Chapter 385 – Zombie Egg Fried Rice

Chapter 385 – Zombie egg fried rice

“Sure!” Lilith said. “It’s not far from midnight now. Soon everyone will be heading to the largest bonfire for the dance.”

They hadn’t walked far in that direction before Mo Lan noticed something was off.

“Senior, is that a bonfire? The way I see it, there seems to be more wood elemental force than anything.”

“That’s an entire bonfire made from bundles of Fire Crystal Flowers! I heard that Lady Aurora and her partner went specifically to the volcanic region near the Greenvale Highlands to cultivate flower fields. They grew them for a full three years before harvesting these flowers.

After the midnight dance ends, the witches can take the Fire Crystal Flower bundles from the bonfire as souvenirs,” Lilith said.

“Aurora?” Mo Lan felt the name was somewhat familiar. “Sylph’s mother?”

Lilith nodded. “That’s right. So Sylph should be there too.”

Only when they drew closer did they see just how spectacular the Fire Crystal Flower bonfire was.

Atop a tall wooden frame, lush green leaves cradled clusters of crystalline red flowers, as dazzling as gemstones yet as warm as flames.

“Moira! Lilith! You’re finally here!” Sylph, standing by the bonfire, spotted them and excitedly waved them over.

Vasida was there too. “Perfect timing! Quick, try this!”

The figure wielding a large ladle beside the big iron wok next to Vasida turned its head a full one hundred and eighty degrees and flashed a “friendly” smile at Mo Lan and Lilith.

Hollow eye sockets, pitch-black pupils, sunken cheeks, a stitched-up jaw, and a mouth that split all the way to the ears when it smiled.

Catching sight of it, Mo Lan’s heart skipped a beat.

A horror movie come to life!

“Oh my god, Vasida, is that a corpse servant? And it can cook!” Lilith rushed over excitedly, poking the corpse servant’s hands one moment and prodding its face the next, brimming with curiosity.

Vasida nodded. “This is our family’s zombie chef. My dad was worried I’d faint from hunger, so he had it follow me carrying its coffin on its back. Apparently its egg fried rice has gotten pretty decent. I just had it fry up a batch—let’s all try it together!”

“That apron was even sewn by Vasida’s dad! It looks so cute on him!” Sylph said.

“Wow, it really does have that undead aesthetic!” Lilith praised. “Is the little figure embroidered on it holding an empty bowl supposed to be Vasida? Hahaha!”

Mo Lan could hardly believe it. The witches who had once been kept awake by her ghost stories were now calling a corpse with a terrifying face—one that could walk straight into a haunted house and play an NPC—cute.

“Are you serious? Cute?”

“It’s not cute?” Sylph asked.

Lilith and Vasida chimed in too: “It’s not cute?”

The zombie chef tilted its head: “(O_o)??”

“Cute,” Mo Lan said instinctively.

After saying it, she caught herself—good grief, this zombie could even act adorable!

And honestly, it really did have a bizarre kind of dopey cuteness to it.

“The dance won’t start for a while yet. Sit down and eat first.” Vasida pulled Lilith and Mo Lan down to sit by the wok.

The zombie chef’s movements were somewhat slow and stiff, but it dished out three small bowls of rice with practiced ease, handing them one by one to Mo Lan, Sylph, and Lilith.

Finally, it rummaged through the coffin beside it, pulled out a large wooden basin, scooped all the remaining rice from the wok into the basin, and set it down heavily in front of Vasida, sticking a large wooden ladle into the rice.

Then it bobbed its head from side to side and went off to scrub the wok.

Mo Lan looked at the mountain of fried rice piled in Vasida’s basin, then at the small bowls in her own, Sylph’s, and Lilith’s hands, and remarked to Vasida with a sigh: “He really does know your appetite well!”

“This was my appetite as a child!” Vasida inspected the large wooden basin carefully, then confirmed: “And this was my eating basin from when I was little.”

Lilith looked at the egg fried rice in her bowl and hesitated. “Vasida, you call this decent? Isn’t the color of the rice a bit… dark?”

“Well… you know undead creatures aren’t generally very smart, especially corpses. The fact that it’s fully cooked is already pretty good by his standards.”

As she spoke, Vasida took a huge bite. “Mm… it doesn’t look like much, but it actually tastes okay. Nice and charred.”

“Charred?” Lilith took a curious bite, and in the end could only pat Vasida on the shoulder. “It really wasn’t easy for you to grow up.”

Mo Lan nodded in agreement. “Maybe have your zombie switch careers. You can buy pre-made Food Cards from the card shop now, or cook for yourself. You could also feed your Devouring Stomach Breadfruit—the card shop has Breadfruit Cards too… mm?”

“Shh!” Vasida immediately clapped her hand over Mo Lan’s mouth. “Ah! Too late.”

Mo Lan: “???”

There was a loud thud.

When Mo Lan looked over, the zombie had vanished.

Muffled sobbing sounds came from inside the coffin.

“He has very good hearing. The one thing he can’t stand to hear is that I won’t eat his cooking anymore. See? He’s gone and shut himself in the coffin to sulk again,” Vasida said.

“My mom told me that after I left for school, nobody ate his cooking anymore, so he hid in the coffin and refused to come out. Later, I sent back a recipe for egg fried rice, and my dad told him to learn how to make it, saying that when I graduated he’d send him to cook for me. Only then did he climb back out of the coffin.

Originally, Dad had to teach him one instruction at a time. But now, he’s developed a degree of autonomy—he can make egg fried rice independently from start to finish.

Mom says he’s showing signs of evolving sentience.

If they refine and improve his body properly in the future, he might even have the potential to become a Corpse Clan member like Dad.

So Dad packed him up and sent him to me.

I figured since I can barely feed myself as it is, there’s no way I can afford a magical familiar. But the zombie chef has been cooking for me since I was little, and he doesn’t need to eat or drink—just some maintenance on his body now and then. That makes him a pretty good choice.

So I took him on as my corpse servant.

Once he evolves sentience, or even becomes a Corpse Clan member, he’ll be much smarter. Then he’ll finally be able to make food that actually tastes good.”

Mo Lan understood now. Vasida wasn’t counting on this zombie to wield a ladle and fill her stomach anymore—after all, her appetite had been growing ever larger.

She was keeping this zombie as a magical familiar.

“So have you given him a name?” Mo Lan asked.

“I have.” Vasida poured the entire basin of rice into her Devouring Stomach, then floated the empty basin over to tap on the coffin. “Egg Fried Rice! I finished eating, come on out!”

Click! The coffin lid cracked open a sliver, and a pair of hollow eyes peered out through the gap. Seeing the empty basin, the zombie flung the coffin lid wide open, then bobbed its head from side to side as it went off to wash the basin.

It was clear—he was truly delighted to cook for Vasida.

A phrase suddenly came to Mo Lan’s mind: “Being needed is the key to a soulless corpse giving birth to new sentience.”

“What?” Sylph asked.

“I read that in Mo Lan said. “Vasida, if you let the zombie… er, if you let egg fried rice cook for you more often, it might help him evolve into a Corpse Clan member.”