Chapter 17
"Shaoxingyang, what's wrong with you?"
Yan Hong thought Shaoxing Yang was just playing tricks again and retorted without mercy.
"It really is! Come and see for yourself."
Seeing Shaoxing Yang so persistent, Yan Hong also became curious. She put down the fruit and walked towards the direction where the crowd was gathered.
There were indeed a few white "buns" growing on the ground. Yan Hong was stunned by the strange scene.
"What's this?"
"It should be some kind of mushroom." Lu Shiyu used his hands to dig up the soil around the "steamed bun" to reveal the mushroom stem underneath. "This seems to be a mushroom with half of its stem growing in the soil. I remember seeing it in a book. Let me look for it."
Lu Shiyu supported himself with one leg and put the book down with the other, and began to search at the speed of light. After just a few flips, he successfully found the page that recorded this mushroom.
"Found it."
"Big White Mushroom, what an unrefined name." Yan Hong complained about the name of this mushroom. It is undeniable that the name does fit the appearance of the real thing.
"The book says this type of mushroom becomes poisonous and inedible when it turns black, but right now it's still white so it's edible."
On the way, Yu put away the book and picked all the mushrooms.
After searching for a long time, they only found a few wild vegetables in the moist soil. Apart from that, they found no other edible ingredients.
"Wild fruits, mushrooms, and wild vegetables," Shaoxing Yang sighed, "No meat today."
"How can I eat meat every day? It's good enough to have something to eat." Chen Yunliang is content. Although he is a good eater, it does not prevent him from eating anything. He can comment on the exquisite dishes in high-end restaurants and can accept cooking anything to fill his stomach.
Lu Shiyu glanced at the small amount of ingredients and said, "This probably isn't enough. How about adding some noodles and making dumpling soup?"
"Okay, the dumpling soup is acceptable." Shaoxing Yang sat listlessly aside.
Tang Zeyu set up the stove, Lu Shiyu rolled up his sleeves, and after everything was ready, he began to prepare today's dinner.
Lu Shiyu scooped out a large bowl of flour from the flour bag and took a bowl of clean water. He dipped his fingers in the clean water, shook them into the flour and stirred them with chopsticks. Then he continued to dip his fingers in the water, shook them and stirred them until they formed lumps.
Dice the mushrooms and wild fruits, chop the wild vegetables, pour them all into the pot after the oil is hot and stir-fry. After they are softened and the water is released, pour in an appropriate amount of water, add a few spoons of salt, light soy sauce, and dark soy sauce to season. After the water boils, pour in the noodles, stir with a spatula to prevent sticking to the pot and to separate the noodles. Continue to cook for two or three minutes, and a noodle soup that is not authentic or complete but edible is ready.
"It's a pity that the eggs are used up, otherwise I could have beaten another egg in." Lu Shiyu said with a hint of regret.
On the other side, Chen Yunliang was leaning against the stone wall with his eyes closed, when he suddenly felt a drop of water dripping on his forehead.
"Hmm? Is it raining?"
When Chen Yunliang opened his eyes, he saw a huge four-legged creature lying on the stone wall above him.
"Depend on!"
Chen Yunliang hurriedly stood up and moved away from the stone wall. The others were holding bowls and waiting for Lu Shiyu to share the soup. When they heard Chen Yunliang's cry, they turned their heads and looked. Then they all saw the extremely ugly creature.
"Ah! This is the crocodile-looking thing I was talking about!"
With just one glance, Yan Hong recognized that the thing in front of him was the deformed creature that had been lying above to bask in the sun. He thought it would leave on its own after a while, but unexpectedly, this thing came down to find them!
Tang Zeyu stood in front of Shi Yu and said, "Now that you're down here, clean it up so you don't have to wait any longer."
As soon as Tang Zeyu spoke, Yan Hong drew her sword, but she never expected that the deformed creature would run away in a hurry without even looking back when it saw her rushing towards it. Seeing that it was about to slip away, Yan Hong threw a dagger and stabbed it straight into the deformed creature's tail. The next moment, something unexpected happened.
