Save the Family Doctor (12)
"Flip it over! System? System?? Z01! The steak is going to burn!"
"Host, please wait a moment. The tutorial states that it takes longer to sear one side of the well-done steak."
"The tutorial says it's usually two to three minutes, and it takes a little longer for well-done, but you've already been cooking one side for ten minutes. Are you sure you can still see the shape of the steak?"
A tall man, his appearance identical to the model, stood in front of the open kitchen stove, a spatula in one hand and a tutorial book in the other. He glanced down at the skeptical young man standing nearby with a calm expression and said, "Don't worry, if it gets messed up, there are still many options. There's a saying that practice makes perfect, and failure is the mother of success."
Jiang Yuanshi sighed, moved a high stool and sat down, half-lying on the table with one hand supporting his face, and said speechlessly: "Humans also have a saying that wasting food is shameful."
Z01, who changed into human form to make cooking easier, said: "But the food is not wasted yet."
Jiang Yuanshi chuckled twice and poked the timer placed beside the stove. It had already been eleven minutes. "Then turn it over now so I can see your remains."
Z01 frowned, not understanding the human's dry humor. However, after analyzing and calculating that it could indeed be flipped, he used a spatula to flip the steak over. The spatula slid smoothly into the bottom of the steak, without any obstruction, and it seemed to be a success, not sticking to the pan. The system decisively flipped it over.
The steak...is gone.
All that was left in sight was the black bottom of the pot. Z01 frowned, feeling something was amiss. Jiang Yuanshi, who was crouching over and watching, saw from the side the uncooked red meat underneath. He stood up and looked at the steak that had perfectly blended into the pot, and couldn't help but sigh, "Absolutely amazing."
He tilted his head to look up at the system's expression, which remained unchanged. It was indeed a face that was molded by humans. It would not break at any angle, and there would not even be any bugs. It was just that it was a bit stubborn when it came to cooking.
Jiang Yuanshi humbly asked for advice: "What should I do next?"
Z01 calmly scooped up the steak and pretended to put it on a plate with a piece of steak-shaped charcoal beside him, but was stopped by Jiang Yuanshi.
"Wait, you haven't fried the other side yet."
"The steak has failed and there is no point in continuing."
"If the other side is okay, then you can eat it. At least you can eat part of it."
"Host, charred food is carcinogenic."
"So it's a portion. Eat the side without charcoal. Just treat it as practice. If you can get the precise timing for this side, you can move on to the next piece. Otherwise, there will be heavy casualties."
Just like that, the steak moved horizontally from above the plate back into the pot and merged into it again. During the timing, Z01 glanced at the person lying on the ground. Now the host's soul body has grown from its previous human form into a complete human. Most of Z01's perspective is the host's furry head, and there is only one Xuan on the head. Z01 chose the one that best suits his current situation from the collected human data, "One Xuan is obedient, two Xuans are stubborn."
It’s hard to imagine that his host is actually only Xuan. It turns out that the folk sayings of humans are not very accurate.
Looking down, there are long eyelashes along the hair and a straight nose bridge. The view is slightly downward, and the owner looks at the pot with his eyes lowered and his expression is very serious. When he holds his face with one hand, the flesh of his cheeks is pulled up and the corners of his mouth are also raised. He looks very obedient, which is very deceptive.
Z01 was reviewing the plot while waiting for time. Jiang Yuanshi always felt a strange gaze. He looked up and met Z01's gaze. For some reason, even though the other party casually looked away, he still saw a hint of resentment in the cold eyes.
It's so strange, he obviously hasn't done anything recently.
Jiang Yuanshi was puzzled and could only regard it as an illusion.
Meanwhile, the other side of the steak is cooked.
The surface was slightly charred, and when pressed with a spatula, juice overflowed. It was a perfect single side, forming a sharp contrast with the black bottom of the pot. Jiang Yuanshi stood up and held a clean plate in both hands towards Z01. Z01 placed the steak on a clean cutting board, cut off the black part with a knife, and put it on the host's plate.
The visual sense of proportional compression.
Jiang Yuanshi took out the knife and fork he had prepared long ago, cut a piece, and handed it to the system's mouth. In return, Z01 looked puzzled. Jiang Yuanshi raised his fork and said, "Kitchen rules, the cook takes the first bite."
