Chapter 162 – Hu Li’s “Cooking”

Chapter 162 – Hu Li’s “Cooking”

Water gushed noisily into the bathtub as warmth gradually spread through the bathroom. Eileen sat on the washing machine nearby with her chin propped in both hands, looking rather bored with all the waiting.

Yu Sheng reached into the tub to test the water temperature, then turned up the hot water a bit more—after all, this doll wasn’t afraid of scalding.

“I want to use the shower too!” Eileen suddenly called out from behind him.

“Can you even reach it?” Yu Sheng turned to glance at her. “You can barely hold the showerhead with both hands, and you’d need a ladder just to turn the valve—just sit in the tub and soak. And honestly, you can actually swim in there. Most people don’t get that kind of bathing experience…”

“It’s not like I chose to be this tall!” Eileen immediately got angry. “If you’re so clever, make me a new body that’s five foot six!”

Yu Sheng didn’t bother responding. He was used to this doll’s constant grumbling by now.

Eileen didn’t particularly care whether Yu Sheng acknowledged her either. Before long, she was already coming up with new demands: “Then at least get me a smaller showerhead, you know, the kind they use for bathing little kids. And install an extra valve near the floor. Set the whole thing up in the shower stall for me—it wouldn’t even cost much…”

“Someday, someday,” Yu Sheng said dismissively, then stood up and looked at Eileen. “The water’s ready. Get in—I hung a towel on the wall beside the tub for you.”

“I know, I know,” Eileen waved her hand impatiently, hopped down from the washing machine, then struggled to climb up to the edge of the bathtub. “I’m going to take my bath now, get out, get out—”

Yu Sheng casually flicked Little Doll on the forehead, then walked out of the bathroom. That was when he heard the sound of running water coming from the kitchen. He went over to check and found Hu Li tidying up—she had just finished cleaning up the disaster scene Eileen had created, and was now scrubbing the burnt spatula in the sink.

The moment Yu Sheng saw this, a wave of comfort washed over him. He thought to himself, thank goodness the household didn’t only have a professional troublemaker like Eileen—at least there was still one well-behaved kid who could actually help out…

Then he watched as Hu Li turned to glance at him, quickly wiped her hands on her tail, and carried a basin of something from the stove over to him as if presenting a treasure: “Benefactor, this is for you.”

Yu Sheng was momentarily stunned. He looked down at the contents of the basin, and after staring for quite a while, he still couldn’t figure out what that mass of mixed substances was supposed to be. He could only look back up at the girl before him with a blank expression: “…What?”

“Even though Eileen burned the stir-fry, I already finished cooking the rice!” Hu Li beamed brightly. “Try it, try it…”

Yu Sheng’s lingering impression of Hu Li as a “well-behaved kid” hadn’t even faded yet. Hearing her cheerfully take credit for this, his brain short-circuited for a moment. It took him a full two seconds before he looked down at the basin again—this time, he finally forced himself to mentally associate that mass of stuff with “food,” and in the next instant, a sense of awe erupted in his mind like a geyser.

“This is what you cooked?!” He instinctively took half a step back, terrified that if he looked into the basin one more time, the contents might sprout seven or eight eyes and a bunch of tentacles. “What on earth did you put in there?”

As he spoke, the fleeting impression from his earlier glance into the basin still lingered in his mind. He couldn’t recall the specifics clearly, but he remembered a thick soup of bizarre colors with all manner of clumps floating in it. Vegetables that had died with their eyes open, chunks of meat that had died with their eyes open, and god-knows-what-else that had died with its eyes open—all bobbing up and down in the murk. Even from a meter away, he could practically feel the resentment emanating from that basin—as if the ingredients that had been thrown in were still screaming their lungs out from within, mainly to protest their innocence.

Yet Hu Li didn’t see anything wrong at all, and even explained to Yu Sheng: “Just all the different things I like to eat.”

Yu Sheng processed this for a moment and understood what she meant—she had thrown everything she liked to eat into the pot together.

And the key problem was that she liked to eat everything—put it this way, if nobody stopped her, she’d even taste the packaging paper when they bought things, just to check if it was salty or bland…

Meanwhile, Hu Li had already carried that basin of all-star medley to the dining table. She happily ladled out two bowls, then turned her head to look at Yu Sheng, eyes full of anticipation.

For the first time, Yu Sheng discovered that the expectant gaze of this naive “silly fox” could actually be this oppressive.

He steeled himself and walked over, holding back for a long time before managing half a sentence: “Actually, I’m not really…”

The second half of that sentence simply wouldn’t come out.

Because Hu Li was still beaming at him, waiting for a compliment.

Yu Sheng sat down with a wooden expression. After an agonizing internal debate, he finally gritted his teeth—after all, everything in there came from the kitchen, so at worst it probably wouldn’t kill him. This was the fox girl’s very first time cooking for him. The sanity value of this basin of matter might not be high, but the sincerity content was through the roof. Worst case, he’d just go all in this once.

The only thing was, if he was still conscious after eating this, he’d need to have a proper talk with Hu Li. At minimum, he had to make her understand that she needed to learn the basics of cooking through the normal process first, before attempting a challenging “feast” like this one…

Lost in these wild thoughts, Yu Sheng took a deep breath, picked up a spoon, scooped up a mouthful of soup, and brought it to his lips.

