Chapter 324: Attempting to Become the Master of Chinese Cooking

In the end, Zhu Niao still got up, shivering as she changed into her inner clothes, then pulled on her Long Johns and a slightly loose pair of black pants, and finally threw a dark blue Long Cotton Padded Coat over the whole ensemble.

When this kind of Long Cotton Padded Coat is worn with the zipper fully pulled up, the wearer moves like a penguin, shuffling along step by step, and from the side view looks like a bamboo tube.

Then came the cotton socks and Fleece Slippers.

Sorry, she was really afraid of getting sick.

Her current body was incredibly weak. If she actually did get sick, even with someone carefully tending to her, it probably wouldn’t be pleasant.

And she didn’t plan on always making Gou Yu rush back to take care of her because of her physical condition.

Last time it was her Menstrual Period, and Gou Yu stayed with her, who knew how many deliveries he’d missed.

He’d even taken the Menstrual Period care package that Liu Xie had ordered as Delivery Food and given it to her to use.

He’d probably lost quite a bit of money over that too.

She figured that on weekends when she didn’t have to work, and Gou Yu was out working, she’d just stay home and behave herself, not causing Gou Yu any trouble.

She stepped onto the Fleece Slippers and walked to the bedroom door, opened it and stepped out.

Just as she was about to close the door, Zhu Niao seemed to remember something and left a crack in the door.

Then the Little Orange Cat squeezed through the gap and followed Zhu Niao’s footsteps into the kitchen.

Zhu Niao hugged her arms together tightly, looking a bit like a villager NPC from some blocky world, except her model fidelity was clearly much higher.

After searching around, Zhu Niao found the Steamed Custard Buns that still seemed to carry residual warmth, with water beneath them still faintly steaming.

Steamed buns come out moist with steam.

Zhu Niao figured that under these conditions—especially with the lid still on—if the buns had actually gone cold, they’d probably have been soaked soft by the steam by now.

She took out a plate, used chopsticks to pick up one of the warm Custard Buns, then took apart the steamer tray below.

Hidden in the warm water that was still steaming was indeed a carton of Milk that had been thrown in to heat up once the water was full.

She really did prefer this kind of breakfast that felt full of life.

So she sat down by the dining table, took a bite of the bun with its custard filling, took a sip of Milk, and tossed the crust without any filling to the Little Orange Cat beside her.

It wasn’t like it cost a fortune—it was practically wholesale price—so Zhu Niao naturally couldn’t expect it to have thin skin and a generous filling.

As she ate, she thought about what she should do this weekend.

Play games? Felt like a waste of time.

Study? Forget that. She’d end up playing games anyway after studying for a while, so she might as well just play games directly.

Two soft thuds—it was the Little Orange Cat, who had just finished eating the dough Zhu Niao had tossed it.

It jumped onto the windowsill and stared outside.

Cats are always like that. Their favorite thing is to stand by the windowsill and stare at the cars passing by on the road outside, or watch birds hopping from one branch to another outside the window.

It just needed to sit there and space out, but Zhu Niao had a lot more to think about.

The girl looked out the window, then at the breakfast in her hands that only had a bite or two left.

She suddenly seemed to have an epiphany.

Since Gou Yu had prepared her a breakfast, wouldn’t it only be natural for her to prepare Gou Yu a dinner?

Although she didn’t seem to know how to cook, and Gou Yu had never given her a chance to step foot in the kitchen.

Oh wait, she had. Sometimes when leftover dishes needed Reheating Dishes, Gou Yu would call Zhu Niao in to give it a shot.

Gou Yu’s instructions for that were—just dump everything into the pot, and when you smell something burning, fish it out.

Zhu Niao had always done exactly that.

Later, after Gou Yu recovered from his stomach trouble, he told her that she was supposed to stir it with the spatula until it started smelling burnt before fishing it out, not ending up with half burnt and half still cold.

Zhu Niao reflected deeply on her mistakes and finally learned how to Reheat Dishes properly.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t try Cooking.

Zhu Niao felt this line of reasoning was perfectly sound.

But how was she supposed to learn Cooking? She’d even learned how to hold a spatula by watching Gou Yu.

Frowning, Zhu Niao suddenly thought of someone.

That young woman with the reddish-brown long hair.

Figuring that the other party probably wasn’t too busy on the weekend, Zhu Niao made a call.

She held her Mobile Phone with both hands, sitting in her chair, while the Little Orange Cat on the windowsill was surprisingly well-behaved, jumping onto Zhu Niao’s lap at that moment to help keep her warm.

After two rings, the call connected.

On the other end of the line, the Store Manager Lady’s side was filled with the clatter of keyboard keys, occasionally accompanied by the rustling of pages turning.

She’d apparently guessed wrong—the Store Manager Lady seemed pretty busy on weekends too.

“Hm? Little Sister Zhu, what’s up?”

Still that refreshingly pleasant tone, carrying warmth and gentleness right up to Zhu Niao’s ear.

Now Zhu Niao had no choice but to say it, and she couldn’t weasel her way out either.

After all, she’d already made the call, and she rarely ever called the Store Manager Lady.

So generally speaking, a phone call couldn’t be about something easily hung up on, like asking if she’d eaten breakfast.

“Uh, actually I was wondering if you know how to cook or not…”

Zhu Niao felt a bit embarrassed saying something like that.

“Hm?” The clatter of keyboard keys and the nearly synchronized rustling of pages on the Store Manager Lady’s end stopped at the same time. “Little Sister Zhu, are you planning to learn how to cook?”

“Something like that, yeah…” Zhu Niao’s eyes darted around awkwardly, even though this was just a call—no camera even, just voice.

“Is it to cook for my brother?”

The Store Manager Lady’s side had clearly gotten much quieter after Zhu Niao said her first sentence, and after that question popped out, it was deathly silent, as if she was afraid of missing a single word Zhu Niao said.

A bit like when Zhu Niao was taking her English listening test.

“Something like that, yeah…”

If this were before, Zhu Niao’s answer would definitely have been: I just wanted to learn how to cook, just wanted to avoid starving to death when Gou Yu wasn’t around.

That kind of response was what should have come out of Zhu Niao’s mouth.

And clearly, that was what the Store Manager Lady thought too.

“That’s fine too…” The voice on the other end of the call stopped midway, suddenly cutting off. “What did you just say?”

“I said I was thinking about learning to cook and make something tasty for Gou Yu.” Even though the camera wasn’t on, Zhu Niao’s face still flushed a little pink when she said it.

“Really?” the Store Manager Lady confirmed.

“Really.”

Then Zhu Niao heard the clatter of keyboard keys and the sound of pages turning start up again on the other end.

The Store Manager Lady’s voice carried a hint of urgency: “Little Sister Zhu, eleven o’clock—I’ll come pick you up at eleven after I finish my stuff, then we’ll eat and then delve into the culinary arts.”

Then she hung up.

“Oh…”