First time cooking

Sun Min nodded vigorously, tears welling up again.

Liu Xiangmei gave Wang Yao, who was not far away, a look, and Wang Yao then ran over with her soda in her arms.

Tsk tsk tsk, Comrade Liu Xiangmei's silver tongue is still impressive. Look at how she's trying to persuade the child, with snot and tears streaming down her face. She's really heartbroken.

This reminded Wang Yao of the students she had seen at the senior high school pep rally on Douyin in her previous life. They were exactly the same as Sun Min in front of her. Comrade Liu Xiangmei's skills were comparable to those of those master lecturing masters.

Liu Xiangmei noticed the admiration in her eyes, raised her chin with a smug look, and then gestured to Wang Yao to quickly persuade the child not to cry and suffocate under the hot sun.

Wang Yao chuckled inwardly. You made someone cry, and now I have to comfort them? How come you're so good at arranging things!

But in reality, he squatted down and shoved a bottle of soda directly into Sun Min's face. Sun Min was jolted by the cold and looked up to see Wang Yao with a mischievous grin.

What are you doing? Can't you see she's crying her heart out? Sun Min sobbed a few times, realizing that Wang Yao's interruption had ruined her mood.

Seeing this, Wang Yao pulled Sun Min up, shoved a bottle of soda into her hand, pointed at Liu Xiangmei, and asked righteously, "Did this woman bully you? Don't be afraid, let's go home and tell your mother, and let her teach her a lesson."

Liu Xiangmei rolled her eyes at Wang Yao's nonsense and walked towards the front of the car.

Seeing that her mother was about to drive away, Wang Yao pulled Sun Min and scrambled into the back of the car, whispering complaints in Sun Min's ear: "Comrade Liu Xiangmei actually wants to abandon us and leave by herself, that's so unfair..."

Throughout the journey, Wang Yao's mouth never stopped. Listening to Wang Yao's incessant complaints about her aunt, Sun Min's face showed envy again. She and her mother could not be so close. Although Wang Yao was complaining, the love in her expression could not be hidden.

Imagine yourself and your mother interacting in this way. Sun Min subconsciously shook her head. Forget it, she couldn't do it. Every mother and daughter interacts differently. She'll just do whatever makes her comfortable.

At this moment, Sun Min suddenly realized that all the resentment she felt towards her mother had disappeared. She regained her composure and felt relaxed from the inside out.

When Liu Xiangqiu got home, she had already cleaned up the house and was sitting on the bamboo bed sewing clothes.

Sun Min recognized the clothes as ones she had washed and hung out to dry that morning, but she didn't know when the hem had come undone.

Liu Xiangqiu was quite surprised to see the group return. "They sold out so quickly?"

Liu Xiangmei nodded, "I didn't expect it to sell so well. The workers who ate it all asked me to come back tomorrow!"

Liu Xiangqiu casually handed the clothes to Sun Min, telling her to take them to the bedroom and put them away. Then she continued talking to Liu Xiangmei: "Well, you don't even know who made them. How could the food made by our family's best Yao Yao not be delicious?"

That's right, the boxed lunches that Liu Xiangmei sold at noon were made by Wang Yao.

Liu Xiangmei had already prepared the dishes and lit the coal stove; all that was left was to cook them. Then Wang Yao appeared in the kitchen, saying she wanted to teach Liu Xiangmei how to cook.

Liu Xiangmei has always been very confident in her cooking skills. How could Wang Yao, a bookworm who has only known how to study since childhood, teach her to cook? What a joke! She immediately kicked Wang Yao out of the kitchen.

As luck would have it, just then the landlord's voice came from downstairs, saying that the people selling honeycomb briquettes had arrived.

Liu Xiangmei didn't even have time to cook. She had been borrowing honeycomb briquettes from the landlord to cook for the past two days. She had finally arrived today, and if she missed it, she would have to wait another ten days, so she had to buy them quickly.

Everyone in the family except Wang Yao went downstairs to move honeycomb briquettes. Why didn't Wang Yao go? Because she secretly slipped into the kitchen.

While Liu Xiangmei was away, Wang Yao busied herself in the kitchen, preparing scrambled eggs with tomatoes. Seeing that the others hadn't returned yet, she also made cucumber salad.

When Liu Xiangmei opened the door, she smelled a sour and spicy aroma. Neither the sour nor the spicy aroma was strong or pungent; it just made her mouth water.

Wang Yao stood at the kitchen doorway, chin held high in a smug pose, "How is it? Does it smell good?"

