Chapter 15
Cooking Together
Lu Liufeng’s amber eyes flickered slightly; he pressed his lips together.
“Why are you overthinking it? Since the female master already agreed to dissolve the marriage contract, you should focus on finding the Golden Soul Fruit.”
“On the fifteenth of every month, the power of the curse is at its weakest. If you have confidence, you can enter the Cursed Land and take a look—or ask Hollen how he avoids being corrupted.”
Hollen was the female master’s golden lion beastman, one of the strongest of the Sacred City’s beast clans.
Although entering the Cursed Land was almost certain death, it wasn’t completely impossible to survive.
Occasionally, some powerful beastmen would venture in on the fifteenth of the month to search for treasures.
And among those treasures was the Golden Soul Fruit—rumor said that the Cursed Land had many of them. Some lucky beastmen who had strayed in and survived had picked a few.
Of course, most could not withstand the curse’s power, even on the fifteenth.
Mu Ling’s mind was filled only with the Golden Soul Fruit; he didn’t even notice Lu Liufeng’s wording.
“You,” not we, should focus on finding it.
Mu Ling didn’t linger. He went back inside to help the female master handle those strange “ingredients.”
When he returned to the yard, he saw only the female master washing the ingredients, her hands red from the cold water. His brows furrowed.
He went to a room on the right and knocked.
Inside came Yi Yuexi’s lazy voice.
“Come in.”
Mu Ling opened the door and saw Yi Yuexi in his beast form—a nine-tailed snow fox—leisurely grooming his fur. His icy blue eyes lifted arrogantly, full of disdain.
“Yi Yuexi, this isn’t the Sacred City. You’re already married. Even if the female master has agreed to dissolve the contract, until it’s official, you should still fulfill your duties as a beast husband. We have no obligation to feed you.”
“The female master is working hard outside, and you’re just sitting here doing nothing. Do you think that’s appropriate?”
Yi Yuexi rolled his eyes. “Did I ask her to do all that? What’s it got to do with me?”
He’d been spoiled his entire life—both in the Sacred City and here in the Cursed Land.
Lu Liufeng and Mu Ling often took beatings, but Yi Yuexi had never been hit, all because of his stunning looks. Naturally, that made him even more conceited.
He didn’t even want to look at Jiang Xi, much less go help her. What if she got the wrong idea and thought he was falling for her?
Mu Ling snorted coldly.
“If you won’t help, then go hunt something yourself. Don’t eat what we bring home! We don’t have extra food for you!”
Jiang Xi was by the water vat, washing potatoes. The icy water had turned her hands bright red.
As she scrubbed, she found herself longing for rubber gloves—preferably lined with fleece.
Suddenly, a loud bang! echoed from the yard.
She looked up, startled, just in time to see Yi Yuexi storming out and slamming the door behind him. He shot her a lofty glare before leaving.
Jiang Xi: “?”
What’s your problem?
Her gaze shifted to the doorway, where Mu Ling stood with arms crossed, his face cold.
Jiang Xi: “?”
Did they just argue?
How amusing—it was like watching a drama.
She turned back and continued scrubbing the potatoes.
Mu Ling approached, about to help, but stopped when he saw how red her fingers were.
He froze for a moment.
Was this really the same female master he remembered?
“Female master, let me do it.”
Jiang Xi didn’t refuse. She handed the task over and went to rinse the seasonings.
Once all the ingredients were ready, Lu Liufeng had also finished preparing the wild boar.
When Jiang Xi saw the pig’s head and feet still covered in bristles, she instructed him to singe them over the fire, then scrape them clean in water.
Lu Liufeng was surprised—he hadn’t known you could handle them like that.
As he and Jiang Xi worked so earnestly, Mu Ling started feeling more engaged and volunteered to cut the meat into the sizes Jiang Xi wanted.
The house only had one fire pit, so to make cooking easier, they built two more beside it. With stone pots propped over the flames—they began to cook!
Jiang Xi started by making lu shui (spiced braising broth).
Water, ginger, Sichuan pepper, garlic, cinnamon, bay leaves, cardamom, chili, and salt—all simmered over a low flame.
In another pot, she blanched the pig heart, lungs, stomach, and intestines with ginger to remove the smell, then transferred them into the first pot to braise slowly.
Worried the flavors might mix, she didn’t add the pig’s head meat; she planned to make a separate pot later.
For red-braising, she needed sugar—but there wasn’t any here.
“Do we have honey?” she asked.
Lu Liufeng, who had just finished cleaning the pig’s feet, replied, “I’ll go get some.”
Since there was no honey at home, he took a pig leg to trade with a bear-beast from the other side of the tribe.
By the time he returned with the honey, the spiced broth was already releasing an irresistible aroma.
Mu Ling, who had been skeptical at first, was now clearly astonished. His eyes toward the female master had completely changed.
Jiang Xi rendered fat from pork belly until it turned golden, scooped it out, then used the oil to caramelize the honey for the sauce.
Lu Liufeng and Mu Ling wanted to help, but she was afraid they’d burn the sugar, so she did it herself—teaching them as she went.
“This is called making caramel color. You want it to turn a reddish-brown like this.”
“Now we add the pig’s feet and coat them evenly.”
“Then add ginger, garlic, cinnamon, bay leaves, and chili to bring out the fragrance.”
Once the spices hit the heat, the smell filled the courtyard.
Lu Liufeng, who had never eaten food from the Hot River Valley, was stunned—he hadn’t realized these plants could be used to make such flavorful dishes.
He and Mu Ling exchanged a look but didn’t dare interrupt her “lesson.”
Jiang Xi actually enjoyed cooking—mostly because, during the apocalypse, cafeteria food had been terrible. She’d had no choice but to learn to cook for herself.
Mu Ling’s mouth was already watering.
He swallowed hard and couldn’t help asking, “Can we eat it yet?”
Jiang Xi ruthlessly denied him. “No.”
“Now we add enough water to cover the pig’s feet and let it simmer!”
Since they didn’t have any real staple food, she planned to add the potatoes later—creating braised pig’s feet with potatoes!
While those two pots simmered, she opened a third to make side dishes:
Garlic spare ribs, stir-fried pork with black fungus, spicy stir-fried pork liver, and taro with shepherd’s purse.
She didn’t have time to make a cold dish of purslane.
Meanwhile, she told Lu Liufeng to roast the pig kidneys and intestines over the fire—just a bit of salt, and they’d taste amazing.
It was the first time Lu Liufeng and Mu Ling had ever tasted such flavors; both of their eyes lit up in delight.
Mu Ling couldn’t help it—wolf ears and tail popped out, his tail wagging rapidly behind him.
Jiang Xi froze for a second, then burst out laughing.
Maybe Mu Ling wasn’t so hard to get along with after all.
For all his cool demeanor, he was basically a little wolfdog—give him something tasty, and he’d wag his tail.
Lu Liufeng was a bit more restrained but no less satisfied.
He used a blade of wind to slice open a roasted kidney and personally fed it to the female master.
“Female master, you should try too.”
Jiang Xi was holding a makeshift wooden spatula in one hand and a bowl of seasoning in the other.
Her hands were full, so without thinking, she opened her mouth and let him feed her.
When her soft lips brushed against his fingertips, Lu Liufeng blinked rapidly, then calmly withdrew his hand as if nothing had happened.
