Chapter 48
From ancient times to the present, barbecue has always been a supreme weapon of temptation!
The quest follower count, which had been steadily climbing, paused for a beat once the barbecue was ready—then shot up like it was free, rocketing from three digits straight into four digits in a triumphant surge.
As if that still wasn’t fast enough, Xie Xingchen flashed a brilliant smile and, “mischievously,” set up another table beside the grill. He placed the stir-fried clams, cat’s-eye snails, fish-slice congee, lemon–passionfruit tea, green coconuts, and… even the raw-marinated seafood that hadn’t finished curing yet—all together.
[Aaaaah why does Boss Xie have so much to eat?! I want just one bite, ahhh!]
[The nutrient liquid in my mouth instantly tastes bad! The steps all look so simple, but why does everything he makes turn out amazing? This feels unreal!]
[Tears of envy sliding from the corner of my mouth… wuwuwu. These days even a housekeeping robot is better than me. Boss Xie, you’re really amazing. Is that a custom-made housekeeping robot? Does it cook because it was programmed with cooking routines?]
For the fans, they weren’t even going to talk about Xie Xingchen himself—he was a talented boss, that was a given.
But a housekeeping robot?
Who doesn’t have a housekeeping robot these days?
And yet—have you ever heard of someone’s housekeeping robot making gourmet food?
Not before. But now?
That robot called Get-Rich was insanely capable.
No wonder its name was “Get-Rich” (Get Rich)—with skills like that, how could it not prosper anywhere?
So jealous. Beyond jealous!
Having a robot like that would be too blissful. Tell it what you want to eat, then sit and wait.
Wuwuwu, having it would be like having a mobile restaurant!
Wuwuwu—why is the universe so unfair? Boss Xie is already rich and good-looking—why does he also get a robot this ridiculously awesome?
Is he trying to ascend to heaven?
The viewers were so jealous their faces nearly twisted.
At the same time, the quest progress in the top-right corner was climbing so fast it made Xie Xingchen grin so wide he couldn’t close his mouth.
Envy was good—he wanted envy!
Not only did he not comfort them, he even wanted to pour fuel on the fire.
Let their envy burn even harder!
Xie Xingchen cleared his throat twice and pretended to be puzzled. “You mean my Get-Rich? No, no—Get-Rich is just an ordinary housekeeping robot.”
The instant he said that, the screen filled with blood-red [I DON’T BELIEVE IT].
Xie Xingchen was trying to humblebrag, sure—but humblebragging wasn’t lying. He didn’t need to call a special robot “ordinary.”
Seeing no one believed him, he widened his almond-shaped eyes and even stated Get-Rich’s model number.
Now they had no choice but to believe him—because that model had been popular before. So popular that hearing the model number felt familiar.
Everyone: ?
So Get-Rich wasn’t just ordinary—it was the most standard-looking kind of ordinary.
Everyone: pupils shaking.jpg
Everyone: Then… why can Get-Rich cook?!
Xie Xingchen lifted his chin, subtly rubbed his fingers together, and—still putting on a reserved air—said, “Because I taught it.”
Everyone: ?
[Boss Xie, why would you teach a robot to cook?]
[If you want to teach people to cook, you should apply to a culinary academy! There are tons of students waiting to learn!]
[Exactly! Become a professor at a culinary academy and you get fame and money—and you can train so many students. Isn’t that better than teaching a robot?]
Maybe it was the long-standing interstellar norm: people guarded cooking methods like treasure, terrified someone would smash their livelihood. So everyone took food techniques—especially “secret recipes”—very seriously.
If being a planet lord was the dream job, and being a cultivator was the ideal job, then being a chef was the high-paying profession in ordinary people’s eyes: money, leisure, and huge growth potential.
But entering the field wasn’t easy. To become a chef, you had to attend a culinary academy and also buy expensive ingredients out of pocket to practice.
For most ordinary families, becoming a chef was hard—unless you got lucky or found sponsorship, it was basically a fantasy.
So once many people learned something, they all had the same attitude: hide it, protect it—don’t let others learn easily what you paid so much to acquire.
