Originally posted on RBKTR Translations.
Author: Lan Qi Zuo Ren (藍旗左衽).
Translated by: Yujuan
The night was silent, and the residence standing in solitude located in the mountain area still and soundless. Everyone was asleep, with the exception of one snow-white figure, taking light and graceful steps as he tidied up the house.
Two in the morning. He walked down from the rooftops, hands holding an empty laundry basket. There was always a pile of clothes to wash every day, but he did not mind, because these were things he loved to do.
Arriving at the laundry room, he put down the basket and picked up a piece of clothing to place on the ironing board. The instant he picked up the clothes iron, he halted.
A few pieces of paper were pressed under the iron, they were what he had taken out of the post box when he had arrived home. He had pressed them under the iron, his subconscious mind silently wishing for the electric circuit to suddenly go wrong, so that the iron would turn that pile of paper into ash on its own.
He took up the papers and hurriedly glanced at them, the contents on it about the same as the last few letters. The standardized official writing was still polite as ever, but the words were br.i.m.m.i.n.g with malice.
…Not good…
He furrowed his brows slightly, folding the papers, and shoved them into the under additional filter papers. Following which he started seriously ironing the clothes as if he were escaping from reality. Although he knew those papers were just one of the problems, and that he had an even more arduous situation to face later on.
After ironing and folding the clothes, he turned to step towards the kitchen, every step taken bringing weight as if he was a prisoner about to face execution.
He glanced up at the shelves, the jars holding sugar and biscuits were in a mostly filled up state, seemingly sufficient. Opening the fridge, the family-sized milk carton stood proud and aloof within, with only half remaining— He remembered that there were still two cartons left when he arrived home. There were two pieces of sliced bread remaining, half a bottle of beer at the side.
He turned his head, and there were empty wine bottles stuck unevenly in the boxes, small little recycling boxes turning into a mountain.
A worried expression appeared on the face usually had a light warm smile.
Really, not good…
Inhaling deeply, he pressed down the anxiousness in his heart. He told himself, he had to be calm. He needed to find a way to keep calm.
Opening the fridge, he took out a box of vanilla ice-cream— He forced himself to ignore the fact that this was the last box. He walked towards the shelf holding the tableware, pulled it open, the shiny little spoons placed neatly within. He tenderly reached out a hand to caress them, took out one, used the end of the spoon to open the lid of the box, the scooped out some ice-cream with the exquisite spoon. Placed it in his mouth.
The crease on his forehead relaxed somewhat, a smile surfacing on his mouth once again.
Holding the ice-cream, he then walked to the storeroom, coming to a stop before a metallic silver cabinet. Taking a deep breath, he knelt, his line of sight coming to the same height as the cabinet, anxiousness and worry on those handsome features. He clenched his teeth, reaching out his hands to clutch the icy-cold handle, opening it.
There were three layers on the cabinet. They were originally chock full, but at present on the middle section held a pile of thin somethings, the moonlight pa.s.sing through the house pulling out a long square-shaped shadow, the shadow bigger than its actual size.
He almost lost the ability to stand steadily, both knees falling onto the ground.
Ah… Really, really… Not good…
Scooping another spoonful of ice-cream to put into his mouth, it wasn"t enough, so he scooped another, and the ice-cream reduced to half a box with shocking speeds, and the scooping movements finally stopped.
He smiled and slowly stood up, then silently closed the cabinet, and deceived himself into pretending everything was going well.
Oh well, he would deal with it in the morning.
In the morning, all was tranquil as usual. Feng Ping Lan lay in bed for about two minutes after the alarm rang, and started freshening up and putting on his clothes. It had already been a month since school started, and many things had occurred; although he had been a little caught unprepared at the start, all the disturbances had been dealt with. No matter the life at Shadow Academy or the activities of the club, everything was becoming increasingly habitual. The Third Prince had been fooled into changing his target, leaving their city. No matter with his cla.s.smates or Contracts, their interactions were becoming better and better.
This kind of interesting and auspicious life was really too great!
"Good morning!" Feng Ping Lan walked down the stairs happily, he was the first to arrive at the table.
"Morning," Dongya replied with a gentle and soft smile.
All was just that natural, just like before.
Until Feng Ping Lan reached out a hand towards the plate before him, and detected that something was not right. In that plate was the toast Dongya had prepared for him, he had never had he expressed an opinion for this unchanging breakfast menu, but—
Feng Ping Lan used two fingers to pick up the toast, moving it before his eyes.
