WS - Chapter 16
Chapter 16
Earlier, with just a quick glance, Zhuang Jiachuan had felt that the original chicken pieces in the basin looked somewhat different. Curious, he pushed aside the ones he had carelessly dumped in and revealed the layer of chicken pieces that Song Shiyue had cut.
Upon a closer look, they were indeed different.
Zhuang Jiachuan reached in and fished out a few pieces. The chicken pieces, some from the leg and some from the body, were similar in size, with neat cuts. The skin on top was flat and even. Even though it was raw chicken, it looked strangely pleasing to the eye.
And...
Zhuang Jiachuan touched the cut surfaces. They were intact and smooth, the bones cleanly and neatly severed within the meat. Even pressing down with some force, they didn't feel rough.
What kind of knife speed, strength, or technique could achieve this?
Actors don't earn a living by cooking, but that didn't stop Zhuang Jiachuan from feeling a bit of awe now.
The knife that had just grazed his fingertip—it wasn't a coincidence after all.
Comparing Song Shiyue's cuts to his own... the size was barely similar, but any sense of squareness was out of the question. The chicken skin had been tugged and twisted along the direction of the cleaver's strokes. The cut surfaces were lopsided with bone exposed, and... there were bone fragments...
Zhuang Jiachuan, a bit embarrassed, wiped off the bone fragments with his fingers. The uneven bone ends scraped his fingers, and it hurt a bit.
"Cough... there are two more." Song Shiyue, who was handling the potatoes, couldn't help but softly remind him when she saw Zhuang Jiachuan stop.
"What?" Zhuang Jiachuan turned to look, but he had already abandoned his earlier assessment that Song Shiyue was just a young girl.
Song Shiyue raised her hand and pointed to the sink beside Zhuang Jiachuan.
Zhuang Jiachuan stepped over and looked down. Oh... in the basin in the sink, there were two more raw chickens.
??
Two raw chickens?
On StarNet, Zhuang Jiachuan's baffled expression made the audience laugh until their eyes narrowed.
Their eyes, which had been wide open to see the close-up of the chicken pieces, didn't seem so strained anymore.
It must be said, the power of technology is always great.
Although the audience couldn't reach out and touch the chicken pieces as Zhuang Jiachuan did, the timely close-up provided by the StarNet intelligent camera system ensured they didn't miss those aesthetically pleasing pieces of raw chicken. Anyone with some cooking experience could tell that chopping chicken into pieces like that was no easy feat.
Still, the true excellence of those chicken pieces was better appreciated by Zhuang Jiachuan, who had touched them with his own hands.
The contrast was so stark that his earlier words—"Leave this to me, how could you young girls manage to chop this?"—had become a complete joke.
At noon when he cooked, Zhuang Jiachuan had checked the fridge and there had been only one whole raw chicken. Now, seeing two more in the sink, he was naturally taken aback. But thinking of that basin of over a dozen peeled potatoes, he wasn't that surprised anymore.
So there was no other surprise; they were just going to make a truly 'big' plate chicken?
However, having witnessed the chicken pieces Song Shiyue had cut, Zhuang Jiachuan could no longer continue to chop the remaining two chickens.
Zhuang Jiachuan, having filmed many dramas, was certainly not entirely ignorant of the intelligence and clarity of this kind of tiny drone-like camera.
Over the years, Zhuang Jiachuan had at least learned something.
For example, it's okay to fail or make mistakes; what's most important is to correct them promptly and not repeat them.
Zhuang Jiachuan smiled and admitted he wasn't as skilled as Song Shiyue, and swapped tasks with her.
Chopping was chopping, and Song Shiyue soon started thumping away on the second chicken.
Standing by the potato basin, Zhuang Jiachuan was much more cautious than before. Before he started cutting potatoes, he first glanced at the ones Song Shiyue had just cut.
The fist-sized potatoes had been cut into quarters. The edges were... rough and ragged... bumpy?
"For big plate chicken, potatoes that are broken apart taste better than those that are cut." Yu Nianbing seemed to see Zhuang Jiachuan's hesitation. She brought a small knife over from the sink, and as she spoke, she used the knife to make a deep stab into a whole potato, then broke it into two halves.
Zhuang Jiachuan took the small knife from Yu Nianbing, and imitating her, stabbed twice, then broke the halves into four pieces.
But... something felt off.
