Chapter 47: Don't Question the Chef

Nanami Kento is a serious person.

His serious and rule-abiding personality often causes him to be described as "rigid", "hypocritical", "pretentious", "self-denial", and "too serious and boring" by people around him, but these words do not affect him.

Because he is a person who is serious enough to even evaluate his own character.

This personality trait does not affect his plans for the future, so he continues to walk on the path that makes him feel comfortable.

He once dreamed of living a regular and orderly life, so he thought becoming a white-collar worker would be a good choice. Unfortunately, God seemed to be against him and got him involved in the turmoil in the world of sorcery.

What kind of person is Gojo-senpai?

If we only talk about personality, Nanami Kento would say that Gojo-senpai is the type he is least good at dealing with.

He was erratic, talked to himself, his mind worked quickly, and his actions were almost unplanned—a soul completely opposite to his own.

"Huh? But I think Senior Gojo is awesome! Super-strong!" Haibara Yuu expressed his admiration for his seniors. In his eyes, all seniors are worthy of admiration.

"I'm not talking about his strength." Nanami Kento was used to the train of thought of his new classmates. From an objective point of view, he believed that there was no one stronger than Gojo-senpai in terms of strength.

But this man's character flaws are as obvious as his strengths, and no one can surpass him.

"Nanami~ What are you daydreaming about? Xiaoli said they're going to the big gathering, so go change your clothes." Gojo Satoru waved his hand in front of Nanami. "You really do enjoy digging~"

Nanami Kento picked up his shovel and shoveled the last of the dirt into the wheelbarrow. "I just want to finish this job properly," he said.

Gong Zhili, carrying a backpack, called out to him from the basement entrance, "Nanami, stop busying yourself. We have a lot of things to buy at the fair today. Come and help."

Nanami Kento finally carried the dirt from the cart to the lakeside and came to Gong Zhili. He held out his hand and said, "Please give me the backpack."

Gong Zhili was a little surprised: "Huh? Do you want to help me carry it?"

Nanami Kento looked normal: "Miya-san, you are younger than us, and you are a girl."

Xia Yujie was surprised: "She is younger than you?"

Gojo Satoru asked, "So, how old are you, Xiaoli?"

Gong Zhili: "Fourteen."

Huiyuan Xiong was very impressed: "So Gong-san is so young but he can support so many people?"

Gong Zhili took off the backpack and handed it to Nanami Kento, saying, "Yeah, that's why I'm working hard to make money."

Huiyuan Xiong nodded, feeling the same way: "I am also working hard to make money - Nanami, if you are tired, just give me the backpack!"

This is what he should do!

The five children, led by the twins, had already taken their pocket money and ran to the big gathering to have breakfast. Today, Gong Zhili was too lazy to cook and decided to let everyone go to the big gathering to eat.

Glass walked slowly behind and said to the two classmates beside her: "Don't you think Nanami is much more reliable than you?"

Xia Yujie smiled and said, "This is something to be happy about."

Glass pointed out directly: "You never thought of helping her carry that backpack."

Gojo Satoru put his hands behind his head and yawned lazily. "This is the difference in attitude caused by the different feelings when meeting for the first time. The first time I met her, she hung me on a tree and slept with me all night, you know?"

Xia Yujie also recalled his not-so-harmonious first meeting with her and said, "No matter how I think about it, I can't treat her as a junior."

Glass was the first to refute Gojo Satoru: "She said that you fainted and she caught you with a branch, okay!"

Gojo Satoru: "Nanoko, you dote on her so much. Is this also due to the effect of our first meeting?"

Gong Zhili brought so many people to today's big gathering, so the village chief couldn't help but ask a few more questions, especially about the three children who suddenly appeared.

Gong Zhili: "This is the child of an employee of their school. Something happened to the employee's family, so I am raising him."

She added, "After a while, I'll put up a sign saying it's a school training base. Sometimes they won't enter through the village entrance, but if they're around in the village—tell the other villagers."

The village chief didn't know what was going on in his mind, but he looked serious and agreed very readily.

Today's grand fair is more varied than the last one. Perhaps everyone is trying to figure out how to display more and better items. The entire fair market seems to be thriving, and the fresh meat stalls are sold out faster than last time. Haibara Yu and Nanami Kento were entrusted by her with the task of buying beef. The two of them "fought" with the powerful home chefs in front of the stall, and in the end it was the more experienced Haibara Yu who grabbed enough beef.

"These will be the source of meat for the children for the next month," Gong Zhili bought almost twice as much pork and beef this time, because more people came in recent days and the meat stockpiled last month has been completely consumed.

