Chapter 82: Foreigners

After handing over the small note, Chen Jingle fled the library at a near sprint, afraid they would chase him down and beat him up.

This was the first time he had done something so bold. In the past, whenever he was caught between acting cowardly and getting angry, he would have chosen to swallow his anger like a coward. It seemed the system had a massive impact on him; he actually dared to strike hard in real life now.

“I hope those two girls won’t toss and turn, kicking their blankets in frustration when they sleep tonight,” he muttered. Well, he’d consider it a minor punishment for interrupting his reading.

By the time he returned home, the power had been restored.

“Good thing the electricity is back,” he murmured as he opened a packet of cookies and ate some fruit.

The late-night snack stalls outside were quite tempting, especially the barbecue ones. Having grilled oysters paired with an ice-cold beer in the summer was simply exhilarating. However, he held himself back. He had already taken a shower and didn’t want to end up reeking of smoke again.

Furthermore, barbecue prices in Jiangbei were skyrocketing. Spending a hundred Yuan per person would only leave you about sixty or seventy percent full at best. If you added drinks, the cost became even more ridiculous. They had the nerve to charge ten Yuan for a single eggplant! Grilled corn, which used to be ten Yuan a cob, was now completely stripped and skewered kernel by kernel. At one Yuan a skewer, a single cob could yield thirty or forty skewers!

He thought, “Why don’t they just rob a bank?!”

It was as if he couldn’t grill things himself. He thought, “I’ll get a barbecue grill later and make my own at home!”

It seemed like a long time had passed since his last barbecue. For one, he was afraid of “internal heat”—with Lingnan’s climate and environment, the consequences of eating indiscriminately were severe. For another, as he grew older, he didn’t like drinking anymore. Whenever friends gathered, they all tacitly chose morning tea or a simple, healthy late-night snack. But indulging once in a while wouldn’t be a big deal.

At this thought, Chen Jingle abandoned his book and began researching how to barbecue.

These days, as long as you looked hard enough, you could find tutorial videos for anything on the internet. There were plenty of people willing to share their so-called secret barbecue recipes for free. There were even continuous-shot videos that guided you hand-in-hand through the grilling process, practically spoon-feeding you the information. There was absolutely no need to spend thousands buying someone else’s recipe.

“If you don’t even have the ability to acquire free resources, you shouldn’t try doing business like others; you’ll most likely end up making nothing,” he reasoned.

Some people just liked to blindly follow trends. They would spend money to buy recipes, a food cart, and a mountain of ingredients. As a result, their first day of setting up the stall yielded zero Yuan. The second day, still zero Yuan. The third day, they made two thousand Yuan… because they gave up and sold the food cart.

It sounded like a joke, but in reality, this kind of situation was incredibly common.

Barbecue had become highly popular over the past two years, sprouting up everywhere. The hottest trends online were undoubtedly Northeast barbecue and Zizhou barbecue. Both boasted large portions, affordable prices, and excellent service, quickly establishing a stellar reputation.

Back when Chen Jingle was slaving away at his corporate job, he often thought about visiting these two places if he ever got the chance. He wanted to taste their local specialties and experience their unique cultures. Yet several years went by, and due to various reasons, this goal remained unfulfilled. It left him with deep regret.

As for the barbecue in Jiangbei, it was primarily famous for its charcoal-grilled oysters. Although the local oysters weren’t huge, the meat was incredibly fresh and sweet. Paired with the stall owners’ homemade garlic chili sauce, they were widely acclaimed. If you added some chicken kidneys… as the locals put it, “The bedboards will snap in half tonight.”

This was despite science already proving that the only active component was the zinc in the oysters. In reality, the zinc content in oysters was minuscule—far inferior to directly taking a zinc gluconate tablet. Alas, the people here remained unwaveringly convinced of the oyster’s magical effects.

Good as the local oysters were, the yield simply wasn’t high. Most of what was sold under the “local oyster” banner was actually other varieties shipped in from neighboring provinces or the eastern coast. Due to differences in water quality, breed, and growth cycle, the quality of oysters varied greatly from place to place. Whether they tasted good or not, aside from the griller’s technique, depended on personal preference. Some liked them fresh and sweet, while others preferred them plump and rich. It was hard to please everyone.

Aside from oysters, large shrimp, scallops, mussels, octopuses, and small abalones were also regular seafood fixtures at barbecue stalls. When it came to eating, the people here were second to none.

It all came down to that one phrase: Engel didn’t know jack about good food!

To Chen Jingle, barbecue ingredients and charcoal weren’t an issue. They were sold in wet markets and supermarkets alike. Since he wasn’t chasing a profit and didn’t need to consider wholesale prices for bulk purchases, he only had to focus on quality.

For an ordinary person, the difficulty and crux lay in heat control; meat wouldn’t taste good if it was undercooked or overcooked. Furthermore, the timing of applying seasonings was crucial. The spices had to fully seep into the food during the grilling process. For instance, when meat skewers were sizzling and dripping oil, that was the optimal moment to sprinkle on the spices. This way, they wouldn’t flake off and be wasted, nor would they affect the temperature of the charcoal. As for vegetables like eggplants and garlic chives, it was best to apply seasonings right before taking them off the grill when they were fully cooked. All of this tested one’s eyesight and experience.

Then came the concoction of the barbecue sauce.

