Chapter 22: Full of Flavor, Color, and Aroma

There was a lot of meat, too much to stew at once, so Yu Sheng processed it into several dishes with different cooking methods.

As the saying goes, the first time is strange, the second time is familiar, the third time add green onion, ginger, and cooking wine—early humans in the dawn of civilization likely explored and tried nature's gifts following this very process.

Yu Sheng hummed a little tune, cut the largest portion of meat into big chunks, blanched them in boiling water to skim off the blood foam, then placed star anise, fennel, cloves, cinnamon, and other stewing spices into a clay pot. After putting the meat in, he added enough clear water, salt, soy sauce, and cooking wine to remove the gamey smell, and set it on the stove to simmer slowly.

While the meat was stewing, he stir-fried the remaining meat separately with chili peppers and garlic scapes to make two plates. He tasted a little, finding it fresh and fragrant, neither tough nor raw, with tender and smooth slices of meat, yet he couldn't say exactly which kind of meat that flavor resembled; judging purely by texture, it was somewhat close to very tender beef.

As for the rest, he planned to confirm there were no issues after finishing this meal before processing it into cured meat for storage... or perhaps marinate and age it, then use an air fryer to dehydrate it into salted meat jerky? He hadn't done that before, nor did he know if it would work...

Yu Sheng's mind was spinning with all sorts of ideas; he felt like a scientist bold enough to try new things, exploring possibilities in a field no one had ever ventured into before.

So he explored in the kitchen for nearly two hours, and after a busy spell, he finally opened the door and carried the cups, plates, bowls, and the clay pot of stewing meat to the dining table, trip after trip.

In the oil painting, Erin watched Yu Sheng bustling about there with a horrified gaze, her face simultaneously displaying two completely contradictory expressions: "Forget it, I'm tired, let him be" and "You can't, you absolutely cannot!" After quite a while, she finally couldn't hold back and spoke up: "You don't actually plan to eat this, do you? This is something brought back from the Other Realm! Don't eat yourself to death!"

Yu Sheng looked up at Erin: "What if I tell you I've already eaten it twice 'over there'?"

The contradictory expression on Erin's face vanished instantly, leaving only horror: "... Huh?!"

"Look, I'm still jumping around and full of energy, so it should be fine. It's such a pity to throw away hard-won spoils," Yu Sheng said with an air of absolute reasonableness. "Do you know hunting? This is my catch—someday, I'll bring that thing back whole and make it understand who's at the top of the food chain!"

Erin didn't respond. Yu Sheng looked at the doll Young Lady's stunned expression and, out of curiosity, asked another question: "But speaking of which, has no one ever 'tasted' the 'entities' in the Other Realm? Didn't you say they come in all sorts of forms? There should be no shortage of things that look edible in there."

"Who would try that!" Erin looked frantic. "They say they carry all sorts of eerie properties; having poison is the best case scenario. How can you put such things in your mouth! And you even ate two... You really ate it twice?"

"Yeah, but the first two times were sashimi. The situation was quite urgent then; there was no time for processing. It was the kind of emergency where if you didn't eat that bite right away, you'd lose your life to eat anything else." While speaking casually, Yu Sheng sat down opposite Erin, casually picked up a slice of meat with chopsticks, tossed it into his mouth, and ate with relish.

Erin was stunned by what she heard: "Then... what was your reaction after eating it back then?"

"I died after eating it." Yu Sheng said it with complete honesty.

"Then you still..." Erin instinctively cried out, then felt something was wrong—but she didn't know about Yu Sheng's "resurrection," so she just thought the other person was teasing her. She glared angrily, "I'm being serious with you!"

Yu Sheng grinned, laughing aloud at the doll in the oil painting who was furious and frustrated.

He found he was starting to enjoy bickering with this doll a bit.

Anyway, the other party couldn't jump out of the painting to headbutt him.

He still didn't explain his "resurrection" to Erin. On one hand, at this stage Erin couldn't perceive his death process at all, so explaining it would just seem like bluffing. On the other hand, he had too many guesses about the changes happening to his own body waiting to be verified; he hoped to discuss them with Erin after figuring out a few more things.

Erin didn't know how many chaotic thoughts lay behind Yu Sheng's mischievous smile. She just couldn't help but glance again at the sumptuous meal on the table, then stared blankly at Yu Sheng's chewing motions.

It looked... quite appetizing, and after processing, the color was no different from ordinary meat, with no trace of that eerie appearance from the beginning.

"... Is it tasty?"

The doll in the painting finally couldn't hold it back and asked, pretending not to care.

Yu Sheng immediately laughed, as if he had expected this scene all along. He casually picked up the empty bowls and plates he had placed on the table earlier, served Erin a portion of rice and meat soup, and set it in front of the oil painting.

