Chapter 20 Ask Him to Marry You
There were still a lot of metal plates and debris scattered on the kitchen floor. Qi Huan moved a stool for Xiaotuanzi and asked him to sit at the door. He quickly packed up his things, opened the refrigerator and freezer to look at the ingredients, and took out three star-shaped eggs, seven or eight shrimps, a small piece of pork belly, a cucumber and a large bowl of red rice that no one ordered for dinner.
Come to think of it, he really wanted to know what the meat of the B-grade fire claw looked like after it was opened. He wondered if it could be eaten.
"Is it a new dish?" Little Dumpling held his cheeks with both hands, looking at Qi Huan in confusion as he put the washed cucumber and pork belly on the slicer, then turned around and started to remove the shrimp heads. He couldn't think of what kind of recipe he could combine them into.
"The meal for the Queen Mother." Qi Huan raised his right eyebrow at the little dumpling mischievously.
"Huanhuan is so awesome." The little guy clapped his little hands twice in support. He couldn't understand what he said, but he felt that he must be very awesome.
"I told you not to call me that." Qi Huan protested, waving the scissors.
The ingredients were all convenient and easy to cook, and before long, two bowls of steaming midnight snacks were placed on the table.
The top layer is covered with stir-fried pork slices with melon. The melon slices are warm and green in color, and the cooked animal meat is condensed with the aroma of soy sauce. The fat parts are as translucent as jade, and the lean parts are as brown as amber. It is fried with oil from a high fire, and the sauce is dripping, oily and tender. In the middle is filled with scrambled egg and shrimp. The golden egg liquid is bright and colorful as if kissed by the sun, fluffy and soft, and gently wraps the shrimp like a cloud. The bottom layer is shrimp oil fried rice, with wisps of hot steam curling up, bringing out a fresh and tempting flavor.
With one spoonful, the egg melts on the tip of your tongue as smoothly as silk, and the salty and fragrant meat slices, the light melon, the sweet shrimp meat, the rich rice aroma, layer after layer of flavors spread out, with a rich, mild and mellow taste.
That’s right, the famous Imperial Queen Mother Rice in the Shaowei Banquet menu is actually rice topped with shredded pork and scrambled eggs. In order to make the taste richer, Qi Huan made an improved and advanced version based on the ingredients on hand.
"Is it tasty?"
"Delicious! Really, really delicious!" the little guy praised repeatedly and quickly finished the bowl in front of him.
Seeing him blinking his big glass-like eyes and looking towards the kitchen reluctantly, Qi Huan ruthlessly cut off his thoughts, "Don't eat too much before going to bed. The rest is the brunch I prepared for you during the day."
Little Dumpling: ...
After coaxing him to bed, Qi Huan looked at the time and found that there was only one hour left before he had to get up. Fearing that he would not be able to get up, he set three alarms on his personal terminal.
The more he wanted to sleep, the more he couldn't fall asleep. After tossing and turning for a few times, he had no choice but to open his personal terminal and read something to induce sleep. He casually checked who the Jiufang family's rivals were, and the result made him extremely speechless. There were a total of ten well-known families in the entire alliance, and the Jiufang family only had dealings with two of them. In other words, they were enemies with the remaining seven families. Wow, they were almost the public enemy.
A family with bad character also has bad relationships with others! Qi Huan stamped his name silently and tried to check the seven families in detail, but his search failed.
It was indeed a local area network! It even had blocked words! Someone had no choice but to turn off his personal terminal and sleep.
The work at the unloading site was very busy. In the morning, he cut up the star beasts, in the afternoon, he dismantled three D-level stone beasts, and at noon he went to the nearby hotels to inquire about the silver-haired young man. Qi Huan was very busy. Unfortunately, the man didn't live nearby.
Under the pretext of looking for his savior, he asked Quanhai and Rondo to help inquire around the repair shop and Hongguang Restaurant respectively. He opened the terminal eight hundred times a day, and when he was about to get off work, Rondo sent him a message.
The good news was that he found the whereabouts of the two men who killed the Fire Claw yesterday, and he also found out that their hunting team was called the Ferocious Beast Team.
The bad news is that the other party seemed to have some urgent business and left the base in the morning.
Qi Huan was feeling depressed when Rondo sent him another message saying that those people had not checked out yet and would not be gone for long.
[Thank you. Please leave me the store owner's contact information. Let me know when they come back!] Qi Huan was so happy that he even typed more happily.
