Chapter 022

Chapter 22: Color, Smell, and Taste

There was too much meat to stew all at once, so Yu Sheng turned it into several dishes with different methods.

People say: the first try is clumsy, the second try is smoother, and by the third you add scallions, ginger, and cooking wine; [people in the earliest days probably learned from nature step by step like this too].

Humming a tune, he cut the largest portion into big chunks, blanched them to skim off the scum, then set a clay pot on the stove with star anise, fennel, cloves, and cinnamon. After dropping in the meat, he added water, salt, soy sauce, and cooking wine to remove the smell, and let it simmer slowly.

While the stew bubbled, he used the rest of the meat to stir fry two plates, one with chili peppers and one with garlic scapes. He tasted a bit and felt it was fresh and savory, not tough and not raw. The slices were tender and smooth. He could not say what animal the flavor was closest to. As for texture alone, it was a lot like very tender beef.

He decided to wait until this meal caused no problems before turning what was left into cured meat to store for later. Or maybe he could cure it first, then use the air fryer to dry it into salty jerky. He had never done that before and was not sure if it would work.

[Ideas spun through his head; he felt like a bold scientist exploring a field no one had entered before.]

He explored the kitchen for almost two hours, then finally opened the door and carried the cups, plates, bowls, and the clay pot of stew to the dining room table, one trip after another.

In the painting, Irene watched his busy work with a horrified stare. Her face showed two clashing looks at once, both “fine, I am tired, let him do it” and “you cannot, you absolutely cannot.” After a while she could not hold it in and said: “You are not really going to eat that, are you? This came from the Otherworld! Do not get yourself killed!”

Yu Sheng looked up at her and said: “What if I told you I already ate it twice over there?”

The conflict on Irene’s face vanished, leaving only shock as she said: “Ah?!”

He said, with total confidence: “Look at me, I am still full of life, so it should be fine. This is a hard-won prize. Throwing it out would be a waste. You know hunting, right? This is my catch. One day I will bring that thing back whole and make it learn who sits at the top of the food chain.”

Irene did not answer. Yu Sheng glanced at Miss Doll’s stunned face, then asked out of curiosity: “But really, has no one ever tried the ‘entities’ in the Otherworld? You said there are all kinds of things there. Some of them must look edible.”

She threw up her hands and said: “Who would try that! They might carry weird effects. Poison would be the least of it. How can you just put it in your mouth? And you ate it two- you really ate it twice?”

He said as he sat down across from her, grabbing a slice with his chopsticks and popping it into his mouth: “Yeah. Both times raw like sashimi. Things were urgent. No time to cook. [It was one bite now or die.]”

Irene blinked and said: “Then what happened after you ate?”

He said very honestly: “I died.”

She yelped, then felt something was off. She did not know about his resurrection, so she thought he was teasing her and stared angrily as she said: “I am being serious!”

Yu Sheng grinned, and seeing the furious doll in the painting, he could not help laughing.

[He realized he was starting to enjoy bickering with this doll.]

[Besides, she could not jump out of the painting and headbutt him.]

He still did not tell Irene about his resurrection. [Right now she could not sense his death anyway, so any explanation would feel like a lie, and he still had too many guesses about his own changes to test. He wanted to figure out more before talking to her.]

Irene did not know how many messy thoughts hid behind his sly smile. She could not help looking at the rich meal on the table again. Then her eyes drifted to how Yu Sheng chewed.

It actually looked appetizing, and after cooking, the color was no different from normal meat. You could not tell it had looked so strange at the start.

She finally could not hold it and asked, trying to sound casual: “Does it taste good?”

Yu Sheng laughed, as if he had expected this, and picked up an empty bowl and plate. He served Irene a portion of rice, dishes, and some broth, and set them in front of the painting.

She muttered: “I did not say I wanted any.”

He said: “You cannot really eat it anyway, so you do not need to care about what it was made from, right?”

Irene thought a moment and said with a little relief: “Right, that makes sense.”

So she became calm again, sitting before the set bowl and chopsticks as if still alive in a photo.

Halfway through the meal, they slid back to the earlier topic about “the professionals.”

Hugging her teddy bear and sitting close to the frame’s edge, Irene thought and said: “There is another reason no one has come to you yet. Some organization or officials may have already noticed something wrong here, but by their judgment they cannot act at once. Or they still have not found the exact connection point to the Otherworld or enough intel, so they can only set up surveillance first.”

Yu Sheng repeated the word and asked: “Surveillance?”

She nodded and said: “Yeah. There could be a bunch of plainclothes outside your building right now. You made it back from the Otherworld before anyone could rescue you. Whether it was strength or luck, the people who handle this kind of thing did not act in time, so they likely did not lock down the location either. That means they would first put the area under watch. For the next two days, pay attention to any strangers nearby. They could be plainclothes operatives or investigators. It will not stop you from checking the utility poles for those little job flyers anyway, so just keep an eye out.”

Yu Sheng ignored the part about “flyers on the utility poles” and looked out the window.

She made it sound easy: look for unfamiliar faces. [How was he supposed to know who counted as unfamiliar? He had only lived here two months, spent most of one month hiding at home, and he was a bit face-blind. Half the people here looked unfamiliar to him.]

After staring outside for a long time and getting suspicious of everyone, he whispered to Irene: “Do you think the pancake seller at the corner is a plainclothes agent?”

Irene said: “I do not know. I cannot see.”

He slapped his forehead, picked up her frame, and set it by the window facing out as he said: “Right, my bad. That one over there.”

She glanced and said: “No.”

He said: “So sure?”

She said: “Of course. He does a whole order with sausage and egg in fifty seconds. If he were undercover, fifty seconds would not even be enough to brush the oil.”

Yu Sheng said: “Fair. Then what about the guy putting on phone screen protectors?”

She said: “Also no. His hands are way too quick.”

He said: “Oh. Then what about-”

She cut him off and said: “Stop. Guessing like this is useless. If they are real pros, you will not spot them. With that energy, you should go out more these next two days. You carry the scent of the Otherworld. If you get close, the professionals will spot you right away.”

He nodded and said: “You are right.”

He sighed, could not argue, and turned to clear the dishes.

He had barely turned when Irene shouted behind him: “Put me back first! I am still leaning against the window!”

Yu Sheng sighed again and lifted the painting off the sill, muttering as he set her back on the table: “[What a hassle.]”

She raised her eyes and said, looking at him: “Then make me a body sooner, okay? I could move myself. I feel like we are a bit closer today, so I am asking again.”

Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched.

When they had discussed “escape plans” before, she had said they were not close enough yet, so they should wait. He had not expected her standard for “close enough” to be so flexible.

He waved it off and said: “Later. I have a ton of things to do. At least wait until I finish this stretch.”

She nodded and said easily, with only a hint of loss: “Fine. Do not forget, okay?”

She fell quiet for a few seconds, watched him clear the table, then started chattering again as she said: “What are you doing next? Heading out to check the utility poles?”

He glared and said: “What do you have against utility poles? I am going upstairs to sleep. After all this, I am dead tired.”

Irene pointed at the TV across from her frame and said: “Can you fix the TV first? It suddenly lost signal. I cannot watch anything.”

Yu Sheng went silent.

A moment later, he let out a very heavy sigh.

[After such a short time with this chatterbox, he already missed the carefree peace of living alone.]