"Wow!" He couldn"t help but cry out in surprise.
The toast before his eyes looked the same as before, but the thickness of it was one-seventh of the usual toast, like a delicate barrier! He could see the shadow behind it by looking through it!
"I-Is this toast?" How did he cut it? Was this a nano-toast created by the newest technology?
"Of course it"s toast."
"It looks like an egg roll, that"s amazing!" Feng Ping Lan praised and scrutinized it for a while, before taking a huge bite of the fine taste.
Mm, it was no different from the usual toast.
"Dongya, is it a special day today?" Feng Ping Lan asked curiously.
"No, why do you ask?"
"Oh, because there"s such a sudden change in breakfast, is it for a particular reason?"
"No." Dongya smiled at Feng Ping Lan, "Nothing has changed, your breakfast is just as usual, it is the same toast, there are no changes, absolutely nothing has happened."
"But—"
"Everything is operating as usual, there are no changes," Dongya repeated smilingly.
Feng Ping Lan took a look at Dongya. He looked the same as usual, but he felt, that that gentle smile, looked a little stiff today.
Was it just him?
Feng Ping Lan folded the toast, stuffed it into his mouth, and finished it in three bites. At this while, Conglong and the others came down in succession.
Everyone sat in their usual seats. Quetzal would usually head to school by himself, and wouldn"t appear during breakfast. Kaido would always delay until right before they were about to head out to come down, using the breakfast time to dawdle in bed.
Conglong had his head lowered playing his brand-new laptop, frequently paying close attention to his aquarium and pet society. For some reason, whenever a fish gave him gems, or the plants he had planted in the garden gave him flowers, he would always feel especially happy.
Simo held her phone, gaze unmoving as she watched her movie. Her expression was extremely serious, her entire person absorbed into the melodramatic plot of intertwining love and hate, her lips occasionally pursing together, letting out dubious t.i.ttering at times.
Morris had his head propped up, absentmindedly looking out the window, as if waiting for something to appear.
Byriel had his phone in hand, rapidly typing a message and flirting with a beautiful woman he had met somewhere.
The goods the demons used were pretty good. As long as it was something they were interested in, they would unhesitatingly hand out money to buy it. The previous demon had left quite a lot of valuable objects, letting those who took over this place to live comfortably off.
Dongya placed each of their foods onto the table. Only Byriel lifted his head, said thank you, and continued looking at his phone. The gazes of the other three were focused on their favorite things, then reached out their hands to take their food, placing it into their mouths.
"Bluegh!"
Almost around the same time, three people let out choking sounds, their gazes moving towards the food before them.
"Why is the milk so watery?" Conglong was the first to raise his question, he stared at the milky-white liquid in the gla.s.s, "And it smells weird, there"s even a powdery substance floating in it!"
Facing Conglong"s question, Dongya had a face as clear as the sky, tilting his head to smile faintly, "I have no idea why it"s like this, you should go ask the cow that gave you the milk."
Conglong"s cow"s milk was watered down by ten times, and he had added a few things, letting it keep its concentrated milky-white appearance.
Feng Ping Lan suddenly remembered he had discovered half of his toothpaste gone by half in the morning when he had gone to wash his face. But he didn"t open his mouth to ask, because this didn"t seem to be a good time to be asking questions, and he didn"t dare guess where the missing toothpaste had gone.
"What is this?" Morris held the square-shaped biscuit he had taken a bite of, questioning.
Feng Ping Lan realized, although the size and thickness of it were about the same as the crackers Morris ate, the color was a little deeper than before.
"They"re obviously biscuits, Morris." A pleasantly smiling expression was still present on Dongya"s face, "And they"re the biscuits you bought yourself, I thought they were your favorite."
"The biscuits I bought myself?" Morris was confused at first, but he then revealed a shocked expression of sudden realization, "You— But— This—"
"These biscuits were originally granule-shaped, and they were unsuitable as food, so I especially mashed them with water and reshaped them into a square." Dongya smiled, "So it will be just like the biscuits you eat every day."
"Those granules were meant for the cats!" Morris said loudly.
"Oh, is that so." Dongya nodded his head, and said languidly, "But you see, the fodder you threw onto the walls have all been eaten by the crows. There haven"t been any cats coming by previously, throwing all that away will be a waste, isn"t that so?"
"What?!" Morris looked pretty shocked.
So the reason why Morris kept on looking out the window, was because he was waiting for a cat to appear…
Feng Ping Lan wasn"t sure if Morris was shocked because he had eaten cat food, or because his delusion had been shattered.