The deformed creature's tail was actually broken off from the root to a position a little further back, and the cross-section was even neater than if it had been cut with a knife. After the tail was nailed to the wall by the dagger, it kept twisting and rolling in an attempt to struggle. The deformed creature had already climbed away along the wall while several people were paying attention to its tail.
"Ah, I know what it is," Lu Shiyu thought when he saw its tail was broken off: "This is not a crocodile, it's a lizard."
"Lizard?" Yan Hong accepted the answer instantly: "It does look quite similar. Is that also written in the book?"
"Well, calling it a lizard isn't entirely accurate. After all, it's a deformed creature formed from the fusion of something else. It's just more closely related to a lizard," Lu Shiyu explained. "This type of lizard isn't particularly aggressive and doesn't eat meat. Instead, they enjoy eating fruit that grows on trees, which helps them stay hydrated. Since they're vegetarians, they don't like to exercise and instead maintain their strength by staying still."
"So this lizard is actually a vegetarian," Shaoxing Yang quipped. "Isn't that a bit pitiful for it? Just because it's a little ugly, it's being targeted for being a vegetarian."
"Can you please have some pity on your teammates before you pity it?" Shaoxing Yang wiped his forehead with a wet towel with a frown on his face, wishing he could scratch the skin where the lizard's saliva had stuck to it.
"Even eating vegetarian food can't change the tragic reality of its bad breath." Shaoxing Yang said this with gritted teeth.
Yan Hong stepped forward and pulled out her short knife. To be precise, this knife was medium-sized, longer than the one she had given to Lu Shiyu before, but shorter than the one Yan Hong used herself.
The dagger was pulled out, and the lizard tail on it was still flapping. Yan Hong stretched the tail in front of Shao Xingyang and said:
"Here, didn't you say you wanted to eat meat?"
"I won't eat this thing," Shaoxing Yang said with a look of disgust, pointing at the still-moving tail. "And what could possibly give you the illusion that this thing is edible?"
"Why can't we eat it?" Yan Hong said, shaking the tail in her hand. "It's all meat. Lizard meat isn't meat, right?"
Lu Shiyu was silent for five seconds before saying, "You're right."
"ah?"
"Lizard meat is also meat, it's edible," Lu Shiyu nodded as if talking to himself. "As long as it's cooked properly, as long as it's not poisonous, it can be delicious."
"Wait, wait, you're not really planning on cooking with lizard tails, are you?"
Yan Hong finally realized how big a hole she had dug for herself and quickly tried to make amends: "Actually, the dumpling soup is already quite filling! There's no need to add any more dishes."
"It's not enough," Tang Zeyu squatted beside the pot with a bowl in hand. "This is probably not enough for all of us."
"If you don't eat meat, you'll be malnourished," Lu Shiyu said. "You need to eat a balanced diet."
Before focusing on nutritional balance, can you please pay attention to the ingredients? Yan Hong and Shao Xingyang were madly complaining and protesting in their hearts, but it was useless to protest. Lu Shiyu just calmly told them not to be picky about food.
Lu Shiyu scraped off the lizard's skin with a kitchen knife and chopped the tail into several sections. He then added ginger and cooking wine to a pot of cold water to remove the fishy smell, skimmed off any foam, and set aside. He then heated oil in a pan and stir-fried the tail. Lu Shiyu forgot the tail sections were large, so he had to separate the larger ones. He held them with chopsticks and pressed them against the pan, turning them over constantly to ensure each side was cooked through. He then added a versatile combination of light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and oyster sauce, along with a spoonful of ant honey. He then poured in a bowl of water and simmered until done.
While waiting for the lizard to be stewed, the aroma in the pot had already wafted out. Yan Hong and Shao Xingyang fell into a strange silence. Intellectually, they did not want to eat that kind of thing, but physiologically, as soon as they smelled the aroma, they felt their stomachs rumbling, frantically telling their master that they wanted to eat it.
