After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar] – CH100

Chapter 100

There’s a kind of “easy” that’s called “easy according to Xie Xingchen.”

Chinese knots were beautiful, but for people who had never seen them before, they were simply too difficult.

After all, in this era the weaving industry wasn’t very developed. Anyone who knew even a little weaving could be called a “handcraft master.”

So when many people who were learning along with Xie Xingchen on the livestream saw that bright red, festive, gorgeous Chinese knot, they immediately backed off.

Xie Xingchen encouraged them, “Don’t just stare—move! Hurry! It’s really simple. Follow me. This red cord goes through here, that red cord loops over there, then it goes back through here, and finally tighten it… not too loose and not too tight, or it won’t look good. It has to be snug-but-not-tight—like this.”

Everyone was already used to Boss Xie’s vague measurement words like “a little,” “a bit more,” and “about right,” so they actually had a decent grasp of what he meant by “snug-but-not-tight.”

But it didn’t help.

Do you think people with clumsy hands are clumsy because what they’re doing is hard?

No. People with clumsy hands are clumsy because they have poor hands-on ability—meaning they can take something ridiculously simple and still somehow turn it into a “masterpiece.”

They fumbled through the steps as Xie Xingchen demonstrated. It was clearly winter, yet some people were sweating like crazy.

Yes—some people, meaning…

Ludwig.

Who could’ve guessed that out of the eighteen people present (including Get-Rich, Prosperity, and Long-Life, who had already finished cooking paste), he was the only one with hopeless hands.

It would’ve been one thing if he was merely crushed by the guards—but he was also crushed by three robots and his own little brother, that brat of a kid.

When Ludwig cut bizarre, misshapen paper-cuts earlier, Xie Xingchen could still shamelessly call it “art.”

But this loose, lopsided, tragic Chinese knot? Not only could Xie Xingchen not praise it— even the pure, simple little Randy had his “art filter” for his big brother shattered on the spot.

[HAHAHAHA I’m dying—this tall, well-built dude is really awful at crafts!]
[Peak social-death moment! Everyone’s doing handicrafts together, and even the robots and the kid are better than him. If I were him, I’d buy a spaceship ticket and flee Earth immediately!]

The only clumsy-handed person on site, Ludwig, was truly worth sympathizing with.

People saw him and felt like they’d found family.

Chinese knots were obviously so hard—so how did everyone else learn it so quickly?

That was way too unscientific!

Only this tall guy was good!

He was the true representative of ordinary people, okay?

Ludwig, deadpan: I do not need this kind of understanding, thank you.

Fail, try again, fail again, try again—after a few rounds, Ludwig finally learned to give up.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to keep learning. It was that his brain said he’d learned it, but his hands had opinions of their own.

For two straight hours, Xie Xingchen taught Chinese knots.

Everyone went from “no one succeeds” to “no one fails” (except Ludwig).

In two hours, Xie Xingchen made more than a dozen Chinese knots. Everyone else had at least one successful finished piece. Altogether they barely had about thirty.

But the Xie Residence was huge. If they wanted to decorate it properly, this wasn’t enough—they had to keep working.

Once they learned it, handicrafts became fun.

Weaving no longer felt tiring. Instead, making different styles of Chinese knots with their own hands filled them with a strong sense of pride. Some even felt that if they ever retired, they could probably make a living off this skill.

Coincidentally, the people who learned paper-cutting felt the same way.

At this point, paper-cutting and knot-tying officially got on track.

Xie Xingchen looked around, satisfied, and nodded. Then he took the one truly idle person—Ludwig—and pulled him away to help paste up the couplets.

Carrying a full bucket of paste cooked by Get-Rich, Prosperity, and Long-Life, and driving a hoverboard to the doorway, Xie Xingchen carefully brushed a layer of paste onto the couplets. Then he had Ludwig step onto the hoverboard to paste them up.

“Is this position okay?” Ludwig asked after aligning the couplets according to Xie Xingchen’s instructions.

Xie Xingchen replied brightly, “I’ll step back and take a look.”