When Qi Huan was passing by the central hall after work, he walked towards the discount counter habitually while yawning. Mr. and Mrs. Wan were stacking boxes in the counter with sighs. The lights were not turned on yet, and the light was a little dim. It was hard to see what was in the box. All he could see was that it was dark blue. When he walked closer to take a look, Qi Huan's yawn was retracted in an instant, and his eyes widened. Crab!
Each of them had their feet tied with something like a cable tie, but they were still blowing bubbles from their mouths. They were alive!
"Uncle Wan, how much is this thing?" Qi Huan asked Boss Wan happily.
"You want it?" Boss Wan hesitated. "These crabs are too small."
"Yes, it's not delicious, it's all shells." Wan Lao Da's wife also advised Qi Huan, "We were cheated this time. Almost half of the boxes were mixed with small ones."
Crabs are delicious and are relatively expensive ingredients on Waste Star, but it is too troublesome to peel the shells and take out the meat. If you want to sell well, you have to have crabs that are at least two pounds. The crabs in front of you are only four or five taels, which is a loss-making commodity, and no one will buy them.
"Can I open one and take a look?" Qi Huan looked at the crabs in the box. There was no fuzz on the crab claws, and the shell cover was square. If you looked closely, you could see sparse white spots of varying shades. The shell shape was very similar to that of a hairy crab, and the pattern was a bit like that of a sea crab.
Boss Wan casually opened a round-bellied crab and handed it to Qi Huan. It was full of crab roe, and its structure was not much different from the crabs Qi Huan knew. He put it to his nose and sniffed it. The fishy smell was mixed with the scent of soil, and it felt more like a river crab.
"Uncle Wan, I want all of these." Qi Huan proudly drew a circle with his finger, covering the dozen boxes of crabs that had been placed in the discount cabinet and were still on the ground.
"Are you sure?" Boss Wan was stunned.
"What if we buy so much and they go bad?" Boss Wan's wife also frowned. All together, there are about fifty or sixty kilograms. The restaurant is closed now, and there is only one person at home. Qi Huan will definitely not be able to finish it.
"Don't worry, I've figured out what to do." Qi Huan's eyes curved, and his smile was so sweet that it was hard to refuse. "I just need to take half a day off tomorrow morning."
Crabs cannot be stored for long, but they can be made into two delicious preserves: crab butter and crab roe sauce.
But he had almost stayed up all night last night, and he would definitely have to stay up late tonight to prepare these crabs, so he had to get a good night's sleep.
"Okay." Boss Wan agreed immediately.
The ingredients were already discounted, and Qi Huan bought everything, so Boss Wan and his wife readily gave him a bargain price. He didn't make enough money today, so he could only buy on credit. Later, he even borrowed money from Boss Wan to buy hollow bamboo glass bottles and take-out boxes from the store next door.
There was a lot of stuff in three or four baskets, and Qi Huan couldn't carry it all, so he gritted his teeth and ordered a delivery service for the first time.
His painful look was in stark contrast to his generous attitude of buying all the square crabs just now. Boss Wan's wife couldn't help laughing and took the initiative to waive the delivery fee for him this time.
The delivery machine is similar to a large drone. You enter the specific address and confirm it on the electronic map, and it will deliver the goods point-to-point, which is convenient and fast.
When Qi Huan walked back to the Renjian Restaurant, several baskets of food for the flight had already been placed steadily at the door.
When he opened the door, the little guy was sitting upright at the table closest to the door waiting for him.
Seeing several large baskets of things piled at the door, the little guy jumped off the stool and rushed towards one of the baskets.
"That one is particularly..." It's heavy, you can't move it. Before Qi Huan could finish the second half of his sentence, he saw the little guy walking into the door with an iron basket that was not much shorter than himself.
Qi Huan: ...
Well, orcs are orcs after all.
Because there was no need to remove the hair or scales, Qi Huan directly opened a few boxes of crabs and threw them into the cleaning cage in the kitchen. The little guy followed behind curiously, "Can these be made into delicious food?"
"Well," Qi Huan glanced at the cute little creature beside him and felt like joking again, pretending to be distressed and said, "But it's very troublesome, I need you to stay up late tonight to help, are you willing?"
"I will try my best," Tuanzi nodded solemnly, "There is no such thing as a free meal in the world."
Uh, Qi Huan touched his nose a little embarrassedly. This kid has a really good memory.
Speaking of labor, how could Qi Huan forget another person? He immediately opened the terminal and sent a message to Quan Hai, "Help, there are delicious foods, but the work is troublesome, I need you and Quan Yu to come and help."
