At night, a bonfire had been added to the courtyard.
Grilling seafood required no excessive fuss. There was no point in piling on all sorts of rules and painstaking refinements; simply eating the food for its proper flavor was enough. Too many techniques only made things drag on.
She snapped off one long leg from a crab as large as a washbasin and set it over the fire.
Never mind the heat.
Half-cooked was fine. Once the shell had turned red and smelled fragrant, she just had to pick it up and gnaw on it. Sharp teeth tore into the savory crabmeat, and she habitually tipped back her head, her throat bobbing as she gulped it down.
"Urgh, I'll gnaw on it again. I have to find out what cooked crabmeat tastes like."
There were several kinds of foodies.
The first kind ate to savor the wonderful taste of food.
As for the second kind, they simply needed enormous amounts of food to ease the painful hunger gnawing at them.
After finishing the crab leg, she went after the shell, swallowing whatever she could.
Having finished the delicious meat, she cast a regretful glance at the red crab shell. What a waste. Back when she was hungry, she would have eaten even the shell whole.
Across the bonfire, Zhang Xiaoyuan held a lobster and wolfed it down, likewise without needing to chew...
After spending half the day cutting rice, Zhang Xiaoyuan bustled about preparing the seafood. Her happiness carried a trace of fear, a tangled feeling. She feared the majesty of a powerful creature, yet the Divine Dragon was truly kind; even sitting face-to-face with her did not feel frightening.
Firewood crackled, and orange flames illuminated the two foodies in the darkness.
There was bamboo-tube rice made from fresh rice