"And we need to store more for the winter, like making some sausages and bacon." Gong Zhili's eyes sharpened. "The battle next month will be even more severe."

Yuji raised his hand and grabbed the hem of her clothes, imitating her words: "Harsh!"

Megumi Fushiguro: "What is harshness?"

The two of them sang in unison like a crosstalk performance. Gong Zhili couldn't help but smile and asked, "Did you have enough breakfast?"

Fushiguro Megumi nodded: "It's delicious."

After Gong Zhili finished shopping, he asked Xiaozi, "Come with me to Yongwang to buy things tomorrow. They didn't bring many clothes when they sent the child here."

Nanami Kento's brows furrowed slightly, and Haibara Yu said cheerfully, "Miya-san, let's go help too!"

Gong Zhili said calmly, "No need. The manager of AEON will help me move the things onto the truck. I can just rent two cars and go out tomorrow."

She twisted her neck and said, "Speaking of which, don't call me that awkwardly. Just call me 'Zhi Li' like they do. I don't care about that."

Today's lunch was also eaten at the gathering. Gong Zhili tried the roasted rice balls and sugar-roasted chestnuts, and suddenly remembered that there were hawthorns at home.

She can make candied haws!

"Tanghulu...what is that?" When she said this, everyone's face was full of confusion.

Gojo Satoru raised his hand: "The name sounds like a dessert!"

Gong Zhili thought for a moment and confirmed: "It's a dessert made of fruit."

Gojo Satoru leaned on the back of the chair happily: "Then I want to eat!"

Gong Zhili instructed him: "Go get the hawthorns from the utility room and wash them."

Gojo Satoru: "Hawthorn? Do you want to add rock sugar to the hawthorn flesh? Will it be too sour?"

It’s not that he doesn’t eat sour food at all, but the balance between sour and sweet is very important!

Gong Zhili: "You'll understand once you try it. It's very simple."

She went to the kitchen to boil rock sugar first. The other children, both big and small, who were interested in candied haws, crowded in the kitchen to wash hawthorns. After a while, they heard Tsu Miki's voice: "Youren, don't feed it to your mouth--"

"Ah!" Yuji Itadori's face wrinkled, "Sour... sour..." His saliva was flowing out.

Megumi Fushiguro quietly put the red and round hawthorn in her hand back into the plate.

Gong Zhili picked up the hawthorns, placed the end of a bamboo skewer on her knuckle, and threaded the red fruits neatly into a string. As the sugary syrup in the pot slowly boiled into a syrup, bubbling, Gong Zhili felt the temperature and, twirling the bamboo skewer half a circle against the edge of the pot, coated the hawthorns in syrup. The excess golden sugar strands hung in thin threads in the air. The chopping board was already covered with rice paper, and she placed the candied haws upside down, waiting for the syrup to harden into a crust.

Gong Zhili looked at the children in the kitchen, asked them to stand further away, and said mysteriously: "I'm going to make something interesting for you to see."

Gong Zhili pressed the bamboo stick horizontally between his palms and rubbed it twice quickly and forcefully. The syrup was still steaming. He pushed and retracted his palms, leaving afterimages. The bamboo stick spun, and the golden sugar liquid was suddenly thrown into hundreds of sugar threads, which stretched straight in the cold wind.

The candied haws that were shaken off exploded upright. The outermost layer of sugar was as thin as a thread, while the middle layer was relatively thick. She handed the candied haws to Yuji Itadori, who had just felt the sour taste. When he happily bit into it, everyone could hear the crisp "crunch" and "crunch" sounds.

"How is it? Is it delicious?" Gong Zhili asked.

Yuji Itadori, who was still chewing on candy, naturally nodded, and his mouth was too busy to even speak.

"This is interesting, I want to play it myself!" Gojo Satoru squeezed over. This was easy. He quickly turned the remaining candied haws into sugar threads and gave one to each person.

For a moment, the only sounds in the room were the "crunch" and "crunch" sounds of people eating candied haws.

Gong Zhili packed the cooled ordinary candied haws into a box and put it in the refrigerator. He bit into the candied haws and said, "It tastes better when it's chilled, but you should eat less."

Gojo Satoru: "I'm not afraid of the cold."

Gong Zhili: "If you eat too much, your teeth will become so soft that you can't even chew tofu."

Nanako looked at the candied haws with one fruit left in her hand, swallowed hard, and said to Gong Zhili while holding up the bamboo stick: "Master Gong, I want to freeze it and eat it at noon tomorrow."