Only Xie Xingchen—raised in a “food kingdom,” and later exposed to countless recipes through modern internet—had an open attitude toward cooking. He never felt food-making needed to be kept secret.
So he didn’t find it strange at all to teach a robot to cook!
After all, if Get-Rich could cook, he could slack off.
Work was tiring—wasn’t more time to slack off better?
And—
Thinking about the future, Xie Xingchen spoke bluntly and earnestly: “Ever since Get-Rich came to my home, I felt it was really smart. I think someday it’ll successfully awaken into a mechanical-life citizen. And if that happens, I have to teach it a skill—so even if I’m not around later, it can support itself.”
Then, thinking of Prosperity and Long-Life, he continued: “Not just Get-Rich—Prosperity and Long-Life are smart too. They’re not as good at cooking as Get-Rich, but they can do a lot now… Prosperity is getting better and better at repairing machines, and Long-Life—besides treating minor illnesses—can even cultivate plants now. Its cultivation is really good!”
Praising his three robots without any reservation, Xie Xingchen looked like he was glowing.
His tone was slow and sincere, and people could hear, in that gentleness, how much he cared about the three robots at home.
And precisely because of that… the chat suddenly went quiet.
Outside of the mechanical civilization, everyone’s feelings toward robots were complicated.
On one hand, life couldn’t function without robots. On the other hand, if robots awakened, simple things became complicated.
Because not everyone treated robots kindly like Xie Xingchen did—teaching them survival and money-making skills in advance, just in case they someday awakened into citizens of the mechanical civilization.
Most people only felt awakened robots were terrifying: at minimum, you’d have to replace the robot; at worst, robots handled work closest to privacy and secrets—who wanted their private life exposed to an intelligent being?
In that moment, everyone realized Xie Xingchen was… different.
His approach seemed foolish to many—but undeniably, right then, he became someone who somehow shone in people’s eyes.
Especially to citizens of the mechanical civilization: Xie Xingchen looked as if he’d been gilded in gold… radiant.
If Xie Xingchen hadn’t closed the gift channel, he might’ve been pummeled senseless by gifts from mechanical-civ fans.
But even without that, he was already dizzy!
Earlier his quest follower count had barely crossed ten thousand—yet now?
That “Envy Others” quest count suddenly skyrocketed without warning!
In only a few dozen seconds, the leading digit went from “1” to “3.”
What does it feel like to gain twenty thousand quest followers in a few dozen seconds?
Xie Xingchen could answer clearly: ridiculously awesome.
He didn’t know where they were coming from, but… who cared? As long as the system recognized them as quest followers, that was all that mattered!
Watching the number keep rolling upward, Xie Xingchen felt like a flower blooming inside.
At this pace—if his luck stayed good—he might even finish the quest today!
Xie Xingchen didn’t know that the loyal-follower surge happened because his care and thoughtfulness toward robots triggered deep envy in mechanical-civ viewers.
He only assumed the netizens were jealous that he had “three such big sons,” so he decided: he must give Get-Rich, Prosperity, and Long-Life even more chances to shine!
He abdicated the grill-master position to Get-Rich and the others, then happily sat aside, ready to eat freshly grilled oysters and scallops.
The juices on the just-cooked oysters were still bubbling with tiny bursts of heat, and the shells were hot enough to burn.
But wearing gloves, Xie Xingchen feared nothing!
This little heat? Nothing.
After letting it cool slightly, Xie Xingchen picked up an oyster. With chopsticks, he pried it loose with a bit of force, blew on it, then took a fierce bite.
Fresh, sweet, spicy—plus a mouthful of garlicky flavor—an instant, stunning hit.
Truly worthy of fresh seafood!
Wild-fresh seafood lived up to its name. Unbelievably delicious.
The oyster was too big to swallow in one bite, but finishing one in a few bites was no problem.
He didn’t even have time to describe it—he ate with his eyes squinting in bliss.
But he was eating so deliciously that the viewers watching the stream were driven to pound the ground and cry.
Why was that ugly thing so tasty?
No—this was too cruel, too tempting!
Driven beyond endurance, viewers tried every trick they could think of.
