Speeding up the plot

By the time Zhang Xiao crossed the fields and reached the little hut, he found the atmosphere inside rather tense. He discreetly nudged Hermione.

"What happened?"

The little witch's face flushed bright red again. She shifted away a little and said quietly:

"We suspect Professor Snape was behind Harry's broom going out of control. Hagrid disagrees."

"That's impossible. Listen, you lot," Hagrid said sternly. "Snape would never do that. Dumbledore trusts him, and that's enough."

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance. They had a little secret they had not yet had a chance to tell Hermione and Zhang Xiao. After all, they were giving one the silent treatment, and they rarely saw the other.

But at that moment, Harry decided to come straight out with it.

"I found out something about him," he told Hagrid. "A few days ago, Ron and I got confused, and the moving staircase took us to the fourth floor. We happened to see Snape coming out of that room!

"I saw a huge dog with three heads inside, and I heard him swearing about some passage under the dog. I couldn't make out the rest, but I'm certain he-he wanted to steal whatever the dog was guarding."

Hermione gasped.

"You went to the fourth floor? Oh, goodness, and there was a huge three-headed dog there? That's far too dangerous! Headmaster Dumbledore told us not to go anywhere near it!"

Ron said impatiently:

"Enough, Hermione. We didn't want to go there either. The stairs took us there. Besides, if we hadn't gone, how would we have discovered Snape's plot?"

Hagrid set the teapot down heavily. "You saw three-headed Fluffy?" he asked.

"Three-headed Fluffy?"

"Yeah-he's mine-bought him off a Greek chap I met last year-lent him to Dumbledore to guard-"

"What?" Harry asked eagerly. Ron and Hermione pricked up their ears too, while Zhang Xiao's mind wandered as he stared at the vegetable patch outside the window.

Dumbledore was playing a game to test the newcomers. Why should he get involved?

"That's enough. No more questions," Hagrid said gruffly. "That's top secret, understand?"

"But Snape wants to steal it."

"Rubbish," Hagrid said again. "Snape's one of its guardians too. He'd never do anything like that.

"Now, all of you listen to me-you're meddling in things that are none of your business. It's dangerous. Forget the big dog, forget what he's guarding. That's between Professor Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel-"

"Aha!" said Harry. "So someone called Nicolas Flamel is involved too, is he?"

Hagrid was furious with himself. He clumsily changed the subject and said to Zhang Xiao:

"Little fellow, some of the vegetables in your patch look ripe. What are they? They've grown fast!"

Zhang Xiao was delighted. A glance out the window confirmed that the bok choy was ready. Whatever Hagrid had done to grow it, it was thriving.

He hurried outside to pick some, rinsed it with Aguamenti, then ran back into the hut and called to Hagrid:

"Hagrid, do you have any meat? Pork would be best."

Hagrid scratched his head and asked in puzzlement:

"Killed a wild boar a few days ago. Still got some meat left. Why?"

Wild boar? It might not taste that good, but Zhang Xiao was craving Chinese food so badly that he could no longer afford to be picky. He pulled a pile of seasonings, pots, bowls, and utensils straight out of his Heaven and Earth Bag and rolled up his sleeves.

The three little ones gathered around curiously too. Zhang Xiao wasted no time putting them to work: Hermione heated the pot with Incendio, Ron cut the meat, and Harry used a fan to stoke the fire.

Hagrid completely forgot what had happened earlier and watched the four of them bustle about with a broad smile.

First, Zhang Xiao washed and blanched the wild boar meat. Then he heated some oil in the pot and stir-fried the meat until it turned lightly golden. In went the cooking wine, spring onions, ginger, and garlic, followed by light and dark soy sauce, cinnamon, and star anise.

Ron whispered to Harry:

"Is this an Eastern recipe? Why does it look so much like brewing potions?"

Harry nodded in agreement. He had often had to help cook at Aunt Petunia's house, but he had never seen anyone add so many ingredients.

Zhang Xiao pretended not to hear. He gazed expectantly at the cabbage and meat stew in the pot. Nothing could stop him from eating now.