Footsteps sounded. Not long after, Xie Xingchen shouted, “Yes—Ludwig, you can paste it now.”

Receiving the instruction, Ludwig meticulously pasted the couplets into place.

Then he flew the hoverboard to the other side of the gate, took the next pasted-up couplet from Xie Xingchen, aligned it again, and pasted it on when Xie Xingchen said “Yes.” The horizontal banner was done the same way.

One door, two doors, three doors…

With more and more cooperation, the two of them became more and more in sync.

And by now, the viewers watching the stream had no words left.

They were completely enchanted by the Xie Residence.

A pavilion among blossoms, fresh green water;
water loops and corridors turn, cherishing winding paths.

Here, they saw the perfect fusion of nature and architecture—and the perfect fusion of culture and architecture.

How could an architectural style like this exist, one that stunned you the moment you looked at it?

It was just a house, yet it made people intoxicated, unable to look away.

[Me, uncultured, has already yelled “holy crap” a thousand times! Boss Xie hid this treasure for so long—I hate it!]
[Waaah… Boss Xie, won’t you consider opening tourism? I really, really want to visit Earth Commerce! Even if there are no tourist facilities, it’s fine—we can bring our own food and tents!]

Before, only a small number of people were talking about tourism. Now the number of people begging to visit was endless.

But aside from spamming “I want to travel,” some people also spammed something else they found suspicious.

[Wait—doesn’t anyone think this place called “Huaxia” is strange? Does our Star Alliance really have a nation like that? If it did, with that much cultural depth, how did it fall to the point that nobody knows it today?]

To be honest, that commenter had a sharp point—but unfortunately, nobody cared.

[Uh… the Star Alliance has countless civilizations, and each civilization is made of different species. Those species split into many nations—some disappeared into history, some flourished. It’s easy to find a flourishing nation, but it’s hard to find one that vanished completely, right?]
[Exactly. Even historians who specialize in this wouldn’t dare claim they know every civilization. So isn’t it normal that there’s one civilization everyone doesn’t know about, even though it once existed?]
[For example, the Barot civilization that everyone knows today—it also “suddenly appeared” and was later proven to have truly existed.]

These days, it wasn’t uncommon for descendants of some civilization to suddenly show up carrying a pile of historical materials, or for Star Alliance archaeologists to discover ruins that confirmed a civilization once existed at a certain time and place.

So nobody suspected Xie Xingchen wasn’t from the Star Alliance. They simply believed he was a member of an ancient surviving lineage.

Even Fu family’s parents never suspected it. They only hated that the Xie family had hidden itself too deeply—otherwise, they wouldn’t have schemed so brazenly to steal the Xie family’s planting foundation. They would’ve used a gentler approach, like marriage alliances, slowly profiting off “Huaxia culture” over many years.

But now everything was too late.

Not only had Xie Xingchen “grown wings” and flown away on his own, his strong, low-price approach had effectively suppressed Star Alliance green-plant prices. And as he became more and more famous, the matters involving the Xie family and the Fu family were dug up. Ordinary people’s impression of the Fu family turned extremely negative. The Fu family’s planting business—still not fully developed—took a massive hit and was now barely hanging on.

Fu family’s parents watched the stream while raging, their eyes filled with red, bloodshot threads of envy and jealousy.

When all the couplets were finally pasted, the once-cold, quiet Xie Residence instantly gained a thick festive atmosphere.

Seeing the sharp contrast, Ludwig stared at the red couplets on the door frames, thoughtful.

He used to dislike red. But today, his opinion of red changed.

So red wasn’t only the color of blood—it was also the color of celebration.

Xie Xingchen surveyed everything with satisfaction. Then he went to the hall, counted the paper-cuts and Chinese knots, and said, “Now let’s paste the paper-cuts and hang the Chinese knots first. Let’s see if we have enough.”

Then he picked up the paper-cuts he’d made: the twelve zodiac animals, “abundance year after year,” “great luck and great profit,” the “fortune” character, and more.

The moment he picked them up, little Randy’s round cat-like eyes widened excitedly, and he hugged his own little tiger paper-cut and followed along.

