Chapter 214: Fate Is Truly Wonderful

Early in the morning, a crisp and loud rooster's crow echoed through Qingfeng Temple, drifting far into the distance.

At this moment, Little Fei stood at the highest point of the roof, facing the faint light dawning in the distance, and crowed to his heart's content.

A rooster's crow brought the dawn to the world.

This cry seemed to awaken the entirety of Qinshan.

The lights in the house turned on, and before long, the sounds of someone washing up could be heard.

Little Dog was quite energetic. Hearing the crow, he immediately bounded out of the pet house and mimicked Little Fei by howling loudly.

"Awooo~"

Little Fox had been sleeping soundly. Upon hearing Little Dog's howling, she let out an annoyed whine, immediately rolled over, and went back to sleep against her Luo Xiaohei Plush Toy.

Little falcon remained motionless, still fast asleep. It had probably grown used to the commotion caused by these two little ones.

After Ning Fei finished washing up, he first went to a room on the first floor to check on the bird egg resting in the incubator.

The System had previously stated that the bird egg needed three more days to hatch.

Since Ning Fei had been busy dealing with Little Qun for the past two days, today was exactly the day the bird egg was supposed to hatch.

The System could not provide a more precise time, so Ning Fei could only wait.

He didn't know what time today the bird egg would hatch.

This was a red canary with the bloodline of a Phoenix in its body, and it had been drawn from the lottery; it certainly wouldn't be ordinary.

It was worth mentioning that the netizens still had no idea this canary egg existed.

Whenever Ning Fei entered the house, the drone never followed him inside, so the netizens were also unaware of how the items inside were arranged.

Once the canary hatched, Ning Fei planned to raise it first. When it grew a little bigger, he would tell the netizens that he had bought the canary at a bird market.

He walked out into the courtyard and went through his routine stretches.

As Ning Fei began his warm-up exercises, Little Dog constantly ran in circles around him. Ning Fei occasionally patted him, finding it quite amusing.

There was no greater joy in raising a dog than this; the dog would always follow its owner, and whenever the owner wanted to pet it, they could just reach out and give it a couple of strokes.

By now, Qingfeng Temple was already blanketed with fallen leaves.

If it was like this inside Qingfeng Temple, it was even more so outside. When Ning Fei opened the doors, a thick layer of leaves had piled up outside.

Leaves were still continuously falling from the surrounding trees.

Looking closely, the nearby trees had grown much barer.

"By the looks of it, if the wind picks up a bit more, the leaves will be almost completely gone by tomorrow."

Ning Fei muttered to himself.

Every autumn, there would be a few days when the leaves fell the heaviest. The wind would be especially strong during these days, making it impossible to sweep all the leaves away in time.

The usual practice at Qingfeng Temple was to let the leaves fall freely outside the courtyard, wait until they had mostly finished dropping, and then sweep them all up at once.

Ning Fei turned on the live stream as usual. He never deliberately put on a show during his streams. Most of the time, he would just turn it on, go about his own business, and occasionally explain a few things to the netizens.

However, even though it was so early, a large crowd immediately flooded in the moment the stream went live.

"Good morning, Temple Master Ning!"

"You're streaming so early today."

"Everyone's up really early."

"I'm rushing to catch the subway right now. I had nothing else to do, so I unlocked my mobile phone and saw a background notification that Temple Master Ning was live."

"Haha, what a coincidence. I'm rushing to the subway too."

"We're all just miserable corporate slaves. Even though it's so early, the Pudong Subway Line 10 is already packed with people."

"Holy shit, I'm on the Pudong Subway Line 10 too! We just arrived at The Bund."

"Holy shit, seriously? My train just got to The Bund as well."

"Which car are you in?"

"I don't know the exact number, but there are three big Black guys standing in the middle of my car, so it's pretty conspicuous."

"Fuck me, I see you! You're wearing glasses and a red hat, right?"

...

Inside the subway, the two bros exchanged a look, their eyes full of shock. Then, one of them walked over. They showed each other the live stream of Qingfeng Temple on their mobile phones and both burst out laughing.

Fate was truly wonderful.

It was just a pity that it happened between two grown men.

As a result, the early morning live stream became exceptionally lively.

Meanwhile, Ning Fei headed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

Ning Fei's breakfasts were generally quite simple. Today, he planned to make a bowl of steamed egg custard.

He took out a small bowl, cracked two eggs into it, and beat them until they were well mixed before adding a little water.

The more water added to steamed eggs, the more tender they became, but the flavor would also dilute, and they would fall apart at the slightest touch of chopsticks. School cafeterias usually added a lot of water to their steamed eggs, making them mushy and rather unpalatable.

Ning Fei only added a small amount of water and a pinch of salt, continuously stirring until the mixture was even.

Since there were fewer people in the live stream this early in the morning, Ning Fei had no intention of providing any commentary. He just cooked in silence.

If one was pursuing the perfect texture, the beaten eggs still needed to be passed through a sieve to filter out the clumps of egg white.

Ning Fei's technique was excellent, and he had beaten the eggs exceptionally evenly. He then let the eggs sit for a while before sealing the small bowl with plastic wrap.

By this time, the water in the pot had come to a boil. Ning Fei placed the egg mixture inside to steam and added a bamboo steamer basket filled with steamed buns on top.

