Chapter 19 - 18: Please Help Me Add Firewood

Doctor Jenkins’s mind spun rapidly upon hearing Sev Steele mention mushrooms. No wonder she had asked him on the way if he was carrying a needle-shaped detector. It turned out she just wanted his help in testing the toxicity of the mushrooms.

Rose quickly brought over a bowl of dried mushrooms. Sev looked at Doctor Jenkins, who, before she could even speak, took out a needle-shaped detector and inserted it into a small piece of dried mushroom.

A few seconds later, an automated voice announced, "BEEP! Wild mutant mushroom detected. The tested ingredient is not on the edible plant list. Radiation level: 38. No common toxins present. Edible."

When this announcement reached the ears of the four little ones, their eyes went round with shock! It was a deeply ingrained belief for them that mushrooms were inherently poisonous. Yet, the special detector this Mr. Jenkins brought out was telling them these mushrooms were non-toxic. The children’s worldviews were completely shattered. The meticulous Rusty even began to wonder if the detector had been tampered with beforehand. Was the voice announcement fake, just to trick them into willingly eating poisonous mushrooms?

Doctor Jenkins was no less shocked than the four children. The notion that mushrooms were poisonous was something he had learned since childhood. Now, the results he obtained with his own hands proved that these mushrooms were toxin-free! But if non-toxic mushrooms existed, why weren’t they recorded on the official edible list?

Actually, it was no surprise that non-toxic mushrooms had never been officially recognized. The scavengers who ventured outside were all destitute citizens, and the Detection Knives they carried lacked toxicity-testing functions. Meanwhile, the higher-ups and public officials in the safe zones, despite being equipped with these toxicity-testing detectors, rarely ventured into the wilderness. Even if they did, they wouldn’t be bored enough to go testing poisonous mushrooms.

Only an outsider like Sev, who had learned how to identify whether wild mushrooms were poisonous from a young age, could discover these non-toxic varieties. Of course, because these mushrooms were mutated, she hadn’t dared to let the children try them lightly until she confirmed they were non-toxic. Originally, she had planned to catch a small, harmless Mutant Beast to use as a taste tester. She hadn’t expected Doctor Jenkins to deliver himself right to her door. A free toxicity test—it would be a crime not to use it!

With the mushrooms confirmed to be non-toxic, Sev was absolutely ecstatic. She had her show-stopping ingredient for tonight’s dinner! The boys, meanwhile, covertly exchanged glances, unsure whether to trust the detector’s announcement or suspect the bad woman of forging the voice to trick them into eating poison.

However, Sev couldn’t be bothered with them right now. She led Doctor Jenkins into the kitchen and smiled. "This master chef is about to show off her culinary skills. You get to learn for free!"

"Alright, I promise to perfectly replicate your cooking," Doctor Jenkins said, brimming with confidence.

Sev couldn’t help but grumble inwardly, "Do you really think that just because you’re highly educated, your cooking skills are automatically top-tier? Is using your brain the same as using your hands?"

She couldn’t be bothered to argue with him, only intending to use the cold, hard facts to thoroughly SLAP his face with the truth later.

Showing off her culinary skills tonight naturally required salt. However, the cabinet only held half a small jar of bitter, astringent coarse salt, which would ruin the flavor. Sev decided to use the boiling method to produce clean salt water first.

She poured all the salt from the jar into a large pot and added purified water at a one-to-four ratio. Stirring gently, she heated the mixture until it was warm, accelerating the dissolution of the coarse salt until no solid particles were visible in the water. Next, she found a clean piece of cheesecloth, folded it into three layers, and draped it over the mouth of a clean bowl. Picking up a large ladle, she slowly scooped the salt water from the pot, pouring it spoon by spoon over the cheesecloth to filter it into the bowl. As she did this, Doctor Jenkins tactfully helped hold the cheesecloth taut to prevent it from slipping in.

Bowl by bowl, Sev filtered all the salt water from the pot, yielding half a basin of clean salt water. She was well aware that this kind of purification was quite rudimentary, but it was enough to reduce the majority of the bitterness.

Doctor Jenkins, with his vast knowledge, nodded in praise after watching the process. "Your method is quite good."

"I’m flattered! It’s honestly just because refined salt is too expensive. I can’t afford it," Sev said frankly.

Doctor Jenkins opened his mouth to say, "Didn’t you just earn 370,000 points today?" But he immediately realized that the chances of destitute citizens scavenging outside and scoring a windfall like hers were infinitesimally small. Looking at her bare walls and then at the children’s tattered clothes, he could roughly deduce that prior to today, her account balance likely hadn’t exceeded ten thousand points. In that case, her reluctance to buy refined salt was perfectly normal.

"Although your method is good, salt water isn’t easy to store. I suggest that when you have some free time, you boil it a bit longer to evaporate the water and leave behind the crystals," Doctor Jenkins advised.

"Alright, thank you for the advice!" Sev accepted his suggestion graciously.

This Doctor Jenkins was indeed very smart, possessing an exceptionally strong ability to draw inferences. She had only performed the dissolution and filtration steps, yet he could already deduce the subsequent steps of boiling, evaporating the water, and retaining the crystals. She decided she should try to maintain a friendly relationship with this man in the future, as she could consult him on more difficult problems when necessary.

Boiling and filtering the salt water had already taken about twenty minutes, and Sev was practically starving by now. She swiftly got to work cooking the mushroom soup.

The four little ones were currently still agonizing over whether the big mushrooms were actually poisonous or not, completely forgetting to offer any help. Sev hadn’t planned on having them help anyway; she was just cooking mushroom soup, which she could easily handle on her own.

After adding enough purified water to the large pot and igniting the stove fire, Sev looked at Doctor Jenkins, who was standing there like a statue with his hands folded, and felt a flash of annoyance. She had just been spouting pleasantries earlier, but he had taken a mile when given an inch. This bastard was doing it on purpose! Since that was the case, she couldn’t let him stay idle.

"Doctor Jenkins, could you please help me add firewood?" she asked with a smile, casually pulling over a low stool for him.

Doctor Jenkins really wanted to turn around and leave, but he forcefully held himself back. He had come over today to watch how she made dinner. Now that she had already started cooking and he hadn’t even had the chance to observe properly, how could he let his efforts go to waste over a trivial matter like tending the fire? Expressionless, he placed the stool next to the stove and calmly began feeding firewood into the flames.

At the kitchen door, the four little ones, who had finally snapped out of their daze, squeezed inside one by one and stood silently in a corner. Firestone wanted to speak up and tell this Mr. Jenkins to rest outside so he could tend the fire, but Rusty shook his head at him, signaling with his eyes to do nothing. And so, the four children began to watch the spectacle.

Sev took out about half a pound of dried mushrooms and washed them repeatedly with purified water before tossing them into the pot. Then, she poured in some of the freshly filtered salt water.

Tending the fire beneath the stove, Doctor Jenkins remained unhurried as he watched her fluid, effortless movements. To sum it up in one sentence: while this woman’s culinary skills were still unknown, she definitely cooked on a regular basis.

The four little ones silently watched their adoptive mother cook the mushroom soup, their small faces turning red and pale by turns. Was this soup really safe to drink?

Rusty had already made up his mind. Later, when they sat down at the table, he would keep a close eye on his adoptive mother and Mr. Jenkins. He would only take a sip if they took a sip. If they didn’t drink it, he absolutely wouldn’t drink it even if it killed him, and he definitely wouldn’t let his younger siblings drink it either.