Over three days, Li Jia and Winslow thoroughly familiarized themselves with the layout of Hot Spring Ravine.
To put it kindly, Winslow was innocent. To put it bluntly, she was genuinely stupid.
She forgot what she had said as soon as she turned around and lived a carefree, happy life.
Li Jia gradually relaxed. Sometimes, when she accidentally let something slip, Winslow never noticed.
Besides, she and Li Jia shared the same passion:
A devotion to good food.
Winslow had a wide range of interests, but experimenting with delicious food was her greatest hobby.
Unfortunately, the God Lord had no need to eat.
Doreen only cared about her blades.
Winslow's assessment: a person and a god who knew nothing about appreciation.
As a result, Winslow could only fret over her freshly baked little buns every time.
On Li Jia's first day, she praised the buns, saying they were delicious, though they would have been even better with some honey and a crispy, caramelized bottom.
Winslow's eyes lit up when she heard that, and she immediately got to work. That very evening, Li Jia got to eat little honey cakes.
The next day, Li Jia suggested that Winslow steam some taro and mash it, then wrap it around some cheese to make taro and cheese balls.
Though skeptical, Winslow followed her instructions and produced a dessert unlike any she had ever seen. It was soft and chewy without being cloying.
It was also the first time Winslow had learned that taro could be mashed. Before this, she had always eaten it fried.
Once again, Winslow came to a conclusion:
This woman understands my art. She's worth befriending.
On the afternoon of the third day, Winslow took Li Jia fishing on the mountain behind the residence.
When Hera came out of the secret chamber, this was what she saw.
Looking from afar,
she saw two young women crouching by a pool, building a fire.
Doreen was about to call out and stop them, but Hera waved her silent. She wanted to see what they were up to.
Winslow and Li Jia gathered a few large stones and arranged them in a simple square, following Li Jia's memory. Then they put some dry firewood they had picked up nearby inside and lit it with a match. Flames soon sprang up.
Li Jia set the grill she had made beforehand on top. It was made by tightly winding iron wire around several times. The sense of novelty Winslow got from Li Jia was truly endless, and she hovered around her, asking how to use the grill.
Li Jia put on a few skewers of chicken slices marinated in spices. The slices weren't particularly thin, but they were the best she could manage.
After grilling them for about six or seven minutes, Li Jia used an iron skewer she had prepared to poke the meat and check how well it was cooked.
"Li Jia, how are you so clever? I've never seen this method before."
Stars practically appeared in Winslow's eyes, which were full of admiration.
"Let's keep it low-key. This is a method from my hometown. It's called barbecuing."
Seeing that the meat was cooked through, Li Jia picked up two skewers, one for herself and one for Winslow. Smiling, she said, "Let's dig in."
Dig in?
Winslow thought it was a novel way of putting it.
The chicken was grilled crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. There was no cumin powder here, so Li Jia spread a thin, even layer of syrup over the slices instead.
Under the intense heat, it formed a crisp shell that sealed in the juices.
It was like guobaorou.
The moment it entered her mouth, the juices burst out.
"Delicious! It looks charred, but it's so tender."
Winslow sang its praises and quickly finished a skewer.
"Hehehe, good, right? It's just that my knife skills are limited. If I could slice it thinner, it would taste even better."
"What's so hard about that? When it comes to knife skills, you won't find anyone in the whole world better than Doreen. When she comes back, we'll ask her to slice it for us."
"Would she agree to that? I get the feeling she really treasures those two blades of hers."
Remembering the blades Doreen always wore on her back, Li Jia hesitated.
"What's the big deal? I'll throw a tantrum and beg her when the time comes. She'll definitely agree." Winslow picked up a skewer of grilled mushrooms. "I do it every time... and she'll (chew, chew) give me (chew, chew) what I want..."
Doreen: ...
Who said she agreed?!
Using the world's greatest blade master's twin blades to slice meat.
Hera glanced sympathetically at Doreen.
The person in question's face was as black as the bottom of a pot.
"All right, then. Try this too."
Li Jia took a washed grape leaf out of the bag she had brought, placed some pork belly grilled golden and crisp inside, and added a little spicy seasoning. She had marinated this batch especially to make it savory.
Though there was no New Orleans-style marinade, perhaps the pigs here weren't hothouse pigs raised on feed. The pork had an especially clean aroma, with none of the gamey smell of meat.
Li Jia even thought it tasted hundreds of times better than the grilled meat she had eaten in modern times.
It was a shame there was no lettuce. The grape leaves were large enough, and their slight bitterness gave way to a sweet aftertaste.
They made Li Jia's tongue feel as if it had been shocked, but the more she ate, the better they tasted, and the more addictive they became. Winslow felt the same way.
The two of them were so numbed that their little faces turned red, but they never stopped eating.
It was probably like fish mint: people who liked it loved it, while those who didn't kept their distance at the mere smell.
Once they had eaten and drunk their fill, they lay back in the rocking chairs behind them.
"Living the high life~"
Though Winslow didn't understand what Li Jia meant, she echoed her:
"Living the high life~"
Winslow finally understood why Li Jia had insisted on bringing the rocking chairs over. With mountains and water around them and green trees providing shade, they could eat and drink their fill, then lie in their chairs and take a nap, as carefree and happy as immortals.