That’s right—after cutting a few simple flowers at the beginning, every paper-cut Randy made afterward was a little tiger.

Some were simple tigers just standing there roaring. Some were more complex tigers stepping on things and playing.

All kinds of tigers—if you can imagine it, Randy could cut it.

And this kid truly had artistic talent!

While others were still cutting the patterns Xie Xingchen taught, Randy had already learned to draft designs on his light-brain, plan patterns, and simulate the cutting process.

When Xie Xingchen found out, he was shocked.

He couldn’t believe he’d picked up a little artist.

It’s hard for mechanical lifeforms to produce artists, but with Randy’s talent, he was absolutely a future art big shot. And it wasn’t just Xie Xingchen wearing a filter—every viewer watching the stream agreed.

With the whole group working together, they pasted paper-cuts onto windows and tied Chinese knots onto anywhere they felt like tying them.

Eighteen people moved out. In under half an hour, the enormous Xie Residence became a bright red, festive “ocean.”

It was only a small amount of decoration, yet the New Year atmosphere grew stronger and stronger—and made everyone more excited for the arrival of “the New Year.”

They were still a bit short on paper-cuts and knots, so Xie Xingchen led everyone to make “fortune” paper-cuts and tie auspicious knots.

Neither was very difficult, and both had great meanings.

Especially the “fortune” character!

Xie Xingchen realized that aside from himself, nobody had cut that character at all. That wouldn’t do—this was the most important paper-cut. How could it be missing? After all, it meant “fortune arrives”… and when pasted upside down, it also sounded like “fortune is here.”

They worked nonstop until evening. Only when the sunset glow appeared did Xie Xingchen finally let everyone rest.

Xie Xingchen curved his lips toward the livestream orb. “Alright, that’s it for today’s stream. Tomorrow morning we’ll start streaming again—tomorrow’s content is New Year food. Remember to come watch tomorrow.”

Then, ignoring the audience’s wails, Xie Xingchen decisively ended the livestream.

Today was too exhausting. Neither he nor Get-Rich had the time or energy to cook, so dinner was taken straight from the food machine.

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The staples included scallion oil noodles, scallion pancakes, meat-stuffed flatbread, buns, steamed bread, dumplings, and more. Snacks included sugar-roasted chestnuts, various milk teas, cookies, and so on. And in addition, there were three new flavors of energy drink that mechanical lifeforms loved.

All kinds of food packed the table so full that the hungry crowd practically drooled.

Xie Xingchen called out, “Don’t be shy—eat!”

As he spoke, he picked up a dumpling with his chopsticks, dipped it lightly in vinegar, and placed it in Randy’s bowl.

Noticing Ludwig staring at him, he warmly suggested, “Ludwig, dumplings taste even better dipped in vinegar. You should try it.”

Then he picked up another dumpling, dipped it in vinegar—yet instead of giving it to Ludwig, he popped it into his own mouth.

Eating well without the slightest awareness of his own “crime,” and with the lively, playful dinner-table mood, Xie Xingchen couldn’t help smiling.

People are like that—be alone too long, and you start craving noise and warmth.

After eating and drinking, Xie Xingchen didn’t make everyone keep working.

After they dispersed—and after getting Xie Xingchen’s approval—the guards hopped onto hoverboards and happily zipped through the streets and alleys of Chang’an City.

Their light-brains recorded countless group photos with Chang’an.

When they posted these photos to their friend circles, their friends were so jealous their teeth itched. And the other guards who hadn’t won the chance to come along trained like maniacs, swearing that next time they would drag these twelve people down and take their places!

The next morning, despite not knowing what time they returned from playing, everyone was still energetic. They stared at Xie Xingchen with bright eyes.

Clearly, everyone remembered: today was the food day. Xie Xingchen would livestream making New Year foods.

This was far more appealing than handicrafts!

After all, the reason they had liked Boss Xie in the first place was because he sold them scallion pancakes!

Even now, scallion pancakes were still the favorite of their superior’s direct subordinates—only the newest flavors of energy drink could compete with them!

And those new energy drink flavors were also developed by Boss Xie!

So how good was the “delicious food” Boss Xie said was delicious?