It couldn"t be that that biscuit had been made from the leftovers from what the crows ate, right?
"This…" Simo timidly and pitifully raised her hand, pointing at her mug, "What is this?" Although there were problems with Conglong and Morris" food, at least there was some percentage of milk and biscuits in there.
In her mug, was fresh water and a bunch of coa.r.s.e rice.
"It"s the type of alcohol you love the most."
"What?"
Dongya replied with a smile, "The raw materials of alcohol are rice and water. The materials are already there, all that"s missing is the time for it to ferment. I think, drinking that will be more or less the same."
Simo seemed to want to retort, but didn"t know how to open her mouth, looking like she was about to cry.
Byriel looked at the three who had fallen into his trap, then glanced at his own mug. There was highly concentrated syrup in the usual mug, but having the previous experience, he was definitely not stupid enough to become the fourth idiot.
He curled up a smile, then typed into his phone: Let"s have breakfast together?
In the next second, he received a reply: I"ll reach in ten minutes.
Byriel glanced at Dongya with his head propped up, asking with a smile, "Are you starting to take an interest in cooking?"
This seemingly light and pleasant question, was decisive for his future lifestyle. If the answer was a yes, then he would need to go out early and return late for a certain period, until Dongya lost interest in cooking.
Dongya"s cooking smelled, looked and tasted like poison, it wasn"t a matter that could be concluded just by not eating it.
"I don"t know." Dongya replied with a smile, "If there is a need to."
Byriel frowned, this answer caused him to be at a bit of a loss.
"Don"t attempt things that are you"re not good at…" Conglong complained in a low voice, pushing that gla.s.s of milky-white substance far far away from himself.
"The usual would be fine, really." Morris chimed in, solemnly thinking this little interlude in the morning as result of the sudden inspirations of the housework-loving Dongya.
Simo nodded her head with all her might.
Dongya smiled slightly, "I will try my best to maintain the usual state."
Feng Ping Lan looked at Dongya.
Dongya"s att.i.tude and actions were the same as before, but it felt a little fishy… Was it really because he wanted to try cooking?
Everyone stood up in succession, preparing to leave. Kaido came down the stairs just as they walked to the front door, face ugly, his bad mood from waking up seemingly not yet diminished. Tan Hua was at the back helping him comb his hair, then placed his bag on his shoulders.
"Does Kaido want breakfast?" Dongya asked.
"No need, I"ll buy it myself," Kaido replied with a darkened face.
Dongya revealed a pleased expression.
"See ya later." Byriel leaned against the wall, waving at the others in goodbye.
"You"re not going?"
"I"ve taken a leave for the first and second periods."
"Why?"
"I don"t feel quite well, I feel like resting for a while." He deliberately coughed twice, "I"ve already sent a message to Yin Su Shuang, he"s already agreed."
Although acting as a student was troublesome, as long as you understood the game rules of the school, you could live to your heart"s content. Skipping cla.s.s, out of the question; requesting a leave of absence, acceptable.
After leaving the house, Kaido called for a taxi once reaching the foot of the mountain. Feng Ping Lan and the Contracts sat the public bus as usual. The little interlude in the morning had been forgotten.
But Feng Ping Lan felt, there was a kind of helplessness in Dongya"s smile that wasn"t usually there.
Before they got off, he could clearly hear, Dongya"s little sigh as the beep for the deduction of money sounded out.
"Have you done your Biology homework?" Bai Li Rui had one hand holding a peach, another hand clutching a broom, reclining against the blackboard as he asked Feng Ping Lan who was cleaning the chalk dust.
"Oh, it"s done, you can take it from my bag."
"Thanks." Bai Li Rui bit down on the peach, turning to walk towards the desks.
"I want it too! Lend me your Chinese a.s.signment!" Ivan, who was at the side tidying up the lectern cabinet, moved his head closer to speak.
"Oh, okay." Feng Ping Lan looked at Ivan, "I thought your Mandarin was quite good." Ivan and Igor spoke Mandarin quite well, their accents weren"t that heavy and could speak fluently with everyone.
"You can make up for your speech with spells, but nothing can be done when writing for your exams."
"You can use spells for this too?!" No wonder all the foreign students spoke Mandarin so well, they had a hack.
"You have Contracts too, why didn"t you know about it?" Ivan looked a little astonished.
"Oh, uh… Because I"ve never had a chance to speak with foreigners, so I"ve never tried before, haha." Feng Ping Lan smiled, vaguely getting through it.
