Chapter 35 Chapter 35 Improving the Diet

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"In short, this is just a misunderstanding."

After taking a shower, Gu Mengran stood by the water dispenser, holding the cup and drinking it in one gulp. He also told others what happened today and what he learned in the parking lot.

The speaker may not mean it, but the listener may take it seriously. Gu Mengran spoke so calmly that Meng Gaoyang felt a chill down his spine. He leaned back in his chair in a daze, his heart suddenly in his throat.

"You bumped into someone right after you went out? That's too bad. Fortunately it was just a misunderstanding, otherwise...it would be a question whether you could come back."

Still in shock, the old man repeatedly rubbed his chest with his right hand and sighed, "I still feel like something is not right. How could it be such a coincidence? Xiao Zheng encountered all the misunderstandings, and there are hidden stories behind them all."

Just as he finished speaking, the person involved, Zheng Yijie, walked out of the aisle with a head full of moisture. Hearing this, his face slightly flushed, and he subconsciously looked at Gu Mengran.

Gu Mengran raised his eyebrows and looked at him with a smile.

Of course, it is not a pure coincidence. Zheng Yijie is probably influenced by doomsday novels and has a bias against unknown forces.

He had preconceived ideas, and when he heard ambiguous words and vague things, he would color and process them in his mind, so that he ignored other possibilities, and the truth he pieced together became what he thought it was.

Especially since he is an online writer who is good at telling stories and bought a house with full payment by writing novels!

It was not a wise move to embarrass the landlord in public. Gu Mengran unobtrusively retracted his gaze and turned to his grandfather and said, "If it is a coincidence, it is not a misunderstanding. We should be thankful."

"It's best if it's a misunderstanding." The old man pinched his chin and frowned. "I'm just worried. I'm worried that they let you go on purpose to lower your guard and then play the long game to catch big fish."

"No, there's nothing worth fishing on us." The glass of water was empty again. Gu Mengran leaned over to the water dispenser and took a full glass.

"Just because you say there is no such thing, then there is no such thing?" The old man stared at Gu Mengran, but his eyes kept moving to the left.

On the living room floor, the children sat crookedly on the patchwork mat, happily building Lego sets. Although the two teachers were listening to them, they spent most of their time looking after the children, occasionally feeding them water and preventing them from putting toys in their mouths.

Gu Mengran glanced at him and lowered his voice deliberately, "Grandpa, I'm not a fool. I can't tell them the truth without any precautions. I only said that we still have an old man. Unless they are interested in you, otherwise-"

"You are a very unruly boy, aren't you?" The old man raised his hand high.

Gu Mengran chuckled, reluctantly left the water dispenser, walked towards grandpa with a cup of water, and comforted him softly: "Don't worry, grandpa, they were a group of people at that time, and we couldn't resist them if they really wanted to do something. And they knew Zheng Yijie lived here, so they wouldn't wait until now if they wanted to cause trouble."

Comforting him didn't work. Instead, the old man became more nervous and asked sternly, "Do they know we live here too?"

"You should know. We are from other places and we are hanging out with Zheng Yijie. You can easily guess that we are staying at his house."

Meng Gaoyang took a breath of cool air, "Hiss! No matter what, we'd better leave early. People's hearts cannot stand the test. They may not be interested in a group of men like us, but the supplies and..."

Before the old man finished speaking, Gu Mengran understood what he meant.

There was no rush to leave, it was indeed time to leave. But it was not easy to leave at any time, Brother Gang did not allow them to look for supplies in the north of the city, and there were other forces in other areas, so they did not dare to set foot in them easily.

Although Gang Ge expressed his friendship and offered to provide them with a car, it was impossible for him to deliver the car to their door, so they had to go to Ninth Street and drive it themselves.

It wouldn't be a big deal for him and Liang Zhao to go there, but the key point is that they want buses, and at least two. Let's not talk about whether there are any, how should they explain this?

And if the crisis is resolved, will Zheng Yijie still go with them? If he doesn't want to go and is unwilling to provide supplies, then he will have to go out with Liang Zhao for a few days and pretend to find some supplies.

Oh! There are so many troubles. Gu Mengran sighed in his heart, but he didn't show it on his face. He shrugged his shoulders and smiled at his grandfather, "I know."