They didn’t know—but they boldly guessed:

Definitely insanely delicious!

Xie Xingchen, half amused and half exasperated, explained to everyone. Eventually he just started the livestream early, giving everyone a “Spring Festival Food Special,” explaining traditional New Year foods in a few short lines—enough to make everyone drool.

After about half an hour of talking and letting everyone digest a bit, Xie Xingchen finally stopped his explanation with lingering enthusiasm.

He led everyone into the courtyard. There was a stone mill and a stone mortar there.

Xie Xingchen’s main goal today was to make rice cakes and pounded glutinous rice cakes, then fry some meatballs and sweet potato sticks.

Rice cakes and pounded glutinous rice cakes used the same ingredients, and they looked somewhat similar, but they were actually two different foods.

To make rice cakes, you grind glutinous rice with water into a slurry, add sugar and other ingredients, then steam it. If you don’t have those conditions, you can use glutinous rice flour with water, steam it, then unmold it to get rice cake.

Rice cake is generally not eaten as-is. It’s typically fried or steamed before eating.

As for pounded glutinous rice cakes? The process is more elaborate—and more troublesome.

You first steam glutinous rice, then put the cooked rice into a stone mortar and pound it into a sticky paste. This process is literally called “pounding rice cakes.”

Since there were so many people, Xie Xingchen decided to use the most troublesome method—because it also produced the tastiest results.

Excluding himself and Randy (who didn’t have the strength for heavy work), Xie Xingchen split the remaining sixteen people into three teams:

• Team one used the stone mill to grind glutinous rice slurry.
• Team two steamed glutinous rice and pounded it into rice-cake paste.
• Team three chopped meat filling for meatballs and cut sweet potato sticks.

Aside from cutting sweet potatoes, the rest were all strength-based tasks—if you had strength, you could do them. So Xie Xingchen felt very confident. After explaining the methods, he let go completely.

With enough manpower—and because this was physical labor—Xie Xingchen wasn’t really needed. So he took on the role of supervisor, and also kept an eye on the child.

No choice: having never seen such a lively scene, little Randy kept wandering closer, curious.

For example, right now, Randy walked over and squatted down to watch Luke and El push the stone mill to grind the glutinous rice slurry.

Milky white slurry dripped from the mill outlet into a wooden bucket. From a distance, he could already smell the fresh plant fragrance unique to grains.

This was only the first step, yet it already smelled so good. Just imagining how delicious the final product would be was enough to make him swallow.

On the other side of the courtyard, in a more open area, the rice-cake team was working.

They poured the freshly steamed, still-steaming-hot glutinous rice into the stone mortar and started pounding.

Because glutinous rice is very sticky, once cooked rice is pounded countless times, it becomes a smooth, cohesive mass. The resulting rice-cake paste is as fine as snow, soft and chewy, with a gentle sweetness.

In terms of texture alone, Xie Xingchen liked pounded rice cakes more than steamed rice cake.

The one currently pounding the rice cakes was Ludwig.

He looked long-limbed, but in reality he was tall, lean, and strong. As he pounded, he looked like he would never get tired—strike after strike after strike, never reducing force, never changing posture.

Unlike Xie Xingchen. Back when he’d pounded rice cakes before, he felt like he was going to die after only a few hits.

Now, seeing Ludwig so “dominant,” Xie Xingchen couldn’t help giving him a thumbs-up.

Meanwhile, chopping meat filling and cutting sweet potato sticks were also happening in the courtyard.

Currently, Long-Life and Get-Rich were chopping the meat, while Prosperity—who had absurdly good knife skills—handled the sweet potatoes.

When the camera moved to this side, the feeling was completely different from the other teams.

Watching Long-Life and Get-Rich chop wasn’t too shocking. But when the livestream camera focused on Prosperity, the effect was insane.

Prosperity used a peeler to strip sweet potato skins at lightning speed.

He was so fast he left afterimages.

In just a few seconds he peeled one sweet potato. After a few minutes, the peeled sweet potatoes piled up in the basin like a mountain.

