Qingyu left in anger, and Xiaoque and Sili were the only ones left in the courtyard. Sili had eaten noodles and tofu at noon, and was still full, so she was not in a hurry to make dinner. She drank the tonic that the system marked as "better than nothing", asked Xiaoque to rest, and took a cucumber out to the small kitchen to pretend to open the system panel.

The recipe for "Wolf Tooth Potato" was obtained, and the number of one-star unlearned dishes in the recipe section increased to three. However, Si Li looked through the panel and could not find how to use the character viewing function of the reward, so she could only put it aside for the time being.

After completing the third novice mission, the system has been slow to release the next mission. According to common sense, the novice guidance should not end here, but the system does not refresh the mission, and Si Li can't do anything about it.

Qinglian returned to Beijing, and her stepmother's decision was due the next day. Si Li did not expect Manager Wang's kindness to last long, and she had to find a way out before her monthly salary was restricted or more extreme measures were taken.

Qinglian had quite a bit of money in her purse, a little over ten taels in total. If it weren't for the mandatory mission and the need for a travel permit to leave the capital, Si Liya wouldn't want to stay here any longer.

In order to complete the mandatory task within three months and make the stepmother admit her mistakes, sufficient strength and status are needed. The Si family's female school quota was given to Si Tang by the original owner. Si Li is not good at business or storytelling, so systematic cooking practice is the only way for Si Li.

But... can this body that gets tired after standing for a long time just to cut a few cucumbers really become a good cook in three months? Si Li herself doesn't quite believe it. But whether she believes it or not, she still has to work hard.

After Si Li cut a cucumber, she thought of the evaluation given by the system and clicked on the only lit "Cold Cucumber" in the recipe list to take a look at the system recipe.

In the blink of an eye, the system panel in front of me suddenly changed.

A pop-up window similar to a video player window floated on the recipe template. After a brief black screen, a woman in a green cloth skirt appeared in the window. She did not show her face, but with her slender and white hands, she lined up a dozen uniform seasoning jars on the table.

Si Li couldn't tell where the woman was from the video. A thick white mist covered the surrounding environment, so she could only see the woman and the long table in front of her.

It was so quiet that only the woman's voice could be heard. The woman took the seasoning very quickly, and one had to concentrate to see how much of each to use. Her explanation was also concise and clear, and she would not say the second word if she could say one word. Her movements were smooth and flowing, with her own unique rhythm, which made Si Li fascinated.

"salt."

"vinegar."

"Soy sauce."

"Mashed garlic."

"Crushed chili pepper."

She mixed salt, mashed garlic and chopped chili together, then added the crushed cucumber along with other seasonings. The woman's hands were very fast, and the red and green colors of the ingredients almost flew out of the pot while she was stirring, looking very tempting.

The woman paused, and the next step was to plate the food. Although she knew that this was just a video demonstration and she couldn't eat it, Si Li still unconsciously stopped following the gesture and leaned forward.

The pop-up window returned to darkness and then disappeared.

Si Li sighed with regret, then looked at the cucumber slices in her hands that were not even as good as the cucumbers in the video that were casually smashed with the back of a knife. She finally understood why the system repeatedly mentioned that her knife skills were terrible.

She knew that good knife skills would affect the taste of a dish, but she was picky about food, and most of the dishes she was willing to eat were not too badly cut. If it weren't for this video, she would never have thought that good knife skills would play a big role in a very simple home-cooked dish like salad cucumber.

After all, this is just an empty star dish that even she can cook.

Si Li followed the woman in the video and picked up the kitchen knife, slowly cutting a slice on the cucumber. The unique rhythm in the video dazzled her, and for the first time she realized that in addition to the dish itself, the cooking process could also be beautiful.

Dudu, dudu, dudu dudu.

The sound of the kitchen knife rang out from far away in the small kitchen, and it did not stop for a long time. The physical fatigue was diluted by the spiritual excitement, and Si Li's eyes were only on the cucumber under the knife.

When Qingyu returned to the courtyard with the kitchen maid, he was startled by the pile of plates and wooden basins piled on the counter and at his feet. Every container he looked at was filled with light green cucumber chunks, and Si Li, who was standing in front of the counter, was still chopping cucumbers with a kitchen knife.

Qingyu still remembered Qinglian's distorted expression after she ate the plate of cold cucumber, and his heart skipped a beat.

But the ignorant little girl Xiao Que was sitting next to her and exclaimed, "The lady is cutting faster and faster!"

Is this a good thing?!

Si Li heard someone asking "where to put it" and stopped cutting the cucumber with half of it left. She turned around and said softly, "Qingyu, you're back just in time. Come and try this dish and see how it tastes."