Merfolk had the best natural location—they could dive into the ocean right away and get the same oysters. People who lived near the sea could at least go to the beach to scavenge. But those who couldn’t get to the ocean had no choice—they could only watch others go hunting while they boiled in envy.
Tonight, Xie Xingchen single-handedly stimulated the seafood economy.
Seafood that used to rot in the ocean because no one wanted it suddenly became a hot commodity.
The administrators of the merfolk planet were grinning ear to ear.
They had tons of these things!
It was just that they were so ugly that the beauty-obsessed merfolk never felt like eating them.
Now? Turns out they were all delicious!
So what else was there to say—catch them all!
Starting tonight, the merfolk planet became busy: some catching oysters, some monitoring inspections, some watching the livestream—everyone bustling happily.
And for some reason, most land plants carried dark matter, which meant many land animals did too. But ocean plants contained far less dark matter than land plants, so seafood creatures also contained less.
Less didn’t mean none, but most of these ocean creatures weren’t over the limit and could be considered within safe range.
That was rare—it meant people could eat them with peace of mind, as long as they went to the hospital for treatment after a while like usual.
Just like that, the merfolk planet’s trade surplus opened up. From then on, merfolk couldn’t help looking at Xie Xingchen with thick, warm affection.
But that was for later.
After finishing a grilled oyster, Xie Xingchen moved on to try the garlic grilled scallops.
The scallops were already cooked. Just visually, they looked even better than the oysters.
And when he bit in—an unbeatable texture. Compared to oysters’ slippery tenderness, scallop meat was firmer and more substantial.
Xie Xingchen sighed regretfully. “Too bad we don’t have vermicelli. If we did, that’d be great. Back on Earth there was a famous dish called garlic vermicelli steamed scallops—I’ve eaten it. So good!”
Since he wanted to make Earth famous, he didn’t mind dropping a few hints.
And he knew: the more calm and natural he sounded, the more fans would fill in the blanks.
Sure enough—
[Huh, an Earth specialty dish? But wasn’t Earth a newly discovered small planet?]
[Maybe it’s the planet Boss Xie’s family used to live on? The Star Alliance has lots of people from unknown small planets—migration history is dizzyingly long.]
[Then the Xie family has deep history—keeping records like that is impressive!]
No one doubted that this “Earth” was the same Earth Xie Xingchen talked about. After hearing Earth-related info, people simply marveled at the Xie family’s long history, and at most thought Xie Xingchen was sentimental—buying a planet and naming it “Earth.”
And just like that, fans suddenly understood why Boss Xie named his planet “Earth” instead of “XX Star.”
So it was because the older generation of the Xie family came from a planet called Earth (massive misunderstanding).
Xie Xingchen was pretty satisfied with their explanation.
Wasn’t that right? He was from Earth!
Not only that—he brought countless Earth ideas and cultural things with him too!
With fans handing him a ready-made excuse, he didn’t have to worry about saying the wrong thing later.
Wrong? “That’s how Earth used to be. If you don’t know, it’s because your family lacks heritage.”
After chatting for a while, Xie Xingchen snapped back to reality—he’d already finished the first batch of oysters and scallops.
His mouth felt a bit dry, so he poured himself a full cup of lemon–passionfruit tea.
Condensation beads formed on the glass. He drank it down in one go, then let out a satisfied sigh.
Get-Rich, Prosperity, and Long-Life were still diligently working as barbecue guys, while Xie Xingchen—the “black-hearted capitalist”—started eating again.
Thick claypot congee, fragrant stir-fried clams and cat’s-eye snails.
These two were the classic staples of southern late-night street stalls.
One sip of congee, one slurp of cat’s-eye snail, then a bite of stir-fried clams—living like an immortal!
Just then, another batch of oysters and scallops finished grilling. As the robots were about to keep going, Xie Xingchen suddenly said, “Get-Rich, Prosperity, Long-Life—stop. If you keep making more, I can’t finish it.”
In the interstellar era, with mental power, everyone became a big eater. But this was already so much food—eat more? Forget being full—you’d die from stuffing yourself.