In fact, Gu Mengran was not as nervous as his grandfather, because he always felt that the burly and muscular boss of Ninth Street did not look like a meticulous and cunning person.

Never mind, it’s a rare chance for him to have some free time, so Gu Mengran prepared to improve the food.

For this purpose, he specifically found Zheng Yijie and said hello. After obtaining the owner's consent, he walked into his warehouse which was full of supplies.

The owner of the house took good care of the warehouse. The supplies were categorized and neatly arranged, and different labels were attached to boxes of different sizes. Gu Mengran looked at the labels and easily got the ingredients he wanted.

A bag of low-gluten flour, a can of milk powder, a bag of black tea, four cans of luncheon meat, fifteen potatoes the size of fists, and finally, Gu Mengran took ten eggs from the double-door refrigerator in the warehouse and hurried into the kitchen.

The kitchen is equipped with basic kitchen utensils, pots, pans, and bowls, but Zheng Yijie did not prepare any improved kitchen utensils such as an oven and an air fryer. It is obvious that he is not a person who likes to cook.

After preparing the ingredients, Gu Mengran turned on the tap, washed his hands, and started with the eggs.

Take a large bowl and a small colander, place the colander on the bowl, then beat the eggs on the colander to easily separate the egg white.

The separated egg whites were placed in the refrigerator for later use. Gu Mengran found a stainless steel bowl, poured in an appropriate amount of low-gluten flour, an appropriate amount of sugar, and a spoonful of edible vegetable oil, and stirred thoroughly until no dry flour was visible.

Dilute the milk powder with warm water to make milk, then pour the "milk" and egg yolk into the basin and stir again. When it becomes half a basin of yellow paste, take out the egg white from the refrigerator, add a few drops of white vinegar, and start beating.

Egg white has a fishy smell, but if you don’t have lemon juice, you can add white vinegar to remove the fishy smell.

Without an automatic egg beater, the most tiring step is beating the egg whites. Gu Mengran used a colander to stir it in the basin, and his hands were almost sore, and the egg liquid had not yet taken shape.

The space is equipped with an automatic egg beater, but the kitchen door cannot be locked. How can I explain it if someone sees it?

The soreness of the arm was secondary. If the egg white was not whipped, the egg would be wasted. Gu Mengran weighed it, put down the colander, and tiptoed towards the door.

Seeing that there was no one around, just as he was holding the handle and preparing to close the door, Liang Zhao, who had changed his clothes, walked out from the study diagonally opposite. He had a towel in his hand and kept wiping his wet hair.

Gu Mengran's eyes lit up instantly, and he waved to Liang Zhao hurriedly, "Come on, Liang Zhao, help me look for the wind."

"Watching for help?" Liang Zhao raised his eyebrows in confusion, but walked straight into the kitchen without stopping for a moment.

When they reached the spot where Gu Mengran had just stood, Gu Mengran stopped immediately and brought a small stool. "Just sit here. Someone come and remind me in time. I'm going to use the egg beater in the space. My hands are so tired."

Liang Zhao glanced at the dazzling array of ingredients on the table and asked hesitantly, "Want to beat the eggs? How about I help you beat them? You sit here and take a rest."

“No, no.”

Gu Mengran waved his hand to refuse, because Liang Zhao’s cooking skills... were really not good enough to praise.

Afraid that his disapproval would be too obvious, Liang Zhao felt uncomfortable, so Gu Mengran brought the potatoes over, and also brought a washing basin and a peeler, and asked Liang Zhao to peel the potatoes, giving him a sense of participation.

With someone keeping watch, Gu Mengran boldly took out the automatic egg beater from the space, cleaned it carefully and connected it to the power source. In less than five minutes, the egg whites in the basin turned into creamy meringue.

Add one-third of the mixture to the flour paste and mix thoroughly until combined. Then add the remaining meringue and mix again in the same way.

After stirring thoroughly, Gu Mengran took two rice cooker inner pots from the stove, brushed them with a layer of oil, divided the prepared paste in the basin into two halves, and put them into the rice cookers to steam.

Since there are so many people, the amount needs to be larger, otherwise there won’t be enough to share. Fortunately, Zheng Yijie has two rice cookers.