Qingyu opened her mouth and forced a smile under the curious gazes of the maids, "No, no thanks, miss, I'm full."

Si Li took a small bowl and scooped half a bowl of the cold cucumber salad from the plate farthest from her, and handed it to Qingyu, saying angrily, "I heard from the steward that you and Qinglian were worried that I didn't eat anything for lunch. You and I are master and servant, and we are like sisters, so don't be embarrassed, eat quickly."

Eat quickly, eat more, and quickly finish the failed dishes that went wrong during the initial practice. She cooked all the dishes in the kitchen, so Si Li naturally knew which dishes were judged as failed by the system and which were criticized among the seemingly random arrangements. The farther the dishes were placed, the worse they were, and they were just right for Qingyu to eat.

Putting the bowl into Qingyu's hands, Si Li picked up the two plates of cold cucumber salad closest to her and greeted the maids with a smile, "Thank you for helping me, ladies. I don't have anything else to offer, so I can only treat you to freshly made cucumbers. Don't reject it."

Two maids put a basket of potatoes outside the door, wiped their hands awkwardly, took the plate and said, "Thank you for the gift, Miss."

In late autumn, the price of vegetables that are difficult to store, such as cucumbers, slowly goes up. Ordinary families are reluctant to buy so much to make a whole dish, but when they suddenly eat them at the eldest lady's house, they are naturally flattered.

Xiao Que stood up and gave them the long bench she was sitting on, as if she didn't notice Qing Yu standing there. Qing Yu closed her eyes and made up her mind, and quickly put the cucumber in the bowl into her mouth and swallowed it. Although she swallowed it quickly, she was also stung by the strange sour and salty taste.

When he looked at the maid again, Qingyu couldn't help but sneer in his heart. Si Li, the young lady who was ignorant of the world, thought what Steward Wang said was true. She thought that the dishes she cooked were so good that she would give a portion to everyone she met. Who knew that it would be good enough if others didn't bear a grudge after eating a bite!

As Qing Yu was complaining, the bowl in his hand sank, and the cucumber filled the bowl again. Si Li smiled very gently, "Since you are hungry, eat more."

Qingyu was waiting to see the maids finally unable to bear it and start making a fuss, so he stood in the small kitchen and ate bowl after bowl of cold cucumber salad. Some of the food tasted strange, some were just so-so, but none of them could be called delicious.

However, Qingyu had not come to his senses until the maids finished their meal and left with praise.

What's going on? Are they afraid that the young lady will lose her temper? But if there is no good show to watch, why is she eating so much disgusting cold cucumber salad here?

Si Li heard the question that Qing Yu mumbled in a trance, and innocently turned around and replied, "You ate so much and still want to eat more, I thought you like it."

Qingyu stopped habitually shoveling the bowl, and her face gradually turned red. Her lips moved, and she couldn't speak for a long time. After all, Si Li was right, she was the one who didn't refuse.

Si Li had been cutting cucumbers for the whole afternoon and felt that she was much more adept at it than before. She picked up a cucumber from the basket which still had half of the cucumbers left and quickly cut it with the knife, crushing it and adding seasonings in one go.

[System: Ding Dong, a mediocre cold cucumber salad, achievement point +1.]

The system did not show any more or less tips, indicating that this dish was already qualified. Si Li was in a good mood and joked in her mind, "If there are flaws, it's +1, if it's mediocre, it's still +1. I think there's something wrong with your scoring standards."

[System: According to the universal values ​​of mankind, there are four levels: 0 to 60 points, 60 to 80 points, above 80 points, and 100 points. The host's current cooking skills still need to be improved.]

Si Li didn't expect it to answer, but now it makes sense. Isn't it just failing, passing, excellent and first? It's too real.

"Qingyu, do you want to eat?" Si Li invited sincerely while holding the freshly prepared cold cucumber salad.

Qingyu was still in fear of being dominated by the cucumber. She shuddered when she saw Si Li handing over the plate. "No, no. I'm too full. Miss, these potatoes need to be washed too, right? I'll do it."

Xiao Que always has an animal-like intuition about delicious food. For example, she ate the failed dish only after Si Li called her to taste it, and for fried tofu and a plate of salad cucumber that Si Li was practicing to the final stage, she would rush to finish them without anyone calling her.

"Miss, this dish is as delicious as the previous one!" Xiao Que's eyes lit up after taking a bite, and her subsequent compliments were drowned out by the sound of Qingyu pouring water and washing the potatoes.

Si Li paused as she was cleaning the chopping board.

Should I tell Qingyu that she is not in a hurry to cook potatoes today? Forget it, since she is so motivated, let her do it.

