He cracked an egg into the pan, frying it until the single side turned golden, the yolk ready to spill its liquid at a single poke, making it ideal for satisfying a craving.
Lin Ze made three, served two on plates, and gave the remaining one to Qiqi.
Seeing the gray character icon turn green, he brought one fried egg to Paimon, who was watching TV, and left the other on the table.
He washed the radish, cabbage, and mushrooms, then prepared the cheese.
The recipe was so deeply ingrained in his mind that there was no need to flip through it; he turned on the stove, added the vegetables, tossed the pan, and sprinkled the seasonings.
The fragrant baked mushroom pizza, along with the crispy and tender fried radish balls, came fresh out of the pan.
"Paimon, come try it. How does it taste?"
Lin Ze handed Paimon a skewer of fried radish balls.
"Mm, absolutely wonderful, truly fantastic, Traveler."
Paimon blew on the balls and eagerly popped them into her mouth.
"It tastes just as good as before."
Hearing Paimon say that put Lin Ze at ease; after all, it was made using auto-cooking. Even though his own hands had performed the movements, it still lacked a sense of reality.
"It smells so good."
Steve smelled this aroma right in the hallway, never expecting it to drift out from his own apartment.
"Mr. Steve is back. That's great, dinner is just ready."
Lin Ze took off his apron and set the plates and tableware on the table.
Steve washed his hands and sat down at the edge of the table.
The dishes on the table were appealing in both color and aroma. Lin Ze cut the pizza and divided a large piece for everyone.
"Taste it."
Paimon impatiently bit off a huge mouthful.
Steve stood on no ceremony either, biting into the pizza and savoring it carefully.
"So good!"
Steve praised sincerely, not expecting the boy's culinary skills to be no empty boast. He had never eaten such delicious pizza in his life.
He tried the balls and the egg next. Clearly ordinary ingredients, but once in the mouth they left a lingering fragrance on the lips and teeth, neither greasy nor heavy, tasting exceptionally good.
Seeing their satisfied expressions, Lin Ze sat down and began to tackle his own portion.
After finishing the meal and resting for a little while, Steve proposed going out to buy clothes.
Lin Ze, who had initially agreed, hesitated at this point. Tomorrow Tony was going to announce himself as Iron Man, which meant the time they had left here was only a single night. He really felt bad about letting Steve spend more money on them.
However, Steve didn't mind. He had never cared much about money to begin with, and moreover, the monthly subsidy provided by S.H.I.E.L.D. was quite generous. Aside from meals, he basically had no expenses, so he still took the two of them out.
Lin Ze had low demands for clothes, settling on a sportswear set to solve the issue. After changing into the new clothes in the store, the group shifted their battleground to a children's clothing store.
Paimon was dazzled the moment she arrived at the children's store. She had never seen so many pretty little dresses before. Although the styles were very different from the clothing in Teyvat, they were also exceptionally nice-looking.
"My, the little girl in your family is so pretty. I'm sure anything she wears looks good."
The female store clerk spoke to Steve with a motherly smile:
"Are both of these yours? Oh! The boy is already this big? Young man, you look quite young, what year did you get married?"
Steve was caught completely off guard by the question.
"No, no... not-"
"Mr. Steve!"
Lin Ze and Paimon had picked out a not-too-expensive but very detailed little white dress. Having changed into the skirt, Paimon happily spun around in place and asked him expectantly:
"Does it look good? Does it look good?"
"It looks good."
Steve did not stint his praise. Looking at Paimon looking like this, his mood became quite pleasant as well.
"Paimon thinks it looks good too."
The little girl with her new clothes wandered happily all over the store.
"Sorry for the trouble, I'll take this one."
Steve carried the bag containing Paimon's changed-off clothes and paid the bill at the counter.
"Thank you, Mr. Steve."
Paimon hugged the man's thigh, her sparkling eyes flashing with brilliant light.
After finishing the clothes shopping, the three of them walked toward home. Passing by a park, they saw many fitness equipment and amusement facilities.
