Chapter 135: The Person Who Can’t Stay Idle
After the three left the study room, they headed straight to the entertainment room under Da Xing’s lead. At this moment, the first half of today’s live stream had just finished airing. Xiang Xue and Lin Ming were chatting about the plot and cross-talk with the bullet comments. Xiang Chuan was sitting alone on the sofa nearby, holding potato wedges and fried chicken wings, with the light screen on watching the live stream room’s bullet comments.
“Hmm? Finished chatting with my parents?” Xiang Chuan looked up and saw the three, waved the fried chicken wing in her hand, and patted the empty spot next to her.
Ouyang Yating led the two boys around the sofa and sat down next to Xiang Chuan. She briefly explained what had happened in the study room just now, then the three’s attention was all on the fried chicken wing in Xiang Chuan’s hand.
“What have you made this time?” Ainuo snatched a chicken drumette from her food box, sniffed it. The fragrant and crispy coating mixed with the aroma of pepper and chili powder made Ainuo, who had just eaten a bowl of noodles plus three meat buns, feel hungry again.
“Just fried chicken wings and drumsticks.” Xiang Chuan wasn’t annoyed with him and enjoyed the chicken midwing in her hand. “I suddenly thought of it while cleaning up the chicken in the kitchen earlier. Although the seasonings weren’t quite enough, deep frying small chunks of chicken is still no problem.”
As she spoke, she opened the unopened food box on the coffee table and handed it to Ouyang Yating, while passing the other two meal boxes to Ainuo and Liang Gong. Two of the food boxes contained fried chicken chunks cut to about the same size as KFC’s finger-lickin’ original chicken, and fried large chicken legs that looked very appetizing. The other meal box had the same contents as Xiang Chuan’s: chicken wings plus another fried large chicken leg. The seasonings in the food boxes were ketchup and a mixture of chili powder and pepper, somewhat accommodating both those who can eat spicy and those who can’t.
Xiang Xue and Lin Ming went without saying; there was a half-eaten fried chicken fries meal box on the coffee table in front of each of them, clearly they had eaten quite a bit while watching the show just now.
So when the second half of today’s My Own Swordsman aired, everyone in the entertainment room already had a box of fried chicken each, enjoying the new episode of the sitcom together amid the audience bullet comments’ envy, jealousy, and hate.
“See you tomorrow night~”
After yawning Xiang Xue and expressionless Lin Ming waved and closed the live stream room window, today’s live stream came to an end. After rest time arrived, the entertainment room’s exhaust equipment increased its exhaust level. Da Xing also led a few small starfish to clean up all the food boxes and tableware in the entertainment room.
“What did you talk about in the study room just now? The soy sauce matter?” Xiang Chuan took a sip of apple milk; after eating too many fried foods, this sour-sweet fruit drink rich in vitamin C was what she was craving.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to make cola; mainly she had no way to get carbonation right now. And if she really could, she’d prefer making some apple vinegar or fruit soda instead of cola.
Moreover, at this stage she was putting her whole heart into soy sauce. She, who had once been a corporate slave, naturally understood the principle of biting off more than one can chew. So under the premise of having juice and fruit milk, the less important soda was temporarily set aside.
If she really wanted to make it, she’d have to wait until she made burgers or chicken nuggets or something first. Xiang Chuan silently made up her mind.
“Not entirely. Some asked about your situation at school and our club’s usual activities and such.” Ainuo raised an eyebrow. “Don’t worry, I didn’t spill your embarrassing math score.”
“…”
Then I really have to thank you!
If not for thinking about free math tutoring in the future, Xiang Chuan really wanted to make him try chili powder to see why the flowers are so red.
“Didn’t I already send the information on soy sauce to Father yesterday?” Xiang Chuan puzzledly bit her straw.
“This soy sauce of yours (Xiang Chuan: ‘ours’ is more accurate) involves too much. It’s not just Uncle Xiang; the elders in my family and Ainuo’s family are also watching. If we weren’t annoyed by the urging from over there, we wouldn’t have moved here all at once.” Ouyang Yating explained.