Steamed egg custard was a quick and convenient delicacy. The cooking method was simple; it only needed to be steamed for ten to fifteen minutes, and a fresh, tender, and smooth dish of steamed eggs would be ready.

"Milk! Milk!"

At that moment, a crisp shout rang out from outside Qingfeng Temple.

Hearing this voice, Ning Fei quickly put away his cooking utensils and ran out.

"Aunt Li, I'll take two jin!"

Ning Fei called out.

Through the live stream, the netizens saw a woman riding an electric scooter outside Qingfeng Temple. On both sides of her scooter hung long, aluminum-like cylinders that looked like two oversized thermos flasks.

Inside the thermoses were two full pots of milk.

This was generally how things were in the village.

Every morning, designated vendors would shout out to sell milk, guokui, and sugar flatbreads.

Over a decade ago, many kids particularly loved eating sugar flatbreads and guokui. In that era, they were considered incredibly delicious foods. If you ate them now, the taste was exactly the same, but they lacked the feeling from back then.

Ning Fei carried a small bucket out to buy the milk.

He bought milk almost every morning.

The milk vendor had a specialized tool: a long rod attached to a cylindrical container. Scooping out a full cup with it equaled half a jin of milk.

Aunt Li scooped four consecutive times and said, "Two jin, all done."

Ning Fei handed the money to Aunt Li. With the transaction complete, both of them departed feeling satisfied.

Seeing this scene, the netizens were incredibly envious.

"The milk Temple Master Ning buys shouldn't have any additives in it, right?"

"When I was young, there were villagers who sold milk in our village too. Since everyone lived in the same village and knew everything about each other, the milk sold was absolutely the freshest."

"So jealous. Suddenly, the Mengniu carton milk in my mouth doesn't taste good anymore."

"Pure, natural milk has the highest nutritional value."

"Who knows how much real milk content is actually inside carton milk."

Many netizens, rushing onto subways and buses in the bustling and noisy cities, felt especially envious upon seeing this lifestyle at Qingfeng Temple.

Ning Fei carried the milk back into Qingfeng Temple.

He obviously couldn't finish two jin of milk by himself.

First, he found a meat sausage, placed it in Da Huang's pet bowl, and poured some milk over it.

Next, he went back to pour milk into Little Dog's bowl, mixing it with canned dog food.

Finally, he poured some milk for Little Fox.

He poured the last remaining bit into his own cup, which came out to be exactly one glass.

By now, the water in the pot was still boiling, and the steamed egg custard was fully cooked.

Ning Fei removed the steamer basket, took out the steamed eggs, and tore off the plastic wrap. He sprinkled on a bit of chopped scallions and poured over a tiny amount of seafood soy sauce. With that, the smooth and tender steamed egg custard was done.

He also whipped up a cold dish of cucumber and wood ear mushrooms, brought out a small saucer of his homemade pickled vegetables, and plated two steamed buns. This was today's breakfast.

Ning Fei dug out a spoonful of steamed eggs and put it in his mouth. It was smooth and delicious, filling his mouth with a fragrant scent. The egg slid right into his stomach, still carrying some heat, making his stomach feel wonderfully warm and cozy.

This breakfast was very simple, but its strength lay in its fresh and delicious taste. Although there was no extravagant meat or fish, the nutrition was balanced, and it improved his mood significantly.

The most crucial part was that all these vegetables, eggs, and milk were completely natural, entirely devoid of any traces of industrial processing.

After finishing breakfast, Ning Fei cleaned up, then went to do his morning scripture recitation and read a few ancient texts for a while.

Among the row of single-story buildings at Qingfeng Temple, one was a study. It held many scriptures, ancient texts, and miscellaneous notes that had been passed down through Qingfeng Temple over the years. Ning Fei had been reading them since he was a child and had already gone through quite a few.

Once he finished his morning scripture recitation, Ning Fei went to check on the canary egg again.

This white egg, traced with red patterns, looked exactly the same as before. There were no signs of it hatching yet.

Since there was nothing important to do today anyway, Ning Fei planned to rest in the Daoist temple for the day.

The crew of Yearning 6 streamed for five days and rested for two. Taking advantage of these two days off, the cast members, Peng Xiaochang and Zhang Xiaofeng, went off to fulfill their other schedules. Young artists in the entertainment industry were very tired and always needed to hustle.

Teacher He still had other shows to host, so he was very busy.

Huang Sanshi appeared much more leisurely. He spent these two days accompanying his wife and daughter; after getting married, a man's priorities would change.

Thus, South Village returned to its usual tranquility.

Aside from this, Ning Fei went to take a look and found that much of the New Green Bamboo planted yesterday had already been eaten by Dark Circles.

He thought it over and abandoned his plan to harvest New Green Bamboo from the deep mountains himself. Instead, he directly called a boss at a flower market down in the county town.

Money was omnipotent.

Once the price was settled, it wasn't long before the boss brought his workers over. Over the course of a few days, they planted the back mountain full of the New Green Bamboo and Emerald Dragon Bamboo they had cultivated.

Of course, that was a story for later. Right now, what Ning Fei cared about the most was the hatching of the canary.

At this moment, he hadn't yet anticipated what kind of bird Qingfeng Temple was about to welcome.