Feeling a burning sensation on the back of her hand, Le Yaoyao nodded, "Ouch!"
After the blister subsided, Xiao Tian applied burn ointnt and asked, "Where did you learn to cook?"
Le Yaoyao felt the burning on her hand slowly turn into a cool sensation and softly said, "From the recipe book."
Xiao Tian was at a loss for words. If following a recipe could make you a cook, then wouldn't everyone who can read be a chef?
"Let's go!" Xiao Tian stood up reluctantly and said.
Le Yaoyao asked in confusion, "Where to?"
"To teach you how to cook!"
"Still, still learning?" Le Yaoyao said with so hesitation, "Can I just watch from the side and not get involved?"
Xiao Tian ignored the little girl's request and, regardless, pulled her by the hand towards the kitchen.
Noticing the gray stains on the little girl's white tracksuit, Xiao Tian judged this was probably her first ti in the kitchen.
He took a cartoon-patterned apron hanging on the wall and put it on her, tied it from behind, and patiently explained, "Don't forget the apron next ti."
"I rembered before," Le Yaoyao said, lowering her voice, "I just forgot when I ca in."
Xiao Tian gave her a look as if to say 'you dare to talk', but he had no choice but to understand the little girl's first attempt in the kitchen.
To prevent the tragedy from repeating, Xiao Tian decided not to follow the step-by-step procedure and quickly chopped the ingredients and started cooking.
Standing behind the little girl, Xiao Tian started teaching her hand-in-hand but didn't notice that Le Yaoyao's face had turned completely red, not listening to a word he said.
After a while, Xiao Tian realized sothing was wrong and called out tentatively, "Yaoyao?" only to find her still with her head down, unresponsive.
"Le Yaoyao?"
It wasn't until Xiao Tian called her a second ti that the little girl snapped back and asked, "Wha, what?"
"What are you thinking about?"
Le Yaoyao nervously said, "Nothing, I was just really engrossed in what you were saying!"
Trying to pass off her distraction by complinting Xiao Tian naturally failed!
Just as she finished speaking, she heard Xiao Tian say, "Oh, engrossed? Then tell what I just said?!"
"You said, first hold the wok handles with both hands, right hand, right hand..." the little girl scratched her head but couldn't recall what Xiao Tian said afterward.
She had been "embraced" from behind by Xiao Tian, close enough to feel awkward. Although they usually had similar close interactions, this was the first ti for sothing like this.
Being taught hand-in-hand, her mind went blank, her face felt hot, and she couldn't rember a single thing he said?!
Seeing her stamring, Xiao Tian was at a loss for words, "Whoever marries you in the future..."
"What's wrong with marrying ?" Le Yaoyao said defiantly.
"That'd be doing a good deed indeed!"
Xiao Tian answered so quietly that the little girl only heard half of it, forcing her to ask, "What did you just say about marrying ? What good deed?"
"I said, whoever marries you, it's truly their ancestors' virtuous blessing!" Xiao Tian said, insincerely.
"Exactly!" Le Yaoyao beca pleased, "Whoever marries will have blessings from many lifetis, since I'm pretty and cute..."
Xiao Tian quickly put a stop to her self-praise and said, "Stop complinting yourself. When you marry soone later, you can't not know how to cook, right? If they get mad and eat out, won't you go hungry?!"
Le Yaoyao imdiately pouted, "Except for you, uncle-in-law, I wouldn't cook for anyone else! I trust you, uncle-in-law, wouldn't let starve!"
After saying this, Le Yaoyao suddenly realized sothing was wrong, it was as if she agreed to marry him!
Xiao Tian was also unsure how to respond; if he claid not to notice the little girl's intentions, it would be a waste of his past twenty-sothing years of life!
But Lin Bingxuan was her aunt, and even now, he couldn't clearly distinguish if his feelings for the little girl were fondness or love.
Though fondness is also a form of love, the difference lies thousands of miles apart!
After contemplating, Xiao Tian switched topics, "First, pour the oil, and pay attention to the color change of the oil..."
...
Once the al was finished, both felt utterly exhausted, the sense of having encountered a "pig teammate" very much evident in their cooking process.
First was the little girl's triple questions: 'a little', 'so', 'appropriate', that left Xiao Tian frazzled.
Every ti he added an ingredient, the little girl would ask, "Is this amount 'a little'?"
Seeing Xiao Tian shake his head, she would continue, "No? Then is it 'so'?"
When he shook his head again, her eyes lit up, "Neither? Then it must be 'appropriate', right? It must be!"
After her triple questioning, Xiao Tian suddenly realized he'd missed the best timing to add seasonings...
Yet Le Yaoyao shared a similar frustration with Xiao Tian, insisting to say the oil wasn't hot enough even when the smoking hot pan began sizzling, claiming she hadn't waited for the oil to dry out before adding.
Watching the water blisters on her hand, Le Yaoyao cautiously persisted until he said the oil was hot, only then putting the chopped vegetables into the pan.
When adding various spices, her questions never got answers, and it made her doubt his real skills...
Both looked a little helpless at the sowhat burnt dishes on the table: tomato eggs, sour potato shreds, and stir-fried green pepper with shredded pork.
Though slightly burnt, after trying a bite, they found the flavor wasn't bad.
Especially Le Yaoyao, who tried cooking for the first ti, was cheerfully devouring her victory fruit, beaming after eating two bowls of rice, saying, "Phew... I'm so full!"
Seeing the cleaned plates and looking at the little girl with oil-stained lips, Xiao Tian reminded, "You should check in the mirror."
Le Yaoyao struggled to pull out a small compact mirror from her pocket and imdiately realized Xiao Tian referred to her greasy mouth, nonchalantly saying, "It's okay, it's okay! No need to mind those details!"
Seeing Xiao Tian's still frowning, she unhappily said, "Uncle-in-law, are you disgusted with ?"
Not receiving a reply, Le Yaoyao stood up, approaching Xiao Tian with bad intentions step by step...
User Comments
0 comments from readers