16 Chapter 15 – Poached sPearls” with Conch 6 (1/2)

Soon, the private message window started flashing again.

Qiang Qing Ci: Go to the kitchen and get some sesame oil. Swallow just a small amount. It should feel better tomorrow morning.

Gu Sheng: Huh? Does that work?

Qiang Qing Ci: Mm-hmm.

Gu Sheng: *nod* I'm going right now.

To her, the condition of her voice was of utmost importance.

Although singing the occasional song or two in a false male voice was unlikely to cause any serious negative consequences, since this was Toupai's suggestion, she knew it was absolutely, unquestionably going to be effective! She fumbled her way to the kitchen. Since it was so late in the night, she did not turn on any lights and only relied on the moonlight as she felt around for the bottle of sesame oil. She opened one bottle after another, sniffing each one, until she finally smelled the strong aroma of sesame oil. Furtively, she took a quick sip.

Dad, Mom… don't mind me…

When she was finished, she noticed a plate of ingredients on the kitchen table. She leaned forward against the table and examined them for a moment, quickly deducing what was for lunch tomorrow. Satisfied with her conclusion, she slipped back to her own room again.

When she returned, she earnestly reported back to Qiang Qing Ci: DaRen, I just finished drinking some.

Qiang Qing Ci: *smile*

Her mouth right now was filled with the scent of sesame oil, so fragrant it could overpower people.

She thought about her inbox full of singing debts and suddenly felt anxious. Lots of time was required in practicing and singing lyrics along to music until it sounded good, and then she still needed to find a time when her voice was in good form in order to record the vocals track… T T How did she manage to accept more than forty song requests? At this rate, she was going to be paying off these commitments all the way until next year's winter break…

Qiang Qing Ci: Typing's a little tiring. Do you mind using QQ voice chat?

She had still been adding up in her mind how many songs she was going to have to record when this line of text… caused her heart to jump. It was late, but with such a well-insulated room, there would definitely not be any issues with using voice chat. Besides, since she entered into the ancient-style music circle, her parents were used to her recording things in the middle of the night.

But…

Gu Sheng gaped at that row of text again, her breathing still unsteady.

After YY and WeChat… she was now going to get Qiang Qing Ci DaRen's QQ, too?

Why was the world starting to seem so unfathomable and difficult to understand?…

While her eyes were still fixed on the screen in a slight daze, Qiang Qing Ci had already messaged over a string of numbers that was his QQ ID number.

She lightly breathed out and then swiftly added him as a contact in QQ. As she slipped on her headset, her heart inexplicably began to race.

This felt completely different from YY, k?…

In a YY room, even if there were only two people inside, you still felt that it was a public platform. However, QQ voice chat only allowed one-on-one interaction, and no matter how you looked at it, it still felt more personal and private… Plus, in YY, she would always immediately dash off once she was finished singing and would never stay for casual chatting…

In short, this was just very nerve-wracking …

It was like she was waiting for a personal telephone call from Qiang Qing Ci.

Before long, he was successfully added.

And then, he sent over an invitation to start a voice chat.

Gu Sheng accepted and then immediately became even more nervous.

Normally in WeChat, they took turns sending voice messages. That was completely different from the dialogue that was going to happen now…

”You there?” Qiang Qing Ci suddenly addressed her.

”Huh?” Gu Sheng pressed down on her microphone lightly and adjusted its position. ”DaRen, I'm here.”

”Continue what you were saying.”

Huh?

(⊙ o ⊙) ... Continue saying… what?...

”Ah….. I just went and swallowed some sesame oil…” She looked down contemptuously upon herself. She could not think of a topic at all. ”DaRen, you're not tired anymore?”

With a nonchalant ”mm,” Qiang Qing Ci answered, ”Just woke up. Looking for something to eat now.”

His voice was so clear, like he was standing directly in front of her.

Gu Sheng inwardly scorned herself again. How come she was acting like this was the first time she had ever had an online voice chat? …

It was quiet again.

This wasn't WeChat. Silence was extremely awkward, you know? T T

Gu Sheng was struggling when she suddenly remembered the ingredients she had just seen. ”I... Um, just now, when I was in the kitchen, I saw that my mom had prepped some conch meat… I'll probably be eating poached 'pearls' with conch for lunch tomorrow.”

Qiang Qing Ci gave an indistinct ”mm.”

It sounded as if some sort of food packaging was being ripped open. Potato chips?

Alright… And then straightaway came the crunching sound of chips being eaten …

Since DaRen was having a late-night snack, then let her take the lead in the conversation. T T

”I've always liked that dish.” Gu Sheng quickly looked up the recipe on Baidu. After finding it, she read it over carefully and processed it into her own words. ”You cut the conch into large, rinse them clean in warm water, and put them in a large soup bowl with choy sum that have been blanched in water and Nameko mushrooms. Then you mince some scallions and ginger. After, you add some cooking wine and water to them to make a ginger-scallion liquid.

”And then you prepare the 'pearls.' The pearls are actually just chicken meat.