Chapter 35: Egg Custard

The children all adored Hayden Hanson. Although he was a man of few words, he would always offer them a little something to eat whenever they felt wronged. Sometimes it was a piping hot wild vegetable pancake, and other times, it was a mutant bird egg.

While ordinary people couldn’t consume Mutant beast meat, Mutated Milk, Mutated Ant Eggs, and mutant bird eggs were perfectly safe for them to eat. However, the mutant bird eggs Hayden gave the children were all Low Tier. Anything with a slightly higher Level would be more than their bodies could handle.

Hearing Rose mention that Hayden had given the children bird eggs, Sev Steele asked curiously, "Hanson, where did you get the mutant bird eggs?"

"They were brought to me by my former teammates when they came to visit. Don’t worry, ordinary people can eat them. They won’t harm the children," Hayden quickly explained.

"Are mutant bird eggs good? I haven’t even tasted one yet," Sev added.

"The taste isn’t bad, but you have to eat them while they’re hot," Hayden said. "Once they cool down completely, they get a fishy smell.

"I still have a few left at home. Since you’ve never tried them, I’ll go back and grab them to boil for you."

Without waiting for Sev to reply, he turned around and dashed out of the courtyard, hurrying home to fetch the mutant bird eggs. He had already felt that it was inappropriate to show up empty-handed for a free meal, and now he had the perfect excuse to give her some ingredients.

Sev couldn’t help but blush at his sudden departure. She had only asked out of pure curiosity and had absolutely no intention of mooching off his bird eggs. Looking at the Tactical Backpack he had left in the kitchen, she couldn’t help but sigh. He was far too careless. How could he just casually leave such a valuable item behind? Wasn’t he afraid she might greedily keep it for herself?

Hayden quickly returned with the bird eggs. Firestone attentively tapped the "Invite to Enter" prompt, letting him in. He had learned how to do it just by secretly watching his adoptive mother operate the system earlier.

Hayden walked into the kitchen carrying a food basin containing three eggs of varying sizes. Their diameters ranged from ten to twenty centimeters, and their heights from fifteen to thirty centimeters. The largest one was much bigger than any ostrich egg she had ever seen. She visually estimated that each egg weighed at least one to two kilograms.

"Hanson, bringing one egg would be enough for everyone to eat. Why did you bring three all at once?" Sev’s face grew even redder.

"I’ve eaten far too many mutant bird eggs and have lost my taste for them. I might as well give them to you guys for a change of pace," Hayden replied. He spoke very tactfully, doing his best to protect her pride.

"In that case, I’ll prepare them differently. You might just enjoy them," Sev said. She recalled one of Azure’s most delicious and simple delicacies—egg custard. It was both easy to make and incredibly tasty. Since she had decided to make egg custard, the Mutated Ant Eggs would have to wait. She would take her time and prepare them later once she figured out a more suitable way to eat them.

Sev picked up the largest egg, planning to crack it open and pour it into the only food basin they had in the house. However, after striking it a few times, there wasn’t a single crack on the shell.

Seeing this, Hayden took the egg from her. "Let me do it. The shells of these mutant bird eggs are extremely tough. Even if they fall from a two-meter-tall tree, they won’t break."

Hayden was much stronger than her, and with just two strikes, he cracked a seam into the eggshell. Seeing that he was about to smash it again, Sev hurriedly took it back. She used the household kitchen knife to hack at the seam twice, cleanly splitting the eggshell in two. The egg liquid instantly flowed out, filling the twenty-five-centimeter-diameter food basin to a height of nearly four centimeters.

After washing her hands, Sev carefully picked the broken shell fragments out of the liquid. Although having eggshells mixed into the liquid was a bit unsanitary, conditions here were limited, so she couldn’t afford to be too particular.

Grabbing a pair of bamboo chopsticks, Sev began to vigorously whisk the liquid in a single direction to break it apart.

After silently watching her for a dozen seconds, Hayden offered, "Let me do it. I have more strength."

Sev’s arm was indeed getting a bit sore, so she handed the task over to him.

She went into the bedroom, picked a Mutated Lemon Fruit, and mashed it up. While she was at it, she glanced at Silvy. The little one still had un-wiped milk stains around its mouth. It seemed it had gotten hungry halfway through the day, and its older siblings had fed it some Mutated Milk.

Sev had left in such a hurry that morning that she hadn’t had time to boil the milk. Fearing that drinking too much of it would give them a tipsy feeling, she had left the milk in its bottles, planning to make cheese when she returned in the evening. Naturally, the children wouldn’t dare casually touch such precious milk, so the three bottles for the day were still full.

Sev added half of the mashed lemon fruit into the egg mixture. Once Hayden had stirred it evenly, she began to pour in the milk. She emptied all three liters from today’s portion, plus the roughly one liter left over from yesterday, straight into the egg mixture. She also added a spoonful of the previously filtered salt water.

Egg custard actually tasted better sweet, but she didn’t have any sugar at home. Sugar was quite expensive in the wasteland, so the original owner of her body naturally couldn’t bear to buy it. Since Sev had been so busy these past two days, she hadn’t managed to go shopping for it either. As a result, she could only make a savory egg custard.

Hayden was already surprised when he saw the Mutated Milk; he never expected this perpetually impoverished woman to be able to produce so much of it. Seeing the mashed lemon fruit shocked him even more. He had never smelled anything quite like it before, but given such a wonderful, refreshing fragrance, he figured the fruit was definitely not cheap. He couldn’t even begin to guess how Sev had obtained these precious ingredients, but he didn’t ask. After all, didn’t everyone have a few secrets?

The fact that Sev was willing to share such precious ingredients with him showed that she wasn’t the type to take advantage of others. Having only moved here a little over two months ago, Hayden’s impression of his neighbor had been that she was a hot-tempered woman who loved to beat and scold her children. It wasn’t until today that he realized his prejudice against her had run far too deep. She was actually a resolute, courageous, independent, and generous woman. The reason she used to lose her temper at the children was probably just because life had been too difficult. A person’s emotions always needed an outlet—it was just a pity that those children had to suffer for it.

Now that the milk was mixed in, Hayden consciously continued to stir the custard liquid.

On the other side, the water in the pot had already come to a boil. Sev placed a simple metal stand she had scavenged from the scrap yard into the bottom of the pot. Then, she rested the food basin full of the egg custard mixture on top of it and covered it with a lid.

"Firestone, add more firewood. We need a bigger fire," she instructed.

Hayden had never seen food prepared like this before. After all, both ingredients were extremely expensive. Even if someone had thought of it, they certainly wouldn’t dare to try it lightly. If they messed up, wouldn’t it be a massive waste of ingredients?

Watching the steam fill the room, Sev felt a slight sense of regret. There was actually one final, crucial step to making egg custard: filtering. Only by straining out the unbeaten egg whites and bubbles could one create an egg custard as smooth as a mirror. But this was the wasteland, and every single ingredient was incredibly precious. How could she bear to waste even the slightest drop?

Twenty minutes later, the egg custard was ready. Sev was actually feeling a little anxious, afraid that it wouldn’t taste good and that she would have done a disservice to the ingredients. However, the moment the lid was lifted, there was none of the fishy egg smell she had anticipated. Instead, the mellow aroma of hot milk, intertwined with the refreshing fragrance of the lemon fruit, instantly captivated the senses of everyone present.