“So just how long is that guy going to stare at the cucumber?
Didn’t she already say she could do it just now?”
Watching Ei gazing affectionately at the cucumber on the backup cutting board amid the half-collapsed ruins, Su Yu couldn’t help but turn to Yae Miko beside him and speak slowly.
Hearing Su Yu address her, Yae Miko, who had just been repeatedly ignored after several attempts to strike up conversation, brightened at once.
She’d originally wanted to crack a joke and tease him, but on second thought, this topic was just idle chatter and wouldn’t really make Su Yu squirm, so she fell into thought:
“That Ei.
She used to be reckless and full of drive, but now she seems much more composed.
Could something big be coming?”
Su Yu of course had great confidence in Ei, but being reverse-jinxed like that by Yae Miko still left him somewhat uneasy.
After all, to complete the task, he had to personally taste the dish.
If there was the slightest mishap, he feared he’d be ascending to planet Teyvat [i.e., dying].
Fortunately…
“Miss Raiden, just swing your blade.
Don’t treat the cucumber as an ingredient, treat it as an enemy that’s been blocking your path as a cook!
Quickly use your invincible blade-light on the cucumber!”
As if Su Yu’s shout made Ei figure something out, a storm of flying sand and rocks followed.
A moment later, a plate of cucumber slices thin as cicada wings had been cut.
Ei had her eyes shut, not daring to look at the situation on the cutting board.
“It worked!
No chemical reaction this time!”
Ei didn’t dare open her eyes to look, but Su Yu did.
Success or failure hinged on this one move.
If it failed again this time, he was ready to set Sigewinne’s number as his first emergency contact.
Fortunately…
“I…
did I succeed?
But won’t the slices look too plain just sitting on the plate like this?
Maybe I should toss them in the wok.
I remember there’s a dish called stir-fried cucumber slices.”
Opening her eyes to look at the verdant cucumber slices before her, Ei placed both hands on her hips, puffed out her chest, and her confidence swelled enormously, scaring Su Yu into hurriedly refusing.
If these slices went into the wok, they’d definitely turn into alchemy [i.e., an explosive mess]!
“This is fine.
To make sure this dish is entirely your own work, I’ve already prepared the right amounts of salt, vinegar, light soy sauce, and chili oil for you.
Just pour them in and stir with chopsticks, and it’s done.”
Su Yu skillfully mixed the seasonings and handed them to Ei.
Ei, trusting Su Yu completely, poured the sauce into the plate and began to stir.
Thankfully the process went smoothly, and soon a plate of cold-tossed cucumber slices, perfect in color, aroma, and taste, was finished.
“Wow, th-this…
is this really a dish Ei could make?
Even though it’s a cold dish, the shock it gives me is no less than if Chiyo suddenly grew into a one-point-eight-meter giant!”
Ever since that flying sand and rocks just now, Yae Miko had been in a frozen, crashed state.
The one time out of a thousand with no explosion, no strange smell, and the dish even looked presentable.
This was simply unbelievable!
As expected, only Teacher Su Yu is the best!”
Ei looked at Su Yu with starry eyes.
There was no helping it.
At this moment in Ei’s heart, Su Yu’s kindness could never be repaid!
Chef Mao?
Who’s that?
Don’t really know him.
“Hmph, woman.
Now that you’ve got a handsome teacher, you’ve forgotten your good sister?
And to think I brought you a plate of glutinous rice balls yesterday.”
Yae Miko pretended to sob.
Anyone who didn’t know better would think Ei owed her fifty million mora.
“Oh?
Really?
But I heard from Chiyo that when you set out, you were carrying three skewers of tricolor dango, two plates of glutinous rice balls, and two cups of honey milk?”
Ei, already very familiar with her best friend, naturally wouldn’t let Yae Miko lead her by the nose, and said this with a look full of disdain.
“Ahem, damn little Chiyo, I’ll never give her special treatment again!”
Even Yae Miko, who often teased others and seemingly had social butterfly syndrome, had the fact that she’d snuck food pointed out like this by Ei, and catching Su Yu’s barely controllable grin out of the corner of her eye, she instantly blushed.
“And I even brought you manga yesterday!”
“What you brought was an old volume I’d already read two weeks ago.”
The moment Ei finished speaking, Yae Miko broke out in a cold sweat, because she suddenly remembered that the latest volume of manga had gotten oil stains on it from fried tofu, so she’d tossed it aside, but forgot when she left, grabbed a volume from the original spot, and left…
“By the way, since Miss Yae snuck a bite yesterday, why not make it up to Miss Raiden today?
