Chapter 20: Trying Pumpkin Rice Porridge

Chen Zhao wiped his eyes and asked, "Is that Zhang Zhaodi? She used to pick fights with villagers, but she never gave anything to them afterwards."

"It's very expensive to use me as a cover." Yu Zhile smiled.

Chen Zhao helped pick up the vegetables and his stomach growled twice again.

His face immediately turned red and he scratched the back of his head: "I didn't have lunch, I'm a little hungry."

"Just cook some porridge and make dumplings in the evening." Yu Zhile kissed Yu Chi on the cheek and walked to Yu Yue while hugging him.

Yu Yue smiled at her, and Moore also barked lazily.

"Xiao Yue is also obedient." Yu Zhile put Yu Chi in his arms and leaned over to hug him.

Yu Chi put his arms around Yu Yue's neck, rubbed his face, and called him brother in a low voice.

"Xiaobao is awesome." Yu Yue's eyes were slightly red.

Yu Zhile looked at the two of them with a smile for a while before going into the kitchen.

She planned to cook pumpkin and rice porridge and make a dish of vines with shrimp paste.

The round and plump rice grains roll in the boiling water, and the rich sweet aroma slowly spreads with the steam.

Yu Zhile poured the diced pumpkin into a clay pot and simmered it over low heat.

Zhou Yuesheng was picking vine vegetables. The vegetables in front of him were divided into three piles, and their lengths were neat and tidy, as if they had been measured with a ruler.

"I'm going to go up the mountain later to pick some mugwort." Yu Zhile said.

Zhou Yuesheng was thinking about the fainting incident, staring down at the cloud symbol on her wrist, and didn't hear her words clearly.

Yu Zhile repeated it.

He nodded in agreement, his eyes never leaving her wrist.

Yu Zhile's wrist was dazzlingly white, and with a slight turn, the symbol was hidden in the darkness.

Zhou Yuesheng couldn't describe the feeling when he fainted. There was no sign of discomfort beforehand. In just one second, all his consciousness was cut off.

Was it a weapon or a drug? He had no idea.

No matter which one it is, if it is confirmed to belong to the enemy, it will be a huge threat to them.

"The porridge is almost ready. Have you washed the vegetables?" Yu Zhile poked his head out of the kitchen.

Zhou Yuesheng soaked the vine vegetables in water, shook it quickly a few times, and put it into a bamboo basket to drain.

Yu Zhile was stirring the glutinous rice porridge in front of the stove, which brought out waves of sweet aroma.

"Okay." Zhou Yuesheng placed the bamboo basket next to the stove.

Yu Zhile turned his head to look at him and pointed at the low wooden rack beside the stove.

The steam made her face blurry, and Zhou Yuesheng pinched her index finger joints until they turned white.

The neck of the person in front of him was white and slender, so fragile that it seemed like it could be broken with one hand, and the secret she was hiding made him want to destroy it.

Yu Zhile suddenly turned around, and his movement was so fast that Zhou Yuesheng subconsciously stepped back.

"Why are you hiding from me?" She walked towards him with a smile.

Zhou Yuesheng stayed where he was and didn't move any more.

"How did you wake up?" Yu Zhile walked closer and pinched the outside of his wrist with his fingers.

Zhou Yuesheng replied: “I don’t know.”

"I don't know?" Yu Zhile said, and the index finger of his other hand stopped on his abdominal muscles and slowly moved down along the abdominal groove.

Zhou Yuesheng let her do whatever she wanted.

"Will robots develop self-awareness?" Yu Zhile kept moving.

The fingertips of her right hand stroked the bulging abdominal muscles, and the thumb of her left hand pressed on the pulse. Her eyes stayed on Zhou Yuesheng's face.

"No, Master." Zhou Yuesheng held the hand that was about to cross the line, and said in a low voice.

"Oh." Yu Zhile responded casually and brushed off his hand.

Then, she turned around with a calm expression, took out the firewood under the clay pot and put it into the big stove.

The hot steam evaporates the small water droplets remaining in the iron pan. Add sesame oil into the pan and swirl to produce bubbles. Pour in the prepared ginger, garlic and chili powder and stir-fry until fragrant.

Put the radish into the pot and it will change color in less than a minute. Add a spoonful of shrimp paste and stir-fry evenly before serving.

The pumpkin stalk rice porridge is sweet and sticky, while the shrimp paste and vine vegetables are salty and fresh.

