Chapter Eleven

On the thirteenth floor of Velvet Apartment, You Xing was baking soy milk dinner rolls in the kitchen.

Mu Ren squatted by the kitchen doorway, watching eagerly, while Ququ and 250 sat quietly in the living room, waiting for You Xing to finish her task.

*Ding—*

The oven timer went off. You Xing put on her heat-resistant gloves and pulled out the baking tray. Inside the metal tray lay twenty-four soy milk rolls, arranged in a six-by-four grid. Half were ordinary rolls, and the other half were marked with the character "Special" in the center.

Once they had cooled, You Xing counted out six for each plate and carried them out. 250 and Ququ gathered around the table, looking at the two plates with confusion; apart from the markings, they couldn't tell them apart.

Mu Ren suddenly leaped up, front paws resting on the tabletop, and snatched a special soy milk roll with surgical precision.

You Xing took an ordinary roll and a special one, handing them to Ququ and 250. "Although these are made from semi-finished ingredients, the taste isn't bad. Try them."

Ququ set her roll down and slowly pulled the thread from her mouth.

250 took the first bite of an ordinary roll, blinked, then took a bite of the special one. She looked up at You Xing: "There is no difference in texture or taste, but this one is different from the one without the red mark. Taking a bite is like consuming liquid sunlight, flowing from my mouth straight into my body."

Ququ coiled the thread she had removed and set it aside, then picked up the special roll and began to eat. She didn't speak; she finished the special roll in two or three bites, then picked up an ordinary one, only to set it down after a single bite.

250: "Why are the two types so different?"

You Xing sat down, picked up an ordinary roll—which no one seemed to want—and tore it into small pieces to eat bit by bit. "The difference lies in whether you put your 'heart' into it."

250 blinked: "Heart?"

You Xing lowered her gaze, a faint smile appearing at the corners of her eyes. "Girls from the Eastern descent of the Old Blue Star, especially those living in the lower and middle sectors, usually receive a certain kind of upbringing that includes cooking, housekeeping, and character cultivation. When I was a child, the elders in my family taught me to cook and would always say that there is a difference between doing something with heart and without it—that food made with heart is bound to be more delicious.

"But no matter how much I practiced, the food I made never met the elders' standard for 'heart,' until I accidentally used my mental energy while cooking. Although it was only a tiny bit, that meal seemed exceptionally delicious, finally allowing me to graduate from those tedious culinary training classes."

250 was astonished: "You can project your mental energy?"

Projecting mental energy was a high-level application of the ability. Weapons or items enhanced by mental energy were several times more powerful than ordinary objects. Currently, such a technique was mastered by only a very few high-level mental power users; You Xing's case was quite rare.

You Xing: "Later, I looked up information, but there wasn't much research on it. I did find that article about 'projecting mental energy.' Unfortunately, my control is limited to food; I can't reach the level of controlling weapons. However, after years of practice, the food made with mixed-in mental energy has gradually gained the effect of restoring mental stability values. It works just as well with semi-finished materials; the key to whether 'heart' is used is simply whether mental energy is used."

250 stared at You Xing: "You want to use your ability to make special candies that can be sold in the Domain?"

You Xing glanced at Ququ, who was sitting opposite. "'Projecting mental energy' isn't a special ability. Ququ’s ability level is at least SSS-rank. The candies sold in the Domain should, of course, be made by the Domain Master."

Ququ shook her head violently.

250 was intrigued and picked up another special soy milk roll: "Do you really think those hands of Ququ’s, which have stirred through filth, can make delicious candy?"

Ququ: "..."

You Xing: "..."

250: "Tell me first, what kind of candy can be sold in Ququ’s Domain?"

You Xing took out a paper notebook and spread it out before Ququ and 250: "These are my concepts. How far we can take them depends on the completion level of our products."

250 and Ququ leaned over the table for a long while. They could read the words, but they couldn't fully grasp You Xing's plan. Human thoughts were treacherous and ever-changing; they had long since moved past that stage and acted entirely on instinct. Now that their brains were empty, they didn't force themselves to understand—clapping along as the "atmosphere squad" felt secure enough.

