At 12:13 PM, a Mercedes-Benz G-Class slowly pulled into the B2 parking garage of Vientiane Plaza.
Jiang Tao found an empty parking spot, turned off the engine, and got out of the car with Jiang Yi.
They took the elevator from the underground parking lot straight to the fifth floor, where the food court was located, and headed directly to the entrance of Meizhou Dongpo Restaurant.
Jiang Tao had reserved a private room and pre-ordered food and drinks in advance.
After confirming his identity at the front desk, he and Jiang Yi were led by a waiter into a tastefully decorated private room.
They waited for about ten minutes.
At 12:23 PM, seven minutes before the agreed-upon time, there was a knock on the private room's door.
Han Mei didn't dare to be late and arrived a few minutes early.
Seeing Jiang Yi sitting next to Jiang Tao, Han Mei's thoughts grew complicated. It seemed that from now on, she could no longer manipulate or pressure Jiang Yi.
She could no longer force her to comply.
On her way here, Han Mei had thought about many things, her mind swirling with countless possibilities.
She wondered how Jiang Tao might use her secrets to blackmail or threaten her.
But the scenario she had imagined didn't happen.
Jiang Tao's attitude toward Han Mei was mild, and he didn't mention *that matter* at all, as if it had never happened.
At first, Han Mei felt reserved, mostly nervous and afraid.
But gradually, as she sensed that Jiang Tao harbored no ill intentions toward her, her tense nerves began to relax.
For Jiang Yi, this was her first time dining at the same table as Han Mei.
Moreover, their relationship had been strained recently, far from harmonious.
At the start, Jiang Yi didn't say much and appeared quite reserved.
Slowly, under Jiang Tao's guidance, both Han Mei and Jiang Yi began to relax.
Overall, the atmosphere during this lunch was relatively pleasant.
Jiang Tao didn't say anything explicitly, but Han Mei understood what she needed to do moving forward.
While she wouldn't treat Jiang Yi like royalty, she absolutely couldn't suppress or target her anymore!
The meal lasted from 12:30 PM to a little past 1:00 PM, about forty minutes in total, less than an hour.
Jiang Yi had a class at 2:00 PM.
After the meal, Jiang Tao drove the Mercedes-Benz G-Class to drop her off at the entrance of Eddie Kindergarten.
"Jiang Tao, thank you for today. You went out of your way for me, and this meal must have cost you. It should've been my treat," Jiang Yi said softly, her gaze gentle as she expressed her gratitude just before getting out of the car.
**[Jiang Yi's favorability toward you has increased by 5 points, now at 79 points. (Good Friend)]**
**[Keep it up! Your friendship with Jiang Yi has reached 80 points!]**
"80 points! Just 10 more to go!"
Seeing that his friendship with Jiang Yi had risen to 80, Jiang Tao felt a surge of quiet joy. His efforts that morning hadn't been in vain.
This meal was well worth the cost!
Snapping back to reality, Jiang Tao smiled and said, "No need to worry about it. It's just a meal. It doesn't matter who pays. You can treat me next time."
Jiang Yi smiled back. "Alright, I owe you a meal."
"Don't you have class soon? You're running out of time. Hurry up and go."
"Oh! Right, I've got to go. Bye~"
Hearing Jiang Tao's reminder, Jiang Yi panicked, waved at him, and jogged toward the school entrance.
After watching Jiang Yi enter the school, Jiang Tao got back into the car and drove off.
"What should I do this afternoon…?"
"Oh, right! I'll head to Wumart to buy a batch of ingredients for making barbecue sauce!"
"For the next few days, I'll start training Mom and Dad to make the barbecue sauce."
"The only tricky part is that I can't teach Mom and Dad how to select the raw ingredients."
"And I need to get Jiang Jiaqi to register the product name and patent as soon as possible."
While driving, Jiang Tao mentally planned out the details for the barbecue sauce business.
About half an hour later, he arrived at the largest Wumart supermarket in Huilongguan.
However, the situation wasn't ideal.
He spent over half an hour in the vegetable section and only managed to pick out less than 20 jin (about 22 lbs) of tomatoes.
There were slightly more onions, but still limited, weighing only 31 jin.
The garlic selection was even worse, a mere 9 jin.
Fortunately, garlic made up the smallest proportion of the barbecue sauce recipe, so it was barely enough!
Other ingredients, like butter, chili powder, sea salt, black pepper, apple cider vinegar, sugar, and yellow mustard, weren't as strict in their requirements.
But that didn't mean any brand would do.
These ingredients had to be selected strictly according to the brands specified in Brother System's recipe.
Even though different brands of seasonings at the same price point tasted similar, the barbecue sauce made with them would taste entirely different.
With so many different brands of ingredients combined, the difficulty of reverse-engineering the recipe increased by hundreds of times!