In his previous life, a friend studying abroad had told him that overseas, especially in countries where the food did not suit their tastes, anyone who could cook well was practically the father of every international student around.

Zhang Xiao had thought that was an exaggeration at the time. Now he saw just how true it was!

Time ticked by. Zhang Xiao's anticipation rubbed off on Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and they could not help getting excited too. They crowded around the pot, craning their necks to watch the cabbage and meat bubbling away inside.

"Zhang." Harry swallowed. Even with his glasses completely fogged up by the steam, he could not bear to move away.

"Is it really as good as you say?"

Zhang Xiao kept swallowing too, the chopsticks in his hand itching to get to work. But for perfect braised pork with cabbage, they had to wait until the meat was tender and the flavors of the broth had soaked right through it.

"I don't know. Whether you like Chinese food depends on your tastes. If you do, you're in luck. There are loads more dishes to come!"

Waiting always made time crawl. After what felt like ages, Zhang Xiao picked up a piece of meat and put it in his mouth. He closed his eyes and savored it for a long while, then finally nodded at the three pairs of expectant eyes.

They immediately cheered, picked up their little bowls, and held them out to him.

After serving each of them a bowl, Zhang Xiao filled Hagrid's basin-sized bowl more than halfway too.

"Hagrid, try some!"

Hagrid nodded with a smile. The three little ones picked up their wooden forks and copied Zhang Xiao, spearing a piece of meat first and slowly savoring its rich, savory flavor.

Hagrid simply raised his bowl and tipped a large mouthful into his mouth, chewing slowly.

Suddenly, Hagrid stood up and swept Zhang Xiao into a hug. His large eyes shone as he said eagerly:

"Zhang! Teach me! This... this is absolutely delicious! I never imagined wild boar could taste this good any way except roasted!"

Ron and Harry began shouting too:

"Zhang! You were right! The food in the Hogwarts dining hall is awful. I can't believe they've been feeding us such horrible stuff!"

"I swear, if Dudley ate food like this, he'd be twice as fat as he is now!"

Only Hermione refrained from shouting, maintaining her ladylike composure, though she was noticeably eating much faster.

Zhang Xiao struggled free of Hagrid's embrace. The enthusiastic giant of a man had nearly smothered him.

"You all like it?"

Zhang Xiao looked at them dubiously. Four vigorously nodding heads and four pairs of shining eyes answered him.

Huh... Hagrid liking it made sense. He was a half-giant, after all, so a fondness for salty, strongly flavored food was hardly surprising. But didn't everyone on Zhihu say foreigners disliked Chinese food and only liked French cuisine and Japanese food?

Had... had those West-worshipping bootlickers lied to him???

In the end, he could only conclude that some people liked it and others did not.

They enjoyed a lively meal of cabbage and meat stew together. Ron even discovered a new way to eat it: once rock cakes soaked up the broth, they became soft and chewy, and the savory flavor of the broth made them a perfect match!

Hagrid's rock cakes were nearly all eaten! The big man ate almost thirty of them in one sitting, and each was the size of a steamed bun.

After dinner, they strolled around the grounds, burping contentedly. That had been Zhang Xiao's suggestion too-a walk to help digest their meal.

Without their noticing, the conversation drifted back to whatever Snape was trying to steal and the name Hagrid had mentioned.

Harry insisted that he must have seen the name somewhere before, while Hermione said she already had an idea and planned to borrow a few books from the library.

"Actually, I was going to say this back at Hagrid's. Nicolas Flamel? I know about him!"

Zhang Xiao decided to speed up the plot, because this really was not worth wasting energy on. If he had not been worried about disrupting Dumbledore's plan to test the newcomers, he would have liked to lead the three little ones straight through to the end.

Faced with three pairs of questioning, expectant eyes, Zhang Xiao shrugged.

"Nicolas Flamel, Dumbledore's friend, the only person who owns a Philosopher's Stone. He's over six hundred years old."

"Then the thing hidden down there..."

"If I'm right, it should be the Philosopher's Stone-a magical stone that can make someone live forever."