Chapter 23: Strange Neighbor 23

Yu Bai hadn’t originally planned on eating hotpot. He had been craving a hearty dinner that Xie Wufang could make—something like the sweet and sour pork he had suddenly been thinking about today.

But the moment Yu Bai stepped out of Doctor Chen’s office, he had been busy buying seeds, planting them, harvesting, assembling gifts… and remembering to run into his neighbor in the broken elevator to build a friendly neighborhood rapport. Oh, and getting the guy to change out of that white outfit he actually didn’t like.

There was just so much to do. Without A Qiang and the others helping out, he wouldn’t have made it in time to deliver the gift before Doctor Chen got off work.

So today, Yu Bai didn’t have time to teach the non-human how to cook.

In one of the previous loops, he had meticulously taught Xie Wufang all sorts of human common sense that wasn’t in any cookbook—for instance, how to handle a grease fire depending on the situation. Sometimes you needed to put it out right away, and other times it was fine to just keep stir-frying.

On top of that, he had bought a ton of cookware, seasonings, and ingredients, along with a bunch of recipes for dishes he wanted to eat, and handed it all over to his dear neighbor.

Then Yu Bai had gotten to taste food that perfectly replicated the recipes.

Xie Wufang, who had spent the whole day whipping up variations for him, had grasped cooking at an astonishing speed. By the end, he could even reverse-engineer the cooking process just from tasting the food. He was only a little short on time to get familiar with the dizzying array of human seasonings, leaving Yu Bai both thrilled and a bit regretful.

If only things could be like this back in reality. Then he wouldn’t have to order takeout every day.

In later loops, Yu Bai would think back on those flavors and feel his mouth water. Unfortunately, there were too many things he wanted to do and try—he couldn’t spend every loop supervising his neighbor in the kitchen.

So today, he would make do. He let Xie Wufang prepare the hotpot ingredients at home by himself. As long as he didn’t turn on the fire, it would be safe.

Night fell, and specks of light flickered outside the windows.

Yan Jing wandered into the kitchen with wide-eyed curiosity, spotting all the plates of prepped ingredients on the counter.

“Wow, your knife work is impressive…” He looked around and let out a surprised sound. “Why’d you buy so many kinds of mushrooms?”

Xie Wufang, still bustling in the kitchen, answered him, “Little Bai said he wanted to eat mushrooms.”

Yan Jing marveled, “But you got way too many varieties, didn’t you? Did you buy every type of fungus available at the market?”

There were oyster mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, tea tree mushrooms, porcini… ones he could name, and plenty he couldn’t.

Xie Wufang replied earnestly, “Yeah, but there were still a lot of mushrooms that weren’t available at the market.”

Yan Jing sucked in a sharp breath.

Was he buying mushrooms straight out of an encyclopedia or what?

After poking around the kitchen—which was stuffed full of ingredients for the first time ever—Yan Jing returned to the living room. He sat beside Yu Bai for a bit, a trace of melancholy gradually creeping onto his face.

He tentatively poked his good friend. “Little Bai.”

Yu Bai was absorbed in his phone and responded with a casual, “What?”

“Your new friend said you wanted mushrooms, so he bought a ton of different kinds.”

“Yeah, I know. His name’s Xie Wufang.”

“Oh, three characters. Kinda stands out. Not like our two-character names.”

Yu Bai finally set his phone aside and looked up, giving Yan Jing a weird stare.

“Your new friend is really good to you. He even calls you Little Bai. So diligent, seems loaded too. His build isn’t as good as mine, but he’s a tad taller. Of course, just a tiny bit. And he lives next door, so you two can hang out every day…”

Yan Jing rambled on for a good while before adding glumly, “Does that mean I’m not your one and only pup anymore?”

He flashed a teary smile. “But I’m still happy for you. Making new friends is great. Really, I’m super happy right now.”

“…” Yu Bai burst out laughing. “No way. You’re more like a pig.”

Yan Jing wailed in righteous indignation, “You said no way, but now you’re cursing me out for another guy!”

