3 Cucumber Salad (2/2)
Jiang Feng opened the fridge. It was as Chen Xiuxiu has said, there wasn't anything in it except for a few cans of beer.
”Oh, and my dad's beers,” Chen Xiuxiu added. ”I can just warm that congee and eat it if I'm hungry.”
If the words that Chen Xiuxiu had said were heard by the chefs in the restaurants she'd always visited when she was younger, their jaws would drop to the floor.
When Chen Xiuxiu was younger, Jiang Jiankang fed her until she would only eat good food. Hearing her saying that she would rather eat a bowl of burnt congee was never heard.
”Fine. I'll just make a decent congee for you then,” Jiang Feng sighed and stared at the sack of rice.
After that, Chen Xiuxiu sat down and watched Jiang Feng cook quietly.
Jiang Feng and his family hated congee. Even if they were to eat some, they would never go for a bowl of plain congee. It would be something that was filled with seafood or meats. A bowl of unflavored congee would never appear on his dining table.
The critical part of cooking congee was the ratio of water and rice. The control over the fire was important too.
Of course, Jiang Feng had not mastered a skill and could not do that.
He could only whip up a pot of very plain, but not burnt, congee.
”It's been a long time since we last met, right?” Chen Xiuxiu suddenly asked.
”Yup. Around a year I would say. You rarely show your face around here after you went to college,” Jiang Feng nodded after thinking.
”Were you able to recognize me this afternoon? I used to be… well… fat, like a meatloaf,” Chen Xiuxiu said as she looked at her arm.
”You weren't that fat before,” Jiang Feng said as he stirred the congee. ”At least to my parents standard.”
To Jiang Feng's parents, anyone less than 100 kilograms wasn't fat, just large.
”You're right,” Chen Xiuxiu laughed. ”You guys were the only ones who thought I'm not fat.”
”Weren't you the one who said that dieting could harm your body?” Jiang Feng asked.
He remembered that Chen Xiuxiu would come to his family restaurant every day after school.
”I know that eating this much will make me fat,” Chen Xiuxiu would say every time. ”But this is how much I can eat. If I go on a diet, it could harm my body!”
”I know,” Chen Xiuxiu laughed wryly. ”I tried losing weight by exercising, but asking an 85-kilo girl to run a lap is just too much. Going on a diet and throwing up after meals is way easier.”
Chen Xiuxiu paused and continued, ”Now, I don't need to wear custom made clothes because of my size. People have also stopped staring and making jokes at me because of it too. I don't even need to use emetic anymore (2). Just the sight of oil and meat are enough to make me puke.”
Jiang Feng did not say anything about it. His family was filled with people that were obese, but people would never joke about them because they were strong too. A slap from them would knock a person out.
Soon, the congee was done.
[A bowl of decent congee]
It was the best rating that Jiang Feng had gotten so far for the dishes he made.
When the bowl was placed in front of Chen Xiuxiu, she frowned.
She didn't want to eat anything. She believed that she would even be fine if she never had to eat for the rest of her life.
But there was no way she could reject the bowl of congee that Jiang Feng has specially made for her.
She picked her chopsticks up and grabbed a piece of the cucumber.
Crunch
”Ding! Gained 10 experience points.”
”This is good!” Chen Xiuxiu praised.
”?” Jiang Feng was confused.
If he remembered correctly, the plate of Cucumber Salad that Chen Xiuxiu was eating had extra vinegar in it.
(1) The cucumber salad is a Chinese dish that's made by flattening pieces of cucumber by smashing them with the side of a knife.
(2) Emetic is a type of medicine that induces vomiting.