There was only one human and three robots. But the only one who could actually eat any of it was Xie Xingchen. The three robots could only stare in envy.
Xie Xingchen couldn’t help it. If they were awakened mechanical citizens, they could swap to better body modules and maybe digest a little. But they weren’t awakened! Unawakened robots could at best drink modified-flavor energy liquid.
They couldn’t eat, so all they could do was watch and drool.
Xie Xingchen patted each robot’s head and promised, “Don’t worry. When we go back, I’ll place an order with the custom energy-liquid factory and have them make you the same flavor!”
Making it himself? No. He’d done that before, and after the three robots drank it, they nearly started singing thank-you songs.
Everyone has their specialty—people should admit their weaknesses.
So Xie Xingchen lay flat and decided: from now on, he’d pay for services.
And it was precisely that casual attitude that made people jealous.
[Wuwuwu I’ve said “envy” so many times the word is worn out, but I still want to say it! Boss Xie, since you’re even customizing energy liquid flavors for your robots, could you consider making a seafood-flavored nutrient liquid? Begging humbly online.]
[I want to possess Boss Xie’s robot body so bad… (:???)]
[Why does someone else’s robot live better than me… Boss Xie, do you need another robot? I went to a top academy, I can eat and drink!]
Everyone was envious, jealous, resentful!
Even robots could get “same-flavor” energy liquid, while they could only drool watching someone feast.
Netizens: stabbed in the heart (:???)
After eating and drinking for a while, Xie Xingchen started feeling a little guilty seeing the chat’s wailing.
Thinking it over, he tested the waters: “How about I do another giveaway? Then Prosperity can drive the hovercar and bring the prizes to the small wormhole receiver for shipping?”
Going back to ship wasn’t impossible. He had plenty of fresh-keeping boxes in his spatial button, so container shortage wasn’t an issue.
He also had several protective shields—unless it was a major danger, they could hold for a few hours.
As long as Prosperity drove fast, a round trip would only take about four hours.
[Yay, giveaway giveaway! slams table and stands up.jpg]
[Thank you, Boss Xie! Love you for ten thousand years, muah!]
[Hahaha I just washed my hands and came back—this time I’m definitely winning!]
[Hehe, I’m different. I’ve never lost a giveaway in my life. Prize, you better wait for me!]
The moment he mentioned a giveaway, the chat flipped from wailing to giddy.
But since the prizes weren’t ready yet, Xie Xingchen wasn’t in a rush.
He told the three barbecue boys to keep grilling, while he ran off to pick up green coconuts that had fallen nearby.
He didn’t realize how many there were until he started—just naturally fallen green coconuts already numbered in the hundreds. It was honestly a little scary.
But then he remembered this place was basically deserted. Aside from small animals eating some, no one picked them up. So it made sense.
He patted a small squirrel that ran up and stared at him blankly for a while, then hugged the last coconut and walked back.
When he returned, Get-Rich, Prosperity, and Long-Life had finished grilling the remaining oysters and scallops.
Get-Rich had even squeezed in time to cook another pot of congee, using up the leftover fish slices.
Xie Xingchen thought for a moment, calculated the prize quantities, then said, “Most of the prizes were already given away earlier. Now we only have garlic grilled oysters, garlic grilled scallops, and green coconuts left.”
[What about mangoes? There should still be mangoes, right?]
Xie Xingchen didn’t plan to give away mangoes again. He shook his head. “There are mangoes left, but not many. I need the rest tomorrow—I’m going to teach everyone how to make mango-related dishes.”
[What about the raw-marinated seafood?]
Xie Xingchen blinked. “Raw-marinated? You want that too?”
It could work. Raw-marinated seafood needed at least six hours, but by the time the viewers received it, it’d be several hours later anyway—just in time to eat.
He hesitated, not answering immediately. Instead, he opened the raw-marinate box, took out the smallest piece of lobster meat, and tasted it.
That one bite opened a whole new world for him!
Xie Xingchen: sparkly eyes.jpg
So delicious!
The texture was… like ice cream?
So smooth, so fragrant, so tender!
Even the marinade was delicious. He was missing a bunch of seasonings, yet it was still tasty?
