"Please wait a moment, you two. I'll go get things ready."
Ye Qingyun immediately set off to prepare the meal.
Seeing that Ye Qingyun intended to cook personally, Shen Tianhua was stunned.
How could they let an expert do the work himself?
He immediately looked at Xiao Shi.
"Disciple, go help Young Master Ye."
Xiao Shi froze, looking somewhat troubled.
It was not that she was unwilling.
Rather, she had been pampered all her life and had never done such things in the Xiao Lineage.
Never mind cooking.
She could not even recognize all the vegetables growing in the ground.
But with her master's command, she dared not disobey and could only follow Ye Qingyun into the kitchen.
Yet before long.
Xiao Shi came slinking out.
"What happened?"
Shen Tianhua was somewhat displeased.
"Young Master Ye chased me out. He said I was all thumbs and only getting in the way in the kitchen."
Xiao Shi looked aggrieved.
She really did feel wronged.
I'm the young lady of the Xiao Lineage, after all. Just because I can't cook, he actually turned his nose up at me like that.
Shen Tianhua was speechless as well.
"All right, just sit quietly to the side."
"Yes."
Xiao Shi sat back down.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.
"I'd like to see what exquisite delicacies you can make!"
Before long.
Waves of fragrance drifted out of the kitchen.
As soon as Xiao Shi smelled them, her stomach began to growl.
Shen Tianhua, who had abstained from food for many years, felt his appetite stir all the more.
"That smells wonderful."
Shen Tianhua was somewhat surprised.
Even an old bag of bones like him was beginning to look forward to whatever delicious food Ye Qingyun might make.
A little more time passed.
Yet waves of stench then came from the kitchen.
The master's and disciple's faces immediately darkened.
That stench smelled far too much like, well, that.
Anyone who did not know better would have thought Ye Qingyun had diarrhea in the kitchen.
"Master, why don't we just leave?"
Xiao Shi was a little frightened.
Shen Tianhua remained steady, his expression as serene as drifting clouds and a gentle breeze.
"There is no need to worry. Experts do things differently. Perhaps this is his test for us."
A test?
That was possible.
But this smell was far too foul.
It made Xiao Shi feel a little like throwing up.
The fragrance mingled with the stench.
A strange smell filled the entire room.
Master and disciple sat on a bed of needles, both expectant and afraid.
"Coming, coming. Sorry to keep you both waiting."
Ye Qingyun finally emerged from the kitchen.
He carried a tray.
There were three plates of food on it.
One plate of red-braised pork.
One plate of stinky tofu.
And one plate of stir-fried tomatoes and eggs.
Ye Qingyun set the dishes on the table and said, "There's still a pot of soup simmering. Let's eat first."
With that, Ye Qingyun served them two large bowls piled full of rice.
Master and disciple stared blankly at the bowls of rice heaped like little mountains.
"Uh... I can't eat this much."
Xiao Shi spoke awkwardly.
Shen Tianhua immediately glared at her.
She hastily corrected herself. "If I try hard, I can finish it."
Ye Qingyun grinned. "Then eat plenty. My cooking tastes pretty good."
Tastes pretty good?
They looked at the three dishes on the table, none of which they had ever seen before, especially that black tofu giving off a strange stench.
They seriously wondered in precisely what respect Ye Qingyun meant it tasted pretty good.
"Dig in. Don't stand on ceremony. It tastes best while it's hot."
Ye Qingyun certainly did not stand on ceremony with them.
He had already picked up his bowl and started devouring his rice.
As a true rice devourer, this was the only time he was at his most devout.
Master and disciple could only begin using their chopsticks as well.
Xiao Shi did not even dare look at the plate of stinky tofu, while the red-braised pork looked a little greasy to her.
So she first tried a bite of stir-fried tomatoes and eggs.
"Hmm? This flavor..."
Just the first bite made Xiao Shi's eyes light up.
The eggs and tomatoes blended together wonderfully.
It whetted the appetite.
Shen Tianhua, meanwhile, first tried a piece of red-braised pork.
He put it into his mouth with a frown.
Yet the moment it entered his mouth, his furrowed brow immediately smoothed out.
