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A golden chest lay quietly in the inventory.
Xia Zhi looked at the ethereal system panel before him, lost in thought.
This situation was somewhat unexpected.
According to his original expectations, it should have taken about two weeks to fill Guoba's golden progress bar, but surprisingly, just by personally cooking one dish for it to eat, the progress bar was instantly filled.
Moreover, the speed at which the progress bar increased was extremely rapid. Xia Zhi felt that even if he hadn't previously worked on Guoba's progress bar, it could have gone from 0% to 100% directly.
Xia Zhi couldn't help but recall the slime with a progress bar he had encountered in the wild before. When he killed it, its progress bar had also filled up instantly.
The results of both situations were very similar, yet the processes were completely different.
This must be one of the system's hidden settings.
Xia Zhi lowered his head to "look" at Guoba, who was squinting with an expression of complete satisfaction.
Guoba had always stayed at Wanmin Restaurant, loving to eat all kinds of delicious food. For him, being able to taste food he had never eaten before was an extremely enjoyable experience, so he derived great satisfaction from it... these were positive emotions.
Xia Zhi pondered thoughtfully.
As for that slime, when he had "invaded" their territory at that time, not only did he not retreat, but he also killed them, it must have felt extreme anger and hatred towards him... these were negative emotions.
Could it be that the system's hidden setting was related to emotions?
As long as he could make someone instantly experience a large amount of negative or positive emotions towards him, it would accelerate the progress bar's filling speed?
No, that wasn't right, there was a problem here.
The box of mooncakes he gave to Xiangling was also glowing cuisine, and Guoba had eaten them all, so he should have felt satisfied then too, but at that time his progress bar only increased by [5%].
Xia Zhi also remembered Qiqi and that female ghost. When they inhaled the [Calming Incense], their expressions were also completely satisfied. If the system truly had such emotion-related settings, their progress bars should have filled up instantly like Guoba's just did, but that wasn't the case.
In other words, his hypothesis wasn't quite right.
"Boss, we've brought our bowls!"
Xia Zhi snapped back to reality.
"Mm, help yourselves."
"What's wrong with Sister Xiangling?"
"She just tasted the dish."
"Oh!"
The three girls instantly understood, after all, they had been stunned by food earlier that morning, so they were experienced in this matter.
"Boss, your cooking is so delicious!"
"Yaoyao feels like she saw a huge dragon flying between mountains."
"I saw it too!"
"How magical!"
Shenhe didn't express any thoughts, but after finishing one bowl, she immediately went to get another.
"Hey! Miss Shenhe is so sneaky!"
"Sister Shenhe, Yaoyao wants another spoonful too!"
By the time Xiangling recovered from her daze, the Jueyun Flying Dragon Pot in front of her was already empty.
What? Where did my whole clay pot of food go?
You all said you weren't hungry! Yaoyao, why are you standing so far away? I'm not going to steal food from your bowl! Sister has really spoiled you for nothing!
Xia Zhi interrupted Xiangling's resentful gaze and asked with a smile, "How does Miss Xiangling find the taste?"
"Delicious!"
"Compared to the previous version, has it improved?"
"I feel like it's not even on the same level anymore! Mr. Xia's cooking skills are really amazing!"
"Miss Xiangling is too kind."
"Oh right, Mr. Xia, earlier I saw the clay pot glowing!"
"Did you?"
"Yes!"
"I wouldn't know about that, since I'm blind. Perhaps it was an illusion created by the light and steam."
"Is that so? But I..."
"Miss Xiangling, these things aren't important. What's important is the taste of the food."
"Mr. Xia is right! Thank you for specially cooking for us, I learned a lot from it."
"No need for thanks, I just felt like it, it wasn't anything special. If anything, I should thank Miss Xiangling for letting me use Wanmin Restaurant's kitchen."
Xiangling looked at Xia Zhi and smiled, saying, "Then you're welcome to come use it again next time."
After chatting for a while, Xia Zhi bid farewell to Xiangling and returned to his summer shop.
Yaoyao was the first to run through the door: "Qiqi, we're back!"
Qiqi looked at her and nodded: "Mm."
"Thank you for watching the shop, Miss Qiqi."
"It wasn't troublesome."
"Would everyone like juice or tea?"
"Juice!"
"Juice!"
"Juice."
"Juice..."
Unsurprisingly, all four votes were for juice.
Xia Zhi smiled and walked behind the counter, prepared several rainbow juice drinks, and had Zhu Zi and Shenhe help serve them.
Everyone sat down, and Yaoyao began telling Qiqi about what had happened in Wanmin Restaurant's kitchen: "Qiqi, you don't know, big brother's cooking was really, really delicious!..."
Qiqi held her cup, eyes lowered, listening quietly.
Yaoyao finally smacked her lips and said, "It's a pity the clay pot wasn't bigger, there wasn't enough to eat."
Zhu Zi nodded in agreement: "Yes, I'm not full yet."
Xia Zhi sighed helplessly: "Not full? Have you forgotten about your hiccups again?"
Zhu Zi cutely stuck out her tongue.
So Yaoyao began telling Qiqi about Zhu Zi's hiccups: "Qiqi, you don't know, Sister Zhu Zi..."
Listening to this, Zhu Zi felt a sense of public humiliation, her face turning slightly red.
She secretly glanced at the others; Miss Shenhe and Qiqi were expressionless, while the boss seemed to be hiding a smile.
Ugh... would this become her embarrassing history...
Xia Zhi was indeed smiling, but not at Zhu Zi. He was just in a good mood.
Either way, getting a golden chest early was a good thing.
Xia Zhi called up the system panel and selected the golden chest from his inventory to open it.
A seemingly ordinary black hat appeared before his eyes.
[Hat of Secrecy]
Quality: Golden
Type: Special Equipment
Property: Secrecy
Effect: When wearing this item, one can enter a state of secrecy.
Hidden Effect: Anti-divination
This was Xia Zhi's second piece of special equipment so far, the first being the diamond quality [Wings of Radiance].
The effect description of this item was simple, only stating that it could put him in a "state of secrecy," but Xia Zhi wasn't clear about what exactly this "state of secrecy" meant.
However, as a golden item, its properties surely wouldn't be disappointing.
What interested Xia Zhi more was actually its hidden effect.
Anti-divination.
After reading that "Teyvat Travel Guide" book, Xia Zhi had learned that there was a unique profession in this world — astrologists.
The work of astrologists was to observe the trajectories of the stars and clearly show people the fate they were about to face.
The book also mentioned Constellations, which astrologists believed were the projection of Vision holders' destinies in the stars, revealing everything from the past, present, and future.
In simple terms, they were fortune tellers.
Xia Zhi was an outsider, and this world's stars had no place for him, so those astrologists probably couldn't peek at his fate through the trajectories of the stars anyway.
However, having this hat made him feel more at ease.
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