Chapter 23 Cooking incident, the kitchen exploded?
After the colleagues' gathering, the relationship between Su Wanqing and Huo Tingxiao entered a new, extremely delicate and unstable phase. The ice hadn't completely melted, but the suffocating absolute zero seemed to have risen. He continued to leave early and return late, remaining taciturn, but occasionally he would linger at the table for a few minutes longer. Once, when Su Wanqing cooked a pot of lotus root and pork rib soup, he even ordered a second bowl, a rare treat.
This subtle change, like a pebble dropped into a lake, sent ripples through Su Wanqing's heart. She began to take better care of the household and was more willing to try to understand the world behind her icy husband's silence. She even secretly consulted military magazines and books, trying to understand the meaning behind the complex symbols on his epaulettes and the implications of his occasional references to "missions."
It was the weekend, and Huo Tingxiao, a rare occurrence, stayed in his study all morning, processing documents. Lunch was a standard meal brought in by the orderly, and the two of them ate in silence.
In the afternoon, Su Wanqing looked out the window at the bright but not scorching sunlight, and a thought suddenly occurred to her. She remembered how Huo Meilin had mentioned, with a hint of sarcasm, at the last family dinner, one of Huo Tingxiao's mother, Aunt Qin,'s most famous desserts: sweet osmanthus lotus root. It was said that this was the only sweet food Huo Tingxiao had shown a preference for as a child.
On impulse, she found the ingredients and decided to give it a try.
She quickly set up the kitchen. Glutinous rice, brown sugar, dried osmanthus flowers, whole lotus roots... She followed her grandmother's recipe and online recipes, working step by step. The process was more complicated than she had imagined. The lotus root holes were thin and deep, and stuffing them with glutinous rice was a delicate task that required a great deal of patience.
She was so focused that beads of sweat appeared on her forehead, and she didn't notice at all that the study door had opened.
Huo Tingxiao, probably thirsty, came out to get some water. When he reached the kitchen door, he saw this scene: the countertop was a mess, with glutinous rice scattered everywhere. Su Wanqing was lowering her head, chopsticks in hand, clumsily but intently stuffing rice grains into the holes of a lotus root, a little red sugar stain accidentally smearing her cheek.
He paused, his brow furrowing unconsciously. He disliked unexpected events, and even more so, his tidy surroundings being disrupted. He saw the kitchen as a functional space, not a place to showcase the joys of life. The chaos before him made him feel instinctively irritated.
Su Wanqing noticed the gaze behind her and turned around suddenly. She saw Huo Tingxiao standing at the door with an expressionless face, looking solemnly at the "battlefield" under her hands. Her heart suddenly panicked, and the chopsticks in her hand fell onto the table with a "click".
"I... I want to try making sweet osmanthus lotus root..." She explained a little awkwardly, subconsciously wanting to wipe the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, but then she remembered that her hands were stained with glutinous rice flour, and her movements froze in mid-air.
Huo Tingxiao's gaze shifted from the messy countertop to her slightly flushed cheeks and the sugar-stained edges of her face, his brow furrowing even tighter. He didn't say anything, but his displeasure was already permeating his air.
He walked around her and went straight to the water dispenser to get a glass of cold water. During the whole process, he did not look at her again, nor did he express any opinion on the pot of half-finished candied lotus root.
But this silent denial is more embarrassing than direct rebuke.
Su Wanqing stood there, her excitement instantly extinguished, leaving only embarrassment and a hint of grievance. She silently picked up her chopsticks and prepared to clean up the mess.
At this moment, the pot of stewing lotus roots on the stove suddenly made a muffled "puff" sound, and the lid was pushed open by the steam. The boiling hot sugar water suddenly overflowed and poured onto the blue gas flame!
"laugh--!"
With a sharp sound, the flames instantly shot up from the sugary liquid, licking the edge of the pot and almost catching the range hood above! The smell of burning and the sweet smell of sugar instantly filled the air!
"Ah!" Su Wanqing screamed in fright and subconsciously took a step back, bumping into the cooking table behind her. A bowl of glutinous rice flour on the table was knocked over, and the white powder scattered all over the floor.
The situation suddenly became a mess!
Huo Tingxiao turned around almost the instant the noise occurred. Seeing the flames and smoke rising, his face instantly darkened. Without a moment's panic, he moved with astonishing speed. He stepped forward and, with a snap, turned off the gas. Then, he picked up the nearby pot lid and placed it precisely on the flaming pot.
The flame was instantly cut off from the air, struggled for a few times, and then went out.
All that was left in the pot was the remaining sugar water, which continued to emit burnt bubbles under the high temperature, making a "gurgling" sound, and the suffocating burnt smell and flying glutinous rice dust filled the entire kitchen.
The kitchen was dead silent.
Su Wanqing's face turned pale, her heart pounding. Looking at the kitchen that looked like a disaster scene and Huo Tingxiao's cold and terrifying profile, she even forgot to breathe.
Huo Tingxiao put down the pot lid and turned around. His eyes swept over the messy stove, the glutinous rice flour-strewn floor, and Su Wanqing, who was frozen in fear. His gaze held no concern, only cold anger and extreme impatience.
"What are you doing?" His voice was horribly low, and every word hit like an icicle. "Tearing down the kitchen?"
Su Wanqing's lips trembled, and she tried to explain, but she couldn't utter a word. She was overwhelmed by embarrassment and fear.
Huo Tingxiao's gaze fell on her hands, which were covered in glutinous rice flour and sugar, and the lotus root that had been ruined beyond recognition. The coldness in his eyes became even colder. "If you can't do it, don't do it. You're just adding to the chaos!"
After saying this, he stopped looking at her, as if any longer glance would taint his sight, and turned abruptly, striding out of the kitchen.
Heavy footsteps came up the stairs, and the study door was slammed shut with a loud bang.
The huge noise made Su Wanqing tremble all over.
She stood alone in the middle of the messy kitchen filled with a burnt smell, looking at the completely failed candied lotus root in the pot, looking at her own stained hands, and then listening to the ruthless sound of the door slamming upstairs. Her eyes instantly turned red.
Grievance, embarrassment, self-blame, and a hint of inexplicable sadness...all kinds of emotions surged over her, almost drowning her.
She just wanted to... just try to make something he might like...
But the result turned out like this.
She silently picked up the rag and began to clean the mess on the stove and the floor. Her fingers stung where she had burned them, but it was far less painful than the sour pain in her heart.
It took her a long time to restore the kitchen to its original state, but the burnt smell lingered for a long time.
She silently poured the pot of failed candied lotus root into the trash can.
In the evening, the orderly delivered dinner on time.
In the restaurant, the two sat facing each other in silence, the atmosphere colder and more tense than ever before.
Huo Tingxiao never looked at her again from beginning to end, nor did he mention a word about what happened in the afternoon.
But that silent condemnation and cold rejection are more hurtful than any words.
Su Wanqing ate the rice in the bowl without any taste, and it felt like there was a stone stuck in her throat, making it difficult to swallow.
Her first proactive and cautious attempt ended in a near-disastrous failure, and seemed to... push the relationship between the two, which had just eased a little, back to the freezing point.
Or even worse.
The kitchen didn't explode.
But something fragile that had just sprouted seemed to be shattered in this storm.
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