At that point, one guard assigned to help stepped up to wash the sweet potatoes, while Prosperity continued peeling.

The funny part was: the washing speed couldn’t keep up with Prosperity’s peeling speed.

By the time Prosperity filled three more large basins with peeled sweet potatoes, the guard had only finished washing the first basin.

So Prosperity didn’t even start cutting yet—instead, he helped wash the other three basins.

[Prosperity is so nice—he even helped wash sweet potatoes!]
[Waaah, why is Boss Xie so good at training robots? Look at other people’s robots, then look at mine—same model, but they can’t do the same things at all!]

Prosperity’s efficiency was impressive to watch.

But that wasn’t even the most admirable part.

The most admirable part was what happened when Prosperity picked up a knife.

Chop-chop-chop…

Under Prosperity’s control, the large cleaver actually left afterimages.

The viewers were like people watching acrobatics and magic—so shocked their mouths couldn’t close.

Even the two teams grinding and pounding couldn’t help walking over to watch Prosperity “show off.”

Four basins of sweet potatoes total—Prosperity chopped three basins into the exact stick size Xie Xingchen wanted.

Then, with dizzying knife work, he sliced the last basin into evenly thick thin chips in just a few minutes.

“So, so amazing…” little Randy’s cat-like eyes sparkled as he looked at Prosperity with pure worship.

Randy’s admiration broke the silence, and everyone began praising along with him.

“Brother Prosperity, you’re incredible! Your cutting skill is insane!”
“When you’re free, can you teach me? My knife work is terrible.”
“Prosperity—no wonder Boss Xie named you Prosperity. With skills like that, when you awaken into true mechanical life, you’ll make a fortune.”
…

Everyone crowded around Prosperity, talking over each other.

Being the center of attention for the first time, Prosperity froze for a moment—his program slightly scrambled.

Seeing Prosperity uncomfortable, Xie Xingchen quickly shooed them away. “Alright, alright, show’s over. Shouldn’t you get back to work? Your work is important—no slacking!”

Hearing that, the group perked up and headed back.

That’s right—their work was important too! This determined whether everyone could eat rice cakes and pounded rice cakes for the New Year!

The onlookers went back to work, but the livestream chat didn’t calm down at all.

The comments exploded with people saying they wanted to “steal Prosperity and take him home.”

But then, as Prosperity went to help chop meat, and Get-Rich and Xie Xingchen started frying the drained sweet potato sticks and sweet potato chips—one pot each—the comments shifted from “steal Prosperity” to “steal Get-Rich.”

Waaah, it’s not that they were fickle—it’s just that robots who can cook are way too charming!

Look at Get-Rich’s confident expression, those efficient movements, and most importantly—the perfect results!

Get-Rich was absolutely a real chef!

If they stole Get-Rich, they’d not only get delicious food—they could also strike it rich and rise in life!

Frying looks simple, but anyone who’s actually done it knows it’s not simple at all.

Fry too little and it won’t be crispy. Fry too long and it becomes hard and dry. Only perfect timing produces the most ideal sweet potato sticks and sweet potato chips.

If it were only Get-Rich, people might just think he was capable and doing a great job. But this time, Xie Xingchen was right beside him as a comparison—and under that comparison, Get-Rich not only didn’t lose at all, he even looked more organized.

That was impressive.

Fried food has always been the ultimate temptation, from ancient times to now. Xie Xingchen and Get-Rich kept flipping and scooping with skimmers.

When the golden sweet potato sticks and chips came out of the oil, you could tell just from the look how crispy outside and tender inside they were.

Sprinkle a handful of secret chili powder and secret seasoning powder, and the flavor was unreal—the kind that could make the neighbor’s kid cry from jealousy.

Xie Xingchen tasted one sweet potato chip. His eyes lit up; the seasoning was just right.

Then, without thinking, he pinched a chip and slipped it into little Randy’s mouth—Randy who had been tugging on his pant leg this whole time. Then he pinched another chip and slipped it into Ludwig’s mouth as well.

With shining eyes, he asked them both, “Ludwig, Randy—what do you think of the flavor? Is it too salty? Too spicy?”

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