Chapter 21: Cooking Noodles
Soon after sitting in the car, Leng Qing Qiu stopped.
She opened the car door, got Lu Zhi Yin’s wheelchair and Lu Zhi Yin herself out of the car, and then opened her own door.
“Want to come in and sit for a while?”
Tilting her head, Leng Qing Qiu took off her mask and smiled at Lu Zhi Yin.
“Mhm…”
Not knowing how to reply, Lu Zhi Yin felt the money in her pocket and let out a soft “mhm.”
Her mood gradually calmed down. She thought, no matter what, she would have to continue the strategy, wouldn’t she?
As she was thinking this, Leng Qing Qiu opened her house door, then carried the still unconscious man out of the car and walked into the house.
Lu Zhi Yin followed behind her and slowly entered the house.
After that, Lu Zhi Yin followed Leng Qing Qiu into the bedroom and watched as Leng Qing Qiu easily moved the bed aside and took the man into the basement.
Lu Zhi Yin sat in her wheelchair and naturally couldn’t go downstairs herself. She also didn’t want to watch Leng Qing Qiu deal with this man.
She just drifted out of the bedroom and slowly moved into the kitchen.
Turning on the light, Lu Zhi Yin looked around the layout of Leng Qing Qiu’s kitchen.
Actually, it wasn’t much different from her own home, except the refrigerator was a bit bigger and there was a washing machine.
Opening the refrigerator door, she saw a dazzling array of ingredients inside: fish, pork, and all sorts of fruits and vegetables, impossibly abundant.
Lu Zhi Yin took out an egg and a packet of noodles, closed the refrigerator door, and slowly walked to the stove.
The image of Leng Qing Qiu cooking a corpse yesterday flashed in her mind, and Lu Zhi Yin felt a wave of nausea again.
She pursed her lips, suppressed the discomfort in her heart, found a pot, washed it clean with great care, and then placed it on the stove.
“…”
Staring blankly at the pot in front of her, Lu Zhi Yin actually knew that it was impolite to move other people’s things without permission.
She thought, Leng Qing Qiu must have been traveling for a long time and must be quite hungry? She didn’t know any methods for strategizing, and the only thing she could think of was to get her something to eat.
As for whether Leng Qing Qiu would be angry, Lu Zhi Yin didn’t think about it much at the moment. At worst, she could buy the ingredients she used, right?
She felt a sense of relief after feeling her pocket money again.
Opening the cupboard, Lu Zhi Yin took out a bottle of cooking oil.
Because she could only sit in her wheelchair, the stove was a bit high for Lu Zhi Yin, so it was quite difficult for her to pour oil into the pot.
Fortunately, in the end, nothing went wrong, and the oil wasn’t wasted; she poured just the right amount.
Closing the lid, Lu Zhi Yin didn’t rush to turn on the heat.
She found two bowls and filled them with water in advance.
Due to her limited mobility, everything had to be prepared in advance to avoid any mistakes.
She felt the hardship of being disabled yet again.
With everything prepared, Lu Zhi Yin turned on the gas stove switch. With blue and orange flames, a sizzling sound soon came from the pot.
After the oil was hot, Lu Zhi Yin cracked an egg into the pot.
Because her viewpoint was quite low, she couldn’t see the exact situation in the pot, so she had to flip it by feel.
When she felt the egg was almost done, Lu Zhi Yin turned down the heat and poured in two bowls of water.
“As long as it’s not burnt, it should be fine.”
Muttering to herself, she thought that if the egg in the pot wasn’t cooked, the hot water would cook it while cooking the noodles, so as long as it wasn’t burnt.
Thinking this, Lu Zhi Yin continued to feel her pocket money while waiting for the water to boil.
She touched the gauze on her forehead, which was from the first day she arrived in this world. It was only the second day, and she didn’t know when she would be able to remove the gauze.
The feeling of having something covering her forehead always made Lu Zhi Yin feel uncomfortable.
Unknowingly, the water had boiled. Lu Zhi Yin came back to her senses and started cooking the noodles.
She put a small handful of noodles into the pot. After waiting for a while, she found the seasoning box, added some salt and MSG to the pot, and stirred it with a spatula.
She still couldn’t clearly see the situation in the pot. When Lu Zhi Yin felt that the noodles were almost cooked, she turned off the heat.
After that, she left the kitchen, found a shorter stool, and placed it in front of the stove.
She placed a bowl, which she had used to hold water earlier, on the stool, and then used both hands to grip the handle of the pot.
Because there was soup in the pot, it was quite heavy, and Lu Zhi Yin’s movements started to become a bit wobbly, but she successfully completed this last step.
She didn’t spill the soup or tip the pot over; everything went smoothly.
“Hoo…”
Letting out a long sigh, Lu Zhi Yin wiped the sweat from her forehead.
She went to the coffee table in the living room to get some tissues, placed the tissues on her lap, put the bowl of noodles on the tissues, and then, controlling her wheelchair with both hands, carefully left the kitchen.
After placing the bowl of noodles on the coffee table, Lu Zhi Yin realized she hadn’t gotten any chopsticks, so she returned to the kitchen at her fastest speed to get the utensils.
Just cooking a bowl of noodles, a task that was incredibly simple for ordinary people, was extremely difficult for Lu Zhi Yin.
She gradually began to empathize with the protagonists in the game. If she could do it again, she thought, she would never deliberately choose bad endings that were unfriendly to the protagonist.
After placing the chopsticks on the noodle bowl, Lu Zhi Yin entered Leng Qing Qiu’s bedroom.
She looked at the dark basement entrance and pursed her lips again.
“Um, do you want to come out and eat something?”
Lu Zhi Yin wasn’t really sure what she should call Leng Qing Qiu. That night, when Leng Qing Qiu used her as bait and they separated, it was probably the first time Lu Zhi Yin had called Leng Qing Qiu by her name directly?
She couldn’t quite remember. She really was useless, wasn’t she? Cowardly and forgetful.
Looking at the basement entrance in front of her, the white-haired girl lowered her head, hating her own powerlessness in her heart.
In the basement, there was no response from Leng Qing Qiu, only the sound of footsteps.
A moment later, Leng Qing Qiu, who didn’t say a word, walked up. There were some bloodstains on her face, and a distinct smell of blood could be detected on her body.
Lu Zhi Yin thought that the man who had just been taken into the basement would probably not have a good time.
Leaving the bedroom with Lu Zhi Yin, Leng Qing Qiu looked at the bowl of egg noodles on the kitchen counter and was stunned.
Was her childhood friend trying to please her?
Thinking this, Leng Qing Qiu sat on the sofa. She picked up her chopsticks, picked up the bowl, and without any unnecessary pleasantries, began to eat the noodles naturally, as if it were meant to be.
“Um, I’m sorry for using the ingredients from your refrigerator without permission… Please don’t be angry…”
Lu Zhi Yin looked at Leng Qing Qiu cautiously, trying to adopt the lowest possible posture.
The only way she could think of to strategize was to be nice to others; this was perhaps the most foolish way to strategize.
“I’m very happy, thank you, Zhi Yin.”
Looking up, Leng Qing Qiu smiled at Lu Zhi Yin and nodded at her.
Lu Zhi Yin didn’t know if Leng Qing Qiu was really happy, and she didn’t dare to ask further.
Looking at Leng Qing Qiu’s smiling face, Lu Zhi Yin slowly walked to the door.
“Um, I’m going home now, see you tomorrow.”
She bid farewell softly, Lu Zhi Yin pushed open the door, prepared to return to her own home.