Figuring they had nothing special to do, Steve simply brought Lin Ze and Paimon to stroll around inside.
There were many toys that children liked in this amusement area: slides, swings, sandpits, inflatable castles, and so on. A lot of parents had already brought their little ones to play inside the grounds.
Paimon had never played with these things before, and the look in her eyes as she gazed over was full of eager anticipation.
Lin Ze could tell that Paimon liked these very much.
Steve brought the two of them to play around the amusement facilities for a long time.
Before long, Lin Ze grew tired, but Paimon was still unexhausted. This little creature insisted that Steve sit on the swing for her to push. Puffing and panting as she pushed him, she was sweating heavily, but she was having a fantastic time.
It was hard on Steve, such a big bulk of a man, squeezed into a children's swing with his feet barely off the ground, yet he still had to cooperate with Paimon. Still, looking at the smile on his face, he was actually quite enjoying it.
Judging by Paimon's high spirits, they wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. Lin Ze said a word to them, walked over to a resting bench in the park, and sat down.
To his surprise, not long after he rested, a commotion broke out among the crowd of children.
A black woman was shouting and crying out amid the group of little ones:
"Otilia!"
"Otilia, where are you!"
Acting as though she had lost her mind, she rushed among the children, grabbing one child after another and asking them whether they had seen a little girl named Otilia.
The children were all frightened out of their wits by her frantic state and scattered in all directions.
Seeing that group of kids running around in disorder, the black woman panicked as well.
After searching frantically for a while, she suddenly spotted a small figure in the corner of the park and hastily gave chase to that little girl.
"Otilia."
The woman called out the little girl's name from behind, pursuing her all the way.
"Hurry up, hurry up."
Seeing the little girl walking further and further away, the woman was consumed with anxiety. She was terrified that she would lose track of Otilia, in which case she would lose her only support in the world.
"Otilia! Otilia!"
Shouting the whole way, the woman caught up to the little child, only to discover she had mistaken her for someone else.
"Sob, sob, sob, my child, where on earth are you?"
She collapsed onto the ground and burst into heavy sobs.
Steve held Paimon and approached the woman, and seeing this, Lin Ze also walked over to inquire.
"Ma'am, do you need help?"
Hearing the voice, the woman hiding her face and weeping wiped away the tear tracks on her cheeks and raised her head.
"Help me, please help me."
She recounted her encounter to the few of them.
"My name is Sally, and two weeks ago..."
Right in this very park, right in this very grounds, Sally had brought her daughter Otilia here to play.
At first, she had stayed with her daughter the entire time, but later on she met a woman who was also taking care of a child.
That woman claimed her name was Quinn, and her daughter Lucy was about the same age as Otilia, with clothes and styling that made her look like she came from a good family.
Little Lucy was cute and sensible, and even took the initiative to share candies with her daughter.
Sally and Quinn hit it off immediately, and seeing that the two children were already playing together, they let them go off to play.
At first, everything was normal, except that Quinn kept enthusiastically trying to chat with Sally.
Sally checked on them several times and, seeing that her daughter was playing not far away with little Lucy, didn't pay too much attention.
Later on, Quinn received a phone call saying she had an emergency at home and left in a hurry.
When Sally went to look for Otilia after bidding the other party farewell, she discovered something.
The child was gone.
She searched every corner of the park without finding a single trace of her daughter.
Sally reported the case to the police immediately.
The police checked the surveillance footage and only discovered that the two children had walked into a blind spot of the cameras on their own. They dispatched a large police force to search the vicinity many times over, but yielded zero results.
This left Sally completely baffled as to where little Lucy and Otilia could have run off to.
With no other choice, she could only come here every day to ask the children if they had encountered her daughter, but two weeks had passed, and there was still no progress whatsoever.
Steve and Lin Ze exchanged glances, both seeing a solemn look in each other's eyes.
"Little Lucy?"
Paimon's voice drew everyone's attention.
"Just now when we were riding the carousel, there really was a pretty little girl who gave me candy too. She said her name was Lucy."
"What?!"
Before you continue