Chapter 36: Preserved Egg and Lean Pork Porridge
“My grandpa completely lost his appetite. No matter how much we persuade him, he just refuses to eat anything. He thinks everything we cook is completely unpalatable,” Shen San admitted, finally sharing his true frustrations. “The doctor also told us there’s no need to restrict his diet. On the contrary, the more food he can manage to eat, the better!”
The moment the words left his mouth, Shen San’s heart skipped a beat. Oh no! Why did I say “doctor”? Master isn’t going to ask me what a doctor is, is she?!
He snuck a nervous glance at his master, but she was entirely focused on her work, seemingly paying no attention to his slip of the tongue.
He let out a silent sigh of relief. Thank goodness she hadn’t noticed. He would have to be much more careful next time. If he accidentally revealed too much about the real world and she started questioning him, how was he supposed to explain things? Was he supposed to tell his own master that she was actually just a bunch of data?
Lu Yunxi, entirely unaware of her apprentice’s internal panic, was deep in thought. So his grandfather won’t eat. Is the old man relying on nutrient injections to stay alive right now? If someone goes that long without eating, a sudden, heavy meal will tear their stomach apart.
After reflecting for a moment, she glanced over at Shen San, who was busy washing vegetables. “Shen San, go grab the radishes. I want you to slice and shred all of them.”
Shen San stared at the radishes piled up like a small mountain. “Am I supposed to chop this entire pile?”
“Even if I ordered you to chop the whole pile, you wouldn’t finish it today!” she laughed. “Just start chopping to practice your knife skills. Once you can shred them into perfectly uniform strips of the exact same thickness, we can move on to the next step.”
He nodded, picked up the kitchen knife, and prepared to start. Before he did, he lowered his voice. “Master, will the shopkeeper scold us for practicing with the restaurant’s inventory?” It didn’t matter if the boss yelled at him, but he couldn’t let his master take the blame!
“Don’t worry about it. I already cleared it with the shopkeeper, and he agreed.”
He lowered his head and said no more, focusing entirely on the kitchen knife. He had no idea what kind of deal his master had negotiated to give him unlimited access to the restaurant’s ingredients. He had to master this as quickly as possible to live up to her expectations!
Time blurred as he spent his days repeatedly practicing his knife skills.
Then, one morning, three young men suddenly appeared in the kitchen. As Shen San watched his master teach them how to replicate the restaurant’s signature dishes, the pieces finally fell into place.
Previously, the shopkeeper had suggested that Yunxi train a few apprentices to help run the kitchen, offering her a generous ten silver coins per person, but she had turned him down. Now, however, she was training these locals completely for free, all just to secure a limitless supply of practice ingredients for her own student.
Watching the morning sunlight pour through the window and frame her gentle, goddess-like smile, Shen San felt a profound wave of emotion. Sometimes, he genuinely forgot these NPCs were just code. They felt like real people—especially his master, who possessed a kindness rarely seen in the real world.
As a steady stream of adventurers flooded the regional town, many began to discover the unique charm of the restaurant. Yunxi’s daily tips grew larger and larger. Fortunately, the new assistants sent by the shopkeeper were finally adapting to the kitchen rhythm, taking over the bulk of the manual labor. This granted her a bit of rare free time to actually rest.
During her breaks, she hurried over to the clinic and purchased their entire inventory of medical texts. She studied them diligently every night before bed, pushing her medical and pharmaceutical proficiency forward. She even emptied her wallet to buy out the instructional books available in the town’s other shops. Since some of those auxiliary trades weren’t an immediate priority, she stashed them in her spatial dimension, planning to study them whenever she had some downtime.
By the time Yunxi’s medical and pharmaceutical skills officially reached the intermediate level, Shen San had finally achieved perfection, successfully shredding a radish into gossamer-thin, perfectly uniform strips.
She nodded with genuine satisfaction. “Your knife skills are flawless. Starting today, you can finally try your hand at actual cooking!” For weeks, she had forced him to do nothing but chop radishes, yet Shen San had shown incredible patience and perseverance. With that kind of dedication, he would likely master flavor profiles in no time.
“To cook a truly remarkable dish, you must master three core elements: knife skills, heat control, and seasoning. Knife skills are merely a matter of mechanical practice, but heat control and seasoning require constant, intuitive refinement.” Crucially, those final two elements depended heavily on raw talent. Some individuals were natural masters of the flame, while others could study for a lifetime and still produce entirely mediocre results.