The fact that he didn"t know any yishu, didn"t know how to control any of the demons" powers, was something only Su Li Wan knew at the moment. But even she didn"t know that Feng Ping Lan wasn"t a Summoner, she thought that his apt.i.tude just wasn"t enough.
He didn"t like the feeling of concealing things from others, moreover when those were his own friends.
Feng Ping Lan swept the chalk dust into the plastic bag.
The life he was living in present was just like the words written on the blackboard, the drawings drawn on it; no matter how profound the knowledge, how gorgeous the lines, in the end, it would all turn into dust, nothing left behind.
Lies would always be ultimately seen through. Before that happened, he wanted to indulge himself, and enjoy that beautiful period of time that he had long-since yearned for, that would conclude at any time.
At the end of the second period, Byriel arrived late and stepped into the cla.s.sroom just before the bell rang.
The third and fourth periods were Home Economics, location in the Culinary Room.
"What a miscalculation, I should have asked for a leave until after lunch break, hehehe." Byriel smiled lightly.
"Why is there cooking…" Conglong muttered resentfully, "If they wanted to make us cook, they should have just named this cla.s.s Culinary Art Cla.s.s."
"Home Economics isn"t just cooking, there"s plenty other stuff involved." Feng Ping Lan explained, "Besides, Dongya seems very happy."
Dongya"s thoughts were attracted by the display of the Culinary Room, opening the shelves of the kitchen counter, then walking to the food storage to spin around, eyes twinkling, as if he had discovered treasure.
Morris, Conglong, and Simo all let out painful moans at the same time.
"No wonder he would take out that kind of stuff in the morning…"
"Dongya has never shown any interest in cooking before this." Morris frowned, "I hope he can maintain this fine virtue."
"It could be that he cooked up strange stuff because he didn"t learn the right way. There"s a teacher present this time, who knows, his skills could improve!"
"Take a guess, will Dongya"s cooking skills improve first, or will you die first? Hehehe."
After Dongya made a circle around the place, he returned with a pleased smile on his face. Feng Ping Lan realized, that his pockets were bulging, and not just his pockets, his entire jacket looked pretty tight.
"You seem very happy?"
"This place is amazing." Dongya smiled.
Conglong and the others" expressions darkened a little, looking as if they were attending a funeral.
The bell rang, and the teacher walked up to the podium. "We"ll be making curry rice and corn puree today. Later on, you"ll form groups of five to six, after arranging yourselves into groups please come up to take the ingredients."
Conglong and Morris exchanged glances, and pulling Simo with them, they speedily moved to where Su Li Wan and Liu Yi Chen stood nearby.
"Oh, there"s coincidentally five people here." Conglong pretended that this was all an accident, "Let"s form a group."
"Hey! I want to be in a group with Yi Chen!" Ivan protested discontentedly.
"I"m sorry, our numbers are already enough." Conglong immediately overruled him.
"How can you do this!" Ivan complained.
"I"m fine with anything." Liu Yi Chen didn"t mind, "How about I switch with Dongya?" They were all Feng Ping Lan"s Contracts, they would probably want to be in the same group, right?
Morris jolted slightly, "Absolutely not!"
He turned, using a face full of malevolence and killing intent to threaten Ivan. "…If you don"t want to get beaten up during tonight"s free battle, shut your mouth…"
Ivan pouted a little, then walked sulkily towards Feng Ping Lan"s group.
Feng Ping Lan and Dongya, Ivan, Igor as well as Bai Li Rui were in a group, and Zong Yu who had come in late also joined them.
As for Byriel, he had already met up with a few female members of the Culinary Club even before the teacher had instructed them to form groups, languidly waiting to reap what he had not sown.
"Um, I"m not good at cooking, I"ll just observe from the side later on." Dongya was pretty self-aware, and told Feng Ping Lan courteously.
"Oh, but—" Didn"t Dongya look pretty interested earlier?
"There"s no such thing!" Ivan cut off Feng Ping Lan"s reply, "Everyone has to partic.i.p.ate, no one is allowed to slack off!"
The neighboring group which consisted of Morris and Conglong overheard Ivan"s words, and couldn"t help but shake their heads.
Digging his own grave…
"Don"t worry! If you just follow the teacher"s instructions, there"d definitely be no problems. If worst comes to worst and it fails we just don"t eat it, doesn"t matter!" Feng Ping Lan patted Dongya"s back to encourage him.
Mm? Dongya"s back felt a little weird.
"Alright then, I understand." Dongya forced a smile, "I will try my best."
