Chapter 107: This Is Courtesy

Chapter 107: This Is Courtesy
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
He Zhou’s expression turned even worse.
He Jing intervened before He Zhou collapsed from anger. “Fourth Brother, please help me peel the skin off these melons.”
He Sui happily threw himself into the task he was assigned. Squatting by the kitchen door, He Xiaoguo chirped expectantly, “I can’t wait to try Sister Jing’s cooking.”
He Jing had bought so much for this exact reason. She would whip up a feast to fill them. While He Sui busied himself peeling the skin off a sweet potato, He Jing gathered those he had already peeled, steaming the sweet potatoes and yam separately.
The sweet potatoes and yam would need to be steamed for about half an hour. In the meantime, she would prepare the pork, marinating it with salt before giving it an egg wash and lathering it in corn starch. Afterward, she fried the pork in a shallow pan until crisp.
For the homemade milk tea she had in mind, she brewed a pot of tea, steeping the high-quality Ceylon tea leaves in hot water for two to three minutes. Then she poured milk into the mix and filtered the drink through a colander into a jug with wild fruits and red beans.
It took less than an hour for her to finish prepping the veritable feast, including a beef Wellington, French vegetable jellies, and a seafood stew for
Yan Hanxi.
He Xiaoguo was a diligent shadow, peering through the kitchen door for the past hour as she cooked. Surprisingly, he had not gotten bored. Instead, he sighed, mumbling, “Sister Jing is awesome…”
He Zhou had watched for a while, his expression a frigid mask, and left when he had seen enough. He did not even consider tasting He Jing’s cooking. More importantly, he needed to note down all the steps He Jing had taken in prepping the food. He closed his eyes and tried to recall everything he had seen in detail.
His intense concentration was only broken when He Jing knocked on the door, calling, “Third Brother.”
He Zhou snapped his notebook shut and answered, “Come in.”
He Jing entered with her French vegetable jelly, the most complicated dish he had seen her make. The crystalline jelly complimented He Jing’s bright smile as she said, “Third Brother, I only made two portions of the jelly. I’ll give you one to try.”
He Zhou felt his eyes drawn to the crystal-like French vegetable jelly. With narrowed eyes, he asked, “If you only made enough for two, why do you want me to have one to try?”
“That’s because I was the first to taste the scallion pancakes you made, Third Brother. It is only polite that I reciprocate. If Fourth Brother and the rest had not objected so vehemently, I would have let you have the first pick of all the food I made,” He Jing said.
Fair enough.
He Zhou silently picked up the vegetable jelly, examining it. “A proper French vegetable jelly calls for far more ingredients than those I used,” He Jing began, “I did not think we needed so many, so I adapted the recipe and simplified it. The main ingredients are carrots, corn, cucumbers, zucchini, and purple cabbage. I added them in the order I just said. It’s best to let the jelly sit in the fridge for at least six hours to preserve the color and taste. Unfortunately, I had no time to let it sit in the refrigerator. The taste might be lacking, but it shouldn’t be by too much.”
He Zhou took a bite, and the aroma of fresh vegetables spread across the tip of his tongue. He hated eating carrots, but at this moment, he felt nothing could compare to the sweetness of the carrots melting in his mouth. The flavor of each vegetable unfolded one at a time, like the petals of a delicate rose, empowering and reinforcing each one that came before.
It was sour, sweet, salty… Despite all the flavors melding together, the jelly was surprisingly light. It was perfection in a bite.
“How is it?” He Jing asked.
He Zhou did not want to speak well of He Jing’s cooking, but he could not fight his conscience. In the end, he said, “It’s alright.”
He Jing smiled. “Then I’ll make another one tomorrow.”
He Zhou’s lips trembled. He wanted to say something, but no words were forthcoming. He Jing cleared the empty plate and excused herself.
No sooner had she exited He Zhou’s room than she saw He Sui and He Xiaoguo arguing over the last piece of crispy pork.
“Fourth Brother is shameless. I won the rock-paper-scissors competition.”
“Best of five.”
“Fourth Brother just said the best of three!”
While the two of them argued, they didn’t realize that He Ning had already picked up the crispy meat expressionlessly..