213. New Year's Eve (Extra Chapter for the Alliance Leader "In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit"!)

"For Chinese New Year, there must be chicken for celebration, and fish for the sake of abundance every year. Pork is also indispensable."

While earnestly explaining the customs of the New Year to Lu Ban, Feng Yu skillfully prepared the ingredients.

She deboned the whole chicken, removed the fish bones, made decorative cuts, and shredded the cucumber. Just like the God of Cookery in the movie, she processed the ingredients that Lu Ban bought with great care, making people want to become the fish under her knife and enjoy the pleasure of being cooked by her ultimate culinary skills.

Lu Ban took a light breath.

"I never knew you were so virtuous. You're such a good wife."

There are many things you haven't noticed.

Feng Yu held the fish fillet by the tail with one hand, coated it with flour, and placed it in a hot oil pan. With the other hand, he picked up a spoon and poured hot oil over it again and again until the surface was slightly crispy. Then he dropped both fillets into the oil to deep-fry.

In another pot, she was cooking braised pork knuckle. The rich aroma of the sauce filled the kitchen, making Lu Ban, who was reflected in the mirror, want to peek out.

The fish was almost fried, so she used a strainer to scoop it out and prepared to fry it again. When she turned to get the other ingredients, she saw a thick, gloomy black mist swirling around the vegetables.

Feng Yu frowned.

"Go back to your room."

Lu Ban hurriedly waved his hand, causing the black mist to dissipate and revealing the radish underneath.

"They're probably all hungry."

After explaining, Lu Ban watched as Feng Yu picked up the radish, washed and peeled it, and then cleanly and efficiently sliced it into radish slices. Without stopping, she cut the radish slices into radish shreds. Her technique was so skilled that it was as if she could complete these steps without blinking or skipping a beat, even if the radish were replaced with something else.

"The braised pork belly must be fried first, otherwise the fat will be too greasy. Shredded radish absorbs the flavor better. Also, chicken broth is better than just boiling it directly; it's too oily. Using chicken broth to cook the chicken makes it taste much better."

Feng Yu explained his technique while cooking.

She seems to genuinely try to teach Lu Ban.

They were busy until evening, and the Spring Festival Gala rehearsal was almost over when the two finally sat down at the table in the living room.

Squirrel fish, poached chicken, braised pork knuckle, taro with pork belly, stir-fried squid flowers, crab stir-fried with rice cakes, eight-treasure duck, assorted preserved meats, and stir-fried pork with chili peppers are all dishes that Lu Ban doesn't usually eat.

The table was so full that it made Lu Ban's living room seem a bit cramped.

"You don't usually cook for yourself, do you?"

Feng Yu was stunned as she watched Lu Ban place the bowls and chopsticks on the table—eight sets in total.

"You have quite a lot of people in your family."

"We're all friends, we see each other all the time. It's Chinese New Year, let's have a meal together."

Lu Ban smiled.

He and Feng Yu sat on the sofa, turned on the TV, and the Spring Festival Gala was about to begin.

"Many takeout meals use pre-packaged meals, which are neither hygienic nor nutritious. In addition, they use a lot of oil and salt to cover up the fact that the ingredients are not fresh, which can easily lead to weight gain. If you have the opportunity, you should cook for yourself more often and eat some light meals."

As Feng Yu spoke, he placed the largest piece of chicken leg into Lu Ban's bowl.

"Eat something light."

He didn't know if the two of them had some difference in their understanding of blandness.

On television, the Spring Festival Gala began, with singing and dancing, a scene of peace and harmony.

In the living room, Lu Ban and Feng Yu ate their New Year's Eve dinner while chatting. They had thought they wouldn't be able to finish all the food, but inexplicably, it was all gone.

Lu Ban even felt that he hadn't eaten enough.

Everyone seems to be enjoying the meal.

He watched the increasingly unfunny comedy sketches on TV and thought that sometimes this was fine too.

"Sure enough, my feeling at the time was right."

Lu Ban couldn't help but sigh.

"How does it feel?"

Feng Yu asked her questions from the side, but she was watching the Spring Festival Gala very attentively, and sometimes she was even hit by strange jokes, and her shoulders kept shaking.

"You are the woman who can be my mother."

Lu Ban spoke the truth.

"I'll accept it as a compliment, though."

