Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Color, Aroma, and Taste

There was a lot of meat. Yu Sheng couldn’t stew it all at once, so he decided to try several different cooking methods.

Once is strange, twice is familiar, and the third time you add scallions, ginger, and cooking wine—maybe ancient humans had learned nature’s gifts the same way, one step at a time.

Yu Sheng even hummed a little tune as he worked.

He cut the largest portion into big chunks, blanched them, skimmed off the foam, then loaded a clay pot with star anise, fennel, cloves, cinnamon, and other stewing spices. He added the meat, poured in enough water, then seasoned with salt, soy sauce, and cooking wine to cut the smell. After that, he set it to simmer low and slow on the stove.

While the stew bubbled, he stir-fried the remaining meat into two plates—one with chili peppers, one with garlic shoots. He tasted a bite. Fresh and savory. Neither tough nor undercooked. Tender, smooth slices, though he couldn’t quite pin down what kind of meat it resembled. Purely by texture, it was closest to very tender beef.

As for what was left, he decided he’d wait until after this meal—after confirming it didn’t kill him—before turning the rest into something for storage. Cured meat, maybe. Or he could salt it, let it mature, then dehydrate it in an air fryer and make jerky.

He’d never done that before, so he wasn’t sure it would work.

Thoughts spun through his head. He felt like a scientist in a field nobody had ever touched, willing to try anything just to see what happened.

He stayed in the kitchen for nearly two hours. Only after all that work did he finally open the door and start carrying everything to the dining table—cups, bowls, plates, and the clay pot of stew, trip after trip.

Irene watched in horror as he bustled around. Her face somehow held two completely opposite expressions at once: Fine. I’m tired. Let him do whatever. And also: You can’t. You absolutely can’t.

At last she couldn’t hold back. “You’re not seriously going to eat it, are you? That came out of the Otherworld! Don’t eat yourself to death!”

Yu Sheng looked up. “What if I told you I already ate it twice over there?”

The conflict on Irene’s face vanished, replaced by pure horror. “…Huh?!”

“Look at me.” Yu Sheng spread his hands. “I’m alive and kicking, so it should be fine. It took effort to bring back this trophy. Why would I throw it away?”

He spoke as if it were obvious. “You know hunting? This is my catch. Sooner or later, I’m going to bring the whole thing back and make it understand who’s on top of the food chain.”

Irene couldn’t even speak. Yu Sheng studied her dumbfounded face, then asked with genuine curiosity, “But seriously—has nobody ever tried eating an entity? You said they come in all kinds of forms. There have to be plenty that look edible, right?”

“Who the hell would try that?!” Irene looked like she was on the verge of losing it. “You don’t know what weird traits they carry! If it’s just poisonous, that’s already the good outcome! How can you just put it in your mouth like that? And you even ate it tw—You really ate it twice?!”

“Yeah.” Yu Sheng sat down calmly. “But those two times were basically sashimi. It was urgent. The kind of urgent where if you didn’t take the bite right then, you wouldn’t live long enough to take any bite later.”

He picked up a slice with his chopsticks, tossed it into his mouth, and chewed with obvious enjoyment.

Irene stared, stunned. “…Then what happened after you ate it?”

“After I ate it, I died,” Yu Sheng said, completely sincere.

“Then why are you still—” Irene shouted automatically, then froze. Something felt off. She didn’t know anything about his resurrection, so she only thought he was messing with her. She glared, furious and flustered. “I’m being serious!”

Yu Sheng grinned and laughed.

Somewhere along the line, he’d started to enjoy bickering with this doll girl.

Anyway, she couldn’t jump out of the painting and headbutt him.

He still didn’t explain the resurrection part. For one thing, Irene couldn’t sense his death at all now—trying to explain it would just sound like nonsense. For another, he had too many guesses about what was changing in him, and he still needed proof. Once he understood a little more, he could talk it through with her.

Irene, of course, had no clue what was behind his teasing smile. She kept darting glances at the spread of food, then back at Yu Sheng’s face, watching him chew.

It looked… pretty appetizing. After cooking, it didn’t look any different from ordinary meat. There wasn’t a trace left of its original creepy appearance.

“…Is it good?” Irene finally blurted, trying to sound like she didn’t care.