And it’ll also give me a chance to see Miss Yae’s skills.”
Such a heaven-sent opportunity.
Not to seize it would be an affront to heavenly principle!
Su Yu directly took the chance to back down gracefully, pulling Ei away from the stove and giving the spot to Yae Miko.
And Yae Miko was somewhat grateful to Su Yu for changing the subject.
After sneaking a slice of cucumber, she obediently and honestly went to stir-fry.
The cookware on the stove clattered and clanged.
Su Yu’s heart was already brimming with irrepressible joy, because the task was about to be completed.
Of course, he wasn’t eager about any black stockings…
At the thought of reaching the pinnacle of life in the future with the help of the Sanguosha board game, Su Yu couldn’t help but start fantasizing just like in his past life.
The only difference was that here, the fantasies could possibly come true, whereas in his past life he could only imagine them, at most at most putting the fantasies down on paper.
Yae Miko’s cooking level wasn’t bad at all, on the contrary, it was quite excellent.
Soon a dish of pan-fried tofu came out of the wok.
And Su Yu, feigning calmness, tasted the cold-tossed cucumber slices and the pan-fried tofu one after another.
“How is it, how is it?
Teacher Su Yu, does what I made taste okay?”
Although she’d already tasted it herself and seen Yae Miko sneak a bite with no adverse effects, she still placed great importance on Su Yu’s evaluation.
“I don’t mind either way.” Yae Miko looked indifferent, as if victory was already in her grasp.
Under Ei’s expectant gaze and Yae Miko’s indifferent one, Su Yu slowly said:
“Miss Raiden’s cooking is a cut above.
Miss Yae still needs to work hard persistently, keep up the effort, and learn from Miss Raiden.”
“What kind of joke is this…”
Yae Miko’s dull, dazed gaze formed a sharp contrast with her friend’s cheering, jubilant expression beside her.
The joys and sorrows between people are never mutually shared.
“Miko, do your best.”
Ei’s simple few words made it even harder for Yae Miko to hold it together.
But she didn’t dampen her friend’s enthusiasm at this moment.
Instead, she looked at the beaming Su Yu with a face full of resentment.
But at this moment Su Yu wasn’t intentionally trying to anger her.
He was receiving his reward.
Of course, how could Yae Miko possibly know that?
She only knew Su Yu was very happy right now, so Su Yu had already been placed at the top of the maiden’s must-retaliate list!
“Eh?
Ei, where did your black stockings go?
Weren’t you wearing them just now?”
Of course, setting aside that infuriating, happy smile on Su Yu’s face, the pink-haired maiden was still quite happy today.
After all, Ei was her good friend, her bestie.
She saw Ei’s difficulties with her own eyes and was anxious in her heart.
Before, there had been no effective way when it came to cooking, and now that Ei had successfully taken her first step, she was naturally very gratified.
But the observant maiden still caught a subtle difference in her friend’s appearance.
Especially since she’d just been through the mishap last night, Yae Miko wouldn’t let even the slightest detail in life slip by, and this was what led her to discover a clue.
And that was…
Ei’s black stockings were gone!
“Is it because the dust was too thick just now and your stockings got dirty, so you changed them?
Strange…
how did I not see it?” Yae Miko touched her chin and said with some curiosity.
“I don’t know.
I feel a chill on my legs right now.” Ei naturally didn’t know where her black stockings had gone.
The two looked at each other, both somewhat bewildered.
“It wasn’t me, it really wasn’t me, I swear on my life!”
Su Yu couldn’t even believe it.
This dumb bird of a system actually rewarded him something scraped right off someone’s body.
Flustered, he raised three fingers and said somewhat unnaturally.
“Protesting too much, very suspicious…
Ei, hold him down, I’ll search him!”
“B-but, if it’s Teacher, there’s no way he could do something like that without me noticing at all.”
Ei scratched her head, looking hesitant.
Of course she knew Su Yu couldn’t have done that in front of her.
But at the same time, she also wanted to interact with Su Yu like Miko said.
The maiden was also afraid that if she wrongly blamed Su Yu for no reason, he’d hold a grudge and stop teaching her cooking.
That would truly be picking up a sesame seed and losing a watermelon.
“It’s fine.
Haven’t you heard the saying, ‘A woman who acts cute has the best fortune’?
If it turns out to be a misunderstanding, just act cute and call him ‘big brother~’ and he’ll definitely calm down.”
“Really?”
“Hey, do I look like a dead man to you!”