In the early morning, when the first ray of Sun shone on Li Chuan's face through the glass window, he slowly opened his eyes.
He turned his head to look beside him, but Wanda was no longer there.
Putting on his pajamas, he left the bedroom and walked down the spiraling golden European-style staircase to the first floor. Soon, he heard a clanging sound coming from the kitchen.
"My dear, you're awake! I'm making you crispy potato pancakes. Just a moment!"
Wanda poked her head out from the kitchen, holding a frying pan in one hand and a knife in the other.
"Thank you, but I remember you saying you couldn't cook before, and that your brother always did it at home?"
Li Chuan keenly noticed a few shattered pieces of crockery near the kitchen's trash can.
As if sensing Li Chuan's gaze, Wanda's fingers twitched slightly, and the shattered pieces of crockery seemed to grow legs, quickly hiding behind the trash can.
"I asked my brother for some tips a few days ago, and I feel like I've mastered the knack of it."
Wanda slightly raised her chin, looking full of confidence.
Li Chuan was excellent, handsome, kind, gentle, and wealthy, while she was just an orphan who worked at a convenience store, her heart filled with hatred.
She didn't know why Li Chuan had taken a liking to her and had relentlessly pursued her for three years, making her feel what "true love" was again.
But she knew that her current happiness was hard-won, and she had to cherish it and take on her responsibilities as a wife.
So, despite her lack of talent in cooking, she had recently been asking her brother for cooking experience, even though there were always some minor mishaps.
"Then you've worked hard!"
Li Chuan smiled, went down, and gave Wanda an encouraging hug, then went to wash up and get ready.
Ten minutes later, Li Chuan picked up a crispy potato pancake with his chopsticks, slowly chewed a few times, and then a strange expression appeared on his face.
"My dear, how is it?"
Wanda sat beside Li Chuan, her eyes filled with anticipation.
"It's not bad!"
Li Chuan smiled at Wanda; the taste was a little too salty, but it was within his acceptable range.
It was much better than the first time Wanda cooked for him.
He remembered half a year ago when Wanda first tried cooking, making the simplest steamed crab. He swore then that no matter how bad it tasted, he would finish it. In fact, steamed dishes usually couldn't be that bad.
But when he opened the lid and reached for the red snow crab with his chopsticks, the snow crab clamped onto his chopsticks.
It turned out that Wanda was too nervous the first time she cooked and turned on the wrong burner, and the snow crab she bought was already somewhat red, leading to a misunderstanding.
In fact, once two people are together, one person's willingness to change for the other is already a very difficult thing.
Life cannot always be about nitpicking.
"One portion is definitely not enough for you, so I'll go make another!"
Hearing Li Chuan's reply, Wanda's smile bloomed like a flower, and then she skipped back to the kitchen like a little girl, holding the spatula.
"Oh!"
Li Chuan shook his head with a smile, picked up a second potato pancake with his chopsticks, and put it in his mouth. But this time, a strange look reappeared in his eyes.
Because this time, it wasn't salty again, and the overall taste had improved by several levels.
Then he thought of Wanda's abilities and felt relieved; reality modification, this wasn't the first time such a thing had happened since he had been with Wanda.
After breakfast, Wanda, wearing an apron, waved her spatula and said to Li Chuan:
"My dear, come home early tonight. I'll make you Asturian stew!"
"Okay, then I'll leave work a little earlier."
Li Chuan kissed Wanda's forehead, smiled, gave her a thumbs-up gesture, and then left with his briefcase.
In the Villa's yard, an old man in his fifties saw Li Chuan appear and skillfully opened the car door for him.
"Good morning, Young Master!"
"Good morning, Uncle Li!"
Li Chuan nodded and got into the car.
"Anything new recently?"
"Young Master, the mastermind behind the recent attacks on our group has been found. It's Bavi from Raymond Pharmaceuticals. How should we handle it?"
Uncle Lee slowly drove the car away from the Villa while reporting to Li Chuan.
