"Xiao Yu, co help wash the vegetables. Make sure each one is cleaned thoroughly, and Qianqian, you go tear these mushrooms into pieces, and try to keep them about the sa size," Grandma Zhang gladly agreed to Elder Zhang’s proposal. Having two little helpers was the best, so she began chopping vegetables and teaching them how to prepare them.
He Wenyu stood on a small stool, barely reaching the sink; Luo Qianqian dragged over another small stool to sit on the ground, with a basin and a bag of mushrooms in front of her.
"Do you have any favorites? I’ll see if we have the ingredients and will make it for lunch," Grandma Zhang asked the two little helpers with serious expressions on their faces, her own face lit up with affection as she spoke.
"I like sweets, anything sweet," He Wenyu raised her hand, and water splashed everywhere as she moved her hand: "Ah, Grandma Zhang, I’m sorry."
"It’s alright, a quick wipe and it’s clean. I’m not your Grandpa Zhang, you don’t need to raise your hand when you talk to . Such big movents can be very dangerous in the kitchen," Grandma Zhang said as she wiped up the splashed water with a cloth. "In the kitchen, you have to be careful with fire, gas, electricity, knives, and then there’s water. Why be careful with water? Because water conducts electricity, and it can make the floor slippery. If you slip and then encounter a knife, it can be very dangerous. What do you like to eat, Qianqian?"
"If we aren’t counting at, I like tomato and egg stir-fry, my brother makes a really good one. I also like anything with potatoes and tomatoes, and I also love dishes with eggplant, braised pork, and the flavors of fish-fragrant dishes," Luo Qianqian tilted her head and thought carefully, although she loved at the most, there were still plenty of vegetables she enjoyed.
"Not counting at?" Grandma Zhang repeated Luo Qianqian’s words with amusent: "So if there is at, it’s still your favorite, right?"
"Absolutely, I’m still a child and need to grow," Luo Qianqian explained herself with her tongue sticking out, listening to Grandma Zhang’s teasing.
Soon, the three of them finished prepping and dumped everything into the pot to cook.
"Let’s make a small cake too, I promised Xiao Yu I would teach you guys," Grandma Zhang took out eggs, flour, sugar, butter, and whipping cream: "Go wash your hands clean, put on aprons over there so you don’t dirty your clothes."
Hearing about the small cake, both Luo Qianqian and He Wenyu showed excited expressions on their faces and hurried to wash their hands and put on aprons.
anwhile, Luo Shufan suddenly shivered in his room, touching the goosebumps that appeared on his arm, and murmured softly, "Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling?"
Two minutes later, ’clang.’ The sound of sothing falling to the floor.
Five minutes later, ’thump.’ The sound of sothing heavy dropping.
Ten minutes later, Luo Qianqian’s voice ca through: "Would you believe it if I said it was the egg that started it?"
Fifteen minutes later, the loud ’boom’ carried over, and both Elder Zhang and Luo Shufan couldn’t care less about the calligraphy or the characters they were practicing anymore; they rushed out of the kitchen, only to see:
The microwave was emitting black smoke, flour was scattered all over the floor, a golden retriever was licking sothing on the ground, He Wenyu was huddled in a corner with a bowl, trembling hands stirring. Luo Qianqian stood in front of the microwave, looking dazed as if she were rooted to the spot.
"What happened here??? My god, I just went to buy a newspaper. How did it turn into this???" Grandma Zhang entered from the doorway, her mouth agape.
Luo Qianqian stood awkwardly in front of the microwave. Although the batter had been saved in He Wenyu’s embrace, the scene in front of her was clearly quite different from when Grandma Zhang had left.
"I did wonder why it felt a bit chilly behind my back..." Luo Shufan opened and closed his mouth as he looked at the ss before him, then said helplessly to his sister.
"Grandma Zhang, I, I, I think I’ve made a ss..." Luo Qianqian turned around and said blankly. She surely wasn’t foolish enough to open the microwave and personally admire her masterpiece.
