Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 19 New Skills

Before Jiang Lili could speak, he ran out.

This time, instead of taking the main road, they went straight down the side path, like diligent bees, bringing back ten large turtles.

Although not as big as the first one they brought back, they were still the size of a washbasin. Decades later, they would fetch 1000 yuan per kilogram, but now he could just pick them up however he wanted.

At this time, Jiang Lili also boiled water and took out the large iron pot that was hidden on the wooden frame of the pigpen and used to cook pig feed. She carefully washed it with straw and placed it on the simple stove next to the pigpen.

Next up is Chen Fan's performance.

First, he used a cotton stalk to bite the big turtle, pulling out its head. In the blink of an eye, he swiftly brought down his knife, and the turtle was decapitated, its blood gushing out.

Don't waste the turtle's blood. Collect it in a bowl, wait for the blood to drain completely, and then soak the turtle in hot water at around 80 degrees Celsius.

Jiang Lili stood by the side the whole time. When Chen Fan said he wanted hot water, she brought over a small half bucket of hot water. When he said he wanted cold water, she brought over a large bucket of cold water.

Watching Chen Fan peel off the outer membrane of the turtle, which had been soaked in hot water, bit by bit, leaving no black spots, he then used large scissors to cut two slits in the turtle's abdomen, peeled off the shell, and cut off the rice-grain-sized yellow fat inside the internal organs, discarding some of the internal organs as well. Finally, he used a large cleaver to chop the turtle into small pieces on a tree stump and soaked it in cold water to clean it.

After washing the turtle meat, put it into a cleaned pig feed pot, add water, light the fire, add large pieces of ginger and knotted scallions, and Chen Fan, standing next to the pigsty, patiently skimmed off the foam with a spoon.

Once there is no more foam, pour out the soup, rinse it again with hot water, and finally put the drained turtle meat into a clay pot lined with many ginger slices.

Add hot water, knotted scallions, and salt back into the large iron pot, place a steamer rack on top, put the casserole dish on the steamer rack, and finally cover the pot with the lid and start a fire to boil the water.

Only then did Chen Fan exhale a long breath and smile at Jiang Lili, "Simmer it over low heat for two or three hours, and we'll have dinner at 5 o'clock."

Jiang Lili was stunned for a long time before she came to her senses after hearing his words. Her gaze kept shifting between him and the pot. "Won't the turtle not have a fishy smell now?"

"How can it be!"

Chen Fan sighed, "We don't have cooking wine, or even baijiu, so the fishy smell definitely won't be completely removed. Actually, it would be best to stir-fry it in hot oil with star anise and braise it; that would be the tastiest way. But with limited resources, this is all we can do."

As soon as I finished speaking, I heard a "ding" in my head.

"Successfully made turtle for the first time, rewarded with 10 cooking experience points, current cooking level LV4."

Experience points +10? Cooking skill level LV4?

Upon hearing this notification, Chen Fan's first reaction wasn't that a new skill had been unlocked, but rather: So experience points and level values ​​aren't equal?!

He had only gained experience points twice before: once for washing dishes (household chores skill experience +1) and once for talking to the big yellow dog (animal language skill experience +1).

The former's housework skill level is LV3, while the latter's is LV1, which gives him the illusion that experience points are equivalent to level points, and that adding one point will level him up.

It wasn't until now, with 10 cooking experience points but only a cooking level of 4, that he realized what was happening.

So, how many experience points are needed for each level up?
Across from her, Jiang Lili was still pondering Chen Fan's words. If he really had cooking wine, oil, and spices like star anise, fennel, and cinnamon, could he really make a turtle without any fishy smell?

Then she noticed that Chen Fan was staring straight at her. Her face immediately turned red. Before she could even think straight, she stood up and walked quickly towards the front yard, as if afraid that someone would chase after her.

Chen Fan had no idea that Jiang Lili had left. He stared at the panel in front of him, lost in thought. How do I check the experience progress bar?
While I was thinking, the information on the panel changed.

The beginning remains unchanged, except for the addition of several experience progress bars in the bottom skill bar.

skill:
家务LV3（1/100）禽言兽语LV1（1/10）

Cooking Skill LV4 (10/200)

Apart from a progress bar, there's nothing else; it's still shockingly rudimentary.

Chen Fan pondered carefully. Animal language was LV1, requiring 10 experience points to level up. Household chores experience was LV3, requiring 100 experience points to level up. Cooking experience was LV4, requiring 200 experience points to level up.

所以，1级的不算，可能1点经验值就能开启，那么1升到2级就需要10点经验值，3升到4级需要100点经验值，4升到5级需要200点经验值。

So here's the question: how much is needed to upgrade from level 2 to level 3?
There's absolutely no pattern to it, it just doesn't make any sense!
Chen Fan pondered for a long time, but found it was useless, so he sighed and thought, "Forget it, I'll know how much it takes to go from level 2 to level 3 when I reach level 2 in Beast Language."

I looked up and wondered, "Where's Jiang Lili?"
They didn't even say a word about where they were going.

He muttered to himself, but didn't pay much attention. That was his impression of Jiang Lili anyway; she was more cautious and timid than a little white rabbit. He just let her be.

After checking the stove fire, breaking off a few cotton stalks and stuffing them in, and closing the stove door a little, Chen Fan clapped his hands and went to the front.

He had just boiled water to kill the turtle, and the water in the tank had become shallower, so he carried the bucket to do his quest.

After carrying two loads of water back and filling the water tank, his physical condition successfully increased to 7.

Although the water tank was already full, he still went to fetch another load, because he would need water to wash up in the evening, and having two buckets of water in advance would be just right.

However, this time, no attribute was increased; only 3 points of housework experience were added, and the progress bar increased from 1 to 4.

How is this going?

Chen Fan fell into thought. If it was ineffective, then he shouldn't have gained any experience points. But if it was effective, how did his good physique points turn into housework experience points?

Does this mean that the same method has a limited effect on increasing basic attributes? Once it exceeds that, it becomes useless?

……

Jiang Lili hid in her room and heard Chen Fan carrying several buckets of water back without speaking to her. She silently wondered if she was overthinking things.

Perhaps he was thinking about something else at that time and wasn't looking at me at all?

Thinking about this, she couldn't help but feel conflicted.

She finally found someone willing to talk to her, but will they drift apart again because of this?
She was getting a little upset as she pondered things in her room.

After a while, she suddenly realized that there was no movement outside. After a two-second silence, she quietly opened the back window a crack. Steam was still rising from the earthen stove by the pigsty, but she did not see Chen Fan.

Looking closer at the front window, Chen Fan was nowhere to be seen in the yard.

I walked to the door and pressed my ear against it, but I still didn't hear a sound.

She hesitated for two seconds, then gently opened the door, peeked out and looked around, but there was still no one there.

He couldn't help but frown slightly. Where had he gone again?
(End of this chapter)