Quan Hai replied almost instantly, [more than half an hour]
"Two of my friends will come to help later. They are very nice. Would you like to join them?" Qi Huan squatted down and discussed with the little guy.
Xiaotuanzi hesitated for a few seconds and shook his head cautiously, indicating that he didn't want to see it.
"Then let's do it the same way later. You help in the attic and I'll ask them to stay on the first floor." Qi Huan gave a solution.
The first basket of crabs was cooked quickly. When the steamer was opened, a unique aroma of seafood wafted out. In the hot steam, more than a dozen crabs were seen with bulging snow-white bellies. Several male crabs had translucent orange crab oil oozing out from their navels. You could tell at a glance that the crabs were meaty and fat.
Little Dumpling sniffed, pulled Qi Huan's clothes, stood on tiptoe and looked at the steamer.
Qi Huan originally wanted to teach him how to separate the crab roe, crab paste and crab meat, but when he saw his eager look, he changed his mind and took out a few crabs to let him eat them first to satisfy his craving.
It is more complicated to remove the meat from a crab than to gnaw its bones. There were no special crab cutters on hand and Qi Huan was worried that the scissors would hurt him, so he held the handle and taught the little guy how to remove the crab shell with his bare hands.
"Crack!" The little guy crushed the crab shell with his hands.
"I'm sorry, I've been very careful." He was a little flustered and looked at Qi Huan at a loss.
"Relax, you don't need to use so much strength." Qi Huan was afraid that he would prick his hand, so he changed the crab for him and continued to teach him how to remove the inedible crab intestines and gills, dig out the crab stomach on the shell cover and the crab heart in the body, and then turn the long-handled spoon over and use the spoon to shave the crab meat.
The order of eating crabs is actually quite casual. Qi Huan's personal habit is to eat the crab shell first, then break the crab body in half along the center line to eat the crab roe and crab meat, and finally eat the crab legs. His sister likes to open the crab shell first and then eat it, piling all the peeled crab roe and crab meat into the crab shell, and then enjoy eating it all in one go. When he was a child, he was naughty and often tried to grab it, resulting in a "righteous iron fist" from his sister. His parents like to eat the crab legs and crab claws first, and then open the crab shell.
Thinking of his family, Qi Huan couldn't help but be distracted for a moment.
"Ah, I've eaten this before." The little guy imitated Qi Huan and grabbed the long crab legs and took a bite of the crab roe. The familiar feeling on his taste buds awakened his memory.
Qi Huan came back to his senses and helped the little guy smash the crab claws, "Have you eaten it?"
"But it's not like this. There's no shell, just the meat inside, which is in bigger pieces, all in one bowl."
Qi Huan understood that someone had actually taken out the crab meat in advance.
The little guy stumbled when eating the first one, but was much more skilled at the second one. Qi Huan prepared a vinegar sauce to remove the fishy smell. He liked the original flavor of fresh crabs, but was afraid that the little guy and Quan Hai would not be used to it.
After eating two crabs, the little guy was temporarily full. The two of them carried the remaining crabs in the first basket upstairs, and the little guy sat upstairs and began to peel the crab meat.
When the second cage of crabs was taken out of the pot and the third cage of crabs was put into the water for cleaning, Quan Hai and Quan Yu knocked on the door and came in.
"Come on, come on, it's time to eat." Qi Huan brought out the freshly steamed crabs and a dish of seasonings and invited the two to eat first.
None of the siblings in the family had ever eaten crabs, or even seen them. Qi Huan taught them from the beginning, just like he had taught Xiao Tuanzi just now. But this time, in addition to the long-handled spoon, there were also scissors and a hammer. The scissors were used to cut the crab legs, and the hammer was used to open the crab claws.
The seasoning dish was basically not used, the square crab tasted delicious, and the sisters and brothers in the family all preferred the sweet and fresh original flavor.
After eating their fill, Quan Hai and Quan Yu became more skilled at shelling crabs. Qi Huan explained to them today's "work content" in detail, and told them to take out all the remaining crabs, put the crab meat in one bowl, and the crab roe and crab paste in another.
The three of them sat at three tables, Quan Hai threw away six hands and started working in full swing.
The crab meat was not enough to satisfy his hunger, so Qi Huan got up and went to the kitchen to make some mixed fried rice. After the people upstairs and downstairs had finished eating, he continued to cook. After three hours, the remaining more than a hundred crabs were finally gone.
