Chapter 30: You Don’t Know How to Cook

Chapter 30: Chapter 30: You Don’t Know How to Cook

The ingredients here were different from those in the modern world. To make the pickled cabbage she was used to, Feng Si rolled up her sleeves, rummaged through her stored food, and found some substitutes.

She took out a bowl of hulled yellow grain, added water, and washed it between her hands. After pouring out the first rinse, she kept the water from the second. She poured this starchy water into a clean pot and brought it to a boil. Once the cloudy water cooled down, it would be ready for pickling.

While the water was cooling, she washed the wild green cucumbers and wild vegetables, cut them to the desired size, and set them aside to air-dry. As the surface moisture evaporated, they began to look a little wilted.

Feng Si found two clean, large bowls and placed the wild vegetables and wild green cucumbers into them separately. She added a generous amount of salt, then poured in the cooled starchy water until the ingredients were submerged. Finally, she covered the bowls with lids, sealed them with cotton cloth, and placed them in the cold storage room.

Now, all that was left was to let time and fermentation do their work.

Quick-fermented pickled cabbage usually only takes a few days. During the wait, Feng Si couldn’t keep food down due to morning sickness and lost four pounds.

By the afternoon of the third day, Feng Si, who had nearly fainted while out gathering, couldn’t wait any longer. As soon as Mao Qiu escorted her home, she turned right around and retrieved the bowls of pickled cabbage from the cold storage room.

"I knew it! You’ve gotten so thin all of a sudden. You must be sick," Mao Qiu said with a concerned look, following behind Feng Si. "Don’t just tough it out if you’re not feeling well. You should go to the Sacrificial Hall."

’It’s not sickness, I’m carrying an egg.’ Feng Si took out a clean bowl and chopsticks and placed them on the prep counter. "I’ve already been looked at. It’s just the heat; I don’t have much of an appetite. I lost weight from not eating enough."

She had been here for less than a month and had only known Mao Qiu for about two weeks. She wasn’t in the habit of sharing her private business with just anyone.

Mao Qiu nodded at her explanation. She knew Feng Si never ate canned food, so she was aware of how picky she could be.

She sat down on a high stool at the kitchen counter and watched with curiosity.

Feng Si nervously lifted the cover. The once-green vegetables had turned a yellowish-brown, and a sour aroma drifted out.

The scent made her mouth water. "Oh, do you want to try my new dish? It’s delicious."

Mao Qiu looked down at the yellowish-green leaves floating in the murky liquid. Smelling the sour aroma in the air, she said doubtfully, "The leaves look like they’ve gone bad from the soaking. And I’ve never smelled anything like this... it definitely doesn’t smell as tasty as plain boiled meat."

Feng Si replied, "They’re both delicious."

She served herself a small bowl of the pickled cabbage and couldn’t resist trying a piece. The vegetable she’d chosen had more stems than leaves, much like the mustard greens of her old world. Because the fermentation time was short, it wasn’t overly sour.

She gave a small piece to Mao Qiu, who winced and scrunched up her face after tasting it.

Feng Si said happily, "This pickled cabbage will taste even better with plain boiled meat! My stall’s business is going to boom again. Tomorrow morning, can you help me procure another ten baskets of wild root vegetables?"

Mao Qiu thought Feng Si must have very, very strange tastes. She tried to reason with her, explaining that the plain boiled meat she sold was already good enough. Business wouldn’t decline until the cold season arrived.

Besides, her Green Potato was already in high demand. Rather than adding this "pickled cabbage" to the stall and buying a ton of wild vegetables, it would be better to just procure more green potatoes.

"Wild vegetables don’t keep well, and Beastmen don’t like sour food," Mao Qiu said. "It’s very possible that this pickled cabbage won’t sell."

Feng Si took another bite of pickled cabbage. "It doesn’t matter if the Beastmen don’t like it. I’m not planning on selling it to them."

