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He had to wait until everyone accepted him a little more, then let someone else accidentally expose it, and only then calmly admit it...

Anyway, Qin Meng was dead, and everyone was very sad. But he had already been dead for over half a month. No matter how sad they were, busy with their own lives, those feelings would soon fade. Jing Yi's first step toward becoming an internet celebrity had been tying himself to Qin Meng for publicity. At this point, he and his husband were a unit; whenever people thought of him, they would say, "Look! Isn't that Major Qin's wife?" But slowly, Major Qin himself would fade into obscurity and be forgotten. If Jing Yi still clung stubbornly to that title, did he want to flop along with it?

His next strategy was to subtly add other things to his identity beyond the title of "Major Qin's wife." That way, even if he lost the halo of "Major Qin's wife" in the future, his fans would still howl with love for him. Only then could he be considered truly successful as an internet celebrity.

—Although General Chen's intervention had reduced the Qin Family's threat to him to the minimum, he could not entrust his safety entirely to outsiders. He could not foolishly disarm himself first, only for General Chen's side to stop caring one day...

It was still the drawback of having grown up an orphan. Deep down, Jing Yi was closer to a skeptic. Did General Chen and Qin Meng really share such a deep bond? After all, once a person was gone, the tea turned cold!

If others were willing to protect him, he should appreciate it and repay them. But protecting him was not their obligatory duty. He was not some pampered little prince; he had never learned to depend on others wholeheartedly.

He absolutely could not foolishly throw away his identity as an internet celebrity.

Otherwise, if he wanted to pick it up again someday, it would be as difficult as reaching the heavens. He would not get a second chance to "marry" Major Qin.

Jing Yi went to the kitchen.

A mobile camera floated diagonally across from him, filming him from every angle.

He did not look at the camera. Instead, he threw himself wholeheartedly into preparing the food: knife work, seasoning, coating, turning on the heat, thickening the sauce... He did not use a spatula or spoon throughout the process. He tossed the wok one-handed, sending all the ingredients tumbling through the air as they gradually changed from an unappealing bluish white to an enticing golden red. The sizzling in the air continued without pause. Wearing a white apron, Jing Xiaoyi poured the finished dish from the wok onto a plate, arranging it in an instant. Then, with a carving knife, he shaped a slowly blooming rose in seconds.

The camera gave the dish made from insect meat a close-up.

The close-up also captured Jing Yi's slender, lustrous fingers—his hands were exceptionally beautiful and the part of his body Jing Yi himself was most satisfied with. Ever since inheriting this body, he had transferred his obsessive hand-care routine over. The original minor flaws had gradually disappeared, and now his hands looked like works of art, faintly gleaming...

Once the close-up was over, he placed the dish into one compartment of a round machine.

This machine was called a Freshness Box. It sounded adorably cute, but its function was extremely powerful. Put food inside, and it could preserve its temperature, flavor, and texture for a long time. Some loss was possible, but it was very limited. It was truly an essential item for home and travel.

Jing Yi opened the lid of another machine and took a ball of dough from inside.

This dough had been kneaded from a kind of nutritional powder. In Jing Yi's opinion, after the Mi Star people invented nutrient solutions and nutritional powder, they either drank it or ate it dry. What a terrible waste! Back on Earth, all powdered ingredients could be used to make pastries and dough-based foods. The only difference was that some were suited for steamed buns, some for dumplings, some for noodle sheets, some for bread... There were so many options. Why had the Mi Star people simply given up after discovering they could not eat natural food?! Was nutritional powder no longer powder? Had they ever considered the nutritional powder's feelings, treating it with such contempt?!

Anyway, after Jing Yi cultivated natural yeast, he had been waiting to steam himself a whole pot of buns. The Mi Star people's habit of not eating staple foods with their meals had made him suffer terribly. He had only eaten rice once, on that first day! Jing Yi now felt that if someone gave him a pot of plump, snowy-white steamed buns, he could eat several even without any dishes!

Yes, before this, Jing Yi had already used small amounts of nutritional powder to make Chinese and Western pastries.

Grey Eagle had even stolen and eaten a whole plate of them. The rest had all been offered to his husband, and after he was done feeding him, Jing Yi ate the remainder himself.

He had once heard a saying—well, there were different versions for southerners and northerners. For southerners, it was that no matter what they got tired of eating, they would never get tired of rice. For northerners, it was that no matter what they got tired of eating, they would never get tired of steamed buns. The general meaning was that no matter how delicious something was, if you ate it three times a day for several days in a row, your face would turn green. But with seemingly tasteless staples like rice and steamed buns, you could eat them continuously for a year and feel nothing much about it. Yet if you did not eat them, you would miss them desperately.

Now, Jing Yi finally understood.

As far as he was concerned, it did not matter whether it was steamed buns or rice. He needed at least one of them, didn't he?

It was making even meat taste less satisfying...

With such a grand setup today, Jing Yi did not intend to make any fancy, beautiful pastries.

He just wanted to steam a pot of buns—a pot of ordinary steamed buns, a pot of steamed buns that made his mouth water just thinking about them!

Of course, to make them look a little prettier, he kneaded the dough into rose shapes and arranged the small, delicate buns in a custom-made steamer tray. After letting them rest for a while, he turned on the heat.