Gong Zhili agreed.

The other children followed suit and asked Gong Zhili to freeze the candied haws they had not finished eating.

Xia Yujie bit through the last hawthorn, quickly finished his portion, and said to Gojo Satoru: "I admit that you are right. She is indeed a great educator."

It also prevents children from eating too much sweets and teaches them to delay gratification.

Gojo Satoru had already finished his portion. His interest in the snack was piqued when he heard Geto's sudden words: "As an educator, do you have a mutual understanding with her?"

The children started to make noise after eating their snacks, and took out the toys they bought at the fair today and played with them on the ground.

Gong Zhili glanced at the tatami and confirmed that the room was clean enough. Anyway, the children had always been mopping the floor. The twins had even learned to assign tasks without any instruction. They taught the three new children to allocate a small area to each of them, which reduced the time spent on mopping the floor.

She sat on the sofa and watched tonight's prime-time animation with Glass.

Xia Youjie leaned on the armrest of the sofa, wondering: "Don't they like watching this?"

Gong Zhili said without even turning around: "Maybe he still doesn't know how interesting animation is."

Nanako and Mimiko are also the kind of kids who don't like watching anime. Nanako likes to watch TV dramas with her, and Mimiko likes to watch fashion shows. Variety shows with clothing matching segments are very popular with her.

Tsu Miki lowered her head to draw, and heard the music of the opening theme of "Poseidon" in her ears. She couldn't help but hum it softly.

Gojo Satoru heard this and straightened up along the back of the sofa: "Tsu Miki, let's watch One Piece together!"

Itadori Yuji seemed to have suddenly received a signal, looked up and said excitedly: "I want to see this!"

He threw down his building blocks and ran to the sofa, sat down, looked left and right, then grinned and concentrated on watching TV.

His behavior was like a signal, a beginning. The children who had been pretending not to be interested in TV gathered around him and sat in a row in front of the sofa.

Nanako and Mimiko looked at each other and squeezed over.

Usually, it’s just the two of them, so it’s okay if they are not interested in TV, but when other people go to watch TV, they can’t stay out of it!

Haibara Yu also found a place to sit on the tatami and started watching the animation attentively.

Nanami Kento sighed deeply in his heart as he watched these unreliable "adults" occupying the sofa and letting the children sit on the floor without any humility.

Why does he have the illusion that there is a "reliable" adult in this family?

The next day, Gong Zhili took Gaozi and the five children, rented two cars from the villagers, and set off for Yongwang.

The four boys in the family continued to dig the soil and fill the stones, because Gong Zhili said that they were about to lay the foundation, so they would first lay down about 30 centimeters of gravel, and the rest would be done when she came back.

"A stone several dozen centimeters long!" Gojo Satoru exclaimed. "She makes it sound so easy!"

Isn't it tiring for them to push carts of goods here? Doesn't it take time? They're even happily shopping outside at this time!

After listening to the senior's excellent singing and dancing performance, Nanami Kento calmly pointed out, "Miss Gong went to buy daily necessities for the children. Ultimately, that's why the seniors were completely unprepared when they brought the children here."

Gojo Satoru took two steps back, clutching his chest, and fell on Geto Suguru's shoulder, sobbing artificially: "How dare the juniors criticize us so harshly."

Geto Suguru agreed with him: "So you have to work hard to clean up the impression you have on the younger generation. Satoru, bring a few more carts of gravel."

Gojo Satoru shut his mouth, put his arm on Haibara Yu's shoulder, and went to push the stones with this junior who had always been full of energy.

--

On the other hand, the difficulty level of taking five small children out at home is different from the difficulty level of taking them out to a department store.

But with Mr. Sato and Mr. Suzuki driving, it was much easier with four adults and five children.

The twins followed Miya Chiri, Naoko held Tsu Miki's hand, Yuji Itadori and Megumi Fushiguro were carried into two shopping carts respectively and pushed by Mr. Sato and Mr. Suzuki.

Fushiguro Megumi seemed very dissatisfied and said to Miya Chiri in a very low but forceful voice: "I want to go by myself."

Yuhito felt good. He found everything here new and it was fun to sit in the car.

Miya Chiri held a long list in her hand. She evenly divided it into several parts and decided the order of purchases. After hearing what Fushiguro Megumi said, she placed the list in front of him and explained to him very seriously: "We have a lot of things to buy today. You will also have to try on a lot of clothes later. It will take a lot of energy, so you have to sit in the car to save energy. Is this acceptable to you?"