Just watching her made Mao Qiu’s teeth ache. "...But we sub-females don’t like it either."

"I’m going to sell it for 600 coins a bowl," Feng Si stated, naming an astronomical price before explaining further.

"And my target customers aren’t ordinary sub-females."

Mao Qiu’s jaw dropped, her face a mask of shock. "...!!"

’Females? They don’t like to eat sour, soggy leaves either!’

’Now I’m sure of it. Feng Si is really sick.’ This young sub-female, who was already earning a fortune every day—’her brain is sick. The success has gone to her head.’

After eating some pickled cabbage, Feng Si felt her stomach come back to life, and a genuine pang of hunger finally returned.

She had a particular craving for grilled pork belly. Marinated pork belly, sliced to a perfect thickness, SIZZLING on a hot iron plate as the fat rendered, becoming fragrant and crisp without being greasy.

’Paired with the pickled cabbage, it would be refreshing and cut through the grease. Seriously, what pregnant woman, at that stage where she can’t stomach anything, could possibly resist the allure of something sour?’

’This was based on the vast amount of data she had from her modern world, a place overflowing with culinary delights: the appetites of pregnant women during their morning sickness phase.’

’And sour cravings were a massive part of it.’

’She would profit from this information asymmetry. Her target demographic: the pregnant inhabitants of the Beast World.’

’With a price tag of six hundred coins, and being the only pickled cabbage in the entire Beast World, how could it not be considered a luxury food?’

She made up her mind. "Okay, just go ahead and procure the vegetables as I asked. I’m heading out in a little while, so when you bring the green potatoes, you can just leave them in the hallway."

When Mao Qiu heard that Feng Si was still insisting on selling the exorbitantly priced pickled cabbage, she couldn’t help but worry for her.

’Even cubs know to choose sweet fruit. No one even touches the sour wild berries. And yet, she went out of her way to make this pickled cabbage and slap an unprecedented price on it.’

’These wild root vegetables grew everywhere; you could buy a huge basket for fifty coins. They have a coarse texture and aren’t as nice as the tender-leafed greens, so they aren’t popular in the first place.’

’What’s more, everyone loves fresh, tender green leaves, still dewy from the morning! To just soak them in water... She was completely sure this so-called pickled cabbage would absolutely, positively NOT. BE. POPULAR!’

Sighing to herself, she thought resignedly, ’Young sub-females... their skills are so unreliable. And they get cocky the moment they earn a few coins.’

After seeing Mao Qiu off, Feng Si made lunch. She mixed yellow millet flour with water, kneaded it into a dough, and once a pot of water was boiling, she tore off small pieces and dropped them in. To finish, she added salt and some shredded pickled cabbage.

It was a large bowl of the Beast World’s version of pickled cabbage dough-drop soup. Her appetite was finally back, and she ate every last bite.

Now that her stomach was full, Feng Si took out a piece of paper and a pen to sketch a diagram. Afterward, she grabbed her coins and headed downstairs.

She went to a porcelain shop she knew and placed the diagram she had just drawn on the counter. "I’d like to special order some jars like this," she asked. "Is that something you can make?"

The sub-female with the rabbit-like front teeth took the drawing and looked down. The drawing showed a vessel with a wide body, a small mouth, and a circular channel running around the neck.

’I’ve never seen anything like this before.’

She looked at the oddly shaped ’bowl’. "I suppose we can make it. What are you going to use a jar like this for?"

Feng Si didn’t elaborate. "I need them to be about half a person’s height. How many coins each, and how soon can I get them?"

The rabbit-toothed sub-female immediately focused on the business at hand. A smile lit up her eyes; whatever this young sub-female was planning, it was a big order walking right through her door.

"To fire jars this large, it’ll be two hundred and thirty coins each. If you’re ordering a lot, I can rush it for you. You’ll have them in three days."

"One hundred and eighty coins each," Feng Si countered. "I’ll take six of them. You sell large basins of a similar size for that price in here."