There was too much meat to stew all at once, so Yu Sheng processed it into several dishes prepared in different ways.
As the saying went, the first time made you a beginner, the second made you familiar, and the third called for scallions, ginger, and cooking wine. In the early days of civilization, ancient humans had probably followed much the same process as they gradually explored and experimented with nature's gifts.
Humming a little tune, Yu Sheng cut the largest portion of meat into big chunks, blanched it in boiling water, and skimmed off the scum. He then placed star anise, fennel, cloves, cinnamon, and other stewing spices into a clay pot, added the meat, filled it with enough water, and seasoned it with salt, soy sauce, and cooking wine to remove the gaminess before setting it on the stove to simmer.
While the meat stewed, he stir-fried the rest of it separately with chili peppers and garlic sprouts, producing two more dishes. After tasting a little, he found them fresh, fragrant, and pleasantly seasoned. The meat was neither tough nor raw, and the slices were tender and smooth, though he couldn't say exactly what kind of meat the flavor resembled. In terms of texture alone, it was somewhat like extremely tender beef.
As for what remained, he planned to wait until they finished this meal and confirmed that there were no problems before processing it into cured meat for storage... Or perhaps he could marinate and age it, then dehydrate it in the air fryer to make salted jerky? He had never tried that before, so he had no idea whether it would work...
All sorts of ideas revolved through Yu Sheng's mind. He felt like a scientist brave enough to experiment, exploring possibilities in a field no one had ever ventured into before.
And so he spent nearly two hours exploring in the kitchen. After a great deal of work, he finally opened the door and made trip after trip, carrying the cups, plates, bowls, chopsticks, and clay pot of stewed meat to the dining table.
Eileen watched Yu Sheng bustle about with a horrified look in her eyes. Her face simultaneously displayed two utterly contradictory expressions: "Forget it, I'm tired, let him do whatever he wants," and "You can't do this, you really can't!" After a good while, she finally lost her composure again and shouted, "You're not really planning to eat that, are you? This is something brought out of the Otherworld! Don't eat yourself to death!"
Yu Sheng looked up at Eileen. "What if I told you I'd already eaten it twice 'over there'?"
The contradictory expression vanished from Eileen's face in an instant, leaving only horror. "...What?!"
"Look at me. I'm still alive and kicking, so it should be fine. It'd be such a waste to throw away this hard-won spoils of war," Yu Sheng said as though it were only natural. "You know about hunting, right? This is my catch. Sooner or later, I'm going to bring that thing back whole and show it who's at the top of the food chain!"
Eileen didn't respond. Yu Sheng looked at the doll's stunned expression, then asked again out of curiosity, "But speaking of which, has no one ever tried 'tasting' the 'entities' in the Otherworld? You said they came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, didn't you? There should be plenty of things in there that look edible."
"Who would try that?!" Eileen looked frantic. "They could have all sorts of bizarre traits, and poison would be the best-case scenario! Who puts something like that in their mouth? And you ate it twice... You really ate it twice?"
"Yeah, but both times it was sashimi. The situation was pretty urgent, so I didn't have time to process it. It was the kind of emergency where if I didn't eat it right away, I wouldn't get the chance to eat it at all." As he spoke casually, Yu Sheng sat down across from Eileen, picked up a slice of meat with his chopsticks, tossed it into his mouth, and ate with great relish.
Eileen was completely bewildered. "Th-Then what happened after you ate it?"
"I died," Yu Sheng said with complete honesty.
"And you still..." Eileen instinctively cried out, then sensed that something was off. She didn't know about Yu Sheng's "resurrection," so she assumed he was teasing her and glared angrily. "I'm being serious!"
Yu Sheng grinned and laughed at the furious doll in the oil painting.
He realized that he was starting to enjoy arguing with this doll.
It wasn't as if she could jump out of the painting and headbutt him.
He still didn't explain his "resurrection" to Eileen. For one thing, Eileen currently had no way to perceive the process of his death, so explaining it would only sound like he was trying to fool her. For another, he had too many guesses about the changes happening to him that still needed to be verified. He wanted to wait until he understood things a little better before discussing them with Eileen.
Eileen had no idea how many chaotic thoughts lay behind Yu Sheng's mischievous smile. She merely couldn't help glancing at the lavish meal on the table again before staring somewhat blankly at the motion of Yu Sheng chewing.
It looked... quite appetizing. After being processed, its color was also indistinguishable from ordinary meat. There was no trace of its bizarre original appearance.
"...Is it good?"
The person in the painting finally couldn't hold back any longer and asked in a feignedly indifferent tone.
Yu Sheng immediately laughed, as if he had expected this moment. He casually picked up the empty bowl and plate he had placed on the table earlier, served Eileen a portion of the dishes and meat soup, and set them in front of the oil painting.