"You’re not hurt, are you?" Grandma Zhang really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry—who could’ve anticipated such mayhem in just a short while?
"Grandma Zhang... Waaaa..." He Wenyu erged from a corner carrying a bowl, burrowed into Grandma Zhang’s embrace, clenching the mixture she had been stirring for ages. "Qianqian said that eggs separate more easily when they’re cooked, but, but the microwave exploded."
Could she say it wasn’t her fault? Luo Qianqian looked at the microwave belching black smoke sowhat embarrassedly. It seed inevitable that she’d get scolded by mom. And she still hoped to skip lessons because of this? Maybe in her next life, she’d need to keep coming back...
"Luo Qianqian, you’d better stay out of the kitchen from now on. I really wonder if one day you’ll set the kitchen on fire," Luo Shufan said as he pulled his sister over, checking her up and down, his face full of disgust.
"It was an accident... all accidents..." The words ’It won’t happen again,’ which were on the tip of Luo Qianqian’s tongue, were forcefully swallowed back. She couldn’t say those words—seeing the ss all over the floor, she felt like she never wanted to enter the kitchen again in her life.
"You guys go practice calligraphy for now, and you can eat when the al is ready." Elder Zhang, seeing his wife’s distressed expression, felt deeply sorry for her and quickly shooed the three children away. He took the bowl from He Wenyu’s arms and helped his wife clean up the ss.
"Okay... I’m sorry, Grandma Zhang..." Luo Qianqian was on the verge of tears, feeling rejected.
"Qianqian, I think there’s going to be a note on the kitchen door soon," Luo Shufan said as he looked at his sister’s downcast mood, unable to resist teasing her.
"What? No microwave use? No egg use?" Luo Qianqian gave her brother an unamused look, sensing from his tone that he was not thinking of anything good.
"I bet it’s going to be ’Do not put eggs in the microwave,’" He Wenyu, recalling the ordeal of the past fifteen minutes and feeling a serious headache, decided that for future safety and to make tasty food, she’d better learn herself. It seed Qianqian just didn’t have the knack for it.
"No no no, it’s more likely to be: Kitchen off-limits, Luo Qianqian and pets prohibited," Luo Shufan said before quickly stepping ahead, fearing his sister’s revenge.
Luo Qianqian furrowed her brow and bitterly smiled. She understood the principle of thermal expansion and contraction— but she had placed it in a bowl, and she did add water to the bowl. Was it too many eggs or too little water? How did it explode? Previously, trying to separate egg whites and yolks had ended up everywhere, and it was only thanks to Golden Retriever Jun helping to ’clean’ it up into his stomach.
"I think baking cakes and such things just aren’t compatible with my aura. Maybe I am better suited for cooking, not baking." Luo Qianqian looked at Luo Shufan, who was nodding with conviction. "Mom knows how to cook, and so does my brother. It doesn’t make sense for not to be able to. Surely my genes didn’t mutate, right?"
You are indeed a mutant. Luo Shufan silently thought. Which five-year-old kid knows as much as you? Not only do you know a lot, but you’re also full of ideas. If it weren’t for your money-making sches, there wouldn’t be ’Fragrance Cos’ and ’Luo Shenyao,’ no ’Patchwork Bear,’ no being targeted by a bunch of ’Rainbow Boys,’ no beatings, not ending up in the hospital, no eting Grandpa Zhang, no extra lessons now, no police station trips for compensation, no house purchase. If you hadn’t bought the house, you wouldn’t be running around there on your own while we’re trying to make money here, which led to you being kidnapped. If you hadn’t been kidnapped, we wouldn’t have t that uncle, and mom wouldn’t have learned about dad’s whereabouts. It’s your big imagination and too many ideas that have brought us to this point.
Luo Shufan pursed his lips. "You’re not mutated, you just broke your brain when you fell from that tree, forgetting what you should know and, absurdly, learning what you shouldn’t." Luo Shufan could clearly rember that his sister started acting oddly after that fall from a tree.
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