Ivan and Igor followed instructions and went to the storage area to take the ingredients. The others started to prepare the kitchen implements.
"Li Rui, do you know how to cook?"
"A little." Bai Li Rui tidied up his hair using the reflection of the lid of the iron cooking pot, "Back when those warm house-husband guys were popular, I researched a little on it." He bent his waist, trying to find the ingredients placed on the sideboard, "The flour and cornstarch are out, we might need to ask the teacher for—"
"Teacher, we"re out of flour and cornstarch." The group behind them raised their hands to speak.
"There"s no sugar either."
"Group 2 is out of salt!"
Report of missing ingredients rang out in succession.
"How can this be? We restocked just the day before…" The Home Economics Teacher was quite confused, frowning, then sent the cla.s.s rep to replenish the missing supplies, at the same time reminding the students, "Everyone, please do not waste the ingredients."
Dongya distinctly let out a sigh of relief.
According to the procedures, they had to cook the rice then make the curry, and boil the corn puree while stewing the curry.
"Let"s divide up the work first!"
"I want to cut the meat…" Zong Yu claimed the position in a low voice.
"Igor and I want to cut the vegetables."
"Sorry, I want to cut the vegetables too." Bai Li Rui spoke, the tip of his finger sliding over the snow-white ceramic blade, "Knife-wielding men, have a dangerous charm on the women."
"No matter what you cut, you won"t be able to charm any women." Ivan rebuked bluntly.
"Let me remind you that the knife is in my hand, you better be careful of your words!"
Bai Li Rui felt someone patting his shoulder, and turning his head, he abruptly saw Igor holding a meat cleaver, the shiny blade about the same size as his face, casting a cold glint on Igor"s features.
Bai Li Rui put down the ceramic knife in his hand, silently going to the corner to prepare the other materials.
"Dongya, you can cook the rice." Feng Ping Lan pointed towards the electric pot, "All you need to do is to wash the rice, place it in the pot and add some water." They were very simple steps, he really couldn"t think just what could go wrong.
"Alright." Dongya took the bag containing the rice, smiling, "I love washing things."
The neighboring group of Conglong and the others, after hearing Feng Ping Lan and Dongya"s conversation, shook their heads.
Digging his own grave…
Feng Ping Lan got the pot, kitchen implements ready as per the instructions and prepared the seasonings and spices.
"We"re done!"
Before the things could be fully arranged, Ivan"s voice sounded out.
"So soon?" Feng Ping Lan turned happily. "Looks like we have a chance of being the first— uh?"
On the snow-white chopping board, sat irregular-shaped and unskinned potatoes and carrots. Some were as big as stamps, some were as thin as cardboard, set upright in a disarrayed manner. The entire bulb onion was entirely intact, placed at the side.
"You can"t cut at all!" Bai Li Rui raised his voice to complain, "Those large pieces aren"t easy to boil, and the potatoes need to be skinned! You didn"t touch the onion either! How is this called cutting it well?"
"Stop being so pesky! If it"s hard to boil we"ll just boil it for a longer period. And we"ll just cut off the parts with the skin." Ivan said resentfully. "The onion smells horrible, I don"t want to touch it."
Feng Ping Lan smiled to smooth things over, "It"s fine, we still have enough time anyway, how about we leave the onion to Li Rui—"
Ivan rebuffed, "I don"t want him to help! This is my job, I want to take care of it myself!"
"I don"t want to deal with a little brat"s mistakes either." Bai Li Rui said coldly.
"Let"s all be friendly to each other, hahaha." Feng Ping Lan tried his best to make merry, "Oh, right, Xiao Yu-er how is your progress? Are you done cutting up the meat— uh!"
Turning his head, he froze once again. "Xiao Yu-er, this is…"
Zong Yu had dismembered the chicken leg with exquisite knife skills, the legs that had its muscles and bones separated spread apart like a specimen, tacked to the chopping board with large needles. Needle by needle, pinning down each tendon and vein.
Why had a culinary room turned into a crime scene…
"These are the ligaments." Zong Yu stuck down another needle, "Silver, how beautiful… Hehe…"
If this went on, their grades for Home Economics would be too tragic to look at…
"What are you doing! Who told you to cut it like this!" Liu Yi Chen"s snarl sounded from the kitchen counter beside them.
"You told me to cut it into small pieces!" Morris roared back.
"Are you trying to make baby food? It"s all mashed up, you idiot!" Liu Yi Chen slammed one hand onto the table, turning to glare at the cowering Simo, "You! Are you done cooking the rice?"
