I'm Not Planning to Mess Around with Cooking Together

This program is produced by Tomato Listening. Episode 15: I'm Not Planning to Mess Around with Cooking Together. He figured he couldn't come up with any other excuse anyway.

Zhao Xianglan glared fiercely at Wang Xiaomei before turning to walk into the kitchen to start the fire and cook.

The farce temporarily came to an end.

Wang Xiaomei let out a cold snort and went to the backyard to pick vegetables.

Once he finished picking the vegetables and went back inside, everyone attentively gathered in the courtyard to listen for any movement, terrified that the two of them would start arguing again inside the house.

It wouldn't matter if they started arguing, as long as this meal didn't fall through. After working for an entire afternoon, they no longer had the leisure to break up fights; besides, everyone was already hungry.

They listened closely for a while, but heard no movement. Everyone instantly breathed a sigh of relief, figuring that nothing was the matter.

Seeing that everything was fine, Lin Yuzhu prepared to go back to her room to change her clothes and wash the ones she was wearing, as she probably wouldn't have time to wash them tomorrow.

As soon as she finished changing, she smelled a sharp, choking smell of spice drifting straight into the room, so pungent that people could barely keep their eyes open and their throats couldn't stop coughing.

Lin Yuzhu cursed inwardly, wondering how many chilies this damn person had put in. Without even thinking, she knew it must have been Wang Xiaomei's doing. This girl really deserved a beating!

The unbearable shouts of Zhao Xianglan had already rung out from the kitchen, "Wang Xiaomei!" By the time Lin Yuzhu carried her clothes out, the smell of chili had already drifted all the way into the courtyard.

Zhao Xianglan had also been choked out of the room, her eyes bloodshot and her face full of fury as she roared, "I just put the vegetables in the pot, turned around for a second, and without paying attention, he dumped a small basin of chilies in!"

The expressions of Li Xiangwan, Li Xiangbei, and Zhang Yanqiu instantly turned ugly. They couldn't eat spicy food to begin with, so hearing this, what was left for them to eat?

Lin Yuzhu's expression wasn't much better either. His loving spicy food didn't mean he could handle spicy food, especially since this body couldn't tolerate it. At noon, just putting in a few chilies had been too much to bear, let alone an entire basin of them. He felt completely speechless toward Wang Xiaomei, while inwardly thinking that Li Xiangwan truly was the female lead; the bizarre things happening around her were as bizarre as they could possibly get.

Although he had seen all sorts of people in his workplace during his past life, he had genuinely never encountered anyone like this.

Lin Yuzhu felt that this was probably a side effect of the female lead halo.

The educated youths present were none of them hardworking people, and the vegetables grown in the courtyard this year were just barely enough. Unlike other families, where they planted as much as they possibly could in their courtyards, never holding back.

Several new educated youths had arrived this year, so one could imagine that the vegetables might not be enough and things would inevitably be tight, which was why they had simply made a stew for the evening.

When a pot of stew was served on the table, everyone looked at the chilies inside and couldn't help feeling a headache coming on.

Wang Yang took a bite first, baring his teeth in a grimace. Well, those who were used to spicy food couldn't even stand it, let alone those who weren't. Lin Yuzhu and the others no longer had any desire to pick up their chopsticks to grab food. There wasn't even a barefoot doctor in this village; if they ruined their stomachs, they would have to go to town to see a doctor.

Leaving aside how much money it would cost, just walking for one or two hours while sick was suffering enough.

Li Xiangwan's body wasn't particularly healthy; even before he arrived, this body couldn't even be considered healthy.

Before he transmigrated here, this little wretch of a vessel hadn't even had enough to eat, and all the household chores for a large family were piled onto him alone, leaving his body hollowed out beyond recognition. Otherwise, the whole affair of him being able to transmigrate here might not have happened at all.

Although he had carefully recuperated for a period of time, the foundation was right there. Eating a meal like this meant his stomach probably wouldn't be able to handle it.

Therefore, as soon as the food was served, Li Xiangwan just kept dry-chewing on his corn bun, his brow furrowed tightly as if he were deep in thought.