In truth, if you followed the sauce ratios shared online, it generally wouldn’t taste bad. At most, you would just tweak it slightly to suit local tastes. After looking at a few recipes provided by others, Chen Jingle had a rough idea of what to do. Based on his culinary experience, he would add or omit certain seasonings to make it even more delicious and aromatic. In this regard, he held an absolute advantage over others. Later on, he could continually adjust it and strive for perfection.

The only downside was that staring at the delectable food on his screen late at night made him unbearably ravenous, leaving him no choice but to gnaw on dry rations and eat some fruit.

“I must be sick in the head, searching for barbecue tutorials in the dead of night,” he grumbled.

After complaining a bit, he finished eating and went to brush his teeth. By the time he was ready for bed, the clock had already struck 10 PM. Once he was tucked snugly beneath his little blanket, the rest of the world ceased to exist.

Tonight, the lullaby the system sang to him was *Wave Treading*.

[A tiny little cloud,]

[Slowly drifting near,]

[Won’t you rest your feet,]

[And pause a moment here.]

[The mountain flowers are blooming,]

[As I finally reach the peak.]

Listening to the gentle singing by his ear, he felt transported back to his childhood, to the days when he trekked across mountains and ridges with his village playmates to dig out beehives and pick wild fruits. Back then, he was scorched by the fierce sun into a little lump of coal—short, skinny, and dark—but he didn’t have so many worries.

He thought, “So growing up isn’t as happy as I imagined…”

As Chen Jingle fell asleep, his brows furrowed slightly, carrying a touch more sorrow than usual. It wasn’t until the entire song finished that his expression finally smoothed out.

[Good night.]

The next day.

Chen Jingle woke up early as usual. Once his biological clock adapted, he didn’t even need the system’s alarm to remind him; his eyes automatically opened around the right time. As was his routine, he went out for a run, ate breakfast, came back to clean up, and then took a shower.

Meanwhile, a rather unique guest suddenly arrived outside the village. A middle-aged foreign man wearing a black backpack held a selfie stick, constantly babbling into the camera, which prompted the villagers to curiously poke their heads out to look.

A foreigner? How incredibly rare! In these surrounding villages, aside from seeing them on television, who had ever laid eyes on a real foreigner? However, after watching for a while, they felt it wasn’t a big deal. He had one head and two eyes; other than looking a bit paler, there was no real difference.

Alexander, the person in question, was already used to this. He was even in the mood to smile and wave at the villagers. Only a few responded to him, however. Some cast wary glances, while others were simply too shy.

Chen Jingle had just finished his shower and was preparing to take his freshly washed four-piece bedding set out to the yard to dry. Seeing a middle-aged foreign man walk past his gate holding a selfie stick, he froze.

He thought, “Why does this scene look so familiar?”

It was a carbon copy of the vlogs filmed by foreign travel bloggers that he frequently scrolled past on Doushou.

Chen Jingle was baffled. He thought, “Are there really foreigners visiting a small place like Jiangbei?” What were they after? Experiencing the reckless electric scooters ramming through the streets? Or witnessing the dump trucks that completely ignored traffic lights?

Alexander spoke eloquently to the camera.

“Although many people have repeatedly warned me not to go to the countryside in this country—saying they wouldn’t understand what I’m saying and would be very rude and impolite—I am now in the countryside, in a small place called Jiangbei City in Nandong Province.

“Look at the surrounding hills and farmlands. This is undeniably a rural area. There are no high-rise buildings and no wide roads. However, I want to say that it isn’t as terrible as Western media describes. On the contrary, even their farmers can afford decent houses, and there are cars parked nearby.

“Even though they don’t understand me, walking along the way, the people here are at most curious about my skin color and appearance. It’s probably because they rarely see other races here. When I first arrived in this country and encountered this, I wasn’t quite used to it, but it’s much better now. If you greet them, they’re actually very friendly.

“Oh God, what do I see? A handsome young man! I swear he is the most handsome person I’ve met on this trip. Young men like him aren’t commonly seen in the countryside. I’ve only bumped into them in those big cities before. They usually dress fashionably and look more like celebrities than ordinary people; most of them are internet influencers. Let’s go say hi to him.”

Catching sight of Chen Jingle drying his bedsheets in the yard, Alexander turned the camera. “Hi, *ni hao*~”

Chen Jingle’s hands paused. “Hello. Are you filming a video?” he replied in English.

Alexander never expected to run into someone who could communicate in English in the countryside of such a remote small city. He was instantly astonished. “Oh, you speak English, and it’s very standard! Thank God, I finally don’t have to use my broken Chinese anymore.”

It was no exaggeration; he truly breathed a massive sigh of relief. Heaven knew how excruciating it was for a foreigner who only knew “*ni hao*,” “*xie xie*,” and “how much” to converse with the locals with a massive language barrier. Especially since people in some areas couldn’t even speak Mandarin. Translation apps couldn’t recognize their dialects, so most of the time, he had to rely entirely on hand gestures.

“Just a little bit,” Chen Jingle smiled faintly.

For some reason, he suddenly felt as though he had been practicing his spoken English for two and a half years and had finally stumbled upon a foreigner to show off his skills. It was just that the other party didn’t start with “How are you,” so he couldn’t reply with “I’m fine, thank you. And you?”

It was quite a pity.