After the crab meat was removed, it still needed to be fried for the final time. However, it was already very late, so Qi Huan asked Quan Hai and Quan Yu to go home and rest first, and he would send it to them tomorrow after it was ready.
After all the brothers and sisters went back home, little Tuanzi also let go, ran downstairs, and stood by to watch Qi Huan fry crab roe.
Tu butter is made from pure crab roe and crab paste. "Tu" is actually the Wu dialect "tei", which means "only" and "unique". Crab roe sauce is made by adding crab meat to crab roe and crab paste.
"Aren't you sleepy?" Qi Huan looked at the little guy with his eyes wide open. Normally, he would have woken up and taken a short nap at this time, so why is he so energetic today?
The little fellow shook his head, smelling the aroma and watching with great interest.
When the stir-fry was almost done, Qi Huan started to add seasoning. When he opened the sugar jar, the little girl frowned and grabbed his hand, protesting in a childish voice, "I don't like sweet food."
"It's not sweet, it's just used to enhance the flavor." After comforting him, Qi Huan still added a spoonful.
"Can adding sugar make the food more flavorful?" Little Dumpling looked confused.
"Yes, many things cannot be judged by appearance alone. The right amount of sugar can enhance the flavor. Adding a little salt when baking desserts can also stimulate the sweetness. Deliciousness is actually the perfect superposition of multiple flavors."
The little guy blinked his eyes as if he understood.
The best match for a perfect butter is actually lard, and the only substitute Qi Huan can find now is spotted beast oil. Considering that orcs may be poisoned by eating spotted beast oil, Qi Huan decided to make two versions, a regular oil version and a spotted beast oil version for himself.
When preparing to fry lard, the non-beast oil version of butter, Qi Huan who went to get the oil suddenly discovered a problem: all the leftover oil residue from last night was gone!
He nervously rolled up the little boy's sleeves and asked, "Did you eat all those greasy residues?"
The little dumpling nodded timidly, "I was still a little hungry after lunch, so I... ate."
The little guy's arms were clean and white, with no signs of rashes. Qi Huan was still a little worried, "Are you really not feeling uncomfortable anywhere?"
"No. Don't worry, I can eat it." The little guy patted his chest and assured.
At least eight or nine hours had passed since he had eaten. Qi Huan breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that this child might really not be allergic to the stone beast at all.
"You're in luck." Qi Huan pinched the little dumpling's round face.
The aroma of the bald butter cooked with spotted beast oil was obviously much richer. Fine and clear bubbles of oil gurgled up in the pot, and fried around the golden and tender yellow paste with crackling sounds, warm and cheerful, as if applauding and cheering for the upcoming delicacy. Qi Huan neatly poured light wine along the edge of the pot, and a ball of white mist rose up with a sizzling sound. The aroma overflowed during the stir-frying. The small ball turned from Qi Huan's left to the right, and from the right to the left, and was hooked around.
"Go sit down and wait for your midnight snack. I'll feel dizzy if you keep turning around." Qi Huan added the broth again, smiled and sent him to the table at the door. He waited until the soup was simmered thoroughly, then turned off the stove quickly, and turned it over twice more using the residual heat.
Xiaotuanzi counted the chopsticks in the chopstick holder more than ten times. Qi Huan finally walked out of the kitchen carrying butter and two bowls of white rice. He generously scooped two large spoonfuls of butter and poured them on the rice, then stirred it a few times with great efforts.
The hot steam mixed with the fragrance is rising up, the plump rice grains are wrapped in the golden and shiny crab oil, which is crystal clear and distinct, with large golden crab roe and fat crab paste in the middle, which makes people's appetite grow.
The little guy couldn't wait to put a big spoonful of rice into his mouth and was so shocked that he couldn't speak.
Qi Huan also took a sip leisurely. The rich and fresh flavor exploded on the tip of his tongue, followed by the aroma of spotted beast fat. The soft and rich crab roe and the sticky and glutinous crab paste were perfectly intertwined. It was crispy and sandy, fragrant and precious, with the unique sweetness of square crabs. The fragrance lingered on the lips and teeth while sipped, and the aftertaste was long.
Fresh, rich and fragrant, the taste was even more perfect than he remembered, it could be said to be the best taste in the world.
The man opposite was eating one spoonful of small dumplings after another, not even having time to look up.
"Are you still letting your uncle beat me?" Qi Huan teased him while shaking a spoon.
"No, ask him to marry you." The little guy puffed up his cheeks and answered very seriously.
Qi Huan's spoon froze in mid-air, as if it had been corrected too much.
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