Chapter 329: It Hurts

By the time the Store Manager Lady drove Zhu Niao back home, it was already 4:30 in the afternoon.

Just about the right time to start making dinner.

Zhu Niao got out of the Store Manager Lady’s car, glanced at the darkening sky and the biting cold wind rushing in, and instinctively shrank her neck.

She suddenly remembered something from back in high school, or maybe middle school, when a teacher asked the students a question: why were summer days longer and winter days shorter.

And the teacher happened to pick Zhu Niao, who was at the bottom of the class playing Tic-Tac-Toe on a scrap of paper with Xun Yu.

Back then, Zhu Niao’s mind went completely blank, so she said it was because summer was hot and winter was cold, so the daylight underwent Thermal Expansion and Contraction.

Xun Yu was utterly astounded beside her and even started clapping quietly.

Then the teacher said nothing and asked the clapping Xun Yu to provide evidence supporting Zhu Niao’s claim.

Xun Yu said Summer Vacation was longer than Winter Vacation.

In the end, both of them stood for the rest of the class.

After a brief moment of nostalgia, Zhu Niao turned to look at the Store Manager Lady still in the car, waving goodbye, as if something had suddenly occurred to her.

She remembered basic etiquette.

“Would you like to stay for dinner?” she said tentatively.

“Huh?” The Store Manager Lady’s smiling face instantly froze.

“I’ll do the Cooking,” Zhu Niao said something even more polite.

Normally, once the Host said those words, it made it hard for the guest to decline smoothly; even if they truly had no intention of staying, it would cost them considerable words and effort.

“Forget it, forget it. I actually still have some things to do.”

The Store Manager Lady wore a perfectly appropriate look of regret, as if lamenting that she couldn’t personally taste Zhu Niao’s cooking.

Zhu Niao believed her.

The Store Manager Lady had accompanied her all day to learn Cooking, spending all that time without tending to her own affairs. That was already going above and beyond.

If she pressed further now, she would seem ungrateful.

So she nodded. “Then next time, next time I’ll definitely have you taste my cooking.”

The smiling Store Manager Lady’s face tightened.

She nodded stiffly and rolled up the car window.

Naturally, she couldn’t possibly stay for dinner.

Zhu Niao’s dinner was specially prepared for her dear brother Xun Yu, and if she stayed, she’d just be a third wheel.

The relationship between Zhu Niao and Xun Yu wasn’t like before, when she was always needed as a necessary gear to mediate between them; now she was the one who was extra.

Secondly, after witnessing Zhu Niao’s earth-shattering, ghost-weeping Cooking skills firsthand, she didn’t think she could survive that kind of ordeal.

She didn’t think her constitution was any stronger than her dear brother Xun Yu’s, so that difficult task still had to be left to her dear brother.

And so, all that remained was Zhu Niao, watching the Store Manager Lady’s taillights fade into the distance.

She looked at the Crab in her hands.

It wasn’t a dismembered Crab, apparently because Steaming didn’t require cutting it up.

But the Store Manager Lady, who took great care of Zhu Niao, had still asked the Mai Che Xiaozi to do some simple processing after he brought out the ingredients.

Now it was in a state ready to be thrown straight into the Wok for steaming.

Zhu Niao was grateful to both of them.

Everyone was such a good person.

At that moment, she inexplicably recalled Xun Yu’s theory, the one about whether the size of the world correlated with whether the world had love.

Her world was a small little place like this, where everyone was willing to love her, and her world was beautiful.

Humming a little tune and stepping lightly, she unlocked the front door with her key.

After squeezing inside, she kicked the door shut with her right foot, still wearing her slippers.

She held the Crab in one hand and the cucumber in the other.

If Zhu Niao hadn’t insisted that her condiments at home were fully stocked, the Store Manager Lady would have moved the entire contents of Mai Che Xiaozi’s kitchen over to Zhu Niao’s place like a house move.

So, better to start with the most important thing.

Zhu Niao carefully took out the Crab, doing her best to avoid its weapons.

Then she tossed it into the steamer.

Under the Store Manager Lady’s instructions, Mai Che Xiaozi had not only washed the Crab clean but also scrubbed it with a brush. All Zhu Niao had to do was throw the thing into the steamer and wait for it to cook.

Then she just had to pile vinegar, soy sauce, and other condiments into a bowl, and once the Smashed Cucumber was done, drizzle the Sauce over it. The Sauce could even be used as a dip for the Crab meat.

Whether it was coincidence or a deliberate arrangement between the Store Manager Lady and Mai Che Xiaozi, either way, everything Zhu Niao needed to do had been minimized to the absolute lowest.

Zhu Niao wasn’t one to aim too high or fuss over empty formalities. Right now, she just wanted to make a meal with her own hands, which at least counted as a token of sincerity.

Closing the lid, Zhu Niao lit the fire on the steamer.

After a moment’s thought, she turned the flame down, just in case something unexpected happened and she couldn’t react in time.

Then she started contemplating the cucumber.

Honestly, the feeling right now was pretty nice for Zhu Niao, especially like this, with something simmering on the stove while she pondered the next dish.

It gave her a strange, inexplicable thrill, as if she’d suddenly transformed into some kind of super chef capable of multitasking.

But that was just a feeling, an illusion.

That clear realization came from Zhu Niao’s helplessness when faced with the Smashed Cucumber.

All she seemed capable of doing was slicing this cucumber into thin pieces, the kind of size people used for face masks, and then calling that dish done.

So strictly speaking, it was really “sliced cucumber” instead.

Zhu Niao sighed and honestly started slicing the cucumber.

The pieces still came out a bit uneven in size, but that was the best Zhu Niao could manage.

Suddenly, she thought she heard the sound of raindrops tapping against the glass. She couldn’t help but look up at the window in front of her, even reaching out a hand to feel for it.

It wasn’t raining.

Where was that sound coming from?

Zhu Niao turned around and saw, on top of the steamer, one rather rebellious Crab that had shoved the lid open and was trying to climb out of the pot.

Terror flashed across Zhu Niao’s face. She dropped the knife and reached out to shove the Crab back into the pot.

First, she got a harmless little burn from the heat conducted through the lid, and then she grabbed the Crab’s leg and tried to stuff it back in.

She really should have nodded without hesitation when Mai Che Xiaozi asked if she wanted the Crab retied, instead of stubbornly saving face.

The Store Manager Lady probably hadn’t expected this situation either.

She was about to succeed.

If that Crab, the symbol of resistance and freedom, hadn’t suddenly clamped down on Zhu Niao’s finger.

“Hiss…”

She let out an involuntary cry of pain.