When they felt it was about time, Lu Shiyu opened the lid of the pot, and steam and fragrance came out. The lizard tail was already coated with an attractive caramel color, which made people salivate. At this time, the two of them were already struggling in their hearts. They wanted to eat it but because it was a lizard tail, they hesitated whether to be the first to pick up the chopsticks.
Tang Zeyu seemed to not care at all about the ingredients. He picked up a piece of fat meat and put it into his mouth under the gaze of the two people.
The meat of the lizard tail is firm, and becomes soft and chewy after stewing. The collagen is stewed until it is soft and melts in the mouth. The smoothness and mellow aroma of the gelatin spreads on the tip of the tongue. The skin, flesh and fascia seem to melt in the slow stew. When you swallow it, there will be a sticky gelatinous feeling between the lips and teeth. It is so soft and boneless that you can easily spit out the bone in the middle of the lizard tail.
“It tastes a bit like pig’s tail, but also a bit like pig’s trotters, but it’s more tender than pork.”
After Tang Zeyu finished speaking, he licked his lips with an unsatisfied look, cleaning the remaining sauce on his lips.
Seeing that Tang Zeyu had a good opinion, Yan Hong rushed to add a large piece of lizard tail before Shaoxing Yang and put it steadily into the bowl.
"Damn it! Why did you take the biggest piece?"
"First come, first served, understand?"
Yan Hong stuck out her tongue at Shao Xingyang, full of sarcasm.
Yan Hong scooped up a spoonful of sauce and poured it on the meat. The thick sauce slowly flowed down from above, crystal clear like honey. Yan Hong couldn't wait to take a bite. In an instant, a large circle of sauce was covered around his mouth, like a beard.
"It's straight off the bone," Yan Hong said, unable to articulate clearly with a large piece of meat in her mouth. "It's delicious."
"Puchi, hahahahahahahahaha, Yanhong, you have grown a beard, you look like an uncle, hahahaha." Shaoxing Yang pointed at the sauce on Yanhong's mouth and laughed.
Chen Yunliang blew on the pimple soup, and a sip of it warmed his stomach. The freshness of the mushrooms and the sweetness of the fruit were fully stimulated, and the wild vegetables exuded a faint fragrance. Chen Yunliang picked up a piece of fruit. The fruit had been cooked until it was soft and sticky and sweet. It didn't seem out of place in the pimple soup. Chen Yunliang had never eaten boiled fruit before, so this added some novelty to the experience.
After drinking a few mouthfuls of the dumpling soup, Chen Yunliang scooped a spoonful of the sauce from the roasted lizard tail and mixed it into the dumpling soup. Chen Yunliang pondered the taste and it felt a bit like hot rice, although there was no rice, only dumplings.
"Mix these two dishes together, maybe it will taste good."
Shaoxing Yang filled half a bowl of dumpling soup and added half a bowl of roasted lizard tail. After mixing the two thoroughly, it became a bowl of stew with vegetables and meat. After mixing the two, he began to stuff it into his mouth in big mouthfuls. The taste was really good. Shaoxing Yang ate it happily one mouthful after another, and the corners of his mouth were covered with sticky soup.
"Hehe, pigs eat pig food." Yan Hong wiped the sauce from the corner of her mouth and immediately made up for what she had said just now.
"Um, Buheng mud bridge."
Shaoxing Yang's mouth was already full of food, and when he spoke, some crumbs came out. Yan Hong moved away to avoid him.
"No manners, talking while eating."
"Ugh, uh, uh, mud..."
No one could understand what Shaoxing Yang was mumbling, and they all chose to ignore him and continue eating. Shaoxing Yang choked and started coughing while talking, and squatted aside, coughing non-stop towards an empty place.
"Captain, why don't you kick this idiot out of the team?"
"No, even if he's mentally retarded, you can't just kick a player out."
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