Chapter 7

The fire had yet to go out, and the stove radiated heat, making the house nice and warm.

Orfrey's children crowded around to welcome their father, then ducked behind him, peering curiously at Xie Juanhan.

Orfrey lifted the steaming teapot from the flat-topped stove and poured Xie Juanhan some hot tea, adding milk and butter.

"Please, have a taste. Everyone says our tea is delicious."

Xie Juanhan took a sip. The tea was fragrant, with a rich, creamy taste that was familiar to him.

It was the Xorn tea he had drunk at the port.

Xie Juanhan looked up, surprised that Orfrey's family brewed this tea too.

Noticing Xie Juanhan's appreciation, Orfrey puffed out his chest and said proudly, "Our family has the best cows in the whole county. We can get milk even in spring."

The children all puffed out their chests like their father and jostled to pour their guest some milk.

Orfrey's milk really was good.

And so Xie Juanhan, who had only intended to buy flour, bought flour, cheese, butter, and milk from Orfrey's family.

After buying so much, not only had he failed to earn any money from Orfrey, he had spent everything he had earned in this world over the past few days.

Orfrey and the children neatly packed Xie Juanhan's purchases into a basket. Orfrey also cut off a piece of wet dough from the windowsill and carefully wrapped it in vegetable leaves from the yard. "My lord, please have this sourdough starter. You can use it to make bread."

Surprise showed in Xie Juanhan's eyes.

He knew about sourdough starter.

It was fermented dough.

He just wasn't in the habit of eating bread, so he had never thought about getting any.

He pinched the little piece of gray, wet dough Orfrey had given him and could tell the starter was good quality.

Orfrey said, "Bread made with our starter is white and soft, and not sour at all. You'll see when you try it."

The children opened their bright blue eyes wide and nodded vigorously in agreement with their father.

Xie Juanhan smiled and thanked him. "Thank you. I'll take good care of it."

He didn't want to bake bread for now.

Now that he had finally bought some flour, he planned to make dumplings.

Big dumplings packed with meat.

==========Author's note:==========

See you tomorrow~

Thanks to Gulingjingguai Xiaoyatou for the grenade; thanks to Quantang 0 Zhi Liangcha, Yi Zhi Landuo de Jiao, Ren Zheng Ni Jiu Shu Le, mgk993, Pu Maomao, Youzi Cha, and Queen13 for the mines.

Chapter 7: Chapter 7

Xie Juanhan had been hunting and gathering in the forest lately, so he was very familiar with the woods around the cabin.

As soon as it was light the next morning, he set aside his house-building and headed straight into the woods with his basket.

A kind of wild scallion had been growing in the woods lately. It looked a lot like ordinary scallions, but tasted sweeter and fresher.

He had used it with roast meat for several meals already.

Basket in hand, Xie Juanhan walked briskly through the woods.

He still had a Bigda Demon Ox to hunt afterward.

A fully grown Bigda Demon Ox was as big as an elephant. Its meat was tough, coarse, and gamey, so adventurers generally hunted them for their Demonic Cores.

He had cleared out a herd of demon oxen a few days ago and found that while the adults tasted awful, the calves were just right.

The calves a few months old were especially good. They had already developed a thin layer of fat, but the meat's fibers had yet to grow coarse, and it had no gamey smell. Instead, it had a rich flavor that was exceptional when prepared properly.

The only problem was that they were hard to fight.

Bigda Demon Oxen were numerous and ill-tempered. While raising calves, they killed every animal around them indiscriminately.

If he hadn't been surrounded and attacked last time, Xie Juanhan generally wouldn't have provoked that kind of demon beast.

Xie Juanhan had planned his trip in advance, and everything went smoothly.

By noon, he was back at his temporary home with a basket in one hand and a demon ox calf over his shoulder.

After a simple lunch, he began preparing to make dumplings.

He had visited town several times recently and bought quite a few household utensils.

Among them was a custom-made cleaver.

With the sun directly overhead, Xie Juanhan chopped meat in the woods.

The slightly heavy cleaver did a good job of preserving the beef's coarse texture as he chopped.

It was perfect for dumplings.

"Thock, thock, thock-"

The sound of chopping rang through the woods.

Any beast with a bit of vigilance had long since fled or hidden deep in its den.

Amid the rhythmic chopping,

a furry head suddenly popped out from behind a tree trunk.

Then another little head appeared.

With their companions taking the lead, six more heads popped out from behind the trunk in quick succession.

"Come to play?" Xie Juanhan glanced at the little ones, who thought they were well hidden, and beckoned them over.

The little ones rushed out from behind the trunk and lined up in front of Xie Juanhan, their eyes sparkling as they looked at the meat on the stump. "Chirp, chirp!"

Xie Juanhan picked up a piece of meat and waved it. "Want some?"

The little ones shook their heads in unison.