Liu Xiangmei was so full of saliva that she had to keep swallowing. She couldn't keep up her stubbornness. She walked past Wang Yao into the kitchen and saw half a bowl of scrambled eggs with tomatoes and half a bowl of cucumber salad on the cupboard.

Liu Xiangqiu followed him into the kitchen, and this time he was not only faced with a olfactory shock, but also a visual shock.

The bowl on the left contains the classic color combination of scrambled eggs with tomatoes: one red and one yellow. The red is almost melting, while the yellow is so fluffy that it has air pockets.

The cucumber on the right wasn't cut, but rather irregularly shaped, probably smashed with a cleaver. Various seasonings had completely seeped into the cracks of the cucumber, and the red chili peppers mixed with the green cucumber made Liu Xiangqiu unable to resist taking a pair of chopsticks and dipping them into the bowl.

"Crunch, crunch..." That's the crisp sound of teeth chewing cucumber.

Liu Xiangqiu turned around and gave Wang Yao a thumbs up. When he tried to put his chopsticks into the bowl of scrambled eggs with tomatoes, Liu Xiangmei slapped his hand.

"You've already used these chopsticks, why are you still sticking them into the basin?"

Liu Xiangqiu chuckled, "I didn't know Yao Yao had this skill. Little sister, you have to admit, your skills are really not as good as Yao Yao's."

Liu Xiangmei knew without tasting that Liu Xiangqiu was telling the truth. Although her cooking was also delicious and visually appealing, Yao Yao's two dishes were more than just delicious and visually appealing. In fact, they were clearly above Liu Xiangmei's skill level.

Looking at her daughter, whose little tail was practically wagging in the air, Liu Xiangmei asked curiously, "I've never seen you cook many meals. Where did you learn your cooking skills?"

Wang Yao shook her head and said, "There are houses of gold in books, and golden scepters in books."

Liu Xiangmei didn't believe it. "You can learn to cook by reading books? What kind of books are they? Let me see them."

Wang Yao answered firmly, "Of course! The knowledge in books is vast and boundless. What can't you find? As for what kind of books? They're cooking books. I used to see them when I was in school and had nothing to do. Don't let the fact that our school library is small and run-down fool you; it actually has a few good books!"

Liu Xiangmei had never been to Wang Yao's junior high school library, but she knew that someone had donated a lot of books to the school a couple of years ago.

Even so, Liu Xiangmei was still skeptical. If reading books really could make you a master chef, then how come some people have practiced cooking for decades and are still terrible at it?

Wang Yao chuckled, one hand in her pocket, the other finger flicking her bangs with her pinky, making a very greasy expression. "I guess I'm the legendary genius. I'm born to learn. Don't be fooled by the fact that you've been in and out of the kitchen for decades. It's useless. A genius's learning ability is beyond your reach."

Liu Xiangmei felt her fists harden, wanting to punch Wang Yao's smug face, but when she heard Wang Yao say she would tell her the secret to making these two dishes, Liu Xiangmei decided to hold back a little longer.

Starting with scrambled eggs with tomatoes, Wang Yao explained many intricacies to a simple dish like scrambled eggs with tomatoes, such as how many spoonfuls of warm water or milk to add when beating the eggs, how to add a little salt to the egg mixture, and how to take the eggs out of the pan as soon as they solidify.

At first, Liu Xiangmei didn't think much of it, but the more she listened, the more interested she became. Halfway through, she asked Wang Yao to wait, ran to the bedroom, took a brand new notebook from Wang Yao's desk, and planned to write it all down.

Wang Yao expressed her satisfaction with Comrade Liu Xiangmei's serious attitude towards learning and explained things in more detail.

Fortunately, it's summer now, so the two bowls of vegetables were placed in a large bowl of hot water to keep them warm, otherwise the vegetables would be cold by now.

Having learned these two dishes, Liu Xiangmei asked Wang Yao to demonstrate how to make stir-fried garlic sprouts with cured pork without Wang Yao having to ask.

The garlic sprouts have been washed, but the cured pork hasn't been cut yet.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, Wang Yao sliced ​​three pieces of cured pork. Everyone then noticed that Wang Yao's knife skills were not good. The three slices of cured pork were of different thicknesses, and one of them was so thick that it could have been sliced ​​again.

However, everyone can understand this. Wang Yao is purely a theorist. She can learn the order and key points of cooking by reading books, but she really can't do it without practicing her knife skills.

This was the effect Wang Yao wanted, since the idea of ​​learning to cook by reading books in the library was just something she made up, and she was certainly not a cooking genius.