Li Chuan said with a cold expression:
"Tell Xiao Wu that he can go out to sea and feed the fish again."
Over three years, the Li family's enterprise rose from a third-rate company to a top-tier one, not because Li Chuan had exceptional business acumen. As a bare-knuckle fighter, how could he know anything about business?
There were two main reasons.
Firstly, Li Chuan would take some of the body-strengthening ointments and pills obtained from side quests and give them to the company's scientists for research, leading to many popular and best-selling new products.
Secondly, he was ruthless in his actions, never showing mercy to opponents who liked to trip him up secretly or engage in malicious competition.
Besides hiring assassins on the dark web at great expense, he sometimes took action himself and even personally trained a group of subordinates specifically to handle such matters.
Anyway, most of the people who opposed him in these three years were eventually thrown into the sea to feed the fish by his subordinates.
Of course, on the surface, he was Sokovia's youngest genius entrepreneur and a recognized philanthropist. The charitable foundation he established had helped many poor people whose families were broken by war more than a decade ago, earning him deep respect from the local people of Sokovia.
Upon arriving at the company, Li Chuan finished all his tasks, took a deep breath, and opened the virtual panel in his office.
"It's time to enter the Small World."
"Your Highness, Your Highness, it's time for lunch."
In a daze, Li Chuan was woken by a voice, and then a memory that didn't belong to him instantly flooded his mind.
"Kinoe, I understand."
Enkawa, twenty years old, the son of the Land of Fire's deceased Daimyo's brother, the Prince of the Land of Fire. He had no real power in the Land of Fire but possessed noble status and a substantial family fortune.
This was the identity Li Chuan was assigned after entering the Naruto World.
And the woman named Kinoe in front of him was the butler of the Prince's Residence, responsible for Li Chuan's daily life and managing the entire Prince's Residence.
Just now, he was sunbathing in the courtyard of the Prince's Residence and fell asleep because it was too comfortable.
Getting up and finishing the luxurious lunch served by Kinoe and other servants, Li Chuan instructed Kinoe:
"Prepare the horses. I need to go to the Fire Temple this afternoon."
Li Chuan didn't come to the Naruto World to enjoy himself. As a wealthy man in the modern World, why would he need to go to a backward World like Naruto to enjoy life?
His purpose in coming to the Naruto World was only one: to learn Ninjutsu and become stronger.
Of course, if he could acquire some special technology from this World that could help his group expand back in the Main World, that would naturally be good too.
There were two places within the Land of Fire where one could systematically learn Ninjutsu: one was the strongest Ninja village, Konoha, and the other was the Land of Fire's Ninja temple, the Fire Temple.
Other rogue Ninja and Ninja recruited by nobles mostly lacked strength and impressive Ninjutsu, so they were not within Li Chuan's consideration.
The Fire Temple's heritage was certainly much worse than Konoha's. Currently, the strongest person in the temple was only Chiriku, an Elite Jonin-level Ninja.
But it was safe; there weren't as many messy, dirty things as in Konoha, no Danzo and the Third Hokage, those two old schemers, no infighting among the great clans. Plus, his identity as the Prince of the Land of Fire made it definitely the first choice for learning Ninjutsu at the start.
Most importantly, even if he risked going to Konoha to learn Ninjutsu, Konoha wouldn't genuinely teach him those powerful Ninjutsu. At most, they would just humor him due to his status.
The relationship between Konoha and the Land of Fire was not as harmonious as imagined.
"Yes, Your Highness!"
Although Kinoe was somewhat surprised to hear Li Chuan's command, she still nodded respectfully.
The Prince was a person with a detached personality, disliked socializing, and rarely participated in noble activities. His sudden desire to go to the Fire Temple outside the city was indeed somewhat unexpected for her.
However, as a noble Prince, he could naturally go wherever he wanted. As a servant, she only needed to follow orders.
The Prince's Residence had dedicated carriages and coachmen, so Li Chuan quickly boarded the luxurious carriage, served by Kinoe, and set off towards the Fire Temple with a retinue of servants and samurai guards.