You Xing picked up Ququ, who was mimicking 250’s clapping, and dragged her toward the kitchen: "Forget about whether you've stirred filth—even if you've eaten it, you have to learn to make candy. Come on, put on a few extra layers of gloves..."

250 sat in the living room, reached out to take another soy milk roll, and nibbled on it. She listened to the chaotic clatter coming from the kitchen, her legs dangling from the chair and swaying gently. Mu Ren, taking advantage of her distraction, snatched the last special soy milk roll off the table with lightning speed.

***

At midnight, You Xing was dragged into the Tongue-Blade Horror by Ququ. After three or four hours of work, the human and the "ghost" had managed to produce two jars of effective candy.

Ququ was unexpectedly impatient; as soon as the candy was made, she pulled You Xing into the Domain. The little shop, whose rules had been trimmed by You Xing yesterday, was teetering on the edge of collapse after a day and a night. The Scissors of Breaking Evil had the power to break rules, but not to rewrite them. It was said that the Apartment Manager held a pen that could rewrite rules, which was also a special-grade relic. However, Ququ would not allow You Xing to borrow the pen; she wanted You Xing to find a way to rewrite the rules herself.

You Xing stood before the dilapidated little shop, thinking hard for a moment. She took out the Scissors of Breaking Evil from her cloth bag, gripped one of the blades, and pressed hard against the blank wall. Her fingers were cut, leaving bloodstains, and the blood flowed along the blade tip, soaking into the wall as she forcibly carved the shop's name into the empty space.

Standing by the roadside, Ququ looked up and saw the blood-red characters slowly appearing above the door of the crumbling little shop—*Ququ Candy Shop*—and was slightly stunned.

You Xing felt she still had some strength left, so she clipped away another small section of the rules near the wall and carved the barcodes for the candies that needed to be stocked. After gritting her teeth to finish, You Xing slid down the wall and slumped onto the ground. She squinted at Ququ, her voice faint: "I'm out of juice. Call Mu Ren to come pick me up. You watch the shop tonight."

Ququ drifted over and gave You Xing’s calf a light kick: "...It’s not even certain that we can open for business, and you're just going back like this?"

You Xing was deathly tired, her hands and feet limp: "I can't go on."

Ququ bent down, picked up You Xing, and carried her into the newly established shop. She set her in the corner, reached into her own robes, pulled out a soy milk roll, and stuffed it into You Xing’s mouth.

The newly formed candy shop was about four square meters. The door hinge was broken, making a *creak-creak* sound as it swung. There was a semi-enclosed glass window by the door, stained with dried blood and yellow-black grime from years past. Ququ wiped it off casually, turned to You Xing, took the two jars of candy from her large cloth bag, applied eye-catching price tags, and placed them by the glass window.

Due to the restrictions of the rule power, the candy shop could only stock one type of item for now. Of the two jars, one was made by You Xing and one by Ququ. After a taste test by the roaming monsters in the Domain, it was found that You Xing’s candy lasted longer, so the two jars were priced differently, though they still counted as the same type of goods.

Considering she was ready for opening, Ququ returned to You Xing’s side and began breaking off pieces of a soy milk roll, feeding them to You Xing one by one.

***

In an alley one street away from the Ququ Candy Shop, a horror hunter was backed into a dead end by roaming monsters.

The monsters had shapeshifted into her familiar colleagues, the clerk from the convenience store she used to frequent, and a classmate from her school days. Surrounded by the monsters, the hunter heard their constant, sharp, and mean-spirited remarks:

"Don't you guys think Zhu Jin smells?"

"A country bumpkin from a remote sector, stinky and tacky!"

"During the operation class, Zhu Jin didn't even know where the cockpit door was. It cracked me up."

"Hahaha, so lame. Last time she came to buy yogurt, she stood there after paying, holding a straw and zoning out. It took her forever to find the hole to stick the straw in."

"And her clothes! Aside from her school uniform, everything is so tacky!!!"

...

Zhu Jin curled up on the ground, fine sweat beading on her forehead, her face pale. This had happened a long time ago; she had already graduated, joined a B-rank horror clearance agency, and recently been promoted to a Silver Hunter. She had assumed that with two S-rank hunters leading the team, clearing the Tongue-Blade Horror would be a piece of cake. She hadn't expected the horror to be so bizarre. While walking through it, she had unwittingly become separated from her teammates, and those sharp-tongued monsters followed her like shadows, refusing to let her go for even a second.

