Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
So she’s following me all the way because she’s hungry?
The child looked as if he found out the reason, and only now did he open the gate, the closing or opening of which didn’t seem to make a difference. “Come inside!”
Shen Ying readily walked inside, and looked around this rather tidy, albeit dilapidated house. She then turned to look at the little kid who had already started working, and who had become a child of around ten years old within the duration that she beat the Godfiend, possibly due to the time difference in the Divine Realm.
“Please wait here for a moment.” He turned back into a room and got two salted fish. “These was given by Mother Wang in the village, and they are all I have.”
Shen Ying looked at the salted fish in his hands and said nothing.
“You don’t know how to cook?” Seeing that she did not take them, the child had to ask.
“No.” She shook her head firmly.
He looked at the salted fish with some embarrassment, then looked at the half-collapsed house on the side. After a long while he said, as if he has made some decision, “Wait for a moment.”
As he said that, he walked inside. Only now did Shen Ying realize that that was originally a kitchen, and a kitchen table could be vaguely seen.
He stood on his toes to put the fish on the kitchen table, before he ran back to the yard and got a bucket of water. Then he moved over a shabby chair and started to clean the wok. As he did that, he said to Shen Ying, who did not show even the slightest intention of helping, “I’ve never cooked before. I don’t know if I can do it.”
As he said that, the speed of cleaning became faster, as if by the instinct of his body. And for the salted fish which he initially had no idea what to do with, more than a dozen methods of treatment had come to his mind in an instant. He said instinctively, “A pity that there is no rice.”
“I have it!” Shen Ying said suddenly.
The child who was cleaning was shocked. He turned to look at Shen Ying, who suddenly approached him. Before he could react, Shen Ying dug and pulled from the bag at her size, and from the bag which was only the size of a purse, a sack larger than his body was pulled out. The sack was filled with white rice, each crystal clear and full, with faint white air on top.
“There you go,” Shen Ying put the sack directly beside his feet.
The child jumped out of the shabby chair and looked at the especially pretty rice grains with curiosity. Somehow another idea came to his mind, and he said it out loud directly, “It would go well with the meat of red spirit beast, a pity that we don’t…”
“I have it!” Before he finished the sentence, the person in front of him took out a piece of red and bright meat from that sack.
His eyes opened even wider. “Red spirit beast and ordinary chicken…”
“I have it!” she took out a piece of chicken.
“Eh? Then fairy sheep…”
“I have it!” It was taken out.
“Water beast…”
“I have it!” She kept digging.
“Fresh vanilla…”
“I have it!” She was still digging.
“Onion, ginger, and other ingredients…”
“I have them!” She kept digging.
“Oil, salt, sauce and vinegar…”
“I have them!” She was digging happily.
“Pots and pans…”
“I have them…”
Ten minutes later, the floor of the kitchen, along with a large part of the yard, was filled with all types of ingredients.
The child was shocked at the beginning, but became completely calm in the end. He turned, climbed back onto the shabby chair, and started to cook. As he did it, he felt ever more confused. He clearly had never cooked before, but once he got hold of the ingredients, his body instinctively knew what to do with them.
An hour later.
Dishes with amazing fragrances filled a whole table. Without a need for an invitation, Shen Ying was already sitting in front of the table, and started eating.
The child at the side had confusion written all over his face, as if he did not know what had happened at all. Yet as he looked at the person who was clearly enjoying the meal, he felt no strangeness in the heart, as if… this was the way it should be.
He turned and saw the remaining ingredients which piled up all over the floor, and only now pushed the person sitting beside him, “Should these be put back?”
Shen Ying paused in her eating, pulled down the storage bag on the side of her body and handed it over.
The child was stunned, took it subconsciously, and only now understood that she meant for him to collect the things. He slid down from the chair and started putting the ingredients over the floor into the storage bag one by one. As he did it, surprise rose in his heart: he had never seen such a magical bag. Despite so many things being put inside, it was not heavy at all, as if it could never be filled.
He couldn’t help but looked all over it several times. After a long while, he walked back and handed it back to the older sister who suddenly appeared at his doorstep.
Yet she did not take it. As she ate, she vaguely raised her chin at him and said, “It’s yours!” It belonged to the chef from the start, she just brought it over.
“Huh?” he was shocked, and his little eyes widened. “You… are giving it to me?”
“Yes.”
He hesitated, and after thinking for a long while he put it back to Shen Ying’s side. “I can’t take it.”
“Ah?” Shen Ying’s hand paused, and she replied subconsciously, “Then how are you going to cook afterwards?”
“Do I still have to do it?” He was stunned.
“Are you not going to?” she asked.
“Oh.” He took the bag back. His little shoulders dropped slightly. He seemed… to have been tied up by this strange older sister.
He squeezed the bag in his hand. He was a kid after all. His eyes shone with curiosity and excitement, as he looked at Shen Ying as if he wanted to ask something, but was unsure how to ask.
Shen Ying felt a bit awkward being stared at. She pointed to the bowls of dishes. “Eat first! We can talk afterwards.”
He lowered his head, took a look and shook his head. “I don’t actually have to eat.”
“Hmm?” Shen Ying looked up.
As if afraid of her misunderstanding, he went on to explain hurriedly, “I… I mean, I never got hungry since young. I’m also not sure why?” After he finished, he seemed to have remembered something, and he added, “This is my secret, can you please don’t tell others?” Although he was only ten, he still vaguely understood that not having to eat like him must be abnormal. He’s never told this secret to anyone, but somehow he just blurted it out today, as if by instinct he knew that it was alright to tell her.
“Oh.” Shen Ying replied, looking as if she just remembered something, as she continued eating.
Shen Ying ate fast, but there were just too many dishes on the table that after half an hour, she had not even finished half of them. She kept eating, and the child kept watching at the side and trying hard to contain the questions in his heart. Until she finally looked like she was finishing.
His little face lit up as he prepared to speak. But just at that moment, a somewhat childish male voice sounded out of the house. “Hey! Wild kid, are you here?” A small head squeezed into the side of the yard’s gate. He looked around the yard, and a light which didn’t belong to his age shone in his eyes.
Shen Ying’s hand stopped.
… Oh.