Feng Yu smiled, ignoring Lu Ban's whimsical ideas.

"It's snowing."

She looked out the window and saw that the gloom of the past few days had finally crystallized into ice crystals, and snowflakes were falling from the overcast sky.

Looking out the window, you can see some young people walking out of their homes and strolling in the snow below. They look like southerners who haven't seen snow in over a decade.

"I'm about to leave too, shall I go for a walk around?"

Feng Yu picked up her clothes; she clearly didn't intend to spend the night there.

"Okay, I'll have them tidy up the table."

Lu Ban also grabbed a coat, and the two went downstairs.

The snow had already piled up a bit and hadn't completely covered the road yet, but there was already a crisp crunching sound when you stepped on it. Lu Ban and Feng Yu walked one after the other on the road in the residential area.

At this moment, Lu Ban would feel that the world was no different, and the scenery of the foreign land was like something out of a fantasy, distant and unattainable.

However, Lu Ban soon discovered that the neighborhood was not actually noisy. The people playing in the snow made no sound as their feet touched the ground, and their conversations were ethereal. The whole world was as silent as death, with only the sound of melting snowflakes.

"The world is changing."

Feng Yu said softly.

"Pollution from other lands is gradually infiltrating this place, or perhaps some beings sealed here are about to awaken. Either way, it will eventually lead to some results that you don't want to see."

"Is there any way I can stop it?"

Lu Ban asked.

Personally, he felt that living in a carefree modern city was better than living in a world where Blood Moon could descend at any time, monsters could harass, and insects could invade.

"There's no way to stop it; it's the trend of the entire world. Do you know about heat death? When the entropy in the universe increases infinitely and reaches its maximum value, everything in the entire world will be converted into heat energy, and the energy that sustains life will also cease to exist."

Is this some kind of science fiction setting?

Lu Ban was puzzled.

"Although this theory is not complete, in other countries, at least in my understanding, there exists a phenomenon similar to entropy increase, that is, the expansion of pollution."

"As pollution erodes, all rationality will eventually tend toward madness, and humanity will be transformed into monsters. The more peaceful the world, the more severe the consequences of pollution. The level of erosion here is too low. Once something changes, it may trigger a chain of collapses."

Feng Yu sighed.

"You mean, everyone's rationality is very high, so when they encounter those monsters, their rationality drops even more severely, making them more susceptible to mutation?"

Lu Ban roughly understood what Feng Yu was saying.

In the Silent Land, knowledge represents pollution, and pollution equals knowledge. In places like the Night Country, the understanding of evil gods and Unnamable Great Being is already very profound, but Xiya and the others have not fallen into madness. Perhaps this is because the mages of the Night Country have found a way to alleviate the pollution brought about by knowledge.

Or, to put it another way, Xiya and the others' perceptions have already changed due to the changes in the world, and they have become accustomed to the existence of many monsters, so they are no longer tormented by their reason.

The place where Lu Ban is currently located is almost unpolluted, and the public's perception is still above normal. Therefore, if any knowledge from another realm were to suddenly invade, it would lead to rapid erosion.

"You can think of it this way: most of those alien realms have found ways to coexist with pollution after suffering devastating blows, but as for this world, there is no direction yet."

Feng Yu nodded.

"Perhaps, if I were to subtly spread this knowledge of other lands, of those Unnamable Great Being, and of those evil gods, throughout the world, it might be able to alleviate the subsequent erosion to some extent."

Lu Ban suddenly had a whimsical idea.

Everyone is usually quite rational, but when faced with bizarre events, they can easily become frantic, just like how people who have never watched horror movies before are more likely to be scared when they do.

If everyone watches horror movies frequently and their rationality is tormented to some extent, then when real eeriness, monsters, evil gods, and Unnamable Great Being arrive, will people be less affected?

"Are you serious?"

Feng Yu hesitated for a moment, stopped, turned around to look at Lu Ban, and asked in return.

"We should at least give it a try."

Lu Ban thought that this method might actually work.

"However, it may indeed be a solution; to fight madness, one must first fall into madness."

Feng Yu's soft murmur was buried in the falling snow.

"Since the world will inevitably change, it's not bad to at least let the world adapt in advance, right?"

Lu Ban gazed at the sky, lost in thought.

*

Bonus chapter for the Alliance Leader 2/2