It took a few moments for the food to arrive. When the dishes were finally in front of them, Shangguan Yu latched onto this opportunity of finally having a topic to talk about. Clearing his throat, he looked up at Ao Jing with a smile. "Speaking of food … Did you buy that recipe for the chocolate the other day?"

Ao Jing’s eyes lit up when he was presented with the chance to get rid of the awkward silence between them. Even though this was their first date and they should probably talk about something else, they had met through the game. It was familiar and gave him a sense of security. Naturally, he wouldn’t reject that. "I did! From what I’ve seen, there should have been ten thousand of the recipes available. It could be that some people bought more than one but I forgot to check if there’s a limit. I still guess that for a while, there won’t be too many products actually being sold. It’s a good thing for us." He smiled brightly, the atmosphere between them easing a lot.

Shangguan Yu nodded excitedly. "Maybe we should buy another plot of land then. I guess there will be some ingredients needed that we don’t have yet?"

Ao Jing sighed when his husband mentioned that. "That’s true, unfortunately. Most are pretty simple ingredients that we can even buy from the normal NPCs’ stores. As for the others … I think I’ve seen some in the marketplace but the prices can be pretty hefty. I’m afraid that they will go up even further when they notice that it is part of the recipe for the chocolate. So either we buy them now and get ourselves a stock so we can produce more or we’ll really need to plant them ourselves but that still requires getting the seeds."

Shangguan Yu nodded thoughtfully, wondering what would be better. "Well, I guess it depends on how much we could sell the chocolate for. Especially in the beginning when there isn’t much yet, we could probably go a bit higher with the prices. After that, if there are many people producing and the quantity goes up, it might not be that much of a luxury item anymore. I mean it might be just ten thousand recipes but if all of the owners produce even just one hundred pieces, that would really be enough to lower the price."

"But only if all of them really produce for the marketplace and do so consistently. After all, the chocolate is a consumable. After buying and using it once, the players would need to buy again.

"Also, I think that some people might have just bought the recipe because it looked interesting but if they see that there’s actual work behind it, they probably wouldn’t want to do that. It would probably only be the people of the big sects that would have an interest in that."

"That’s also true …"

Behind them, the pages of a certain newspaper were crumbled slightly. Yu Lan just couldn’t help himself. What was going on in the head of his brother-in-law? Just what were the two of them talking about? Business? Wasn’t this supposed to be a date?!

He actually felt like crying when he picked up his phone to text his wife about the latest developments. Could he really just sit here and ignore the two of them or would it be better to intervene?

Anyway, the actually looked like they were getting along well even if the subject of their conversation was really strange. Well, it would probably be best to at least give them some time to get back to a more normal topic before he decided on doing anything.

Shangguan Yu felt slightly down when he realized that things might not be as easy as he had thought but he wasn’t willing to just abandon the idea. After all, nothing was lost yet. They had the recipe and just needed to prepare well. "Anyway, I think having another plot of land would really be a good idea. I hope the reward for our current task will be a high one."

Ao Jing chuckled at that. "It’d better be! After all the trouble we’ve been through, we deserve that."

Shangguan Yu slapped the table and straightened up, his eyes blazing. "Right?! I still can’t believe they would frame us for murder!"

The people around them all looked over, making both Shangguan Yu and Ao Jing tense up.

Shangguan Yu hurriedly got to his feet and nodded his head at everyone, apologizing profusely. "I was talking about a game. I’m very sorry. It won’t happen again."

Ao Jing also got to his feet and followed his example. "Just a game. Nobody was framed for anything. We’re very sorry for the disturbance."

The two of them sat back down, both covering one half of their face with a hand to get away from the judgmental gazes that were thrown their way.

Ao Jing lowered his voice to a whisper. "I feel like I can hear their thoughts. They’re probably blaming us for being useless young men, not contributing to society at all."

Shangguan Yu nodded, whispering as well. "I’m so sorry! That was totally my fault. It’s just that when I think of that brother of Liangqiu Min, I can’t help but get angry. What was that guy on? Couldn’t he at least have stopped a moment to talk with us? We could’ve told him where to find his brother and all this wouldn’t have been necessary."

Ao Jing leaned over the table, so they wouldn’t disturb the other people again. "Yes, I think so too. But I guess the quest has some points that need to be cleared. I just hope that we don’t need that much more time."

Shangguan Yu nodded and then motioned at the food in front of them. "Anyway, we should probably start eating. If they see that we’re just sitting here and talking, they might even want to throw us out because we’re being a nuisance."

Ao Jing nodded and the two of them lowered their heads, quietly starting on the dishes. This really wasn’t how they had imagined their date to start.