Wang Ye returned to his own room.
He lived alone.
Separated from his parents.
The house was a property that his parents helped him with the down payment on, buying it in installments. He now had to pay a five-thousand-yuan mortgage every month.
However, in these past years of working, he had practically no entertainment activities, and most of his salary had been saved in his account. Up until today, he had about two hundred thousand yuan in savings, not to mention there was still a sizable amount of worker's compensation the company hadn't issued yet, so he didn't need to worry about the mortgage for now.
As soon as he got home,
Wang Ye leaned back on the sofa and opened the short video app.
Through searching, he found a video of a Tai Chi master explaining Tai Chi.
The Tai Chi master was named "Ling Xiaolong," and was a relatively popular blogger in the traditional martial arts realm.
Although this master looked honest and naive, without many signs of training.
He could break chopsticks with a punch, and even break bricks on flat ground with a slap.
The taste of his Tai Chi was not like the leisurely health-style of the old men in the park, but rather a grand, powerful, combat-oriented style with strength like a sharpened arrow and movements like lightning.
When Wang Ye first stumbled across this master's video, he was a bit envious.
After finding the instructional video, Wang Ye began to mimic the Tai Chi moves shown in Ling Xiaolong's video.
Although the routine of this set of movements was relatively simple.
For someone like Wang Ye, who had been sedentary for years with completely degraded motor skills, it seemed especially obscure.
He followed along for ten minutes before a thin layer of sweat appeared on his forehead, and he plopped down on the sofa, panting slightly.
This wasn't because he had exhausted his physical strength, but rather because he was sweating from anxiety at not being able to learn the moves.
When he remembered this move, he forgot the previous one completely.
After practicing for quite a while, there was still no sign of Tai Chi showing up in his system panel.
"Do I have to memorize the entire set of movements to get it entered into the panel?" Wang Ye bit his lip in frustration.
Feeling helpless, he could only continue following the instructional video to learn Tai Chi.
He practiced from morning until about three or four in the afternoon.
He was soaked in sweat by then, and his stomach started to growl.
Wang Ye sat on the sofa and habitually opened the food delivery app.
Suddenly, he came to his senses, quickly exited the delivery app, and swiftly deleted it.
"No, I used to be poisoned by those unhealthy food deliveries from unscrupulous vendors. Anyway, since I have nothing to do now, why not buy some ingredients and cook for myself?"
With this thought,
Wang Ye took off his sweat-drenched T-shirt, changed into clean clothes, and went downstairs to buy groceries.
He went to a supermarket downstairs, pushed a cart, and hesitated back and forth in the fruits and vegetables section.
Having not gone out to buy vegetables himself in a long time, he had completely forgotten how to pick out the good ones.
After repeatedly choosing but getting nowhere, he could only take a few boxes of pre-packaged high-quality vegetables from the shelves.
Although these pre-packaged vegetables were more expensive than the loose ones, their advantage was that they generally had a better appearance and fewer defective items.
After selecting the vegetables, Wang Ye also bought a few pounds of pork.
Then he bundled them up for payment and took them upstairs.
Wang Ye went to the kitchen, washed the rice and started cooking, washed the vegetables and pork, and placed them on the cutting board to chop.
He also chopped some ginger, garlic, and green onions, sautéed them in oil until fragrant, threw in the sliced pork, stir-fried it until it changed color, and then added the chopped green peppers.
He stir-fried them with seasoning until they were fragrant and dished them out.
After making the spicy stir-fried pork, he cracked three eggs to make a leek and egg stir-fry.
Although he didn't cook often, he still had pots, pans, and other kitchenware.
With both dishes placed on the table,
Wang Ye filled a bowl with rice and began enjoying the dinner he had made himself.
Perhaps it was due to his increased Evolution Level,
his appetite was at least twice as large as before.
After three full bowls of white rice accompanying the meat and vegetables, he only felt about 60 to 70 percent full.
In order to lose weight as soon as possible, Wang Ye didn't help himself to more food, but instead cleared the dishes to the kitchen, washed them, wrapped the remaining dishes in cling film, and placed them in the refrigerator.
After dinner,
Wang Ye went out for a walk. The skill level of his Walking Skill also increased by one or two percent.
After his stomach was mostly digested, he started jogging on the riverside track.
He used the built-in exercise app on his phone to record his running kilometers and duration.
Although the phone's built-in GPS was not very accurate, it sufficed as a rough gauge.
About thirty minutes later, he had run five kilometers.
He stopped in place, took a few deep breaths, and pulled out his phone to have a look.
"Twenty-nine minutes, five kilometers, not bad!"
[You practiced Running, and you have gained some insights, skill level increased by 15.4%.]
[Running lv1 (37.5%)]
"If I do this twice a day, maybe one day I can participate in a running competition and earn some prize money."
Wang Ye plopped down on a bench by the street.
He could clearly feel that the run he just completed was faster than the one he did in the morning.
Regarding running posture, techniques, speed distribution, and other insights, he had made small but noticeable progress.
If it weren't for the system panel, he might have needed to keep running for several days and continuously learn running techniques online to achieve this level of improvement.
Wang Ye rested while pondering his system panel.
"Since I can't master Tai Chi for now, I'll focus on practicing Walking and Running for a few days. Mastering these skills will be a lifetime benefit and won't be a loss."
Immediately afterward,
Wang Ye went to a store and bought a bottle of sports drink to replenish his fluids.
Then he returned home, took a shower, and lay down on the bed to sleep.
...
The next day,
In the morning, Wang Ye was awakened by a phone call.
He answered the phone and found out it was his mother calling.
"Xiao Ye, I heard you were discharged from the hospital. Are you okay? Pay attention and don't eat too greasy food. Last night, I made a pot of chicken soup that tastes great. Why don't you come home for lunch today?"
Wang Ye glanced at his watch.
10:35,
more than an hour until noon
Then he replied, "Okay, I'll come over later."
After hanging up the phone,
Wang Ye sat up from his bed, rubbing his messy hair.
He put on his pants and went to the bathroom.
Planning to look at his evolved self today.
He stood in front of the mirror, rubbed his cheeks, and looked at himself in the mirror.
If there was any change, it was much smaller than the first day's change.
The most obvious change was that his face had become a little leaner than the previous day.
When he lifted up his shirt, the faint lines of abdominal muscles started to appear on his abdomen.
His body also felt lighter, probably shedding a few pounds.
And, perhaps it was his imagination, but Wang Ye felt that his fingernails had become slightly harder, and his skin had developed faint fish-scale-like patterns.