Fei Yang had only chopped the meat twice before stopping again. "Do you think Zachary is really mad?"
Rain was picking tomatoes in the yard with Fei Qingqing. Without turning around, he said, "Don't worry. If my mom steps in, my dad definitely won't stay mad."
Good to know.
Fei Yang obediently picked up the knife and started chopping again.
After giving Leng some quick instructions on how to slice the meat, Danielle slipped into the kitchen. She had taken a lot of money—she had to teach properly.
"Make sure the skin is cleaned thoroughly. And remember, always steam it starting with cold water."
While waiting for the bear paw to finish steaming, Danielle pulled two strange beasts from her storage space. They looked kind of like a chicken and a duck, but much bigger. The chicken had bright feathers, almost like a phoenix. The duck was even weirder—it had eight legs. If it wasn't running around so fast, Danielle would've thought all those legs would tangle up.
"Later, clean these two beasts too, okay? You can handle that, right? Take out the guts and the back end, chop the rest into pieces."
In this world, no one raised regular poultry. If you wanted meat, you had to buy it from shops or markets. All of it came from mutated beasts hunted from the wild. But humans were highly adaptable—so far, there wasn't a single beast they couldn't eat.
From what Danielle had observed, these beasts were just mutated versions of ordinary animals. The taste should be about the same. The only difference was they were stronger and way more expensive.
Jin Shan followed every order without complaint. Whatever she told him to do, he did it.
Danielle nodded, satisfied. He was a low-maintenance student.
"Let me know when they're cleaned and ready to cook."
Then she rushed out of the kitchen again.
Danielle pulled out two heads of cabbage and some scallions, ginger, and garlic from her space. Ever since she discovered that crops grew faster in her space, she had planted all kinds of seeds in there. Now she had not just tomatoes, cabbages, and other regular vegetables, but also two thriving little trees—an apple tree and a pear tree.
In this world, plants were so rare that finding food was a challenge. Danielle could only grow a few types of edible produce.
"Come here, Fei Yang."
"Zachary, you come too."
In this world, cooking methods were backward. Naturally, things like grill plates didn't exist. But Danielle didn't care—if something didn't exist, she would just make it herself.
"Look closely at this drawing. Just build it like this, got it?"
Fei Yang's eyes were wide and clueless. Danielle gave him one look and handed the job to Zachary instead.
Luckily, Zachary was reliable. Under his firm (and slightly painful) instruction, they finally managed to put together a very ugly-looking grill plate.
Danielle looked at it with slight disgust.
"Whatever. It'll do for now."
Fei Yang immediately bolted. If he didn't run, the back of his head would turn into Buddha.
"Zachary, press the energy stone here."
"Add a few more openings here. That way the oil can drain out."
They didn't have coal, but that didn't matter. They had energy stones.
Zachary and Danielle were working side by side, heads close together, adjusting the grill. Jin Shan came out of the kitchen and saw them like that. His eyes flickered.
"Danielle, the chicken and duck meat are ready."
Zachary's grip tightened.
Danielle didn't notice. "Alright, I'm coming. Zachary, keep working. I'll be back."
She hurried to the kitchen.
Zachary stayed quiet, but the noise he made while working got louder.
Fei Yang crept up to him. "Zachary, are you worried too?"
"If it were me, I'd be nervous. Jin Shan's rich, good-looking, and charming. What if Danielle…"
Before he could finish, he went flying.
"Ahhh! Help!"
Boom.
A human-shaped crater appeared in the yard.
Rain tugged Fei Qingqing back a couple of steps. "Qingqing-jie, what's your brother doing?"
Fei Qingqing shook her head. "I don't know. He gets like this sometimes."
"Let's go play inside then. My mom bought me a bunch of new toys."
"Really? Okay, let's go!"
The two kids skipped happily into the house.
Fei Yang weakly stretched out a hand, sobbing silently. Qingqing… do you not love your brother anymore?
Smack.
A cabbage root landed squarely on Fei Yang's head. Leng's cold voice followed.
"Stop slacking off. Get up and slice those pieces. Do you still want barbecue or not?"
Fei Yang lay at the bottom of the pit, covered in a haze of despair.
He shut down emotionally.
But not for long—he sniffed the air, jumped up in excitement.
"What's that smell? It's amazing!"
He rushed into the kitchen. The scent was even stronger.
Danielle stood with arms crossed, scolding Jin Shan with a stern face.
"You added too many spices. That doesn't bring out the food's real flavor—it overpowers it. How could it taste good like that?"
"Use fewer spices, and use them well. Now go slice the bear paw thin."
Jin Shan, usually composed and professional, was now dripping with sweat and totally flustered.
Fei Yang saw Danielle fuming and quietly backed out of the kitchen.
"Leng-jie, I was just saying—"
"Shut up and work."
"Oh…"
Fei Yang unwillingly lowered his head and kept cutting meat, but after a short while he got bored again.
"I'll go wash the veggies."
Heh heh.
Why didn't he think of this sooner? Maybe he could sneak a few bites while washing.
Grinning wide, he picked up a big cabbage and rushed into the kitchen again.
Seeing Danielle's angry glare, he sheepishly raised the cabbage.
"I'm here to wash veggies."
Danielle took a deep breath. "Go wash over there."
"Okay!"
Fei Yang had just moved when Danielle suddenly rushed to Jin Shan's side.
"Not like that! It's time to reduce the sauce—do you even know how to thicken it?"
Jin Shan shook his head. "What's that?"
"Just watch."
No cornstarch? No problem. Potatoes had it.
Danielle mashed up a potato and threw it in.
Soon, the potato broke down, and the sauce started to thicken.
Jin Shan's eyes lit up. "You can use potatoes like that?"
Danielle stirred while explaining, "Potatoes have something called starch. It thickens sauces and makes food taste better."
She muttered silently to herself. What kind of people were left behind that they don't even know this basic stuff?
"It's ready. Take it off the heat."
"Danielle-jie! Danielle-jie!"
Fei Yang grinned as he ran over. "Look! I washed the cabbage super clean!"
Danielle glanced over. "Mm, looks good."
"Then can I… I mean… maybe…"
Fei Yang's blushing face gave Jin Shan the wrong idea. The next second…