Xie Juanhan smiled and put the meat back.

He had already set aside a portion for the little ones.

They didn't eat raw meat, so they could keep their stomachs empty for the cooked dumplings later.

Once Xie Juanhan finished chopping, he divided the large basin of meat into two portions.

He added salt, crushed spices, and a little flour to one portion to marinate it, while the other went straight into the pan.

The metal pan was scorching hot over the wood fire, and he scooped in a lump of solidified animal fat.

The pan was quickly coated in oil.

He sprinkled in crushed spices and chopped scallions, then poured in the chopped meat as soon as the two had browned slightly.

In an instant, the meat changed color in the pan, its fat turning translucent as the creamy aroma rose.

The little ones stared at the pan, fascinated.

No matter how many times they saw it, the process amazed them.

Holding the pan in one hand, Xie Juanhan lifted it and tossed the contents twice.

The sizzling, fragrant pieces of meat scattered in the air, each one turning golden brown and richly aromatic.

With his other hand, Xie Juanhan picked up the cooking wine beside him and splashed it into the pan with a sizzle.

The heat of the pan's sides instantly released the wine's aroma, sending a fragrant mist drifting around it before flames erupted with a whoosh.

"Chirp, chirp!" The little ones grew even more excited.

Not the least bit afraid, they simply opened their eyes wide in wonder and ran over to gather around the pan and watch.

Xie Juanhan pushed their little heads away so their fur wouldn't fall in, while feeling quite pleased with the aroma of the cooking wine.

"Just a moment. It'll be ready to dish up and use for the dumplings soon," Xie Juanhan said, sprinkling in seasoning from another bottle.

In an instant, the rich aroma of the meat in the pan turned savory and fresh.

The little ones: "!!!"

Xie Juanhan smiled and explained, "It's fish soy sauce."

Fish soy sauce was a local specialty.

He had bought the best kind, a soy sauce fermented from nothing but gutted fish.

It was a mellow golden brown, with the savory scent of dried shrimp and a nutty fragrance. Heating it in the pan brought out the aroma even more.

Before the little ones could investigate further,

Xie Juanhan dished the glossy cooked meat into a large earthenware basin, mixed in the other half of the raw minced beef, and added a large bag of chopped wild scallions with the moisture squeezed out.

Once the filling was mixed, the browned beef, glistening mince, and crisp chopped wild scallions smelled wonderful just sitting in the basin.

Xie Juanhan sat on a tree stump, rolled out the dough, and began wrapping the dumplings.

Orfrey's family made their flour from a mixture of wheat and rye, giving it a yellowish-brown color.

It had been sifted, so it was fairly fine.

What pleased Xie Juanhan most was that the freshly milled flour had a rich wheaty aroma, and the dumpling wrappers he rolled out were very soft.

Xie Juanhan didn't have many tools at hand, and he had a lot of dumplings to make today.

He had been craving them for so long that he uncharacteristically lost patience while rolling out the wrappers.

He made the wrappers larger than usual, and each finished dumpling was as big as his palm.

The little ones craned their necks to stare at the unfamiliar food.

After watching from the side for a while, they trotted into the woods and took it upon themselves to bring Xie Juanhan dry branches in their mouths.

From what Xie Juanhan had seen, these little ones, who resembled big cats, weren't particularly industrious.

What they liked most was taking naps anywhere and everywhere.

Sometimes, when Xie Juanhan finished chopping wood and looked back, furry little bodies would be fast asleep all over the lawn, in the forks of trees, and beside the stream.

They covered themselves with their big tails, their bellies rising and falling. The wind ruffled their fur, but even that couldn't wake them.

At such times, Xie Juanhan always felt a warm sense of companionship.

The thought softened his gaze.

While the little ones had run back into the woods for more branches, he took a handful of Bigda Demon Ox Demonic Cores from his Dragon Scale Space.

The little ones were very fond of shiny things.

Bigda Demon Ox Demonic Cores happened to be both shiny and hard, like highly translucent orange gemstones.

They were also big enough that there was no need to worry about the little ones swallowing them by accident.

Xie Juanhan glanced at the little ones running back and forth at the edge of the woods, washed the Demonic Cores, and slipped them into the dumplings, making inconspicuous marks on the wrappers.

The marks would make it easy for him to pick out those dumplings later.

The little ones noticed nothing.

They excitedly fetched a great many windfallen branches from the woods and stacked them neatly in front of Xie Juanhan's pot, until the pile stood taller than they did.

"Chirp, chirp." The little ones looked at the pile of firewood, then turned to show it off to Xie Juanhan.

Xie Juanhan washed his hands. "Coming."

He had bought a rune slab in town with a fire element sealed inside. He only had to put a stick into its groove and channel Dragon Power into it to ignite the wood, much more conveniently than striking flint with his dagger as he had before.