Special Era (2)

Because of the fire, Jiang Huiqin's originally stiff, slow movements quickened a little. Still curled up like a squirrel, she counted and recounted the treasures she had dug out of the garbage heap, checking them seven or eight times before finally rising slowly in satisfaction.

"They snatched those two good pieces of wood yesterday and acted so pleased with themselves. What a bunch of idiots—I deliberately left them there for them to take. They couldn't even recognize good stuff when it was right in front of them." Jiang Huiqin put the tremella into the clay pot and struggled to climb over the garbage mound with it, moving as slowly as an old woman.

"What happened to your waist?" Li Mingyi immediately noticed something was wrong and became anxious. "Did they hurt you when they shoved you this morning?"

"I'm not some old lady. How could one shove injure me? I fell while sneaking out to climb trees for bird eggs last night. Otherwise, where do you think those six eggs came from, the sky?" Jiang Huiqin said indifferently, rubbing her waist with her right hand. "A little rest and I'll be fine."

"Stop talking. You're not even fully recovered yourself, so why worry about me? Pull up the quilt—your feet aren't even covered."

Jiang Huiqin walked over to a pile of damp, rotten wood, kicked it apart, rummaged through it a few times, and pulled out several pieces.

Several plump mushrooms were growing on those pieces of wood. After picking the larger ones, Jiang Huiqin hid them in the clay pot and walked out of the shack.

Before long, Jiang Huiqin returned carrying the clay pot filled with water, along with the cleaned mushrooms and tremella.

After being soaked in water, her already cracked, festering hands began to bleed.

Noticing the blood seeping from her hands, Jiang Huiqin secretly wiped them on herself while Li Mingyi was not looking. Her clothes were already so filthy their original color could not be seen, so a few more bloodstains would not show.

Jiang Huiqin set the clay pot over the fire and began cooking mushroom soup.

Soon, the scent of soup spread through the shack. Jiang Huiqin stingily added a small pinch of salt, lifted the clay pot, and said, "I'll trade the mushroom soup with Carpenter Chen for a bowl and spoon."

"There's a spoon. I hid it under the wooden frame the day before yesterday." Li Mingyi raised his hand and pointed at the wood supporting the shack.

"Perfect. Then we can give him two fewer mushrooms and have one each." Jiang Huiqin said happily, delighted that she could save another two mushrooms.

Not long after, Jiang Huiqin returned holding the clay pot with half a pot of soup left, along with a wooden bowl and a pair of wooden chopsticks. Only one lonely mushroom floated in the pot.

"One mushroom isn't much to eat anyway, and I don't like them. Besides, you don't know how to use a spoon. You'd spill it on the ground and waste good food. Come on, eat the mushroom first." Jiang Huiqin put the clay pot back over the fire and used the chopsticks to hold the mushroom to Li Mingyi's mouth.

Li Mingyi did not open his mouth.

"You eat it. I don't like mushrooms." Li Mingyi turned his head away.

"If you won't eat it, I'll throw it away!" Jiang Huiqin threatened. "Mushrooms are nutritious. Eat mushrooms to recover from injuries. Your leg has been like this for over a month already—mushrooms will help it heal faster."

When Li Mingyi still refused to eat, Jiang Huiqin simply stuffed the mushroom into his mouth.

Simple and brutal, but extremely effective.

Then she began cooking the tremella in the mushroom soup, occasionally stirring it with the chopsticks. Once the tremella had softened, she generously sprinkled in a small paper packet of seasoning before adding the bird eggs to boil.

Once the final pot of bizarre stew was ready, Jiang Huiqin placed the tremella in the middle of the bowl, peeled the bird eggs and arranged them beside it, then carefully lifted the clay pot and poured the soup along the side of the bowl.

Li Mingyi could somewhat tell what strange imitation dish she was making.

"You're making Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices, aren't you?"

"What do you mean, making it? This is it!" Jiang Huiqin took out another can of luncheon meat, waved it before Li Mingyi's eyes as if showing off, opened it, and sliced off several thin pieces to wrap around the bird eggs.

