A Familiar Back and a Miracle Weapon

Liu Chang'an opened the pot lid, turned the beans over, and saw that each bean was plump and round, densely packed, somewhat like sturgeon caviar.

Actually, fish roe is a good thing, such as carp roe. Nowadays, fewer people eat carp. In the past, fish ponds in rural areas were mostly stocked with grass carp, bighead carp, and silver carp fry. Carp and crucian carp fry were often not needed. Some generous farmers didn't mind their neighbors jumping into the fish pond and catching a few crucian carp or carp from the cracks in the rocks or among the weeds, as long as the stocked fry were not disturbed.

Back then, carp was a frequent dish on the table. It was steamed with chili sauce or fermented black beans. The carp meat wasn't as tender, but rather firm and dense, giving it a different flavor.

Carp roe is actually quite delicious, and Liu Chang'an hasn't had it in a long time. He can only go to the market to buy a fish, have the fishmonger chop it up, and take the roe and offal home to stir-fry or make fish offal noodles.

After thinking about what to eat for a while, Liu Chang'an put the lid on the pot. She had stopped thinking about Shangguan Dandan. She believed that history could not be denied or changed, which was a very positive historical view and deserved praise.

I'm craving fish roe. Fish roe is high in protein, contains antioxidants and collagen-boosting components, which can help reduce wrinkles in women. It's also rich in vitamins, calcium, phosphorus, iron, and more... Actually, soybeans are also rich in these things and can have anti-aging effects.

Efficacy is one thing, but most so-called nutritious foods, despite price differences of hundreds or thousands of times, don't actually differ that much in nutritional value. So, when deciding what to eat, it's best to prioritize taste for convenience. For example, barbecue, which is touted as a deadly carcinogen, should still be eaten from time to time.

So, tonight should we have fish roe and offal, or barbecue?

"Zhou Dongdong, what do you want to eat tonight?" Liu Chang'an is very spontaneous in everything he does, which means he makes decisions quickly and decisively. However, when it comes to what to eat, he hesitates because he has to think about it every day, and he does it much more often than the average person.

"It's delicious."

Zhou Dongdong isn't a picky eater; she eats anything that tastes good.

"Let's go eat at a buffet then," Liu Chang'an decided.

"We'll eat spiders!" Zhou Dongdong remembered that her brother Chang'an had caught and eaten insects last time. Maybe spiders would taste good too?

Didn't I tell you last time that you can't eat spiders?

"Oh... what's a spider?"

"Self-help is very different from spidering!"

"What exactly is it?"

"There's plenty of food, eat as much as you want." After saying that, Liu Chang'an threw two coal briquettes into the large stove. Judging from the fire, it should be enough to ignite the coal briquettes and last until Liu Chang'an and Zhou Dongdong returned.

Zhou Dongdong thought for a moment, then quickly jumped up and down, jogging to catch up with Liu Chang'an and grabbing his little finger.

Liu Chang'an didn't go to the Japanese restaurant where Zhong Qing had treated him last time, nor did he go to the buffet restaurant at the Baolong Center Hotel. Instead, he walked a little further and came to the Grand Hyatt Hotel by the river. Previously, the only buffets in the Junsha star-rated hotels were the Sheraton and Wyndham. Now, many high-end brand hotels have opened, and the competition for buffets of the same level has become fierce.

Buffets are generally better, as they guarantee the quality of the food, reducing the chances of children eating too much and getting diarrhea, and they also offer a wider variety of fruits.

The price is 328 yuan per person WeChat, and children under 1.2 meters tall eat for free, which is quite a good deal, because Zhou Dongdong will definitely eat until he looks like a ball.

The buffet restaurant was on the first floor, a little to the left of the hotel lobby entrance. After Liu Chang'an and Zhou Dongdong went in, a waiter led them to their seats. Zhou Dongdong remained standing motionless in the food area until Liu Chang'an handed her a plate. Only then did she express her concern in shock. "There's so much food! What if we can't finish it all?"

After finishing his meal, Liu Chang'an admired her ambition but didn't support it. He ordered some roast duck, which tasted similar to the fruitwood-roasted duck at the Xiang River 36 Restaurant upstairs, with a faint fruitwood aroma. It was quite difficult for Liu Chang'an to make an authentic and satisfying roast duck now, so he decided to see if Qin Yanan was interested in making one another day... She seemed quite busy lately, so Liu Chang'an decided to eat more.

