Chapter 161: Erin's World-Shocking Culinary Skills

After hearing Yu Sheng's reply, Little Red Riding Hood said nothing, simply sitting quietly on the grass as if pondering a problem, or perhaps just zoning out.

After quite a while, Yu Sheng heard her mutter softly, "This place is so quiet. There are no squirrels or wolf packs either."

"Now that you mention it, that sounds incredibly ominous, like five hundred axe-wielding soldiers are about to jump out of the bushes nearby any second," Yu Sheng glanced awkwardly left and right before fixing his gaze back on the young girl. "Uh... are you okay? You look exhausted."

"Obviously, I'm in Gao San," Little Red Riding Hood rolled her eyes. "And I fell asleep during chemistry class."

Yu Sheng hadn't expected such a practical answer and was momentarily stunned. The girl before him didn't wait for his response, smiling as she shook her head. "At first, I wasn't willing to go to school, especially after passing through the 'Awakening' stage and knowing what would happen in the future... I had a huge fight with my previous 'guardian'. You heard the content of that argument... Wasn't that a bit stupid?"

Yu Sheng said nothing.

Little Red Riding Hood didn't mind whether Yu Sheng answered her or not.

"Now, I occasionally have similar arguments with those half-grown kids," she continued talking to herself. "They just can't understand why the orphanage makes them go to school step by step, study. Those in better situations are specially arranged to attend ordinary schools, while those in worse situations have to take classes with teachers within the compound. For almost everyone, the things they learn will never be useful. They won't graduate, won't have a chance to work, won't have the opportunity to become a designer, a technician, a driver..."

"Actually, they are right. It really is a waste of time—if we look at it solely from the perspective that each child has an average lifespan of only a dozen years so far."

"But the 'guardian' who took care of me back then told me that living means having hope. If this world doesn't give us hope, then there is a problem with the world. Whether we hold onto hope ourselves is our own business."

"In this world, there are very few things we can control. Too many things won't develop the way you expect. So in the end, your 'mindset' becomes the only thing that still belongs to you... although, often, it isn't that easy to control either."

"She also said that it's hard for us to live a complete life, but we can find ways to make our days before adulthood complete... She also told me not to smoke, not to drink, not to do bad things, and to learn some things, to understand how vast the world is. She said it is extremely easy for people to turn bad, and giving up on oneself is the simplest thing, so we should do something challenging, like being a good student..."

Little Red Riding Hood kept talking to herself, saying a lot and a lot, then let out a long sigh, lay on her back on the gray yet soft grass, and looked up at the equally hazy sky above.

"Actually, none of those are very profound principles. She couldn't speak profound principles. After all, when she left, she was only eighteen—she didn't even have time to get a driver's license."

Yu Sheng turned his head, looking at the girl lying on the grass. "But she taught you very well."

"Not that well. I ended up not listening to many of the things she said, like not fighting with people. There are some principles of hers that I still don't agree with even now—but what can be done? Anyway, I can't refute her now."

"True."

The two fell silent again.

Little Red Riding Hood just stared at the hazy sky, zoning out for quite a while. After an unknown amount of time, she suddenly broke the silence. "This place is so quiet..."

"You just sighed about that once already."

"No, what I mean is—your dream is so boring. Is this place just these grasslands?" Little Red Riding Hood rolled over and sat up. "A dream should at least be... bizarre and complex, right? Why does this place feel like... the afterlife?"

"I'm asking why you're being picky," Yu Sheng twitched the corner of his eye. "Isn't it good to have a quiet dream? If you've rested enough here, just go back—find a high spot, turn your back, and fall backward; you should wake up. Or I can call Erin over to kick you out; that success rate is one hundred percent..."

"Then forget it. I'd rather be woken up by the teacher's chalk in a moment," Little Red Riding Hood immediately waved her hands. "You're right too; having a quiet dream is nice. After I accidentally fell asleep, I was worried I'd open my eyes and find myself back in the Black Forest. I didn't expect to find some peace and quiet here."

Yu Sheng pursed his lips, but just then, he vaguely felt he smelled something.

"Do you smell something?" He frowned in confusion, looking at the girl beside him. "A strange smell, quite pungent to the nose."

"No," Little Red Riding Hood sniffed. "Just the smell of the grass—your rhinitis must be acting up."

"That's impossible. It smells like something is burnt."

"You must be smelling things wrong. My nose is better than a dog's..."

Little Red Riding Hood had barely finished half her sentence when she saw Yu Sheng spring up from the ground as if launched. The latter's face turned pale with alarm. "Wrong! The kitchen!"