After purchasing the ingredients, Jiang Tao pushed a fully loaded shopping cart back to the underground parking lot and packed everything into the trunk.
Afterward, he made stops at a nearby Yonghui, Hema, and RT-Mart.
One store wasn't enough, so he hit multiple to gather enough supplies.
This massive shopping spree cost Jiang Tao nearly 10,000 yuan.
But he managed to secure enough raw materials to last several days.
This first batch of ingredients would serve as "teaching materials" for training his parents.
By 6:00 PM, Jiang Tao drove to the food processing plant.
Normally, at this time, Jiang Jiaqi would have already left work, and the factory would be locked up.
But today, since her parents were new to the area, she was still there, helping them set up their bedding and other essentials.
With the help of Jiang Jiaqi and her parents, Jiang Tao unloaded the large pile of supplies from the trunk onto a wooden pallet on the factory floor.
After unloading, he visited his parents'—Jiang Jianjun and Yang Wenyan's—dormitory.
The dorm had a bunk bed left by a previous tenant, perfect for two people.
Some of the bedding was brought by Jiang Jianjun and Yang Wenyan, while the rest was purchased by Jiang Jiaqi that afternoon.
After chatting briefly with the family of three, Jiang Tao drove to Xiaoshahe Urban Village.
The meteorite worth 880,000 yuan was still sitting in that puddle, and he couldn't help but feel uneasy about it.
The sooner he got his hands on it, the sooner he could relax.
After parking at the village entrance, Jiang Tao first stopped by Fat Dongdong Supermarket in the urban village to buy a cheap set of work clothes and a pair of high-top rubber boots.
He changed out of his new outfit.
He wasn't about to ruin the 5,000-yuan outfit Xu Li had bought him by wading into a muddy pit.
The work clothes and boots cost just over 200 yuan. If they got dirty, he could toss them without a second thought.
By around 7:00 PM, as the sky darkened, Jiang Tao arrived at the puddle again.
In his vision, near the center of the puddle, a faint blue beam of light shot up from the bottom to the sky.
During the day, the marker hadn't been so obvious, but at night, it was strikingly clear.
Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention to him, Jiang Tao jogged down the embankment and reached the bottom of the pit.
In the dim light, he trudged toward the spot marked by the blue beam, one foot deep, one foot shallow.
"Damn it, I'm a multimillionaire now, and I'm still doing this dirty, tiring work myself," Jiang Tao grumbled to himself as he walked toward the blue beam, feeling reluctant.
If his big nephew or little nephew were here, he could've handed this dirty job off to them.
He trusted his two nephews completely.
*Splash, splash, splash…*
"Ugh, it's freezing!"
It was only late March, not yet April.
In Beijing, the early morning and evening temperatures were only about four or five degrees Celsius.
Though the ice had melted, wading through the puddle in rubber boots, his hands and feet felt icy.
But for 880,000 yuan, Jiang Tao could endure a little hardship.
*Splash, splash, splash…*
After trudging for about three minutes, one foot deep, one foot shallow, Jiang Tao finally reached the spot marked by Brother System, standing beside the blue beam.
**[Would you like to spend 6,666 yuan to retrieve the target item hidden here?]**
"…"
Having come this far, Jiang Tao didn't immediately pay to retrieve the item.
What if the meteorite wasn't buried too deep? What if he could just reach down and grab it?
That would save him over 6,000 yuan!
With that thought, Jiang Tao bent down and reached into the mud at the bottom of the puddle.
He groped around for about ten minutes and found nothing.
In the end, somewhat reluctantly, he chose to spend the 6,666 yuan to retrieve the item.
**[Other observers detected nearby. Retrieval failed. Please try again later.]**
"Damn it, who's got nothing better to do than watch the show?" Jiang Tao muttered, looking toward the shore. He was already sixty or seventy meters away from it.
Plus, it was evening, and visibility was poor. He couldn't see anyone on the shore.
Likewise, if anyone on the shore looked into the puddle, they probably couldn't see him clearly either.
But Brother System indicated there were observers, preventing the item's retrieval.
With no other choice, Jiang Tao patiently waited.
He pulled his feet out of the puddle and found a relatively dry spot to stand.
**[Other observers detected nearby. Retrieval failed. Please try again later.]**
"Who the hell is staring over here? It's so late—don't they have dinner to go home to?"
At that moment, Jiang Tao truly understood what it meant to feel time drag on.
For this meteorite, he hadn't even eaten dinner yet.
He was genuinely experiencing the legendary feeling of hunger and cold!
**[Please try again later…]**
**[Please try again later…]**
In just five minutes, Jiang Tao tried over a hundred times.
Finally, on the 101st attempt, with a *splash*, a palm-sized, heart-shaped black rock emerged from the water.
