Jiang Huiqin"s movement slowly returned to its original pace as her body was warmed by the fire. Yet, her body was still trembling, the fire wasn"t enough during the winter if they weren"t indoors. She then counted everything she managed to salvage from the garbage pile before climbing up with a satisfied look."Those idiots with their happy faces when they took those two planks away from me," Jiang Huiqin laughed. "They didn"t even know I left those planks there deliberately for them to take and kept all the good stuff away from their eyes."
Jiang Huiqin put the snow mushrooms into the pot and climbed over the small mountain of trash with the pot in hand. Her movement was as slow as an old woman.
"What"s wrong with your back?" Li Mingyi asked as he realized something was wrong with her wife. "Did you get hurt when they pushed you?"
"Of course not. I"m not an old lady," Jiang Huiqin laughed as she rubbed her back. "I fell down from the tree when I was trying to get the bird"s eggs. Where do you think these eggs came from? From the sky? I"ll be fine after a rest. You should talk less and focus on recovering. And cover your legs better with the sheet too."
Jiang Huiqin then walked towards a few damped logs and kicked them apart.
A few fat mushrooms could be seen growing on the logs. Jiang Huiqin plucked a handful of them and put them into the pot.
Jiang Huiqin then went back to where Li Mingyi was with a pot filled with water.
Because of the water, the blood on Jiang Huiqin"s hands started to drip again.
Jiang Huiqin realized the blood was dripping and quickly wiped it on her shirt when Li Mingyi wasn"t paying attention. Since her shirt was already dirty, the blood that was wiped on the shirt would only merge with the stain.
Jiang Huiqin placed the pot on the fire and started to make a mushroom stock.
The aroma started to seep out from the pot. Jiang Huiqin added a small pinch of salt into the pot and removed it from the fire.
"I"ll go change the stock for some bowls and spoons from Mr. Chen," Jiang Huiqin said.
"Wait, I hid two spoons under the wooden rack," Li Mingyi said as he pointed at the wooden rack that was supporting a part of their tent.
"Good. That means I can keep two mushrooms for ourselves," Jiang Huiqin smiled.
After a while, Jiang Huiqin returned with only half of the stock left while holding a bowl and a pair of chopsticks with her other hand. Only a piece of mushroom remained in the stock.
"Well, I don"t like mushrooms anyway," Jiang Huiqin said as she shrugged. "Here, let me feed you. The stock will spill since you don"t know how to use a spoon."
Jiang Huiqin put the pot back onto the fire and grabbed the remaining mushroom with the chopsticks, and sent it next to Li Mingyi"s mouth.
But Li Mingyi did not open his mouth.
"You eat it. I don"t like mushrooms, either."
"Hey! If you don"t eat it, I"m throwing it away," Jiang Huiqing scolded. "There are a lot of nutrients in mushrooms, so you better eat up. Your leg has been bugging you for more than a month, right?"
Jiang Huiqin quickly shoved the mushroom into Li Mingyi"s mouth. Easy and effective.
Jiang Huiqin then started to cook the snow mushrooms with the stock. When they had softened, she added a decent amount of seasoning and cooked the eggs in the stock too.
A hodge-podge soup was ready to serve. Jiang Huiqin placed the snow mushrooms in the middle of the pot and placed the desh.e.l.led eggs next to them. Then she slowly poured the soup into the bowl.
Li Mingyi finally could tell what Jiang Huiqin was trying to make.
"This is how you"re supposed to make the Salix Leaf-shaped Bird"s Nest Soup!"
"What do you mean by supposed? This is it!" Jiang Huiqin said and took out a can of ham. She shook the can in front of Li Mingyi and took the ham out from the can. She then cut a few slices of the cured meat and put them on top of the egg.
"Do you really think I"m stupid?" Jiang Huiqin laughed as she slowly wrapped the can back and hid it. "There"s no way that gold bracelet could only be exchanged for a few snow mushrooms. I also got a can of unopened ham. Well, I call this the poor version of the Bird"s Nest Soup. I don"t think my brother could make this better than me if he only had these ingredients."
"Keep on dreaming," Li Mingyi laughed.
Jiang Huiqin helped Li Mingyi up and handed him the bowl of soup.
"Try it."
Li Mingyi picked up a piece of the mushrooom, wanting to give it to Jiang Huiqin.
"Come on, it"s your birthday, not mine," Jiang Huiqin smiled. "I"ll just cook some of the bran later."
In the end, Jiang Huiqin still ate one of the eggs.
The moment Jiang Huiqin put the egg into her mouth, tears rolled down her face. She was still the same Jiang Huiqin, crying like a 10 year old when she was already in her 40s or 50s.
"I"m so good at this!" Jiang Huiqin exclaimed as she covered her mouth with her hand.
"Yes. This is the best Bird"s Nest Soup I"ve ever had," Li Mingyi said while holding the bowl as tears also rolled down his face.
Jiang Feng couldn"t help but start to sob as he witnessed what had happened to the couple.
"What are you crying for? I"ll make this for you again next year," Jiang Huiqin smiled.
But there was no next year. Jiang Huiqin died in the same year during winter.
Everything turned dark.
Jiang Feng was back at where he started, sitting on the chair.
Even though it was a short memory, the 4 hours playback were depressing for Jiang Feng.
He could even feel the agony in the playback before Jiang Huiqin opened her mouth to talk.
Jiang Feng was deeply impressed by his great-aunt, who could still express her feelings freely in such a situation.
After calming himself down for a while, Jiang Feng opened the system UI.
There was another input under the recipe tab.
[Fake Salix Leaf-shaped Bird"s Nest Soup (Grade E)] [Can be modified]:
Maker: Jiang Huiqin
Detail: A food that has the worst possible ingredients and seasoning, but is priceless because of Jiang Huiqin"s exceptional cooking skill and the unique surroundings she was in. It became the light for Li Mingyi in his darkest days and helped him to live on. No additional attributes.
Only one can be made per day. (0/1)
I can modify it? What does that mean? Is the system telling me to find ways to make it better?
Jiang Feng was confused.
The rating of the dish was only a level higher than w.a.n.g s.h.i.tou"s dumpling recipe. Yet the difference was that w.a.n.g s.h.i.tou was bad at cooking, while Jiang Huiqin was being limited by her surroundings.
The dish had a lot of potential for improvement.
Jiang Feng wondered if the system was also telling him that he could modify the recipe until it became an authentic Salix Leaf-shaped Bird"s Nest Soup.
But how do I modify it? Where should I start? The ingredients or the seasoning? Or perhaps the control of fire?
Since Jiang Feng could only make one per day, he wondered if he would have to wait until the Lunar New Year next year before he could successfully modify the dish.
At the end of the playback, Jiang Feng heard Li Mingyi mentioning that it was the best Bird"s Nest Soup he"d ever had. It was a huge tip. Jiang Feng then scolded the system. At first, it mentioned that Li Mingyi could not forget the dish that Jiang Chengde made, but the quest required Jiang Feng to make a Bird"s Nest Soup that Li Mingyi remembered deeply.
If Jiang Feng did not get his hand on the fake version, he would"ve tried to make the authentic one.
There was no way Jiang Feng could make the dish according to Jiang Huiqin"s recipe. He didn"t have the nerve to take the ingredients from the trash and use them for cooking.
Plus, there was no way an old man could handle that kind of ingredient.
Jiang Feng clicked on the video tutorial and started to think about how he could modify the recipe.