The size was quite similar to what Song Shiyue had produced.
Yet the edges—some areas were rough and bumpy, while others were very smooth. Song Shiyue's potatoes didn't have such smooth, even spots.
Despite his feeling, Zhuang Jiachuan didn't stop working.
Still, Song Shiyue was faster.
Two raw chickens, easy as can be... done in under two minutes.
Then Zhuang Jiachuan realized what had been feeling off earlier.
Before Yu Nianbing came over with the small knife to demonstrate, there hadn't been any knife at the potato basin!
That Song Shiyue!
She was breaking the potatoes with her bare hands!
Holding the small knife, Zhuang Jiachuan watched helplessly as Song Shiyue, having finished the chicken, came over and picked up a potato. She was so deft, an onlooker might think she was breaking a piece of tofu...
His competitiveness made him want to pick up a potato and try with his bare hands, but his reason and thirty-six years of life experience told him not to slap himself in the face like that.
Isn't this strange?
Doesn't anyone think it's strange?
Of the three people present, one was inhuman, leaving only two.
Zhuang Jiachuan couldn't help but look at Yu Nianbing.
Yu Nianbing was pulling a bag of flour from the cupboard and happened to look over as well.
No, to be precise, Yu Nianbing's gaze quickly swept over Zhuang Jiachuan and Song Shiyue.
Zhuang Jiachuan's burning stare was rather hard to ignore.
"What's wrong?" Yu Nianbing placed the flour on the counter and asked, a bit puzzled.
"Xiao Song, you're really impressive..." Zhuang Jiachuan quietly moved over, lowered his voice, and finally uttered the sentiment he had wanted to express for a while.
Yu Nianbing glanced at Song Shiyue, who had broken another potato in the time it took Zhuang Jiachuan to say that, then slightly curled her lip, and nodded.
That's it?
Nothing else?
Isn't she curious?
Doesn't she think it's strange?
Is he the only one who thinks something is off?
"Thank you." Not far away, Song Shiyue turned her head and gave a friendly smile.
Zhuang Jiachuan's face stiffened a bit.
"Pfft..." Yu Nianbing, who had seen everything, somehow couldn't hold back and laughed out loud.
Zhuang Jiachuan wasn't exactly trying to avoid Song Shiyue when he spoke. It was more like, under these unusual circumstances, he was looking for an ally.
But clearly, there was no ally to be found.
In the industry, everyone said Yu Nianbing was aloof and proud, always so cold and distant, rarely smiling. But watching her now, wasn't she quite happy?
Whether it was Song Shiyue or Yu Nianbing, the real people seemed different from the information Zhuang Jiachuan had received.
However, that didn't stop him from adjusting his mood and continuing to help prepare dinner.
As for why they were making so much, Zhuang Jiachuan no longer wanted to ask; he was feeling a bit mentally exhausted.
Twenty-one potatoes and three chickens, made into three plates of big plate chicken.
How big were these plates? Probably twice the size of the plates used for big plate chicken in a restaurant. Who knew where Yu Nianbing had gone to get them.
Zhuang Jiachuan had eaten big plate chicken at restaurants before, but he had to say, this should be called 'big basin chicken' instead.
Dinner had no surprise guest appearances as Zhuang Jiachuan had speculated, nor did they invite any production staff, who were hiding somewhere.
It was just the three of them. They sat down and began to eat.
Three basins of big plate chicken, one basin of wide flat noodles, oh, and a mixed vegetable and mushroom soup, placed squarely in front of Zhuang Jiachuan.
Zhuang Jiachuan thought that Yu Nianbing, having noticed his taste preferences from the lunch menu, was being considerate. He started with the soup, drinking two bowls before reaching his chopsticks into the basin of big plate chicken.
To his surprise, that bite of chicken was tender and juicy. The rich, savory fragrance moistened his tongue and throat, and the spicy aroma traveled up through his nose, making him somewhat reluctant to exhale.
With just that one bite, Zhuang Jiachuan's thoughts spun again and again. Three basins might be a lot, but it wasn't without reason. The mixed vegetables and mushrooms couldn't compare. The information he had received must be accurate after all.
In any case, this big basin chicken... was truly delicious!
Yu Nianbing was in charge of the cooking, and she also handled setting the table all by herself.
First, one basin of big plate chicken, one basin of wide flat noodles, and one basin of mixed vegetable mushroom soup were served. The other two basins of chicken were kept warming on the induction cooker and not brought to the table yet.
