Jin had an excellent sleep after his talk with Kraft in his all new king size bed. An upgrade from the single bed which he used to have trouble sleeping in especially considering he did not change the mattress ever since he was young.
Despite all the heavy revelation from Yang Ling and Kraft, Jin decided to get on with life. No use worrying too much at the moment when he had plenty of other things to take care of. Jin opened his cupboard to find that all of his clothes were already ironed and packed nicely. This was a total change compared to living alone when the cabinet was always in a mess.
“Wow, that renovation idea turned into the best quality of life improvement I have ever had.” Jin now understood the taste and power of convenience …of laziness.
By the time Jin reached the store, the System had notified him that Zhen Qing was already in the kitchen hard at work. “Oh yes System, where is the reward for completing the mission? The manual for Zhen Qing’s cultivation.” Jin asked, and the System immediately dropped another chest box from the glass ceiling again.
“As previously requested, this time with less dramatic effects.” The System in his phone spoke.
“You know you could just erm materialise the manual in front of me,” Jin suggested awkwardly to the System.
“That would be too anticlimactic. The audience will not like it.” The System stated.
“What audience?” Jin was slightly confused, but there was no reply. Jin shook his head and opened the treasure box. He found the exact same thing he saw with Qiu Yue’s manual, but this time, the colour of the manual was grey in colour. For some reason, it was also less torn and tattered than Qiu Yue’s reward. There was a USB attached to the manual too.
That was not all. In it, he also saw a letter and found it somewhat familiar. “What is this for?” Jin asked the System, hoping for it to reply back once more.
“Pass it to Lynn Arisato. Afterwards, the same thing will happen to her, as it did for you when you got your letter.” The System described.
“Wait, you mean you really want her to obtain the Sub System? I thought you wanted to wait for her to produce results.” Jin questioned the System’s hastiness.
“She already did.” The moment the System completed its sentence, Zhen Qing came out of the kitchen with a bowl on a tray.
“Ah Boss! I was expecting you! Have you already eaten? If not, are you willing to try this out?” Zhen Qing was smiling delightfully, and Jin could not get enough of that.
“I prepared the main dish. This is not exactly the final product, but I need some opinions. Please do tell me your thoughts on it. Like how do you feel when you eat it.” Zhen Qing requested as she placed the tray right in front of Jin. The food was rather plain looking, a little underwhelming regarding aesthetics, but Jin knew it would be a mistake to underestimate Zhen Qing’s food.
“Ramen?” Jin queried, and she nodded her head.
“This is something I created previously when I was a chef back in Japan. I had been researching for some time on what kind of ingredients to use, but today I figured, I should just try it with my gut feeling. …But of course! It is definitely not a haphazardly made product! I put in some thought into the ingredients and -” Before Zhen Qing could justify herself, Jin stopped her.
“It’s okay. I believe in your food.” Jin took one more good look at the ramen that was right in front of him.
The soup stock was plain, if not to the point it looked crystal clear. There were three thick pieces of Cha Shu (Pork Belly) at the side of the noodles, and some sliced scallions scattered in the soup. Jin picked up the chopsticks at the front of the tray and brought up the noodles out from the soup.
He could see that the thin straight noodles were surrendering itself, begging to be placed into his mouth as it eludes the aroma of freshness of the broth. Jin tried to blow to cool it down a bit, but he could not wait any longer as his parotids were producing saliva each time he eyed the ramen.
“Hmm!”
The noodles rampaged through his mouth as he felt like his mouth was being intruded by it. Jin was wrong. It was not the noodles that surrendered to his mouth. It was the other way around. His mouth was now dying to have more of it as Jin tried to slurp the noodles up.
However, humans’ greed grew the moment they experienced desire. No matter how restrained one was, there are times people fall into an uncontrollable state. Jin was no exception. He was greedy in trying to cover his mouth full of the noodles as the taste was impeccable. Jin begrudgingly bit the unending noodles from the bowl that he slurped from and stopped it from going into his mouth. It would be a waste if he regurgitated with his mouth filled to the brim. Hence, Jin concentrated on chewing the noodles and swallowed them quickly, just wanting to get another bite out of it.
Despite the urge for another rush of noodles into his mouth, he controlled himself. Jin decided to try the soup that he had a taste of it when the noodles touched his lips. Jin took a scoop of the soup, and the light salty fragrance drew Jin completely in, and he unknowingly sipped it slowly.
At first contact, the soup seemed nothing different from that of water. But in just a few moments as Jin swallowed it, there was no explosion of flavour, no soaring of palettes like other soups that he drank. There was just only…
Bliss.
“Home…It felt like home.” Jin whispered as he felt an agglomeration of warm feelings gathering in his stomach. At that point of time, Zhen Qing sat right beside him and stared at Jin as he enjoyed…he appreciated the food she cooked.
“I can now clearly understand what you mean by emotions cooking,” Jin said as he chewed on the thick piece of chashu. The saltiness of the pork belly complemented the crystal clear broth and surprisingly did not ruin the transparent, clean image the entire ramen was exhibiting. Jin eventually gobbled down the whole bowl of ramen and drank the soup only to feel extremely satisfied.
Zhen Qing giggled at Jin’s expression the moment he was done eating. “Hahaha! You looked like you haven’t eaten for days.” Zhen Qing said.
“Looks like it but Zhen Qing- ” Jin wanted to say something but Zhen Qing interrupted.
“Please call me Lynn. I do not wish to hide behind that fake name again.” Lynn had a look of resolve in her eyes, and Jin respected that.
“Lynn. It was simply amazing. I am not very good with words. I cannot describe how fantastic your food is. I am really speechless. It is hard to believe that you said this is not exactly your final product.” Jin replied to Lynn.
“It’s okay, your expression said it all when you were eating.” Lynn giggled once more as she looked Jin in the eyes. “Thank you, Jin. For believing in me when I felt that the whole world was against me. When not even I dared to believe in myself.” Lynn stepped back and bowed 90 degrees forward.
“Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. I will be in your care. Please treat me well.” Lynn said as she bent forward with gratitude.
