Inside the Villa Area.
The driver brought the car to a halt in front of the gate of Ye Yuan’s home.
After getting out, Mu Bai and the other three had to walk about one or two hundred meters along a cobblestone path.
Flower beds lined both sides, with garden lights hidden among the vegetation; their yellow glow filtered through the leaves to illuminate the path.
A three-story luxury mansion, a masterpiece of modern architectural aesthetics, sat toward the rear center of the courtyard.
The first-floor living room featured massive, bright floor-to-ceiling windows, offering a full view of the lavish interior and the guest lounge layout.
Calling this a mere house felt wrong…
Mu Bai felt it was more of an estate.
Among the three accompanying Ye Yuan, only Mo Cha remained relatively unfazed, showing only a hint of mild surprise.
Even Tang Shifu let out a sharp intake of breath.
The driver drove away without following them in, meaning they could now speak freely.
“Yuan… there shouldn’t be any servants or other people at your house, right?”
Mu Bai admitted she was a bit of a country bumpkin who hadn’t seen much of the world.
Being brought home by a wealthy young lady was enough to make anyone lose their cool.
If it weren’t for Tang Shifu and Mo Cha being there, she probably would have been scared to death.
“There’s no one like that. A cleaning lady comes every day, but I gave her three days off. The chef lives nearby; since I’m usually at school during the day, he typically only comes for dinner, but he’s on call,” Ye Yuan explained.
“Oh…”
Mu Bai felt a little more at ease.
Without outsiders around, the psychological pressure wasn’t as heavy.
“You guys probably haven’t eaten yet. I had the chef prepare dinner,” Ye Yuan said with a heartfelt smile.
Seeing the appreciation and awe for the architecture and scenery in the depths of Mu Bai’s eyes, Ye Yuan felt that Mu Bai liked her home, which made her feel inexplicably lighthearted.
It was the first time in a long while that “home” had made her happy.
As for the driver and the chef—people who were familiar with Ye Yuan but weren’t relatives—Ye Yuan’s explanation was simply that friends were staying over.
Her parents were away from home all year round; even if they knew she had friends over, they wouldn’t interfere.
This might be a level of loneliness that ordinary people would find unbearable, and it was likely the reason for Ye Yuan’s current personality, but at this moment, it provided a rare sense of freedom.
The chef left after preparing the meal, leaving Mu Bai and the others alone in the massive villa.
In the dining room, Mu Bai was the first to start enjoying dinner.
Ever since entering the Train, even when using [Cooking Expert], she had been limited by her cookware and ingredients.
She could say she had eaten well, but it had been a long time since she’d had such a sumptuous spread.
Ye Yuan had specifically instructed the chef not to prepare a delicate late-night snack, but rather a full-course table of traditional Chinese dishes.
He was truly a master chef; even without the boost of an unscientific power like a Talent, his cooking was more than just a little bit better than Mu Bai’s.
Being able to enjoy delicious food in a peaceful environment after so long actually made Mu Bai feel a bit moved.
These three days of breathing room were truly precious.
Life in a modern, peaceful society was something she once took for granted, but now it was a distant dream.
Everyone ate seriously, enjoying the brief moment of tranquility.
Mu Bai only regretted that this body’s stomach capacity was too small; if she could, she would have stuffed every single dish on the table inside.
After eating her fill, Mu Bai served herself a bowl of soup to sip slowly.
Upon taking the first sip, [Cooking Expert] suddenly triggered a sensation.
This soup base…
“Yuan, does this soup base have ham in it?”
Mu Bai looked up and asked.
“I’m not sure, let me ask.”
Ye Yuan used her phone to contact the chef.
After getting an answer, she nodded in confirmation.
“It does… why do you ask?”
“If I were to use this ingredient to cook, it could increase Strength and Agility,” Mu Bai said with immediate joy.
‘Talk about finding it without even trying!’
She hadn’t expected that high-quality ingredients—which she previously thought could only be obtained at a Trading Station—would actually exist here on Blue Star as well.
Expanding on that thought, would other expensive ingredients on Blue Star also be recognized as high-quality by her Talent?
Something expensive might not necessarily be good enough, but something recognized as top-tier would definitely be expensive!
Tang Shifu and Mo Cha’s eyes lit up simultaneously.
They had both tasted the stewed meat and knew the effects of [Cooking Expert].
“There should still be some in the kitchen. Usually, ingredients like ham aren’t used up all at once…”
Mo Cha chimed in.
“It’s fine, no rush. It won’t be too late to do it tomorrow…”
Mu Bai shook her head.
After hearing her deduction, Ye Yuan immediately stated that she could have her ingredient suppliers help gather similar expensive ingredients.
After reaching out, the supplier stated it would take about two days.
Many high-end ingredients had to be air-lifted from all over the world, so they couldn’t be obtained instantly.
However, two days was fast enough.
As long as she gathered all the high-quality ingredients she could get her hands on before leaving Blue Star, this “vacation” would be an absolute jackpot.
Finished and satisfied with dinner, Mu Bai rubbed her bulging belly and decided to walk off the food for a bit.
After doing chores on the Train for so long, she had grown somewhat accustomed to it and took the initiative to clear the table and dishes.
Mo Cha wanted to help as well and pulled Tang Shifu along.
Ye Yuan, naturally, didn’t want to be left out.
In the end, it turned into all four of them cleaning up the mess together.
Once everything was handled, the group sat in the living room playing on their phones, soaking in the hard-won peace.
Normally they should have showered at this hour, but they had washed up not long ago on the Train.
Though they had been outside and taken the high-speed rail, it still felt a bit odd to shower again so soon.
None of the four had obsessive-compulsive tendencies.
Mu Bai, remembering that a Train Upgrade required gold and Silver, wanted to check the gold prices online.
Instead, she saw a rather abnormal news headline:
[Magic City Observer: Chairman of a Well-Known Enterprise Suffers Sudden Cardiac Arrest at Central Hospital. Prior to Death, He Was Being Treated for an Arrow Wound; Died Mysteriously Without Any Warning Signs.]
On the surface, it seemed like a typical piece of bizarre news—at most, the subject was a high-profile chairman with significant social status—but Mu Bai felt a faint sense of unease.
In a modern society… an arrow wound?
And a cause of death that modern medical technology couldn’t detect?
‘Could it be related to a Player?’
She clicked in to watch.
There was a chaotic video of the scene in the comments section.
The protagonist of the news was lying on an emergency room bed, motionless; he had likely been dead for a while.
On a nearby tray sat a retrieved Iron arrowhead.
Bodyguards were maintaining order and stopping people from taking photos, while a large crowd of onlookers gathered outside the room.
The faint sound of sirens could be heard in the video, indicating police cars were arriving outside the hospital.
“Hm?”
Mu Bai saw a flash of a familiar color.
She dragged the progress bar back to look again.
In the noisy crowd, a familiar figure flashed by.
There was no clear view of her face, but the clothing was unmistakable.
It was Luo Xi.
…Was it another coincidence?
Recalling that the girl had mentioned seeing an elder, could it be that an elder had fallen ill and was admitted to the hospital?
This wasn’t exactly good news.
A normal person facing such a thing would be downcast if not visibly worried, but when she spoke to Luo Xi earlier, the girl didn’t seem serious at all…
If she had to say, when she first ran into Luo Xi in the waiting hall, the girl seemed to be intentionally hiding her emotions, but Mu Bai felt it had nothing to do with an elder being sick.
She wanted to watch it again, only to find the video had been deleted.
While Mu Bai was deep in thought, Tang Shifu exclaimed from beside her, “Look at the price of silver! It’s been rising for two days, and it’s going up so fast!”