Jiang Tao reached out and caught it in his hand.
This was clearly the meteorite mentioned in today's intel, originating from the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars.
It was pitch black, rough to the touch, and looked unremarkable.
"This little thing is worth 880,000 yuan?"
Jiang Tao held the meteorite up to his eyes, examining it closely but finding nothing special.
He tucked it into his pocket and began retracing his steps.
Under the cover of night, passersby on the riverbank hurried along, paying no attention to the actions of a stranger like him.
By the time Jiang Tao reached his parked car at the village entrance, it was past 7:00 PM.
He quickly changed out of the work clothes and rubber boots, slipping back into his clean, stylish casual outfit.
The meteorite from the work clothes was placed into a wooden box.
He didn't plan to keep it. Tomorrow, he'd make time to visit Panjiayuan and see if Zhang Bo's family would buy it.
With the meteorite secured, Jiang Tao drove home, arriving just past 7:30 PM.
He'd already called Xu Li and the others, telling them not to wait for him to eat and to save him some food.
"Honey, you're back! It's so late—you must be exhausted. The rice is in the pot, kept warm. I'll heat up the dishes for you," Xu Li said, bustling to the microwave to warm up the pre-prepared dishes as soon as Jiang Tao walked in.
In less than ten minutes, Xu Li placed a plate of yuxiang pork, a small portion of beef, and a small portion of boiled fish in front of Jiang Tao.
"Smells amazing! This boiled fish is definitely my wife's handiwork," Jiang Tao said with a grin, popping a piece of sliced fish into his mouth.
Numb, spicy, fresh, fragrant.
Absolutely delicious!
Xu Li's cooking was the biggest obstacle to Jiang Tao's weight-loss journey.
"Hehe, when I saved the food for you, I made sure to keep about half the fish. Don't I treat you well?" Xu Li said, sitting across from Jiang Tao, elbows on the table, smiling sweetly at him.
Watching the man she loved most eat the food she made and hearing his compliments filled Xu Li with happiness and a sense of accomplishment.
Her mom always said that to capture a man's heart, you first had to capture his stomach.
Growing up under her mother Du Yongmei's influence, Xu Li had honed her culinary skills.
When she had nothing to do at home, she'd study recipes or watch cooking videos online.
Her efforts paid off.
Over the years, Xu Li's cooking had reached an impressive level.
"My wife sure knows how to pamper me. That's what a real wife does," Jiang Tao said, grinning and giving Xu Li a thumbs-up before popping a piece of boiled beef into his mouth.
"This one's got Dad's touch."
"Yep, you got it! Dad's boiled beef could rival dishes from five-star hotels," Xu Li said, praising Jiang Tao's father's cooking skills.
"If he and Mom opened a restaurant, they'd definitely make a fortune."
"Have you all eaten already?"
"Yep, Mom and Dad said they were going to check on Brother Jianjun and Sister Wenyan at the factory. I stayed home to wait for my husband."
"Did Xiaoxue go to Teacher Jiang's place again today?"
"Yep, Teacher Jiang made dumplings for her today. Your daughter is really spoiled there—she gets whatever she wants to eat."
"Wow, that's some serious VIP treatment."
"What about Old Third?"
"Old Third went to her new place to organize things. Her new house is almost ready, and she can move in anytime."
"Once she moves, we'll make her treat us to a housewarming dinner."
"Hehe, that's exactly what I was thinking! Nannan told me about this amazing private kitchen. We should go there."
The couple chatted back and forth, already scheming to get Old Third to treat them to a meal.
"Oh, by the way, honey, my parents and Shasha are coming this weekend," Xu Li said.
"My dad's taking five days of annual leave, plus the two weekends, so he'll have nine days off."
The conversation shifted to Xu Li's family coming to Beijing for a trip.
Jiang Tao nodded. "Alright, we'll have to treat them well. By the way, has the tenant in Building 62 moved out?"
Xu Li smiled. "Yep, they moved everything out today. I checked, and the place was cleaned pretty well, so I refunded their full deposit."
Jiang Tao teased, "You didn't bring a flashlight to inspect the floors and window frames, did you?"
"Pfft, do you think your wife is that tacky? I'd never do something like that!" Xu Li shot him a playful, flirtatious glance. She wouldn't stoop to something as petty as nitpicking for damages.
"We've got one more day tomorrow. Let's go buy some new bedding and daily necessities."
"When your parents arrive, they can stay there."
"Living at home will definitely be more comfortable than a hotel."
"Mm-hmm! Thank you, honey~ You're the best husband ever," Xu Li said, beaming at Jiang Tao, her heart as sweet as honey.
Jiang Tao laughed. "Silly, your parents are my parents too. This is just what we should do. No need to thank me."