After an afternoon, Si Li was able to keep the level of her salad cucumber balanced and mediocre. Although she found that the two dishes of salad cucumber that were both rated as mediocre by the system still had slight differences, such as one was saltier and the other was spicier, it seemed that in the system's evaluation standards, their levels were the same.

This made Si Li even more curious about what a good or excellent cucumber salad would be like. After just one night's rest, she got up the next day to practice while watching the system recipe video. After watching it over and over again, the cucumber salad she made was still mediocre.

"Miss, there are no cucumbers."

Si Li was awakened from her thoughts by Xiao Que. She looked down and found that the basket of cucumbers that was half full yesterday was now empty. Only then did she feel tired.

She felt it was too strenuous to even raise her hand, so she drank a sip of water from Xiao Que's hand and went out to look. Unknowingly, the sun had already set and another day had passed.

Qingyu was exhausted from washing potatoes all day. She was resting in the sun under the eaves with her hands wrapped. When she saw Si Li leaving the house, she immediately became alert, "Miss, I had a plate of cucumbers at noon. I'm really full."

Si Li nodded casually, leaned back on a rattan chair in the courtyard, and said, "It's good that you're full. I'll go give the steward a plate of cucumber as an extra side dish."

After yesterday's experience, Qingyu seemed to be frightened by too many cucumbers, and did whatever she was told to do, being particularly obedient. Si Li didn't care what she was thinking, as long as she didn't leave, she was still her maid, and she had to endure it if she didn't make a fuss.

Didn't Qingyu and Qinglian treat the original owner the same way in the past? If the original owner didn't complain, she had to endure their bullying behaviors such as eating first, spending money first, and having to choose clothes, jewelry, books and toys before the original owner could get them. They were obviously maids, but after pretending to be so, they bullied the original owner behind her back. Now washing and tasting vegetables is just child's play compared to what they did before.

After Si Li and Xiao Que had filled their stomachs with cold cucumber, Qing Yu, who had not returned for a long time, finally stepped into the courtyard. She looked a little strange, and it was hard to tell whether she was angry or seeing a joke. She came closer and knelt down and said, "A letter from the Madam."

As expected, Qinglian did not follow her back.

The letter paper used was a low-key yet delicate embossed paper with dark patterns and was scented with incense, which was completely out of place in this simple courtyard.

Si Li read through the long paragraphs of empty nonsense in the letter. If the original owner was here, she might be fooled into turning her head when she saw every word of this letter, which sounded like a loving mother's words for her child. But when you put aside the appearance, and extract the essence of this letter from Si Li's past experience of writing PPTs and weekly and monthly reports to fool her superiors, it was just that she was not allowed to return to Beijing.

Just think about it, how could there be a truly kind-hearted stepmother who would indulge her child and let him learn nothing, not even attending the girls' school that all the daughters of noble families, officials and officials go to? How could the original owner be weak, timid and afraid of strangers, but she still insisted on doing so, and repeatedly locked her up in the house and not allowed her to go out and socialize?

In the letter, stepmother mentioned that Qinglian had not done her job well and had not taken good care of her, so she had to stay and discipline her. She also told her to listen to Qingyu's opinions and not to be too open with Xiaoque, who came from the countryside, to avoid making jokes. But Si Li believed that the wife of the prime minister knew exactly what was going on between Qingyu and Qinglian. It seemed that Qinglian had already told Doctor Chen that she was seriously ill and needed to be recuperated. It was clear that stepmother wanted to let her fend for herself on the farm.

In the Ning Dynasty, girls come of age at the age of fifteen, and after that they are expected to get engaged. However, the eldest daughter of the Si family was recuperating due to illness, and not only did she miss the coming-of-age ceremony, but she was also sick and weak and lived on a farm. Who knows if there was something fishy going on, so naturally there was no good marriage for her, and it would not hinder Si Tang from becoming famous. And the illness was something that her stepmother could not decide, so outsiders could not blame her.

She used the original owner's body to fulfill the original owner's wish, but Si Li had no intention of returning to the capital to play tricks on them. This was fine.

After reading the letter and looking at Qingyu's expression, Si Li understood that she was about to be pissed off, and pretended to be sad and added fuel to the fire, "Qinglian has returned to the capital, and I only have you by my side. Qingyu, I'll trouble you to help me peel potatoes and light the stove. When I make something delicious, I'll give it to you first."

Qing Yu gritted her teeth and said, "Thank you very much, young lady." The words were almost squeezed out from between her teeth. Wash the potatoes after washing the cucumbers, peel the potatoes after eating the cucumbers, and light the stove after washing the dishes. Even ten years ago when she was not a young lady's maid, she had never suffered such a hardship!