"I-It"s done…"
Liu Yi Chen took a sniff, "Why does it smell like alcohol!" She took a sudden big stride forward towards Simo, then glared angrily, "You pilfered the rice wine?!"
"I-I-I… just had a little taste! I-It"s, rice…"
"Rice?" Liu Yi Chen had a bad feeling about this, she reached out a hand to open the electric pot, and the pungent smell of alcohol a.s.saulted her nose. In the electric pot, what was infused in the rice wasn"t water, but wine.
"I-I, I wanted to make the kind of rice that"s s-soaked in alcohol, it"s v-v-very delicious…" Simo stammered to explain.
"That"s glutinous rice wine! You—" Liu Yi Chen was agitated, about to launch an attack, but looking at Simo"s weeping expression, she could only clench her teeth and hold her anger, "…Dump the alcohol away, wash the rice again—"
"Ahhhh!" A shriek rang out, and Conglong who stood by the sink had both hands over his eyes, wailing in anguish, "This fruit is poisonous! It"s giving off poisonous mist! I"ve been poisoned! I"m going blind ahhh—"
"Stop making such a big fuss!" Liu Yi Chen reprimanded, "Didn"t I tell you to soak the onion in water first before cutting it!"
"My eyes! My eyes!" Conglong turned a deaf ear on her, scrambling to find water to wash his eyes.
"Hey! Careful!"
Simo, who was carrying the rice, couldn"t avoid him in time, and crashed into Conglong head on. The rice and wine splashed down on Conglong"s head, and the pot hit Su Li Wan standing by the side. Conglong"s wails got louder, and Simo frantically took a kitchen towel to wipe him off, secretly licking the wine that had got onto her hand in the process.
Liu Yi Chen felt like dying.
Watching the noise made by the group next to them, Feng Ping Lan suddenly felt somewhat comforted.
"Um, I"ve finished preparing the rice." Dongya said softly, opening his mouth to verify worriedly, "All I need to do it to clean it, add water and put it in the pot to heat it up, right?"
"Yes, isn"t it simple?" Feng Ping Lan smiled, "Dongya is really the most dependable one."
In another corner, Byriel, who sat languidly on a chair, eating high-grade restaurant macarons while teasing and frolicking around with the girls in his group, turned his head to glance at Feng Ping Lan"s table, smilingly shaking his head.
"Byriel, what are you smiling at?" Looking at Byriel"s enchanting smile, the female student spoke curiously.
"Looking at something interesting."
"Oh? Where?"
Byriel ate the remaining sweets, hooking his lips into a smile, "It"s just about to happen."
Feng Ping Lan gathered together the chicken legs Zong Yu had prepared. The meat was close to being smashed to pieces, messily sticking to the bones like a tattered umbrella.
He turned his head. After Ivan had cut the vegetables again, the distance between the bulk had become smaller, but the shapes still weren"t very whole, some of them broken cubes, some in fine shapes. The volume of the potatoes had gotten much smaller, but the peeled skin was still as thick as a phone. The bulb onion had only been peeled, still sitting there completely whole.
Noticing Feng Ping Lan"s gaze, Ivan spoke first, "What are you looking at! I"ll finish it soon!"
"You messed up." Bai Li Rui commented bluntly.
Ivan rolled his eyes, "You have so many complaints, no wonder you"re so bad with girls!"
"You little brat—"
"Aiya, it"s fine, the most important part of cooking is the taste!" Feng Ping Lan opened his mouth frantically, "As long as you make it using your compa.s.sion, a miracle will definitely happen."
"Hear that? The importance is in the taste! I"ll take care of it, don"t stand here getting in my way!" Ivan waved his hand, shooing Bai Li Rui away.
"If compa.s.sion can reverse the taste, a miracle will happen only if Mother Teresa appears…"
Bai Li Rui fluidly took out a frying pan, added heat, and put the bulb onion, chicken cubes and b.u.t.ter into it to lightly fry for a while, then tossed in some flour. Then, fragrance overflowed the air.
"Wow! This isn"t bad at all!" Feng Ping Lan noticed that Dongya had stood to the side after finishing preparing the rice, with nothing to do, so after thinking about it for a second, he opened his mouth to invite him, "Does Dongya want to try?"
Dongya"s expression became overwhelmed by favor, "You"re letting me do it? Is this appropriate?"
Feng Ping Lan subconsciously turned his head to look at Liu Yi Chen"s group, just when he saw Liu Yi Chen whacking Cong Long"s head with a milk bottle.