Since becoming an adult, her impoverished childhood and gloomy student days were the parts of her past Zhu Jin least wanted to recall, yet she was forced to relive them repeatedly in this horror.

Zhu Jin swung her weapon to hack at the long-tongued monsters, but the more she killed, the more appeared. The faces of the monsters became increasingly hideous and terrifying. Finally, one monster brought up her most embarrassing memory: "Zhu Jin also liked the class heartthrob, you know. I saw her secretly buying the same pens and notebooks as him. Later, when the heartthrob got a girlfriend, Zhu Jin secretly copied the girlfriend, buying the same hair tie, and the girlfriend even noticed."

The blood drained from Zhu Jin’s face, as if she had been stripped naked and left in the middle of the street. She sat stunned on the ground like a statue, her hands slowly curling into fists. She used her last ounce of strength to scramble up, shoved past the smallest monster on the edge of the circle, and fled in a panic.

Inside the Ququ Candy Shop, You Xing pushed away the bread crumbs Ququ was trying to feed her: "Gloves..."

Ququ’s mouth stretched to her ears, her face full of malice as she stuffed the soy milk roll into You Xing’s mouth: "So disgusted? I'm so hurt."

After feeding her the whole roll, Ququ saw You Xing’s "I’ve given up on life" expression and sighed: "You don't fear gods or ghosts, yet you fuss over such trivial details. I don't get you. Don't worry, I know you’re disgusted, so I had 250 help me cut off the dirty hands. These are new hands that just grew out; they aren't dirty."

You Xing: "..."

Ququ wore a look of triumph: "Kuku-kuku—"

You Xing struggled to say: "There's... mental stabilizer in the bag. Feed me... one..."

After drinking a mental stabilizer, the feeling of a hangover slowly subsided, and You Xing leaned against the corner to rest. On the empty and silent street, erratic breathing and scattered footsteps approached from afar, gradually becoming clear enough for even You Xing to hear.

Ququ took a black thread from her sleeve and began to sew her own mouth shut. You Xing was unaffected, but the other monsters and humans in the Domain didn't have such high resistance. Never mind talking to her—just seeing her from a distance could cause them to instantly mutate into monsters.

Once Ququ finished sewing her mouth, she picked up You Xing, pulled over a broken chair next to the glass counter, sat her down in front of it, and silently turned invisible.

Zhu Jin was running blindly, exhausted, her vision blurred with overlapping images. Her only thought was to get away from those disgusting monsters. She stumbled out of the alley and instinctively ran toward the wide street, when a blood-red sign suddenly slammed into her field of vision.

Zhu Jin’s mind was a mess; the surroundings were silent and dark, so she instinctively followed that flash of bright red.

Because her mental energy had been exhausted, You Xing hadn't fully recovered her ability to move. Like a puppet, she sat stiffly in the chair, watching the girl stumble toward her. Seeing her staggering and almost slamming headfirst into the glass, You Xing managed a professional smile: "Hello, welcome to the Ququ Candy Shop."

Zhu Jin’s consciousness was blurred, but You Xing’s voice was like a clear spring, piercing through all the messy, malicious mockery.

"Candy shop?" Zhu Jin leaned against the windowsill, muttering softly.

You Xing: "The shop is having an opening promotion today: buy one, get one free."

The monsters stood on the opposite side of the street, and for some reason, they didn't follow her over; only their sharp, mean-spirited comments continued to drift over, low as the buzzing of mosquitoes.

Zhu Jin tried to maintain her last shred of consciousness, lifting her weary, dull eyes to see the figure behind the glass. Unfortunately, the grime obscured her view; she felt dizzy and couldn't see clearly, so she asked airily: "How can there be a candy shop in a horror?"

You Xing was immobile, but fortunately, her thinking remained clear, and she introduced the goods calmly: "You’re in luck; the shop just opened. The 'Shut-Up Candy' on the shelf today has the effect of making roaming monsters temporarily shut their mouths. There are two specifications available: the two-minute duration candy is ninety-nine Star Coins each, and the five-minute duration candy is one hundred and ninety-nine Star Coins each."