Yu Sheng laughed like he’d been waiting for it. He picked up an empty bowl and plate, filled them with rice, stir-fry, and a ladle of stew broth, then set them in front of the painting.

“I didn’t say I wanted any,” Irene muttered.

“You can’t actually eat it anyway,” Yu Sheng said lightly, “so you have even less reason to care what it was made from.”

Irene thought about that, then nodded, oddly relieved. “I-Is that so?”

She leaned toward the bowl and chopsticks as if she could smell the food through the frame, her posture lifelike and eager.

Halfway through the meal, their conversation drifted back to the professionals.

“Actually, there’s another possibility for why no one’s come to find you yet,” Irene said, hugging her teddy bear as she thought out loud. “Maybe some organization—official people—already noticed something’s wrong here. But based on professional judgment, they think they can’t act right away. Or they haven’t precisely located the connection point to the Otherworld yet, so all they can do for now is set up surveillance.”

“Surveillance?”

“Yeah. Maybe there are undercover people staking out outside your house right now.” Irene tilted her head. “You came back on your own before anyone could rescue you. Whether that was strength or luck, it meant the people handling this didn’t even get a chance to intervene. They probably didn’t have time to pinpoint anything, so they arranged monitoring in the area first. The next couple of days, pay attention to whether any unfamiliar faces show up nearby. Undercover agents, detectives, investigators—whatever. Just keep an eye out. And you can still check the utility poles while you’re at it.”

Yu Sheng ignored the utility pole part and looked out the window.

Irene made it sound easy: watch for unfamiliar faces. How was he supposed to know who was unfamiliar? He’d only been here for two months. And for one of those months, he’d barely left the house. On top of that, he already had a bit of face blindness. Half the people outside looked unfamiliar to him.

“Do you think the guy selling jianbing on the corner looks like an undercover?” Yu Sheng murmured after staring suspiciously for a long time.

“I don’t know. I can’t see,” Irene said flatly.

“Oh, right.” Yu Sheng stood up, picked up Irene’s frame, and carried it to the window so she faced outside. “That one over there…”

“Doesn’t look like it.”

“So sure?”

“Obviously. Fifty seconds for a set with sausage and egg.” Irene said it like it settled everything. “If he were an undercover, in fifty seconds he probably couldn’t even finish brushing on the oil.”

“…Fair.” Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched. “Then what about the one next to him doing mobile phone screen protectors?”

“Also doesn’t look like it. His hands are too fast.”

“Oh. Hey, then what about—”

“Stop.” Irene cut him off. “Paranoia doesn’t help. And if it’s truly professional surveillance, you won’t be able to tell. Instead of guessing, go out more these next couple days. You’ve got the Otherworld’s scent on you. If you get close, the pros will recognize you at a glance.”

“…Yeah.” Yu Sheng sighed. He couldn’t argue with that. He set the frame back down and started cleaning the dishes.

The moment he turned away, Irene shrieked behind him, “Put me back first! I’m still stuck at the window!”

Yu Sheng sighed again, heavier this time. As he moved her down from the windowsill, he muttered, “Tch. So annoying.”

“Then hurry up and get me a body,” Irene snapped back, lifting her eyelids at him. “Then I can run around on my own.”

Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched.

When she’d talked about an escape plan before, she’d said they needed to be more familiar before cooperating. He hadn’t expected her definition of “more familiar” to be this flexible.

“We’ll talk about it later,” he said. “I’ve got a ton of things to deal with right now. At least wait until I’m through this busy stretch.”

“Sure, fine.” Irene was easy to placate. She looked a little disappointed, then nodded. “Just don’t forget!”

She stayed quiet for all of five seconds before starting again. “So what are you doing next? Going out to look for utility poles?”

“Are you obsessed with utility poles or what?” Yu Sheng shot back. “I’m going upstairs to sleep. After all this, I’m about to die of exhaustion.”

“Oh.” Irene pointed at the TV across from her. “Then can you fix the TV first? It suddenly lost signal. I can’t watch anything…”

Yu Sheng stared at her.

A beat later, he let out a long, painful sigh.

In just a short time living with this chatterbox, he’d already started missing his carefree life living alone.