"I never said I wanted any..." Eileen muttered.
"Since you can't actually eat it, there's even less reason to care about what these things are made of, right?" Yu Sheng said casually.
Eileen thought about it and decided that it seemed reasonable. "Y-Yeah, I guess?"
She promptly relaxed again. In front of the bowls and chopsticks Yu Sheng had arranged, she once more assumed the appearance of a smiling figure whose voice and expression seemed almost alive.
Halfway through the meal, their conversation inevitably returned to their earlier discussion about "professionals."
"Actually, there's another possibility for why no one has come looking for you yet." Eileen hugged her teddy bear while sitting close to the edge of the frame, speaking as she thought. "An organization or government personnel may have already noticed that something is wrong here, but based on their professional judgment, they believe they shouldn't act immediately. Or perhaps they haven't precisely located the Otherworld's point of connection or gathered the relevant intelligence yet, so they can only arrange surveillance first."
"Surveillance?"
"Of course. There might already be a whole bunch of plainclothes agents watching this place from outside your house. After all, you escaped from the Otherworld on your own before anyone could rescue you. Whether it was because of your strength or your luck, the people who specialize in handling these matters didn't have time to act, which probably means they didn't have time to locate it either. Naturally, they can only arrange surveillance around the area first... Over the next couple of days, you can keep an eye out for any unfamiliar faces nearby. They might be plainclothes agents, plainclothes detectives, plainclothes investigators, or something like that. It won't hurt to pay attention while you're out looking for flyers on utility poles..."
Yu Sheng ignored her remarks about "flyers on utility poles" and instead looked up at the window.
Eileen made it sound simple: just pay attention to whether there were any unfamiliar faces nearby. But how was he supposed to know which faces were unfamiliar? He had only been here for two months, and he had spent almost the entire first month hiding at home. On top of that, he was somewhat face-blind to begin with. To him, half the people in this place had unfamiliar faces!
"Do you think the guy selling savory crepes at the intersection looks like a plainclothes agent?" After peering suspiciously out the window for a long while, Yu Sheng whispered to Eileen.
"I don't know. I can't see."
"Oh, right. I forgot." Yu Sheng came to his senses, quickly stood up, picked up Eileen's frame, and placed it in front of a nearby window facing outside. "That guy over there..."
"Doesn't look like one."
"You're that sure?"
"Obviously. One serving with sausage and egg in fifty seconds. If he were really a plainclothes agent, he probably wouldn't even have time to brush on the oil."
"...That's true. What about the guy next to him applying protective film to phones?"
"Doesn't look like one either. His hands are too nimble."
"Oh... Hey, what about that one—"
"Stop looking. Being suspicious of everything won't help, and if they're actually professionals keeping watch, you definitely won't be able to tell." Eileen interrupted Yu Sheng. "Instead of wasting time guessing blindly, you should go out and walk around more over the next couple of days. You've been contaminated by the Otherworld's aura. Once you get close, those professionals will definitely recognize it at a glance."
"...Yeah, I suppose."
Yu Sheng sighed. He couldn't refute her, so he turned around to clear away the bowls and chopsticks from the table.
But the moment he turned his head, he heard Eileen shouting behind him, "Put me back first! I'm still leaning against the window!"
Yu Sheng helplessly sighed again. As he turned around and carried Eileen down from the windowsill, he muttered, "Tch. What a hassle."
"Then hurry up and make me a body, and I can run around by myself." Eileen lifted her eyelids to look at Yu Sheng as he placed her on the dining table. Then she added, "I just thought we'd gotten a little more familiar today, so I decided to ask again..."
The corner of Yu Sheng's mouth twitched when he heard that.
When Eileen had discussed an "escape plan" with him before, she had indeed said that they weren't familiar enough yet, so any cooperation on that front would have to wait until they knew each other better. But he hadn't expected this doll's standard for "familiar" to be so flexible.
"We'll talk about it later, later. I've got a whole lot of things to deal with right now. At least wait until I'm done with this batch of work..."
"Sure, fine." Eileen was easy enough to persuade. She was only slightly disappointed before nodding. "Just don't forget!"
She stayed quiet for only a short while. After watching Yu Sheng clear away the bowls and chopsticks from the table, she started chattering again. "What are you going to do next? Get ready to go look for utility poles?"
"You're really not letting go of those utility poles, are you?" Yu Sheng glared at her. "I'm going upstairs to sleep! After everything that happened, I'm exhausted!"
Eileen let out an "Oh," then raised a hand and pointed at the television opposite the frame.
"Then can you fix the television first? The signal suddenly disappeared, and there's nothing to watch..."
Yu Sheng: "..."
A moment later, he let out an exceptionally heavy sigh.
After spending such a short time with this chatterbox, he had already begun missing his carefree, happy life alone.
Before you continue