Chu Lian opened up the bag and found a clean earthenware pot in a corner of the tent. She set it over the fire and poured water inside. Then, she took out a dagger and sliced off a piece of mutton before carefully cutting it up into smaller cubes and throwing it into the bowl.
Afterwards, Chu Lian quickly sliced the rest of the mutton and used some bamboo sticks to turn them into skewers, which she set aside.
When the water in the pot had turned red with blood, she took out the mutton cubes and changed the water inside the pot. Next, she threw the small handful of rice and the mutton cubes back into the pot, adding more water with a small amount of goat’s milk.
After she was done with all that, she took out a small porcelain bottle from somewhere on her body and poured a light-coloured seasoning into the bowl before covering up the pot.
Now it was time for Chu Lian to start grilling the mutton skewers. Firstly, she patted the skewered mutton pieces so that the meat was spread evenly across the skewers. Next, she sprinkled a layer of her special seasoning over it and set the skewers to grill over the fire.
Chu Lian didn’t put the skewers right in the middle. Instead, she kept them at the edges of the brazier so she could use the peaks of the flames to grill the meat.
Using the bamboo sticks, she carefully flipped the mutton skewers over. The fragrance of the meat soon filled the entire tent.
The well seasoned meat skewers couldn’t be compared to the haphazardly grilled and salted mutton from before.
It was the kind of aroma that came from street stalls selling barbecued skewers. Chu Lian’s seasoning was lacking cumin; in this condition, it was only natural that her version of skewers couldn’t match up to the more developed modern flavors. For the people of the Great Wu Dynasty, however, this was an irresistibly enticing food.
By the time Chu Lian was done with her skewers, the mutton porridge in the pot was half done. The fragrance of it was also starting to drift out from the pot.
Rice had a natural fragrance to begin with. When blanched mutton was added to the rice, together with some goat’s milk, it created a wonderful aroma with a hint of milk. In contrast to the oily and flavourful smell of the grilled skewers, the porridge smelled clean and refreshing. It even evoked the warm feeling of home cooking.
The four kidnappers were completely stunned!
The thick-lipped woman was staring in disbelief. How had those simple, basic ingredients turned into such criminally enticing food in the hands of that pampered Honoured Lady?
She was suffering now. The tantalising aroma of the food was constantly attacking her senses, and she couldn’t stop it even if she wanted to.
After experiencing such a heavenly fragrance, when she thought back to the half-cooked salted mutton pieces she had eaten earlier, she suddenly felt that her meal hadn’t been fit for human consumption.
The three men on the other side of the tent had already set down their food. Although they had all used the same ingredients, how was it possible that the results were so different? The three men weren’t satisfied.
They spat out the weird-tasting mutton in their mouths as inwardly cried tears of frustration. How could they continue eating their terrible cooking with that amazing smell in the air?
It was as if they were watching someone else have a feast while all they had in their bowls was plain white porridge.
How could they even have the mood to continue eating their food after that…
Chu Lian took the skewers off the fire and pushed the meat off the bamboo sticks onto her little plate. By this time, the mutton porridge was pretty much done. She covered the lid of the pot with a cloth and lifted it slowly. Chu Lian could feel four pairs of eyes fixed on her as she lifted the pot lid. Her thumb shook a little, causing some tiny powdery substance to drop into the pot.
Once the lid was lifted, a cloud of steam billowed up, concealing her action. Together with the steam, the fragrance of the mutton porridge filled the tent.
Chu Lian didn’t look at any of the kidnappers. She took out an earthenware bowl and filled half of the bowl with the savoury mutton porridge before putting her grilled mutton slices on top.
The steaming hot white porridge and the slightly charred grilled mutton slices were a feast to the eyes and the stomach. By now, any starving person would have likely charged forward to snatch the bowl from Chu Lian’s hands.
Of course, the four kidnappers weren’t the kind to do that, but their appetites had been hooked by the smell of the food.
They had been hiding in Liangzhou City for a number of months. All they had to eat every day was mutton or beef, or that damned Chinese olive porridge. The group hadn’t been able to eat any plain rice porridge for incredibly long, let alone this delicious-looking mutton porridge.
They were all secret agents, so they didn’t have the time to learn how to cook. Of course, even if they were to try and learn, the standards of the Great Wu Dynasty weren’t all that great.
Chu Lian took the bowl and returned back to her original position. She found some chopsticks and picked up a piece of grilled meat, putting it into her mouth immediately.
She couldn’t help but savour it. The meat had been cooked just right, to the point of perfection.
A look of satisfaction appeared on Chu Lian’s face, thanks to the delicious food.
The onlookers were getting frantic from watching her eat- even the thick-lipped woman wasn’t immune.
In the end, it was the tall man with the thin moustache who lost his patience first. He casually glanced over at the pot sitting over the fire; there was still more than half of the porridge left.
Chu Lian hadn’t scooped out much of the porridge for herself. The layer of grilled meat on top of her bowl had made it seem like a lot more.
The man gulped and walked over to Chu Lian’s side. His usually blank expression had finally changed.
His eyes scrunched up a little as if he was trying to smile. Unfortunately, since he never smiled, it had the opposite effect.
“Honoured Lady, can I have a word with you?”
Chu Lian finally looked up from her bowl. She made a questioning ‘mm’ with doubt written all over her face.