"I didn't say I wanted..." Erin mumbled.

Yu Sheng said casually, "Anyway, you can't really eat it, so there's even less reason to worry about the ingredients of these things, right?"

Erin thought for a moment and felt there seemed to be some logic: "Yes, yes, oh?"

So she became at ease again, presenting a state of "voice and face present, smile and manner preserved" before the bowls and chopsticks Yu Sheng had arranged.

Halfway through the meal, the two's topic inevitably returned to the previous discussion about "professionals."

"Actually, there's another possibility that no one has come to find you yet," Erin said, hugging her teddy bear while sitting very close to the edge of the picture frame, thinking as she spoke. "It could be that some organization or official personnel have already noticed the strangeness here, but based on professional judgment, they believe they cannot act immediately, or they haven't precisely located the Other Realm's connection point and relevant intelligence yet, so they can only arrange surveillance methods first." "Surveillance?"

"Yeah, there might be a bunch of plainclothes officers watching your house right now. After all, you ran back from the Other Realm on your own before anyone could rescue you. Whether it's due to your strength or luck, the people who specialize in handling such matters haven't had time to make a move, so they probably haven't had time to locate it either. Naturally, they can only set up monitoring around the area first... You can pay attention these next couple of days to see if any unfamiliar faces appear nearby; they might be plainclothes officers, plainclothes detectives, plainclothes investigators, or whatever. It's just a side note, doesn't stop you from looking for small ads on nearby utility poles..."

Yu Sheng ignored the other party's remarks about "small ads on utility poles" and instead looked up at the window.

Erin made it sound simple, just pay attention to see if there are any unfamiliar faces nearby—but how would he know which one was unfamiliar! He had only been here for two months, and for the first month he had almost entirely stayed cooped up at home. Plus, he was naturally a bit face-blind; in his eyes, half the people in this place were unfamiliar faces!

"Do you think that person selling pancakes at the intersection looks like a plainclothes officer?" After staring suspiciously out the window for a long time, Yu Sheng whispered to Erin.

"I don't know; I can't see."

"Oh, right, I forgot," Yu Sheng realized and quickly got up to take Erin's picture frame, placing it in front of a nearby window facing outside. "Just that one over there..."

"Doesn't look like it."

"So sure?"

"Obviously. Fifty seconds for a set with sausage and egg. If he were really a plainclothes officer, he probably wouldn't even be able to brush the oil properly in fifty seconds."

"... That's true. Then what about the one next to him applying phone screen protectors?"

!.

"Doesn't look like it either—too nimble with hands and feet."

"Oh... hey, look at..."

"Stop looking. Worrying like this is useless, and if it were a professional surveillance expert, you definitely wouldn't be able to tell," Erin interrupted Yu Sheng. "Instead of wasting time guessing blindly, why not go out and wander around yourself these next couple of days? You carry the aura of the Other Realm on you; once you get close, those professionals will spot it at a glance."

"... Hey, that's true."

Yu Sheng sighed and couldn't refute the other party, so he turned back to prepare to clear the bowls and chopsticks from the dining table.

But as soon as he turned his head, he heard Erin shout from behind: "Put me back first! I'm still leaning on the window!"

Yu Sheng sighed helplessly again, turned around to carry Erin down from the windowsill, and muttered, "Tsk, so troublesome."

"Then get me a body as soon as possible so I can run around on my own," Erin raised her eyelids in the oil painting, looking at Yu Sheng who was placing her on the dining table, and immediately added, "I feel I'm a bit more familiar with you today, so I'm asking again..."

Hearing this, the corner of Yu Sheng's mouth twitched involuntarily.

Erin had indeed said when they discussed the "escape plan" before that the two of them weren't familiar enough yet, so cooperation on this matter should be discussed after both sides became familiar. But he hadn't expected this doll's standard for "familiarity" to be so flexible.

"We'll see, we'll see. I have a head full of things to deal with right now; at least let me finish this busy spell..."

"Yeah, fine then," Erin was easy to persuade; she was slightly disappointed but nodded. "Just don't forget!"

Then she was quiet for only a moment. Seeing Yu Sheng clear the bowls and chopsticks from the table, she started chattering again: "What are you going to do next? Getting ready to go out and look for utility poles?"

"Are you obsessed with utility poles or what?" Yu Sheng immediately glared at her. "I'm going upstairs to sleep! After going through all this, I'm about to drop dead from exhaustion!"

Erin made an "oh" sound and pointed her finger at the TV opposite the picture frame.

"Can you fix the TV first? The signal suddenly cut out; there's nothing to watch..."

Yu Sheng: "..."

After a brief moment, he let out an especially heavy sigh.

After such a short time with this Bi Bi Ji, he already began to miss his carefree and happy solitary life.

(End of this chapter)