Then he froze.

Hu Li watched from the side, brimming with anticipation: “How is it, Benefactor? My mom taught me how to make this—it’s just that the ingredients here are all different, so I improvised a bit based on my own understanding…”

Yu Sheng still didn’t respond, because at that moment his head was filled with nothing but surprise.

This stuff actually… didn’t taste that bad?

It couldn’t exactly be called delicious either. The feeling it gave was just very strange. Yu Sheng didn’t know how to describe the contrast—roughly speaking, it was like you took one look at this thing and immediately thought your life was over, but then you took a bite and couldn’t help crying out—holy crap! This is actual food!

The kind of thing that, if you closed your eyes, tasted like a proper meal.

“It’s… not bad?” Yu Sheng took another bite and said hesitantly under Hu Li’s expectant gaze. “The flavor is very novel. I’ve never had anything like it, but I think it’s alright.”

As he spoke, he was already gradually getting used to ignoring the ever-shifting colors and the bizarre spectacle of clumps constantly tumbling around in his bowl, and was even starting to detect some genuinely pleasant flavors in the mixture.

The moment Hu Li heard Yu Sheng’s words, her face broke into a smile. Though it hardly counted as high praise, she clearly took it as recognition worth celebrating. Then she turned around, rummaged through her tail, and pulled out two fluffy little chicks, setting them on the table. She scooped a tiny bit of the solid matter from the thick soup into a small bowl for them: “You two eat too~”

Yu Sheng stared in bewilderment: “…Can they even eat this? You’re just going to feed it to them?”

“They should be fine,” Hu Li said casually. “That’s how we used to feed the Mystic Plume Sparrows back home anyway.”

Yu Sheng immediately felt something was off about that, but before he could say anything, the two clueless little chicks had already crowded together and started eating—chirping as they pecked, sounding positively delighted.

It seemed like there was no problem.

Yu Sheng surveyed the scene on the table, decided it was best not to say anything more, and lowered his head to continue eating.

Hu Li also surveyed the scene on the table, smiled happily, and lowered her head to continue eating.

She had actually been a little worried—worried that the food she’d cobbled together from decades-old memories would turn out to be too much of a failure. After all, the ingredients here were strange, the tools were strange, the environment was strange, and even the finished product… looked strange in the end.

When her mom cooked, what came out of the stove were always golden little balls. What she’d produced, for some reason, had turned into a pot of soup.

But thankfully, her benefactor seemed to like it well enough.

Bai Qie and Yan Ju seemed to like it too.

When the meal was over, Yu Sheng contentedly patted his belly and let out a satisfied burp. Whether it was because of the nap he’d taken earlier, he wasn’t sure, but right now he felt full of energy and vitality.

The two little chicks were also wandering around the table to digest their meal, occasionally stopping at the table’s edge to curiously look up at Yu Sheng, then at Hu Li. When the mood struck them, they’d chirp a couple of times, looking perfectly content and carefree.

Hu Li waved her hand, and the two of them obediently trotted over, getting scooped up into her tail.

“Eileen still isn’t done bathing?” Yu Sheng looked up toward the bathroom. “She didn’t drown in the bathtub, did she…”

The words had barely left his mouth when Eileen, who was watching TV in the living room, shouted: “You’re the one who drowned! I’m drying my hair! You know how long my hair is!”

Yu Sheng blinked, then turned in surprise: “Oh right, I completely forgot there was another you in the living room! How come you didn’t come eat today?”

Eileen sauntered over from the living room and stood by the dining room doorframe, rolling her eyes: “I took one look from a distance and decided that stuff doesn’t qualify as food.”

“It actually tastes alright…”

Yu Sheng mumbled somewhat awkwardly, then watched as Eileen walked to the bathroom door, dragged over a small stool, climbed on top of it, and yanked at the handle to open the door, letting the Eileen inside out—the latter was wrapped in a towel with her hair still damp, carrying her black dress in her arms, and padded over to the dining table with bare feet pattering against the floor: “Yu Sheng, I’m done!”

“…Sometimes I’m still not used to having two of you in the house,” Yu Sheng muttered, his gaze falling on the clothes in Little Doll’s hands. “What happened to the dress?”

“Got a bunch of burn holes in it, obviously. Help me patch it up…”

“Isn’t this dress something you shapeshifted?! Can’t you just shift it back to normal?”

“Once it’s been shapeshifted, it becomes regular clothing,” Eileen said matter-of-factly. “Do you have no common sense?”

Yu Sheng: “…?”

Is that supposed to be common sense for humans?!

He gave the doll a strange look, then resignedly took the dress she handed over: “Give it here for now… but let me say this upfront—you know my sewing skills. After I patch it up, it’ll probably still look rough. I’ll take you to the mall later and buy you a couple of new outfits—the doll shops carry clothes made for one-third scale figures, so they should have your size.”

“Really? Really? You’re finally willing to buy me things!” Eileen’s face lit up with joy the moment she heard this. Then she spun around and dashed back into the bathroom, only to come running out again clutching a hair dryer: “Blow-dry my hair!”

Yu Sheng: “…I really must owe you from a past life!”

(End of Chapter)