"How are we going to cook if you finish all the milk? Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!" With every scolding, she smacked the bottle down.
Feng Ping Lan turned back, replying with a confident smile, "No problem!"
Dongya walked forward, taking the spatula, then carefully flipping the stuff within the pot.
"After this pour them into the soup, then you just need to place the corn, ham, milk, and flour into it and it"ll be done."
"Alright, understood." Dongya stared seriously at the things inside the pot, slowly and steadily repeating his movements.
"The curry"s definitely going to be deducted marks, but the puree should be fine." Bai Li Rui looked at Dongya"s cautious and timid manner, and spoke, rea.s.sured.
Ivan heard this, and turned to glare at Bai Li Rui.
Feng Ping Lan and Bai Li Rui both cleaned and tidied the kitchen counter, and after throwing their trash they pa.s.sed by the group behind them, where Liu Yi Chen had a rolling pin in her hands, brandishing it threateningly at Morris. Morris wasn"t about to take it lying down, gripping his fist and giving a wild roar, Su Li Wan, Conglong and Simo frantically holding both of them back.
"All I brought were just brown viscous substances that are parts of animals and plants! So what!"
"Then how about you go eat s.h.i.t!"
Their kitchen counter was a huge mess, the cut ingredients strewn across the counter, not yet placed into the pot.
"Our group"s performance isn"t that bad." Looking at this scene, Bai Li Rui spoke his own opinion. "But don"t tell that brat Ivan, or else he"ll be so pleased that he"ll lose his own sense of measure."
"Mm mm! That"s right!" Feng Ping Lan was also at peace of mind.
However, their joyousness and relief did not sustain for long.
Once they returned to their group, a weird smell violently a.s.saulted them.
"What"s with that smell?" Bai Li Rui frowned, the strong sourness was mixed in with a complicated and absolutely invasive smell, attacking his senses.
"Woah!" Feng Ping Lan sniffed, "Our curry smells a little revolting."
Bai Li Rui rushed toward the pot, lowering his head to look at the curry Igor was currently stirring. He saw a pot of dark brown substance which was unevenly distributed in terms of wateriness and viscosity, a few bits of carrots floating around adorning it. "How did it turn into this?"
"You have the gall to ask me, I followed your every instruction!" Ivan, being the guilty party blamed first, "The curry started turning out weird when we added the carrots. Isn"t it because your character"s too lacking, causing us to receive faulty curry powder?"
"That"s impossible…" Bai Li Rui turned his head, looking at the "curry powder" Ivan had just mentioned. "This is chicken stock powder!"
"There isn"t a packaging, who would realize if they put it in a plastic box."
"That"s common sense!" No, if it was only chicken stock powder, there wouldn"t be a sour smell—
Bai Li Rui swept an eye across his surroundings and abruptly realized that a bottle of black vinegar was placed beside the pot. The contents inside were already empty. He widened his eyes, "You added vinegar?"
"I thought that was sesame oil…" Ivan replied guiltily, but immediately spoke confidently, "Anyways, the color wasn"t right, it was all light, it became more like curry when I added the black vinegar."
"That"s because you put in stock powder!" Bai Li Rui opened a little drawer underneath the counter, taking out the curry powder, "This. Is. Curry. Powder!"
"Oh," Ivan raised his eyebrows, "Then we"ll just add it in." Taking the entire packet, he casually threw all of it into the pot.
The curry powder let out a plopping sound, floating in the paste for a moment before sinking.
Bai Li Rui had the urge to shove Ivan"s head into the pot to boil along with it.
"Don"t be so tense!" Feng Ping Lan hurriedly took the soup ladle to give a hard stir, "After a few more stirs it should—" The ladle was stuck on a foreign substance. He paused a little, taking the ladle out of the soup, and actually fished out a whole bulb onion from it.
"…At least there"s an onion in the curry." Ivan said resentfully.
Bai Li Rui"s face was as ugly as that dark cuisine of black vinegar curry.
Feng Ping Lan put down the ladle, "Um, let"s look at the corn puree! It must really perfect!"
Dongya spoke modestly, "I tried my best, it might not be very good."
"Don"t worry, even if you threw a shoe in it, it could even win over that pot of curry."
Opening the lid of the pot, there sat beige-colored puree, yellow and red cubes drifting in it.
There was no problem with the color, and at first sniff the smell was fine, but—
"Wait a minute, those yellow cubes… are pineapples!"
