My Taste Is Just Right

The car soon pulled up onto the lawn in front of the house. Everyone got out and unloaded their luggage.

Before arriving, Aleia had already turned on all the lights inside and outside the house. In the darkness, they could make out a beautiful two-story wooden cottage sitting just four or five meters ahead of them.

There was a yard in front of the cottage, enclosed by a low wooden fence. Inside, several beautiful flowers had been planted.

“Wow, what a beautiful house.” Li Yuanying walked forward with a delighted smile.

“It’s too dark to see the surroundings clearly right now, but I guarantee that once you wake up tomorrow, you’ll be very satisfied with the view,” Aleia said.

“Coming here was definitely the right choice,” Qingxia added with a smile.

“Mr. Su, here are the keys. There are two in total, and I’m giving you both of them. The house is yours for the next few days.”

Su Yang took the keys and nodded. “All right. Ms. Aleia, would you like to come inside for a while? I’m about to make dinner. Why don’t you stay and have something to eat with us?”

“No, no, I won’t impose. If you need anything, just contact me anytime. I’ll be in town. I should get going.” Aleia smiled, turned around, opened the car door, and got inside.

Su Yang waved. “Take care, Ms. Aleia.”

“All right. I hope you enjoy your stay.” Aleia started the car, turned it around, and slowly drove down the hillside. Before long, the vehicle disappeared into the night.

The four of them stood at the entrance and looked around. In the distance, numerous small houses scattered across the hillside glowed with warm lights.

The entire slope was dotted with lights. From afar, it looked as though the night sky had been reflected onto the earth—a dreamlike, magical sight.

“It’s so beautiful!” Li Yuanying cried excitedly, clasping her hands together as she gazed into the distance.

Yoshie and Qingxia were just as excited.

Although it was nighttime and they couldn’t see the surrounding scenery, the small area visible before them was already enough to make them feel as if they had stepped into a fairy tale.

[Ding! The host is currently feeling relaxed and happy, and is thoroughly enjoying the moment. Reward: 3 million.]

After standing there for a while to admire the view, Su Yang was the first to come back to his senses. He turned and called out to the others, “All right, that’s enough sightseeing. Let’s go inside.”

“Oh, right. Let’s go in, let’s go in.”

Since the hillside was almost entirely covered in grass, their suitcases were difficult to roll. They had no choice but to carry them.

Yoshie and Qingxia’s suitcases weren’t very large, so they could barely manage to carry them. Li Yuanying’s suitcase, however, was the biggest of the four, and it was packed with all kinds of things. Although she was tall, she was still a girl and couldn’t possibly carry it.

Seeing this, Su Yang shook his head and stepped forward with a smile. “You go open the door. I’ll take care of this.”

“This suitcase is really heavy, you know. And you still have to carry your own.”

“It’s fine. Go open the door.” As he spoke, Su Yang took out one of the keys and handed it to Li Yuanying. Then, gripping his own suitcase with his left hand and Li Yuanying’s with his right, he lifted both of them effortlessly and walked toward the house.

Li Yuanying stood there in stunned disbelief, her face full of amazement. “Daebak! That’s insane!”

“Ah, wait for me!” Li Yuanying hurried after him and jogged through the fence to the front door.

She looked down at the key, found the lock on the wooden door, inserted it, and turned it.

Click.

The door swung open.

Li Yuanying didn’t even have time to look at the layout inside before turning around and walking back to Su Yang, wanting to help him.

However, Su Yang looked completely relaxed, and for a moment she had no idea how she could help.

Su Yang smiled. “Go help Yoshie and Qingxia. I’ve got this.”

“Oh, okay.”

Su Yang carried both suitcases into the house with ease and set them down behind the sofa. Aleia had had the cottage renovated before their arrival.

Immediately inside the entrance was a small foyer. About a meter and a half in front of the door stood a wooden shoe cabinet, serving as a partition.

Once they walked around the foyer, they could see a relatively spacious combined living and dining area. The two rooms together covered roughly eighty square meters.

At the center of the living room was a semicircular coffee-colored sofa. A small round coffee table stood in front of it, surrounded by a circular rug. Directly opposite the sofa was the television wall, with a sixty-inch flat-screen TV mounted on it.

About two meters to the right of the sofa was a huge floor-to-ceiling window. Beyond it lay a garden balcony.

Behind the television wall was the staircase leading to the second floor. The dining room was on the left side of the living room, furnished with a long rectangular white dining table. Behind the table stood a wooden bar counter, and farther back was an open-plan, L-shaped kitchen.

Not far from the kitchen was the bathroom on the first floor. Continuing to the right led to a hallway about a meter wide, with three adjoining bedrooms along it.

The entire first floor was fitted with wooden flooring. That was more or less the layout. The living and dining areas were illuminated by warm white and yellow lights. Though the space wasn’t especially large, it felt extremely cozy.

Su Yang had already taken a quick look around. He pushed the suitcases behind the sofa and put them away.

By then, Li Yuanying and the other two girls had also entered the house.

“Wow, this place really is pretty nice.” Li Yuanying looked around with a smile.

“It really is. I’ll give you a thumbs-up.”

“Give me a thumbs-up?”

“You’re the one who picked it,” Su Yang said with a smile.

“Oh, right. Hehe, I do have great taste.”

Yoshie and Qingxia smiled as they set down their suitcases, then the three girls began looking around the first floor.

“Not bad, not bad. It has everything we need, and there’s even a big balcony,” Qingxia said with a smile.

“Have you checked out the bedrooms?” Su Yang asked.

“We have. They’re quite spacious, and they’ve been kept very clean,” Yoshie replied with a nod.

“What about upstairs?”

“We haven’t been up yet. Come on, let’s go take a look.” Yoshie grabbed Li Yuanying and Qingxia and hurried toward the second floor.

Su Yang walked over to the balcony, opened the floor-to-ceiling window, took a deep breath, and pulled out a cigarette, lighting it.

“I’ll take a breather before I start making dinner.”

He stepped out onto the balcony. There was a long black leather sofa that could be folded flat, along with a wooden table. Someone had thoughtfully placed an ashtray on the table.

A ring of yellow LED lights ran along the ceiling of the balcony. They weren’t very bright, but they illuminated an area three or four meters around them. It was the perfect level of lighting—anything brighter would have ruined the atmosphere.

Su Yang sat down on the sofa and stretched out his arms contentedly. “Mmm. This place is really comfortable.”

[Ding! The host is thoroughly enjoying the present moment. Reward: 3 million.]

A cool evening breeze stirred the loose strands of hair on his forehead. With the cigarette between his lips, he closed his eyes and leaned back against the sofa, quietly taking in the dreamlike night on the hillside.

As he relaxed there, a feeling he hadn’t experienced in a long time suddenly surfaced in Su Yang’s heart: a sense of security.

He had rarely felt that way since growing up. After obtaining the system, he had felt it even less, because he himself was more than capable of keeping safe.

And yet, at this moment, a trace of the security he had known only as a child unexpectedly rose within him.

How should he describe it? It was like a late-autumn day during his childhood. A light rain fell outside, while a naïve little boy curled up beneath a quilt on his bed. From beyond the room came the sound of his parents and grandparents laughing, mixed with the voices from a television...