Si Li was lying on the rattan chair, very leisurely, and then opened the system panel. The achievement points successfully broke through 0 and the number became 10. However, compared with the starting value of 100 in the mall, it was still a long way to buy delicious food.

Angry, Si Li poked the beef tendon that looked soft, glutinous and smooth in the picture twice.

[System: Novice privileges have been used, 10% off to purchase "Healthy Beef Tendon" x1, the product has been issued. Ten achievement points will be deducted.]

Si Li's palm passed through the void, and in the palm of her hand lay a piece of beef tendon wrapped in oil paper. The beef tendon was not big, less than three centimeters long, wide and high, and could be eaten in one bite. Combined with its high price, it was extremely heartbreaking.

The ten achievement points were gone before I could even get warm to the surface!

Turning grief into appetite, Si Li took advantage of Xiao Que and Qing Yu going to the kitchen to open the oil paper package. The mall promotional picture was not fake, the warm tendon was translucent and soft, and the oily sauce dripped onto the oil paper along the tendon texture. If you smell it closely, you can smell a faint aroma of sauce like halved beef.

I've already bought it. Si Li put the tendon into her mouth hesitantly. The piece was too small, and she couldn't eat it even if she wanted to.

It is as soft and glutinous as imagined. The special meaty aroma of the tendon melts in the mouth in an instant. The tendon, which is much smoother than jelly, slides down the tip of the tongue. When chewing subconsciously, you can still bite the tendon. The tendons are strong and springy, and the aroma of Chinese herbal medicine is not unpleasant, but rather very pleasant.

Physical fatigue came over her like a tide, and Si Li slowly fell asleep wrapped in a thin quilt. When she woke up again, it was already noon the next day.

It must have been Xiao Que who carried her back to the room last night. When Si Li woke up, she felt much more energetic. Thinking about the explanation of "healthy beef tendon", it was very obvious where her good spirit came from.

The stuff is good, but too expensive.

The recipes available for learning now are three one-star dishes. Si Li looked at the ingredients and knew that she needed to ask the kitchen for ingredients for two snacks, so she could only start with wolf tooth potatoes.

Wolf tooth potatoes are a one-star dish, and the video is divided into two parts: preparation and cooking. The potato strips required in the video are quite difficult to cut, and the potato strips that meet the requirements cannot be cut, and the cooking process is temporarily deadlocked.

The food for the people in the courtyard changed from cucumbers to potatoes. Fortunately, the potatoes from Ning Dynasty were green and pollution-free or because of the variety, but they tasted particularly sweet and rich. No matter how strange the cuts were, they could be steamed and mashed into milky potatoes with a little soy sauce and salt.

If it's salty, add potatoes; if it's bland, add soy sauce. Compared to the cold cucumber salad that will be a mess if you add several seasonings at the same time, mashed potatoes can always find the right balance that makes people eat it carelessly.

After the third meal of mashed potatoes, Qingyu had already mastered the special skill of disappearing immediately after being caught by Si Li, which led to a vicious cycle of being assigned more tasks the next time Si Li caught him. Therefore, when Manager Wang stepped into the courtyard, he only saw two people. Xiao Que was eating sweetly with a big bowl in his arms. Si Li had just finished eating the mashed potatoes and put away the bowl, and then took a knife to cut potatoes.

"This..." Steward Wang couldn't bear it any longer and stepped forward to stop her. "Miss, it's just a side dish. We have rice and flour. Why do you have to suffer and eat these?"

Si Li was confused for a moment. After searching through the original owner's memory, he realized that the rich people nowadays thought that coarse crops such as potatoes, corn and sweet potatoes were of the same level as the bran from wheat that had not been completely removed from the husk. Except for extremely poor families, no one could fill their stomachs with them.

Looking at Manager Wang's eyes sparkling with tears, uh... what a beautiful misunderstanding.

However, Xiao Que really followed her through hardships without any regrets. When she made some progress in her practice, she would take Xiao Que out to eat.

Having made up her mind, Si Li smiled and said, "It's not what you think. I'll make another bowl and the steward will know after he tastes it."

With a flick of the knife, several potatoes were cut into pieces. Suddenly, without warning, the system prompt that had not appeared for more than a day rang.

[System: Congratulations to the host for achieving the "Elementary Diligence: Cut 100 Potatoes in One Day" achievement. The reward recipe "K's Mashed Potatoes (Fake)" has been unlocked. Please continue to work hard. ]

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The author has something to say:

Lili (mumbling) If it's too salty, add potatoes; if it's too bland, add soy sauce. If there's less noodles, add water; if there's less water, add noodles... Hey, did you make too much? Qingyu, it's time to eat!

Trash Can Qingyu: Questioning life.