Seeing him like this made Li Xiangbei's heart ache with distress, and he felt extremely displeased with Wang Xiaomei.

Lin Yuzhu speechlessly looked at the vegetables, then looked at how everyone else was silently eating without a single person stepping up, so he finally opened his mouth to ask Wang Xiaomei, "Comrade Wang, may I ask if you're going to put this many chilies in every time you stir-fry vegetables from now on?"

"And do you have to put in this many?"

Wang Xiaomei met Lin Yuzhu's pitch-black eyes and felt a slight twinge of guilt, but then he thought that Lin Yuzhu was just a little brat, so what was there to be afraid of? Did he dare to beat him?

"What do you mean by I put chilies in when I cook? You have to put them in when you cook too! I won't be able to eat it if you don't."

"Let me tell you all, the vegetables in this backyard were all planted by me. Wang Yang and the others hardly ever tended to them usually, and even Zhao Xianglan didn't do as much work as I did."

"To put it bluntly, whatever dishes we educated youths make should be up to me to decide."

After finishing, he looked quite pleased with himself.

Wang Xiaomei thought about it for a moment and added, "Besides, the pot we use for cooking was bought with money pooled together by us veterans among the educated youths. These pots, bowls, basins, and ladles have nothing to do with you lot either. The vegetables aren't planted by you, yet you still want to dictate how I cook?"

The more he spoke, the more he felt he was truly brilliant for having found a reason so quickly.

What he said wasn't entirely unreasonable; on the contrary, it was utterly stifling.

Lin Yuzhu looked at the veteran educated youths, who all kept their mouths shut. He guessed that Wang Xiaomei's words weren't exaggerated, and inwardly clicked his tongue in amazement. He couldn't blame Wang Xiaomei for bullying them for being lazy and spineless; he could see it clearly now—Wang Xiaomei was utterly shameless when it came to himself, never shortchanging himself, and shifting all the laziness onto others.

One could tell just by looking at how he could earn 10 work points for a full day of labor: he wasn't a lazy person at all. When it came to his own rations, he was always dead serious and crystal clear. For all he knew, these newer educated youths might not even earn as many work points in an entire year as he did.

It was no wonder he tended the vegetable garden so meticulously; after all, if he relied on the others, he probably wouldn't even get to eat vegetables.

The vegetables belonged to others, and the pot belonged to others. What else did Lin Yuzhu have to say?

He looked up at the sky in speechlessness. Then a thought struck him: This is an opportunity.

"How about this then? I'll split up to eat by myself and won't mess around with you lot anymore. You guys can reallocate how the cooking is done, and I'll take my rations out separately."

If Lin Yuzhu remembered the plot of the original novel correctly, the male and female leads also ended up splitting up to cook and eat by themselves later on.

He was somewhat puzzled as to why these two hadn't shown any intention of stepping forward this time.

Since he was the one taking the lead, Lin Yuzhu couldn't be bothered to engage in petty scheming with Wang Xiaomei here. If they could eat from the same pot, fine; if they couldn't, they would just split up. There was no need to stage a production of The Legend of Zhen Huan just for a meal; it was too exhausting.

In this lifetime, he just wanted to live a simple little life.

"I'll split up and eat separately too."

Li Xiangwan seized the opportunity to speak, then continued lowering his head to eat his corn bun.

Li Xiangbei raised his head to look around at everyone, and said in a few brief words, "You don't need to make a portion for me either."

The two of them didn't say much more. In fact, everyone roughly understood what they meant: even though they were splitting up to eat separately, they had no intention of cooking together with anyone else.

Seeing that the three of them wanted to split up and eat alone, Wang Xiaomei curled his lips, acting as if he were the one who had been bullied.

"Since you all treat me like the bad guy, I can't let you ruin my reputation for nothing. But these vegetables in the vegetable garden can't be eaten for free, oh."

Wang Xiaomei laid his words out in the open, and the three of them weren't going to play dumb either, accepting it readily.

"Things are settled for this year, but the land at this Educated Youth Dormitory doesn't belong to you alone. When we want to plant vegetables next year, you'd better not pull any funny business."