The collision of the two extreme smells made the people feel even hungrier, and after the food was served, everyone was so hungry that they couldn't even raise their heads.

"Sister, your cooking skills are amazing. Even simple rice porridge and vine vegetables can be made so delicious. I must have been accumulating blessings since my last life to be able to eat the dishes you cook."

The combination of salty and sweet made Chen Zhao eat one more bowl than usual. After finishing his meal and drinking the porridge, he immediately went into boasting mode.

Yu Zhile smiled lightly: "You don't need to accumulate merits in your previous life. Go up the mountain and help me pick some mugwort later."

"Okay! I want to pick two big baskets!" Chen Zhao said excitedly, as if he had received some great task.

As the seasons change from spring to summer, mosquitoes gradually increase in number. People in Hai County are accustomed to lighting mugwort to fumigate the house before going to bed.

Yu Zhile plans to keep half of it to dry into mugwort, and sell the other half live while it is still fresh.

The three of them didn't rest for too long and quickly picked up their backpacks and went up the mountain.

The wild wormwood on the hillside is connected together and swaying in the wind.

The young leaves are used to make green rice balls, but the young and old leaves are not important when drying mugwort.

Some people will directly cut the mugwort with leaves and stems and take them home to process them, while others like to pick only the leaves.

Yu Zhile and his companions only picked the leaves. They rubbed their palms vigorously from the top of the stem downwards, and the leaves of an entire mugwort plant could be removed cleanly.

The process of picking mugwort was repetitive and boring, but Chen Zhao's mouth was not idle either. He kept telling Yu Zhile about his spring outing, from elementary school to high school. The whole hillside was filled with his voice.

More than half an hour later, Yu Zhile and Chen Zhao's bamboo baskets began to fill up, but Zhou Yuesheng's looked even less than full.

The three of them walked back, and Chen Zhao wandered around Zhou Yuesheng.

"Sister...Brother Zhou, why is your bamboo basket so heavy?" Chen Zhao's brain was faster than his mouth, and he swallowed half of the word "brother-in-law".

"It can hold more if you press it tighter." Zhou Yuesheng glanced at him.

Chen Zhao didn't seem to notice the coldness in his tone and continued to ask, "Brother Zhou, is your vacation so long? I don't think I've seen you train. I've seen my childhood friend train every day when he goes home during the vacation, without missing a day."

"Yeah." Zhou Yuesheng quickened his pace.

On the short journey home, Chen Zhao confessed all the embarrassing things that happened to his childhood friend.

There is no need to wash the mugwort leaves, just put them in a dustpan to dry. After they are completely dry tomorrow, you can pack them in bags for storage.

Yu Zhile went into the house to rest and called up the cloud live broadcast platform to look at the relevant rules of the small window.

There are restrictions on the finalization of product prices. After the anchor submits the product, the platform will provide a recommended price based on a comprehensive consideration of multiple factors. The anchor's final price cannot fluctuate by more than ten percent.

"Xiao Yun, submit the product." Yu Zhile gave the order.

Xiaoyun called up the product submission page, and then the mugwort leaf in her palm floated in the air, covered by a blue light.

"Host, the analysis is complete. The platform recommends that you price mugwort at 1 cloud coin." Xiaoyun reported the final result.

Yu Zhile changed the price to 0.9 cloud coins, and set the quantity and the time when the product link would be listed.

At the moment of submission, a pop-up window appears in the center of the page, and a sentence appears in the pop-up window.

[You can choose static pictures or dynamic videos as promotional items in the small window. You can enable the small window synaesthesia function with 100 cloud coins. Do you want to enable it? ]

Yu Zhile chose no, and only closed his eyes to rest when he saw the progress bar reach 100% and the announcement of resumption of broadcasting appeared.

The taut string relaxed, fatigue quickly invaded her body, and she fell asleep quickly.

Yu Zhile slept uneasily and had several nightmares.

Either I dreamed of a bloody interrogation room, or I dreamed of being trapped in darkness, surrounded by screams and sobs.

When she woke up, the hair on her temples was wet with sweat and her head was dizzy.

Before the live broadcast time, Yu Zhile turned over, covering half of his face, and happened to see the letter papers scattered on the ground.

She thought again of testing Zhou Yuesheng in the kitchen. His pulse was steady, which was indeed not like that of a human.

However, the testing is not over yet.