Fushiguro Megumi pursed his lips, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl up because he was taken seriously by an adult. He nodded: "I understand."

Purchasing daily necessities for three children is not an easy job. The sales manager of AEON's children's clothing department was shocked to see that she brought a few more children with her, and he had countless speculations in his mind.

Gong Zhili didn't care. After a while, the places she frequented and the people she came into contact with would gradually ignore her differences from ordinary people.

And she doesn't just buy for three children. Gong Zhili will buy any new style suitable for twins if she sees it. After all, there are so many cabinets in the house that they can fit everything.

In addition to other sundries, she bought new toys for each child, the videotapes that Miya Chiri wanted, and also bought local specialty white scallion soy sauce as gifts for Mr. Suzuki and Mr. Sato. Of course, she also bought a lot of local specialties for herself, such as squid kimchi and white scallion soy sauce, and several kinds of award-winning rice, wanting to try out the differences.

They finally got lost in the specialty area, and Yuzhang and Fushiguro were also put down. In the specialty tasting area, cute children are always popular. Firstly, the expressions of children when they eat delicious food are more exaggerated, and secondly, if children like the food, the food will sell well.

The five children that Gong Zhili brings with her are all extremely cute.

While they were eating the food they thought was delicious, Gong Zhili did make some large purchases.

Glass said: "You are a bit of a spoiled child."

Maybe in the eyes of others, Gong Zhili assigned tasks to each child and did not call them sweetly. Instead, she communicated with them as if they were adults and did not spoil them. However, Ieiri Naoko had taken care of children before (although the time was short, but it was very impressive!), and she clearly knew that "forbidding children to do something" was much easier than "explaining to children why they cannot do so". The latter requires more than double the effort!

"Children are the future," Gong Zhili said matter-of-factly. "They may not understand some things, but teaching them the right concepts from a young age is much better than leaving them at a loss when faced with difficulties later. They will always remember them. And children can understand. They will understand an adult's attitude and tone of voice."

She has always educated her twins in this way, so although they are only one year older than Itadori Fushiguro, they always adopt a mature attitude when encountering problems (no matter how small).

Glass leaned on the handle of the shopping cart and looked at her and smiled: "Gojo called you an 'education expert', which is really appropriate."

I'm really curious about what kind of family would raise a girl like Gong Zhili.

Gong Zhili scratched his face: "Actually, sometimes I talk a lot without realizing it, and it seems like I'm being nagging."

There's nothing I can do about it. Her mother is a teacher, so it's normal for her to be infected with some occupational diseases.

Glass smiled and said, "How could that be? It's so cute."

--

After they got home, they had another round of cleaning up. The other three children, who did not have as much energy as Nanako and Mimiko, washed up and went to take a nap - they did not eat lunch, probably because they were full from the food tasting.

Gong Zhili directly took out the squid kimchi side dish and white onion soy sauce she had bought and placed them on the table. She steamed the rice and made a simple mushroom and scallop miso soup and sweet tamagoyaki, indicating that this was lunch. The adolescent boys who had also worked hard for the whole morning fell silent.

"Is that all?" Huiyuan Xiong touched his head, "Are you out of money? I saved some before..."

Xia Yujie closed his eyes and said sadly, "I just bought so much meat yesterday."

Gojo Satoru was in a very low mood, and his tone was also low: "If all else fails, teppanyaki grilling will also work... I saw you even bought a grill!"

Gong Zhili sat down, expressionless: "People who don't cook have no right to speak. I want to rest. What's wrong?"

The side dishes I just bought were very expensive, but they tasted great. The miso soup and tamagoyaki were also delicious!

Nanami Kento was the only one who didn't complain. On the contrary, he liked the dishes very much. After tasting all the dishes carefully, he said to Gong Zhili, "Thank you, Miss Gong, it's delicious."

After tasting it, Huiyuan Xiong also gave a thumbs up: "It's delicious!"

Glass drank miso soup and breathed a sigh of satisfaction: "Next time, you can cook for yourselves."

Gojo Satoru immediately started eating in silence: cooking was impossible. Even though Rokugan was good at learning, he was not willing to cook.

And the food is so delicious!

He decided that he would never question Gong Zhili's cooking again. A chef is a chef.

Having regained a certain degree of pickiness about taste, Geto Suguru, who finally surrendered, also shamelessly admitted that his knowledge was still too shallow and he needed more spiritual training.

Gong Zhili watched them act so much, finished his meal in silence, and said, "Then you wash the dishes."

The four boys had no objection.

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Author's note: I tried to write a little more! Going to bed early is really important! Please eat!