Liu Chang'an looked around and found that Zhou Dongdong was still standing in the same spot, with only her eyeballs moving around in their sockets. Liu Chang'an understood this situation; for example, when a stupid computer tries to perform multitasking, often only the mouse can move around on the screen.

Liu Chang'an put some food on the plate of food that Zhou Dongdong was so shocked by the abundance of delicious food that she didn't know what to eat first and froze. Then he carried her back to her seat. When Zhou Dongdong was facing only the plate in front of her, she finally activated the barrier normally.

Like most people who come to dine with friends and still frequently use their phones, Liu Chang'an took out his phone.

Looking at An Nuan's message, she had some positive complaints about university life. Her counselor and department head were familiar older brothers and uncles who gave her a lot of tasks and expectations. She felt that being a student leader in university required more work than in high school. She felt she could handle it, but hoped it wouldn't affect her personal life... This mainly concerned her love life. Her words revealed her doubts about whether being separated by a bus line counted as a long-distance relationship.

I also received a draft of a paper on Guo Moruo and Li Bai. The "young girl" claimed that she had adopted some of Liu Chang'an's suggestions, especially his guidance on the direction, which was the most important. Liu Chang'an deserved it. Professor Liu had also guided students' papers in the past. However, Liu Chang'an did not read the paper she sent carefully. Instead, he went to the "Qingwu Feiyang" WeChat Moments and liked a few of her selfies, commenting. "The name Qingwu Feiyang sounds like a menopausal middle-aged woman."

Nowadays, many young girls readily refer to men as "greasy middle-aged uncles," and as a form of retaliation, regardless of the other person's age, men respond with "menopausal middle-aged auntie," which feels quite harmonious and complementary.

Liu Chang'an was thinking about all sorts of random things. Eating while playing on his phone was a very pleasant thing in itself.

Liu Chang'an went to the food pick-up area near the entrance to wait for the oysters. When he turned around, he saw a girl in a green dress walking leisurely past the side of the lobby reception desk. That side was the elevator that led to the guest rooms upstairs and also to the shopping mall downstairs.

Liu Chang'an had seen the girl's back when he reported for duty that morning, so he wouldn't forget her. The oysters were ready, and he wasn't going to give up the fresh and juicy oysters just to chase after her and see why her back looked so familiar.

After finishing the buffet, Liu Chang'an, as usual, tucked Zhou Dongdong under his arm and took her back. She still hoped that after she and her brother Chang'an left, the others would finish all the food.

Back home, Liu Chang'an checked the fire; the two coal briquettes were burning brightly. Liu Chang'an fetched a basin of water to extinguish the fire, lifted the pot lid, and stirred the beans. They looked just right. He quickly put the lid back on. The fermented black beans he made were different from the double-steamed Liuyang fermented black beans, which only needed to be steamed once. However, after turning off the heat, they needed to simmer for four hours, about the same time as steaming.

I'll make some more chili sauce tomorrow... Fermented black beans and chili sauce are truly indispensable condiments in a family kitchen.

Just as I was thinking about fermented black beans and chili sauce, Bai Hui called. One interesting thing about interpersonal relationships is that when people aren't very familiar with each other, it's inconvenient to call directly. But once you get to know each other a bit better, it feels good to make a phone call to discuss things. And once you're really close to each other, phone calls become less frequent, and text messages or image messages become the norm.

"Liu Chang'an, military training starts tomorrow. Have you prepared your special gadgets?"

"What?"

"It'll be sunny tomorrow, and I'll sweat a lot during military training. My armpits and the soles of my feet will be so sweaty, it'll be so uncomfortable."

"Can your magical artifact solve these problems?" Liu Chang'an was not worried about that. He also sweated, but not to the extent that ordinary people did. Moreover, his endurance far exceeded that of his classmates.

"Right!"

"Oh, then you can use it."

"You don't want it? I recommend it to you; you can buy it at the convenience store."

"No need. Goodbye." Liu Chang'an politely hung up the phone.

Bai Hui persisted and sent another message, this time about sanitary napkins. She even sent over a webpage article titled "How Boys Should Use Sanitary Napkins".

"You're crazy!" Liu Chang'an decided that if Bai Hui tried to sell him this magical artifact again, he would block her.

Thank you p0d9andy for the generous donation, adding another patron to this book. I had insomnia all night last night, and wrote this chapter this morning. Xia Hua plans to stay up until tonight to adjust her sleep schedule in preparation for the massive update event starting on the 30th. Sigh, I saw another story yesterday about an author who died after writing all night.