So that’s why you suddenly came over—turns out you were annoyed by your families? Xiang Chuan opened her mouth but in the end said nothing. Because she recalled her own high school days when during a break she was nagged by her parents about studying until she was fed up and simply rushed back to the school dormitory a week early.
The nerves of adolescent boys and girls are equally delicate in certain aspects.
“Liang Gong, are you also here because your family is urging you?” Xiang Chuan turned to look at her most honest club member.
“Not really… after all, my home is on an escort ship.” Liang Gong smiled a bit embarrassedly. “I just purely thought that your home is a bit far from mine, so outdoor study isn’t very convenient.”
“That’s fine then.” Xiang Chuan nodded, thinking that honest people are indeed the best, able to give a normal answer.
What Liang Gong didn’t say was that originally he only planned to stay a week in a hotel near the villa area, but after Ainuo found out, he was directly called over to join their temporary stay group.
But even if Xiang Chuan knew, she wouldn’t say anything, since two extra mouths or three extra mouths didn’t make much difference.
The next afternoon, the fermented koji was taken out, weighed, and placed at the bottom of the black glass jar. Then saltwater was prepared in the proportion of koji 3: water 4 and put into the jar; that day’s work was done.
The saltwater preparation was handled by Da Xing; AIs make the fewest errors with data. As long as accurate data is given, they will definitely operate according to it.
After sending the glass jars into the warehouse with the readjusted temperature environment, the A Bite of China Club members suddenly had free time. This afternoon there still weren’t many people at home; except the guardian changed from Lisa to Xiao Ye, there were no other changes at home.
After learning that the next work was just to stir the fermented soy sauce mash in the glass jars every certain period, Ainuo suddenly felt empty: “There’s really nothing else to do?”
“There’s really nothing to do.” Xiang Chuan happily took a sip of juice; after drinking too much fruit milk, tasting pure juice again had a unique flavor. “The hardest process in soy sauce manufacturing is waiting. In ancient times on Earth, people couldn’t accurately observe the weather, so when sun-drying the fermented soy sauce mash outdoors, it was very easy for a whole jar of soy sauce to be ruined by rainy days. Unlike us now, who can use equipment to simulate the environment and temperature. Without external factors, we just need to wait.”
—If not for last month’s pocket money being spent too much, they could even save the effort of manually stirring the fermented soy sauce mash. Xiang Chuan muttered in her heart.
“Then won’t we have nothing to do for the next five days?” Ouyang Yating frowned. “How about we end the break early and go back to school?”
This almost made Xiang Chuan choke: From ancient times to now, she’d only heard of students and corporate slaves on leave trying every way to extend their vacation, never of students and corporate slaves who finally got a legitimate holiday ending it early.
Don’t overdo the involution; that’s not good.
Xiang Chuan was about to use a former corporate slave’s heartfelt advice to persuade her good club member to extinguish this thought not conducive to the common interests of the class when Liang Gong suddenly spoke:
“How about we try the wheat bran soy sauce the president mentioned yesterday?”
“…Huh?” Xiang Chuan’s mouth, which she had slightly opened to persuade Ouyang Yating, was now almost dropping off its jaw.
No way? You’re joining in too?
“I said yesterday that wheat bran soy sauce’s flavor isn’t as good as soybean soy sauce…” Xiang Chuan quickly shut her jaw and stopped her club member’s involution behavior.
“But president, you also said that adding some additives can make up for that difference, right?” Ainuo smiled and put her arm around Liang Gong’s shoulder. “It’s rare for your club members to be so interested; don’t refuse, president.”
“But… uh… it’s spring now; where would we get so much wheat bran? If we’re doing it, we’d have to wait until autumn, right?” Xiang Chuan hemmed and hawed for a while before finally coming up with a reasonable reason.
“You don’t need to worry about that.” Ouyang Yating smiled. “The fleet’s production escort ship supplies crops for each season on a rotating basis. The third ascent cabin escort ship happens to be autumn, and wheat bran isn’t worth much money. One container of wheat bran probably costs less than a few buns.”
…Technology really is great.
Watching her three club members chat enthusiastically, Xiang Chuan gave up struggling.
Whatever, let them do it.
