Chapter 214: God’s Blessing
Xu Youyou had previously only thought the smell was very pleasant, but she didn’t expect that after tasting it, the food was no worse than what she had experienced from top chefs.
In fact, in some ways, it had a particularly special flavor.
It was as if the food, cooked by Qing Yatou, perfectly restored the original taste of the ingredients.
“You make such good barbecue, you could easily open a barbecue restaurant and guarantee a full house every day,” Xu Youyou said, giving Qing Yatou a thumbs-up.
Qing Yatou smiled shyly and replied, “I can’t run a business.”
Xu Youyou looked at her, puzzled. “Is there someone who’s stopping you from running a business?”
Qing Yatou shook her head and said, “Everyone has their own path, and my path isn’t to run a business.”
Xu Youyou could feel the aura of a spiritual practitioner becoming stronger around Qing Yatou. She realized that Qing Yatou was someone with strong principles and immediately stopped herself from trying to persuade her.
“It’s fine if you don’t run a business. With your skills, you’re probably the only one who can control it. You wouldn’t be able to teach it to others. If you had a full house of customers, it would just tire you out,” Xu Youyou casually remarked.
She had just carefully observed Qing Yatou grilling the barbecue. Throughout the process, Qing Yatou seemed completely at ease, as if she was very familiar with the ingredients. She knew exactly when to add seasoning and when to flip the items, her control of the heat was incredibly precise.
Qing Yatou handed Xu Youyou a skewer of mushrooms that had just been grilled.
Xu Youyou had initially thought that Qing Yatou was good at grilling meat, but to her surprise, when the mushroom entered her mouth, the tender juices exploded, like a burst of freshness. For a moment, she almost imagined watching mushrooms rapidly growing on the grass.
If it weren’t for the cold weather, she might have thought it was the rainy season.
However, despite this exquisite taste, Qing Yatou was still not satisfied. She said, “These are fresh mushrooms I bought from outside. They can’t compare to the wild mushrooms from the mountains. They don’t have much flavor. You can just make do with them, Youyou Jie.”
Xu Youyou was so impressed that she couldn’t hide her astonishment. “Huh? These aren’t delicious?”
Qing Yatou shook her head and said, “Mushrooms grown artificially always have a kind of rushed flavor. Their texture is not as delicate or rich as wild mushrooms from the mountains. Just take a bite, and I guarantee you won’t forget it.”
Xu Youyou swallowed in response.
Qing Yatou then handed her a skewer of vegetables. “These are vegetables I grew myself.”
Xu Youyou was a meat lover and didn’t particularly enjoy vegetables, but the vegetables grown by Qing Yatou tasted a hundred times better than the so-called organic vegetables sold at overpriced supermarkets.
“There’s the taste of spring in spring, the taste of summer in summer. My grandfather taught me that we should arrange our meals according to the four seasons. If you go against the seasons, it won’t do much harm, but the flavors you taste won’t be the best,” Qing Yatou had her own food theory.
Xu Youyou listened to Qing Yatou’s description and suddenly didn’t feel so eager to return to Hu City. She almost wished she could stay at her hometown for another year or so, savoring the tastes of spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
The camera, meanwhile, faithfully recorded everything.
As for Lu Jingyao, taking advantage of the two not paying attention, he secretly picked up a skewer of potatoes and began to grill them like Qing Yatou had done.
He thought it was about done, so he grabbed a seasoning jar and sprinkled it onto the potatoes. His expression was focused, his movements smooth, as though he wasn’t grilling but painting.
However, the smell gradually coming from the skewer of potatoes exposed him.
“What are you doing?” Xu Youyou had never known that potato slices could give off such a pungent odor.
For the first time, a look of embarrassment appeared on Lu Jingyao’s handsome face as he glanced at the charred potato slices in his hand, then at Qing Yatou, who was looking confused.
“I thought if I did it the same way as her, it would work. I even timed it, and followed the exact same steps…” Lu Jingyao was confused.
He felt that he had perfectly replicated everything, but while Qing Yatou’s potatoes were grilled to perfection, the ones in his hand looked like something that humans couldn’t have made.
Xu Youyou took a deep breath. She had now witnessed Lu Jingyao’s unwillingness to lose. Over the past few days, although he hadn’t rushed her to eat his dark culinary creations, he had secretly blown up the kitchen more than once.
Xu Youyou could only pretend not to know. After all, Lu Jingyao had never thought about cooking before, but now that he had developed an interest, it was clearly for her sake.
Qing Yatou studied Lu Jingyao carefully and said, “Mr. Lu, you should probably stop cooking. Your path is not that of a chef.”
Lu Jingyao touched his nose and lowered his head humbly. “Miss Cheng, I don’t have plans to become a chef. I just want to cook food that my girlfriend will love.”
Lu Jingyao had always heard his father say that to win a woman’s heart, you had to win her stomach. Lu’s father was indeed an excellent cook. Every year on his wife’s birthday, he would personally cook a meal of her favorite dishes.
Lu Jingyao had never had a girlfriend before, and he hadn’t cared about his cooking skills. Now that he had established his relationship with Xu Youyou, he naturally wanted to show off his abilities.
Qing Yatou said, “You and the kitchen just don’t get along. When you go into the kitchen, you end up harming yourself and others.”
Lu Jingyao paused for a moment and said, “I don’t go into the kitchen because I’m afraid people will think my girlfriend is worse than others.”
Xu Youyou’s face flushed, and she quickly said, “Don’t pay attention to all that nonsense online! Whether or not you cook has nothing to do with me!”
Lu Jingyao replied, “Other people’s boyfriends can handle both the kitchen and the living room, but I’m not good at either… Wouldn’t that make you embarrassed?”
Xu Youyou: … I really don’t understand the inexplicable competitiveness of men.
“You don’t read financial magazines, so what are you looking at every day?” Xu Youyou couldn’t help but ask.
Lu Jingyao thought for a moment. Although it was a little embarrassing, he figured that honesty was important in a relationship.
Soon, Xu Youyou’s phone chimed with a notification, and she took it out to find several links sent by Lu Jingyao.
“Men Become Master Chefs, Women Never Leave the House.”
“Master Chef Husband Cooks for His Wife Every Meal, Beautiful Wife Can’t Handle It…”
Xu Youyou’s pupils shook.
She had no idea that the accomplished Lu Jingyao had actually been influenced by these ridiculous articles from some random WeChat public accounts.
For the first time, Lu Jingyao dared not look too closely at Xu Youyou’s expression.
It was Qing Yatou who suddenly spoke, breaking the awkward silence between the two of them: “Looking closely, Mr. Lu and Youyou Jie really have a couple’s vibe.”
Lu Jingyao turned sharply to look at her, his eyes sparkling. “Really?”
Xu Youyou couldn’t help but tug at him.
Qing Yatou, still in her spiritual practitioner mode, carefully looked back and forth between the two for a while before saying, “They’re heaven-made for each other. Even if a god came down, the god would bless you.”
