Chapter 76: 第七十六章 不是养胖，而是养大了!_1

Food — so that was why the master had personally sought out a sub-female to teach them cooking!

Mang Changbai sat at the dining table, a massive oversized bowl set before him.

He picked up a rib with his chopsticks and popped it into his mouth. The meat had been braised until it was falling-off-the-bone tender, the flavor perfectly balanced between tangy and savory. Even the bones themselves carried that rich, sour fragrance, and Mang Changbai couldn’t bring himself to spit them out — he simply chewed them to pieces and swallowed.

A single jar of pickled cabbage, just one pound’s worth, was never going to be enough. For a fully grown male beast like Mang Changbai, polishing off five pounds of ribs only made the craving worse.

He ran his tongue over his lips and fought down the urge to scrape the bottom of the bowl for the last of the broth.

If what the cook made tasted this good, just how incredible would Xiao Si’s dish be with all those extra seasonings she’d put in?

Could this black-spotted sub-female cook truly be blessed by the earth itself? She was nothing short of a goddess of cuisine — who else could have dreamed up combining ingredients like that to create something so utterly breathtaking?

— Meanwhile.

The very sub-female that the Beastman had mentally crowned as the earth’s darling and goddess of cuisine — Feng Si — was standing at the kitchen counter, preparing supplementary food for her hatchling.

She had read the Snake Clan infant care manual carefully. It stated that once the milk teeth began to emerge, two additional liquid meals should be added to the hatchling’s daily feeding schedule.

Yun Chi hadn’t grown much in length since birth. Feng Si measured him against her hand — he stretched from her fingertips to roughly the middle of her forearm.

His body, however, had doubled in girth, now about as wide as two fingers side by side, and two tiny white dots had appeared where his fangs were coming in.

Feng Si patted the little hatchling on the head as he opened his mouth wide to show her his teeth, and decided that starting today, she would add extra meals to his routine.

She set two pink-shelled quail-sized eggs to boil, then finely chopped a few tender wild green shoots, blanched them in a separate pot of boiling water, and once drained, mixed in the juice of one green fruit. When the eggs were done, everything went together into the blender and was puréed into a smooth paste — a thick, creamy pale-green porridge, ready to go.

The tiny Chi hatchling, not even two weeks old, had been draped over Feng Si the whole time she cooked. While she focused on the food, he wriggled up to her shoulder and waited there quietly. Whenever her hand was free and she gave his head an absentminded pat, he’d let out a soft, whispery little hiss of a laugh.

Feng Si could read the emotion in that small sound instinctively. A smile tugged at her lips in return as she poured the pale-green purée into a bowl and spoke to Yun Chi in a gentle voice: "Yun Duo must be hungry, hm? Just give Mama one more second~"

"Ssss~" The tiny, high-pitched sound was brimming with anticipation. Yun Chi craned his neck down, wide golden eyes locked unblinking on the food.

Feng Si divided the blender’s contents into two equal portions — each bowl held about fifty milliliters, just the right amount for one of Yun Duo’s meals.

Yun Chi was now up to ten feedings a day, having gone from five milliliters per feeding at birth all the way up to fifty.

Feng Si hadn’t intended to feed him that much, but whenever she tried to stop, the little one would stare up at her with those huge golden eyes, clutch his tiny belly with both stubby little claws, and whimper pitifully for more. She simply couldn’t say no.

After consulting the infant care manual — which noted that hatchling appetites varied considerably, that some species were born with enormous appetites while others had very small ones, and that feeding should always be guided by the hatchling’s actual species — she felt a little better about it.

There was also a specific guideline for raising male beast hatchlings: those born with the ability to move independently could be fed on demand, according to their own hunger cues.

So she had been gradually increasing his portion by a little each feeding, and Yun Chi’s appetite had grown enormously as a result.

From where Feng Si was standing, he’d grown bigger — though "chunkier" might’ve been the more accurate word...

