63. Slightly Involved and Proficient
“No, never mind…”
Su Yan felt embarrassed.
The little girl excitedly turned on the television, and her favorite cartoon, “Bears on the Run,” was playing; it had recently progressed to the part where Bear 2 and Bald Qiang’s child fell in love with Cuihua.
Su Yan suddenly had a question.
Since Qian Qian came from the future, didn’t she know the endings of these cartoons?
And she was still watching them with such interest?
Children’s world is truly simple to the point of envy.
“Aren’t you deaf, Su Yan?!”
“Coming, coming!”
Su Yan hurriedly slipped into the kitchen, only to find Jiang Zhi with her arms crossed, shaking her legs, looking at him with an unfriendly expression.
“Why is there sound from the TV?” she raised an eyebrow.
Su Yan coughed a few times: “Don’t be hasty, I know you’re in a rush, but can’t she watch TV for a bit? It won’t hurt.”
“It’s bad for the eyes.” Jiang Zhi was brief and to the point.
“It’s just occasionally watching,” Su Yan grinned at her, jokingly said, “Aren’t you like me? I sit in front of the computer every day and haven’t gotten nearsighted. Don’t my eyes look lively?”
He thought Jiang Zhi was thinking too much.
“Hmph.”
Jiang Zhi was too lazy to argue with him.
Anyway, once Su Yan left, this household would be back to being under her control; she had to maintain her family status.
“What are you going to do?”
Su Yan wisely changed the subject, scanning the ingredients Jiang Zhi prepared; there was rice, eggs, ham, but no pork ribs… wasn’t this the process for making Fried Rice with Eggs?
Qian Qian told him downstairs.
She said Jiang Zhi didn’t know why she made Fried Rice with Eggs every day, and it wasn’t as tasty as before.
Su Yan suddenly realized a problem: “You…”
“Can’t cook?”
“What kind of talk is that,” Jiang Zhi immediately became displeased upon hearing this: “I can cook, okay?!”
“It’s just…”
Jiang Zhi lowered her eyes, picked up a bowl to continue cracking the eggs, her tone a bit dejected: “It’s just that it doesn’t taste very good…”
“Except for my supreme unbeatable Fried Rice with Eggs!”
“……”
Regarding Jiang Zhi’s unbeatable supreme Fried Rice with Eggs, considering Qian Qian’s earlier comment, Su Yan could only sum it up in two words.
A joke.
So she really couldn’t cook.
What kind of life has my daughter been living this past month?!
Jiang Zhi stammered, “Well, um, takeout… Fried Rice with Eggs… alternating it, you know…”
Su Yan stared at her silently: 🤨.
Jiang Zhi got angry and kicked Su Yan: “What do you mean? You think I’m mistreating your daughter?!”
“No.”
Su Yan honestly shook his head: “I just find it strange that a little orphan like you doesn’t know how to cook.”
He had no right to blame Jiang Zhi.
In his impression, orphans like Jiang Zhi, abandoned by their parents from a young age, should have mastered many life skills.
“Your horse!”
Jiang Zhi poured the rice and egg mixture into the pan, added some diced ham, and slowly began to stir-fry.
Her voice mingled with the smoke from the sizzling oil.
This brought to light the stereotype people have about orphans; not all orphans are deeply resentful and cynical, nor do they all laugh and joke like nothing happens.
Jiang Zhi fell somewhere in between.
She didn’t hate the world; to her, simply being alive was great luck.
She usually giggles and laughs, but sometimes in the quiet of night, a solid sadness would bubble up inside her.
She didn’t like socializing, but not having friends did make her feel somewhat lonely… but avoiding social situations was greater than wanting friends.
Oh right! Except for girlfriends.
She didn’t want to be Chu Nan for the rest of her life! 😭
In short.
Jiang Zhi could not deny Su Yan’s remark.
“Who says orphans can’t do this or that? The orphanage doesn’t teach us how to cook… but I do pretty well in other chores!”
Of course, there was another reason.
Jiang Zhi seemed to have a natural lack of cooking talent; she was a true kitchen terminator.
But compared to her self from half a month ago, who didn’t even dare to turn on the stove, she at least could make a bowl of Fried Rice with Eggs that looked decent and wouldn’t upset the stomach.
Su Yan thought of the cleanliness level of this house he just observed in the living room; he had nothing to complain about.
“Does your orphanage teach you to do house chores?”
“Not exactly.”
Jiang Zhi pondered for a moment and said, “Every week, a few kids are assigned to do a big clean-up, like wiping tables, mopping floors, doing laundry, and so on.”
Eventually, she got the hang of it.
She was the Labor Star praised by her teacher every month, with little red flowers awarded filling half of her notebook.
Then she heard Su Yan ask a baffling question.
“So your orphanage also teaches you how to be a mom?”
“What?”
Jiang Zhi instantly showed a confused expression, staring at him as if he were an idiot: “What the heck is being a mom? Are you dumb or what?”
She couldn’t understand at all.
“Never mind.”
Su Yan stopped talking.
This just meant Jiang Zhi was a natural talent.
Could it be that the world really has the notion of a naturally gifted mom?
Time passed second by second.
The egg mixture in the frying pan was bubbling lazily, and Jiang Zhi was stirring it with a speed comparable to a sloth.
Watching Jiang Zhi’s slow movements, Su Yan sighed, directly turned up the heat, exasperatedly saying: “Sister, this heat wouldn’t even cook an ant! Turn it up!”
Is this the heat needed to fry rice?
This was barely a tiny flame, right?
No wonder Qian Qian said her mom’s Fried Rice with Eggs was tasteless; with this low heat, even the eggs would probably taste fishy.
“What are you doing?!”
Jiang Zhi jumped in shock from Su Yan’s sudden action.
She leaped back three meters like she had been shocked, clasping her hands tightly to her chest, her wide peach blossom eyes reflecting the blue flames dancing on the stove, looking just like a rabbit scared by thunder.
Su Yan was stunned.
He thought he didn’t splash the fire on Jiang Zhi, right?
“Uh…”
Jiang Zhi’s ears turned red, her fingers subconsciously twisting the edge of her apron: “I… I’m not used to using high heat, you understand?”
That was a lie.
She had indeed used such high heat before, to the extent that she could make a perfect plate of charcoal, but later on, as she became more skilled at cooking Fried Rice with Eggs, she learned to turn the heat down.
Yet it seemed she had jumped to another extreme this time.
“… Fine, you keep watching then.”
Su Yan didn’t bother to expose her; as he lifted the handle of the pan, he reached out to Jiang Zhi: “Pass me the apron.”
“Ah?”
Jiang Zhi looked at him with distrust: “Can you cook?”
It’s not that she looked down on him, but Su Yan spent all day sitting in front of the computer playing games; how could his cooking skills be better than hers?
Then she recalled his past experiences.
Could it be he really knows how to cook? After all, he seemed to have a tough childhood, much like Su Yan’s stereotypical view of orphans.
Su Yan: “Slightly involved and proficient.”
So Jiang Zhi half-believed and half-doubted handed him the apron.