"Mm-hmm! My husband is the best man in the world, the best husband~" Xu Li said, smiling sweetly, finding her husband more and more handsome by the second.
"You're absolutely right," Jiang Tao said with a grin, shamelessly accepting the praise.
Previously, when Xu Li mentioned wanting her parents to visit Beijing, it triggered a special event, earning Jiang Tao a [Filial Piety Card].
The card refreshed with a 100,000-yuan balance every month.
The money could only be spent on both sets of parents.
With the [Filial Piety Card] as "financial support," Jiang Tao didn't feel the slightest bit reluctant to spend on Xu Li's parents.
*Woof, woof, woof—*
Under the table, Little Wangcai was circling Xu Li's legs.
It had just been fed a dose of their lovey-dovey "dog food."
Xu Li suddenly said, "Oh, honey! One more thing—you won't believe this!"
"What's so unbelievable?"
"This afternoon, when I took Wangcai for a walk, he found a ring in the greenery strip by the road outside the complex. Let me show you!"
As she spoke, Xu Li excitedly went to the living room coffee table, pulled a small red jewelry box from the drawer, and returned to the dining table.
Opening the box, she revealed a silver-white ring with a tiny diamond the size of a grain of millet embedded in it.
"Honey, do you think this is a real diamond ring or some toy bought online?" Xu Li asked, handing the ring to Jiang Tao for inspection.
"Probably real, right?"
Though Jiang Tao didn't know much about diamond rings, he knew the value of Wangcai's [Treasure Hunter] ability.
Wangcai had never brought home junk before.
Xu Li said, "Why don't you take it to Zhang Bo when you have time and get it checked?"
"Yeah, I was planning to visit him for some business anyway."
"Good job, Wangcai. Here's some meat as a reward. Keep it up!" Jiang Tao said, tossing a few strips of yuxiang pork to Wangcai.
*Woof, woof, woof—*
After receiving its master's reward, Little Wangcai's tail wagged even faster.
After rewarding Wangcai, Jiang Tao continued eating.
Xu Li sat across from him, chattering about her day and sharing funny stories.
The couple laughed and talked, a feeling of happiness lingering between them.
Once Jiang Tao was full, Xu Li cleared the dishes and carried them to the kitchen.
*Knock, knock, knock—*
A sudden knock came at the door.
"Who's there?" Jiang Tao asked as he walked toward the door.
His parents had keys and would let themselves in.
Opening the door, he saw it was Old Third.
Lately, Jiang Tao had been jogging every evening, so the task of picking up Jiang Xue from Jiang Yi's place had fallen to Xu Li.
Jiang Bing always volunteered to be Xu Li's driver.
However…
After last night's car accident, she was a bit traumatized and hesitant about driving.
"Second Brother," Jiang Bing greeted Jiang Tao with low spirits, slipping past him into the house.
As Jiang Tao closed the door, he teased, "Old Third, why do you look like a wilted eggplant today? What's got you so down?"
"Ugh, Mom gave me another lecture tonight," Jiang Bing said, flopping onto the living room couch with a look of utter despair. "Second Brother, the car accident didn't leave me with any trauma, but Mom sure did."
"That's just how Mom is—always nagging. You've known that for years," Jiang Tao said. "Let her talk. Don't take it to heart. Everyone who drives regularly is bound to have an accident at some point."
"Aren't you going with your sister-in-law to pick up Xiaoxue? Here, take the keys. Drive boldly. Her godmother's car is fully insured."
Jiang Tao tossed the car keys from the coffee table onto Jiang Bing's lap, grinning as he added, "You've never driven a Mercedes-Benz G-Class, have you? It's a rare chance—don't miss it."
"The legendary Mercedes-Benz G-Class!"
Jiang Bing, who hadn't been too excited at first, perked up instantly at the mention of the G-Class.
For car enthusiasts, man or woman, no one could resist the allure of a G-Class!
Only a select few ever get the chance to drive one in their lifetime.
With such a golden opportunity in front of her, Jiang Bing wasn't about to pass it up.
"Hehe, I'm driving! Driver Xiao Bing will make sure your little princess gets home safely," she said, grinning as she picked up the keys, already itching to get behind the wheel of the imposing G-Class.
After Xu Li finished putting the dishes in the dishwasher and came out of the kitchen, Jiang Bing eagerly dragged her downstairs to pick up Jiang Xue.
Jiang Tao sat on the couch, scrolling through his phone and checking his Moments.
After resting for about half an hour, feeling his stomach had settled, he changed into his workout gear and stepped onto the [Fitness Treadmill].
*Swish, swish, swish—*
The treadmill's belt began to hum.
Jiang Tao stood on the side rails, adjusting the speed and incline.
Speed: 10 km/h. Incline: 3%.
With the settings adjusted, his evening workout officially began!