Are you sure you don't want to test the poison yourself?
Z01 took a bite with half-belief, and Jiang Yuanshi cut another piece and put it in his own mouth. It seemed that it was indeed a kitchen rule, not a poison test.
The meat is tender yet chewy, full of juice, and has the original taste of beef.
Jiang Yuanshi chewed and said, "Did we forget to add the seasoning?"
Z01 chewed and nodded.
Perhaps it was because of the steak itself or because it had been fried for too long, but the two of them chewed on it for a long time before finishing it. Jiang Yuanshi covered his sore cheeks and offered his opinion - it was very suitable for killing time and as a tool for grinding teeth.
Z01 agrees with this.
After successfully frying the steak, the two embarked on the journey of making the sauce.
Even the usually calm and data-rich Z01 was lost in thought about the seasoning ratios: "Host, what is the appropriate amount?"
Jiang Yuanshi: "Well... I guess it depends on personal taste."
“But the appropriate amount is very inaccurate, so why does it appear on the recipe?”
"Then you should change to another one. There are so many recipes, so don't stick to just one. What's more, you are using a folk encyclopedia." No wonder it is written in moderation.
“How can such inaccurate data be published?”
"Even textbooks had mistakes when I was in school, let alone recipes." Jiang Yuanshi said frankly, "The world is a giant makeshift team. Don't you have bugs in your bookstore every day?"
Z01 had nothing to say, but he really wanted to say that there weren't so many bugs in the bureau originally, but Jiang Yuanshi encountered these rare bugs that had only been seen once in many years.
"Let's get a more accurate one. After making the sauce, we still have to fry a steak."
"But whichever one is cooked first will cool down first and affect the taste."
Jiang Yuanshi looked up at the sky helplessly. Cooking was so difficult. He rolled up his sleeves, took out another pot, and said to the system, "Then please give me the recipe. I'll make the sauce while you fry the steak. It will be faster if we divide the work."
Z01 was puzzled: "Don't you know how to cook?"
Jiang Yuanshi: "I just cook to survive, not because I don't know how to cook."
In other words, as long as it is edible, nothing else matters.
"Then please follow the recipe." Z01 handed over the recipe. This was his last resort. Jiang Yuanshi took it, nodded, and replied, "I'll try my best."
Z01: ...It seems impossible.
As expected, the host sprinkled seasonings while tasting the flavors, adding more salt to sugar and more sugar to salt. Z01 seemed to want to say something but chose to shut up and concentrate on his own work, out of sight, out of mind. But the miracle was that the sauce the host finally prepared was unexpectedly delicious, it was simply impossible to analyze, causing the system to burn out its CPU and even forget that it didn't need to eat. The two of them ate the steak as soon as it was cooked, and then started the next dish after eating.
They worked and ate, and ate and worked, forming a cycle until everyone was full. Z01 even felt that the database was a bit full and the cache needed to be cleared.
The next few days were like this. The plot was still calm, and the family doctor was forced to go out every day. However, because the employer paid generously, Jiang Yuanshi was not so tired at work. After finishing his work, he went to the supermarket to buy vegetables. The system changed from the original language barrier to the unified *little snake version of picking vegetables. In the end, both of them went home either holding an ice cream or drinking milk tea.
"It seems that there will be no new ice cream styles." Although the original coriander flavor is delicious, Jiang Yuanshi is always curious about other flavors. He and the system tried all the drinks in the milk tea shop, jumping back and forth between stepping on landmines and recommending them.
Jiang Yuanshi held an ice cream cone in one hand, eating the left side himself while the system snake held his hand and ate the right side. The system snake licked its lips and said, "After all, the newbie world's willpower is insufficient, and developing new products also requires funds."
Jiang Yuanshi thought about it and walked on an empty street, then opened the system mall. Unfortunately, there happened to be other flavors of ice cream there, a mixture of dragon fruit and kiwi. It was weird, but he had never tasted it before and wanted to try it.
He glanced at the system snake, and the system snake hissed.
Jiang Yuanshi closed the mall and continued eating his vanilla ice cream.
System Snake: "You don't want to buy it?"
Jiang Yuanshi: "Do you really want me to buy it?"