“…Don’t parrot those cringey memes at me. Gross.”

“Oh my god, you’re calling me gross! Waaah.”

“That’s enough! No watermelon for you tonight!”

Amid the bickering, the other guy quietly emerged from the kitchen. He stared at the seemingly irritated Yu Bai, a hint of concern flickering in his gray-blue eyes. “Are you angry?”

Yan Jing immediately slung an arm around Yu Bai’s shoulders, striking a bro pose in front of the third wheel. “Haha, no way he’s mad at me. Our bromance is rock-solid!”

Yu Bai shoved him off in disgust. “Get lost. Don’t say you know me—no, I’m not mad. Little Xie, go back to what you were doing.”

Xie Wufang, still unfamiliar with human emotions and behaviors, looked a little lost.

He thought for a moment, then obeyed Yu Bai and returned to the kitchen to keep slicing mushrooms.

The crisp sound of the knife slicing through ingredients and tapping rhythmically against the cutting board soon resumed from the kitchen.

The big new hotpot on the dining table began to bubble gently. Yan Jing was still secretly jealous that his good friend had a new buddy, while Yu Bai recalled Xie Wufang’s expression just before he turned away and couldn’t help chuckling.

He really loved days like this.

Even if they would eventually reset to zero.

The non-human being who could turn a summer sky into a gray-blue lake was, in his world, just Neighbor Little Xie seriously prepping hotpot in the kitchen, or Tool Little Xie queuing with him for popular rides at the amusement park, or Enforcer Little Xie getting dragged into triad drama with him—and so on.

At first, Yu Bai had felt a twinge of guilt. But with restart after restart, his qualms faded. The things they did together grew more and more outrageous—outrageous enough that he was even embarrassed to tell Doctor Chen about some of them in the loops.

After all, only he remembered.

This feeling was just…

So! Damn! Satisfying!

Dinner officially began. Yan Jing gaped at the table laden with impeccably sliced veggies and meats. “This is so lavish. Can we three even finish it? And seriously, aren’t there a bit too many mushrooms…?”

“Don’t worry, it’s not just the three of us.”

Before Yan Jing could process that, Yu Bai amiably picked up a perfectly cooked mushroom and placed it in his bowl.

“You know why I wanted to eat mushrooms?” A smile played on his lips. “Because if you eat them raw, they give you hallucinations.”

“So that’s the reason… Wait, that makes zero sense!” Yan Jing looked utterly baffled. “Hold on, is this one you gave me even cooked? I don’t wanna end up in the hospital!”

Yu Bai glanced at the clock on the wall. “Quit yapping and eat.”

“No way—hiss, what mushroom is this? So fragrant. Tastes amazing.”

“Dunno. Ask Little Xie.”

Xie Wufang by his side said, “Matsutake.”

Yan Jing, now savoring the mushrooms, decided to give him a shot. “This hotpot prep is pretty solid, Little Xie.”

Little Xie ignored him, his gaze fixed on the table full of ingredients he’d only just encountered that day, as if lost in thought.

Yu Bai stifled a laugh and picked a matsutake for him too. “If you don’t know where to start, just try a bit of everything and pick what you like.”

Those striking blue eyes dropped to the unassuming ugly mushroom in his bowl. The man nodded lightly. “Okay.”

Ten minutes later, Yan Jing eyed the untouched plate of matsutake longingly. “Come on, you bought so many kinds—try something else… Holy crap, did you hear that sound?!”

A sad sob suddenly echoed through the steamy living room.

Yan Jing and Xie Wufang turned toward the wall making the noise just as Yu Bai strode over.

He slapped the wall casually. “He Xi, come down already!”

A sharp yelp burst from inside the wall, followed by a clatter of chaos from the bathroom.

While his two friends were still stunned, Yu Bai sauntered to the bathroom door like it was routine. There stood the little girl in her elementary school uniform, just scrambling up from the floor and rubbing her sore butt. Her two braids swung back and forth over her shoulders.