Li Jia lay in her rocking chair, staring straight up at the clear blue sky, as pure and limpid as her eyes.
Actually, Li Jia thought things were all right. The three days had given her time to go from her initial panic and unease to calm acceptance.
When it came down to it, she should have died long ago. Every day she lived now was a bonus, no matter what.
She was also gradually getting used to this place. There were only four people in the divine residence.
One was a salted fish, or perhaps she should count herself now too.
That made a combination of two salted fish and two workaholics.
Thinking about it carefully, Li Jia even felt she had come out a little ahead. In modern society, her biological father had stopped paying her living expenses once she turned eighteen.
Before she turned eighteen, her stepmother had whispered in her biological father's ear, and he had repeatedly tried to cut off her living expenses and tuition, saying that there was no point in a girl studying so much and that she would be better off marrying early.
Fortunately, Li Jia was resourceful. She went to the aunties on the neighborhood committees and tearfully told them her troubles. They all went to his door together and said they would sue him if he didn't pay for her schooling, forcing her biological father to give her living expenses every month.
Of course, she had to beg him for it too. It was a thousand yuan a month, twelve thousand a year-not even as much as his son's summer break classes cost, yet it had to cover her tuition and living expenses for the entire year.
She had started working part-time to support herself at a young age.
Even as a teenager, she had to work hard to survive in a dog-eat-dog society.
There had been no other way.
Now that she had come to a new world, looking at it from another perspective, her food and lodging were covered, she got along with her coworker like a good sister, there were no unpleasant schemes or power struggles to deal with, and their boss was nowhere to be seen most of the time. Every day, she just stayed home with her good sister and watched the place.
The two of them were basically like hotel receptionists, the only difference being that they hardly had any guests.
And from time to time, she carried out her conquest plan.
So Li Jia thought it was pretty good. She didn't have to work from dawn to dusk, and no one controlled her. She could sleep and wake up whenever she wanted.
Thinking about all this put Li Jia at ease in body and mind, and before she knew it, she fell asleep along with Winslow.
A God Lord's divine residence always had restrictions. Nothing the God Lord hadn't personally brought back could enter, and no one could barge in without permission, so the two slept soundly.
The divine residence possessed divinity and would automatically remember the aura of anyone brought back, allowing them to move freely around the residence.
Hera held out her hand in the wind, feeling the moisture gradually gathering.
It was going to rain.
She tapped her pinky ring, and red star power rushed toward the two of them, forming a natural protective barrier.
Soon, raindrops fell, striking the surface of the pool and making one small dimple after another.
All was still. The two were sheltered from the downpour, the rain running down the protective cover in a curtain. The air was full of the fragrance of earth and grass.
The girl's stray hairs clung messily to her forehead, and specks of grease still glistened at the corners of her mouth. As if dreaming of something, she smiled and licked her lips.
Following the God Lord's gaze, Doreen was utterly puzzled. What was there to see in a drooling girl?
"Let's go."
After saying that, Hera made no move. Doreen didn't understand what she meant and stood rooted to the spot.
"Hold up an umbrella."
"My divine power hasn't fully recovered. I just used up the last of it."
Doreen: "..."
It was the second time today that she had been left speechless.
The first was because that little ingrate Winslow wanted to use her twin blades to slice meat. The second was because the usually detached and cold-spoken God Lord had used her divine power to shelter someone from the rain, leaving the two of them to walk back.
And both times, it was because of that girl.
What could she say? She had chosen her own companion and her own God Lord.
What could she do? Put up with it.
It looked like she would have one more troublesome person to look after from now on.
Doreen opened the umbrella. Rain slanted down as she held the handle and walked with Hera through it. The wind lifted the edges of the black canopy, and raindrops rolled down its rim, splashing into tiny droplets at their feet.
The two stood side by side beneath the umbrella, listening to the patter of rain on the canopy as falling drops left small wet marks on the bluestone slabs.
"Your Majesty, you forced yourself to come out of seclusion early today to see how she was doing in the divine residence, didn't you?"
They were almost at the inner chamber of the main hall when Doreen hesitated for a moment and finally spoke.
Three days would have been enough for Hera to recover fully, but she had spent only two and a half days healing her divine soul.
Hera didn't answer her question. Instead, she asked, "What should a qualified God Lord be like?"
Hera looked at her, the unruffled figure reflected in her red eyes beneath her golden hair.
A qualified God Lord.
Doreen's eyes trembled. "One who follows the rules and is utterly impartial."
"Your Majesty, no other god can surpass you. You are the most qualified God Lord."
Doreen knew what Hera had sworn upon for her divine office.
Anyone could criticize and misunderstand Her Majesty's ruthlessness and indifference, but those at her side could not.
Her Majesty's divine authority was unmatched throughout this land, and the laws she established held the power to supersede all other rules.
Supreme.
Beyond question.
"The most qualified..."
Hera lowered her head in thought, seemingly pondering Doreen's words.
Doreen left the inner chamber and closed the door.
The rain had stopped, and she planned to go wake the two idiots sleeping by the pool.
"Tomorrow, have her come see me in the main temple."
Lying in the rocking chair beneath the window, Hera sent the message to Doreen through her divine sense.
It really was comfortable.