“We are going to start with a porridge today, since this is meant for your grandfather,” she explained. After all, if the old man hadn’t consumed solid food in ages, heavy or greasy dishes would shock his system and potentially kill him. “Porridge is the gentlest option for the elderly and children.”
Shen San watched her movements with absolute focus. Suddenly, he remembered a piece of information he had received earlier that morning. “Oh right, Master! Weren’t you trying to find a way to break the curse on Mushroom Village?”
“Did you find something?”
“A friend of mine mentioned that his starting village is under an identical curse. Apparently, players discovered a hidden cavern near their regional borders guarded by a level 30 BOSS. It seems that specific entity is the source of the curse. As long as that boss is defeated, the village curse will lift automatically!” Shen San rattled off the data grid from memory, reciting it like a script.
“A level 30 BOSS?” she repeated softly.
Shen San’s heart skipped a beat. Oh no! I was just reciting the forum notes verbatim! I should have filtered my words before speaking!
“I mean—the person who cast the spell is exceptionally powerful, so you definitely shouldn’t go near him! Just wait until I train my combat skills a bit more, and I’ll personally go defeat him for you!”
Yunxi finally snapped out of her thoughts. She threw her apprentice a highly subtle look and quietly activated her Appraisal technique.
[Shen San: Lv. 23]
She had already reached level 35. And yet Shen San, a level 23 player, was seriously talking about protecting her while she fought a level 30 boss? Was this a joke?
In reality, it wasn’t surprising that Shen San assumed she was helpless. Among the active player base currently exploring Ancient, his combat ranking easily sat within the global top ten. Furthermore, no player had unlocked an advanced Appraisal or Detection skill yet; unless a battle was actively initiated, they had absolutely no way to read an NPC’s hidden level metrics. Combined with the fact that Yunxi spent all her time tucked away in a kitchen, he naturally assumed she was a defenseless civilian asset.
Yunxi chose not to shatter his illusions, offering a casual nod as she turned back to the stove.
“Today we are preparing a century egg and lean pork porridge. First, finely mash the century egg and slice the pork into thin strips. Place them together inside this cheesecloth soup bag, tie it securely, and submerge it into the pot to let the flavors infuse into the simmering rice. Once the core essence has been fully extracted, you extract the soup bag and discard it.” She broke down the process step by step, her instructions crystal clear.
“Master, can’t we just eat the century egg and pork? Why throw them out? And if we run out of century eggs, can we substitute them with other ingredients?”
“Under normal circumstances, of course you eat them! But didn’t you say your grandfather hasn’t consumed food in ages? When a body is severely starved, sudden solid intake is dangerous. It’s best to introduce strictly liquid nourishment first, completely free of solid debris. Keep the porridge exceptionally thin; it will be much easier on his stomach. A weak body must be nursed back to health slowly; do not expect a miracle overnight!”
Shen San: …
Thinking back to his incredibly energetic grandfather, who was currently throwing tantrums simply because he hated the taste of nutrient paste, he felt a sudden, profound wave of disconnect. Something felt entirely wrong with this medical plan, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
“As for substitutions, you can absolutely swap the ingredients once his stomach adjusts. You can transition to a minced green vegetable and pork porridge, a Chinese yam and pork liver porridge, or a fresh shrimp porridge.” She pointed to the simmering pot. “For the first three to five days, strain out all the solids and serve only the infused liquid broth. Once your grandfather’s vitality begins to stabilize, you can ditch the cheesecloth bag entirely and cook the minced ingredients directly into the rice. Keep in mind that different ingredients require different cooking times…”
Shen San hadn’t anticipated such a meticulous depth of culinary logic. He felt a sudden surge of gratitude for having secured a proper master; if he had tried to brute-force the cooking mechanic on his own, he would have missed these hidden variables entirely.
He studied her form with intense focus, replicating the recipe several times. Unsurprisingly, as a beginner, his initial attempts fell slightly short of her standard.
The master and disciple proceeded to eat century egg and lean pork porridge for five consecutive days. Finally, on the fifth afternoon, Shen San produced a pot that managed to meet Yunxi’s strict standards.
“Excellent. You have officially mastered the baseline technique for this dish,” she approved with a nod. “Log off—er, go home and practice the form a few more times on your own, and then you can finally prepare a proper meal for your grandfather!”