System Snake shook his head: "But I know I can't stop you from doing what you want to do."
Jiang Yuanshi: "No, if you really want to punish me, just go ahead and give me an electric shock."
The system ate its ice cream in silence for a long time before saying, "You haven't reached the point where you need to be punished."
"I haven't had that before. I feel like you could turn a traffic light into anger."
The system that was initially truly irritated into a glittering ball of light:
Jiang Yuanshi changed the subject: "What are we having for dinner? Anyway, I don't want to eat Buddha Jumps Over the Wall anymore."
Z01, who has mastered home cooking these days, has had ideas about advanced cuisine. He tried to make Buddha Jumps Over the Wall or boiled cabbage, which took a long time and made him hungry. Although he succeeded in the end, Jiang Yuanshi, who was a guinea pig for the test, almost had ptsd. When he saw those dishes at the domineering president's house, he wanted to throw a snake into their dishes, after all, the tastes should be similar.
Z01 was very easy to talk to: "The Buddha Jumps Over the Wall is a success, it's time to change the dish."
"Change what?"
"I remember there's a very famous dish in your hometown."
Jiang Yuanshi had a bad feeling.
"Squirrel fish or ancient meat, you choose one."
really.
"Isn't this a sauce?" Both are sweet and sour. They are delicious if they are done well, but they can be sour to death if they are not done well.
Z01 corrected him, "They are two different cuisines. Squirrel fish is Suzhou cuisine, and ancient pork is Cantonese cuisine."
Jiang Yuanshi: "But the taste seems to be similar."
Z01: "Is that so?"
Jiang Yuanshi: "Probably. I'm not sure if I've ever had the authentic ones, but they're pretty much the same everywhere, in the streets and alleys, especially in tourist areas. There's also Dongpo pork and Maoxuewang."
“Maoxuewang is a Sichuan dish.”
"It doesn't matter. Nowadays, any dish can be found in a restaurant. As long as it's edible, that's fine."
Z01, who is used to strict classification, doesn't want to talk.
After interacting with the system, Jiang Yuanshi realized that the other party probably had obsessive-compulsive disorder but couldn't say anything, so it started to hold back the CPU again.
"Okay, okay, let's do both. I'll eat them all anyway."
“…”
"Hello? Is anyone here?"
“…”
"Hey, hey, hey, another bug?"
"...No, the current signal is good."
"Oh, it's not broken. Then let's go home and cook?"
"No." The system refused. Jiang Yuanshi wondered if Tong's anger would make him even more angry. Z01 continued, "I didn't buy pineapples. Pineapple-based meat requires pineapples."
"..." Jiang Yuanshi took a breath and sighed slowly, "Okay, let's go back to the supermarket and check out the pineapples."
The system snake nodded.
Not long after the man and the snake turned back, the cell phone in Jiang Yuanshi's pocket rang. He answered the call while picking pineapples side by side with the humanoids. The voice on the other end of the phone was not the buffalo voice, but Li Pu.
Li Pu: "Oh no, Doctor Jiang, something's happened to Fan Dian!"
You two are such a perfect match, you even take turns getting sick.
Jiang Yuanshi said, "I'm in the supermarket now. Please wait a moment, I'll be there soon." As he followed the tip of the system snake's tail, he picked up three pineapples and went to check out.
Jiang Yuanshi hung up the phone, and the system asked, "Host, do you want to leave now?"
"Doesn't the Anywhere Door still have five minutes to go? Let me pay the bill first."
"It's normally necessary, but it will be activated immediately during the story mission." Just as the system finished speaking, a door appeared not far from Jiang Yuanshi. Jiang Yuanshi didn't go forward and put the pineapple on the cashier. "After paying the bill, you can go in."
However, the staff who were operating normally did not move. Their cold gazes were directed at Jiang Yuanshi. He raised his head and saw that the originally half-gray and transparent human figure gradually turned black. A face without facial features came up and stared at Jiang Yuanshi.
Jiang Yuanshi turned around.
The originally scattered figures gathered behind him at some point, countless empty faces looking at him. They surged forward, pushing Jiang Yuanshi to the door like a tide.
【This is not reality, you can't escape. 】
Jiang Yuan was confused when he was about to pay the bill. He didn't run away without paying, did he?
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