And it had only been marinating for two hours!
If it marinated longer and absorbed more flavor… it would be even better!
Staring at the huge clear container full of raw-marinated seafood, even though he was already full, Xie Xingchen suddenly felt hungry again.
But—
Be generous. He owned an entire planet. And the viewers?
They could only drool on a daily basis!
After giving himself a pep talk, Xie Xingchen forced his gaze not to drift toward the raw-marinate and said, looking pained, “Okay… okay. Raw-marinate will be part of the giveaway too. I’m opening the giveaway backend now—everyone, focus up!”
Green coconuts: 100 prizes.
Barbecue: 10 prizes.
Raw-marinate: plenty, so 50 prizes.
Fish-slice congee: 10 prizes.
Total: 170 winning slots.
That sounded like a lot—until you saw the number of participants: nine digits.
Xie Xingchen clicked his tongue.
This win rate was basically the same as buying a lottery ticket.
170 winners out of a nine-digit pool? Whoever won had to be chosen by fate.
At first he thought 170 was generous, but seeing the participant count made him feel guilty.
He couldn’t help giving his fans a sympathetic look.
Most people were destined to only stare hungrily.
But even the cleverest cook couldn’t make a meal without ingredients. Xie Xingchen had no solution to the quantity problem. After the draw, he struggled for a moment… then softened.
Fine. He’d bring tomorrow’s content forward.
With an embarrassed face and slightly reddened ears, Xie Xingchen said, “Ahem… how about I teach you how to make sago dessert? If you learn it, you can make it at home.”
Modern sago was small beige pearls, but the sago he’d found here looked similar in color and shape—except it was about the size of rice grains.
If Get-Rich hadn’t accidentally cooked it like normal rice congee, Xie Xingchen probably wouldn’t have discovered this “giant sago.”
He took out the sago to show them. “You can buy this on the StarNet marketplace. It’s not too expensive—about one thousand star-coins per jin.”
At that price, you couldn’t expect any green matter content, but it also had no dark matter. And because it grew wildly fast and people hadn’t discovered the correct way to eat it, the price stayed low (compared to other ingredients).
Xie Xingchen continued: “Take a small handful of sago, rinse it clean, then add a lot of water. Don’t add too much sago—just a small handful like this is enough. You need plenty of water, or it won’t cook through.”
This grain absorbed water like crazy. After cooking, it puffed up into something like sweet-fermented rice dumplings, so it needed lots of water. Strangely, even though it grew in size, the taste stayed similar to old sago.
He grabbed a tiny handful, rinsed it twice, poured it into a pot, added over half a pot of water, and turned on the heat.
For filming convenience he didn’t cover the pot, but he also reminded everyone: “I call it sago, but its original name seems to be ‘millet,’ so don’t buy the wrong thing. And when you cook it, don’t be greedy—just a small handful. Beginners shouldn’t cover the pot. Watch it patiently for about ten minutes.”
As if to prove his words, the sago gradually turned from milky white to translucent. At this stage it absorbed water aggressively, expanding until that small handful became about a third of the pot.
When the center turned fully transparent, he turned off the heat.
“Once it’s fully transparent, you’re done. Add some sugar, and you’ve got sweet sago dessert. It’s so simple—I think you can all make it after watching, right?” Xie Xingchen smiled.
Then he cut up a mango into a big glass bowl, poured in the coconut juice he’d frozen earlier, spooned in a few scoops of the transparent sago, and gently stirred.
Instantly, the plain sago transformed into something that looked expensive—like something everyone couldn’t afford!
And the culprit smiled sweetly and said, “You can do it like me—add coconut juice and mango to make mango coconut sago dessert. And a reminder: after it’s done, put it in the freezer to chill—then it’s super delicious!”
After saying that, he eagerly put it into the freezer and switched on rapid-freeze mode. Five minutes later, he took it out—cool and icy mango coconut sago dessert, even more irresistible.
And now, after taking a digestive tablet, Xie Xingchen happily performed another mukbang right in front of everyone—
The viewers who had just received their sago deliveries and hadn’t even cooked it yet: (#??)
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