"I thought there we might be short of corn, so I opened a can." Dongya pointed at the empty can by the side, "They"re both yellow."
Feng Ping Lan lowered his head to smell it, "It smells like a familiar kind of sweet." It caused him to have a sudden craving for shaved ice.
"I added this." Dongya took out a plastic bottle from the cupboard, "This kind of milk is very concentrated, I have never seen anything like it before."
"That"s condensed milk…" Bai Li Rui groaned lowly, lacking strength, "It"s over, all we have left is the white rice—" His gaze turned toward the electric pot, startled, "Why is the electric pot spitting froth…"
The electric pot"s opening was continuously giving out white foam, the boiling steam also coming out from the aperture. The pot looked as if it was about to explode at any moment.
"All I did was wash the rice, then put it into the pot, nothing else!" Dongya made it clear.
"Dongya, what did you use to wash the rice?" Feng Ping Lan asked quietly.
"That." A pale finger pointed, toward the super effective dishwashing liquid.
Feng Ping Lan and Bai Li Rui stiffened immediately.
Byriel, who sat in the corner observing, burst out laughing, taking delight in their misfortune. Ah, he was starting to like Culinary Cla.s.s.
The puree placed on heat had started unwittingly boiling, and looked about to spray out the pot.
Dongya hurriedly waved his hand secretly, putting up a wind barrier around the pot, drawing out the air around the pot, creating a vacuum s.p.a.ce. The flame instantaneously died out, and the boiling puree returned to its original place.
Dongya reached out a hand to turn off the gas.
Boom! An explosive sound quaked with a rumble. Dongya got a fright, thinking he had caused an accident, but the sound had come from behind him.
A huge column of flame rushed up to the ceiling. Morris stood beside the gas stove, bearing the brunt of it, but as he was a fire-type demon, this kind of intensity did not create any damage to him.
Just as the students cried out in alarm and were about to run out and sound the alarm, the flame abruptly fell, retreated back into the stove, back into tiny little flames. Morris had secretly controlled it, forcing the fire back down.
The things inside the pot had been roasted by the column of fire earlier, letting out peals of black smoke and a p.r.i.c.kling charred smell.
"What are you doing!"
"There wasn"t enough time, so I made it cook quicker," Morris replied in a low voice.
He secretly used demonic power to control the flames, but turns out the heat was too high, causing the plastic bottle containing the vegetable oil place by the side to melt. The oil had leaked onto the stove, causing the explosion.
Seeing the fire settle down, everyone let out a sigh of relief, but at this time water started pouring down on the room. The flame earlier and thick smoke had stirred up the water sprinklers, which automatically started spraying water out of them.
Cries of alarm and complaints started ringing out, and everyone started rescuing their phones and paper products. Quite a lot of groups who had already completed their dishes had theirs destroyed by the water sprinklers.
The Home Economics teacher was soaked wet from head to toe, expression sinister, and spoke with clenched teeth. "Group 4, stay back! Everyone leave!"
Liu Yi Chen and the others groaned, upset.
"We escaped this time around…" Bai Li Rui whispered to Feng Ping Lan, "Thanks to them, our dark cuisine doesn"t need to be marked."
"Haha, yeah." Feng Ping Lan forced out a laugh. If Morris and the others had caused the accident, he as the one contracted to them definitely wouldn"t be let off.
Following behind Feng Ping Lan, when Dongya pa.s.sed by the Home Economics teacher, something suddenly fell out from the sleeve of his jacket.
A bag of flour.
Dongya naturally and unhurriedly picked it up, but when he took a second step, another bag of something fell out. This time it was an entire bag of granulated sugar.
"Wait a minute." The Home Economics teacher called out to Dongya, "Take off your jacket."
Dongya hesitated for a moment, then, sighing, then unzipped the zipper of his jacket.
Underneath the jacket was packets of flour, sugar, salt. Some of them were opened, not completely sealed, and water had entered the bags, which increased their ma.s.s, which was why they had fallen to the floor.
"Dongya?" Feng Ping Lan spoke in shock, "Why are you taking these for?"
"I thought they were just like the toilet paper from the toilets, free to use…"
"You can use them freely, but you took too much!" The Home Economics teacher criticized severely.
Dongya gave a bitter laugh, "I thought so as well…" So he had hidden them underneath his clothes.
"You stay behind!" The Home Economics teacher glared at Feng Ping Lan, speaking in a lowered voice, "I know that you and him, as well as those few people who got into trouble earlier, have a "connection" to each other, you stay behind as well!"