Not that she thought her baby was in the least bit fat. Carrying the bowl and gently supporting Yun Chi with her other hand, she brought him over to the kitchen counter. She dipped the tip of a small spoon into the purée and tested a drop on her wrist — still a little too warm.

She set the bowl down and reached into the wooden box tucked behind the counter, pulling out a soft cotton handkerchief. She spread it flat on the surface, then fished out a tiny bib from the same box.

She had prepared a clean cotton feeding mat on the counter as Yun Chi’s designated mealtime spot, so the little one wouldn’t have to lie directly on the cold wooden surface.

Then, leaning in close, Feng Si carefully tied the tiny bib around Yun Chi’s neck.

The small black hatchling gave a startled little hiss at the sudden ring of lace around his neck, but quickly caught on to what his mama was doing. His plump little body wriggled eagerly, and he pressed his stubby claws against Feng Si’s collar, stretching his head forward with the wide-eyed, guileless look of a baby demanding to be fed — and Feng Si’s face broke into an effortlessly adoring smile.

The moment the feeding mat was laid out, Yun Chi immediately glided from Feng Si’s shoulder down her arm and into her palm, letting his mama settle Yun Duo onto the cotton cloth.

He lifted the front half of his body to peer into the bowl, and even pressed one small black claw over Yun Si’s fingers — enthusiastic about mealtime, yet never missing a chance to stay in contact with her at the same time.

Feng Si caught the little gesture and smiled to herself.

She kept that hand perfectly still and reached for the spoon with her other hand. After testing the temperature once more, she scooped up the tiniest amount on the very tip of the spoon and carefully brought it to Yun Chi’s mouth: "Open wide~"

The little black Chi obligingly opened his mouth, and his pink tongue darted out with curious interest for a tentative lick. The instant the flavor hit him, his pupils blew wide.

Like a creature discovering a whole new world, the little pink tongue that had just retreated immediately shot back out — licking and licking and licking for all it was worth. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

One enthusiastic baby Chi who clearly took eating very seriously made short work of the entire bowl. When it was gone, he tilted his little black head back with an air of complete contentment, waiting for Feng Si to wipe his mouth clean.

As soon as Feng Si unclipped the bib from his neck, he promptly slithered back into her hand, letting his mama tuck him into her pocket for his after-meal nap.

The pocket on today’s outfit was one Feng Si had sewn herself, positioned in the center of the front panel at her abdomen. Yun Chi had grown a bit since birth, and now when he curled up inside and she fastened the button, the pocket bulged ever so slightly with a small, round lump.

Once she pulled on a loose white chef’s top over everything, there was absolutely no sign of any bulge at the front.

Feng Si tried on the new white streaming outfit for a while, then took it off and draped it over the sofa. She opened her light screen to browse for new plants for the stream room — she had been thinking about refreshing the décor.

Outside the window, snow was falling thick and heavy, dense enough to look like a full-blown pillow fight with feather duvets. Inside, it was warm as spring. Feng Si’s lunch was simple — a serving of braised rice with wild vegetable root and minced meat.

By the time she finished eating, the express delivery she had placed online earlier had already arrived.

For the new layout, the grass mat was replaced entirely with a cream-white short-pile plush rug, joined by two camel-colored fluffy beanbag chairs and a small white round table — taking the place of the old casual picnic-on-the-floor setup.

She paid one thousand coins to have the delivery sub-females help swap everything out.

Once they left, Feng Si went through the space making her final adjustments.

As she bent down to nudge a beanbag chair into position, Yun Chi — who had been dozing in the front pocket of her top — stirred awake. With noticeably more energy than he’d had as a newborn, he immediately chirped up to let his mama know she should let him out to help.

He was too late, though. Every last thing in the room was already in place, the beanbag chairs included, arranged by Feng Si beneath the tree beside the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Wearing a faintly dazed little expression, Yun Chi was lifted out and set down by Feng Si onto the plush rug in the new seating area, given free rein to explore the new surroundings from within the soft, thick pile of the carpet.

Unlike a human infant, Yun Chi was perfectly capable of moving around all on his own.