The three chatted and ate, and before long, one basin of chicken was gone.
Basin after basin followed one another. By the time they were nearly done, the three basins of chicken had almost nothing left but a bit at the bottom, and the wide flat noodles were down to just a few strands.
When they finished the first basin of chicken, Zhuang Jiachuan hadn't felt anything unusual. After all, the chicken was really delicious, Song Shiyue had chopped it well—no bones scraped the mouth, the skin was supple—and the potatoes were soft and flavorful. It was normal for everyone to eat a bit more.
Midway through the second basin of chicken, Zhuang Jiachuan felt something was off.
In a restaurant, they wouldn't be so generous as to use one whole chicken and seven potatoes for a plate of big plate chicken, and that one plate would be enough for two or three people. Yet here, it seemed as if in the blink of an eye, a basin and a half had disappeared.
After that, Zhuang Jiachuan became more attentive while eating.
Soon, he discovered where the issue lay.
Song Shiyue's eating frequency was a bit fast.
Of course, it wasn't just Song Shiyue.
Yu Nianbing, who frequently and proactively emptied their bone plates, was also a bit odd.
Thinking about it this way, not giving each person their own basin of chicken but bringing them out one by one to share—wasn't that also a kind of cover?
So...
Yu Nianbing already knew that Song Shiyue would eat more?
Those potatoes from before, the three chickens, and the wide flat noodles made from that big bowl of flour—were they also specially prepared by Yu Nianbing because she already knew?
Then why didn't they say anything when he was cooking at noon?
When did they develop this rapport?
Ah...
Could it be...
Zhuang Jiachuan suddenly remembered: was it half a year ago, or more than half a year ago? Hadn't Song Shiyue confessed to Yu Nianbing?
Could these two...
No, impossible.
That person wouldn't have given him false information.
Zhuang Jiachuan frowned slightly and tried to steady his emotions, but his appetite had suddenly diminished a great deal.
However, the other two at the table didn't seem to notice.
Mainly because they were too busy.
One was busy trying to maintain civility and elegance while eating, the other was busy finding topics to draw the camera's attention and incidentally clearing the bone plates.
It wasn't until Song Shiyue, under Yu Nianbing's somewhat disapproving gaze, insisted on using the last few strands of wide flat noodles to mop up the sauce and eat them, that today's dinner was finally over.
Yu Nianbing was also very satisfied from this round of feeding. Still, in her heart she more or less knew it was a bit inappropriate.
Even with some concealment, anyone observant could tell from the livestream that Song Shiyue was definitely the main force behind this meal's consumption.
However, if this was Song Shiyue's true nature, they could hide it for a day or two on the livestream, but how could they hide it for over ten days? It might be better... to just let it gradually show.
This was the compromise Yu Nianbing arrived at after she entered the kitchen in the evening, saw that basin of peeled potatoes, and was exasperated into laughter.
Once the meal was over, the big plate chicken and wide flat noodles were completely finished, though a bit of the mixed vegetable mushroom soup remained.
Zhuang Jiachuan voluntarily poured the remaining soup into his bowl. As he drank, he smiled faintly at Yu Nianbing and asked, seemingly casually: "Speaking of which, tonight's big plate chicken was truly delicious. The mushroom soup, however, is slightly inferior. I've heard before that Teacher Yu is very dedicated to acting, and for many roles, you learn the required skills in advance. This big plate chicken dish, it seems to have appeared in one of Teacher Yu's dramas, hasn't it?"
Yu Nianbing put down the napkin in her hand, her gaze still on it, and then nodded: "Yes. I learned this dish from a hotel chef before filming."
"Teacher Yu is truly talented and refined. This big plate chicken is so delicious, it surpasses the original." Zhuang Jiachuan smiled and praised again.
"I wonder, who told you that I always learn things for the roles I'm going to play in advance?" Yu Nianbing didn't follow up on his words, but instead looked up and asked.
"Huh?" Zhuang Jiachuan was frozen by the chill in Yu Nianbing's eyes and couldn't react for a moment. He even suddenly felt a chill, as if his little schemes had been seen through...
On Beichen Planet, a woman, half-reclining on a soft bed and watching the livestream, angrily smashed the cup in her hand. An exclamation of "fool" fell to the ground along with the cup.
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