Spotting someone approach, she ducked her head in fright, hurriedly apologizing.

“Big brother, sorry! I slipped down by accident. It wasn’t on purpose…” She peeked up timidly. “How did you know my name’s He Xi?”

Then the little girl, her cheeks streaked with fresh scratches and tears, watched as this unfamiliar big brother reached out and gently ruffled her hair.

“Because I’m a god.” The big brother grinned.

In this world trapped in a repeating 22-hour, 57-minute, 14-second time loop, he was indeed a god.

He asked, “Is your dad home drinking right now?”

“Yeah…” He Xi blinked in shock, then pleaded anxiously, “Please don’t tell my dad I came into someone else’s house. He’ll hit—”

“He won’t.”

Yu Bai led her to the bountiful dining table. “Sit down. Eat.”

The tear-streaked little girl sat hesitantly. She sniffled, inhaling the warm, inviting aroma of the hotpot.

Beside them, Yan Jing rubbed his eyes furiously. “Dude, I think I just saw a little girl appear out of thin air in your place…”

“You’re hallucinating from mushroom poisoning.” Yu Bai pulled out his phone to make a call while grabbing a hug pillow and tossing it at him. “Don’t swear in front of the kid.”

“Oh, oh, sorry—not, wait, you can see her too?!”

Yu Bai held the phone and brushed him off. “Because I’m hallucinating too.”

The call connected, and A Qiang’s serious voice came through from the speaker. “Young Master Yu, we’ve arrived, and all the stuff you wanted me to buy is set up!”

“Go on in, apartment 1104,” Yu Bai said. “Make sure he doesn’t show up here again.”

“Understood. We’ll take care of it.”

“When you’re done, come over to the house for hotpot.”

“Got it, Young Master Yu!”

Yan Jing watched wide-eyed as Yu Bai calmly ended the call. In a daze, he turned to Xie Wufang, who was sitting beside him. “Why do I suddenly get the feeling Little Bai has this big boss vibe? It can’t be another hallucination, can it? Little Xie, did you see that too?”

Little Xie ignored him again.

Yan Jing scratched his head in confusion. He simply turned to chat with his hallucination instead.

“You’re called He Xi? He Xi? He Xi?”

The little girl listened in bewilderment as he repeated variations of her name three times. She responded in a tiny voice. “Yeah… yeah… yeah.”

Yan Jing felt a surge of relief. “So enthusiastic. As expected, a two-syllable name really fits right in.”

He Xi didn’t understand. She blinked her big eyes blankly and let out an unconscious hiccup.

The big brother, who looked even scarier than her dad, fumbled for a tissue and handed it over. He also fetched her a fresh bowl and picked out some food for her.

“Don’t cry. I’ll go find Little Bai’s medicine kit and put some ointment on your face. Go ahead and eat for now.”

Yan Jing rose to search for the medicine kit, muttering to himself the whole time.

“Am I really heading off to grab the medicine right now, or am I hallucinating that I’m doing it? Ah, this little girl’s hallucination feels so damn real. That poisonous mushroom packs one hell of a punch…”

In truth, He Xi still had no idea what was going on.

But as she stared at the steaming food in her bowl, her stomach suddenly growled with hunger.

The lights in this house were bright. They were all complete strangers she’d never seen before, yet she didn’t feel afraid. She had no desire to crawl back into that dark, safe crevice in the wall.

He Xi tentatively picked up her chopsticks. The tips hovered at the edge of her rice bowl as she asked the big brother who had startled her out of the wall, “Can I really eat this?”

The godlike big brother smiled at her. “Of course. Just reach into the pot and get whatever you want.”

The blue-eyed big brother added, “These are shiitake mushrooms.”

He Xi blinked in surprise and peered down at her bowl.

It was filled with shiitake mushrooms that the scary-built big brother had picked out for her.

“Th-thank you!”

Actually… she knew what shiitake mushrooms were.

But this bowl she was eating today was especially delicious.

Maybe because a god was there.

It turned out she was living next door to gods.