It took nearly 40 minutes, but Gu Mengran's rice cooker chiffon cake was almost successful. He still needed to steam it for another half an hour and simmer it for 20 minutes to see if it was successful.

After finishing the work, Liang Zhao peeled the potatoes and even helped to clean them. Gu Mengran cleaned the table, put the automatic egg beater back into the space, and continued to prepare the next dish.

Cut the potatoes into strips with a corrugated knife and soak them in water for five minutes to remove excess starch. Heat oil in a pan, pour the potato strips into the pan and fry them slowly over low heat.

During this time, Gu Mengran was not idle either. He prepared chili powder, cumin powder, sesame and other seasonings in advance. After the potatoes were fried until golden brown, he divided them into two portions, added the seasonings and mixed them evenly.

One portion has chili peppers and the other portion does not.

Zheng Yijie's family has a fairly complete range of seasonings, and the food won't be unpalatable even without chili peppers. It's just that Gu Mengran's taste is bland, and he needs a little chili pepper to stimulate his taste buds.

It really smells good. Gu Mengran tasted one and found it spicy and delicious, crispy and crunchy. It's a pity that there is no coriander, green onion or watercress, otherwise the taste can be taken to the next level. He can just push a cart and set up the stall.

The home-cooked wolf tooth potatoes were ready, and the aroma of oil filled the air in the kitchen. Gu Mengran caught a glimpse of Liang Zhao's throat moving, so he decisively picked up a spicy potato with chopsticks, walked over, and leaned over to put it to his mouth.

Liang Zhao was caught off guard, and the wolf-tooth potato almost touched his lips. But he didn't open his mouth, looked up at Gu Mengran in surprise, and reached out to take the chopsticks.

"Oh, don't move, or it will fall to the ground." Gu Mengran slapped his hand away and raised his chin to signal Liang Zhao to open his mouth.

Looking at those eyes full of expectation, Liang Zhao opened his lips slightly.

"How is it? Is it delicious? Is it lacking in flavor?" Gu Mengran put the potato into Liang Zhao's mouth and asked hurriedly before he could chew it.

He was so focused on observing Liang Zhao's expression that he didn't notice that Liang Zhao's ears were silently turning red.

Liang Zhao hid his unnaturalness, chewed the food quickly and swallowed it, and nodded frankly, "It smells good, it tastes just right to me, no need to add anything else."

"That's good," Gu Mengran said with a grin, "Come and help. Take the wolf-tooth potatoes out first and eat them with them while they're hot. I'll fry the luncheon meat, and the cake will probably be almost done by then."

"Yeah." Liang Zhao stood up, washed his hands, and walked out of the kitchen carrying two basins of potatoes.

But after a while he came back and stood by to learn from the master, watching the whole process until the luncheon meat came out of the pot with golden brown on both sides.

The cake was cooked. Gu Mengran looked at the time and unplugged the rice cooker.

I was a little nervous. I had read many tutorials, but this was my first time trying it myself. Success or failure depended on this one move. Gu Mengran held his breath and gently pressed the lid button.

A wave of hot air blew up on his face, and the rich aroma of milk and the lingering sweet fragrance went straight into his nose. Gu Mengran sniffed the fragrance in the air, and when the hot air dissipated, he looked down and saw a piece of soft and yellow "sponge" in the pot.

The pot was still a little hot, so Gu Mengran used a towel to pad the pot and took out the inner pot, and put it directly on the clean cutting board. Then he patted the bottom of the pot and took the inner pot out, leaving only a bouncy round chiffon cake on the cutting board.

Both the shape and color are perfect, with light yellow edges and brown bottom. Even if you ignore the rich milky aroma, it looks particularly tempting.

Gu Mengran was extremely happy to succeed at the first try, and a huge sense of accomplishment filled his heart. However, the cake should be eaten while it is hot, so he did not rush to be proud. He quickly cut the two chiffon cakes into pieces, put them on a plate, and brought them to the living room with Liang Zhao.

The food was improved quite a lot, including chiffon cake, wolf-tooth potatoes and fried luncheon meat. The children were very happy and seemed to have found the real joy of "traveling".

The adults were not reserved either. They ate the delicious food with big mouthfuls and praised the chef without sparing any effort. They especially cherished this hard-earned, short but beautiful time.