Lin Yuzhu said with a stern expression.

Some things needed to be made clear in advance; he truly couldn't feel at ease with someone like Wang Xiaomei.

Wang Xiaomei curled his lips and didn't retort. He wasn't stupid—he wouldn't dare try to monopolize this courtyard either.

As for the matter of vegetables, Lin Yuzhu naturally wasn't worried. Nowadays, every single household in the village planted a courtyard full of vegetables, and one could buy a whole basket for just a few cents.

Besides, he still had his system; he could quietly smuggle a few things out of his space, buy a bit more from the villagers, and making it through to next year wouldn't be much of a problem.

It was just that since the male and female leads had proposed eating separately, cooking could hardly be done by taking turns in a queue, could it?

With just that single pot, taking turns to cook was clearly unrealistic.

Summer was fine; they could set up a simple earthen stove in the courtyard, but winter definitely wouldn't work.

Leaving aside whether they could even get a fire started, just sitting through a meal in the freezing snow and ice would freeze people solid into popsicles. This was a problem.

Lin Yuzhu pondered to himself: there was only one pot, and if he wanted to eat separately, he would simply have to get another pot of his own.

Everyone understood that if they wanted to break away and eat on their own, what would they use to buy a pot?

Not to mention whether they had industrial ration coupons, even money wasn't a small amount. In an ordinary family, a pot was still considered a major asset, and Zhang Yanqiu didn't have much money on her to begin with.

Then looking at Lin Yuzhu and Li Xiangwan, who showed no intention of cooking together, he dared even less to casually speak up about splitting off.

If he couldn't form a cooking partnership with anyone else, he didn't have the capability to set up a pot of his own either.

Looking at Zhang Yanqiu, who had made the most noise at noon and claimed she couldn't eat spicy food, Wang Xiaomei asked her with sarcastic mockery, "If you aren't going to split up and eat separately, and want to eat with us, it's impossible not to have chili put in. I'm telling you this in advance."

"Fine! Don't expect me to serve you, coming over to chew my ear off!"

Zhang Yanqiu clenched all her teeth together, wishing she could swallow Wang Xiaomei whole.

Wang Xiaomei let out a cold snort, completely unfazed by Zhang Yanqiu's man-eating expression, and happily ate his vegetables with a look of triumph on his face.

On the other hand, Zhou Nan ate the stewed vegetables without any reaction; it seemed he must be able to handle spicy food.

This was quite unexpected. Unable to find an ally, Zhang Yanqiu had originally cast intentional and unintentional glances toward Li Xiangwan, thinking that given their previously decent relationship, maybe he could pull her along. Alas, all she saw throughout was the top of his head, leaving her with no choice but to pin her hopes on Lin Yuzhu instead.

The gaze she directed at Lin Yuzhu was filled with expectation.

Seeing that Zhang Yanqiu was about to open her mouth, Lin Yuzhu cracked a smile. "I'm not planning to mess around with cooking together."

He had never been afraid of offending people.

Lin Yuzhu was planning to cook for himself in private; how could he possibly eat meat if he cooked with others?

Pulling out chickens and meat every other day—wasn't that just asking to attract people's attention?

Besides, that meat couldn't be brought out into the open anyway; he had always planned on eating it quietly by himself.

Recalling the plot once more, he already had a firm plan in mind. At this point, he definitely couldn't cook with anyone else anymore, and he was going to seize this opportunity to completely split off on his own.

Perhaps for the sake of the female lead, who was the author's biological daughter, there was a plot in the text where the village head had been hinted at by commune leaders when welcoming this batch of educated youths: before the autumn harvest, there would be another batch of educated youths sent down to the countryside. Exactly how many was unknown, but in any case, every village would have to take in one or two educated youths.

Shanshui Village had only this single Educated Youth Dormitory, and quite a few educated youths had arrived over the years. In the beginning, there hadn't been any educated youth dormitory, so they had arranged for the educated youths to board with the villagers, leading to all sorts of trivial, messy disputes breaking out back and forth.

As time went on, the villagers refused under any circumstances to take educated youths into their homes to live.