"So tender!"
"So fragrant!"
"Delicious!"
Shen Tianhua chewed a few times and swallowed it straight down.
His appetite had been completely awakened as well.
Red-braised pork and stir-fried tomatoes and eggs were both the most common home-style dishes.
Yet in this world, such things did not exist at all.
It was as though master and disciple had opened the door to a new world, and they soon could not stop eating.
"Try this stinky tofu!"
Seeing that they only ate the red-braised pork and stir-fried tomatoes and eggs, Ye Qingyun urged them to try the stinky tofu.
Master and disciple immediately froze.
The disciple looked at her master.
The master then looked at his disciple.
In the end, Xiao Shi steeled herself, picked up a piece of stinky tofu with the tragic resolve of one marching to her doom, and struggled to put it into her mouth.
But the next moment.
Xiao Shi's expression changed.
The stinky tofu smelled foul, but once it was in her mouth, it had a unique fragrance.
Paired with the sauce Ye Qingyun had prepared, it was wonderfully spicy and delicious.
It had a distinctive flavor all its own!
"Master, it's delicious!"
Xiao Shi immediately said.
Shen Tianhua, however, looked doubtful.
Was this girl deliberately trying to trick him?
Still harboring doubts.
Shen Tianhua tried some as well.
It truly tasted absolutely wonderful.
Moreover, for some reason, Shen Tianhua instantly fell in love with the taste of this stinky tofu, even finding it tastier than the other two dishes.
And so.
Master and disciple soon polished off the rice in their bowls.
Neither had eaten their fill of enjoyment yet, however, and they looked at their empty bowls, somewhat embarrassed.
"I'll get you more rice."
Ye Qingyun enthusiastically filled both their bowls again.
Master and disciple continued feasting heartily.
As she ate, Xiao Shi suddenly froze.
"Master, I think I've attained enlightenment!"
Xiao Shi said in a daze.
Shen Tianhua was startled and looked at his disciple again.
She really did look as though she had experienced sudden enlightenment.
Her eyes held an unprecedented clarity.
A faint radiance even shone from between her brows.
Enlightenment!
This was enlightenment!
Compared with a breakthrough, this kind of sudden enlightenment was even rarer, bearing upon how far a person could travel along the path of cultivation in the future.
"Enlightenment? You can attain enlightenment just from eating?"
Ye Qingyun muttered, paying it no mind at all as he continued devouring his rice.
Xiao Shi looked at the rice in her bowl.
Could it be?
Had she attained enlightenment because she had eaten more?
Xiao Shi began eating even harder.
Before long, Xiao Shi felt the Spiritual Qi within her boil.
She had broken through!
Hum!
As her Qi and blood surged, Xiao Shi's cultivation leaped from the middle stage of the Origin Gathering Realm into the late stage of the Origin Gathering Realm.
"Master, I've broken through."
"What?"
Shen Tianhua was dumbfounded.
In just the time it took to eat a meal, his disciple had both attained sudden enlightenment and broken through.
It was enough to scare someone to death.
"No, as her master, how can I lose to my disciple?"
Shen Tianhua felt he could not lose face.
He had also guessed that Xiao Shi's sudden enlightenment and breakthrough must be connected to this meal.
This was the expert secretly bestowing gifts upon them.
If he could not even see through that, then his centuries of cultivation would have been in vain.
And so.
"Do you have a large basin?"
Shen Tianhua asked.
Ye Qingyun froze. "Uh, yes, I do."
"I want to eat from a large basin!"
Shen Tianhua declared in a strong, resonant voice.
Ye Qingyun nearly choked.
Holy moly?
Was this old man about to have an episode?
He wanted to eat from a huge basin?
Was he really not afraid of stuffing himself to death?
"Sir, perhaps you shouldn't force yourself."
Ye Qingyun tried to dissuade him.
It wasn't that he begrudged him the rice.
The main thing was, if anything really happened to this old man, he would have to bear responsibility too.
"It's quite all right. This old man has always had a big appetite. I always eat from a basin."
Shen Tianhua said this with a perfectly serious expression.