes either. Cooking was so tiring!

Mingmei still didn't realize that she had absolutely no talent for cooking.

"I only know that I concentrate my special ability on my hands when I'm making food, and the finished lunch boxes have special functions. Do you really think it'll work that way?"

[Gui Gui, will it work?]

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

Gui Gui ruthlessly shattered Mingmei's fantasy. Just as Mu Chen was about to say they could try it, he heard Mingmei answer, "I don't think so."

"I see..."

Hearing the regret in Mu Chen's tone, Mingmei belatedly seemed to realize something. She looked at Mu Chen, narrowed her eyes, and asked, "Are you saying that you don't like the way I cook?"

Mu Chen: "..."

"No, I just feel bad that you're suffering in the kitchen with all the smoke."

Hearing what Mu Chen said, Zhen Po, who was actually stoking the fire at the other end of the stove, couldn't help but twitch his lips.

Didn't anyone feel bad for him?

...

As Lu Xiaoyao's brother, Lu Gui was the first to receive the news that Mingmei's lunch boxes were available for sale. He came to Mingmei's place in the afternoon and even paid four crystal cores without even bargaining for a lunch box that cost two crystal cores.

When Mingmei saw the four crystal cores, she couldn't help but sigh. At first, the higher-ups paid her two crystal cores for ten lunch boxes.

But now that she was selling them herself, she didn't expect them to be so expensive.

So she told everyone the price that the higher-ups paid for her lunch boxes, and immediately received disgusted looks towards those people.

"If they could properly distribute the lunch boxes, it would be fine if they were cheaper," Mingmei said, looking unhappy. "But the higher-ups are controlling those lunch boxes and using them as bargaining chips in power struggles. I don't like that."

Mingmei had been recruited before, but she felt uncomfortable no matter how she listened to the words of those who came to recruit her. That's why she hadn't been happy in the cafeteria for a while because she was being ostracized.

"It's okay, for the sake of the base, someone will always take care of those corrupt officials," Mu Chen comforted Mingmei, his certainty making Mingmei look at him twice.

...Outside the game...

"The game company is really bold..."

As Julian's homeroom teacher, Xin Bolu stared blankly at the NPC standing across from Julian in the live broadcast. That face, wasn't it the president of their federation?

They actually put this in the game?

"Does our president know about this?"

Xin Bolu looked at the surrounding teachers in confusion. The principal next to him coughed lightly and said, "They should have gotten permission. Anyway, they won't smear our president in the game."