Little Red Riding Hood: "... Huh?"

But Yu Sheng's figure had already vanished. The next second, Yu Sheng suddenly opened his eyes, then rolled over and felt empty space beneath him, falling directly onto a pile of fluffy tails.

Crackling static electricity is the flower blooming in winter; its flower language is—perhaps the fox immortal in the house really has a Thunder Spirit Root.

Yu Sheng yelped and jumped out of the pile of tails, then almost fell headfirst onto the sharp corner of the coffee table because he stepped on the smooth fur. If he had actually hit that hard, he would have needed at least half an hour before he could check the kitchen to see what the situation was. Fortunately, he wasn't dead. Then, in a panic, he ran from the living room to the kitchen door. The moment he pushed the door open, a strong smell of burning hit him.

Interspersed was Erin's exclamation: "Ah ah ah water water water! It's on fire! My dish is on fire... I'm on fire too!"

Yu Sheng rushed forward in one step, grabbed Erin who was standing on the stove with flames already starting to rise from her skirt, and threw her directly into the sink. Then he turned off the stove, used the pot lid to extinguish the fire in the wok, and opened the window to ventilate, all in one fluid motion.

No. 66 Wutong Road was safe.

Hu Li stood huddled in the corner of the kitchen. Erin, her small face covered in soot, lay in the dishwashing sink. The faucet was gushing loudly, and the small doll was slowly floating up. Yu Sheng stared dumbfounded at these two troublemakers and the smoke dissipating on the stove, because his actions had preceded his brain, so his brain hadn't reacted yet.

Just then, his phone rang twice. He picked it up and saw a text message sent by Little Red Riding Hood:

"I woke up. The teacher discovered me. Woken up by chalk. Angry."

Yu Sheng replied with a "Keep it up" emoji, then scanned the kitchen again, scratching his head. "So, uh, can any of you explain to me what's going on here?"

A few minutes later, Erin was hung on the balcony by a clothesline pole threaded through her two sleeves, dripping water all over. Yu Sheng held a large hairdryer beside her, blowing on the small doll until she swayed back and forth.

!.

Feeling the hairdryer was too slow, Yu Sheng had to bring out the electric heater and place it next to the drying rack to bake her.

"Um, you don't need to hang me up. I can dry myself..." Erin looked at Yu Sheng's expression and muttered cautiously, "I can even flip myself over."

"I hung you on the pole not to save you effort, but to help you remember this incident."

"Yes, yes, that's right..."

Yu Sheng stared at the pitiful Young Lady doll, held his breath for a long time, and finally sighed in resignation, stepping forward to take Erin down from the clothesline pole.

The small doll immediately climbed nimbly onto the electric heater nearby, sat cross-legged on it, and wisps of white steam began to rise from her body.

Now Yu Sheng knew why this guy didn't notice she was too close to the heat source even when her clothes caught fire.

She isn't afraid of being scalded!

"I'm actually quite happy that you wanted to help cook," Yu Sheng finally spoke helplessly after holding back for a while. "But you almost set the kitchen on fire. That's a bit scary—it shouldn't be like this. Hu Li, usually when you help heat up food, there's no problem, right?"

"I... I usually use Fox Fire to heat up food," Hu Li stood nearby with his neck hunched (and tail tucked), his ears drooping. "But Erin said she's not used to it. She can use the gas stove... and then she wanted to perform a wok toss..."

Yu Sheng froze, turning his head to look at the Young Lady doll sitting on the electric radiator. At this moment, she was surrounded by swirling steam, looking as if she had ascended to immortality. "You, wok toss?"

Erin let out an awkward "hehe," with black soot still on her face.

"That wok is almost as big as you when stood upright! You wok toss?" Yu Sheng's eyebrows shot up. "Who is tossing whom?!"

Erin let out a dry laugh, changed her position on the radiator, and continued to emit "smoke."

Yu Sheng shook his head, stood up, walked over, and lifted the small doll off the heater.

Erin was instantly startled. "Hey, what are you doing—"

Yu Sheng let out a sigh, carrying the doll toward the bathroom. "Stop baking. I just remembered, you should go take a shower first. You've been smoked and roasted until you're seasoned."

Erin was held by the collar, suspended in mid-air. She looked up at Yu Sheng. "You're not angry anymore?"

"Can I really get this angry day after day?" Yu Sheng said, half laughing and half crying. "Fine, at least he didn't actually set the house on fire... I'll go check the kitchen later and see how to solve the lunch problem."

(End of this chapter)