"Did you really think I was stupid? That gold bracelet from Lao Feng Xiang only got me one piece of tremella? I also traded for a can of this—unopened!" Jiang Huiqin carefully wrapped the tin can in cloth and hid it back in the garbage heap. "The rich have their way of eating, and the poor have theirs. With the same ingredients, even my brother might not make it as well as I do."

"Keep bragging." Li Mingyi smiled.

Jiang Huiqin helped Li Mingyi sit up and presented the bowl to him like a treasure. "Hurry up and taste it."

Li Mingyi picked up a piece of tremella with his chopsticks and wanted to feed it to Jiang Huiqin.

"It's your birthday. Why would I eat this? There's still some bran left from this morning. I'll cook the bran later." As she spoke, Jiang Huiqin began climbing over the garbage mound again.

In the end, Jiang Huiqin still ate one bird egg.

The moment it entered her mouth, Jiang Huiqin's eyes reddened. Though she was already in her forties or fifties, tears fell in an instant just as they had when she was a teenager.

"What I made is just too delicious." Jiang Huiqin covered her mouth, trying to wipe away her tears without drawing attention.

"Yes. This is the best Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices I've ever eaten." Holding the bowl, Li Mingyi's eyes also reddened.

Jiang Feng had been watching from the side, and without realizing it, his eyes had reddened too.

"Why are you crying? I'll make it for you again next year on your birthday."

There would be no next year. Jiang Huiqin died of illness that winter.

Darkness filled everything.

Jiang Feng sat blankly in his chair.

Li Mingyi's memory had been brief. Jiang Feng had spent at most four hours in it, yet it had been suffocatingly oppressive.

Before Jiang Huiqin spoke, even the air there had radiated despair.

In such a stifling space, such a hopeless environment, Jiang Huiqin could still laugh, curse, and rage. Jiang Feng truly admired her from the bottom of his heart.

After sitting quietly for a while and calming himself down, Jiang Feng opened his status panel.

Sure enough, there was one more recipe.

Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices (Imitation) E-rank, can be Improved:

Creator: Jiang Huiqin

Dish Details: A dish with dreadful ingredients and seasoning, yet Jiang Huiqin's outstanding cooking skill and the special circumstances made it extraordinarily precious. It became a light in Li Mingyi's darkest hour, supporting him as he lived on. No special bonuses.

Times craftable per day: 1. (0/1)

Can be Improved?

What did that mean?

Did it mean he could freely improvise while making it and make it taste better?

Jiang Feng could not make up his mind.

This dish's evaluation was about on par with Wang Shitou's Pure Meat Wontons. But Wang Shitou's wontons tasted bad because his own cooking skills were poor, while Jiang Huiqin's Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices tasted bad because of her limited ingredients and environment. There was a fundamental difference between the two.

If he improved it, there would be plenty of room to work with.

With major changes, he could alter everything and even turn it directly into the original Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices.

But Jiang Feng knew that could not possibly be what the game meant.

How should he improve it?

The ingredients? The seasoning? Or Heat Control?

The game had specifically limited him to making it only once a day. Jiang Feng felt that by the time he successfully improved the dish, it might already be New Year's.

Maybe this year's New Year, or maybe next year's.

At the end of the memory, Li Mingyi had said this was the best Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices he had ever eaten. That was practically a hint delivered right to his door. Then again, this game was truly awful. The mission details said that a Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices made by Tai Feng Lou's head chef, Jiang Chengde, had left an unforgettable impression on him, but the mission requirement was to let Li Mingyi eat the Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices from his memory.

If not for this memory, Jiang Feng would definitely have been misled into trying every possible way to make the original Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices.

It was impossible to follow Jiang Huiqin's original method. Leaving aside everything else, Jiang Feng did not have the ability to hide food in a garbage heap for several days before taking it out to cook.

His grandaunt's husband was old too, and his stomach could not handle it.

Jiang Feng opened the video tutorial at the back and began studying the most reliable way to improve it.