Chapter 58: Dragged Over to Help Out (1/2)
“Meng Yu? Why are you here?” After being suddenly called out to, Tang Doudou froze for a moment at first. Right after, she saw Meng Yu waving at her from within the flower sea, so she hastily walked over curiously.
Lifting her hands to push away the plum flower branches in her way, Tang Doudou saw that Meng Yu’s expression seemed a little anxious, so she hurriedly asked, “Did something happen?”
During the time she had spent staying in Plum Garden, it had always been Meng Yu who had made food for her, and the taste was always pretty good. Meng Yu would also frequently look for her to discuss about culinary topics, so the two had become quite familiar with each other.
The moment Meng Yu approached her, she pulled Tang Doudou’s hand and complained with a blaming tone, “Alliance Head Li ah, next time you go somewhere, remember to tell a servant. Qing Yin is pretty much going crazy looking for you in Plum Garden. Even Master was alarmed and sent all the servants in Plum Garden to look for you. Why did you run over here?”
Tang Doudou only now realized that it had been quite some time since she had headed out. When she left, she had also forgotten to tell Qing Yin, so it was no wonder that they would be out searching for her.
“Um, sorry about that. I, I just wanted to walk around a little and ended up running into Miss Bai. She said that the plum flowers over here had blossomed and were really beautiful, so I just couldn’t restrain my curiosity and ran over here alone. Sorry for making you guys worry, I…” The Tang Doudou who was originally an orphan had been used to coming and going on her own since childhood. Hardly anyone had ever stopped her. When Meng Yu told her that Qing Yin had been extremely worried and that everyone in Plum Garden was searching for her, she felt extremely helpless in her heart. She seemed like a child that was caught doing something wrong and stammered and faltered so much that she couldn’t even speak fluently.
Although Meng Yu was a bit curious about the way Tang Doudou was acting, she also didn’t like to dig deep into these kinds of things. Since the person had been found, then all was once again well. So she said to Tang Doudou, “No need to apologize, Alliance Head Li should just remember to tell Qing Yin next time. Right now, Qing Yin is your personal maid, so Alliance Head Li should bring her wherever you go.”
Tang Doudou hastily nodded. “Then where’s Qing Yin? I’ll go look for her!”
As she spoke, she was just about to head forward when Meng Yu hurriedly stopped her. “Don’t worry about that for now. The Plum Garden Gathering has already started and there’s people outside everywhere. If you get lost again, wouldn’t that be a waste of effort again?”
“Qing Yin has probably been called by Master to go help out by this time anyways. You should just stay with me. Once I finish making lunch, I’ll take you there!” In reality, this was Meng Yu’s plan from the very start. She wanted Tang Doudou to help out. Even though it was a bit inappropriate of her to get the grand Alliance Head to help out, it was also because she had to find him that she had to delay lunch preparations ah!
Not to mention, from their interactions the past couple days, Meng Yu could tell that Tang Doudou generally didn’t mind these things. So the two had become quite casual in their interactions.
In short, this was a man aside from Ye Chuan who she also rather liked besides Ye Chuan.
Tang Doudou thought about it, then said, “That works, since I don’t recognize the roads here anyways.”
The topic switched. “But, can you send someone to let Qing Yin know? I’m worried that she’ll be too worried and end up being too distracted to carry out Baili Yu’s instructions well.”
Meng Yu also felt that it was likely, so she replied, “Alright. Once we get to the preparation area, I’ll send someone to notify Qing Yin.”
Only then did Tang Doudou relax, before asking, “Where are we going to prepare lunch?”
In her free time, Tang Doudou enjoyed polishing her culinary skills. But since she had arrived here, she had only been able to cook once – when she made the spicy strips. Now that she heard Meng Yu say that they needed to cook, her desire to cook was aroused and tickled her heart until it itched impatiently. She continued to ask, “And, are you the only one preparing it? Would you be able to handle all the preparations?”
Meng Yu exposed a troubled expression. “Originally I could have handled it, but it took too much time to find you so it’ll probably be a bit difficult.”
She sighed and peeked at Tang Doudou’s expression from the corners of her eyes before continuing. “Aiy, if I work hard, I’ll probably still be able to make it in time. It’s just that the heat control completion of some of the dishes might be slightly off.”
“It can’t be off!” Upon hearing this, Tang Doudou immediately flared up. “Perfection in cooking is an attitude! If you casually fry something up, can that even be called a dish!? Meng Yu ah, that’s being irresponsible towards your own culinary professionalism!”
Of course Meng Yu understood this reasoning, but hadn’t it precisely been her goal to instigate Tang Doudou?
She didn’t speak. Tang Doudou thought a little more, then elbowed Meng Yu’s arm. “Meng Yu, if you don’t mind, then I can help you?”
Meng Yu hurriedly waved her hands. “How can that be possible? You’re a master. How could I possibly allow a master to cook!?”
“Aiyah, it’s fine. Just don’t think of me as a master!” Tang Doudou laughed with a ‘heehee’, before wrapping her arm around Meng Yu’s broad shoulders. “Then it’s decided! I’ll help you make lunch!”
Meng Yu was secretly delighted, but she still had to force out a troubled expression. “Then what if Master asks…”
“Don’t worry, just leave it all to me!”
“Then, there’s not a lot of time left, should we head over there right now?”
“Alright!”
Half an hour later, as Tang Doudou looked at the road that seemed to gradually become more and more familiar; the image of Mu Ye, that demonic head, exploding and going on a rampaging massacre appeared in her mind. She hurriedly pulled Meng Yu who was in front of her to a stop and asked, “Which way we heading towards?”
“The kitchen in the plum sea ah! This place is quite far away from Plum Garden. If we returned there to prepare, then we definitely wouldn’t be able to make it in time. So a month earlier, Master prepared a kitchen specially for the Gathering. All the ingredients and supplies have already been moved here ahead of time.” Meng Yu pushed away Tang Doudou’s hand. “Alliance Head Li, why are you asking this?”
“Oh, I was just curious.” As Tang Doudou saw the surroundings become increasingly familiar and even saw the row of wood houses past the vast flower sea, she suddenly didn’t want to walk forward anymore.
“What’s with you again?” Meng Yu walked for a while in front. When she had discovered that Tang Doudou wasn’t following her, she turned back again.
Tang Doudou didn’t know how to tell her either. She was just a kitchen maid so she probably didn’t know as much as Qing Yin and the others had; she might not even know who Mu Ye was.
Suddenly recalling what Meng Yu had said about some gathering, she decided to just start asking from there.
“What’s the Plum Garden Gathering you talked about earlier?”
She looked at the wood houses in front of her again. Mu Ye had definitely discovered that she had slipped away and probably ran to chase after her. He definitely wouldn’t be waiting next to those wood houses, right?
But she didn’t dare take this risk. From the start, the gratefulness and anger between the two were already deep and she tricked Mu Ye again this time. He probably even had the desire to kill her now.